“How poor is Prince Ding’an…” she murmured.

“Not really. The princes’ regular allowances are all the same, and not low at all.”

Tie Ci suddenly remembered that back at the academy, Rong Pu had also mentioned that Eighteenth Prince, how that fellow had used her betrothal gifts to show off in a Versailles-like manner, talking to himself about how she was infatuated with him. She had almost couldn’t help spitting and laughed coldly: “Good riddance!”

Rong Pu nodded with satisfaction.

Good riddance indeed.

Tie Ci thought for a moment, feeling both annoyed and somewhat puzzled.

She couldn’t help but feel that since the Eighteenth Prince was so LOW, and Prince Ding’an had so many sons with no reputation for favoring this one, how could he be willing to pay such a price for this youngest little idiot?

If it were before, in such a situation, she would have been interested in sending people to investigate, but now that the marriage was dissolved, there was no need to waste energy on an irrelevant person.

With the marriage dissolved, she felt refreshed and clear-headed. At a glance, she saw Feiyu also leaning against the fence in the distance, looking even more refreshed than her.

No idea what he was so happy about.

She was just about to ask “Where’s my breakfast?” when she saw Feiyu clap his hands and shout loudly: “Today the whole camp eats dumplings! My treat!”

Now the soldiers were all excited, cheering in unison. Someone shouted loudly: “Boss Rong, what’s the good news? Tell the brothers so we can be happy too!”

Feiyu glanced at Tie Ci, who looked up at the sky.

“Nothing, nothing,” Feiyu said modestly. “It’s just that my future wife, after falling in love with me at first sight, withstood enormous pressure from her family, endured various punishments and tears from her parents, insisted on breaking off her originally well-matched engagement, and after a year of arduous struggle, today she finally succeeded!”

Tie Ci: “…”

Your imagination skills really deserve a career writing romance novels in brothels.

Everyone: …Such a long and complex sentence structure.

Anyway, cheering was the right thing to do.

For the dumplings.

After announcing this major news, Feiyu rushed off to get busy with the dumpling filling for the main camp. Tie Ci smiled, and after eating breakfast, went to the training ground.

The training ground was already full of people drawing numbers. Seeing her arrive, their eyes blazed as they hurriedly lined up.

Tie Ci stepped forward, and the soldier who drew number one came up.

Rong Pu sat down at the sidelines, watching the swift movements over there. Though he hadn’t learned martial arts, he had good judgment and could see that Tie Ci could knock down that soldier within three moves.

But she used thirty moves.

After exactly thirty moves, she grabbed and threw her opponent, landing him on his rear. In the dust kicked up on the training ground, her voice was clear and calm: “Your boxing technique is solid and your strength extraordinary, but your temperament is somewhat rash. Your lower body foundation isn’t sufficient, so in close combat when seizing opportunities, others can easily spot your weaknesses. Remember not to be hasty in combat, use fewer turning steps, and if possible, develop toward cavalry…”

That soldier was thoroughly convinced, nodding repeatedly. The second in line had already impatiently pulled him away and stepped up himself.

This time it was still thirty moves. After thirty moves, Tie Ci kicked him far away with one leg: “That move you just used blocked me, but didn’t it also block yourself? Your strength and lower body foundation are both good, but your techniques are obviously not proficient enough, lacking adaptability when facing enemies…”

The soldiers on the field listened like sunflowers turning toward the sun.

From the first day Tie Ci appeared on the training ground, it was always thirty moves to determine victory, not one more, not one less. At first everyone thought it was coincidence, then they discovered it and thought she was showing off. But every time Tie Ci won, she would point out her opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and suggest ways to improve. Only later did everyone realize that her skill was sufficient for her to easily defeat opponents, yet she would rather waste her own energy to guide everyone.

After being guided, each person gained a clear understanding of their martial abilities, sometimes even learning a move or technique to make up for their shortcomings. From then on, the training ground was packed daily. Not just ordinary soldiers, but military officers and soldiers from other camps would come to watch and queue up.

Tie Ci only fought twenty matches daily, limited to low-ranking officers at squad level and above. This forced many people to start looking forward to battles, hoping for promotion opportunities.

On the battlefield, one more skill meant one more chance to live.

Tie Ci wasn’t cooking different dishes based on rank, but military leaders at this level had usually fought their way up from the bottom with fists and kicks. They were the strongest and youngest, and these people also served as important links for communication up and down on the battlefield. Improving their martial quality and keeping them alive would correspondingly improve the survival rate of entire units.

High-ranking generals rarely went to battle personally, while bottom-level soldiers lacked sufficient quality. Her choice showed painstaking consideration.

People flowed by like water, everyone leaving the field with expressions of conviction and contemplation. Tie Ci always stood smiling in the center of the field. No matter how many matches she fought, she remained calm and composed, like a clear breeze and bright moon.

Rong Pu sat outside the field, helping her record and organize these opponents’ basic situations, military qualities, and personal deficiencies. Occasionally he would look up, gazing at her with warm, mellow eyes.

The Crown Princess had natural leadership qualities, broad and magnanimous, with her heart in the world.

