The carriage rolled to the city gate, where a large group of soldiers silently surged up. Leading them was still Liu Chen. Ever since experiencing Lou Xi’s betrayal from the Yongping army, Liu Chen had been very cautious and steady. With the elite forces left by Di Yiwei and the original city defense soldiers, he had not relaxed his vigilance and withstood the first wave of fierce attacks when the Shengdu camp planned a night raid.

He held ropes in his hand, nodded to Xiao Wenliu, and gestured with his chin to have all the female family members tied up.

The Xiao family women turned pale and dared not struggle. Some were crying, some were murmuring curses, when suddenly a woman screamed, kicked the soldier who came to bind her, and ran.

It was precisely the daughter of the Shengdu camp commander.

Her mother rushed forward, embracing the soldier who was about to give chase, screaming: “Run quickly, Niūniū!”

Liu Chen sneered coldly. A gust of cold wind passed, and he was already behind the young lady. Without hesitation, he kicked out. The young lady screamed and tumbled more than ten feet in the snow. Liu Chen went over, grabbed her hair and pulled her up, delivering a resounding slap without any pity.

The sound was loud, silencing the young lady’s screams and intimidating all the women who might have had foolish ideas about moving.

Liu Chen turned around, looking at the group of women, saying coldly: “Remember, your status is prisoners. What you need to do next is cry and beg, letting the people below the city see clearly the fate of betraying Da Qian. Anyone who wants to escape, I don’t mind killing someone next to establish authority. Anyone who doesn’t cry miserably enough, I’ll help her cry more painfully.”

With that, he threw the young lady heavily onto the snow, and indeed her wailing became more tragic.

Beneath the city gate, there was deathly silence—no more crying or cursing.

The group of women were obediently tied up and led by ropes up to the city tower.

Xiao Wenliu walked at the back. Liu Chen wanted to stop her, but seeing her expression, he kept his mouth shut.

A wave of attacks from below the city had just ceased. The city walls and battlements were stained with blood, some corners had been damaged by catapults, arrows were scattered everywhere. On the city top, dust-covered soldiers moved back and forth—some sharpening knives, some moving stones and oil barrels, more bandaging wounds and resting on the ground. The ground was covered with scorch marks and bloodstains, sticky and moist underfoot.

These noble ladies were used to entering magnificent halls and walking in palaces, their shoes stepping on carpets or golden bricks. When had they ever seen such scenes or walked such bloody paths? They all trembled, not daring to move forward. Many were dragged there by soldiers.

After attacking from below, calculating the heavy losses on the city walls, they were trying to persuade the city to surrender.

The Shengdu camp commander pressed his thick eyebrows over bloodshot eyes, using a telescope to look at the towering city gate across the moat, saying: “It’s getting dark. Later, while persuading surrender, secretly send people into the water to see if they can find sewers from the river bottom.”

His deputy commander said: “The other side won’t lower their guard. Attacking by both land and water routes will cost us dearly.”

“Because we must fight quickly and decisively. If we wait for the city to deal with our fifty thousand men, and the palace also resolves the Xiao family scattered soldiers and Dayan people, joining forces…”

“Even joining forces, we might not lack victory. Numbers are still in our favor, and now Liaodong, Longyou, and Dayan are simultaneously attacking the borders. The generals of the nine frontiers have no time to come to the rescue. The nearest is the Zhongzhou Guard, but with heavy snow everywhere recently, roads are difficult. Even if they receive orders in time, it would take at least three or four days to arrive… With this time, we have enough room to maneuver…”

“That may be so, but…” The Shengdu camp commander suddenly paused.

Then his expression changed.

“Damn it!”

He had clearly told his wife and only daughter to hide well and arranged household guards to protect them. How could they be mixed up with the Xiao family and pressed onto the city wall!

Thinking again, he knew this must be because the Xiao family didn’t trust him. They had probably bribed his household guards and brought out his wife and daughter during the chaos, but failed to protect them properly, resulting in them being tied up on the city tower.

Liu Chen had the women line up on the city wall, pressing knife backs against their heads, making them see clearly the height of the city wall, frightening them into whimpering and crying.

He leaned out and shouted loudly: “Commander Tao! Are you rested? Please come appreciate the fate of our Da Qian’s criminals. Let me introduce them—this is Xiao Liàng’s old mother, this is his wife, these are his sisters-in-law, these are his nieces and granddaughters… Oh, I almost forgot, here are also your wife and your precious daughter.”

