The night wind in Huizhou was gentler than in Ningshuo. In the deep of the fifth month, the cool air passed through our clothing, and blew my hair into disarray.

I stood in the central courtyard, looking up at the sky and sighing softly. “Once the battle begins, I wonder what will become of this city.”

Song Huai’an was quiet for a moment. “The Governor of Pengze has already raised his troops in rebellion. The beacon fires have spread to the southeastern commanderies. Once the waterway routes are lost, even Langya will no longer be safe. The Grand Princess must still be on the road — upon hearing of the unrest in Pengze, she will likely no longer go on to Langya.”

I said quietly with a touch of sorrow, “My mother should already be on the road back to the capital by now… Knowing her temper, going back is for the best.”

“Does the Grand Princess not know of the dangers in the capital?” Song Huai’an looked at me with a slight furrow of his brow, his expression carrying a hint of anxiety.

“It is precisely because the capital is on the brink of crisis that Mother would go back,” I said with a helpless smile. After all, thirty-some years of marriage — no matter how many grievances she held against Father, at a moment of life and death like this, she would want to be with him. When Grand Princess Jinmin set her mind to something stubbornly, who could stop her? The unrest in Pengze had pushed the capital to the very edge of danger, and perhaps it had also drawn out Mother’s truest feelings.

“What does Your Highness mean by that?” Song Huai’an asked with some unease, still puzzled.

But I had no desire to speak of family matters with someone else, and only smiled faintly. “I am certain she will return to the capital — just as I will remain in Huizhou.”

“You are going to stay in Huizhou?” Song Huai’an’s voice suddenly shot up in pitch. He had even forgotten his deferential form of address, and blurted out at me, “That must not happen!”

In the dim of night, his sharp brows flew upward and his eyes were filled with anxious, earnest care.

I took it in and felt my heart give a quiet, involuntary lurch. That kind of gaze — holding no reverence or deference, only unguarded and burning intensity — was no longer that of a subject looking upon a sovereign. It was simply the gaze of a man looking at a woman.

I heard him say urgently, “Huizhou is on the brink of battle. This subordinate intends tomorrow morning to have Pang Gui escort Your Highness out of the city to join up with His Highness the Prince in the north… Under no circumstances can Your Highness be allowed to risk herself!”

I turned my head to the side and away from his scorching gaze, feeling a flicker of inexplicable unease in my heart.

For a moment neither of us spoke, with only the night wind sending our robes and sleeves flying.

“You need only focus all your efforts on holding the city. As for whether I stay or go — I have my own judgment on that.” I composed myself and spoke in a mild voice.

Song Huai’an, burning with urgency, opened his mouth to say something, but then suddenly caught himself and pressed his lips tightly shut in a single firm line.

I turned to look at him quietly. “You have followed Prince Yuzhang through hundreds of battles. Have you ever retreated from a battle because the situation was critical?”

He frowned. “A general is meant to die on the battlefield. Your Highness is a woman — how can the two be compared?”

“Then,” I smiled slightly, “if Prince Yuzhang were here in your place — would he abandon you all and leave the city alone to take refuge?”

“That is entirely different!” Song Huai’an burst out in anger.

I met his gaze with a steady smile. “How is it different? I am the Princess of Prince Yuzhang. It is only right that I advance and retreat together with the officers and soldiers under Prince Yuzhang’s command.”

Song Huai’an lowered his gaze in silence and no longer argued with me.

All the way back to the inner courtyard, he followed behind me in silence to escort me, and stood at the gate watching as I went inside.

Walking deep into the winding path, I could still faintly feel his gaze from behind… I could not help but stop and look back. There in the doorway stood that faint, solitary figure — sleeves and robes lifting in the wind — carrying an air of loneliness and quiet desolation that was impossible to put into words.

