This was, in truth, a kind of gambit — if the wretched scholar had refused to agree, there really would have been nothing Ziqing could do about it. After all, she was the one who needed something from him!

And yet the scholar’s sudden capitulation still caught her off guard, and those three words — “Han Ziqing” — startled her as well. She couldn’t shake the feeling that this scholar was no ordinary man.

She didn’t lower the dagger right away. Ziqing gave a cold laugh. “Since you know I’m the Consort of Prince Yao, you still dare to try and steal a woman from Jun Beiyue? Are you tired of living?”

“I’m not stealing anything. I’m a man of letters — I’m reasoning with you!” the scholar said, quite righteously, slowly pushing Ziqing’s dagger aside. His features weren’t anything remarkable, but his phoenix eyes, when he smiled, carried a gentle, cultured warmth, untouched by worldly dust, with a strangely reassuring quality to them.

“Let’s go,” Ziqing said, unwilling to keep dwelling on the matter.

“Han Ziqing, Prince Yao won’t wake easily, so you mean to invite Prince Baxian out of seclusion, don’t you?” the scholar asked as he walked.

Ziqing didn’t answer — that was obvious. Anyone who understood the larger picture, anyone who knew the current state of Da Zhou, would know as much.

Yet the scholar asked again, “Han Ziqing, are you planning to leave?”

Ziqing’s steps faltered slightly. This fellow had guessed correctly again!

She said coldly, displeased, “You have no right to call me by name — Han Ziqing!”

“Oh… then shall I call you Little Qingqing?” the scholar asked, rubbing his chin, with utter seriousness.

Ziqing stopped dead in her tracks, suddenly struck with a flash of understanding. This scholar wasn’t some pedantic, stubborn fool at all — he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Wasn’t this exactly what flirting looked like?

“How dare you!” Ziqing said coldly.

“Little Qingqing, trapping Chu Feiyan in Nanzhao, stirring up trouble between Xichu and Xijing — now that was a truly brilliant move!” the scholar said, giving her a thumbs up.

At those words, Ziqing was instantly stunned. Her real thinking, her true intentions, the reason she’d angrily kicked Yelu Qianqian, her reluctance to ever become friends with Yelu Qianqian — all of this, things not even Situ Haonan, who was constantly at her side, had ever seen through — had been read at a single glance by this complete stranger!

This man was frighteningly sharp!

Though it hurt, though it pained her, though she was afraid too, she had never once been a coward hiding in her shell. Whatever reality demanded, she dared to face it head-on!

So what was the reality now?

The reality was that no one could yet say for certain when Jun Beiyue would wake, or whether he would be unharmed when he did.

She wished with everything in her that nothing would happen to him, but she had no choice but to prepare for the worst!

Even if Jun Beiyue woke up perfectly fine tomorrow and returned to Da Zhou, today, at this very moment, she still had to secure Da Zhou’s safety!

Especially now, when nothing was certain at all!

Going to Nanzhao as an envoy had been her bottom line — in truth, before she’d even set out for Nanzhao, she’d already made up her mind: if Jun Beiyue hadn’t come, she would go find him herself!

It was that simple!

What she needed to do now was ensure that Da Zhou could remain stable and secure even without Jun Beiyue, even without her!

Her agreement with Chu Feiyan guaranteed that for five years — at least five years — Da Zhou’s northern frontier would be secure, and Nanzhao could be disregarded entirely. The real threat that truly demanded attention was Xijing!

If Xijing hadn’t been held in check by Xiliang to its west, its troops would already be at Da Zhou’s gates!

Ever since the Crown Prince of Xiliang had taken a fancy to Yelu Qianqian, Xiliang had shown no further signs of wanting war with Xijing — and with Xijing now free of that worry behind it, it would undoubtedly turn its ambitions back toward Da Zhou!

Even the wild wolves of Xijing coveted Da Zhou’s resource-rich forests — how much more would the people of Xijing covet Da Zhou’s fertile land?

Consort Yi and General Ouyang were conspiring not just with Xichu, but with Xijing as well!

That day at the hunting grounds, the wild wolves that had hunted down Jun Beiyue and her had come from Xijing!

Seeing Ziqing’s astonishment, the scholar smiled with delight, calling her “Little Qingqing” as naturally as could be — and rather than sounding suggestive, it somehow carried an inexplicable warmth.

