Tie Ci pulled out a balloon from her backpack and blew it up. It was a large red balloon with a smiley face painted on it and “HAPPY” written in foreign script.

This was something she had pilfered from the second floor of Gui Qizhai when the assistants weren’t paying attention. Master didn’t sell these items to outsiders, and wouldn’t give them to her unless necessary.

Tie Ci climbed a tree, caught a squirrel, tied the balloon to its tail, flicked the squirrel’s little forehead, and let it go.

With the balloon tied to its tail, the squirrel couldn’t climb trees and could only run away on the ground.

Tie Ci watched the large red ball gradually run into the distance and smiled slightly.

A quarter hour later, on a tree branch southwest of Tie Ci’s position, several people lay sleeping in the trees, with faint snoring rising and falling.

Murong Yi, who was lying there hugging a pink pig, suddenly sat up, fixing his gaze on a red dot leaping through the forest.

He climbed down from the tree and chased after that red dot, quickly catching the balloon.

He untied the balloon from the squirrel’s tail, freed the squirrel, then tied the balloon to the pink pig’s little thin tail.

A pink pig with a red balloon attached ran happily through the forest, while Murong Yi followed unhurriedly behind with arms crossed, a smile playing at his lips.

The people on the tree branches curiously poked their heads out to look.

“Boss, look at our Young Master – has he ever smiled like this in his life? The corners of his mouth are almost reaching his ears.”

From the highest tree branch, someone said in a rough, hoarse voice: “What’s it to me? Hurry up and sleep. This bastard got poisoned and still runs around everywhere. When the poison acts up again in the middle of the night, this old lady will have to get up to serve him.”

Another person also rubbed his aching arms: “Really never thought our master would actually be a wife slave. He says his wife is working hard to help him find an antidote, so he must handle the logistics and provisions well. We haven’t seen a single herb yet, but we’ve been running around busy with scouting paths, hunting, making fires, and cooking. Really, such a good Young Master of Liaodong living in luxury, yet he’d rather wander around these poor mountains and evil waters.”

“You’re wrong there. Is being Young Master of Liaodong so easy? Not to mention anything else, just those documents and memorials delivered by courier from Da Wang Yi – Master Wang says every one is a trap. Step into them and you’ll either offend people or expose your hand…”

“Then just don’t step into them. Our master is so clever, what do you need to babble for? You’re annoying this old lady to death! Sleep!”

After a moment of quiet, someone muttered: “Chazi really can never get married now!”

Immediately a fruit flew down from above and hit his head: “Whether this old lady can get married is none of your business – are you this old lady’s brat?”

A round of low chuckling, then the trees returned to quiet.

Murong Yi leisurely walked his pig through the forest, admiring the balloon while driving the pig to root for insects in the dirt.

He’d been doing this work since entering the forest. Previously Feng Huan had mentioned that when the Acacia Butterfly poison from Wanmei Pavilion’s Longyue acted up, they went to find the insects that the pink pig under the green-clothed person’s bamboo building had pulled from its mouth to detoxify. All this way he’d been petting the pig, and at least the pimples on his face hadn’t continued erupting, but the pig kept refusing to look for insects. Now that they’d entered this vast forest, it was the perfect opportunity for the pig to find medicine.

But for some reason, though the pig rooted around on the ground for ages, it couldn’t dig up anything. The pig snorted and raised its head, its little eyes staring at Murong Yi, seeming puzzled why the good things that were originally abundant here had suddenly disappeared.

Murong Yi couldn’t figure it out either. The green-clothed person had fought with Tie Ci and copied all her abilities. Though he wouldn’t agree to help detoxify Murong Yi, he had let Tie Ci snatch away this pig, leaving behind the message that this pig would help him find medicine. But why couldn’t it find any?

Murong Yi frowned and turned to look in the direction where Tie Ci was.

At Tie Ci’s campsite, everyone had also set up their tents and arranged night watch duties. This forest had many monkeys that would steal things.

