If she had been able to encounter him at this moment in her previous life — if she had been able to receive this promise from him at this time in her previous life — perhaps all of what came after might have been entirely different.

Xie Yuzhang’s eyes suddenly stung. She turned her face away and raised her sleeve to conceal her face.

She understood.

Li Gu’s hands tightened on his knees.

She appeared calm and composed on the surface, but inwardly she understood better than anyone what future she was about to face. Otherwise, why would she be so attentive to the matter of the escort unit?

Li Gu felt not the slightest happiness at the promise he had made to Xie Yuzhang — because with his current capabilities, this was all he could do for her. Just this little.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly grew heavy. The maidservants standing at the doorway exchanged a puzzled glance inward. How strange — why had the Princess and the General both fallen silent all at once?

Xie Yuzhang suddenly turned back, the rims of her eyes still faintly red, but her emotions already back under control.

“Shiyi Lang, thank you.” This time she did not disguise her feelings, and said it sincerely from the bottom of her heart.

Li Gu lowered his gaze. “This subordinate… does not deserve such thanks.”

Just then, footsteps sounded outside the room — Wang Shitou had arrived.

Li Gu raised his eyes to size him up. He saw a man with an honest, simple face, at least ten years older than himself — a fellow in his thirties. His face and hands were rough and weathered, marking him plainly as a man of humble origins.

“Wang Shitou, come meet General Li,” Xie Yuzhang called to him, and said to Li Gu, “This is the Wang Shitou I mentioned.”

Wang Shitou was merely a captain; Li Gu was a proper fifth-rank general. Wang Shitou quickly cupped his hands in salute toward his superior officer. “Paying respects to General Li.”

Xie Yuzhang also had a seat arranged for him and said, “General Li and I were already acquainted back in the capital. I mentioned you to him just now, and I have already arranged with the General to ask him to give you some guidance over the coming days.”

Wang Shitou promptly rose to his feet again. “Thank you for your trouble, General.”

Li Gu had been observing his eyes and expression throughout, and finding his gaze honest and straightforward, felt considerably reassured. He nodded. “A small matter. Come find me tomorrow.”

The three of them settled on the arrangement, and as the hour was already late, Li Gu and Wang Shitou took their leave together.

That evening, as Xie Yuzhang lay down, her mind was full of calculations about what more she might accomplish before entering Khanate territory. Turning it over and over, she found there was little more she could do. At last she closed her eyes and sank into a deep sleep.

Li Gu, for his part, returned to find Li Qi eagerly waiting to ask him: “What did the Princess want with you?”

Li Gu told him plainly: “She wants me to give some guidance to her escort unit.”

“Why you?” Li Qi slung his arm around Li Gu’s neck and pressed him with a sideways look. “I’ve been meaning to ask since this afternoon — how does she know you?”

“Lord Li instructed me and Seventh Young Master to socialize with the noble sons of the capital. The Princess also mingled with the capital’s young nobility, and that is how we became acquainted,” Li Gu explained.

“She calls you Shiyi Lang — that’s more than just an acquaintance, isn’t it?” Li Qi pressed him jealously. “I’ve heard that noble ladies of the capital are quite free-spirited. Did you two…”

“Si Lang!” Li Gu suddenly called out sharply.

In the complex affairs of the Li household, Li Gu, out of gratitude to Li Ming for recognizing and nurturing him, had always firmly stood in Li Qi’s corner. He rarely raised his voice at Li Qi, and this sudden outburst gave Li Qi a fright.

“Si Lang has never had direct dealings with Her Highness the Princess, and does not know what kind of woman Her Highness is — you must not speak recklessly!” Li Gu said with solemn gravity. “Her Highness, though young in years, carries the country and its people in her heart. As a woman, she has the courage to bear what must be borne. There are many men who cannot match her. You must never speak carelessly and show disrespect to Her Highness. Other matters I may turn a blind eye to, but on this point I will not treat it lightly with you.”

Li Gu was still young at this time and had not yet acquired the imperial authority he would hold later, but within Hexi and within the Li family’s army, he was the recognized killing general — his name alone could stop a child from crying in the night. When he turned serious, even Li Qi, Li Ming’s own son, felt a degree of wariness.

Li Qi quickly drew back and said, “Look at you — I was just speaking casually!”

But inwardly he was puzzled: what had suddenly gotten into old number eleven?

That night, Li Gu lay on his back staring at the ceiling of the tent, that restless feeling rising in his heart once again.

This restlessness had first appeared after he came to know Princess Baohua in the capital. He had not been this way before — before, each step he had taken to reach where he stood today had been solid and sure. He had always known that as long as he kept walking this path, one day he would become a man above other men, like his adoptive father Li Ming — someone whose every footstep could shake Hexi to its foundations. And so he had never felt this restless.

But now, he chafed at how long it would take to become such a man. Too long, far too long. In all that time, there were too many things he would miss simply because his strength was not yet enough.

