Was this because he had offended her, and she was taking revenge on him?

But she would have to eat here too.

Why bother?

Tie Ci led him further until his robes could no longer show any trace of their original color, then pointed ahead: “Let’s go there.”

Ahead was a large area of shacks along the river—three or two wooden poles supporting sparse dry grass, not even having doors. Broken pots sat by the bed heads, chamber pots placed beside stoves, bedding so rotten it looked like loofah pulp, shining with greasy human oil. Xiao Xueya saw a rat scurry away from a bed head.

Tie Ci acted as if she hadn’t seen anything, bending down to duck into a shack. Xiao Xueya saw an old woman sit up from among the pile of rotten bedding and stinking quilts. Tie Ci gave her a few copper coins, and the old woman got up and went out to gather firewood.

As she passed by them, she said something in a heavy accent, her tone rather solemn. Xiao Xueya couldn’t understand, so Tie Ci translated: “She says we’ll have wheat rice later.”

Xiao Xueya’s eye twitched slightly.

He didn’t know what wheat rice was. He only knew of jade-white rice, fragrant rice, wild rice, Weizhou peach blossom rice… From her tone, it seemed like a good thing?

But no matter how good the rice, eating it here…

Xiao Xueya rarely felt suffocated in his life, but now just looking at that shack made him want to vomit, let alone imagining having to eat a meal here later.

Pride kept his legs straight as pillars rooted to the ground, not allowing himself to make any motion to turn and leave.

But this wouldn’t work either, because Tie Ci called him to help chop firewood.

To get firewood, they had to cross a small river to the nearby mountains. When crossing the broken bridge over the small river, Tie Ci pointed to several broken small boats without even roofs: “Some families live right here.”

Xiao Xueya saw children sleeping inside and couldn’t help asking: “What do they do when it rains or snows? What about winter?”

Tie Ci’s answer was brutally simple: “Find somewhere to take shelter.”

Xiao Xueya looked around. Within ten li in any direction, there wasn’t a single tile to provide shelter.

Entering the forest to gather firewood, Xiao Xueya finally understood why they needed to come. There really was no firewood left on the ground to gather. The old woman had to walk very far and climb to high places to cut firewood.

Tie Ci explained that firewood could be sold for money, and there were shops in the city that specifically supplied firewood and water to the people. They had long since gathered all the easily accessible firewood, and sometimes people would even fight over good water sources and forests.

Carrying the firewood back, the old woman cooked. Nearby, a child so dirty you couldn’t make out their features kept swallowing saliva.

When the wheat rice was ready, the old woman carefully served it in broken bowls that had been washed several times at the water’s edge. Xiao Xueya looked into the bowl—among the dark yellow fine grain particles were flaky, shell-like things that didn’t look edible. But seeing Tie Ci had already begun eating without changing expression, he closed his eyes, not looking at his surroundings, and took a bite. Immediately he could neither swallow nor spit it out, feeling countless tiny objects scraping past his throat, bringing sharp, piercing pain.

Was this something for humans to eat?

“This is wheat rice, made from ground wheat mixed with hulls. But there’s very little flour in it. These skin-like things you see are wheat bran—very filling, just a bit rough on the throat. Oh, and your stomach will be rather uncomfortable too, since it’s quite coarse and hard.”

More than just rough on the throat—Xiao Xueya felt he could no longer speak.

His stomach, already not in great condition from years of forced marches and training, quickly began protesting.

Suddenly, thin crying came from inside the shack, weak as a kitten. The old woman rushed into the shelter and lifted the bedding, only then did Xiao Xueya discover there was another child inside.

The child’s face was blue and purple, clearly ill. The old woman fumbled at the head of the bed and brought out a rough yellow paper packet, poured out some gray powder from it, mixed it with hot water, and fed it to the child.

“What is that?”

“Probably medicine obtained from a spirit healer—most likely incense ash.”

“Why not go to a medical clinic to see a doctor?”

Tie Ci glanced at Xiao Xueya and said nothing.

Xiao Xueya immediately realized he had said something foolish.

He looked at that family and frowned: “Where are the able-bodied men in this household? I see there are able-bodied people in this slum area too—why don’t they go sell their labor?”