She made those around her naturally put away their narrow-minded petty thoughts and cleanse themselves under her gaze.

Oh no, there was one exception.

That mouse dropping that spoiled the whole pot of soup, that rotten wood that couldn’t be carved.

His gaze turned backward. In front of the rotten wood were mountains of pheasant meat, rabbit meat, fish, and deer meat, with mess hall soldiers sweating profusely under his direction.

For one broken engagement, all the wild beasts on Bie Mountain suffered.

There were cheers over there. Feiyu was personally rolling dumpling wrappers, the rolling pin creating almost phantom images in his palms.

Rong Pu stared at him and smiled sympathetically.

…

By evening, everyone indeed ate thin-skinned, generously-filled dumplings.

The camp had been training diligently these past few days, and Di Yiwei had gained new profits from the navy, so she was quite generous and bought many sheep.

But her generosity was limited, because mutton was cheapest locally.

The dumpling filling was mainly mutton, with some fish and pheasant fillings too. Cooked in big steaming pots, the soldiers nearly threw themselves into the soup pots.

The big pot dumplings weren’t sorted by type, so those who got fish or chicken filling were greatly delighted, carrying their bowls around the field to show off, like eating lucky dumplings with coins during New Year.

But after going around once, the fish dumplings had been stolen.

Tie Ci as usual got special treatment. Feiyu sat on the fence and waved at her. Everyone burst into strange laughter. Tie Ci thought of a term her master had mentioned: “chuunibyou teenager.”

The “chuunibyou teenagers'” laughter couldn’t shake the Crown Princess’s resolve. Tie Ci walked over gracefully, and Feiyu presented her with a bowl of dumplings.

These were specially made for her. The dumplings inside were shaped like ingots, crescents, little fish, purses… In addition to white, the colors included jade green, vermillion red, pale yellow… A bowl of dumplings was made to feel like artwork.

Tie Ci shook her head and smiled: “This is practically forcing me not to eat them.”

“You can have as many as you like.” Feiyu picked up a dumpling to feed her: “Ah.”

“Ahwu.” Tie Ci made a sound but ignored him, taking the bowl to eat herself.

Feiyu put that dumpling in his own mouth, looking at her with dancing eyes: “Eat quickly, see if you can get a lucky dumpling.”

“Eating such dumplings is already good luck… eh, what’s this?”

She spit out a small round ball. Looking carefully, it was actually a water chestnut, peeled perfectly round, hidden in the meat filling like a pearl, soaked in meat juices. She could faintly make out tiny characters on it. Tie Ci read: “Flower.”

One character without beginning or end. She looked up at Feiyu, who raised his chin, indicating she should continue eating.

She ate another one—nothing.

Continuing to eat, this time there was another one that she almost bit through. After careful examination, it was the character “Return.”

The next character was “Path.”

Tie Ci vaguely understood what was happening, but she wouldn’t be affected and stop eating. She methodically ate them one by one, with water chestnuts rolling into a pile on the plate in front of her.

She gently moved them with her chopsticks until the characters carved on the water chestnut pearls could be read coherently.

“When will the flowers on the path return?”

You canceled your engagement, so the flowers on the path in my eyes all bloomed. When will you be willing to walk into my heart?

Love has always moved people to poetry.

A hand gently gathered her hair scattered on her shoulders. Feiyu’s voice sounded softly in her ear, that tone that made one’s whole body tingle.

“Now, you can finally answer me, can’t you?”

Tie Ci’s chopsticks stopped.

For an instant, she had many things she wanted to say, many things she wanted to ask.

But at this moment, someone suddenly appeared, saying greedily: “Ah, hiding here eating something delicious! Share a bite with your starving brothers!” As he spoke, he grabbed the plate and poured all the water chestnut rounds into his mouth with a clatter.

Tie Ci looked—Yang Yixiu.

Clever Yixiu finished eating, wiped his mouth, didn’t even look at Feiyu, grabbed Tie Ci and ran: “The brothers have eaten their fill and are practicing boxing, waiting for you to guide them…” He pulled Tie Ci away at lightning speed, running off with a patter patter patter.

Tie Ci only had time to give Feiyu a comforting gesture.

Feiyu sat on the fence, staring at Tie Ci’s retreating figure as she was pulled away, his eyebrows slowly rising.

He suddenly turned his head to look in another direction. Rong Pu was walking by calmly and unperturbed, as if it had nothing to do with him.

Feiyu smiled, jumped down from the fence, and in a few steps blocked his path.

Rong Pu looked up, smiling calmly as he regarded him.

Feiyu was also smiling, slowly rolling up his sleeves while tilting his head to look at him.

This action should have looked somewhat childish and innocent, but under the pale moonlight, his distinct black and white eyes looked over with such a smile that it made one feel inexplicably cold all over.

Whether Rong Pu felt cold or not was unclear—he was wrapped in a cloak and looked back calmly.

He heard Feiyu ask him with a smile: “Supervisor Rong, I have always been unclear about one matter and would like to ask for your guidance.”