Wang Shitou was very obedient. Xie Yuzhang had told him to follow Li Gu and see what he could learn, and so he truly followed Li Gu everywhere.

After spending half a day with him, Li Gu had taken the measure of the man. Born at the bottom of society, a former squad leader, quite capable at handling detailed tasks. This had one advantage — he was not entirely ignorant of military matters. But because one’s position in life shapes one’s thinking, and his position had been elevated so suddenly that he had not yet grown into it, his mind had not yet caught up.

Along the road, Li Gu had him follow at his side, offering guidance at every opportunity.

Xie Yuzhang had also called him in to ask whether he was gaining anything from it.

Wang Shitou nodded repeatedly. “Things I already knew before, but could only feel vaguely and couldn’t put into words — this time, I understand them all clearly.”

Xie Yuzhang sighed. “Your difficulty is that you never had the chance to study.”

Wang Shitou scratched his head and chuckled. “Studying — this subordinate is not cut out for that.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “General Li never studied formally either, you know.”

Wang Shitou was astonished. “Really? But he’s quoted military texts to me.”

“When he was young, he lost both his parents and lived in great poverty. Later, relying on his tall build, he lied about his age to enter the army. For his strength and daring, he was noticed by the Military Governor of Hexi, Lord Li, who took him as an adopted son — and only then did he receive some cultivation. Though he barely learned enough characters to get by, whatever reading he did, he did on his own,” Xie Yuzhang said.

What she was describing was what everyone had come to know after Li Gu became Emperor.

At that time, Li Gu had been the new Emperor enthroned high above her — a man who held the power of life and death over her fate. She had heard those stories about him until her ears went numb, but had never truly taken them to heart.

Yet now, telling them to Wang Shitou, the young boy in that story suddenly came vividly to life, leaping about in her mind.

Eyes and brows severe. Lips pressed tightly shut. The palms of his hands rough with calluses. Even if he had been born with greater physical strength than others, to forge a body capable of fighting through a battlefield would have required him to shed far more sweat than anyone else — and on the battlefield itself, far more blood.

And yet even so, unwilling to remain illiterate, he had stayed up by lamplight deep in the night, laboring through the texts on military strategy.

Xie Yuzhang turned the name “Li Gu” over and over on her tongue, and found it tasted entirely different from how it had before.

“Truly, one could never have guessed,” Wang Shitou marveled repeatedly. “General Li is so young, and yet he speaks like a scholar. I assumed he must have come from a good family — I never imagined…”

He added, “General Li held absolutely nothing back — he truly gave us everything he had, what do you call it…”

“…” Xie Yuzhang said, “Imparting all he knows without reserve?”

“Yes, yes, exactly — Your Highness is so learned.” Wang Shitou’s weathered face turned red.

Xie Yuzhang smiled gently.

“I found you a fine teacher. It is a pity time is so short — learn as much as you can,” she said. “After we arrive out there, I will be relying on you.”

Wang Shitou cupped his hands in acknowledgment.

But after returning, he turned to Li A’da and rambled on: “What do you think the Princess means by that? ‘I will be relying on you’?”

He was only the deputy, after all — the official position was clearly Ma Jianye’s.

Li A’da had been wanting to bring this up for a long time. “Ma Jianye has been asking about you every single day these past two days.”

“Asking about me? I reported to him — it was the Princess who asked me to follow General Li,” Wang Shitou said.

Li A’da turned it back on him: “Then why didn’t the Princess ask Ma Jianye to follow General Li instead?”

“I’ve been wondering that myself,” Wang Shitou scratched his head. “I didn’t dare bring it up in front of the Princess.”

After all, when those above you give you a task, you just do it. You don’t go asking questions left and right.

Li A’da despaired of his obliviousness. “You fool! The Princess is elevating you — can’t you see it? Think about how you got to be a captain in the first place!”

When Wang Shitou had first said the Princess herself had selected him and elevated him, nobody had believed it.

But as time passed, how many times had Wang Shitou been summoned before the Princess, how many times had he appeared in her presence? How many times had Ma Jianye been summoned by comparison? Gradually, there was no way for people not to believe it.

The truth was, Wang Shitou had stumbled into some extraordinary stroke of fortune and won the Princess’s favor. And that good fortune had extended to their whole group of fellow villagers and brothers, lifting them all up along with him.

What they could all plainly see, Ma Jianye — a man so dedicated to maneuvering and positioning himself — had seen even more clearly.

“Keep your wits about you,” Li A’da lectured Wang Shitou. “These past few days, Ma Jianye has been pulling the other company captains — Chen Kui and that bunch — over to his side.”

Each hundred men formed one company, and each company had a company captain. Xie Yuzhang’s escort unit of five hundred had five such captains. Among Wang Shitou’s people, Xie Yuzhang had elevated Li A’da and Zhao Niuwa — because those two had previously been squad leaders and had at least some experience managing men. Elevating common soldiers straight to such a position was something even Xie Yuzhang, inexperienced in military affairs as she was, knew would not work.