He deliberately pulled forward Miss Tao, whose face was bruised and swollen. Below, Commander Tao saw his daughter, whose face was almost unrecognizable, his expression turning iron-blue.

Behind him, the Shengdu camp erupted in commotion.

A considerable portion of the Shengdu camp’s officers had family members in the city—this was one of the state’s usual methods of controlling armies. Normally, the camp wouldn’t dare rebel easily, but this time, because multiple families acted simultaneously with the Xiao family creating internal chaos, the Xiao family repeatedly guaranteed they would coordinate from inside and outside, creating simultaneous disturbances within and without the city. Shengdu could be taken in half a day. By then, the Shengdu palace would be in chaos, officials detained, armies leaderless, everyone too busy to organize effective counterattacks, and no possibility of arresting their family members, so they could rest assured.

Even if someone thought to detain their families first, with people opening the city gates, they would have enough time to enter the city and protect their families.

After going through the entire plan, the Shengdu camp’s leadership also felt that in such circumstances, with internal and external pressure, Shengdu couldn’t possibly hold. Wealth and power move hearts, so they agreed to gamble for a prosperous future.

Who knew the situation would develop completely contrary to expectations.

The city gates closed earlier than expected, only one-third of the people entered the city, and this one-third now seemed trapped, likely without opportunity to transfer and protect their families.

Although there were many people on the city walls, the resistance was fierce and determined, completely lacking the imagined panic and confusion.

The Xiao family apparently hadn’t been able to stir up trouble in the inner city, and now even their own family’s women were pressed onto the city walls.

This also indicated that the palace hadn’t fallen into chaos, and there were still powerful figures in Shengdu city stabilizing military and civilian morale, presiding over the overall situation.

For them, this was the worst possible situation!

Everyone’s hearts immediately became chaotic.

Although there were no family members of their own on the wall, all the Xiao family women had been tied up on the city tower—how many days could their own families hide?

“Commander…” The deputy commander looked at Commander Tao with a pale face. “Let’s withdraw first. Military morale is unstable now.”

Commander Tao painfully closed his eyes.

He had a bad premonition in his heart.

He felt time was urgent, that timing wouldn’t wait, that if they didn’t seize the time now to take Shengdu in one breath, there might never be another chance.

However, a heart-rending cry from the city wall made his whole body tremble.

“Father, save me! Father!”

“Commander!” The officers behind Commander Tao called him with anxious and uneasy expressions.

Commander Tao opened his eyes.

At the very least, military morale had now scattered.

He sighed deeply and waved his hand. “Retreat five li!”

The army began to retreat in order.

The women on the city wall were moved to tears.

Xiao Wenliu had been standing at the front of the city wall, hand on the battlements, looking at the yellow sand below and the moat ahead.

The river surface was covered with a thin layer of ice, reflecting the towering city wall.

As the Shengdu camp army gradually retreated from view, with creaking sounds, the city gate opened and the drawbridge was lowered, spanning the moat.

A black carriage crossed the drawbridge, its wheels rumbling over the bridge.

When the carriage passed through the gate tunnel, Chazi suddenly leaned out and threw a bundle into the arms of a defending officer.

“From my master, a farewell gift for Crown Princess Your Highness.”

The man caught it, watching as the carriage thunderously exited the gate tunnel, blocking out the last bit of dim yellow light passing through the gate tunnel.

He opened the bundle with a shocked expression.

Moments later, on the city tower, Liu Chen opened the bundle and after a moment of surprise, burst into laughter.

“Someone come, hang this thing up on the city wall for me!”

At the junction of dusk and night.

A black carriage raced out of the city, stepping into the vast snowy fields, about to travel thousands of miles, once again facing wind and snow, breaking into another snowfield.

Rights and wrongs, success and failure, would ultimately be settled in that colder land.

Behind the carriage, an aged head hung on Shengdu’s city wall, swaying gently in the wind, neither sad nor happy, gazing at the carriage’s fading shadow.

In the carriage, Murong Yi lifted the curtain to look back.

Looking back at this mighty city that had given him hope, given him happiness, and also given him the most painful and bone-deep blow of his life.

He had thought that in this life, he could be a person of this city.

Could stand hand in hand with the city’s and the world’s master atop the imperial city, viewing all those thousand li of rivers and mountains.

Could grow old with her in this city, watching peach blossoms in spring and admiring the moon in autumn, picking fresh lotus in summer and scooping snow in winter.