Chi Qingbo volunteered to keep watch for the first half of the night since he needed to brew the antidote.

Tie Ci wasn’t sleepy yet either, so she watched him prepare the medicine from the side. Chi Qingbo still had some mild toxicity remaining. He had bought herbs he needed from a stall at Pingyun Prefecture’s night market earlier, used some human-faced spider flower stamen to make a medicinal soup which he drank in one gulp, then began preparing the antidote for Xiao Xueya.

Though Chi Qingbo had been using medicine to control Xiao Xueya’s poison, because quite some time had passed, the preparation was very complex. Chi Qingbo used a small silver spoon to carefully measure the ground medicinal powder, holding his breath in concentration.

A’li Teng refused to sleep first, insisting on staying by his side, but soon nodded off drowsily. Chi Qingbo carried her into the tent, then continued making medicine at the tent entrance. He concentrated intently, but during breaks in preparation, he would frequently reach into the tent to check A’li Teng’s temperature and pull her sleeping bag properly around her.

Firelight reflected on his face, his features elegant and peaceful, his skin bearing a glaze-like soft glow.

Tie Ci sat to one side leaning against a tree, unwrapping a paper bag while listening to the serenade carried on the wind.

Xiao Xueya was awakened by an extremely penetrating smell. Opening his eyes, he saw Chi Qingbo’s busy figure, with Tie Ci holding a bowl from which steam rose. Hearing his movement, she turned back: “You’re awake?”

Xiao Xueya’s gaze fell on the bowl in her hands. Thinking of the human-faced spider flower harvesting process from before, a wave of nausea immediately surged over him.

Remembering Tie Ci’s mockery when he had previously refused the antidote, he stared at the bowl expressionlessly: “The antidote?”

Tie Ci blinked: “Do you dare drink it?”

Without another word, Xiao Xueya snatched the bowl. Once it was close, a smell ten thousand times more disgusting than that pile of nauseating mud from before immediately assaulted his nostrils. Xiao Xueya had never known such a terrifying smell existed in the world – it was probably like a dead squid from the South Yue seaside after being soaked in seawater and sun-dried for three days.

But he had already taken the bowl, and his dignity absolutely wouldn’t allow him to put it down again. Xiao Xueya held his breath and gulped down a large mouthful, his face immediately turning green.

Even more terrifying was that there were some long, soft, slippery things at the bottom of the bowl that followed the soup directly into his mouth. His mind immediately conjured many twisted snake-like objects…

Xiao Xueya abruptly put down the bowl and covered his chest.

Just as he was enduring the most difficult moment, Chi Qingbo suddenly stood up joyfully, holding a small cup in his hands: “It’s ready!” He ran toward Xiao Xueya.

Xiao Xueya had some bad suspicions forming in his mind.

“This is…”

Chi Qingbo handed him the small cup, smiling: “Mission accomplished – the antidote is ready.”

Xiao Xueya: “…”

He looked at the medicinal liquid in the cup. It wasn’t disgusting or unpleasant to look at. On the contrary, it was a cup of clear liquid, slightly pale yellow, even emitting a faint fragrance that made one completely unable to imagine what the main ingredient looked like or where it was harvested. It was practically gospel for anyone who needed to take medicine.

Provided they hadn’t drunk something so disgusting beforehand.

Xiao Xueya slowly turned his gaze toward Tie Ci.

The noble, benevolent, virtuous, and wise Crown Princess met his gaze with complete composure: “Why is the Chief Manager looking at me? Did I say what I gave you earlier was the antidote?”

Xiao Xueya: “You…”

“I treated Chief Manager with the utmost sincerity and generosity.” Tie Ci said earnestly, “I even shared my beloved luosifen with you – heaven and earth can witness my heart.”

A long-tailed macaque suddenly leaped down from the treetops, hanging upside down under the tree making faces at him.

Xiao Xueya was silent for a while, then stood up and walked out of the tent himself.