By now, after all this traveling together, Ma Jianye had long since figured out that Li A’da and Zhao Niuwa were in Wang Shitou’s camp. That in itself was perfectly normal — but Wang Shitou appearing before Xie Yuzhang day after day, and still being remembered by her even when he didn’t appear before her, was not normal at all.

Ma Jianye had grown uneasy, and naturally moved to pull the other three company captains — those who were not in Wang Shitou’s camp — over to his side.

Wang Shitou, however, said, “He is the commanding officer — it’s perfectly right that he should be drawing everyone together in solidarity.”

Li A’da wanted to argue back, but found himself at a loss for words. He too was a man with little education and limited experience; some things he could feel instinctively but couldn’t articulate clearly, and he was the same in that respect as Wang Shitou. The two of them had grown up in the same village, running around together in split-crotch trousers.

But Wang Shitou wasn’t entirely without his own thoughts. The next day, when he saw Li Gu, he thought it over and decided to consult him.

Li Gu was young, but clearly had far more insight than he did. Though he had only been in contact with Li Gu for a few days, his instinct told him that Li Gu was holding nothing back and was genuinely trying to help him. He trusted Li Gu on instinct alone.

“I just don’t know how to deal with him,” he said. “He is my superior officer, and I should naturally follow his orders — whatever he tells me to do, I do. But he often doesn’t say things plainly, just speaks vaguely and ambiguously, and then I don’t know what to do.”

In his heart he also wanted to ask what the Princess actually meant by her arrangements. Her approach did indeed treat him and Ma Jianye very differently, and it was no wonder Ma Jianye had his own feelings about it.

But he hadn’t dared ask. He hadn’t yet worked up the nerve to question the intentions of someone as exalted as Xie Yuzhang.

Li Gu asked him many things — from how he had been elevated to captain, to the various matters that had unfolded along the way. By the time he had finished asking, Li Gu had a clear picture in his mind.

Xie Yuzhang wanted Wang Shitou to replace Ma Jianye. If, as she had said, Wang Shitou was a trustworthy man sent to her by the Duke of Xun’s estate, then with Wang Shitou commanding the five hundred guards, Xie Yuzhang would be safe and secure.

On the grasslands, many small tribes amounted to no more than three or five hundred fighting men.

Xie Yuzhang knew very well what she would need to rely on out on the grasslands.

Li Gu felt both gratified at Xie Yuzhang’s clear-headedness, and privately puzzled as to why, if the Duke of Xun’s estate had gone to the trouble of arranging this, they had not found a more capable man — someone considerably better suited than Wang Shitou, whose abilities were not yet apparent.

In truth, the Duke of Xun’s estate had not been without the desire to find suitable people for Xie Yuzhang. But among the household generals, anyone with real ability had their entire family firmly rooted in Yunjing. Asking such a person to go far away to the frontier and be buried in a foreign land — finding someone truly willing to do that was no easy matter.

If a person were not willing and were forced to go, they might harbor resentment in their hearts, and the more capable that person was, the more powerful the backlash could be if they turned against her.

Yuan Yu was a case of sheer good fortune on Xie Yuzhang’s part — Yuan Yu had wanted to go beyond the frontier himself, and when this opportunity arose, he had put himself forward. Someone like that was exactly what the Duke of Xun’s estate had hoped to provide for Xie Yuzhang.

Unfortunately, apart from Yuan Yu, no one else was willing to step forward of their own accord and follow Xie Yuzhang loyally into exile far from their homeland.

The Duke of Xun’s estate had been vexed by this as well. And then Xie Yuzhang had involved herself in the personnel roster, and when word of this reached Duke of Xun Yang Changyuan’s ears, he had — just like the Crown Prince who had misunderstood it to be some scheme behind the scenes — assumed it was the work of the Crown Prince or the Emperor. The Duke of Xun had simply stepped back from the escort unit matter entirely and dared not involve himself further.

Li Gu did not know the details of all these misunderstandings, but he could sense that something more lay beneath the surface. He also surmised that the most likely reason Xie Yuzhang had not simply demoted Ma Jianye outright was because Wang Shitou was not yet capable of managing on his own.

And Wang Shitou was all she had in hand.

He had already taken the measure of what kind of person Wang Shitou was over these past few days. And so he said: “You don’t need to overthink this. You only need to remember one thing — who are you?”

Wang Shitou blanked. “Huh?”

“You are Princess Baohua’s guard. Your duty is to protect Princess Baohua,” Li Gu said. “Whenever anything or anyone conflicts with that duty, you can only choose the Princess. Do you understand?”

Wang Shitou scratched his head. “Understood.”

But at this moment, Wang Shitou had not truly understood.

Because he had not yet grasped what “anything” and “anyone” truly meant.