The Gao Family had not come with many men. They had brought around twenty when they came to the capital. A number had died at Xiaoyao Manor, and more had been killed in the manhunt that followed. Now, counting Gao Da’lang himself, only twelve remained.

They had connections inside the capital city and had believed the task would not be difficult. Who could have predicted that not only would they fail, but they would lose so many men in the attempt?

Gao Da’lang had been consumed with fury. Knowing it was Princess Yongning who had ruined his plans, he had fixed all his rage squarely upon her.

The city had been sealed for over half a month while they were hunted. It was only now, when the search had finally quieted, that they had managed to slip out of Yunjing.

The Emperor, out of pity for the Xiaoyao Manor’s two remaining women, had bestowed the Western Hills’ “Luo Garden” upon Princess Xie Yuzhang. The garden was famous enough that Gao Da’lang had heard of it even from far away in Xinzhou.

Hearing that the princess had gone to Luo Garden to recover, Gao Da’lang’s fury rose again at the thought of returning with nothing accomplished. He decided to kill her before heading back, just to vent his rage.

That afternoon, they went up the mountain and lay in wait until nightfall, then threw iron claws over the walls, climbed ropes, and pulled themselves over.

In any estate, the garden may be arranged in all manner of ways, but the main layout follows a familiar pattern. The main hall will always be on the central axis, as will the front and rear gates. Gao Da’lang found his way to the main hall and did indeed find the “Princess Yongning” there — but this princess had such a striking bearing, fearless and unflinching, rare among women, that he found himself unexpectedly moved.

On a sudden impulse, Gao Da’lang decided not to kill her and resolved instead to take her captive.

But with the princess in tow, they could no longer scale the walls on the way out. The group decided to leave through the rear gate.

Along the way, they encountered a patrol of night guards. Lin Fei tried to call for help, but before she could open her mouth, Gao Da’lang’s blade was already at her throat with startling swiftness. Once the guards had passed, Gao Da’lang gagged Lin Fei’s mouth with a strip of cloth. His hand closed around her neck: “Try calling out — see what happens.”

The man’s hand was large, his palm calloused. The woman’s neck was slender, the skin smooth.

It would snap at a single squeeze.

Lin Fei looked at him in the darkness. She saw the murderous coldness in this man’s eyes and understood he was not joking. When she had walked out of the main hall just now, the young maids, the attendants, the gatekeeping women at the courtyard entrance — all of them lay in pools of blood. Lin Fei abandoned any thought of calling for help.

They made their way to the rear gate. The men moved in one swift motion — the woman guarding the gate barely managed a sound before blood spurted from her throat and she collapsed, dead.

Gao Da’lang glanced at the “Princess Yongning” by the light of the moon and found that she was neither startled nor afraid. Her expression was unchanged, only her brow was furrowed with deep thought — she was clearly working out a means of escape. He inwardly conceded a word of admiration: worthy, indeed, of a woman who had fought her way back from Mobei in glory.

They crept to a grove of trees. Gao Da’lang let out a low whistle, and a contact emerged from the shadows, leading horses forward.

Gao Da’lang took hold of his horse and raised an eyebrow at Lin Fei. Without a word, Lin Fei swung herself into the saddle — light, agile, the movement of someone thoroughly at ease on horseback. Gao Da’lang mounted behind her, and the two of them shared the horse.

The group slipped away down the mountain under cover of darkness.

Gao Da’lang pulled the cloth gag from Lin Fei’s mouth and asked, “How did you know who I was?”

Lin Fei said, “Under the Emperor’s kill order, there are no real bandits left in the capital region. The only ones bold enough to force their way into a residence lately are the Gao Family from the south.”

Gao Da’lang said, “I asked how you knew I was specifically me. Even if I were someone sent by the Gao Family, I could just as well have been Zhang Da’lang or Li Da’lang.”

Lin Fei said, “I didn’t know. I was only bluffing.”

Gao Da’lang: “…”

Gao Da’lang ground his teeth and drove his heels into the horse’s flanks.

“Xie Yuzhang,” he said, “let me ask you about someone. The Lin girl — word is she went on a hunger strike and followed you all the way to Mobei. Li Shiyi Lang himself praised her as a woman of exceptional loyalty and integrity. Is it true?”

Lin Fei said, “It is.”

Gao Da’lang said with satisfaction, “Not bad. She has not brought dishonor upon me.”

Lin Fei laughed softly.

Gao Da’lang asked, “What are you laughing at?”

“Laughing at how absurd you are,” Lin Fei said. “It was nothing more than a brief betrothal from youth, broken off more than ten years ago. Who do you think you are? Don’t flatter yourself. Whatever path the Lin girl walked had nothing to do with you.”

Gao Da’lang said, “It has everything to do with me. A woman who was once betrothed to me cannot be some weak and ignorant creature who knows nothing beyond needlework.”

