Tie Ci quickly raised her knee to block someone’s opportunistic tiger pounce. With a half-smile, she held one hand toward Feiyu’s chin, turned it left and right to examine it, and laughed: “With just your bite strength, you can’t digest this Mount Tai stone, can you?”
Feiyu smoothly flipped down from her knee and lay beside her, crossed his legs, put his hands behind his head, and said leisurely: “Isn’t it because your fragrance spreads across the four seas, making all the wolves drool? If I don’t take a hot bite now, I’m afraid there won’t even be scraps left for me in the future.”
Tie Ci also crossed her legs. She would never sit like this in the palace, since she couldn’t bear those Eastern Palace lecturers’ nagging, but occasionally imitating Feiyu felt refreshing in body and mind.
Being wild with this person just felt different.
One crossed their left leg, the other their right leg, perfectly symmetrical. Tie Ci listened, then knocked her knee against Feiyu’s knee: “What scraps and drooling? Why don’t you talk about how you attract bees and butterflies yourself?”
“I only attract men too.” Feiyu grasped her knee and placed it properly: “Cross your legs properly—what kind of bearing is it to cross them crooked!”
Tie Ci couldn’t help laughing heartily.
She thought that no matter how confused, dissatisfied, uneasy, or conflicted she felt, she ultimately still loved his interesting soul.
Over there, Feiyu chattered on: “I knew it—that Rong Pu is full of lies, not a word worth believing. He knew your female identity from the start, right? Dan Ye knew too, right? So those two competed to move into Wu House. Hatefully, you still brushed me off, saying Rong Pu had taken a fancy to Dan Ye. I said those two didn’t match anywhere. So everyone knew except me?”
“No need for such self-deprecation.” Tie Ci said methodically: “Didn’t I fool the entire academy? Didn’t I fool all of Ziyang? If those two hadn’t known me in the capital beforehand and seen me in male disguise, they wouldn’t have recognized me either. If I may say so, I don’t dare boast about other things, but I’m definitely not weak at being a man.”
“Don’t change the subject. I’m saying Rong Pu has ill intentions toward you. He’s conspiring with those lackeys to squeeze me out.”
“So what if he is—are you afraid?”
Feiyu laughed, then said: “Are you acknowledging my husband status?”
“I’m acknowledging your universally-detested status.”
“As long as you don’t detest me.” Feiyu waved his hand dismissively, then asked seemingly casually: “What about you? Why do you keep refusing Rong Pu?”
“Without parental command or matchmaker’s word, how dare I casually unite!” Tie Ci answered righteously.
Feiyu glanced at her.
As if you and I have parental command and matchmaker’s word.
This person always had the ability to speak nonsense with a solemn expression.
“Aren’t you two well-matched in family status?”
Tie Ci glanced at him sideways.
Finally couldn’t help trying to extract information.
“Well-matched families sometimes also means political enemies.”
Feiyu smiled: “The Minister of Imperial Stud and the First Minister? Political enemies?”
Tie Ci smiled.
Feiyu naturally knew very well she couldn’t be a descendant of the Minister of Imperial Stud. So then what?
Feiyu stared at her, about to say something when suddenly the curtain was lifted and Adjutant Yu poked his head in to indicate the soldiers had assembled.
The two had to separate. Tie Ci went to explain the mission to the soldiers while Feiyu returned to his kitchen.
The lid slammed back down with a bang. Both sighed, their hearts filled with complex, indescribable feelings.
That night the main camp was filled with wails, because they heard the mess hall commander who had just taken office for a few days was leaving. Seeing the food that had just improved for a few days about to return to pre-liberation overnight, soldiers flocked to the fence separating the main camp and miscellaneous duties camp. With outstretched hands and tears streaming down their faces, they called out to the mess hall commander, offering various conditions to try to retain him, hoping he would show great mercy and return from his lost ways.
Some people even suggested that perhaps the trenches and fence walls dug overnight recently had hurt the noble mess hall commander’s self-esteem. A group of particularly greedy soldiers immediately took action, filling in the trenches overnight and tearing down one fence. When Feiyu got up in the morning and saw this, he was greatly pleased. Laughing heartily while patting the heads of the merit-seeking soldiers like dogs, he said he was only temporarily leaving the military camp due to some important major affairs, but as long as Commanding Officer Di was willing, he could still return to serve in the future.
Commanding Officer Di stood in front of the central military tent, watching the handsome mess hall commander go off to pursue his important girl-chasing business, smoking her pipe into a lonely shape.