He went to the nearby woods. Tie Ci naturally wouldn’t look to see what he was doing, but Chi Qingbo was worried and watched for a while, saying: “He’s vomiting poisoned blood.”

Tie Ci chuckled.

This man didn’t even want people to see him vomiting blood.

After a while, Xiao Xueya returned. His complexion was obviously much better. He stood at the tent entrance and kicked awake Deputy General Zhu, who had been snoring like thunder from exhaustion after carrying him through mountain paths during the day.

As soon as Deputy General Zhu woke and saw him, he immediately bounced up, delighted: “Marshal! You’ve been detoxified!”

Xiao Xueya nodded lightly: “Pack up. We’re making camp elsewhere.”

Receiving such an order after waking in the middle of the night, Deputy General Zhu didn’t even question it. Without a word, he packed his bundle and crawled out of the tent.

Xiao Xueya stood straight-backed, leading him deeper into the woods.

Chi Qingbo watched his retreating figure in amazement, not understanding what this person was trying to do.

Tie Ci didn’t try to keep him either, saying lightly: “Since you’ve been detoxified, go back.”

Xiao Xueya didn’t answer either. He led Deputy General Zhu not far away before stopping at a position where he could still see Tie Ci from a distance, relit a fire, and looked like he planned to rest there.

If viewed from above the mountain forest, the positions of Tie Ci, Murong Yi, and Xiao Xueya now roughly formed a triangle.

The following days were the same. Tie Ci’s group continued deeper into the mountains. Xiao Xueya didn’t leave, nor did he approach, always camping where he could see Tie Ci from afar.

Tie Ci paid him no mind – he could stay wherever he liked.

She focused on following Chi Qingbo’s guidance to collect herbs that might cure Acacia Butterfly, as well as searching for another Acacia Butterfly plant.

However, Murong Yi was quite displeased. Since this zombie had already been detoxified, he should return to his own army. Why was he still following Tie Ci?

So one night when Xiao Xueya was sleeping in a tree, the tree suddenly fell down.

He reacted quickly, leaping up the moment the tree fell. Deputy General Zhu was less fortunate, getting pinned under the tree, though fortunately the trunk wasn’t very thick and he only suffered minor scrapes.

Xiao Xueya’s retaliation to Murong Yi came one night when Murong Yi was sleeping soundly in a tent that Tie Ci had sent via wild boar. A fire arrow suddenly pierced through the forest, precisely penetrating the tent top and burning a Gui Qizhai tent worth two thousand taels of silver.

Murong Yi retaliated in kind. One night while Xiao Xueya was sleeping, he had his guards dig a channel upstream to divert a stream’s water, flooding Xiao Xueya’s campsite. Murong Yi hung a banner from afar: “Did you wet the bed last night?”

Xiao Xueya’s response was to throw fire starters into the cave where Murong Yi was sleeping on thick straw one night, and drive a bear to block the cave entrance.

The two went back and forth endlessly, but considered this a man’s war that Tie Ci never knew about from beginning to end.

However, with Xiao Xueya following like this, she felt it was unnecessary. She had people try to persuade him and even personally went to reason with him twice, but Xiao Xueya completely ignored her. After Tie Ci returned in anger once, she simply stopped bothering with him.

She focused on searching for herbs and Acacia Butterfly, going deeper and deeper into the mountain range. From compass readings, they should have traveled a long stretch along the Qianzhou-Yannan border and were approaching Kunzhou, Yannan’s capital.

Most of the medicines that could alleviate Acacia Butterfly toxicity had been found during the following days’ trekking, but the two most crucial medicines still required finding Acacia Butterfly itself. However, after walking in the mountains for three more days, they found nothing.

When Acacia Butterfly bloomed, its unusually sweet fragrance and butterfly-like appearance attracted many butterflies dancing around it, creating a spectacle that wasn’t hard to spot. But precisely because of this, once discovered it was quickly dug up. Obviously, Acacia Butterfly had become very rare in this mountain range.

Thinking of the gossip about Prince Yannan’s mansion she’d heard that day and calculating the dates, that female heir was about to marry. Tie Ci felt somewhat anxious.