Then he added, “You seem to know quite a lot about the matter between me and the Lin girl.”

Lin Fei had no interest in engaging further. She closed her mouth and said nothing more.

The path down the mountain leveled out. Gao Da’lang pressed his heels to the horse’s belly, the group picked up speed, and they vanished into the night.

Half an hour later, another group came racing down the mountain behind them.

Upon reaching that spot, Yuan Jin leapt from his horse, held up a torch, and studied the marks on the ground carefully. He pointed in the opposite direction: “This way!”

Xie Yuzhang was dressed in riding clothes, a dagger at her waist, both eyes red. She shouted fiercely, “After them!”

When she had returned from Jia You’s room to the main hall and saw the people lying in pools of blood, Xie Yuzhang’s mind had gone blank with a thunderous shock. By instinct she reached for the dagger at her waist.

But since the annihilation of Xiaoyao Manor, she had not worn that dagger for many days.

Xie Yuzhang pulled a gold hairpin from her hair, gripped it in her hand, and charged into the room.

Lin Fei was gone. Wanxiu’s hands and mouth were both bound, the rope tied to the leg of the couch. She was struggling with everything she had, desperately trying to make some sound of warning.

When the cloth gag was removed from her mouth, Wanxiu’s tears poured down in an instant. Her words came out rapid-fire, concise and clear: “The Gao Family of Xinzhou has abducted Fei Niang — Fei Niang made them believe she is you!”

Fei Niang made them believe she is you!

The short, clear words struck Xie Yuzhang’s mind like a thunderclap.

Stay calm, Xie Yuzhang told herself. Stay calm — you must stay calm.

“Gather the guards!” she commanded. “Help me change clothes!”

She changed into her riding clothes at once. By the time she was done, Yuan Jin had already assembled all the guards in Luo Garden.

Xie Yuzhang’s mind had already steadied: “Send riders to the capital with word — to General Hu and the Guangping Earl’s residence both. Leave ten men to guard the villa. Everyone else, with me!”

She took the group and rode in pursuit. But the mountain roads at night were treacherous, and no one dared ride at full speed. At every fork they had to dismount and read the trail — which left them much slower than Gao Da’lang’s group.

The night was deep and heavy, and the torchlight illuminated only a limited circle of ground.

How long would the messengers take to reach Yunjing on a night road? When would dawn come? When would the city gates open?

Worry after worry flashed through her mind. She could only grip the reins tighter, clench her teeth harder, and keep riding.

At one fork in the road, when Yuan Jin pointed out a direction for the third time, Xie Yuzhang asked, “Are you certain?”

Yuan Jin said, “Certain!”

Yuan Jin’s skill at reading trails was extraordinary, and Xie Yuzhang did in fact trust him. But she could not understand it: “The Gao Family is heading south to go home — why take this route? Shouldn’t they be following the Qu River?”

Yuan Jin was a nomadic tribesman from the steppe and naturally had no idea why. He looked to his deputy.

The deputy was a man of keen practical sense. Xie Yuzhang had long since made it clear: Yuan Jin was to handle riding and fighting, everything else was the deputy’s domain. The two of them had clearly defined roles.

The deputy thought for a brief moment, then slapped the pommel of his saddle: “This is bad — he means to take the Si River!”

The Qu River flowed through Yunjing, its waters rolling south to join the great natural barrier of the main river and connect the north-south canal trade routes. The traffic on the Qu was all official and cargo vessels. Being the main artery of canal transport, it had only one point of entry into the main river. It passed through a string of prosperous towns along its banks — but also through layer upon layer of checkpoints.

The Si River did not flow through Yunjing. Even at a gallop, it was three or four days from the capital, brushing only the very edge of what might be called the “capital region.”

In many stretches the Si River was too shallow for large vessels, but its many tributaries all ultimately joined the main river, and along the whole of its course there were virtually no checkpoints. If the Gao Family entered the Si River by small boat, they would scatter like mercury on a floor — impossible to gather up again.

The deputy explained all of this to Xie Yuzhang. Her face drained of color.

After a brief pause she pointed to one rider: “You — go to Yunjing and inform them of our position.” To the rest: “Follow me!”

Hooves thundered. She rode in pursuit of Gao Da’lang and Lin Fei.

This was the most grueling chase Xie Yuzhang had ever experienced in her life. It was nothing like hunting.

They rode from dawn to afternoon, eating flatbread and smoked meat along the way.

Even in Mobei, Xie Yuzhang had never eaten food so coarse and plain as this. But now she truly understood why Li Gu subsisted on such humble fare when riding out — it was simply practical. Wrap the smoked meat in the flatbread, eat it in big bites, then mount up and keep riding.

By the time full darkness had fallen, Xie Yuzhang wanted to keep going. Yuan Jin grabbed her horse’s reins. “The horses need rest, or they’ll die.”

