The Hulan army surrounded the capital of Shuo Province like an iron bucket, leaving no room for air—the only breathing space, the River Pass, had thawed due to the explosion and warmer weather.

In the tiny city, a sense of gloom hung over the hearts of the common people, like dark clouds pressing down on a city about to collapse.

Liang Province originally had the best river crossing point, but now that Liang Province was back in Great Liang’s hands, and the River Pass had thawed, crossing the river to fight was almost a death trap for the Hu Qi people. Xia Qing Sheng, who guarded Liang Province, had deployed naval forces to prevent the Hu Qi people from entering the water at the Liang Province river section.

Yu Province was currently in the hands of the Hu Qi people. If they could cross through the capital of Shuo Province, they would receive support from the other side and easily cross the river.

This was a thorn in Dan’s side.

From the day the Hulan army arrived, the sound of artillery had never ceased, and the killing outside the city was often deafening. The common people could only see the tightly closed city gates, the black smoke rising into the sky, and the wounded soldiers being carried down from the city walls.

When the Taibai army previously gathered at the provincial capital, Duan Xu had ordered them to bring large quantities of provisions, arrows, wood, stones, and tung oil, which now came in handy. The Dan army attacked in waves, only to be driven back by arrow rain, burning logs, and stones. Taking advantage of the provincial capital’s terrain, the Taibai army fiercely defended this gateway, preventing the Hu Qi people from crossing.

The common people saw the deafening killing and billowing black smoke every few days, but since nothing major happened, they tentatively began to prepare for the New Year.

Indeed, in the world of mortals, the New Year was the most important event.

“Sister Xiao Xiao, should we buy some firecrackers?” Chen Ying held a stone jar, sprinkling lime powder on the ground.

He Simu rubbed her temples and said, “More firecrackers? Haven’t you heard enough of the artillery outside the city?”

She crouched down to watch Chen Ying sprinkle an irregular white circle outside the door, then pointed at the lime powder circle and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Sister Xiao Xiao, you don’t know? There’s something even you don’t know!” Chen Ying proudly puffed out his chest and explained like a connoisseur, “During New Year, we set off firecrackers, put up door gods, paste fu characters, and draw circles with lime at the doorway to ward off evil and avoid disasters!”

He Simu tilted her head, finding it quite absurd: “Why would such things ward off evil?”

“Because evil spirits and ghosts fear the sound of firecrackers, fear door gods, fear the color red, and fear lime powder! That’s what the elders say!” Chen Ying asserted confidently.

He Simu was silent for a moment, then said, “I’ve always been curious, who first came up with such ingenious ideas?”

Just like those condemned prisoners who were paraded through the streets before execution, singing songs about being a good man again after eighteen years—it was merely to give themselves courage.

Ghosts who remained unfazed by artillery sounds, who could eat door gods made into candy, who had no concept of the color red—He Simu took the jar from Chen Ying’s hand and helped him sprinkle lime powder in front of the doors and windows.

Recently, Duan Xu had been so busy he was nowhere to be seen. She occasionally went invisibly to check on him, and he was either supervising battles or discussing military intelligence, almost without sleep or rest. This didn’t seem like a good time to make a deal, especially since she couldn’t fathom Duan Xu’s bottom line.

He Simu murmured, “What might he want?”

To break the siege of the provincial capital? To drive away the Dan reinforcements? To recover lost territory? To return to court as a marshal or grand secretary? Each seemed like the correct answer.

But none felt quite right.

Moreover, according to her rules, the ghost realm couldn’t interfere in human affairs. If his wishes were these, it would be rather thorny.

“Who wants what?” Chen Ying asked curiously.

He Simu looked up at him and smiled, “Your General Brother, what do you think his heart’s desire might be?”

Chen Ying thought for a while, then held up eight fingers: “I think it’s to eat eight pancakes at every meal.”

“…”

Feeling that wasn’t enough, Chen Ying added, “All with meat filling.”

“…That doesn’t sound like Duan Xu’s wish, it sounds more like yours.”

“No, no, no, I can only eat three pancakes per meal. General Brother is so amazing, he must be able to eat eight,” Chen Ying waved his hands, analyzing with a serious face.

