In the warm yellow, bright light and shadow, her brows and eyes were soft as autumn waters. Her fair cheek, lightly rubbed by his fabric, revealed a faint blush, brilliant as lotus flowers.

Xu Hexue’s hand paused. He withdrew it, and the faint, cold fragrance between his sleeves brushed lightly over Ni Su’s heated cheek. In her daze, he had already taken the sugar cake from her hand.

The hot pot was still bubbling away. Qingqiong busily went to brew tea with the dew collected from the reed flowers. “General Xu, my mother said that if you use this dew, you’ll feel somewhat better.”

“Thank you.”

Xu Hexue sat at the table and nodded lightly to him.

“General Xu, please don’t be so polite—this isn’t a difficult matter.” Fan Jiang had brought a pot of wine today. Before eating the hot pot, he had already drunk until his cheeks flushed red.

The sliced beef and mutton went into the pot. Fresh fruits and vegetables were not abundant in Yongzhou, but today they had at least managed to buy some. Ni Su held a small bowl at the side drinking soup, listening to Fan Jiang ramble drunkenly.

Having formed a bond with ghosts and spirits, Fan Jiang had little intimate connection with people. Everyone said he had picked up a monster of a son without ever marrying, and few people were willing to approach him or chat idly with him.

Qingqiong was the same. He was born somewhat different from ordinary people, wearing a heavy cloak year-round, his whole person pale and withered. No one his age was willing to associate with him.

The father and son had depended on each other until now in a dried well within Yongzhou city.

“The mists of the Nether Capital can wash away memories of life souls and alter their appearance. A’shuang doesn’t remember much anymore. Each time I speak with her, I must first tell her once how we met and married, then ask her if she’s doing well… Talking like this, it’s almost an entire night.”

Fan Jiang was about forty or fifty years old. His face had been worn weathered by Yongzhou’s wind and sand. When he spoke of Qingqiong’s mother, smiles appeared on his face, along with more wrinkles.

“Then if she completely forgets…”

Ni Su spoke softly.

“That would be a good thing.”

Fan Jiang’s face showed not a trace of sorrow. One hand rested on his knee, the other held his wine bowl. “A’shuang suffered too much in life. When one day she finally forgets, it will prove she can break free from all this and go to be reborn.”

Ni Su looked at him. “You must be very reluctant to let her go.”

“The time we were husband and wife was too short, but fortunately these years since she returned to the Nether Capital she can still talk with me. Neither of us is willing to part from the other, but as long as I know she’s well, my heart is at peace.”

An unwelcome person, yet living so open-heartedly and cheerfully. Listening to these words, Ni Su held her bowl and forgot to drink her soup. After a while, she secretly looked toward the person at her side.

He didn’t eat from the hot pot. The bowl and chopsticks placed before him remained clean and neat. He had only eaten one piece of the sugar cake she made, after which he only occasionally sipped the tea brewed with reed flower dew, sitting quietly at the table listening to the three of them talk.

Perhaps sensing her gaze, Xu Hexue suddenly raised his eyes to look at her.

His bland expression carried a hint of inquiry.

Ni Su blurted out: “Is your tea good?”

Xu Hexue didn’t know how to answer her. He couldn’t taste flavors, nor did he know what this bowl of tea tasted like. He lifted the teapot from the stove and poured her a bowl of hot tea.

Outside the dwelling, wind and sand rose again. On the cold night, the four of them gathered together. Steam from the hot pot swirled, and even Qingqiong’s usually slow-to-react face showed some smiles.

As night deepened, Qingqiong and Fan Jiang pulled their clothes tight and left. Ni Su washed up and sat on the bed with her black hair loose, asking: “Are we leaving?”

“We can’t leave for now.”

Xu Hexue sat by the table. The book turned several pages before he stopped. “The common people from the outskirts of Yongzhou entered the city tonight. Once the city gate is locked, it won’t easily open again in the near future.”

At the dinner table earlier, Fan Jiang had said that common people living in villages around the city outskirts were sent into the city by Qin Jixun’s men, which was why today’s city gate closed very late.

“Is it because of that barbarian? Are we and Danqiu going to war again?”

Ni Su wrapped herself in her quilt and looked at him from her pillow.

“As Fan Jiang said, since Danqiu and Great Qi signed the alliance treaty, over more than a decade, Danqiu has provoked from time to time, harassing Yongzhou, but since Juhan Pass has been defended by Aduorong, there has been much less friction between the two sides.”

“And I remember, under the Danqiu royal court there are also twenty-nine tribes based on the grasslands. There are also conflicts between tribes, and it took the Wuluo royal clan many years of effort to subdue them. Even when warring with Great Qi back then, there was constant internal chaos among the Danqiu tribes. After I died, the Wuluo royal clan’s truce with Great Qi should have been forced by circumstances—internal troubles and external threats, leaving no choice but to rest and recover.”