Back in Yunjing, horses could no longer be kept the way they were in Mobei. The ones she had now were guards’ horses, not warhorses bred for the battlefield. She had brought everyone she could, and there were no spare mounts.

Xie Yuzhang had no choice but to dismount, her jaw tight.

They had left in such haste that no tents or supplies had been brought along. The saddle blankets were pulled off and spread on the ground to serve as bedding.

Before they had even finished laying them out, the rumbling of hoofbeats reached their ears. Everyone rose at once, hands going to the hilts of their blades.

Hundreds of riders came thundering toward them. The rider at the front reined to a halt: “Yongning!”

It was Li Gu. General Hu and Yang Huaishen dismounted right behind him, striding quickly forward. They had set out at least three or four hours after her, and yet they had caught up.

When Xie Yuzhang saw Yang Huaishen, she felt as though she had no right to face him. “Second Brother!” She wanted to cry, but felt she had no right to cry, and forced herself to clench her teeth.

Yang Huaishen’s complexion was ashen. He asked, “Which way did the Gao Family go?”

Xie Yuzhang pointed in the opposite direction. “That way!”

Yang Huaishen mounted at once. Li Gu said to Xie Yuzhang, “Go back. We’ll handle the pursuit.” And with that, he spurred his horse forward.

Xie Yuzhang could see clearly — the Imperial Guard cavalry were riding two-to-a-horse, the standard combat formation. Without another word, she seized one of the spare horses and rode after them.

Li Gu looked back and saw her giving chase. He shouted, “Go back!”

Xie Yuzhang called back, “I can keep up!”

Li Gu frowned, but then: “Stay close!”

What followed was the most exhausting stretch of Xie Yuzhang’s life.

They rode for three days. On the third day, they finally spotted the Gao Family in the distance — and saw them boarding boats at the edge of the Si River.

Li Gu snatched his bow and loosed an arrow. One man dropped without a sound.

Xie Yuzhang and Yang Huaishen cried out at the same instant: “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”

Li Gu issued no further command to fire. The Imperial Guards held their bows drawn but had not nocked arrows — they waited for orders.

The group rode to the riverbank. The Gao Family’s boat had already pushed off from the shore. Though it had not gone far, it remained within arrow range; if they fired now, every man on that boat would die.

But Li Gu did not give the order to fire. He only said, “Find boats!”

Yang Huaishen had moved before the words were even finished and was already leading men in search of vessels.

General Hu bellowed across the water, calling for surrender.

The boat was pulling away rapidly, moving out of range of the mounted archers on the shore. Gao Da’lang did not respond.

He gazed toward the riverbank for a long moment before turning his eyes away. He asked Lin Fei, “Who is that young woman? How can anyone be so beautiful?”

Lin Fei smiled and said nothing.

Gao Da’lang felt something click into place.

“She is Princess Yongning!” he declared with certainty.

He had never quite believed the near-mythical tales of Princess Yongning’s beauty.

When he had first laid eyes on Lin Fei at Luo Garden, he had found her beautiful — but somewhere in the back of his mind, he had thought the legend a little exaggerated.

But now, seeing the true Xie Yuzhang with his own eyes, he needed no confirmation from Lin Fei. He knew immediately that this was Princess Yongning.

Which meant…

He looked at Lin Fei. “Then who are you?”

Lin Fei smiled, and took one step sideways toward the ship’s railing.

As she gazed at that graceful figure on the shore, Lin Fei felt a lightness in her heart that she could not put into words.

The debt owed by the Lin Family’s daughter to the young princess — it was finally repaid.

Only — she was sorry to her husband. With hundreds of people on that shore bearing witness to the Guangping Earl’s wife being carried off by criminals for three or four days, even if she returned alive, it would be a stain on the Guangping Earl’s household.

Yang Huaishen bore her a deep and abiding love. She had failed him in this lifetime, and could never make it up to him.

Then — let it be in the next life.

Lin Fei looked at Gao Da’lang, her eyes radiant with a smile: “Tell me — does a daughter of the Lin Family of Jiangdong bring you shame?”

A name surfaced in Gao Da’lang’s mind — a name that had made him blush in boyhood. The betrothal had later been dissolved when the Lin Family fell. That name had long since been thrown into some forgotten corner.

But now it came back to him.

The betrothal document had read: Lin Family, Fei Niang.

Her name was Lin Fei!

He looked up, wanting to call her name.

His onetime betrothed seemed to glow. Her smile held the look of someone who had seen through everything in the world — and held it all in contempt.

There was no regret in her eyes. Only the deep fulfillment of someone who had gotten exactly what they sought.

She leaped into the river.

On the boat, Gao Da’lang roared: “Lin Fei!”

On the shore, Yang Huaishen cried out in anguish: “Fei Niang!”

Before Xie Yuzhang’s eyes, the world went black. She fell from her horse.