The deeper into the mountains they went, the more monkeys there were, with continuous ape calls. Tie Ci had heard that monkeys in southwestern mountains were mostly fierce and agile, so she was prepared to be harassed by monkeys and retaliate accordingly. But strangely, though she had seen many monkeys along the way, few actually bothered her.

They only appeared ahead of her, to her sides, swinging down from trees, secretly spying on her through gaps in the dense forest.

Tie Ci walked at the front through the forest. The leaves that had rotted and accumulated underfoot over the years had formed mud that stuck to her boots like taffy when she stepped in and pulled out.

She suddenly felt someone spying from behind and whirled around.

A monkey laughed strangely as it swung past on an old tree behind her, its black tail pulling the branches down heavily.

Tie Ci raised an eyebrow.

Again like this.

These monkeys really were everywhere.

She looked up at the sky. The light filtering through the leaf gaps was particularly brilliant, like large patches of lightly applied rouge. Because of this, she knew it was getting dark.

The path ahead was especially difficult, so she called for them to make camp.

As usual, Murong Yi had gone ahead to prepare at a suitable camping spot. This was a flat area atop a cliff, with a view of steep mountain peaks across a section of broken cliff.

The fire blazed, rabbits were already roasting with fat sizzling, when Dan Shuang, sitting across from Tie Ci, prepared to sprinkle salt on the roasted rabbit. She felt at her waist and said in surprise: “Where’s my salt jar?”

Chi Xue immediately felt for her own salt jar. Everyone carried small bottles of essentials in case someone lost theirs.

She couldn’t find hers either. Feng Huan and the Chi Qingbo couple also said in surprise that their salt bottles were missing.

Everyone looked at each other. Feng Huan cursed: “It must be those monkeys! They’ve been sneaking around following us all day!”

Tie Ci felt at her waist and said in surprise: “My salt jar is still here.”

Everyone laughed, saying the monkeys were indeed cunning spirits, knowing who was most formidable and not daring to provoke her.

Since everyone was sitting close by and it was inconvenient to turn around, Tie Ci stood up and handed the salt jar to Dan Shuang across the fire.

As she stood, her pouch at her waist swung over the fire. A’li Teng grabbed it to help, but the pouch had already been burned with a small hole, and something fell from the small hole into the fire.

Chi Xue, who saw this nearby, reached out to retrieve it but couldn’t catch it. When she was about to reach further, Tie Ci grabbed her: “Don’t want your hand anymore?”

Chi Xue said: “Something seemed to fall out.”

Tie Ci opened her pouch to look: “Nothing’s missing.”

Her pouch contained a packet of insect-repelling, snake-deterring medicinal herbs, plus the bone carving that the assassin in the Imperial Garden had thrown out. Both were still there.

After thinking for a while, she remembered that Tan Dunzhi had once given her a strip of cloth torn from the sleeve of an assassin who had kidnapped him. At the time she’d noticed the material was somewhat special and stuffed it in her pouch.

What had fallen into the fire should have been that item.

She had never figured out what it was for and had casually stuffed it in her pouch. Losing it now wasn’t particularly regrettable.

The bone carving in her hand seemed somehow wrong, but after carefully examining it, she couldn’t find what was wrong.

She changed to a different pouch, put the bone carving and medicinal herbs back in, and everyone either kept watch or slept while the mountain forest grew quiet again.

Tie Ci pillowed her hands behind her head and saw firelight flickering on a mountain peak to the side – that should be Murong Yi greeting her.

He was using Morse code she had taught him: “Miss you.”

Tie Ci smiled, took out her flashlight, and flashed back: “Same.”

Once they found Acacia Butterfly and figured out how to prepare the antidote, they wouldn’t have to travel the same road yet be unable to meet like this.

Shifting her gaze toward the rear side, faint firelight visible behind some rocks should belong to Xiao Xueya.

Tie Ci closed her eyes.

