On the sixth day of the first month in the first year of Jiahe, Great Liang sent Privy Councilor Qi Jingchen as chief envoy and Minister of the Court of Imperial Hospitality Fan Zhengyuan as deputy envoy to Northern Wei for peace negotiations. The diplomatic mission was impressively large with over a hundred members, and the Son of Heaven personally saw them off with all his officials—truly a magnificent spectacle.

Shen Xiling disguised herself as a little maidservant, secretly hiding in the chief envoy’s carriage.

Such an exciting affair left the young lady feeling thrilled and anxious. Before the chief envoy returned to his carriage, she had been restless inside, terrified of being discovered, unable to help asking Bai Song and Qing Zhu sitting outside the carriage every little while whether anyone was approaching. Qing Zhu grew impatient from her questioning and said through the carriage curtain with annoyance: “What are you afraid of? Who would dare enter Young Master’s carriage? Even if someone did enter and saw a maidservant inside, what would be wrong with that?”

Shen Xiling understood this reasoning, but her heart remained uneasy, fearing some accident, until Qi Ying finished listening to the Son of Heaven’s instructions and returned to the carriage to prepare for their northward departure. Only then did she finally relax.

The beautiful little maidservant cowering timidly in the corner of the carriage was quite endearing—not like a cat but more like a little mouse, making the chief envoy who entered the carriage smile.

He drew her into his arms and asked: “Scared?”

The little maidservant hugged the chief envoy’s waist and nodded vigorously like a pecking chicken.

Qi Ying smiled, grasped her hand, and coaxed: “It’s alright, I’m here, aren’t I?”

After such gentle coaxing several times, he finally managed to ease his little maidservant’s mind.

Don’t let this maidservant’s timid and inexperienced appearance fool you—she was actually quite wealthy with a bulging purse, carrying a full ten thousand taels of silver on this northern journey, which rather surprised even the chief envoy.

Though Qi Ying had always known this young lady had considerable talent for business and had earned some silver, he had never asked how much she had accumulated in total. Seeing her casually produce ten thousand taels to carry with her, looking for all the world like a wealthy merchant, left him momentarily speechless.

Actually, the chief envoy’s assessment wasn’t entirely accurate.

Though Shen Xiling was indeed quite wealthy, she couldn’t casually produce tens of thousands of taels. As early as when Qi Ying went on the Northern Expedition, she had already begun organizing her business interests. Consolidating her assets under the guise of charitable donations was reasonable and wouldn’t attract too much attention. In total, she had gathered over ten thousand taels of silver. She estimated that as long as they weren’t too extravagant, this would be sufficient for their lifetime needs.

The little maidservant was quite proud of this achievement. During their northward journey, she would frequently pull out the banknotes from her small purse to show off to the chief envoy, looking adorably like she was seeking credit and reward. The chief envoy felt both helpless and amused, unsure whether to tell her that he had already arranged their future destination and all necessities in advance, making her savings probably unnecessary. After thinking it over, he ultimately said nothing, letting the young lady remain happily proud.

Speaking of money, he had never mentioned to Shen Xiling the two shocking fortunes Minister Shen had given him years ago. He wasn’t a greedy person and had no intention of using this money, but since he was leaving the court, entrusting this sum to anyone else would be inappropriate—it was more secure for them to take it with them. He would discuss this matter with the young lady after they settled down.

The journey from Jiankang north to Shangjing required nearly a month of travel. Departing in the first month, they expected to arrive in the second month of spring.

Though the envoy’s carriage was already quite spacious and comfortable, the constant jolting of the road was naturally very tiring. After just a few days, Shen Xiling began suffering from backaches and general discomfort.

Truth be told, she had been pampered by Qi Ying these past years. She wasn’t originally someone who couldn’t endure hardship—during her impoverished childhood days, she hadn’t felt anything was particularly difficult. Yet now she couldn’t even tolerate a bit of travel bumping, which made her feel ashamed of herself. The chief envoy was very caring toward her, and since she hadn’t brought her maids like Shuipei this time, he personally looked after her the entire journey with meticulous care.