“I remember you wanted to follow Duan Xu to battle before, to protect our home and country?” He Simu reminded him.

Chen Ying blinked his eyes, clearly recalling his previous grand words. He said, “Yes if the Hu Qi people come, we won’t have pancakes to eat. To be able to eat eight pancakes in one meal, General Brother must drive them back!”

He Simu silently looked at him for a while, then smiled and patted his head, sighing, “Such a practical child.”

“Sister Xiao Xiao, why do you want to know General Brother’s wish?” Chen Ying suddenly became interested, as if discovering a gold mine. He followed behind He Simu, chasing wherever she sprinkled the lime powder.

“I want to make an important business deal with your General Brother, so I need to know my counterpart well to know how to price it,” He Simu said casually.

Chen Ying smiled mischievously and said, “Sister Xiao Xiao, are you feeling shy?”

“What?”

“You like General Brother, don’t you? So you want to help him fulfill his wish! I heard what you told Officer Meng last time. You said you fell in l-l-love at first sight with General Brother!” Chen Ying finally remembered the idiom.

He Simu looked at the excited Chen Ying, speechless, and put on a kindly smile: “Yes, yes, yes, it seems he and I are truly a match made in heaven, a pair arranged by earth.”

Meeting someone who could be bound by her spell only once in over three hundred years—wasn’t that indeed heaven-made and earth-arranged, one-of-a-kind?

Chen Ying was inexplicably delighted, jumping up and down around He Simu: “Sister, you do like General Brother! You should go see him more! He hasn’t come for so long!”

He Simu sprinkled lime powder on the ground, treating Chen Ying’s words as background noise.

Chen Ying seemed completely unaware of this. He tugged at He Simu’s sleeve and said, “Sister Xiao Xiao, we also have a suona! Are you going to play it for General Brother only at his funeral?”

He Simu suddenly felt the wind change subtly. She looked up and met Duan Xu’s eyes at the courtyard gate. Lin Jun, the true owner of this courtyard, was standing beside him.

Duan Xu wore casual clothes with his hair bound in a crown, his smile bright, as if he weren’t a military commander but an elder brother from next door coming to visit.

His black eyes blinked, and he smiled, revealing white teeth: “My funeral?”

This person’s timing was impeccable.

He Simu, never one to know the meaning of embarrassment, held the jar with an unchanged expression and said, “When did the General arrive?”

“Just now, probably around the time of ‘a match made in heaven, a pair arranged by earth.’ Indeed, a pair arranged by earth—you’ve even arranged to send me underground.” Duan Xu teased with a smile.

He Simu said magnanimously, “I’m just afraid my beloved General might face hardships on his final journey.”

“Once the siege of the provincial capital is lifted, would Sister Xiao Xiao play a tune for me?”

“Sorry, my tune is only for those departing. It wouldn’t be auspicious for you to hear it while alive.”

Duan Xu smiled, and his gaze moved to the ground at He Simu’s feet. Chen Ying followed Duan Xu’s gaze in puzzlement, then immediately exclaimed in surprise.

Without realizing when, the lime powder on the ground had been sprinkled into a plum blossom image—two or three vigorous slender branches with five or six winter plums, so sharp they seemed about to break through the earth.

He Simu’s father was a ghost who typically affected elegance and had taught her painting by hand since she was young. Though she couldn’t discern colors, her ink paintings were quite good.

“Sister Xiao Xiao, you can paint too!” Chen Ying exclaimed in admiration.

He Simu dusted the lime powder off her hands and said, “Lime powder really has no use, but a beautiful painting—if the visiting evil spirit appreciates elegance, perhaps it would be reluctant to step over it.”

After a pause, she said to Lin Jun, “Master Lin, I hope you don’t mind that I’ve soiled your floor tiles?”

Lin Jun hastily waved his hands, saying he didn’t mind, and exclaimed in admiration, “Your brush technique is masterful, like that of a renowned artist who has practiced for decades.”

…Well, that wasn’t wrong—she had practiced for hundreds of years.

He Simu felt that whenever Duan Xu came to see her, it seemed to be in search of inspiration for his unconventional ideas. This time was no exception.

