Fu Yi Xiao lay face down on the bed, wincing as a maid applied medicine to her wounds. “Ouch! Gentler, please…” she cried. By the time they finished, both the maid and Yi Xiao were drenched in sweat. The maid carefully covered her with a brocade quilt, bowed, and quickly left, closing the door behind her.
Lying in a daze, Yi Xiao heard the door open again. Without turning her head, she mumbled, “Can you not cover me with the quilt? It’s as heavy as iron and hurts my wounds!”
After a moment of silence, Xia Jingshi’s voice came from behind her. “This Prince thought Yi Xiao didn’t feel pain.”
“Ah!” Yi Xiao jerked up in surprise, then cried out in pain as she flopped back down. “Has Your Highness come to laugh at me?” she said bitterly.
Xia Jingshi slowly approached and tossed a porcelain bottle onto the bed. “This is the finest bruise-healing ointment. The sooner you recover, the sooner you can get up. I haven’t yet tested that silver bow I gave you. I wonder if it suits you.”
Hearing his gentle tone, Yi Xiao almost couldn’t hold back her tears. She bit her knuckles hard to force them back. The figure beside her moved, and the finger between her teeth was pulled away.
“Look at you, you’ve bitten it purple. Are you unaware of pain, or just pretending?” Xia Jingshi said. He uncorked the bottle and carefully applied some ointment to her fingers. “You’re too impulsive. If I hadn’t punished you yesterday, when the imperial envoy reported to the Holy Emperor, it wouldn’t have been just a matter of a few strokes.”
She stared at his profile—his graceful yet firm eyebrows, his straight nose exuding sharpness, his hawk-like keen black eyes, and his thin lips that often held a smile. Yet people say those with thin lips are fickle in love…
Suddenly, she pulled her hand away and hugged his waist, burying her face in his chest. “Your Highness, can you refuse the marriage alliance?”
Xia Jingshi didn’t immediately push her away, just gently patted her back. “You’re saying such things again. Weren’t the strokes you received yesterday not enough?”
“But…” Ignoring the pain in her body, she blurted out, “Yi Xiao is willing to be Your Highness’s concubine, slave, or maid. Just please don’t go!”
Xia Jingshi snorted. “You’re not greedy, only thinking of being a concubine. Enough joking. The Holy Emperor’s decree has been issued. Once you’re healed, help Weiran and the others prepare my luggage. In at most half a year, I’ll be departing for Su Sha…”
“I’m not joking!” she insisted, tightening her arms. “Yi Xiao has admired Your Highness for three years…”
Xia Jingshi’s hand froze on her back. “You know well that these years you’ve fought alongside me, been through life and death with me. You see me as a brother, and I see you as a sister.”
Yi Xiao interrupted him with a cold laugh. “Perhaps only Your Highness thinks so. Yi Xiao has always…”
Before she could finish, Xia Jingshi suddenly pushed her away forcefully. She fell to the corner of the couch, the impact causing her to grip the quilt tightly in pain. Yet she bit her lip and didn’t cry out, still looking up at him hopefully. “Your Highness can take Yi Xiao now if you wish, just please don’t marry that princess…”
“Fu Yi Xiao, don’t you understand?” Xia Jingshi’s deep eyes scanned her from head to toe. “This Prince needs no fetters or shackles. With your persistence and exceptional talent, the degree to which you would intensify these constraints goes far beyond what words like ‘fetter’ and ‘shackle’ can describe. This is the greatest impossibility between you and me.”
Yi Xiao cried out in frustration, “But Yi Xiao truly loves Your Highness!”
“Truly?” He smiled, his eyes devoid of warmth. “Whether you love or not is your affair. What does it have to do with me?” With that, he tossed the porcelain bottle back onto the bed and left.
Yi Xiao closed her eyes, feeling her heart slowly break. Her dignity was trampled to pieces, hanging on her eyelashes and falling with her tears. The pain was bone-deep, more intense than any battlefield wound. Death might be better than this—the self-loathing of being lowly and shameless, the humiliation of rejection, and a sincere heart brutally torn apart.
“Yi Xiao, don’t be childish,” Xiao Weiran gently persuaded. Fu Yi Xiao continued packing her things.
“What’s the big deal about being punished by His Highness once? Weiran and I have been punished too,” Ning Fei also tried to convince her.
Yi Xiao glared at him and walked around him to fetch the quiver on the table.
“Hey,” Ning Fei stopped her hand. “Wait a bit longer. I’ve already sent someone to invite His Highness. You won’t listen to us, but you’ll surely listen to him, right?”
Yi Xiao finally stopped. “He knows I’m leaving. He won’t come.”
Xiao Weiran asked, puzzled, “His Highness knows? How do you know he won’t come?”
“Mm,” Yi Xiao replied, taking the quiver and strapping it to her back. “I’ve already resigned my position, and he accepted.”
“That’s impossible!” Ning Fei paced anxiously. “How could His Highness let you resign over such a small matter?”
Yi Xiao remained silent. Seeing her dimmed eyes, Xiao Weiran understood somewhat and stopped Ning Fei. “Alright, stop trying to persuade her.”