The next day the small team set out. Adjutant Yu led the team with Tie Ci as deputy. Besides soldiers, the students included Tian Wu, Yang Yixiu, Qi Yuansi, Rong Pu, plus twin brothers Da Wu and Xiao Wu, formerly from Yi House.
Tie Ci chose these two because she discovered they had telepathic understanding and acted cautiously, which was very beneficial for reconnaissance work.
Moreover, these two seemed to have some abilities different from others, though not very obvious and still awaiting development.
In Tie Ci’s view, the academy students were her direct subordinates, so before bringing them out, she revealed the true mission and only brought them to execute tasks after confirming they were willing to earn positions through military service.
Fu Mountain was a hundred li from the main camp. The group rode horses, with only Rong Pu traveling by cart. The cart was mainly for carrying medicinal materials. This area around Bie Mountain was deep and densely forested with many herbs unavailable inland. Rong Pu purchased them from hunters and mountain people along the way. Initially he collected quite a lot, but gradually less and less, with fewer hunters to be seen.
With difficulty they encountered a mountain dweller. After purchasing some herbs from him, Tie Ci asked why, since this area was rich in medicinal herbs, the harvest here was so poor.
The hunter replied: “You military gentlemen don’t know—these herbs weren’t originally hard to pick. You just had to search carefully in the deep cliff areas. But recently, for some unknown reason, they keep getting picked first. And they don’t pick properly either. These herbs grow easily—you only need to pinch the grass tips. But those people, not knowing where these outsiders come from, wildly grab stems and all. Once they grab like this, the plants die. In the future, these silver flower herbs in this mountain will become extinct.”
Tie Ci frowned.
Rong Pu said this herb was essential for making a type of advanced wound medicine, with excellent effects for stopping bleeding, healing flesh, clearing poison, and replenishing qi. But not just anyone could make it. Who were these people harvesting it in large quantities?
The harvesting was rough—was it due to lack of technique or time constraints?
The group continued forward. The next day they reached the foot of Fu Mountain, where several small villages were located closest to Western Rong. Crossing one mountain would bring you to Western Rong’s Hanli Khan Desert. In the past, spies sent to Western Rong sometimes took this route. But unless for extremely secret missions, people generally didn’t use this method, because the Western Rong territory bordering here was relatively harsh even by Western Rong’s already poor climate standards. Most of the area was desert with little water, little food, and few people. But because it was one of the closest routes to Da Qian, many merchants chose this path to save costs when going to Western Rong. This in turn gave birth to desert bandits. Once encountered, the outcome was becoming dried corpses in the desert. So now even merchants rarely traveled this way.
The largest village at the mountain’s foot was called Luotang. According to Adjutant Yu, this village was quite substantial, mainly engaged in farming with hunting as a supplement. The village had many capable hunters and life could barely get by.
Fu Mountain had very steep terrain with loose rock layers. Previously, half a small mountain had collapsed, nearly burying civilians and opening up half the natural barrier between them and Western Rong, forcing Di Yiwei to urgently dispatch troops for repairs overnight.
Actually, there was no such thing as mountain reinforcement engineering nowadays. When somewhere collapsed, people simply moved away. Local officials had no leisure to worry about such things. Di Yiwei considered that Fu Mountain was at least a barrier between the two territories and feared mountain landslides might be caused by Western Rong troops digging tunnels, so she often paid attention to this area.
They proceeded according to normal military march. Tie Ci intentionally observed these people’s qualities. The soldiers need not be mentioned, but the academy students also performed quite well.
Especially Qi Yuansi, who had successfully obtained a quota from Di Yiwei. Throughout the journey he seemed determined to excel, walking ahead, enjoying comfort last, competing to do work.
That slippery Yang Yixiu often quietly pushed his own work onto him without anyone noticing.
Rong Pu spent most of his time in the cart, also keeping up with the day and night travel, sometimes brewing medicine to replenish his vitality without causing them trouble.
Once he also brewed a bowl of medicine for Tie Ci, but before he could bring it over, Feiyu “accidentally” knocked it over.
Rong Pu wasn’t angry either, saying lightly “Oh dear, took the wrong one, this bowl is the right one,” and handed Tie Ci another bowl.
Just, very calculating.
But Tie Ci didn’t like drinking tonic medicine for no reason. She was politely about to refuse when clever Yang Yixiu had already darted out, saying “Oh my, I’ve been weak lately, let me have it, let me have it,” taking it and gulping it down.
