Tie Ci cracked open a lamb leg bone, used a small knife to dig out a strip of roasted marrow and offered it over: “Would the commanding officer like to try?”

Di Yiwei glanced at it and simply opened her mouth to receive it.

Tie Ci’s knife point was aimed directly at her mouth—one thrust forward would pierce her throat.

She seemed completely unaware of the danger in this action.

Tie Ci also acted as if she hadn’t noticed, smiling as she withdrew the knife.

Di Yiwei sucked and chewed the marrow with a slurp, sighing: “Finally got to eat some.”

In that instant, Tie Ci noticed her face paled slightly.

Tie Ci dug out another strip of marrow and offered it over. This time Di Yiwei waved her hand.

Tie Ci’s offering of marrow was just to buy time—she hadn’t decided whether to directly tell her “Come on, be my subordinate.”

She couldn’t quite see through Di Yiwei.

She didn’t love her soldiers like sons and even used cutthroat methods to train them, but she never took empty pay or claimed soldiers’ achievements, being clear in rewards and punishments.

She wasn’t particularly warm toward civilians either, never yielding when provoked, but the entire Yongping region lived in peace and prosperity because of her.

She put the nation first, the army first, not caring whether personal interests were sacrificed. Anyone’s.

Such a person wouldn’t worship the whole ruler-minister hierarchy.

Actively revealing her identity might not gain loyalty, and if needed, this commanding officer might even use her, the Crown Princess.

After all, Guard Commander Yu’s example was right there. Di Yiwei had deceived him with promotion promises to willingly go undercover infiltrating the navy, but hadn’t told him Ghost Island had three bosses. He was completely waiting for a slim chance and might wait until death.

Not to mention his position had been suppressed to begin with.

In Commanding Officer Di’s eyes, everyone was a little lamb, and the Crown Princess was the biggest one.

Tie Ci didn’t mind serving the nation, but sacrifice was out of the question.

Moreover, Di Yiwei’s attitude was actually refusal. Guard Commander Yu had clearly said she acted rigorously and would inquire about causes and effects, but Di Yiwei didn’t ask at all. Not asking meant not wanting to touch upon it.

She smiled: “What I want is just for the commanding officer to have this bite of mine. But it seems the commanding officer doesn’t quite like it?”

Di Yiwei said: “I thought you wanted me to stay away from your sweetheart.”

Tie Ci laughed.

“If he truly were my sweetheart, and you could steal him away just by looking, then he wouldn’t deserve to be called my sweetheart.”

“You’re very confident.” Di Yiwei tapped her with the pipe: “But don’t worry, I’ll just look.”

Tie Ci thought the next line should be “I won’t go in,” right?

“Can you see flowers from looking?”

“If I can’t eat, a sniff is still good.” Di Yiwei said: “I will never marry in this life. Though I don’t mind, in the depths of night when dreams return, occasionally I feel rather uncomfortable, yet I can’t really pick up beans at midnight.”

Picking up beans was a folk legend. When a young widow was dying, someone asked how she had endured a lifetime of guarding an empty room alone. She pulled out a bag of beans.

When the nights were hard to bear, she would scatter beans on the ground and grope to pick them up one by one. Thus, a night would pass.

Di Yiwei’s slightly sad witticism carried hints of probing. Tie Ci very naturally asked: “The commanding officer is in her prime with countless admirers. Why say such things? Is it truly ‘How can we speak of family when the Xiongnu are not yet defeated?'”

“What conflict is there between getting married, rolling around in bed, and fighting wars? Having someone to roll around with to release anger would give you more energy for fighting.” Di Yiwei disagreed.

She suddenly clutched her chest and bent over, retching. People in the distance looked this way and were about to rush over, but Di Yiwei waved her hand.

Tie Ci handed over her water flask and handkerchief without asking questions.

Di Yiwei slowly drank water and sighed: “Actually, I can’t eat mutton.”

“I could tell.”

“When I first came to Yongping, there was only mutton to eat here. Other meat was frighteningly expensive. When I ate it, vomiting was a minor issue—I’d break out in hives all over my body.”