“In more than a decade, with internal chaos ended, the barbarians naturally become restless again. This Prince Su Qile’s mother is a princess of the Nanyan tribe. The Nanyan tribe once had a Prince Nanyan Duoling, who is Su Qile’s uncle. The Nanyan tribe is fierce and warlike, their ambitions for the Central Plains undying. When the Nanyan princess married into the royal court, her son naturally received their support. That the royal court now permits Su Qile to take control of Juhan Pass—their intentions are clear as day.”

Xu Hexue had spent a hundred years in the Nether Capital, but in the human realm it had only been sixteen years. Too many familiar names still lived in this world, and the grasslands where he had once ridden in pursuit of barbarian soldiers still lay at the end of the continuous, vast mountain ranges.

“That barbarian who died at Agate Lake is the spark they’re using to ignite war.”

Ni Su understood.

To tear up a treaty, there must always be a pretext.

“It should still just be a test. If Qin Jixun can resolve Aduorong’s death, he can avoid war,” Xu Hexue listened to the cold wind sweeping outside the window. His eyelashes lowered slightly, his gaze stopping on the book before him. “Beyond the passes it’s bitterly cold, and this year seems even colder. If Danqiu’s cattle and sheep cannot survive the winter, if the grasslands become frozen earth, they will certainly think of every way to penetrate deep into Great Qi’s heartland, hoping to escape natural disaster.”

Though it was currently summer, Yongzhou’s temperature difference between day and night was extreme. Beyond the thirteen northern provinces, on the grasslands of the Wuluo royal court, this year would certainly be even more difficult to endure.

The thirteen northern provinces were not enough for all of Danqiu to migrate for winter. They harbored greater ambitions that could not be satisfied by Great Qi’s annual tribute of money and silk.

Just as Xu Hexue predicted, the next day Qin Jixun punished men from Wei family army who had been on night watch at the poplar forest in front of Wuluo Su Qile, refusing to admit that Qi people had murdered Aduorong.

But Su Qile would not relent. At the same time, rumors appeared within the Wei family army saying that General Qin Jixun was biased, harming loyal and devoted men of the Wei family army to resolve Aduorong’s death.

Wei family army Commander Wei Dechang strictly ordered the army not to discuss this matter recklessly, while Qin Jixun traveled back and forth daily between the poplar forest and Yongzhou city, unmoved by the barbarian prince Su Qile’s clamoring provocations.

The moon rose to mid-heaven. Wind and sand swept everywhere.

Qin Jixun sat upright before his military tent, a pair of sharp phoenix eyes fixed on the soldiers lined up in a long queue before the opposite table to receive their military pay, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest of the grand preceptor’s chair.

In a raised iron basin burned firewood. Between the leaping flames, light fell on Qin Jixun’s profile. Before long, he heard an angry roar from not far away: “Get out of the way!”

“This old man is seeing my sworn brother—you yellow-mouthed brat dare to block me!”

This was immediately followed by muffled sounds of fists and feet colliding. The soldiers receiving pay heard the sound and immediately moved to draw their swords and go forward, but saw Qin Jixun raise his hand.

They immediately stopped without moving.

“Go to hell!”

Wei Dechang kicked one soldier in the rear, carrying his sword and bringing a dozen personal troops as he walked over. He saw the long table set before the great tent, the black chests wide open, several already empty, with only two chests of iron coins not yet distributed remaining.

The moment Wei Dechang saw those iron coins, the muscles under his eyelids twitched slightly. He looked sharply toward Qin Jixun sitting upright in his chair and questioned: “Sworn brother, today isn’t payday, is it?”

“Forcing your way into the Qin family army’s encampment at night, bringing so many men—Dechang, what do you want to do?” Qin Jixun raised his eyes, his tone bland.

“What do I want to do?”

Wei Dechang’s straightforward temper flared immediately. “The men below said that today sworn brother is giving the Qin family army extra private pay here. I didn’t believe it, but sworn brother, you tell me—what is all this!”

“That Su Qile clamors and insults you and me, insults Great Qi every day at the poplar forest. I said you seemed like you couldn’t hear—turns out you were here…”

“Here what?”

Qin Jixun’s eyes gazed at him.

“I trusted sworn brother so much, yet why does sworn brother show such favoritism!” Wei Dechang thought of how for the past half month he had still been wholeheartedly suppressing unfavorable rumors about Qin Jixun in the army. A breath stuck in his throat as he immediately drew his sword and slashed down at the long table.

With a “bang,” the long table split in half and collapsed on the ground.