Of course Shuipei and the others couldn’t be brought along—how could one elope with a whole household? Shen Xiling hadn’t even told them she wouldn’t be returning. She felt secretly sad when leaving.

Her mood had been melancholy for several days since their departure. Seeing her continued quiet sadness, Qi Ying promised that once they settled down later, he would find a way to bring the maids over. Only then did the young lady’s spirits improve somewhat.

But not completely, because she was also very reluctant to leave Fenghe Courtyard.

The four years living at Fenghe Courtyard had been as wonderful as a dream. She loved every flower, leaf, blade of grass, and tree there. She loved Huaijin Courtyard and Woyu Courtyard, loved the candlelight in Wangshi, loved the lotus pond in Wangyuan, loved everything about that place. More importantly, it held her memories with him: when he left her outside Fenghe Courtyard’s gate and ignored her, when he taught her to read in Wangshi, when he fed her crab in Wangyuan, when he first kissed her on the bed in Huaijin Courtyard… so very many memories.

She truly couldn’t bear to leave that place. Though she knew what was truly important was him rather than the location, she still inevitably felt reluctant to part.

However, these sentimental feelings began to fade after a few days, because as they traveled farther from Jiankang, the scenery outside the carriage gradually changed, greatly shocking Shen Xiling.

Shen Xiling was born and raised in Jiankang. The farthest she had ever traveled was that trip to Langya to seek relatives years ago, and otherwise just occasional business trips in the Jianghuai region, all not too far from Jiankang.

The Jianghuai region shared waterways with Jiankang City—all were places of peace and prosperity, historically known as lands of fish and rice and quite wealthy. Everywhere she looked, she saw scenes of people living and working in contentment. She had never witnessed any desolation, decline, or displacement.

But as they traveled farther from Jiankang, the scenery along the route gradually became desolate. The Son of Heaven’s protection and blessings seemed not to extend this far. There were often emaciated refugees collapsed by the roadside. Passing through some villages and towns, only weak women worked in the fields, with half-grown children carrying smaller ones on their backs, helping their mothers. The occasional men were all old and weak—either white-haired with age or physically disabled.

The rumbling of carriage wheels couldn’t drown out the cries of starving children by the roadside, while their fathers and mothers were only more exhausted and hungry than they were—they were the fortunate ones, still having fathers and mothers. Many other children had already lost their parents and become piles of dried bones by the roadside.

Truly… scenes of human misery.

Shen Xiling wasn’t learning about the hardships of people’s livelihood for the first time. When Qi Ying went on the Northern Expedition, she had already learned about the situation through various channels to help in some small way. But hearing with one’s ears and seeing with one’s eyes were vastly different. When all this burst so directly and suddenly into her vision, she was completely shocked, unable to speak at all.

Such devastation, when actually occurring, was surprisingly quiet—when someone died from poverty and hunger, it was so silent that no one even knew, and even if someone did know, they wouldn’t care because they were already overwhelmed with their own troubles.

Shen Xiling was speechless.

She hadn’t been born into a life free from worry about food and clothing. Before meeting Qi Ying, her days had also been quite hard. She had never starved, but understood the feeling of being cold in winter and knew how crushing poverty could be. These years of comfortable living had made her somewhat forget those childhood memories, but witnessing all this firsthand brought those recollections surging back, making her heart ache.

She was fortunate—when she had nothing years ago, she was saved by Qi Ying. But many more were unfortunate, with no one to save them, so they died.

At this moment she saw a mother with a small child walking by the roadside. The mother had fainted from hunger, and the child was crying loudly beside her. Shen Xiling couldn’t bear to ignore them and begged Qi Ying to stop the carriage and give them some food.

Though Qi Ying agreed at the time, his expression appeared somewhat indifferent, lacking the gentleness and magnanimity he usually showed when with her.

He even seemed rather cold-hearted.

Only then did she realize he was different from her—he had become accustomed to such scenes, having seen even more tragic ones, so he no longer easily felt sorrow.

She understood him very well, so even seeing his cold and indifferent appearance at that moment, she wouldn’t misunderstand him as heartless. Instead, she could touch upon this person’s true thoughts: he wasn’t unmoved, but knew that beyond this one life, there was endless suffering that couldn’t be saved.