“I forced myself to eat pork for a few days, but the supply couldn’t keep up. So I ate mutton. Eating it over and over, wouldn’t I get used to it? Later, a traveling doctor gave me a prescription to add to the mutton. Though I still wanted to vomit, at least the hives were much better. But the mutton soup tasted particularly awful because of it. After eating it for several days, I was dissatisfied—why should I have to eat such disgusting stuff? Naturally, I had to make everyone eat it with me.”

Only now did Tie Ci understand why the mutton soup on her first day had reached such heights of awfulness.

Di Yiwei was also a ruthless person. How difficult those early days of adapting to mutton must have been.

“Was it congenital?”

“I encountered family misfortune in childhood and drove two little sheep to the capital to seek refuge with my distant aunt. Those sheep I had raised from small—they were very intelligent, would find fruit for me to eat, would warm me on both sides when it was cold, and once dragged me awake from a fire to save my life. I went to the capital with them to find my aunt, thinking from then on I could properly care for them until they died of old age, and they wouldn’t have to work so hard finding food for me anymore. But on my first day back from martial practice, my aunt rewarded me with mutton soup. All the maids in the courtyard were drinking soup, and some complained about the strong smell and dumped it in the latrine.”

She paused: “That was my sheep. Da Niu, Er Niu.”

“Didn’t Madam Rong know they were your sheep?”

“She knew.”

Tie Ci fell silent.

She had met this Madam Rong and had her understanding refreshed again today.

So Di Yiwei’s inability to eat mutton was psychosomatic allergy. Eating mutton was, in some ways, even more cruel to her than physiological allergy.

“If it were merely not eating mutton, that wouldn’t seem to prevent the commanding officer from considering marriage.”

“That’s naturally due to more reasons.” Di Yiwei smoked with narrowed eyes, her light brown irises hazy yet deep in the curling smoke.

“The Rong family cultivated the commanding officer, Madam Rong hurt the commanding officer. Between gratitude and resentment, what does the commanding officer plan?”

“Gratitude?” Di Yiwei said in surprise: “What gratitude? I’ve long since paid back every copper of twelve years’ room, board, and money! Not giving them a single extra coin!”

She didn’t answer about the resentment, but Tie Ci understood.

Tonight had unexpected gains—the surprise was that Di Yiwei was actually willing to open her heart to her.

However, on second thought, Tie Ci suspected Di Yiwei didn’t care about tearing open her scars for others to see, thereby gaining others’ pity and relaxed vigilance.

Once people’s hearts softened, their defenses easily crumbled.

Di Yiwei suddenly said: “Recently, seeing the tense situation around us, we sent out several batches of scouts, but none have returned until now. Moreover, our operatives left in Western Rong and Liaodong have also had no news recently.”

Tie Ci’s nerves tensed.

Those sent out to scout enemy movements like this were generally high-level scouts operating very secretly. If they all met with trouble, it often meant there were traitors within the army.

“So we might want to send some fresh faces out unexpectedly.” Di Yiwei said: “I read the memorial you gave me that day. But have you considered that sometimes opportunities might not be opportunities—they might be traps?”

Tie Ci was startled.

Western Rong was currently in chaos, Liaodong border troops were stirring restlessly. This could be internal problems in Liaodong, or it could be a trap set up by Qiu Wujiu and Liang Shiyi working together.

Qiu Wujiu wanted to seize the throne, Liang Shiyi wanted to help his brother-in-law rise to power, but both feared that after chaos began, the covetous Yongping army would take advantage of the fire.

So Tie Ci’s calculation that the Liang family army would rebel wasn’t wrong, but the opposing side might be working together to set a trap, luring the Yongping army in, then jointly crushing them. After dividing up the Yongping army, they would have no worries behind them and could support each other, causing trouble within Western Rong and Liaodong territories.

If this were truly the case, they needed to first scout the situation clearly.