By the time the sky had just turned light, the soldiers who had been sent to scout beyond Luling Pass and ascertain the true situation returned to report: Prince Jiangning’s army was rapidly supervising the construction of battle vessels. Several small boats had been dispatched near the crack of dawn to approach the riverbank and reconnoiter our military movements, but each had been discovered by the night sentries on patrol, who drove them back with a volley of crossbow bolts.

Mou Lian had already sealed all four city gates, issued an order for the soldiers and civilians of the city to stockpile grain and prepare for battle, and massed heavy troops to garrison Luling Pass, forbidding anyone from entering the city from the south. Luling Pass was to be shut at noon today. At this moment, both inside and outside the pass it was already a surging torrent of men and horses, as the nearby villagers — helping the elderly and carrying the young — rushed to enter the city before the pass closed to take shelter from the fighting.

Two full days passed. Prince Jiangning’s battle vessels had already been arrayed in formation along the riverbank. On clear days, the distant battle flags flying on the opposite shore were faintly visible. By the third day, the number of small boats probing across the river had sharply increased. They would occasionally shoot arrows toward the city walls, shouting taunts and challenges. Mou Lian and Song Huai’an took turns standing watch at the top of the walls, strictly ordering the garrison soldiers to hold their positions and not respond or counter-attack. The more Prince Jiangning probed and tested, the more it revealed his hesitance and uncertainty — he could not make out our true situation.

Turbulent clouds roiled above the city walls, and within the city the people’s hearts were in turmoil.

Townspeople scrambled to hoard grain and shelter from the fighting, and the rice shops throughout the city ran out of stock one by one and shuttered their doors, leaving the destitute with nowhere to turn. Huizhou had not seen warfare for many years, and the grain and fodder stored in the official granaries had not been checked for a long time — a great deal had gone mouldy and spoiled, and no one knew how long it could last for the troops.

What lay before me was a tangled mess with no clear way forward. From childhood, what I had seen and studied was not without its share of military strategy and tactics, yet most of what I had absorbed through daily influence and example was the art of wielding power within palace chambers and at court. The most ordinary matters of the people’s daily lives — food and clothing — were things I had never so much as heard of. Huizhou’s officials, great and small, had grown fat and idle in their comfortable positions, most skilled at composing verses and engaging in refined discourse. When it truly came to the use of troops, not a single one of them could do anything but talk emptily.

Just as I was at my wit’s end, Madam Mou, Cao Shi, recommended several lower officials who came from humble backgrounds. Including her own elder kinsman, there were seven in all — clerks who had long served in various yamen, well-versed in the realities of civilian life, diligent and capable in getting things done. This resolved my most pressing problem at last. Over the following days, everyone worked without sleep or rest, checking through the official granaries and treasuries one by one. The grain and fodder supply for the troops was fully in place. Another storehouse was opened specifically for relief distribution. The people’s morale in the city settled somewhat, and the unrest gradually subsided.

Though I had long known that the court’s governance was corrupt and that the sons of noble families were without ability, I had not known it had sunk to such a level.

I pressed a hand to my forehead and sighed deeply. I thought of my brother in the capital, and felt a deep sense of helplessness, with a quiet undercurrent of worry in my heart.

Night had already fallen, and by Song Huai’an’s reckoning, Prince Jiangning’s patience would likely be exhausted before this night was out.

I walked together with Cao Shi to the top of the city wall. It was nearly midnight, and the Huizhou of tonight was bright with stars and moon — a moment of extraordinary calm and quiet.

The defenses on the city wall were all in order, with no sign of any panic, though in secret the entire city had been placed on high alert. The garrison soldiers at all four gates were sleeping with their weapons at hand, ready to move at a moment’s notice.

Song Huai’an and Mou Lian came hurrying over upon hearing the news, both in full heavy armor with swords at their sides, their eyes threaded with red.

Cao Shi told me that Mou Lian had not returned home for three days, standing his watch continuously in the camp. Now husband and wife met on the city wall, with a deadly battle perhaps only a breath away. The two of them looked at each other in quiet stillness without a single word spoken — yet it seemed as though everything had been said.

