Shu Shenhui awakened when she reached out toward his face, drawing close.

It was as if through some subtle intuition.

Her movements were actually extremely gentle and slow, but just as she approached, about to touch his face, he sensed it and suddenly woke up.

Before tonight, he felt he had reached the extreme of exhaustion. A mere shower of rain could cause his body to burn with fever. It was probably due to fatigue that, for the first time, he developed an aversion to paperwork. The endless memorials and case files – take some away, and new ones would come. Every day, they piled up like mountains, as if there would never be an end. He knew something was wrong with him. Based on experience, no matter how tired he was, as long as he slept, he would wake refreshed and able to focus on work again. He needed a good night’s sleep. But the good sleep he needed was slow to come. Several times when he lay down in extreme fatigue, he would have chaotic dreams, and upon waking, not only would his fatigue not be relieved, but he would feel even more weary. He felt deeply irritable and restless. Tonight, when Li Xiangchun summoned the imperial physician to treat his fever, he had the physician add several medicinal ingredients to aid sleep and calm the mind to the prescription.

The prescription must have worked, for when he woke, he felt as though it had been a long time since he had slept so satisfyingly as he had tonight.

For him, the bed was merely a place to rest, nothing more. If it had been any other day, upon waking, he would have risen and thrown himself back into his paperwork.

But this morning was different. On this bed that had accompanied his countless late-night rising and sleeping figures, lay another person.

Actually, at the beginning of last night, he felt he hadn’t particularly anticipated her coming to see him. It was just that those around him were habitually meddlesome, making a fuss over nothing, and presumptuous in their actions. But after Zhang Bao left, he began to feel restless. Thinking that she might come, he couldn’t help but secretly resent why he hadn’t managed to fall more seriously ill. This half-hearted state, where he could still sit behind his desk, seemed insufficient reason for her to visit him in his illness, so he moved to the bed to avoid having her think he was feigning illness to deceive her. When she arrived, the first thing she did was forcibly take away the memorial in his hands, and in front of his servants, she exposed the thoughts he couldn’t let people know about. It was the first time anyone had treated him this way. His face habitually showed the displeasure of being offended, yet at that moment, he couldn’t deceive himself. He felt that his mood, which had been low and irritable for many days, suddenly improved. He felt very pleased. He didn’t know what was wrong with him, that he would like her to treat him this way. It was at that moment that he made up his mind – no matter what means he had to use, tonight he would keep her to sleep with him. He hoped she would sleep with him. To achieve this goal, he even instinctively employed those methods that made him feel ashamed when he thought about them afterward, but she was quite receptive to them. Since she was receptive, what did shame matter? He finally got his heart’s desire.

When he was awakened by her hand reaching toward him, his instinct told him that she, beside his pillow, should also be gazing at him. He didn’t know why she was acting so unusually, but he felt deeply pleased again by this action of hers.

Could it be that she had finally discovered that he was quite good-looking? In this world, it wasn’t only monks who had fine appearances.

He felt all his energy had returned, and it seemed more abundant than ever before. At this moment, even at this fourth watch of early morning, his limbs and bones, every inch of his sinews, even the tips of his hair, seemed to surge with a powerful force. That force became even more vigorous because of her gaze and proximity, like a hidden dragon’s roar, wanting to break free from restraint.

At first, he continued to feign sleep, not daring to open his eyes, afraid of startling her. He secretly began to anticipate her hand touching his face. He would certainly pretend to know nothing, letting her caress however she wished, for as long as she wanted. However, for some reason, though her hand had drawn near, she hesitated to let it fall, and just at the instant it lightly touched his face, she drew it back.

Almost as an instinctive reaction, he raised his hand and caught it.

It was enough, more than enough. Her gesture of wanting to touch him gave him immense encouragement and confidence. What did all those various resolutions he had made earlier to keep his distance from her matter? What did his promise last night, when he kept her, saying he only wanted to sleep together with no other intentions, matter either – actually, it wasn’t deception. At that time, the resolution he made and the words he spoke were indeed what he truly thought in his heart at that moment. It was just that circumstances changed. How could he have known then that the general who killed without batting an eye would be confused by his appearance and reach out wanting to touch his face?

Shu Shenhui finally brought her back to this inner chamber located deep within the Wenlin Pavilion of the imperial palace.

A moment before, her body had already gone soft, and her arms had encircled his neck. He received a submission from her. This was already another extremely exciting and stimulating new experience for him. When he further thought that he had originally married her for the Great Wei, tonight, as if by some strange coincidence, in this place – the actual source of Wei Dynasty’s government orders, and also the place where he had originally decided on his marriage proposal plan – he had unexpectedly received her submission and response.

Was this perhaps a portent that he would achieve his heart’s desires? His marriage to her was a choice destined by heaven from the very beginning. When he still didn’t know where she was or who she was, this woman named Jiang Hanyuan was already his destined person.

He became even more excited and stimulated by this almost absurd thought that suddenly emerged in his mind.

Since it was heaven’s destiny, then what remained was simply for him, in his purest capacity as a man, to conquer this female general, to conquer her completely, so that she would no longer be a general, but would become his woman. He absolutely could not, as in the previous few occasions, suffer defeat after defeat before her, completely routed. Although she had never shown the slightest dissatisfaction on her face, how could a general possibly respect a defeated opponent, let alone one who was repeatedly defeated?

At the ugly hour of early morning, in the pitch-black imperial palace, with layers of palace shadows, a cat that hid in corners of the imperial garden during the day shot like an arrow from under a corner of the southern pavilion’s corridor eaves of Wenlin Pavilion, making a low and deep strange sound.

