Along the road, Li Chi seemed in no hurry to press on. His attention lingered on the autumn scenery stretching out around them, and there was something in the landscape that eased the spirit and opened the heart.

Mister Yan was a little curious, and so he asked Li Chi, “If a real battle breaks out in Jizhou, why aren’t you in any rush to get back?”

Li Chi smiled. “For one thing, Old Tang has already gone to Jizhou. Since he’s there, there’s nothing to be anxious about. Whether I’m there or not makes no difference.”

“For another — no matter how fast or slow we travel, by the time we get back, that battle in Jizhou will already be over.”

Li Chi lay back and gazed at the sky above, looking every bit the irresponsible hands-off proprietor. Yet in those few short words, he made it perfectly clear how much he trusted Tang Pidi.

Indeed, it was more than trust — it was admiration. There was another meaning in Li Chi’s words, equally plain: when it comes to the battlefield, I am no match for Old Tang.

Li Chi still disliked riding inside a covered carriage, no matter how comfortably it was appointed.

A carriage enclosure felt like a sealed jar to him — confining him to that small, enclosed space — and left him feeling stifled and boxed in.

What he liked was lying in a cart piled with dry grass, stretched out, watching the sky, breathing in the dry, clean smell of the straw.

A cart like that was bumpier than a carriage with cushions and upholstery, but somehow the jolting felt grounding and reassuring.

Li Chi suspected he might have something wrong with him — some ailment that made him incapable of enjoying comfort.

Mister Yan sat to one side of the cart. All at once, he put a question to Li Chi: “Do you believe in Heaven’s will?”

Li Chi assumed Mister Yan was referring to the Great Zhou Emperor’s Armor, and so he shook his head. “There is no such thing as Heaven’s will. Everything has its cause and its consequence. If the Yuezhi had never invaded the Central Plains, the Great Zhou Emperor’s Armor would never have ended up in front of us.”

Mister Yan pursed his lips. “I’m not talking about that.”

He tilted his chin toward the back of the convoy.

Li Chi sat up and looked behind them. Across one intervening cart, he could see Yu Jiuling sitting sprawled in characteristic ease, while Princess Dikhuaqing sat peeling an apple for him — cutting piece after piece and placing each one in Yu Jiuling’s mouth, then carefully wiping his lips afterward.

Mister Yan said, “The world has gone absurd.”

“Come now, Mister Yan,” Li Chi replied, “don’t lose faith in the world. After all, there is only one Nine Brother in all of it.”

Mister Yan said, “Consider for a moment — how would you define the word ‘absurd’?”

Li Chi thought about it. It was not easy to say.

“The very fact that the word ‘absurd’ exists,” Mister Yan said, “tells you it describes something that cannot be explained. Anything that can be explained does not qualify as absurd. So I have come to suspect that Yu Jiuling may not be real.”

He turned to Li Chi and, with the kind of earnestness one reserves for academic discussion, said, “Just think: any woman — any normal woman — looking around at all the people there were, picks Yu Jiuling at a single glance. Is that not absurd?”

“Love at first sight isn’t so rare,” Li Chi said.

“Love at first sight, perhaps not,” Mister Yan allowed. “But a princess turning herself into a little handmaid in front of Yu Jiuling — that is quite something.”

“Mister Yan,” Li Chi said, “the two of us sitting here talking behind Nine Brother’s back like this… are we enjoying ourselves perhaps a bit too much?”

Mister Yan let out a hearty laugh. “I don’t think any less of Yu Jiuling — I’m simply astonished that this state of affairs exists.”

“Could it be,” Li Chi mused, “that ever since Her Highness was born, everyone around her has always deferred to her — no one has ever dared say no to her — and after all these years, she has finally met someone like Nine Brother…”

Mister Yan sighed. “On a long journey like this, if it weren’t for Nine Brother’s affairs to gossip about, there would truly be no joy in it.”

Li Chi glanced back. In the cart ahead, Gao Xining sat cross-legged with a small wooden box cradled in her arms, looking for all the world like a thoroughly authentic little miser.

Li Chi got to his feet, hopped onto the cart ahead, and sat down beside Gao Xining. “Why are you riding in a cart like this one too?” he asked.