My heart was deeply touched. I turned with a smile to Song Huai’an, “Please come with me, General Song.”

When we had moved several zhang away from Mou Lian and his wife, I stopped and turned, smiling gently at Song Huai’an. “Let us give them some time together.”

Song Huai’an smiled but said nothing, gave me one deep glance, then lowered his gaze.

Over these three days, I had been deliberately keeping my distance, and apart from discussing matters of importance, I had not met with him alone. For minor affairs, I had always sent Yuxiu back and forth as a go-between. Normally when she came back with word from the General, she was all bright eyes and vivid gestures. Yet now, with Song Huai’an right before her, she kept her head bowed and standing behind me, not daring to so much as glance at him. Such is the nature of youthful feelings.

Here we were, with the battle about to begin, and yet the sight of Mou Lian and his wife, and Yuxiu’s girlish heart, had stirred a deep tenderness within me.

Song Huai’an too wore a faint smile, gazing out at the river in the distance, not mentioning the battle at all — as though unwilling to disturb the brief quiet of that moment on the city walls.

A long silence passed. It was Yuxiu who broke the stillness with a soft voice, “Mist is rising on the river. Would Your Highness like an extra layer of clothing?”

I shook my head, but saw that fog had indeed already spread across the river’s surface — wisps of milky vapor draped over the water, drifting slowly with the wind.

“Two more hours, and the river mist will be at its thickest,” Song Huai’an began in a low voice, his tone carrying a faint edge of deadly resolve. “That will be the best moment for an assault on the city. If the fifth watch passes without an enemy attack, we will have held out another day.”

My heart tightened. I still spoke in a clear and confident voice, “We have already passed midnight — it is now the fourth day. His Highness the Prince’s vanguard army is that much closer to us. Perhaps by this time tomorrow, the reinforcements will have arrived.”

“The wise are prone to doubt, and the brave are quick to act.” He smiled as he mused aloud. “Our strategy of staying behind closed walls without giving battle is at its core one of delay. Fortunately, the opponent we face this time is Prince Jiangning — this man is old and cautious by nature. Faced with this situation, he is only likely to become more guarded, fearing there may be a trap.”

I clapped my hands in laughing agreement, teasing, “Exactly — let us hope he takes a few more measures of prudence and steadiness, and does not try to act like a reckless young man.”

Song Huai’an and I looked at each other and laughed.

Back in my room, sleep was again beyond reach. I counted out the hours one by one through the ticking of the water clock, suffering through two full hours. I asked Yuxiu the same question so many times — counting from the third sub-watch of midnight to the first sub-watch of the fifth, both she and I had grown so exhausted that we slumped over on the desk without noticing, and fell into a drowsy sleep… When I was jolted awake by the strike of the water clock and shook Yuxiu awake, then asked the maid who had been keeping watch through the night, I found it was already the first sub-watch of the sixth hour!

We had truly held out yet another day.

Watching the sky to the east gradually pale, and the lights along the city walls in the distance, I felt a surge of both relief and exhaustion.

For the past several days, I had not had a proper sleep. Now the great stone pressing on my heart had temporarily settled, but the weariness swept in unstoppably. Before I closed my eyes, I reminded Yuxiu to wake me as soon as the seventh hour had passed. But before Yuxiu could answer, my mind had already gone dark.

This sleep was deep and dreamless, utterly settled and peaceful.

In the haze between sleeping and waking, I seemed to see Xiao Qi riding that spirited Ink Flood of his, coming toward me slowly from a distance — moving so very, very slowly… I longed to give Ink Flood a fierce crack of the whip, to make that unruly horse run faster.

“He is here, he is here, His Highness the Prince is here…” In my dream, someone was even calling out in celebration.

I smiled and turned over, but was then given a hard shove, and snapped wide awake. It was Yuxiu shaking me frantically, calling out something over and over. I lay in a daze for a moment before I could make out what she was saying —

She was saying that His Highness the Prince had arrived.