“Being able-bodied doesn’t guarantee earning money. Work wages are meager, tenant farmers give most of their grain to landlords, and the remaining grain can’t last through winter. When floods, droughts, or insect disasters hit, they have to flee famine. Even in relatively good years, there are various corvée duties, miscellaneous services, and taxes, not to mention the layer upon layer of exploitation by local officials to meet the court’s various additional levies and demands.” Tie Ci said, “For example, the birthday tribute that the Empress Dowager previously demanded from various regions in the Emperor’s name. Or these past two years, to build ships for the Nanyue navy, the court increased taxes in several southern provinces. Under circumstances where land rent and commercial taxes were already unbearable, localities had no choice but to create new tax categories ingeniously—some places set water taxes where you pay tax for drinking water; some places set unmarried women taxes where older unmarried women must pay tax; and in remote prefectures like here in Qianzhou and Xizhou, there are birth taxes when you’re born, wedding taxes when you marry, coffin taxes when you die, tree-planting taxes when you plant trees, livestock taxes for raising chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs, theater taxes for watching plays, prostitute taxes for prostitutes, monk taxes for monks…”

Xiao Xueya froze.

He stood numbly in the wind, suddenly becoming an ice and snow statue.

Tie Ci’s voice, though calm, rang beside his ear like a curse, like thunderclaps.

“The money collected was mostly transferred by the Second Assistant to Nanyue, fully supporting your shipbuilding, allowing you to build countless of the most advanced warships in just over a year and rapidly expand the Nanyue navy. Then, these ships built with the people’s blood and sweat were used by you to fight mere water pirates, using linked ships and mother-child ships as if they cost nothing, ramming one after another.”

Xiao Xueya still said nothing.

His face was like wearing a mask, without even the slightest expression. His eyes turned extremely slowly around the surroundings, sweeping over the low shacks, muddy roads, broken pottery, grimy oily bedding, tattered clothes and sallow faces, the sick child drinking incense ash.

Countless high-masted white sails and gleaming lacquered warships flashed through his mind.

Then those high-masted white sails and gleaming lacquered warships burst into raging flames the next instant, perishing together with enemy ships.

Tie Ci gazed at his expression.

Xiao Xueya was born too high—his eyes were destined never to look down upon the world.

He was single-minded, seeing only armies and wars in his eyes, not knowing that armies were like blades that should mostly be held across the chest to deter invaders.

He also didn’t know how much the country’s people behind him had to pay and bear to forge a sharp blade.

What she wanted was a general who kept the people in his heart and defended strategic passes, not a warmongering weapon with wild ambitions.

She wouldn’t give up trying because he was from the Xiao family, just as she believed Xiao Xueya wouldn’t give up opening his eyes to see the world because he was from the Xiao family.

She put down the wheat rice and walked out of the south city with unsteady steps, found a medical clinic where many poor people sought treatment, paid money, and asked the doctor there to treat that family’s child.

She explained to Xiao Xueya that the reason she didn’t give money directly to the old woman was that the slum had complex residents, and once a powerless old person had money, it might actually bring danger.

She also told Xiao Xueya that such places existed in every city. Every time the court raised taxes or when floods, droughts occurred, there would be more such slums.

Xiao Xueya never spoke throughout.

After seeing the slums, Tie Ci took Xiao Xueya to stroll through the most prosperous Kaiping marketplace in the city. Walking in there was like entering another world. Everything familiar that Xiao Xueya normally encountered returned—tall wine towers, clean streets, delicacies and intoxicating songs and dances in the wine towers. Tie Ci sat across from him, red lacquered chopsticks touching snow-white porcelain plates and dishes, and laughed: “Behind vermillion gates, wine and meat reek, while on the roads lie frozen bones.”

Xiao Xueya listened calmly and put down his chopsticks after just a few bites.

He had no mind to continue touring, but on the way back, Tie Ci deliberately took a detour through the marketplace. Xiao Xueya thought she wanted to buy some locally popular jewelry, rouge, or clothing. After all, the clothing styles here differed from the Central Plains—colorful and quite charming. The jewelry was mainly silver, crafted with complex beauty, essential accessories for every young woman.