Xiao Xueya sat cross-legged on the ground. The firelight softened much of the icy coldness between his brows, but his eyes remained quiet and cold, silently echoing the eternal starlight of the heavens. Those eyes reflected the flickering lights between the two cliffs, flashing on and off as if in dialogue, which he didn’t want to hear.

He closed his eyes. Deputy General Zhu alertly stood guard with his blade to one side.

Recently, the harassment war with Murong Yi had escalated again. Murong Yi had somehow learned the skill of gradually controlling the very unruly monkeys in these mountains. Last night he had actually commanded a monkey to overturn his fire pile and even tried to urinate on his head.

Deputy General Zhu was very nervous about this, since this mountain was monkey territory. If that person could control more monkeys, their days would be difficult.

Deputy General Zhu didn’t understand why the Marshal should return but still followed the Crown Princess so closely. The Crown Princess was so strong that there didn’t seem to be anywhere she needed their help.

But he didn’t dare ask. Men’s thoughts were better left unguessed.

He could only keep exceptionally vigilant watch.

On the opposite cliff, several monkeys squatted beside Murong Yi wolfing down roasted chicken.

Murong Yi’s method for controlling these monkeys was simple: giving them food.

Even people couldn’t resist his cuisine, let alone monkeys.

But strangely, Murong Yi had thought that with his food, all the monkeys in the mountain should worship him as king. But in reality, no matter how he tempted them with food, only two or three monkeys were bought off. The other monkeys looked on hungrily from behind him, chattering and trying to snatch from those few monkeys, but wouldn’t approach him.

After feeding the monkeys, Murong Yi patted their heads, chattered with them, and pointed toward Xiao Xueya’s direction.

The monkeys then took their mission and whooshed away.

Xiao Xueya had already closed his eyes, and Deputy General Zhu had also fallen asleep exhausted, leaning on his blade.

Xiao Xueya suddenly felt movement beneath him. Opening his eyes, he saw several monkeys had grown bolder and were actually lifting him up.

Discovering he had opened his eyes, the monkeys didn’t flee. After baring their teeth, they swung their strong arms – the mountain slope was right beside them.

Several monkeys were actually working together to try throwing him down the slope.

Xiao Xueya grabbed the scalp of one monkey with one hand, flipped over with a whoosh, and that monkey was yanked into the air, shrieking in mid-flight before crashing to the ground with a thud in a cloud of dust. The other two monkeys tried to flee, but Xiao Xueya reached out and pulled out a long rope braided from tree bark. With a crack and a shake, the two monkeys were whipped into a tumbling pile.

Xiao Xueya flicked the bark rope, and the two monkeys were lifted up and thrown at the first monkey that had fallen. That monkey was just trying to get up when it was thunderously knocked down again by its falling companions, piled one on top of another into a thousand-layer monkey pancake.

Dust and pine needles flew from the ground, creating crater after crater with dull thuds that made Deputy General Zhu breathe a sigh of relief.

Xiao Xueya beckoned to him, signaling Deputy General Zhu to come over: “Beat them up, tie them up, make an example.”

Deputy General Zhu: …The Li Mountain monkeys were blessed to receive the same treatment as the Sea-Controlling Gang.

Deputy General Zhu wasn’t polite either, treating the monkeys like Murong Yi and venting all his recent frustrations on them. He beat them until golden light flashed and auspicious energy filled the air, with monkey wails echoing throughout the mountain. The beating made the surrounding watching monkeys flee in terror before he finally tied up the three monkeys and hung them from a pine tree.

It was a pity there was no cloth, or he would have loved to write a banner: “The fate of Murong Yi’s running dogs.”

The three monkeys swayed gently in the tree, with monkey shrieks throughout the mountain creating such cacophony that Deputy General Zhu wanted to cover his ears.

He had just put down his blade and raised his hands when he suddenly felt a cool breeze behind him. With a dull thud, everything went black before his eyes. At the same time, Xiao Xueya whirled around: “Who’s there!”

…