Gao Xining crooked her finger at him. Li Chi immediately leaned his ear close.

In a voice very soft and very warm, Gao Xining spoke beside Li Chi’s ear: “What I’m about to say may excite you a little.”

“Oh?” Li Chi said. “It’s not as though I’m someone who’s never seen the world.”

Gao Xining smiled. “Then let me tell you why I’m not riding in the enclosed carriage, but sitting here in a cart like this.”

“Go ahead,” Li Chi said. “If I get excited, I’ll count it as my loss.”

Gao Xining leaned even closer to his ear. Her lips brushed lightly against his earlobe as she said softly, “I don’t like sitting inside an enclosed carriage either. The only reason I would want to sit in there is if you were in there with me. That small enclosed carriage with the door shut — that is a world that belongs only to the two of us.”

Li Chi gave a full-body shiver, feeling as though every pore on him was about to burst open.

Gao Xining continued softly: “And do you know why I like sitting in a cart like this one?”

“Why?” Li Chi asked.

“Because I really am a little miser,” Gao Xining said. “A possessive, food-guarding little creature. When I sit here, the arms wrapped around my gold are mine, and the eyes watching you are mine. Everything that matters to me is right here. And anyone who dares try to take any of it — I’ll bare my teeth and bite.”

Li Chi shivered again from head to toe. He whipped his head around to stare at Gao Xining, his eyes blazing with sudden intensity.

Gao Xining hurriedly scooted back a little. Her eyes were bright and dancing. Laughing, she said, “Ha — you fool. You lost.”

“Right now,” Li Chi declared, “I have a move — ‘Hungry Tiger Leaps on Prey’ — and I am barely keeping it in check.”

“No,” Gao Xining said firmly. “Disgusting. Get away from me.”

“Aren’t you a fierce little food-guarding creature?” Li Chi said. “What kind of creature turns away from its own food?”

Gao Xining tilted her head skyward. “Ruff… not hungry.”

Dantai Crushing Aura looked back at the cart behind them — Yu Jiuling and Dikhuaqing — then looked ahead at Li Chi and Gao Xining. He let out a disgruntled snort.

He sat down beside Mister Yan and curled his lip. “This insufferable atmosphere.”

“Quite so,” Mister Yan agreed.

Then, spotting Miss Ruoling waving to him from a distance, Mister Yan immediately leapt off the cart and came running: “Coming, coming!”

Dantai Crushing Aura: “…”

The journey passed in such easy spirits that, even though they were not moving particularly fast, the return trip somehow felt shorter than the outward journey had been.

On the way there, they had been chasing the rogue Daoist Fang Yuzhu — travelling in urgent haste, yet feeling every step was too slow.

By the time the group reached Yanshan it was more than ten days later. Arriving at Yanshan, Li Chi could see that the grain in the fields below the mountain had clearly already been harvested, which settled something in his heart.

Once the autumn grain was in, the border army in the northern frontier could survive the winter. Without resupply from the court, the border army had it desperately hard.

It was also well-timed: barely had they entered the mountain stronghold when a rider dispatched by Tang Pidi came thundering in, shouting all the way.

“Victory report!”

*Ten days earlier.*

The autumn grain harvest had been approaching outside Jizhou City when Tang Pidi arrived at the head of his Ning Army forces. He appeared to have no intention of attacking the city — he was simply there to torment Jizhou’s military governor, Pan Nuo.

Once the Ning Army arrived, they began seizing and harvesting the grain. How could Pan Nuo possibly stomach this? He sent out scouts to investigate, and upon learning that the Ning Army numbered only a few thousand, he immediately ordered the Jizhou forces to strike.

The moment the Jizhou army came out through the gates, the Ning Army immediately turned and ran — carrying off the grain they had seized and fleeing at full speed.

Pan Nuo’s forces returned to the city. The next day, the Ning Army came back again and resumed seizing grain.

The Jizhou forces charged out once more. Tang Pidi absolutely refused to engage — the moment the Jizhou forces appeared, he turned and fled.

This happened three times. Pan Nuo was furious. He devised a plan: in the dead of night he opened the city gates, and the Jizhou forces slipped out to lie in ambush among the cornfields, waiting for the Ning Army to arrive.