“Dare you take on such a mission?” Di Yiwei tapped her with the pipe: “You can choose anyone from the army. Liaodong or Western Rong—pick one of these two places. No matter which one you get solid intelligence from, it will be enormously useful for our army’s next plans. If you complete it successfully, I can promise you one request.”

“Any request?”

“You could even want to be commanding officer, as long as you’re qualified.”

Tie Ci thought silently: No, I want you to be my commanding officer only.

“Deal.”

“Which do you choose?”

“Western Rong.”

Di Yiwei nodded: “Then I’ll first give you a surface mission. This autumn has been very rainy, and several villages near the Western Rong border might encounter landslides. We send people every year to reinforce the mountainsides to prevent collapse that would not only bury villages but possibly create passages for the Western Rong side. This time you’ll lead the team, with Adjutant Yu leading you.”

Tie Ci agreed. Following Di Yiwei back to the camp tent, after quite a while the tent flap lifted and Tie Ci was firmly and irritably gestured out. She wasn’t angry either, going back to organize her roster.

From the academy students, she picked several with good comprehensive qualities who were also clever—Yang Yixiu was among them.

When selecting people, she thought of Tong Rushi and Li Zhi. After she exposed their identities, those two had left Dongming and apparently had no plans to participate in practical training. Tie Ci had already told Rong Pu that when he returned, he should expel these two from the academy for refusing practical training without reason.

Regardless of their identities or intentions at the academy, they should just be kicked out.

If they couldn’t be kicked out, then she’d see just how much influence they really had.

After some hesitation, she also selected Tian Wu.

Fat Tiger had told her that though the Tian family was large and prosperous, family members were limited by natural talent with few entering officialdom. An innocent man’s possession of a treasure was his crime—without backing, wealthy families faced constraints everywhere. So his father had gone to great effort to send him to the academy, hoping he could earn some merit.

But Fat Tiger’s natural talent was truly limited, making it difficult for him to have good prospects in studying. However, his physical condition was good. If possible, earning military merit would benefit him whether he later sought civilian positions or transferred to military service.

When the headmaster had entrusted her with the students’ practical training, she secretly suspected this was a test of her.

After all, how to cultivate and arrange subordinates was also a subject of study.

Moreover, with her status, if she truly took on this whole bundle of affairs, the Xiao family would definitely obstruct her when they learned of it.

Fortune and misfortune were interdependent—sometimes pies were too hot and would burn you.

So she remained guarded, choosing to let students draw lots themselves. This way, the students’ practical training appeared to have little connection to her.

But she had rigged it—those selected for Yongping were all candidates she had evaluated at the academy.

The army and battlefield were good places to test human nature and quickly bring people closer together.

She quickly finalized the roster, then went to the camp to select people. The soldiers were all happy to deal with her and very enthusiastic. In the noisy commotion, everyone learned that Ye Ci had gained the commanding officer’s regard and was sent on village relief.

The selected soldiers plus academy students totaled thirty—this was the small team size sent out in previous years. But this wasn’t the final team Tie Ci would take to Western Rong, since the number was too large and further screening would be needed while executing ordinary missions.

Tie Ci reported to Adjutant Yu and was preparing to call together the selected soldiers to assign tasks when Qi Yuansi came looking for her.

The spring breeze for ten li was not at all spring-breezy as he sat in front of her with his head down. The arrogant energy from their first meeting was long gone, replaced by much gloominess. He said sullenly: “Why isn’t my name on the list?”

Tie Ci smiled: “Sir, you are the only son of the Grand Commander of the Central Army and weren’t originally on the practical training list. Coming for practical training is already serving the court—how could I dare further trouble you with dangerous missions?”

This was indeed her true thinking. This mission itself was dangerous, and noble young masters like Qi Yuansi and Rong Pu had no need to participate. If something happened, she couldn’t explain to the First Minister and Grand Commander.

But when Qi Yuansi heard this, he looked up again with red-rimmed eyes, startling Tie Ci.

He stared at Tie Ci and said angrily: “You’re just holding a grudge that I once broke our engagement!”