Rong Pu: …Why are you snatching women’s tonic medicine!
Tie Ci looked at Yang Yixiu in surprise. Wasn’t this guy always Supervisor Rong’s new follower?
When they lodged on the road that evening, she asked Yang Yixiu. Having just finished gnawing the meat bone Feiyu threw him, Yang Yixiu wiped his mouth until it gleamed and said: “In the military camp and academy I naturally have to listen to Supervisor Rong. Outside the camp, I listen to whoever’s the boss, has the hardest fists, and can cook.”
Tie Ci gave him a thumbs up.
With your slippery eel nature, even if Western Rong were iron walls, you’d drill through.
The next afternoon they reached Luotang Village. The weather was bad, overcast and oppressive overhead. The distant village had low, gray-yellow houses made of rammed earth, with some torn cloth fluttering from bamboo pole tips. No people were visible anywhere, emanating an aura of desolate bleakness.
Tie Ci was somewhat shocked. Wasn’t this village supposed to be quite lively? Where was everyone?
Far off, something was swaying in front of a house, appearing round from a distance, bumping against a dilapidated wooden door with thudding sounds.
Qi Yuansi, recently eager to take the lead in everything, said “I’ll go look” and rode off before Tie Ci could stop him.
She could only follow. Before dismounting and getting close, she heard Qi Yuansi cry out in alarm and leap backward, jumping right into her arms while tightly grasping her arm.
Looking up, Tie Ci saw a human head hanging from the door frame. The head was half-rotted, its hollow eye sockets staring emptily at visitors, repeatedly striking the door frame as the wind pushed it.
Low houses, earthen walls, broken doors, human heads, and the sallow sky about to turn dark.
The scene was ghostly.
Even more ghostly, the thudding sounds continued from all directions. Many houses had human heads hanging from door frames, courtyard gates, and under eaves.
Tie Ci could feel pain even through her arm guards where Qi Yuansi grabbed her. She looked back at him in surprise: “You’re afraid of corpses?”
Qi Yuansi’s face flushed red and he immediately released Tie Ci’s wrist.
Feiyu leisurely walked past him, circled the village for a moment, then returned saying: “Thirteen heads, should all be villagers, mostly young and strong men, all died within the same time period. The beheading was done with curved blades, very sharp and powerful, as if to establish authority.”
Adjutant Yu led a group of soldiers into the village to investigate. After a while he came out, nodded in agreement with Feiyu’s assessment, and added: “The village was looted, with clothes scattered about. Someone must have invaded, burning, killing and plundering. The village’s young and strong fought to protect the village and many were killed. The rest fled overnight with the old and young. So the village became deserted overnight. These heads were probably hung up by the invaders to establish authority.”
Tie Ci entered the nearest courtyard gate, bent down to touch the table surface in the main room, then came back out. Gazing at those heads continually striking door frames in the wind, she said: “May they rest in peace—take them all down for burial.” Then: “Academy students are responsible for finding lodging, gathering firewood and lighting fires, preparing food.”
Qi Yuansi’s face flushed red.
Though Adjutant Yu held the highest rank in this team, command authority had been personally given to Tie Ci by Di Yiwei. And during the march, Tie Ci had always treated academy students and soldiers equally, not allowing academy students to receive special care.
But at this moment, Tie Ci’s arrangement clearly assigned tasks that avoided dealing with corpses to the academy students because of him.
This made him feel worse than being scolded.
When he broke the engagement with Tie Ci initially, though it was his father’s decision, he himself hadn’t taken it seriously either. After all, puppets rarely had good endings—why should he tie himself to that?
Later at the academy, when his attempts to reconcile were rejected after being thoroughly subdued by Tie Ci, he had been quite resentful.
It wasn’t until receiving letters from classmates in the capital informing him of Tie Ci’s identity that he understood why Tie Ci had insisted he eat shit back then.
Indeed, everything he had spat out was eventually stuffed back into him by her.
He later rushed to Yongping Prefecture because he guessed Tie Ci would come here for practical training sooner or later. He trained hard in the camp, waiting for her arrival.
But he didn’t know why himself.
His heart clearly understood that reconciliation was impossible, nor did he want that.
He seemed to feel only that he was crushed under that towering mountain, struggling but unable to escape. If he couldn’t regain face and respect in front of her, he would be unworthy as a man.
