When Xie Yuzhang came to, she was in an unfamiliar place, beneath an unfamiliar canopy.

She stared up at it for a moment, then suddenly rolled upright. She startled the maid who was keeping watch in the room.

The unfamiliar maid hurried over. “My lady, you’re awake?”

Xie Yuzhang did not ask who she was. She only said, “Water.”

The maid quickly poured a cup for her. Xie Yuzhang drank it dry before asking, “Where is this place?”

The maid said, “This is the residence of Master Xu of Siping Town in Rong’an County.”

Not a single name that Xie Yuzhang recognized. But from the furnishings in the room and the maid’s clothing, it had the look of a prosperous rural household. Xie Yuzhang nodded and asked, “Where are the people who came with me?”

The maid said, “They’re all outside. My lady, do wash your face first.”

Xie Yuzhang declined. “No need. Please have my people come in.”

There was something about the way this young woman spoke — an authority that made one feel unable to refuse, though without knowing quite why. She was so strikingly beautiful, and yet she sat there covered in dust and grime without the slightest concern for washing herself first. How very strange.

The maid thought all this privately, but did not dare disobey, and went out to summon the others.

Li Gu walked in with swift, long strides a moment later.

Xie Yuzhang was still sitting on the edge of the bed. After days of hard pursuit, her face was caked with dust like any soldier under his command, hair plastered to her skin, sweat having carved pale tracks down her cheeks where it had washed the grime away.

In nearly ten years of knowing Xie Yuzhang, this was the first time Li Gu had seen her so disheveled.

It was also the first time he had seen a woman who should have been pampered with the finest food and raised in a bath of warm milk, biting down and keeping pace with his forced march — eating with great mouthfuls the “rough fare” she had never tasted before, without a single word of complaint.

One really did need to spend time with a person. Only then could you see them more clearly, more fully, and understand that a person is not merely one face.

Compared to Xie Yuzhang, Li Gu had at least washed and tidied himself — considerably cleaner, with no dust or mud on his face. Knowing immediately what she most needed to hear, he told her the moment he walked in: “Lin Fei’s survival is unknown. Jing Shan has commandeered boats and gone in pursuit.”

He followed with an explanation: “Lin Fei jumped overboard. That man from the Gao Family jumped in and pulled her out. They’re from the south and swim well. We only don’t know what condition Lin Fei is in right now.”

So it was “unknown.” Li Gu was always candid about what he did not know. He would never say something like “She will certainly be alive.”

But Xie Yuzhang was different. She said, “She is definitely still alive. She does not die so easily. I refuse to believe she would be gone just like that.”

She seemed to be speaking to Li Gu, and seemed to be speaking to herself. Either way, it astonished him.

Li Gu knew well how close the bond between Xie Yuzhang and Lin Fei was. He had expected Lin Fei’s fate to strike her with grief and despair and leave her fragile — the way she had seemed when Xiaoyao Manor was destroyed, when she had looked as though all her strength and will to live had drained away.

But now she was entirely different. Yes, she clung to a somewhat fixed conviction about whether Lin Fei was dead or alive — but she looked full of strength.

Li Gu frowned and asked, “Yuzhang, are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Xie Yuzhang said. “I was just on the verge of giving myself permission to be weak for a moment — and then I was slapped hard and woke up.”

If she had not fled to the sparsely populated Western Hills but remained in Yunjing all along, the Gao Family would not have dared to act again within the capital.

If she had not shown weakness, Lin Fei — as the mistress of a great household, with a residence to manage and, as a dazzlingly prominent new consort-figure, a stack of invitations waiting for her to socialize and entertain — would not have followed her to the Western Hills out of concern.

In that case, even if the Gao Family had acted, she herself would have been the one to face them directly, not Lin Fei standing in her place.

“They believed she was me,” she said. “When they crept into the estate and reached the main hall, I happened to be out of the room. She declared herself ‘this princess,’ taunted them into action, and made the Gao Family move quickly to take her away.”