The maids beside me were all alight with joy. From outside the door came the sound of guards running out to receive him — it truly was not a dream.

I leaped out of bed, grabbed my outer robe and threw it on, shoved my feet haphazardly into my silk slippers, and flew out the door.

My sleeves billowed behind me, my hair blown into a tangled flutter by the wind. This wretched corridor and walkway — I walked it every day, so how had I never noticed it was so endlessly long! Under the eyes of everyone, I forgot all composure and protocol for the first time, gathered up my skirts and ran at full speed, wishing I could sprout wings and be at his side in an instant.

No sooner had I reached the main gate than I saw in the distance a black banner embroidered with gold coiling dragons raised high, snapping fiercely in the blazing sunlight.

That was Prince Yuzhang’s command flag. Wherever it went, it marked the personal presence of the Suppressor-of-the-Nation General Xiao Qi.

That commanding and awe-inspiring figure sat high atop a pitch-black battle horse, riding against the full light of noon — like a god descended from the heavens.

I tilted my head back, and before me was the blinding sunlight of noon — and more blinding than the sunlight was that one man and one horse at the center of its halo.

Black iron bright-light dragon-scale armor. An ink-black lion-maned battle horse. On his dark robe, a gold embroidered coiling dragon seemed ready to soar into the air with the wind. Behind him was a row of imposing and majestic soldiers, as though a shield-wall stretching to the horizon had unfurled before me in a dark and solemn array — or as though a tide of iron-black color was rolling in steadily from the distance, rumbling across the earth.

Everyone fell to their knees, paying their respects in unison, leaving only me standing with loosened hair and a plain robe before his horse.

The person I had yearned for through every dawn and dusk, every sleeping hour, now truly stood before me. I was stunned into speechlessness, staring as though I had lost my senses.

He urged his horse forward and reached his hand down to me.

My feet carried me toward him, light and unsteady, as though still in a dream.

He took hold of my hand — his palm warm and firm — and with one gentle pull drew me up onto the horse’s back. In the blaze of the noon sun, I looked clearly at his brow, his eyes, his smile — and it was indeed Xiao Qi, the one person I had thought of every moment, the one I could not let go of for a single breath.

“I am here.” His smile was warm, his gaze blazing, his voice low and steady and calm. That smile was visible only to me, and those three quiet words were heard only by me. Five full days of journeying had been driven into this single moment of arrival, with stars above him by night and sun beating down by day, his heart sick with worry, his whole army not stopping for a moment… Though I had not witnessed it, I could well imagine it all.

Four eyes met, and no honeyed words or tender phrases were needed. He had come — and that alone was enough.

The vanguard of Prince Yuzhang’s great army strode forward under the blazing sunlight, entering the city in one vast and mighty surge.

Under the gaze of all eyes, he and I rode together on a single horse, passing through the crowd cheering and welcoming on either side, and rode straight up onto the city tower to receive the roaring acclaim of the people below. The thunder of cheers from the three armies surged with soaring momentum. Every citizen in the city streamed out in celebration, and the tide of voices spread far out into the distance, echoing and reverberating through the whole of the city. This was a feverish fervor unlike anything I had ever witnessed in my life — as though people who had teetered on the edge of despair had at last received the divine being who would deliver ten thousand souls from the flood and the flame. This was also the first time I witnessed with my own eyes the extent to which Prince Yuzhang’s renown had reached.

And in this moment, in my identity as the Princess of Prince Yuzhang, I stood shoulder to shoulder with him and sat together on his horse, receiving together the reverence of ten thousand people.

This heartfelt acclaim — not even the most exalted members of the imperial family could be certain to receive it.

This was the will of the people.

The scene before me shook me to my very depths, and left me speechless for a long time.

By the time we left the city wall and rode back to the government mansion, I suddenly realized I had been out there with my hair loose and flowing, my face bare, in a plain single layer of clothing — and held in Xiao Qi’s arms like that.