…

Yang Yixiu dragged Tie Ci to the sparring area, pushed her into the field, then jumped away himself.

He hurried away, touching his back, which was covered in cold sweat.

He couldn’t help sighing.

Earlier, when Rong Wei looked over… there was killing intent!

Wuwuwu, it was too frightening!

Next time, no matter what, he wouldn’t risk snatching Ci from the tiger’s mouth just to please Supervisor Rong!

…

Tie Ci didn’t mind having the atmosphere disrupted by others. She also felt this question didn’t yet have the proper foundation for an answer.

She sparred a few rounds in the field, giving guidance to several people. Then the kitchen sent her roasted lamb bones as a midnight snack. She grabbed one in each hand, thinking of going to find Feiyu to comfort him.

There was movement behind her. Turning around, she saw Di Yiwei.

Di Yiwei hadn’t participated in tonight’s dumpling feast, having been in the main camp tent calling together mid-level and above officers for a meeting, only now coming out.

She was always very busy and didn’t participate in the soldiers’ running and training. Tie Ci rarely saw her, but the commanding officer was also one of the recent anecdotal protagonists with a strong presence.

Because whenever Feiyu cooked, she would definitely watch, even though she couldn’t eat a single bite of that food.

She watched Feiyu’s movements, watched Feiyu’s hands, her gaze infatuated, as if she wanted to devour him the next moment.

Someone had asked if the commanding officer had taken a fancy to the mess hall commander. Di Yiwei’s response was to blow a mouthful of smoke in his face.

People didn’t dare pry into the commanding officer’s romantic affairs, since this situation looked rather dangerous, developing toward a love triangle with Di Yiwei as the unsavory third party.

However, Tie Ci suspected it was a love quadrangle, since Deputy Commander Lou always followed closely behind Di Yiwei. Although Di Yiwei, like her, disguised herself as a man convincingly, a shadow who never left her side should know the truth.

Di Yiwei looked at Feiyu, he looked at Di Yiwei, Feiyu looked at Tie Ci, Tie Ci looked at Di Yiwei.

Such a bizarre and melodramatic relationship.

If her eldest senior brother, who loved romance novels, knew about this, he would definitely have great writing inspiration. He could combine popular elements like BL, loyal dogs, love quadrangles, forceful seizure, domineering generals, gourmet food… starting at a million words.

If he went deeper, with pregnancy escape or nine babies in one birth, he couldn’t contain it in six million words, since nine children could fill a chapter just by each saying one line.

Tie Ci fantasized for a moment and smacked her lips regretfully.

Di Yiwei had no idea her mind was full of such things. She walked up slowly and stood shoulder to shoulder with her, looking at the cold moon and distant mountains ahead.

She habitually tapped her pipe before saying: “Today I received a military report from the navy side. They’ve investigated the matter at Ghost Island that day and learned that our luck was quite good. Otherwise, if we had encountered those masters taking action, we would have had to lurk for several more months at least, and Adjutant Yu might have had to play spy until he died of old age.”

If Tie Ci hadn’t disrupted the plan that day, it should have been Gui Haisheng and Xuan Qiong working together with the Ghost Island people to completely plunder that ocean merchant ship. If the plundering had succeeded, the navy waiting nearby for coordination and sharing the spoils wouldn’t have needed to show themselves. Naturally, there wouldn’t have been the later incident of the navy’s ship rashly appearing after the Three Saints died, allowing Guard Commander Yu to use Tie Ci’s advantage to capture the entire navy ship.

To wait for such an opportunity would have been truly indefinitely long.

But Di Yiwei didn’t mention Tie Ci’s contribution, only attributed it to good luck. Tie Ci didn’t take offense and smiled: “Indeed good luck. Haven’t congratulated Guard Commander Yu on his promotion to Adjutant Yu yet.”

Di Yiwei paused, then continued: “Afterward I received a letter from the capital, learning that they had originally planned to replace me as general, but now it’s been shelved, supposedly related to the Ghost Island affair.”

Tie Ci smiled: “Is that so? Then congratulations to the commanding officer.”

Only then did Di Yiwei glance at her, taking another drag and saying in her low, smoky voice: “Don’t you feel displeased? Although we didn’t get to the bottom of some things in our questioning at Ghost Island, it’s obvious that Gui Haisheng and his wife died because of your interference. Only afterward was the Ghost Island matter resolved, the merchant ship saved, and the Yongping Navy captured by me. Such military achievements preserved my position as commanding officer. With such great merit, why have you never mentioned it to me from beginning to end?”

“Because someone like you doesn’t easily trust others; because the greater the merit, the more self-promotion makes people suspicious; because for rewards, it’s always inferior to ask for them yourself—only when others feel embarrassed will they give more generously.”

Di Yiwei was silent for a while, then cheerfully tapped her pipe: “I didn’t expect that at such a young age, you would be so worldly-wise.”

Tie Ci smiled without speaking.

Human nature was the most profound thing.

The firelight from Di Yiwei’s pipe flickered bright and dim in the gradually deepening dusk: “So tell me, what do you want?”

Author’s Note

One update today.