She passed through the thick city walls and walked up to the barbican. Outside the barbican gate was the Hu Qi encampment. This barbican was built with great consideration—small but protecting the main city gate. If enemy troops entered the Barbican, both the Barbican and main city gates could be lowered, trapping the enemy like turtles in a jar.

To win wars, mortals truly racked their brains and spared no effort. Yet these walls were originally built by Han people of the previous dynasty, later used to protect the Hu Qi people, and now back in Han hands.

The roles of attacker and defender reversed contradictions in conflict.

“I’m reminded of a fable told by an ancient,” He Simu said as she walked up the barbican stairs. “Once, there was a country on the left horn of a snail and another on the right horn. Just to fight over such a tiny space, they waged war against each other, leaving tens of thousands dead.”

Duan Xu was leading her forward, and now turned back to look at her, his expression unclear in the darkness: “That ancient would be Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi said, ‘There was a country on the left horn of a snail called the Touch Clan; there was a country on the right horn called the Barbarian Clan. They fought over territory, with tens of thousands of dead. The victor pursued the defeated for fifteen days before returning.'”

He Simu thought this young general truly had a good memory, somewhat like the Duan Xu rumored to have had a photographic memory as a child.

They emerged from the dark staircase onto the barbican wall. Duan Xu’s voice paused, and he slowly continued, “We are the same. Human life is truly brief, small, and pitifully humble, isn’t it?”

Even when saying such bleak words, Duan Xu was smiling, his eyes gleaming. He didn’t look humble at all, let alone pitiful.

“Why do you smile so much?” He Simu couldn’t help asking.

“It’s my nature.”

He Simu finally stepped onto the city wall. She surveyed the grim barbican, where the top of the wall was covered in charred marks of war. The coming and going soldiers were very tense, and the smell of blood and burning permeated the air.

It seemed the previous times they repelled enemy attacks had been brutal. Outside the city, the vast, dark encampment stretched endlessly. Twenty thousand people just outside this precarious small city, watching like tigers eyeing their prey—like a crouching black panther, just waiting for the moment to pounce and tear the city open.

Yet the people inside the city were oblivious, busying themselves preparing for the New Year.

He Simu rubbed her temples: “They say one who harbors thunderous intentions beneath a calm lake-like countenance can be a supreme general. It seems they were talking about you.”

Duan Xu’s eyes curved in a smile: “I’m deeply honored.”

Before long, the Hu Qi people would launch their next wave of attacks, and Duan Xu needed to find a way to repel them once more.

“Today as I watched, I thought lime powder was quite good. The burning rain is the second punishment in the Book of Azure Words. Is there any east wind with rain lately?” Duan Xu leaned against the battlement and smiled.

He had mastered the Book of Azure Words to perfection.

He Simu narrowed her eyes, with a smile that didn’t reach them: “I’m not a wind master or rain lord. Do you think you can create whatever weather you want? Recently, the weather has been clear and dry, with no rain.”

Duan Xu shook his head and sighed, “What a pity.”

“You, a great general, why do you keep thinking of such unorthodox methods?”

“The art of war is based on deception. The combination of the strange and the normal leads to victory. They have two hundred thousand troops, we have only fifty thousand. If we face them head-on, we have only one path—death.”

Just as Duan Xu finished speaking, someone below the city began shouting.

“Duan Shunxi, you cowardly pretty boy, you’re afraid of your Dan grandfathers, that’s why you’re hiding in the city! If you have the guts, come out and fight us! Watch how grandfathers here crack your skull open and make you cry for your parents!”

“Come on, come out and fight!”

The voice was rough and wild, delivering mockery to perfection. The enemy camp below responded with waves of laughter, and several more insults flew up to the top of the wall, creating a cacophony.

Duan Xu didn’t look down, casually explaining to He Simu: “They’ve been shouting for some days now.”

“They’re insulting you, trying to provoke you into coming out to fight.”

“Are they insulting me? They call me a pretty boy—isn’t that just praising my handsomeness from another angle?” Duan Xu placed his hand over his heart and smiled, “I appreciate it.”

He Simu was silent for a moment, then clapped her hands: “General is truly broad-minded, worthy of admiration.”