He said, “Little Qingqing, with Prince Baxian holding things down at home, the four borders need not worry about war for now. Are you planning a long journey? Could it be that Prince Yao isn’t in the capital of Da Zhou?”

This man kept surprising her at every turn. Ziqing avoided the question and said coldly, “You even know about what happened in Nanzhao! Just who exactly are you?”

“Oh, Little Qingqing, why won’t you trust me? Didn’t I already tell you — I understand astronomy above and geography below. There’s nothing on the Longyuan continent I don’t know! Nothing I can’t calculate!”

“Is that so? Then work it out for me — where on this Longyuan continent might I find a fusang tree?” Ziqing asked again.

The moment she’d returned to Da Zhou, she’d given orders to search everywhere for a fusang tree. The head of the Bai family on that isolated island was no one to trifle with.

“There are no more fusang trees left on the Longyuan continent. The last fusang divine tree in this world stands on Liuxian Island in the Eastern Sea — the treasured heirloom of the Bai family!”

The scholar preened, showing off with a pleased smile as he asked, “Little Qingqing, what do you want with a fusang divine tree?”

“Didn’t you say there’s nothing on the Longyuan continent you don’t know? Then tell me — why am I looking for a fusang tree?”

Ziqing turned the question back on him, testing him. This man knew about Nanzhao’s affairs — could he have come from Nanzhao himself?

“Heh, well now, let me calculate that for you!”

The scholar didn’t seem flustered at all — smiling, he began counting on his fingers again. Ziqing waited patiently, her attention fixed on his fair, gentle, slender, handsome fingers, and so she failed to notice that his gaze kept flicking sidelong toward the right side of the mountain forest.

“Heh, this one’s a bit complicated — I really can’t work it out on the spot!” the scholar said with a laugh.

Ziqing was just about to speak when he pulled a jade hairpin from his sleeve. “Take this to see Prince Baxian — he’ll surely agree to your request. Something urgent has come up, so I must be going now.”

With that, he pressed the jade hairpin into Ziqing’s hand and turned to hurry away.

Ziqing quickly reached out and pressed a hand to his shoulder to stop him. “You haven’t explained yourself — you’re not leaving!”

To her shock, the scholar merely gave a light push, and somehow shoved her hand aside entirely. Ziqing was stunned — she hadn’t felt any force at all, and yet somehow she’d been pushed away!

How was that possible?

By the time she came back to her senses, the scholar was already ten paces away.

“Hey, you still haven’t told me your name!”

“Weisheng. Baili Weisheng. Remember it, Little Qingqing. Until we meet again!” Baili Weisheng waved a hand, and before he’d even finished speaking, his figure had already vanished into the mountain forest.

“Weisheng…” That name felt terribly familiar. Ziqing was certain she’d heard it somewhere before!

She thought and thought, and after a long while, she suddenly startled — could it be him? No — surely it couldn’t be him?

There was a very famous allusion: Weisheng embracing the pillar!

It told of a young man named Weisheng who had arranged to meet a woman at a bridge. He waited and waited, but the woman never came. The river began to rise, yet he refused to leave — in the end, he clung to the bridge pillar and drowned.

This Weisheng — surely he couldn’t be that same Weisheng from the historical tale!

Ziqing’s heart gave an inexplicable jolt; she herself didn’t understand what was happening, but her heartbeat had suddenly quickened.

The Longyuan continent was, after all, a dynasty unrecorded in history — how could a figure from a historical allusion possibly appear here!

And yet — an unrecorded dynasty simply meant it didn’t exist within orthodox history. That didn’t necessarily mean it hadn’t existed at all, did it?

History, after all, was written by only some people — how much bias, how much omission, might it contain?

In truth, in this world, it wasn’t only the future that lay beyond knowing — the past, too, was equally unknowable!

“Weisheng, Weisheng…”

Ziqing murmured to herself without realizing it. Such a strange man — one who seemed pedantic but was in truth quite the rakish wit. Surely he couldn’t be that same pedantic Weisheng who had died clinging to a pillar!

Whatever this man’s true background, at the very least, he had helped her.

Ziqing turned the jade hairpin over in her hands, and just as she was about to leave, a melodious sound of a zither suddenly drifted over from the right side of the mountain forest. The melody was unfamiliar, but the timbre — Ziqing recognized it the instant she heard it. It was the sound of the Blood Zither.