Li Gu said with deep admiration, “Lin Fei is every bit worthy of the name ‘loyalty and integrity.'”

But Xie Yuzhang said, “I despise those two words. Why should she throw herself away for me? Why couldn’t she just live for herself? We had already come back. She had already married Second Brother — a tender husband, a life of comfort. What was wrong with that?”

Li Gu said, “…Don’t cry.”

He wiped the tears from her face. But Xie Yuzhang’s tears had already cut pale tracks through the grime on her cheeks, and when he wiped them away with his hand, they smeared into the markings of a calico cat.

Li Gu withdrew his hand and said, “Wash up. We’ll head back to the capital.”

Xie Yuzhang looked at him. He continued, “Jing Shan has taken boats in pursuit — this will not be resolved in a day or two, and your being here serves no purpose. Your little sister is still at the Western Hills.”

Xie Yuzhang nodded.

She was never a willful person, Li Gu thought.

This place was indeed a prosperous household in a small riverside town along the Si River. Li Gu had borrowed the use of their estate. The family only knew that great nobles had arrived with so many soldiers; they did not dare ask questions.

Xie Yuzhang bathed, changed into borrowed clothes, ate a proper meal, and the group set off back toward the capital.

Li Gu had arranged a carriage for her. Xie Yuzhang did not push herself — she sat in it without protest.

Three days and nights of hard riding had left the skin on the inside of her thighs rubbed raw, a burning sting. Xie Yuzhang endured it, walking from the courtyard to the carriage with as normal a gait as she could manage. The pain was such that she bit her lip until it bled. A good thing the rural house was not large.

No one noticed — except Li Gu.

They were still within the capital region, and the road back to Yunjing was an official highway through a stretch of prosperous settlements with plenty of places to stop and rest along the way.

At one of these stops, Li Gu came to the carriage window and asked, his voice lowered: “Do you need to refresh yourself?”

She had brought no maids along on this ride, and aside from Li Gu, those around her were all soldiers of the Imperial Guard. All the way here, Xie Yuzhang had been deliberately rationing her water to avoid exactly this problem. That Li Gu dared to bring it up left her mortified with fury. “I don’t need to. Go away,” she snapped.

Li Gu could only go away.

Xie Yuzhang endured through thirst and made it to a stop that evening.

Li Gu commandeered the largest residence in the town, had the threshold removed, and drove the carriage directly into the inner courtyard.

When Xie Yuzhang was about to climb down, Li Gu simply picked her up in his arms, carried her into the room, and immediately withdrew.

Xie Yuzhang seized the household maid by the arm. “Quickly, take me to the privy!”

That evening, Li Gu had a maid announce him before entering, carrying a bowl of something black and thick. He held it out to Xie Yuzhang. “Apply this to the wound — it will heal much faster.” Then he told her: “Your people have caught up.”

Xie Yuzhang took it. “At this pace it’ll be six or seven days before we reach Yunjing. Don’t worry about me — go ahead. I’ll make my own way back.”

Li Gu said, “All right.”

The next morning when they set out, there was an additional carriage. Li Gu had borrowed two stout serving women from the household to attend to Xie Yuzhang. He left half his men with her and rode ahead on horseback back to the capital.

The medicine had done its work. By morning the wound had begun to scab over, and Xie Yuzhang could walk more or less normally. She summoned her own people and told them: “I’m heading back to Yunjing.”

She kept Yuan Jin and a few men at her side, but sent Yuan Jin’s deputy ahead: “Bring more people from the residence. Keep Luo Garden well protected, and have Wanxiu take good care of the nineteenth daughter.”

The journey back did indeed take six or seven days before they arrived in Yunjing. Xie Yuzhang stopped at the Princess’s residence to change, then went directly to the Lin household.

She did not quite know what to say to Lin Zi, but going to ask forgiveness was unavoidable.

