The walls of Liangzhou City were built tall and solid, like silent giants. Yet even such giants had not been able to withstand the Hu Qi people’s first attack, nor had they protected the city’s inhabitants.

From the city wall, one could see the wide Guan River in the distance. On clear days, one could even glimpse Danzhi’s Shuozhou on the opposite bank.

The soldiers guarding the wall saw Duan Xu approaching and saluted him as “General.” Han Ling Qiu, the commander in charge of wall defenses, also hurried over. He was a robust, tall young man with a terrifying scar on his face that ran from his jawline to his temple, giving him a somewhat frightening appearance. With a serious expression, he clasped his hands and said, “General Duan.”

Duan Xu nodded, instructing Meng Wan to inspect the wall defenses with Han Ling Qiu, then turned to look at the young woman holding a sugar figurine.

She walked naturally to the battlement, gazing toward the distant Guan River while continuing to lick her sugar figurine.

The city wall was not like the city below. The winter wind was swift and fierce, pulling at her long hair. Her cloak filled with wind as if blossoming into a lotus-pink peach flower.

She placed one hand on the bricks of the wall. Winter bricks should feel like knife cuts to the touch. Her fingertips were pale, and her knuckles, like her cheeks and nose tip, were flushed red from the cold. Yet she neither adjusted her cloak nor showed any sign of shivering.

Surely anyone who could feel the cold would not behave this way.

He Simu suddenly turned her head and said, “All the winds on the city wall are indeed in full view. Like white spider silk, they fill the space between heaven and earth, their origins and destinations unknown.”

Wind like spider silk—a wondrous comparison.

Duan Xu followed her pointing finger and said in the biting cold wind, “White wind, like the color of my sleeve cuff?”

“Yes.” He Simu smiled, and as she did, she suddenly asked, “General, do you have a wish?”

“A wish?”

“Yes, a wish.”

Duan Xu smiled slightly and said frankly, “My lifelong wish is for the seventeen provinces north of the Guan River to return to Great Liang’s possession.”

“…”

He Simu’s expression remained unchanged, but she thought to herself that this was just grandiose official rhetoric, even less believable than Guan Huai’s flattery toward her.

Duan Xu noticed her silence and asked, “What’s wrong?”

He Simu put on a sorrowful face, explaining that she feared blood. Just thinking about reclaiming the seventeen provinces and the bloodshed it would cause frightened her. After a pause, she suddenly moved closer to Duan Xu, who maintained his smile while subtly stepping back half a pace, waiting for her to continue.

“In my travels, I’ve studied skulls extensively.” He Simu pointed at Duan Xu’s head, speaking seemingly out of context: “The General has an excellent skull—rounded at the back, high at the crown, full forehead, high brow bones with deep eye sockets, and double eyelids.”

Duan Xu raised his eyebrows. This hardly sounded like a compliment, more like the expertise of someone selecting livestock at a slaughterhouse.

“Pure Han Chinese skulls don’t look like this. I heard my father say that hundreds of years ago, further north than even Danzhi, there was an ethnic group called the Di. Their people had skulls like yours. Back then, the Di and Han fought for years, locked in a blood feud of mortal enemies. But now, the Di no longer exists in this world. They merged into the Han bloodline, into your ancestors’ bloodline.”

Now the Hu Qi and Han were also mortal enemies, but eventually, their bloodlines would merge. A hundred years later, they would become fathers and sons, brothers, flesh and blood relatives.

Most things in this world follow this pattern. Those who hate each other deeply later become closer than blood; those who love deeply become strangers in the blink of an eye. Intimacy and distance fluctuate, and nothing lasts forever.

Life-and-death struggles or grand aspirations to reclaim lost territories will all turn to vapor. Worldly affairs are mostly uninteresting—why take them so seriously?

Duan Xu gazed at He Simu for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter. He leaned against the wall, laughing so hard he bent over with shaking shoulders.

He Simu looked at him in puzzlement, feeling there was nothing funny about the topic. This young man was laughing like a fool.

Her assessment was unfair, though. Duan Xu looked quite handsome when he laughed. His eyes were bright and slightly curved, filled with overflowing joy, revealing his white teeth.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Miss He. I was born with a tendency to laugh easily, not because I have any objections to what you said.” Duan Xu composed himself and straightened up, saying to He Simu: “I just remembered how, as a child, I loved building sandcastles by the sea. No matter how beautiful the sandcastle, the rising tide would wash it away. If I had possessed your insight then, I might not have been so sad. After all, the sandcastle didn’t truly disappear; it just returned to sand.”

“You may be like me, and I like a sandcastle.”

He tilted his head, smiling at He Simu: “I was sand before birth, will be sand after death, and am a fortress for only a moment. I need only live for this moment.”

What happened a hundred years ago or what will happen a hundred years from now—even if reincarnation exists and he lives again in this world, that would not be him.

He Simu observed Duan Xu for a moment. He stood in the brilliant sunshine, with spider silk-like wind densely wrapped around him, like a butterfly in a cocoon.

Inwardly, she sighed. Mortals with their mere hundred years of life ultimately cannot break free from love and hate, joy and sorrow. Outwardly, however, she showed admiration, applauding.

Duan Xu’s gaze fell on the sugar figurine in her hand, and he said, “I wanted to ask earlier, the sugar figurine in Miss He’s hand, does it depict…”

“Shen Tu. Chen Ying has one of Yu Lei—the two door gods.” He Simu waved the sugar figurine, which she had licked away half a shoulder, and said: “After encountering a ghost in the middle of the night recently, Chen Ying has been frightened. Today I got some extra candy from Commander Meng and drew two door gods. They say evil ghosts fear these, so we’re using them to ward off evil.”

As she spoke, she bit off half of Shen Tu’s head in one bite.