Tie Ci: …What’s this about!

Before she could react, Qi Yuansi angrily continued: “So you deliberately distance yourself from me in everything, bullying me!”

Tie Ci: …What’s this about now?

You’re male, I’m female, our friendship is ordinary, we’ve never been close—where does distancing come from?

As for bullying you, I did bully you at the academy when you opposed me, but later I didn’t make you eat shit either.

Pretty merciful, really.

She looked at this fuming person in front of her, whose expression was greatly aggrieved, but she couldn’t figure out what he had to be aggrieved about despite thinking left and right.

Tie Ci took a breath and decided not to argue with this heartless, unreasonable, troublemaking little fool.

She smiled: “Student Qi, you’re overthinking. I’ve never taken the engagement matter to heart—after all, many people have broken engagements with me. How could I remember them all?”

This would have been fine if she hadn’t said it, but once she did, Qi Yuansi was like a smoldering woodpile suddenly doused with oil. He shot up and said: “In that case, I’ll petition the commanding officer!” Then he turned and left.

Leaving Tie Ci gazing wearily at the sky.

One after another, little white flowers swaying.

She was clearly the victim here, wasn’t she?

She shook her head, spread out the map and roster, not wanting to deal with these twittering birds.

I don’t understand you men’s thoughts.

The light and shadow at the door darkened. She thought a service soldier had entered and didn’t pay attention.

A clean white teacup was gently placed above the map. The hand holding the cup was whiter than that snowy porcelain.

Tie Ci didn’t move, thinking: I don’t see, I don’t see, I don’t see. You go out, you go out, you go out.

I don’t want to face you little white flowers right now.

However, Rong Cha-cha either didn’t receive or didn’t want to receive her brain waves. That hand pushed the teacup forward, and Rong Pu’s voice was gentle: “Drink it while it’s hot.”

Tie Ci sighed inwardly.

She remembered her master saying that green tea personalities generally had very strong psychological fortitude.

Master truly didn’t deceive me.

Take Rong Pu, for example—he never forced anything, rarely made direct confessions, choosing water-wearing-away-stone conquest, all-pervasive encirclement, soundless penetration. This left her unable to handle him, with no grounds even to refuse.

Saying one more word would seem like she was being presumptuous.

She clearly seized every opportunity to sternly tell him they had no fate, comprehensively distancing herself in words and actions, but he could treat it like wind past his ears—unharmed, uncowed, calm and composed—not giving her any chance to push him out of the circle.

If this wasn’t strength, what was?

Tie Ci respectfully admitted defeat, took the tea, raised it like a wine cup toward him, drained it in one gulp, set down the cup and said: “If you’re here to ask why your name isn’t on the list, then I toast you with tea instead of wine. Thank you for being understanding and reasonable, not making a fuss over quotas.”

Rong Pu smiled.

“Your Highness has blocked all avenues—what should I say?”

“Then don’t say anything.” Tie Ci smiled and offered tea to see the guest out.

But Rong Pu said: “Was it tasty? Want more? Let me pour you another cup.” As he spoke, he produced a purple clay teapot from behind like magic and actually refilled Tie Ci’s cup.

Tie Ci: …I refuse to believe you don’t understand the tea-offering guest-dismissing custom.

Under her forcing gaze, Rong Pu calmly poured himself a cup too, unhurriedly took a sip, then said: “This subject naturally dares not burden Your Highness. I won’t mention the roster matter. However, I just received a mission to go to Fu Mountain to collect some local medicinal herbs for making highly effective wound medicine for the Scorpion Camp. Commanding Officer Di ordered me to accompany Your Highness’s team. My safety will be in Your Highness’s care afterward.”

Tie Ci chuckled.

Of course.

Fu Mountain has good medicine—why didn’t you mention this before?

Really can’t be bothered with your tea-tea scheming.

Since Di Yiwei had given the order, she had nothing more to say. She smiled and raised her cup, palm gesturing toward the tent opening.

Please be on your way.

Rong Pu left with a smile.