This move was undoubtedly a provocation to the Qin family army. The soldiers immediately drew their blades, about to surround Wei Dechang and his men, when they heard Qin Jixun say: “Everyone stop.”

The moment Qin Jixun spoke, everyone looked at each other but ultimately stopped.

“Wasn’t your Wei family army’s military pay fully distributed this year?” Qin Jixun raised his chin slightly. The night wind blew, making his long blue-black beard stir slightly.

“What the court allocated was fully distributed, but this private pay of yours—when have we ever had any?!”

“Who said this is private pay?”

“Isn’t it?!”

Wei Dechang pressed aggressively. “Sworn brother acting like this—isn’t this dividing military morale? No wonder you’ve been running to see that Song Song lately! What benefits did he give you! Is it this private pay? To make you act like a cowardly turtle?!”

“Commander Wei! How can you be so disrespectful to the general!”

A personal soldier standing at Qin Jixun’s side couldn’t hold back. “Where is this any private pay? Your Wei family army’s military pay was fully distributed long ago this year, but ours has only been half distributed! Today the general is merely making up the shortfall for the men below!”

Wei Dechang’s angry expression froze. The firewood in the iron basin crackled loudly. He looked toward that general still in full armor, composed and calm: “Only half? Why?”

The personal soldier spoke angrily: “Naturally because the military pay allocated by the court was embezzled considerably! Your Wei family insisted on competing with the Qin family over fields this year, making such a fuss that even the prefectural magistrate couldn’t manage it. Though you suppressed this matter, most in your army are Wei family sons serving as military officers near you. If military pay wasn’t enough, who knows what disturbances they might cause in the army. The general had no choice but to suffer himself, distributing your pay fully first. We’ve all only received half! What you saw today—where is this that money-hoarding Supervisor Song’s money! Clearly it’s the general’s own money! If you don’t believe it, you can go back and ask your own brothers—how much land has recently been bought from the Wei family!”

Wei Dechang was even more confused. He stood dumbly for a moment, then looked at Qin Jixun: “Sworn brother…”

“In the past it’s not as if there haven’t been incidents of barbarians harassing Yongzhou. Why are you so agitated this time?” Qin Jixun still sat upright. “Is it because I’ve been frequently going to Song Song’s mansion for banquets lately? You think I’m going to follow his wishes, bow to Su Qile, and send women and money to settle the matter?”

“Dechang, sixteen years ago, among those who died fighting on Yongzhou’s city walls with Commander Miao were my father and brother. All these years you and I have defended this place to the death—what do we rely on? Isn’t it our blood feud with the barbarians? Back then Yongzhou had almost only half a city remaining. You and I became sworn brothers of different surnames on the city wall, vowing to guard this place for life and devote our loyalty to the nation. If you and I cannot be solid as rock, then even without Su Qile attacking, Yongzhou city can collapse on its own!”

Wei Dechang’s heart was moved by these words. His face full of shame, he immediately knelt before Qin Jixun, throwing his sword aside and clasping his fists: “Sworn brother, Dechang has wronged you!”

Qin Jixun said nothing, staring at his lowered head.

After a long while, he finally spoke slowly: “I’ve always known your temperament. I’ve told you before—having many close relatives in the army inevitably makes strict military discipline difficult and easily breeds trouble. You wouldn’t listen to my advice, so I could only let you be. Previously it was Aduorong defending Juhan Pass. He was not a warlike type, so these past few years we’ve had peace with each other. But now you and I face Su Qile. He is a prince of the Wuluo royal court. Do you think his provocations are just about wanting a few benefits? Aduorong’s death was clearly Su Qile deliberately framing us, but if your governance was strict, the barbarians wouldn’t have found an opening. So,”

He paused. “Dechang, I punished men in your army. Do you accept this, or not?”

“I accept!”

Wei Dechang lowered his head.

“Good.”

Qin Jixun stood up with one hand supporting the armrest, stepped forward several paces to grasp Wei Dechang’s arm, and helped him stand. Then he showed an extremely faint smile: “Then, whoever whispered the words ‘private pay’ in your ear tonight—you should deal with that person.”

“Sworn brother…”

Wei Dechang’s beard trembled slightly. It was his clan cousin’s nephew.

“You also need to compensate for my long table here.”

Qin Jixun patted his shoulder, then took the precious sword from his personal soldier’s hands and fastened it at his waist. He mounted his horse and led his personal troops in large strides out of the military camp.

Wei Dechang stood in place, turning back to look at the tall figure walking away surrounded by personal soldiers.

He knew this was not a sworn brother’s instruction to his sworn brother, but a military order as heavy as Mount Tai.

His cousin’s nephew must die.