Among the commanders Dantai Yajing had brought from the Ning army camp, one was rather unusual — the youngest general in the Ning army, Gao Zhen.

Calling him the youngest general referred not to now, but to the fact that he had already been promoted to the rank of general by Luo Jing when he was only fifteen.

At the Battle of Mangdang Mountain, Gao Zhen had failed to advance in full accordance with Tang Pidi’s deployment, which resulted in Prince Wu’s forces not being completely encircled. This in turn had led to Prince Wu retreating to the wooden fortress at Mangdang Mountain — and to the mutual destruction of Luo Jing and Prince Wu inside that fortress.

Luo Jing had been Gao Zhen’s benefactor. Without Luo Jing noticing him in Anyang City, Gao Zhen would have remained nothing more than an ordinary boy from the hills.

And so after Luo Jing’s death, Gao Zhen could never make his peace with it. He could not forgive himself.

Luo Jing had once told him: your boldness and hot blood are a good thing — what kind of young man second-guesses every move? That kind of timidity would ruin your instincts.

So Gao Zhen had always believed that his boldness was an asset — and indeed, because of that boldness, he had performed remarkable feats in battle after battle. But it was also because of it that his advance had been too swift, his lines too far forward, cutting off Prince Wu’s rear guard with no way to withdraw.

If he had acted precisely within the bounds Tang Pidi had set for him, the rear guard of the Left Guard would never have made it back to Mangdang Mountain.

After that battle, Gao Zhen had been adrift. If Luo Jing had been his teacher and his guide, he was more than that — Luo Jing had been his faith.

His spear techniques, his way of commanding troops, his use of cavalry — all of it he had learned from Luo Jing.

Before setting out, Dantai Yajing had made a point of going to Tang Pidi and asking that Gao Zhen be assigned to him. He knew that a young man of such rare brilliance, if no one pulled him back from the edge, might burn out early and be lost entirely.

Atop the walls of Dazing City, the words Dantai Yajing had spoken were for everyone to hear — and for Gao Zhen in particular.

“You will see things in the future that we cannot.”

Dantai Yajing looked out beyond the city walls, his voice full of longing for what lay ahead.

“General Luo Jing showed you your own future. He took a young man destined for an ordinary life and made him a commander who strikes fear into his enemies on the battlefield.”

“What you could not see on your own, it was Luo Jing who brought you to higher ground, so that you could look out over the distance.”

Hearing these words, Gao Zhen lowered his head. The pain in his chest only deepened.

“Many of us could not see very far either. It was the Ning King who brought us up to high ground — and so we came to see what the future looked like.”

Dantai Yajing pulled Gao Zhen to stand beside him.

“Right now you are like a man who has climbed halfway up a mountain. Because the person who brought you here is gone, you have stopped looking up — and have been looking back the way you came, wanting to return.”

Dantai Yajing said, “Have you ever thought: if General Luo Jing knew, what would he call you?”

Gao Zhen answered without thinking. “Idiot.”

It was what Luo Jing had called him most often.

Dantai Yajing said, “If General Luo Jing still has a pair of eyes in this world, waiting to see what comes — those eyes are yours.”

He clapped Gao Zhen on the shoulder. “War is not over yet. Any of us might die. I might die. At Mangdang Mountain, General Luo Jing fell in battle. Those of us still living carry on in his place. If I fall, those still living carry on in my place.”

Gao Zhen kept his head down. “But General Luo could have gone on living.”

Dantai Yajing said, “Yes. He should have been able to keep walking his own road. But you think it was you who stopped him, and then you let yourself be stopped too. If one day you go below and meet General Luo Jing, and he asks you — Gao Zhen, how did it go?”

He looked at Gao Zhen. “What will you say?”

Gao Zhen opened his mouth, then lowered his head again.

Dantai Yajing said, “Tell him: General, I dragged you down first, and then I dragged myself down. And then I dragged down the Ning King’s army. We didn’t win as we should have. We lost hundreds of thousands of our brothers. And we lost the realm that should have been in our keeping.”

Gao Zhen’s shoulders gave a sharp shudder.

Dantai Yajing pointed beyond the walls. “Go and do greater things. Go and save more people. One day, when people sing of your deeds, stand at the heights and say aloud: all of this, General Luo Jing taught me. Let people remember his name — and your name. Is that not better than dying in your own despair?”

At that, Dantai Yajing turned and gave a quiet order. “Bring it.”

A personal guard stepped forward, holding in both hands a banner, neatly folded.

Dantai Yajing received it with both hands and faced Gao Zhen. “This is General Luo Jing’s battle standard. If you are still willing to do something for General Luo Jing, then in every battle ahead, I want to see this banner flying at your side.”

“What he never saw, you see in his place. What he never took, you take in his place. What he never had the chance to be remembered for — you make the world remember.”

“Yes!”

Gao Zhen’s head snapped up. He received General Luo Jing’s battle standard with both hands and pressed it tightly to his chest.

Dantai Yajing breathed out slowly. “What you can do is this: let him clap you on the shoulder someday and say — *I didn’t misjudge you, boy.* Not — *why did you disappoint me.*”

Gao Zhen gave a firm nod. “I understand.”

—

A few days later. The palace.

The Emperor watched his child toddle back and forth in happy little bursts, his eyes full of tenderness.

In the end, the child had stayed — he had not left with Princess Wu.

Before Princess Wu departed, she had come to the palace and asked the Emperor whether she should take the prince with her. After careful thought, the Emperor had declined her kindness.

He had twice before gone in person to ask Princess Wu to take the child away. But now things were different — he knew the child would be safer staying in Dazing City.