But Tie Ci completely ignored those bright and gorgeous things, instead buying many local specialty foods and small trinkets.

The owner of a nearby clothing shop, seeing the two were from out of town and both good-looking, smiled and called out to attract customers: “Won’t you two buy some local clothing? We have the Spring Pouring Festival here—the perfect time for young men to dance and court young ladies. If you have someone you fancy, buy a colorful skirt!”

Xiao Xueya found this unpleasant to hear: “Young men dancing to court women? You’ve got it backwards, haven’t you?”

Turning around, he saw Tie Ci suddenly smile, her eyes warm and soft, and couldn’t help being startled.

Why was she suddenly so happy?

The shopkeeper laughed: “We Baiyi people have always held our daughters in highest regard. Delicate flowers that families carefully raise—if you can take one home with just a dance, that’s already a bargain for you! My wife was also brought home by me with one dance back then.” He then demonstrated a few dance moves.

Xiao Xueya’s eye twitched—watching a middle-aged man dance was truly hard on the eyes.

Tie Ci seemed genuinely interested and actually entered the shop to pick and choose. Seeing the men’s clothing she chose was obviously not for herself—much too large—Xiao Xueya subtly glanced at himself.

Tie Ci also selected a set of women’s clothing. She came out of the shop holding the colorful garments, compared them against him, and asked with a smile: “Do they look good?”

Xiao Xueya stared at the colorful skirt and men’s clothing, frowned after a long moment: “Even if you are… don’t even think about making me wear such clothes!”

Dancing was even more out of the question!

Tie Ci said in surprise: “Where did your mind go? I just thought your build was about right to help me compare sizes.”

Xiao Xueya: “…”

After a long moment, he turned and walked away.

Before leaving, his gaze lingered on a set of snow-silver hair ornaments, but ultimately he stepped away, walking faster and faster.

Tie Ci raised an eyebrow and caught up, wondering if people who appeared colder on the surface had wilder imaginations.

After the two left, a tall man in a bamboo hat strolled over and began touring the marketplace. Unlike Tie Ci and Xiao Xueya, he toured the marketplace with the appetite of a tiger, looking at everything, wanting everything, yet as picky as the princess in “The Princess and the Pea”—this won’t do, that’s terrible.

In the end, everyone stopped doing business and placed their finest goods before him, letting him pick and choose as he pleased.

Finally, the man in the bamboo hat finished sweeping through the entire marketplace, specifically bought a new cart to drag everything back. The merchants watched his retreating figure with reluctance, nearly waving little handkerchiefs and saying “Please come again, master.”

The man in the bamboo hat drove frantically, asked for shortcuts, and ultimately returned to the ship even before Tie Ci. He tossed aside his bamboo hat and carried his things back to his cabin.

He had just settled down when Tie Ci returned. She distributed some of the snacks she’d bought to Dan Shuang and the others, then had the rest moved to her own cabin.

Tie Ci knocked on the cabin wall. The small window opened, and Murong Yi lay lazily across from her with his hands behind his head, looking like he’d been lying there all day, bored out of his mind.

If you didn’t observe his dust-covered boots.

Tie Ci used a bamboo pole like teasing a cat, hung a bag of snacks on it and sent it over: “Try the candied osmanthus sunflower seeds from here.”

Murong Yi took it and hung a bag on the pole, smiling: “Give and take.”

When the pole was withdrawn, there was a bag of mountain fruit preserves on it.

Though wrapped in ordinary paper, you could tell at a glance it came from the local marketplace. Tie Ci didn’t expose this, eating the preserves while hanging up the men’s clothing: “Bought you a set of clothes.”

Murong Yi took it and smiled: “The local clothing is quite bright.”

Tie Ci then told him the legend. Murong Yi said: “I dare to ask—do you dare to answer?”

Tie Ci smiled: “I dare to answer—do you dare to drag me to the bridal chamber?”

Murong Yi deflated and flopped down spread-eagle.

Tie Ci said leisurely from her side: “Ah, I forgot to buy women’s clothing. If I had women’s clothing, I would have worn it for you to see.”