He felt powerless.

At that time, Shen Xiling didn’t really know what she was thinking—on one hand pitying those people in misery, on the other feeling sorry for this man who bore everything on his shoulders, her heart twisted in knots.

She watched Qing Zhu get off the carriage with water and flatbread. The child was sensible too—though he was also hungry, when he received the food he first fed his mother. When his mother awakened and saw the well-dressed Qing Zhu, she first showed a cowering, fearful expression, then realizing he was giving them charity, she put aside her fear. Without bothering to eat, she immediately began kowtowing in endless gratitude.

…How much oppression must she have endured to be so bewildered with fear?

Shen Xiling felt stifled inside. She turned back to look at Qi Ying and saw he had already turned his face away, no longer watching. His expression was composed, but his eyes appeared melancholy.

The carriage continued moving forward.

Shen Xiling closed the carriage window and stopped looking outside, but the scene from moments before lingered before her eyes. After much thought, she couldn’t help asking Qi Ying: “Is there… is there anything I can help with?”

Qi Ying turned back to look at her, seeing the young lady’s delicate white fingers clutching at her own skirt hem, her beautiful eyes clean and pure, like pink lotus flowers growing from mud in a lotus pond.

His mood improved somewhat because of her question at that moment. He showed a slight smile, even reaching out to pinch her little face, saying: “When the court called for charitable donations from merchants earlier, didn’t you already donate tens of thousands of taels of silver?”

Shen Xiling was stunned upon hearing this, then her expression became somewhat awkward and bashful as she lowered her head and said: “Young Master already knew…”

Of course Qi Ying knew.

As soon as he returned to Jiankang, his mother and elder brother had told him about this matter. His mother had even praised Wenwen to him, saying she was kind-hearted and would surely receive karmic rewards in the future.

He had smiled upon hearing this, thinking that he didn’t know how ethereal things like karmic rewards might work out in the future, but he knew his young lady had always been so kind-hearted—it was her nature and had never changed.

At this moment he smiled and answered: “Mother mentioned it to me—you did very well and were a great help.”

He was always like this—when speaking of the great deeds he accomplished, he was always calm and understated, as if they weren’t worth mentioning. But whatever she did, he would praise her, even using phrases like “were a great help,” as if she were even more remarkable than him, with a tone like coaxing a child.

Shen Xiling blushed from his praise and felt even more embarrassed. Thinking of the scene she had just witnessed, her heart remained heavy. She frowned and said: “I originally thought tens of thousands of taels was really quite a lot, but seeing this now… it seems like an ant compared to a giant tree, a grain of rice compared to the vast ocean—completely useless… Just how much silver would it take to prevent such things from happening?”

She looked at him in confusion, as if urgently seeking an answer from him, ready to immediately set about doing it.

But this was the first time Qi Ying couldn’t answer her question.

In his youth, he too had explored the answer to this question, always thinking that the root of national poverty and people’s displacement lay in the north-south warfare—that once the Northern Expedition succeeded and the Central Plains were recovered, everything could be stable and peaceful.

But later he learned he was wrong. For example, despite the great victory of the current Northern Expedition, people were still displaced, their circumstances even worse than before the war.

What about the future? The past was thus, the present was thus—would the future really improve? Not to mention that the current Great Liang fundamentally lacked the power to annex Gao Wei. Even if it had such national strength, what comes together must eventually split apart. Whether in prosperity or decline, common people would suffer—when the nest is overturned, no eggs remain intact.

Conflict would never cease, simply because human nature was inherently combative, especially among those in power.

No one could make conflict end. The only way out might simply be to control the manner of conflict. To let the common people of the world live better lives, perhaps there was only one method, and that was…

Qi Ying fell into deep thought.

When he was lost in thought, his eyes would appear particularly dark, like an unfathomable deep pool. Seeing this, worry inevitably appeared in Shen Xiling’s eyes. She tentatively grasped his hand. He came back to himself and looked at her, then his expression returned to normal as he smiled at her without saying anything more.

Author’s Note:

They’ll probably be in Wei for about two chapters, not very long. Next update or the one after that, we’ll meet the male supporting character~