And the officers on both sides, as well as the three armies of soldiers in the city below, had all seen us like that… My cheeks immediately blazed with a scorching heat. I could have sunk into the ground — I hastily dropped my head and did not dare meet the eyes of the people behind and around us.

“What are you doing?” Xiao Qi lowered his head to ask, clearly puzzled.

My cheeks grew even hotter. I spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, “You actually let me come out looking like this.”

The commanders behind us were barely a zhang’s distance away, and yet he burst into open laughter. “You dared seize an entire city — and now at this point you are afraid of a little embarrassment?”

Muffled laughter drifted over from behind us… I was so mortified I did not dare say another word to trade jokes with him.

The moment we returned to the government mansion, I jumped down from the horse and walked toward the inner courtyard without looking back, annoyed with him and refusing to dignify him with any attention.

By the time I had hurriedly bathed and changed and finished combing my hair into proper order and came back out, Yuxiu said that Prince Yuzhang had already gone to the military camp and had not come this way at all.

I was briefly at a loss, and then had to smile wryly. Of course — military affairs were his priority. The fact that he had ridden hard through day and night to reach here might not have been for me at all.

I sat listlessly at the dressing table, neither annoyed nor able to sigh. Having endured the fright and anxiety of so many days, my heart and strength were already worn to exhaustion. I had finally waited for him, and yet instead of being filled with joy, I was inexplicably melancholy… When he was not here, I had single-handedly held things together on my own, and had the illusion that I was invincible. But now that he had come, I reverted to what I had always been — all I wanted was to be sheltered behind him, just as that night in Ningshuo.

A wave of listlessness came over me. I loosened my hairpins and let my hair down, and felt exhaustion settling in.

These two days had truly been too wearing. I reclined back onto the embroidered couch, intending only to rest for a brief moment — but before I realized it, sleep had claimed me again.

In a half-dreaming haze, someone helped pull the covers over me. A familiar, distinctly male scent drifted down around me.

I had no desire to open my eyes and simply lay quietly, shifting to face the wall.

“Don’t want to look at me?” His fingers brushed through my hair, his voice low and warm. “Who was it that came running toward my horse like a wild thing just a moment ago?”

Hearing mention of that, I immediately felt my heart soften. I opened my eyes and looked quietly at him.

His eyes were threaded all through with red. Below his chin, a faint shadow of stubble showed through. His face was written all over with weariness.

I could not harden my heart a moment longer. I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, and said softly, “How many days has it been since you last closed your eyes?”

He gave a slight smile and did not answer, only pulled me close.

“Your Highness,” he said, his expression becoming earnest as he looked at me steadily, “you have done very well in all this. This Prince admires you greatly.”

I was momentarily at a loss, and before I could speak, his tone shifted abruptly, and he said with a sharp look, “But, A’Wu — even if you had the power to move Heaven and Earth, I would not stoop to risk your safety for the sake of a single city!”

“What danger have I not seen and passed through before? Even if Prince Jiangning had seized Huizhou, I would have had nothing to fear from him.” His voice and expression had both turned severe. “You had a chance to withdraw safely, and yet you acted on your own to seize the city by force… Know that weapons have no eyes. If there had been the slightest misstep that evening, even if I had flown here with wings, I could not have recovered so much as your intact body!”

Thinking back now, that night had indeed been fraught with danger at every turn, and I knew it filled me with retrospective dread. Yet I still held firm, saying, “But we won in the end.”

“Won — so what?” Xiao Qi suddenly blazed with fury. “Xiao has fought hundreds of battles — is there any shortage of victories? What does it matter if a single Huizhou is won? But if I were to lose you — where would I go to find another Wang Xuan? Even if I lost ten, or a hundred Huizhous, I still could not…”

He glared at me, with one phrase on the tip of his tongue that he refused to let pass his lips.

“Could not what?” I knew perfectly well what it was, yet still asked in a soft voice, a smile already fighting its way up to the corners of my lips.