Lin Zi had not yet returned from his duties, and Yan Shi received her in his stead.

Yan Shi was young, with no in-laws above her and a gentle husband, courteous younger brothers-in-law, and a married sister-in-law whose position was distinguished, who got along well with her and looked after her besides. Since her wedding, she had never quite taken on the manner of a married woman; a girlish innocence still lingered in her eyes.

She had heard what happened to Lin Fei, and she could only grieve and weep — but she did not know what to say to Xie Yuzhang. For the two women shared Lin Fei between them in different ways, and neither quite knew who should be comforting whom.

Xie Yuzhang sat in silence and waited until Lin Zi returned.

When she saw Lin Zi, she stood and managed only “Third Brother” before the words failed her.

You cannot cry, she told herself. What right do you have to cry before Second Brother and Third Brother? It should be you who comforts them.

Lin Zi’s face bore no smile and no anger. His expression at this moment was unreadable, like Li Gu’s — impossible to gauge. Xie Yuzhang had never seen Lin Zi look like this before.

Because in the past, Lin Zi had always broken into a smile whenever he saw her.

“I know. His Majesty has already told me everything.” He inclined his head. “Jing Shan has not yet returned. Let us wait for him.”

He was silent for a long while before slowly saying: “Whatever the outcome… Fei Fei… must have known what she was doing.”

Xie Yuzhang’s tears sprang up all at once.

Lin Fei of course knew what she was doing. In their past life, she had given her entire life in repayment of that small act of grace. Even at the very end, Lin Fei had been by her side. She had given her everything.

In this life, Xie Yuzhang had stood up on her own and shouldered everything, with protecting Lin Fei as her foremost duty. They had made it through ten long, uncertain years together — and now, just as happiness and wholeness seemed finally within reach, she had walked back down the same old road.

Through her tears she said, “She thinks she has repaid me. But how will I ever repay her?”

When would the ledger between them ever truly be settled? When would there ever really be an end to it? When would they each finally be at peace?

Watching her cry, Lin Zi clasped his hands behind his back. After a long silence he said softly, “…Don’t cry.”

By the time Yang Huaishen returned to the capital, it was already mid-July.

When Li Gu arrived at the Princess’s residence, Xie Yuzhang was practicing archery at the training ground.

Li Gu watched her loose an arrow straight into the bullseye and nodded. “Your archery is already very good.”

“But I still can’t draw the heavy bows,” Xie Yuzhang said. “What is the heaviest His Majesty can draw?”

Li Gu said, “At my strongest, six stone.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “Is there any bow in the world stronger than that?”

Li Gu said, “That is the upper limit of what I can manage. Day-to-day, I use three stone.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “Not many people can handle three stone.”

“True enough,” Li Gu said. “Da’lang, Seventh Brother, and Jingye all can.”

Xie Yuzhang was in the process of drawing and nocking another arrow. Only at that moment did Li Gu say, “Jing Shan is back.”

The arrow that had been aimed at the bullseye flew wide of the target.

Xie Yuzhang spun to face him.

Li Gu said, “Lin Fei is still alive. Jing Shan did not catch up with them.”

Still alive. Alive was what mattered.

Li Gu watched the tension that had held Xie Yuzhang’s shoulders rigid for so long finally ease. She said, “Alive is what matters. Nothing else is important.”

Li Gu nodded.

Xie Yuzhang loosed another arrow. This time, it struck the bullseye cleanly.

She asked, “When will His Majesty campaign south?”

Li Gu said, “My ships are ready. It is only a matter of the soldiers adapting.”

The Flying Tiger Army was composed mostly of men from the north, many of whom had never learned to swim and had never boarded a vessel of any size.

Li Gu said, “Next year at the latest — though perhaps this winter is possible, depending on conditions.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “When the south is pacified, annihilate the Gao Family.”

Li Gu answered, “Agreed.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “Bring her back.”

Li Gu promised, “So long as she is alive.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “She will be.”