Murong Yi suddenly sat up.

She didn’t buy any? But he had!

Just as he was about to rummage through his pile, he looked back and saw Tie Ci chuckling, immediately realizing he’d been exposed.

He didn’t blush: “I just went out for some fresh air.”

Tie Ci: “Mm, just happened to be coincidentally on the same route as me.”

“You could detect me from that distance? Your martial arts have improved again.” Murong Yi readily confessed.

“Not really. Recently I’ve been following Rong Pu’s advice and haven’t been diligently practicing martial arts.” Tie Ci said, “But I could guess. Yi, you’re somewhat insecure emotionally—don’t be like this in the future.”

She didn’t mind whether her lover was jealous for her sake, nor did she think so-called possessiveness was a manifestation of deep love. She didn’t need these things to satisfy her vanity and sense of existence. She only hoped he would emerge from the fragments of the past, confident and trusting her, with a gradually broadening heart and clear vision.

Murong Yi looked somewhat dazed. He said: “What did you call me?”

Tie Ci smiled: “Yi.”

Her voice was soft at the end, slightly drawn out, echoing in the dimly lit cabin with lingering tenderness.

And Murong Yi looked at her through the small window—a beauty under lamplight, half her face hidden in dim shadows, half her face warm and luminous, a faint smile spreading from the corners of her lips. She looked like a jade statue holding flowers and bestowing sweet dew.

A statue enshrined in the shrine of his heart, daily receiving the incense of his devotion, eternal and undying.

Murong Yi slowly closed his eyes.

Since childhood, he had felt his fate was surely ominous, his name recorded in hell’s ledger before birth. Otherwise, why would his father despise him, his mother be heartless, his brothers and sisters all trample on him, and his only loving grandfather leave early?

Only today did he understand that perhaps all the previous misfortune was just to accumulate good luck for meeting her later.

He smiled, not knowing that in Tie Ci’s eyes across the window, he also looked like an immortal lord descending through clouds, wearing rainbow robes and star-moon crown, beautiful and transcendent, luminously radiant.

He said: “Call me that again.”

Tie Ci smiled without speaking.

He said: “Or you could change the address—like ‘husband’ or something.”

Tie Ci yawned: “It’s getting dark, time to sleep.”

The implication: stop daydreaming.

It wasn’t affectation, but Murong Yi was always prone to taking advantage when given an inch, so he absolutely couldn’t be spoiled.

Murong Yi had always known Tie Ci was someone who, having studied imperial arts for so long, liked to maintain balance in everything. He wasn’t surprised. Anyway, this call of “Yi” was enough for him to savor for many days and reminisce for a long time. Currently satisfied, he prepared to sleep, but heard Tie Ci say: “Look.”

Murong Yi turned back and saw Tie Ci wearing a delicate silver crown commonly used by local young women, smiling at him from behind the curtain of silver beads hanging from her forehead.

The silver beads sparkled, light dancing, yet couldn’t suppress the radiance between her brows and eyes. His heart immediately began racing.

What he saw of her daily was mostly her hair bound in men’s style, a jade hairpin securing her long hair—neat and heroically beautiful—but he’d never seen such a maiden’s flower crown, bright and charming.

Such beauty belonged only to young women in their prime, with peach-blossom freshness between their brows and eyes—both pure and alluring.

He felt heat in his heart and swelling in his eyes, cursing Tan Xiuyue who had given him the Love Butterfly poison for the ten-thousandth time, wishing he could jump into the water right now and drown that wretch.

“Shiba,” he said, “this crown is ultimately too common and unworthy of you. I will crown you with the most beautiful phoenix crown in this world.”

Tie Ci smiled: “Good.”

The two smiled at each other.

Outside the cabin door, Xiao Xueya, who had been making routine patrols on Tie Ci’s ship and seemed to pass by Tie Ci’s cabin door by chance, paused slightly.

Then silently, along the gangplank, he returned to his own ship.

Between the two ships, a long plank was laid. He walked along the plank toward the large ship. A bright moon rose behind the high sails. He walked upward, his tall figure seemingly about to walk straight into the moonlight.

…