Xiao Qi stared at me for a long moment, let out a helpless breath, and fiercely pulled me close, his chin resting lightly against the side of my neck. “Could not… lose you.”

Such tender words forced from his lips seemed to cost him a thousand efforts and weigh ten thousand times their weight.

I laughed out loud and buried my face against his shoulder, but tears had already rushed up to fill my eyes.

“All the way here, all I kept thinking was that I wanted to give you a good sound whipping! For your sheer audacity and recklessness!” He gave a wry smile. “Yet the closer I got to Huizhou, the more afraid I became… When I thought that if anything had happened to you, I would have razed this city to the ground and had all of Prince Jiangning’s army buried alongside you!”

I clung to his collar and kept on laughing, smiling even as I quietly wiped my tears against his collar. Yet the tears did not stop.

He looked down and caught sight of his own lapel, at once on the verge of tears and laughter. “You woman…”

The room gradually darkened. Outside the window, the evening had already deepened, and without knowing it I had slept all the way to dusk. Seeing him covered in the dust of the road, his face lined with exhaustion — no sooner had he arrived in the city than he had thrown himself into arranging the troop deployment and rectifying the city’s defenses, and had probably been busy for half the day.

I gently held him close. “Your eyes are all red. Sleep for a little while.”

Xiao Qi gave a slight smile. “I truly am exhausted.”

I quickly got up out of bed and had the maids bring in hot water and hot tea. I wrung out a cloth to help him wash his face, and said with a smile, “This concubine shall attend to His Highness’s retiring for the night.”

“A worthy and virtuous Princess.” Xiao Qi laughed languidly, and allowed me to help him remove his armor. He made as though to lie down fully clothed.

I quickly caught hold of him. “Who in the world sleeps with their clothes still on!”

“On the city walls, soldiers do not remove their armor. How could one remove one’s garments in the inner chambers?” He still had enough spirit for a jest, and pulled me down onto the bed with him, saying gently, “Stay with me for a while. Wake me in half an hour.”

I nodded, unable to argue, and gently drew the covers over him.

I was just about to say something when I heard his breathing slow and deepen — he had already fallen into a deep sleep. A faint smile still rested at the corner of his thin lips, and the crease between his brows had smoothed slightly open. His arms were still wrapped around my waist, holding fast even in sleep, refusing to let go. I did not dare stir the slightest bit, afraid of disturbing his rest. Lying within his embrace, I gazed at his features in quiet stillness, and felt I could never look at him enough for an entire lifetime.

When I snapped awake again and rolled over to wake him, the space beside me was empty.

Outside the curtain, the night was already deep and still. I had slept all the way through almost the entire day myself. It was only when I had finished my evening meal and done a light bit of grooming, thrown a wind cape over my shoulders, and gone to the city wall, with Yuxiu trading teasing jokes with me all the way up, growing more and more daring, that I rose above my bewilderment.

Climbing the city tower, I saw in the distance that he was armored and bearing a sword, still leading a group of officers in an inspection of the nighttime defenses.

I walked forward slowly, worried about interrupting their discussion, quickly gestured to the guards not to make a sound, and stood quietly at a short distance.

Xiao Qi’s figure was upright and commanding, and amid a group of imposing generals he was still exceptionally striking.

At this hour the city wall was a busy and well-lit scene of activity. Civilian laborers were at work along the riverbank building battle vessels without pause. Soldiers maintaining the defenses hurried back and forth. Sentries wove through on their patrols, and from time to time, archers would shoot flaming arrows out over the river’s surface to observe conditions on the enemy’s side in the firelight. This scene was actually more busy and active than usual — looking for all the world like an elaborate show of false strength.

I frowned and mulled it over, unable to work out what reason there could be. Just as I was turning it over in my mind, a loud, rough voice bellowed out in my direction, “Who is there?”

I was startled, but it turned out to be a large and robust general among those beside Xiao Qi who had spotted me.