Those people had been defeated on the battlefield, but they still held considerable strength in the shadows. They would not let the Chu Emperor go, who had destroyed everything they had built. And they would not let the Chu Emperor’s only child go either.

Think of it this way: if Yang Jing had not launched his sweeping purge in Dazing City, Yang Xuanji would have crowned himself Emperor in the city, and everything would have shifted by now.

“Muyu.”

The Emperor called out softly.

The Commander of the Palace Guards, Sheng Muyu, inclined his head. “I am here, Your Majesty.”

He was the older cousin of Empress Yu. Once, he had been a man of no particular ambition — learned, skilled in arms, but with no desire to serve a rotten dynasty. Even when the Empress had asked him repeatedly, he had refused her invitation. He had no wish to do anything for the Emperor.

But the Empress had died. And then the Empress’s father, Yu Wenli, had come to him personally, asking him to enter the palace — with only one hope: that he would protect the single surviving trace of his daughter left in the world.

So he had come. He served no one. He only wanted to keep his cousin’s only child alive in this world, the only mark she had left behind.

The Emperor suddenly rose and made a deep bow to Sheng Muyu.

Sheng Muyu hurried to steady him. “Your Majesty — what is the meaning of this?”

The Emperor said, “Yuan Ying, bring it over.”

The young eunuch Yuan Ying stepped forward and placed a wooden box on the table beside them.

The Emperor said, “Inside this box is the Treasure Map of the Yang family — though I do not know if any of it still exists, after several hundred years it may long since have been lost or taken.”

“Besides that, there is the Imperial Sword Manual of the Chu Emperors. I no longer have any hope that An’er will restore Great Chu in the future. But I hope he will be able to protect himself, and so I ask that you teach him the Chu Imperial Sword Art without fail.”

Sheng Muyu started to speak. The Emperor shook his head. “Let me finish.”

Sheng Muyu nodded. “Go on.”

The Emperor continued. “If nothing goes wrong, Dantai Yajing will open a killing ground in this palace within the next two days. You must know this by now.”

Sheng Muyu answered, “I do. He asked Your Majesty for help summoning all commanders above the fourth rank to the palace. I thought as well that he probably intends to act here.”

The Emperor asked, “There is no shortage of more suitable places in Dazing City. Why does he choose the palace?”

Sheng Muyu nodded. “I have thought about it.”

The Emperor said, “Then tell me — why does Dantai Yajing want it done this way?”

Sheng Muyu said, “The Ning King may spare Your Majesty, may spare Your Majesty’s child. But those who serve the Ning King will not be willing to let Your Majesty or the prince live.”

The Emperor let out a slow, heavy breath. “Yes. Dantai Yajing is a subject. What his master cannot do, he can do.”

He looked toward the young prince playing happily not far away, and breathed out heavily again.

Such a weight on his heart — and no way to breathe it out.

The Emperor said, “I believe the Ning King Li Chi will keep his word. I believe he will truly grant me the title of Duke, find me a comfortable place to settle, and let me live as a man of means. But I do not trust his subordinates. The great commanders of the Ning army — every one of them has killed their way through half a lifetime. Is there a single one whose heart is not iron?”

“Dantai Yajing chose the palace as his location because he intends to use the chaos to kill me and kill An’er, then pin it on those commanders — whatever pretext he chooses would do — and then slaughter them all…”

The Emperor looked at Sheng Muyu. “I have no way of personally taking An’er and leaving — because my every move is watched closely by Dantai Yajing. But you have a chance.”

“Before Dantai Yajing makes his move, he will first march all the city’s divisions out of Dazing City to camp outside the walls, and only then summon the commanders back inside — this way he prevents any of them from inciting their troops into a mutiny. That march-out is the window.”

The Emperor said, “I have already had Jin Jieyin make ready. On the day, you disguise yourself as a soldier, take the child, and follow Jin Jieyin’s company out. He will cover you. Once you are outside, slip away and hide in the haystacks beyond the city — his people will guard you there until it is safe to go.”

Sheng Muyu bowed his head slightly. “Your Majesty, rest easy. I will bring the prince out safely.”

The Emperor looked at his child again, nodded, raised his hand, and wiped his eyes.

“I can only entrust this to you. I know you resent me — for if I had not brought her into the palace, she could have lived as an ordinary person in peace, perhaps to a very old age…”

“Your Majesty, there is no need to say more.”

Sheng Muyu said, “I said I would protect the prince. I will protect him with everything I have for the rest of my life.”

The Emperor gave a firm nod. “I trust you.”

He turned and pointed toward the far end of the room. “Some seven or eight months ago, the wanderer Master Fang came back and returned the Chu Imperial Sword.”

On that table lay three swords. In the lamplight, they caught the light and shimmered.

The Emperor said, “Once you leave the city, find Master Fang if you can. He possesses the power to wrest fortune from heaven and earth. If he is also willing to guide An’er, it would be enough to keep him safe for the rest of his life.”

Sheng Muyu said, “I will remember.”

The Emperor walked over, picked up the prince, and kissed him hard on the cheek.

“This is the great tide of history. This is the way things must be. I do not truly blame Dantai Yajing. If I were in his position, I would do the same.”

He pressed the prince into Sheng Muyu’s arms. “Go. Tonight, go to the City Horse Command. Jin Jieyin will arrange everything for you.”

“Yes!”

Sheng Muyu said no more. He asked Yuan Ying to help strap all three swords to his back. With one arm holding the prince, he tucked the Chu Imperial Sword Manual and the treasure map inside his robe, turned, and left.

—