But why he absolutely had to regain face and respect in front of her, he himself hadn’t figured out.
However, gaining face in front of her was truly too difficult. She was like fertile soil that grew with the wind. Even if he took great strides to leap forward, he couldn’t catch up with her transformation into vast, fertile earth.
Soldiers were digging pits. Feiyu carried one head in each hand, with things rustling and falling from the heads as he seemingly casually walked past Qi Yuansi.
Qi Yuansi found this even more unbearable.
Just from teaching archery and riding at the academy for a while, somehow he had developed a relationship with the Crown Princess. Though the Crown Princess’s daily attitude toward this person seemed no different, their occasional conversations and expressions were obviously different from with others. Anyone with eyes could see it.
How could the Crown Princess have taken a fancy to such a baffling person—a minor official’s son from Liaodong!
She might as well have chosen Rong Pu.
Losing face in front of the Crown Princess and Feiyu today made Qi Yuansi feel suffocated. But going over now to display his fearlessness would also be quite absurd. He stood there, his heart full of desolation, his mood like the dark sky at this moment.
Suddenly someone bumped his side. He turned his head to see a cup of hot tea and Rong Pu’s faintly smiling face.
“Seeing your complexion is poor, drink some tea to calm your qi.”
Qi Yuansi silently accepted it.
He held the tea while Rong Pu held hand-warming sleeves. Together they watched Feiyu bury heads while Tie Ci examined the surrounding situation.
Neither spoke for a moment.
After a long while, Qi Yuansi said: “Are you willing?”
The words came without context, but obviously Rong Pu understood. He smiled: “You sound unwilling yourself.”
“It’s not my turn to be unwilling.” Qi Yuansi nodded toward Feiyu: “I just feel like a clown.”
“Though you come from a military family, you’ve never been on a battlefield. Your grandmother fears you’ll cut your hand just touching a blade. Temporary discomfort is normal. Don’t disparage yourself.”
“Supervisor Rong, Academician Rong.” Qi Yuansi turned to stare at him: “In terms of status, talent, and compatibility, you’re the one who should be standing beside her. She repeatedly rejects you, choosing someone so inferior to you. Do you truly feel no resentment?”
“Why should I feel resentment? You only see that she didn’t immediately choose me, but don’t see that she still treats me differently from others. For such missions, bringing someone like me is inherently burdensome, yet she accepted without a word. You all must march rapidly, sleeping rough, but only I can constantly hold a cup of hot tea, sitting in a cart sheltered from wind and rain. If this isn’t her care for me, what is?”
Qi Yuansi was about to say this was only because you were part of her mission, only because taking good care of you benefited the three armies, since physicians were rare. But he heard Rong Pu continue: “I know what you want to say, but being human, it’s rare to be muddled—never think things through too clearly or coldly first. Why must I prove she treats me badly? Wouldn’t that be making life difficult for myself? If I proved these things, I’d inevitably feel resentment, and inevitably carry that resentment toward her. Wouldn’t that just push her faster into that person’s arms?”
Qi Yuansi was stunned. After a long moment, as if having an epiphany, he slowly turned to look at him.
“Brother Qi, be the person she needs, not the person who annoys her.” Rong Pu’s fingertips slowly turned the teacup as he gazed at Tie Ci striding under the darkening sky: “Take yourself—son of the Grand Commander of the Central Army, a future military commander with armed authority. You’re actually very important to her. Since romantic fate is not meant to be, at worst you can do well yourself and become someone she relies on and respects. Rather than like now, unconsciously being humble before her, unable to maintain your dignity as a man.”
Qi Yuansi was shaken and slowly clenched his fists.
After a long time he said: “Yes. I understand.”
Rong Pu smiled and turned to look at him.
All of Qi Yuansi’s tangled troubles stemmed from self-loathing after his pride was damaged. The longer one stayed in such shadowy corners, the more narrow-minded one became.
He definitely didn’t want the Grand Commander’s Office to also become an obstacle to the Crown Princess ascending the throne.
He indicated that Qi Yuansi should drink the tea before it got cold, then slowly turned back to his cart. His servant followed behind him, smiling: “Young master spoke so well. I saw Young Master Qi was quite moved. After all, who could be like young master—so magnanimous and broad-minded, with vision spanning ten thousand li?”
Rong Pu climbed into the cart with his help while lifting the curtain: “Really? But actually I’m very jealous, very angry, and really want to kill Rong Wei!”
Servant: “…”
Author’s Note
Still one update today.