Duan Xu couldn’t help but smile. He folded his arms and shook his head, but then saw He Simu offering him the sugar figurine: “Want a taste?”

The amber-colored sugar figurine was crystal clear in the sunlight, glittering like a gemstone. Through its gaps, he could see her smiling face, open and ardent.

Duan Xu reached out, broke off the untouched left foot of the sugar figurine, and put it in his mouth. He frowned slightly, then smiled: “Miss He, it’s too sweet.”

He Simu moved closer to Duan Xu, teasing him: “General, what are you saying is sweet?”

The young woman before him had a face reddened by the cold, but her smile was sweet.

The young man’s eyes flickered, but he remained composed and said: “The sugar figurine.”

“Is it sweet?”

“Excessively so.”

“Everyone has different tastes. What can I say? I have a sweet tooth.” He Simu took another bite of the sugar figurine. Looking toward the frozen Guan River in the distance, she suddenly said: “Four days from now, on the eighth day of the eleventh month, during the Hai hour, there will be an east wind with snow.”

Duan Xu understood and bowed in gratitude. Then he heard her voice in his ear.

“Must you go?”

Duan Xu looked up to see the young woman staring directly into his eyes, with a slight hint of compassion.

“I heard Commander Meng say that the General was not originally Taibai’s general, but was appointed in an emergency. With your illustrious background, through negotiation, you should be able to return to the capital.”

Duan Xu sighed and said: “Why is everyone like this, making me feel as if I’m fighting a losing battle? Rest assured, Miss. When I was young, I had my fortune told. The master said I would turn misfortune into good fortune throughout my life.”

He Simu thought, this man has gone from Supervising Secretary and chancellor candidate to Imperial Guard Commander to frontier Lieutenant General to a general on the brink of life and death. He’s faced plenty of misfortune, but where’s the good fortune?

“If this isn’t a losing battle, what is it?”

Duan Xu paused briefly, then said lightly: “It’s ‘I would go forward even against ten thousand.'”

He Simu could only nod while finishing the last bite of her sugar figurine.

That was indeed correct. How could one wield the Breaking Illusion Sword without a powerful destiny?

Little General, please don’t die. Surely the master of the Breaking Illusion Sword is destined for more than this?

Duan Xu escorted He Simu back to her small courtyard. From a distance, they could see Chen Ying hugging his knees, obediently sitting at the entrance looking around. Upon seeing her, his eyes lit up as he ran over.

Since encountering the evil ghost, this child had become even more clingy.

He Simu bid farewell to Duan Xu and led Chen Ying into the courtyard, casually asking: “Finished the sugar figurine? What would you like to eat next time?”

“I still want a sugar figurine! Big Sister’s sugar figurines were so well-made this time, but they were too bland, hardly sweet at all.” Chen Ying, who had grown a bit rounder recently, tugged at He Simu’s hand, acting spoiled.

He Simu paused in her steps and looked down at Chen Ying: “Not sweet at all?”

Chen Ying came from a poor family and had rarely tasted sugar since childhood. He was also very honest—if he said it wasn’t sweet, it truly wasn’t.

Earlier, Duan Xu had said the sugar figurine was excessively sweet. Was he just joking?

A thought occurred to her. She crouched down and asked Chen Ying: “The young general who escorted me back today, what color were his sleeve cuffs?”

Chen Ying thought for a moment, then raised his finger toward the sky: “Blue! The color of the sky.”

—White wind, like the color of my sleeve cuff?

He Simu was silent for a moment, then played with the jade pendant at her waist with an enigmatic smile.

Well, well, the young general was testing her. She had been careless.

His intuition was much better than Meng Wan’s. He had seen through her, that little fox.

She sent Chen Ying off to play, watching until he disappeared from her sight. Then she took out the luminous pearl from her bosom and called: “Feng Yi.”

After a while, a voice emerged from the pearl: “Venerable Ancestor, what is it now?”

“I remember you said that Duan Xu grew up in the Southern Capital until he was seven, then was sent to his grandmother’s home in Daizhou to serve her, only returning to the Southern Capital at fourteen.”

“That’s correct.”

“The Southern Capital has no sea, and Daizhou is even further from any coast. He should never have seen the sea. Where did he build sandcastles by the sea as a child?” He Simu tossed the pearl, saying leisurely: “This fellow isn’t quite right. Help me investigate him thoroughly.”

Duan Xu left the entrance of He Xiaoxiao’s small courtyard, walking back with a smile. As he approached the Governor’s mansion, some children were playing cuju in the street. One of them kicked with insufficient force, and the ball flew rapidly toward Duan Xu. Just as the children’s cries of alarm rang out, he quickly moved aside and raised his hand, his five fingers firmly catching the ball.

A small boy ran over. Duan Xu handed him the ball, and the child looked up at him, asking curiously: “Big brother, why are you smiling so happily?”

Duan Xu crouched down and patted his head with a beaming smile: “Today I met a very interesting friend.”

“Someone who can see the wind, but likely cannot distinguish colors, sense cold or warmth, or recognize tastes.”

The little boy looked confused and said, “What a strange person! Isn’t that scary?”

“Scary? How is that scary?” Duan Xu tilted his head, his smile becoming even brighter: “I find it fascinating.”

The little boy shuddered, now thinking this big brother was also quite frightening.

“General!”

Duan Xu looked up to see Xia Qing Sheng approaching with a group of soldiers. He stood up as Xia Qing Sheng saluted with cupped hands, a worried expression on his face: “General, this isn’t the Southern Capital. You can’t always move about alone…”

Duan Xu patted Xia Qing Sheng’s shoulder, neither contradicting nor agreeing, but simply asked: “Has Lieutenant General Wu arrived?”

“He’s waiting inside.”

“Good, let’s go in.”