Sleeping in the kitchen with the warm stove fire and thick straw spread on the ground was more comfortable than the crude bed boards at the relay station, but A-Fu still woke up.

Startled awake by a nightmare.

It couldn’t be called a nightmare, after all, it was everything she had personally experienced.

She reached up to touch her neck, which burned with pain. She could even feel the marks from the strangling—poisoning her with toxic wine wasn’t enough; because they thought she was dying too slowly, they had strangled her with a white silk cord.

The agony of her death seemed to have been reborn with her.

A-Fu breathed lightly as she got up. Because the room was warm, A-Le wasn’t pressed against her for warmth and hadn’t been awakened by her movement. She continued to sleep soundly.

A-Le hadn’t experienced such exhausting travel for many years.

As her maid, A-Le had practically been raised like a young lady herself. Whatever Chu Zhao had, she had too.

A-Fu looked at the frostbite on the girl’s face and covered her with the thick blanket the old station manager had given them. She put on her cotton coat and quietly walked outside.

The two courier soldiers on duty were leaning against the doorway, talking in low voices.

“A-Fu, you’re up early again?” they said. “We’re staying here an extra day and not traveling. You should sleep more.”

A-Fu shook her head at them. “I can’t sleep anymore. Let my sister rest longer. Brothers, let me fetch some water. Where should I go?”

These two girls had been traveling with them, voluntarily taking responsibility for boiling water and cooking meals along the way, but it was mostly the older sister who did the work. It was obvious that the younger sister was somewhat pampered.

But the younger sister cared for her older sister. The two couriers smiled and pointed out the location to her.

A-Fu picked up the wooden bucket and went.

The mountain stream gurgled, rising in layers of white mist and cold air.

A-Fu sat on a rock, putting the bucket aside. She gently stirred the stream water with her hand, feeling the bone-chilling cold that reminded her everything happening now was real.

She had truly come back to life, back to a time when her loved ones were still around, before she had met that person.

She could see her father again.

Thinking of her father, A-Fu couldn’t hold back her tears. When she was little, she had found her father annoying. After going to the capital, she had even harbored resentment toward him because of others’ gossip.

Especially after hearing her aunt say that originally, her grandmother had wanted to raise her, but her father had refused. Otherwise, she would have been an elegant, beautiful noble young lady in the capital, just like her cousin.

At that time, she had thought hatefully that she would never return to the border commandery.

Indeed, she never went back and never saw her father again.

Only after losing did she know regret. Especially in the final few years, she had dreamed of the border commandery almost every night, dreamed of her father.

Now finally—

A-Fu covered her face with her hands and cried, “Father—”

“Why are you crying for your father, and not your mother?” a male voice asked curiously.

A-Fu stood up in fright. Only then did she notice that at some point, another person had appeared by the stream. He had his clothes hanging open, and in the morning light, his tall figure was covered with a jade-like hue—it was the youth, A-Jiu.

“You, you,” she stammered, her breath unsteady.

“Me, me, what about me?” A-Jiu said coldly. “This stream doesn’t belong to you. If you can come here to cry, why can’t I?”

A-Fu swallowed her words, and her emotions settled. Fortunately, she hadn’t said anything else earlier. Otherwise—

She lowered her eyes and picked up the bucket. “I’ve filled my water. You can… cry here.”

A-Jiu laughed. Though she hid it well, this little girl still couldn’t help showing her claws occasionally.

All that docile, quiet, honest, pitiful, and fragile behavior was just a facade. This little girl was tough—not skilled at horseback riding, yet she gritted her teeth and persevered. She was truly hard on herself.

People who are hard on themselves are inevitably hard on others as well.

“Stop,” he extended his arm, blocking her path. “You haven’t answered me yet. Why do you cry for your father, not your mother?”

The question sounded like unreasonable pestering, but A-Fu knew clearly that this youth had been suspicious and didn’t trust her or her so-called mother.

“I did cry for my mother,” she bit her lower lip. “You came late and didn’t hear. I finished crying for my mother before crying for my father. If my father had been at home, my mother wouldn’t be in her current state.”

A-Jiu smiled. “That’s quite an explanation. You’ve turned it from being your problem into being my problem.”

A-Fu lowered her eyes. “Military, sir, may I go now? I want to fetch more water while my sister is still asleep, to share her burden.”

A-Jiu shook out his clothes, put his hands on his hips, and moved aside.

A-Fu carried the wooden bucket with both hands, staggering as she stepped on the stones of the riverbed.

“Little girl,” A-Jiu said with a half-smile as they passed each other, “that’s not your sister. She’s your maid.”

A-Fu’s steps faltered slightly. She looked at the youth, about to say something, but her gaze fell on his open clothes, the faintly visible chest, and the tied waistband of his pants.

Her gaze lingered, not because she saw a man’s chest—that was nothing to her—but because a letter was tucked into his waistband.

The morning light was dim, but she could see the characters on the envelope.

“For Chu Li’s eyes only.”

Chu Li?!

“What are you looking at!” A-Jiu shouted, covering his chest with his clothes.

A-Fu was embarrassed and angry. “You… you’re the shameless one!” With that, she hurried away with the bucket, spilling half the water.

Back at the relay station, her heart was still pounding.

Of course, not because she had seen the youth’s chest.

A-Le was already awake and about to look for her. Seeing her unusual expression, she anxiously asked, “What happened?”

The two courier soldiers in the courtyard also looked over.

A-Fu lowered her head and said, “Nothing. I just ran into Military Sir A-Jiu.”

A-Le was indignant, and the two couriers understood as well. With A-Jiu’s temperament, he must have been rude to the girl again.

“I’ll go fetch water,” A-Le took the bucket from her. “You go in and tend the fire.”

…

…

A-Le made several trips back and forth, filling all the water urns at the relay station. When she entered the kitchen, she saw A-Fu sitting by the stove, where the fire that had been burning earlier was now extinguished.

“Little… little sister,” she asked nervously, “Are you all right? What did that A-Jiu do to you?”

A-Fu came back to her senses and smiled at her. “He didn’t do anything to me. He’s just suspicious of us, but don’t worry about it.”

A-Le breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t think that revealing their identities would cause any problems. If they mentioned the General’s name, these courier soldiers would certainly show them respect, and that A-Jiu would surely stop his sarcastic attitude.

But the young lady had been concealing her identity since leaving the capital, and A-Le didn’t know why.

Since the young lady wanted it this way, she certainly wouldn’t object, though she felt the young lady was suffering too much. As she thought about this, she nimbly rekindled the extinguished fire.

“The station manager has some honey. I’ll make you some sweet porridge in a while,” she said cheerfully.

But A-Fu seemed distracted and asked, “What is A-Jiu doing?”

A-Le was stunned. The young lady was asking about A-Jiu?

“I didn’t see him at the stream,” she said. “I heard Military Sir Zhang say that A-Jiu always likes to wander around, either chasing rabbits or catching pheasants. He’s probably in the forest causing trouble.”

A-Fu responded with a thoughtful “Oh,” then looked at A-Le. “A-Le, do you think you could take something from him?”