Could enjoy this worldly life, could obtain the truly real home he had yearned for but never achieved in life.

In the end.

She coughs blood sitting on the golden throne.

He departs the imperial city through wind and snow.

…

Xiao Wenliu stood on the city wall, watching that carriage race out of Shengdu at extreme speed.

Murong Yi.

There’s still a long road ahead, but I hope you can reach it, can continue walking.

Walk to where mountains are high and waters exhausted, and for that person who can only stay in place, reopen a new world.

I hope you two still have a day of reunion.

Suddenly, loud crying erupted beside her.

She turned her head and saw a head hanging high on a flagpole.

The head was bloody, with tangled hair and beard, a pair of bulging eyes staring, constantly rotating and swaying in the wind.

The crying beside her was miserable. After a while, Xiao Wenliu recognized it was her grandfather.

But this head, she had seen not long ago.

Indeed, Murong Yi had killed grandfather and hung his head at his waist, calmly boarding the Xiao family carriage.

Xiao Wenliu stared blankly at that head.

Grandfather’s fate had long been determined. Perhaps this manner of death was still the best he could achieve, yet looking at that head swaying in the wind, her heart still convulsed uncontrollably into a ball.

The Xiao family was ultimately destroyed.

Everything she had done with all her strength, she still didn’t know if it could beg for the lives of the family’s women.

She had no face to beg His Highness, she no longer had any face to see anyone.

Suddenly someone rushed over, wildly clawing at her face. “Bitch! You bitch!”

Xiao Wenliu turned her head as sharp fingernails scratched a bloody mark across her face.

“Grandmother!”

Lan Xian rushed over, pushing Old Lady Xiao away and protecting Xiao Wenliu behind her.

Old Lady Xiao was held by others but still desperately stretched forward trying to grab her. “You bitch! You eat from within and help outsiders! You’ve lost all conscience! You tied grandmother up on the city wall, you saved the murderer who killed your grandfather! I curse you, curse you to die a horrible death—”

Suddenly she laughed maniacally again. “You were already going to die horribly, yes, you were already—”

Xiao Wenliu suddenly cut off her words, saying: “Grandmother… take care.”

Lan Xian whirled around.

Her heart and courage shattered as she saw that Xiao Wenliu had somehow already climbed onto the battlements.

Countless people screamed, countless people rushed over, some threw ropes, some froze in place.

Everyone on the city wall only saw that plainly dressed young lady standing on the high battlements, spreading her arms to face the wind, like a bird about to fly toward freedom.

Then she also unhesitatingly, like a truly free bird, flew down.

“…”

In the deathly silence, Lan Xian let out a tragic scream, her hands already climbing onto the battlements.

Liu Chen, who had rushed over, grabbed her shoulder and threw her backward.

He rushed to the city wall edge and looked down, just seeing the ice surface on the moat explode, countless ice fragments splashing up ten feet high. In the water curtain and ice shadows, that woman’s slender figure suddenly disappeared.

…

Xiao Wenliu faced upward toward the sky. Above her head, the blurred remnants of the city wall and the dim yellow sky suddenly crashed down.

The suffocating pain in her heart had already begun on the city wall.

That bright red persimmon cake, so sweet it could kill.

So she could only die below this city, not die in the sweetness of that persimmon cake.

Otherwise, His Highness wouldn’t spare grandmother, wouldn’t spare the Xiao family women.

She opened her eyes wide, a vague smile at the corner of her lips.

Before her eyes, chaotic clouds flew past, transforming into countless faces, all that warm, smiling face.

“I… I seem to have been struck by something…”

“The master’s family has come, shall we roast fish and stew goose together?”

“I love hearing His Highness speak, it’s most interesting. But although I like it, I hope His Highness won’t seek me out to talk alone in the future.”

“Alright.”

“If you’re truly unhappy in the future, come find me. I can always protect you completely.”

“I have family. I must always be with my family and sisters.”

“…I feel joy the moment I see you, no matter who you are, no matter how you are. This is probably what they call affinity!”

“Sister, do you blame me for being a Xiao family person?”

“Sister, now I just want to properly enjoy this last freedom. Will you accompany me?”

“Sister, I really like that hairpin. I love cherry blossoms and roses. Can you carve one for me?”

…

Your Highness.

In the next life, remember to give me a hairpin.

…

“Thud”—a violent and muffled sound.

Snow-white water splashed across the sky.

…