Seeing me walk slowly into view, everyone was visibly surprised and quickly bowed in greeting.

Xiao Qi smiled faintly. “Why have you come?”

I held out the wind cape I was carrying and smiled without a word.

He took it, gazed at me with warmth, and then simply said in an understated tone, “It is cold on the city wall at night. Go back.”

That rough-voiced general suddenly broke into a hearty laugh and cupped his hands to me in a salute, “Who could have imagined that Your Highness, a frail and delicate young woman, would use such a brilliantly cunning plan to break the city — truly a heroine among women! Old Hu is full of admiration!”

I was momentarily taken aback. His blunt and boisterous speech was rather amusing. I returned the greeting with a slight bow, “General Hu flatters me greatly.”

Song Huai’an and Mou Lian exchanged an amused glance.

Xiao Qi folded his hands behind his back and smiled. “This is Hu Guanglie, the Conquering Barbarians General.”

Someone interjected, “This man talks the most nonsense. He is known as General Bluster.”

Everyone broke into laughter. Hu Guanglie could only scratch his head helplessly — yet even so, he was not the least bit irritated. One could see that in private, these officers had long been accustomed to joking freely with Xiao Qi — a warm and harmonious scene, just like brothers-in-arms. Seeing everyone so easy and unguarded in their speech, even Mou Lian no longer had the guarded stiffness he had shown before.

Xiao Qi heaped praise on Mou Lian, commending him for his meticulous conduct, and saying that in the whole matter of seizing Huizhou, Mou Lian deserved the greatest credit.

Mou Lian hastened to deflect the praise, and then in due turn offered glowing commendations for me, Song Huai’an, Pang Gui, and the others.

Hu Guanglie gave a knowing laugh, nudging the people beside him with a wink. “Our Prince and his Princess really are a perfect match!”

I was flustered with embarrassment, and those around us all lowered their heads to suppress their smiles.

Xiao Qi too laughed briefly, then turned to look at his officers with a composed expression. “The hour is not early. Everyone should return to camp and rest. Those on watch duty must be properly rested — not the slightest bit of slackness!”

“Yes!” The officers answered in unison and immediately withdrew.

The night wind swept across the city walls with a sharp, rushing sound. Xiao Qi took hold of my hand, and we walked together along the city tower.

I leaned quietly against him, thinking only of a world without battles, without killing — just walking on like this, forever and ever, until the ends of the earth.

“The Battle of Huizhou — does it come tonight?” I stopped walking and let out a quiet sigh.

Xiao Qi glanced sideways at me, and made no attempt to hide his admiration. “It is a pity you were born a woman, to waste such gifts for command.”

“Had I not been a woman, how would I ever have met you?” I turned my head to look at him with a smile. “Your show of false strength so conspicuous — of course there is something strange going on. Prince Jiangning has been cautiously probing for so many days, and his patience must be nearly used up.”

Xiao Qi nodded, smiling, and raised a hand to point toward the river’s south shore. “Prince Jiangning is old and suspicious, and he knows well that my method of warfare tends toward the offensive, always preferring to attack rather than defend. Now that he has probed day after day without seeing me come out to do battle, he is bound to suspect that I have not yet arrived in the city. Little does he know — this dovetails perfectly with your own strategy of delay. Earlier, our show of strength was real. Today, it is false — precisely the real and the false reversed. Now I deliberately make a show of this illusory display and keep up the feigned spectacle, so that his suspicions grow all the more — to make him believe that I have still not entered the city, that Huizhou is empty, and that he is free to come and attack at will. If I am not mistaken, tonight at the fifth watch, when the river mist is thick, Prince Jiangning will cross the river.”

My eyes lit up. I finished the thought for him, “And then — catching the turtle in the jar, beating the dog in the water — that would be deeply satisfying!”

Xiao Qi laughed out loud. “Even a bold and seasoned old general shall see his spears break against the walls of Huizhou today!”