Ning Fei stamped his foot. “I recommended Yi Xiao to the Prince’s camp. You always said her talent was rare. If we don’t persuade her, are we just going to watch her leave like this?”
As they spoke, Yi Xiao had finished packing. She grabbed the silver bow hanging on the wall and slung it over her shoulder. Turning around, she wore her usual grinning expression. “Well, I won’t have to smell the sweat of your big oafs every day anymore.” She walked up to them and punched each in the chest. “Don’t look so glum. When you take leave to go home, you can still see me—I haven’t drunk your wedding wine yet, don’t make me wait too long!” With that, she waved her hand casually and strode out.
Four months later.
On a winding mountain road, three hundred black-clad guards escorted a tall carriage slowly forward. The banner at the front of the procession was embroidered with the character “Xia” in gold thread—this was the Jin Xiu Dynasty’s entourage heading to Su Sha Kingdom for the wedding.
In the spacious compartment separated by curtains, Xia Jingshi reclined with his eyes half-closed, holding a half-read book.
Ning Fei rode back from the front of the procession. “Your Highness, after passing the canyon ahead, we’ll be near the Su Sha border. Su Sha’s welcoming party should be waiting at the border.”
Xia Jingshi didn’t open his eyes, just hummed softly in acknowledgment. Ning Fei excused himself and returned to his position.
In the past, Fu Yi Xiao always served as the vanguard, with Xiao Weiran in the center, and Ning Fei bringing up the rear. After Yi Xiao angrily resigned, Xia Jingshi didn’t promote anyone to fill her vacant position as commander. So for this journey, he had to assign Ning Fei as the vanguard and leave everything else to Xiao Weiran.
Thinking of Yi Xiao, Xia Jingshi frowned. Perhaps his words that day had been too harsh. When she came to resign after her wounds healed, he thought she was just being stubborn and agreed without thinking. Who knew she would submit her seal and official robes the next day and leave Lu City?
The day she left, he watched her from the city wall. If she had looked back, he would have sent someone to bring her back. But that stubborn girl never once glanced back at Lu City.
Yi Xiao, like Ning Fei and Xiao Weiran, could be a loyal subordinate, a comrade-in-arms through life and death, and even a friend to whom he could entrust his life. But if this feeling were forcibly labeled as love, how could he accept it?
Love is a demon wearing a gorgeous disguise, using beautiful clothing to hide its inherent ugliness. When it slowly approaches you, your whole being will be enchanted, even reaching out eagerly to welcome it. But once it steals your heart, it reveals its true face, heedless of your heartbreak, deaf to your pleas, gradually leaving you behind—rather than be hurt again, it’s better to obey the Holy Emperor’s arrangements and marry Princess Xi Yang of Su Sha, exchanging it for long-lasting peace between the two countries.
A sharp whistle pierced the air. Xia Jingshi’s eyes flew open, and he swiftly pushed aside the low-hanging curtain.
A cavalry commander galloped over. “Your Highness, we’ve encountered an ambush ahead. The enemy’s numbers are unclear…” Before he could finish, an arrow whistled through the air, piercing his shoulder. The immense force knocked him off the mountain path. His startled horse neighed loudly and ran back wildly, dragging its reins.
Xia Jingshi’s gaze fell on the arrow protruding from the commander’s back, his pupils constricting. He looked up in the direction the arrow had come from.
In the fierce wind, Fu Yi Xiao’s loose black hair billowed. She stared at him resolutely, her slender hands holding a silver bow he knew well. The bow was empty, its string still vibrating.
Jumping down from the carriage, he gritted his teeth and ordered the guards protecting him, “Bring me a bow and arrows!” A strong bow was quickly handed to Xia Jingshi. He steadily nocked an iron arrow, aiming at the slender figure on the cliff, and shouted, “Put down your bow now!”
Ning Fei and Xiao Weiran had also arrived. Seeing the standoff, Xiao Weiran rushed forward a few steps, skillfully blocking the fully drawn bow. “Yi Xiao! Stop this nonsense, come down and beg His Highness for forgiveness!”
But she smiled brightly, drawing an arrow from her quiver and nocking it. She drew the string to its full extent as well. “It’s death either way—if you want to go to Su Sha today, you’ll have to step over my corpse!”
Ning Fei was already drenched in cold sweat. “Yi Xiao, have you gone mad?” As he took a step forward, there was a twang of a bowstring. Amid the soldiers’ cries of alarm, Fu Yi Xiao’s arrow embedded itself in the ground an inch from his foot, its tail still quivering. Looking up, they saw Yi Xiao already nocking another arrow, her face expressionless.
Xiao Weiran’s face had turned pale. Just as he was about to speak, Xia Jingshi stepped out from behind him. “Your Highness!” Ning Fei cried out in alarm. Xia Jingshi’s fingers released the bowstring, and the iron arrow whistled through the air, piercing Yi Xiao’s shoulder blade in an instant. The force of the arrow made Fu Yi Xiao stumble and fall to the ground.
“Capture her,” Xia Jingshi ordered coldly, tossing the bow and arrow to the ground. He turned and boarded the carriage, the curtains quickly falling behind him.