The Ning Army duly appeared to harvest grain. The Jizhou forces lying in ambush among the fields immediately charged. The Ning Army appeared startled, and fled in disarray.

Pan Nuo, now genuinely enraged, personally led his troops in hot pursuit and would not let up. But after chasing them twenty or thirty li, he was stopped dead by Luo Jing’s Youzhou Army.

Only then did Pan Nuo realize he had been led into a trap. He turned his forces around and ran back — fighting the whole way, shedding armor and dropping weapons as he went.

By the time he reached the north gate of Jizhou City, the gates were shut fast. No matter how Pan Nuo shouted or cursed, the people on the city walls simply would not open them.

The Youzhou Army was closing in from behind. Both sides clashed outside the walls. Pan Nuo could not hold his own and had no choice but to lead his men in a circuit around the city walls.

By the time he had fought his way clear, his forces had taken casualties of seven or eight in ten. He was then pinned down again outside the walls. By the time he cut open a path through the fighting, only a hundred or so of his personal guard remained.

He galloped around to another north gate and beat frantically at the doors — frantic as an ant on a hot griddle. But this time, the gates opened.

Pan Nuo led his hundred-odd personal guard rushing into the city and immediately ordered the gates shut. But just as he did, a great net came dropping from the city walls and engulfed him.

From all sides, men lying in wait swarmed in and seized Pan Nuo alive.

The one who had ordered the gates kept shut — that had been Jiang Ran.

The role Li Chi had left Jiang Ran to play in Jizhou now made itself felt. Li Chi had given Jiang Ran two tasks when he first left him there, and Jiang Ran had accomplished both.

The first: Li Chi had told him to find a way to enter Pan Nuo’s service. Pan Nuo’s forces were all Yuzhou troops — he would never trust the people who had come with them from Yuzhou easily.

So Jiang Ran would have his opportunity. Once he succeeded in getting close to Pan Nuo and earning his trust, he was to recommend other men to Pan Nuo. These men were former subordinates of Jiang Ran’s own.

Li Chi had also told Jiang Ran that it was not only his former subordinates — the Jizhou officials who had been restored to their posts were all candidates for winning over.

Jiang Ran came up with an approach: he used the funds Li Chi had left him to buy over those officials. Once these men had been brought around, Jiang Ran told them that the money had actually been sent by agents from the Youzhou side.

The second task: Li Chi told Jiang Ran that the one who would attack Jizhou would certainly be Luo Jing, with Ning Army forces coordinating from outside. When Pan Nuo led his army out of the city, Jiang Ran was to use the network of relationships he had built within the city to shut the gates and prevent Pan Nuo from returning.

Both tasks, Jiang Ran carried out with flawless execution.

It must be said that he could not have completed them so elegantly without the help of Shen Rulan of the Shen Medical Hall.

Shen Rulan, using her visits to treat and tend to various officials and their households, had won over several officers in command of the city gates. Later, when Jiang Ran came to her for help, she handed all these men over to Jiang Ran to coordinate with.

Luo Jing led his forces into Jizhou City. Seeing that Pan Nuo had been taken alive, he brought out his father Luo Geng’s memorial tablet on the field before his troops, and with his own hands struck off Pan Nuo’s head, offering it in sacrifice before the tablet.

Then, true to his word, Luo Jing ordered all Jizhou Army prisoners of war marched out of Jizhou City. His own forces withdrew entirely as well, handing the city over to Tang Pidi for three days.

Within those three days, whatever Tang Pidi did inside the city, Luo Jing would neither interfere nor inquire.

In three days, Tang Pidi transported out enormous quantities of grain, supplies, and materials — already dispatching escort parties to carry them back to Yanshan base camp.

The messenger reported to Li Chi that Luo Jing wished to invite the master of the house to Jizhou for a meeting — there were important matters to discuss — and that Tang Pidi was waiting for him in Jizhou as well.

On hearing this, Li Chi wasted no time. Leaving behind eight hundred Censorate soldiers, he took only a hundred personal guards, along with Yu Jiuling and the others, and set out for Jizhou.

With this, the Emperor of Great Chu, Yang Jing’s, plans in Jizhou had utterly collapsed. Prince Wu had already marched south — there was no one left who could check Luo Jing.

—