Li Xiangchun was getting old, and the Regent Prince no longer had him keep night watch. Tonight, however, the old eunuch personally stood guard outside the southern pavilion. He had been leaning back with his eyes closed and head lowered, motionless. After the cat darted past, he slowly opened his eyes and tapped Zhang Bao and another young attendant who were dozing nearby. The two woke with a start, bleary-eyed.

“It seems a cat just darted past from the front pavilion. You go take a look. If it’s still there, chase it away, then go back to your quarters to sleep. I’ll keep watch here.”

Zhang Bao and his companion were delighted to hear this, secretly thanking the palace cat that had intruded. They went to the place the old eunuch mentioned, looked around, found nothing, yawned, and each went to sleep.

The old eunuch sent people to look for the cat, then leaned back by himself again, closing his eyes as if in meditation, until just before the end of the yin hour, when that faint, barely perceptible disturbance from deep within the pavilion slowly subsided, like ripples disappearing under the night sky.

Finally, he believed his performance was sufficient to wash away past shame and please her. And indeed, at the very end, he too was exhausted and could hold on no longer.

By this time, the bit of remaining candle in the inner chamber had long since been extinguished. He was unable to personally witness her expression and demeanor at that final moment, which was somewhat regrettable. However, this regret was compensated for in another way.

In the darkness, he felt her body beneath him seemed to become a bow pulled taut to the extreme. One of her arms tightly embraced his neck, the other encircled his broad back, pressing his entire body down onto her. The force of her embrace around his neck and back almost made it difficult for him to breathe, yet he felt extremely exhilarated, wishing she could entangle him even more tightly, entangle him to death upon her body – he would be willing.

His ears caught the extremely suppressed yet infinitely gentle sounds emerging from her throat. The sounds reminded him of the wet, intertwined gossamer rain threads floating in the deep, secluded alleys of Chang’an City on spring nights with soft breezes. Thinking that tonight he was the one who had drawn taut this precious bow of hers, his regret at not being able to personally witness her gentle expression was suddenly greatly compensated.

Both were covered in perspiration. After their intertwined bodies finally separated, she lay quietly on the pillow. He, too, was extremely tired and too lazy to move. After the drumming heartbeat and panting in his chest gradually calmed down, he pulled out a garment that had been pressed under his leg – he couldn’t tell whether it had been taken off from him or her – and wiped the sweat from her body, then carelessly wiped himself. Looking at the sky outside the window, it seemed he could still restore some energy with the remaining time before dawn. He drew her into his arms, holding her, closed his eyes, and soon fell asleep.

He was quite fond of this daughter of the Jiang family whom he had married.

Before falling asleep from extreme fatigue, he thought hazily in his heart.

When he woke again from this sleep, the sky outside the window was already bright.

However, there was still sufficient time. There was no court session today, and the spring competition would only begin in the fourth quarter of the chen hour.

As he was between sleeping and waking, thinking in his heart, his hand unconsciously reached toward his side, but touched nothing, and he became completely awake. He opened his eyes and saw that she had already risen.

Her clothes from last night had probably all gotten dirty. She was now only wearing one of his undergarments, which was somewhat long for her, with the hem reaching to her ankles. The morning light was still dim. She was leaning by a slightly opened window, looking out through the window gap as if concentrating on something outside.

He got off the bed, casually wrapped a garment around his lower abdomen, then went behind her, closed the window, and embraced her waist from behind.

“What is there to see outside?”

“Once awake, I got up.” She turned around, smiling at him. “The sky is already bright. If I return to the residence to change clothes now, I’m afraid there won’t be enough time. Eunuch Li has already sent someone to the prince’s residence to fetch the clothes we need to wear today. They should be delivered soon.”

Shu Shenhui was somewhat absent-minded. These trivial matters would naturally be properly handled by Li Xiangchun without requiring his attention.

In the dim morning light, borrowing the faint illumination, he examined her once and considerately asked if she was tired. She shook her head. He lifted her in one motion, pressed her back onto the bed, and joked, “Last night I was indeed somewhat tired. The clothes haven’t been delivered yet, so why doesn’t the princess consort sleep with me a while longer!”

Jiang Hanyuan casually pushed him away with one hand, turned over, and sat up, readjusting her garment.

He was pushed so that he rolled several times on the bed. On the last roll, he nearly fell off the edge of the bed. He extended an arm, braced against the bed frame, and stopped his momentum. Before he had even steadied himself, he seemed to find amusement in this, let out a low laugh, then nimbly flipped over and rose, with a quick reversal, pressed her down on the bed again.

“How heartless indeed! How is it that just after last night passed, you turn your face and refuse to acknowledge me?”

The partition door was knocked upon, and Li Xiangchun’s voice came through, saying that Zhuang Shi had arrived with their clothes.

He heard this and, with what seemed like slight annoyance, shook his head, but didn’t continue to pester her. After another glance at the sky, he quickly released her and also got off the bed himself. He put away his previous playful expression and said, “Indeed, we should get ready. If we delay further, we’ll be late.”

Jiang Hanyuan completely immersed herself in the basin filled with steaming hot water. Her body bore some obvious marks left by him from last night. Not wanting Zhuang Shi to see them, she cleaned her body herself before coming out to dress. On the other side, Shu Shenhui was also getting ready.

After they finished dressing, he once again assumed his usual dignified and solemn appearance. No one could imagine what sort of wild affair had taken place in this Wenlin Pavilion last night.

By this time, the sky had fully brightened, and from the imperial grand training ground located in the northwest of the imperial palace came the rumbling sound of war drums.

The six armies’ spring competition commenced.