Though politely driven away by the Crown Princess, at least he had won.

As soon as he left, Tie Ci had just turned a page of the map when she saw another long shadow fall across it.

Then she smelled the aroma.

The most irresistible thing about this beauty was his food.

After all, the best way to a Crown Princess’s heart was through her stomach.

The tent flap lifted and Feiyu entered carrying a plate of fried twisted dough sticks, still sizzling from fresh frying.

As mentioned before, Di Yiwei was a magical person. Though her demands were high, military discipline wasn’t strict. Apart from not allowing the kidnapping of good families, rape of women, killing in the army, or robbing civilian wealth—discoveries of which meant death—as long as your ability caught her eye, her tolerance was outrageous. This was why Feiyu could openly give Tie Ci special treatment daily, eating whatever she wanted whenever she wanted, not giving the commanding officer any if he chose not to.

The twisted dough was kneaded extremely fine, not much thicker than hair strands, fried golden and crispy, sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds, melting in the mouth, incomparably fragrant and crispy.

The two sat opposite each other eating twisted dough, each chewing loudly. Having drunk Rong Pu’s tea earlier, Tie Ci had felt somewhat heartburn, but eating this rich and palatable snack made her feel comfortable all over.

Born in the palace, she was particular in her conduct, but following her master for years, she had also been influenced by her master’s casual ways, containing some practical and simple essence within her nobility.

Like this food—she knew at one sip that the tea Rong Pu brought was top-grade Dan Mountain Snow Buds, priced by the gram, the thousand-gold-per-ounce kind.

Sweet, mellow, wonderful, with lingering elegant aftertaste.

But what she preferred was this peasant food of twisted dough.

Chewing the twisted dough, Tie Ci thought this was also one reason why Feiyu had never connected her with the Crown Princess—partly because he hadn’t seriously considered it, partly because she was too different from the rumored Crown Princess.

Thanks to the Xiao family’s years of propaganda, in many people’s minds, the Crown Princess was wasteful, arrogant, extravagant, and unlearned.

Definitely not a woman who would sit opposite Feiyu in coarse cloth robes crunching twisted dough.

The more one understood the “Crown Princess,” the less she matched “Ye Ci.”

However, if he truly thought seriously about it, her identity couldn’t be hidden much longer.

Tie Ci’s current attitude was to let fate take its course. Not telling was just holding onto one breath.

Who was more honest than whom anyway?

Across from her, Feiyu took out a handkerchief, pulled over her greasy hands, and carefully wiped her fingertips clean.

Tie Ci looked down at her fingers wrapped in his slender, clean fingers. Ten fingers connected to the heart—could she feel the heartbeat when they touched?

After cleaning her hands, Feiyu casually threw the dirty handkerchief into the precious purple clay cup Rong Pu had brought.

Tie Ci: …Your vengeful methods are quite tea-like too.

Though Feiyu was in the miscellaneous duties camp, his information channels were very well-informed. Tie Ci didn’t need to hide anything and said directly: “You’re not here about that roster too, are you?”

“Of course not.” Feiyu looked surprised: “I’m in charge of the kitchen, not regular army. Don’t drag me into such tough assignments.”

Tie Ci breathed a sigh of relief but also felt somewhat resentful. She lowered her head to look at the map.

But she heard Feiyu say: “So I resigned from regular army.”

Tie Ci: “???”

Feiyu leaned forward, gazing into her eyes with a smile: “So Captain Ye, does your team need an all-purpose cook who knows culinary arts, martial arts, and seduction?”

Tie Ci met his gaze, her mouth curving up as she pinched his face: “Not all-purpose enough. Can you act cute?”

Having spent time with her, Feiyu had gradually become familiar with her strange words. He turned his head along with her fingertips, blinked, put both hands by his ears like paws, and said: “Awu, like this?”

Tie Ci couldn’t help laughing: “Oh my, where did this tom cat come from?”

Feiyu swept his elbow resting on the small table, pushing the small table between them aside, and with an “Awu” sound pounced down: “Then let me eat you first!”