Li Gu’s eyelids began to grow heavy.

He said, “Because I killed the old man, you had to marry a second time. Yuzhang, I have wronged you.”

For a long while, Xie Yuzhang’s voice came from outside the curtain. She asked hesitantly, “You… killed Ashina Siliful?”

From within the curtain came Li Gu’s voice.

“Yes,” he said. “I knew that killing him meant you would inevitably have to remarry. But when I encountered such a rare and fleeting opportunity to eliminate him, I still chose to take it. Yuzhang, you may hate me.”

Xie Yuzhang stared at that top of the curtain with its lilac color and “full pond of blossoms” pattern, and felt a profound bewilderment.

She was not surprised that Li Gu had chosen to kill Ashina Siliful.

The opposing positions of the two sides determined that Li Gu killing Ashina Siliful, or Ashina Siliful killing Li Ming and Li Gu, was the most natural and inevitable thing in the world. Given any one of them the chance to kill their enemy, they would draw their blade or draw their bow without a moment’s hesitation.

There was truly no need to ask why.

What left her bewildered was this: at that time, Yunjing had already fallen into chaos, Hexi was on the verge of chaos, and it was just the period when Li Ming should have been meeting his death. Yet the place where Ashina Siliful had been ambushed was only a day’s journey from the ancestral lands of the Ashina clan — the very heartland of the steppe.

How had Li Gu come to be in that place at that time?

A person she would never have expected, at a time she would never have expected, appearing in a place she would never have expected.

Had Li Gu not said it with his own mouth, she would never have believed it.

Xie Yuzhang stood up and walked over.

Li Gu saw a slender silhouette projected onto the curtain.

“Why were you there?” she asked. “At that time, you should not have been there at all.”

Indeed, at that time he should not have been there at all.

In the days that came after, Li Gu had also revisited this many times in his mind. If he had left for Liangzhou the moment the order of his adoptive father’s summons arrived, would Huo Jiu have still dared to lay a hand against his adoptive father? Would Second Brother have been forced to that point? Would Liangzhou have run with rivers of blood?

He naturally did not know that in Xie Yuzhang’s other life, he had also not rushed immediately to Liangzhou — because he had not wanted to compete against Li Second. Li Ming’s fate, it turned out, was fated in both lives alike.

But for the Li Gu of this life, apart from the ambush that had killed the Mobei Khan, there was the late return that had left Li Ming — a hero of his age — to die at the hands of a conspiracy, and the abandonment halfway that had left Xie Yuzhang — treasured and cherished beyond measure — to carry the name of a second marriage. These things, he had always borne alone.

Had Qingque’s death not wounded him so deeply, he would not have stripped Li Zhenzhen of her lifetime of honor and driven her from the center of power.

Li Gu said, “I went to bring you back.”

Xie Yuzhang repeated his words, “Bring me back?”

Li Gu felt his eyelids growing heavier.

He closed his eyes and said, “At that time, Yunjing had fallen, Da Zhao was destined to perish — only the great man had not yet moved, and was still a subject of Da Zhao. I… in that fleeting window of time, I decided to go and bring you back…”

“Only I did not succeed. Halfway there, someone caught up with me, and I learned that the great man was gone. And then, by sheer chance, I encountered the old man… a rare opportunity beyond a thousand years…”

“Yuzhang, I… abandoned you.”

“Yuzhang…”

The silhouette projected onto the curtain was silent for a long, long while.

Li Gu seemed to hear Xie Yuzhang’s voice, but as he drifted toward sleep, the voice became distant and unclear.

“Who asked you to come for me?”

“I had a dowry retinue of more than a thousand people. Could you have taken me away? No matter what happened to me, I would never have fled alone with you.”

“And besides — who are you to me? What right do you have to speak of ‘abandonment’?”

Li Gu struggled to open his eyes.

In the haze, he saw a slender, graceful hand lift the edge of the curtain. The beautiful young woman stepped into the curtain.

She was not angry, not furious. It seemed she was even smiling at him.

He seemed to hear her sigh, “You really are such a fool…”

Li Gu dreamed a dream.

In the past, he had often dreamed of her.

How could a man feel no desire for such a woman? His desire for her had always been as fierce as the molten currents beneath a volcano. So it had been ten years ago, and so it remained now.

But in the past, when they were far apart, he could let himself freely imagine, freely dream. Now, with her so close to him, she was, in truth, within easy reach.

And so he had not dared to casually stir those desires, for fear that one day he might again fail to restrain himself and do something he would regret.

Day after day, he had trained himself to keep a clear head in her presence, driving away all impure thoughts.

Because only in this way would she feel at ease beside him, and only then would she relax and smile — smile genuinely — rather than always weighing and calculating, uneasy and apprehensive, forcing a smile for appearances.

Those dreams he had dreamed of her were, of course, not something he could speak of to anyone.

But tonight’s dream was unlike all the others.

Those past dreams had their allure as well, but in them she had always been shy and yielding, gentle and compliant.

Tonight’s dream, however, was of a splendor and abandon he had never seen before.

The figure in the dream had skin that gleamed like crystal, dark hair cascading like a waterfall, and those eyes held a smile that was not quite a smile, those lips a pout that was not quite a pout.

When she moved freely above him, her presence was ethereal and unrestrained, making no effort to conceal her hunger for him. That single point of vivid red at the center of her form leaped and danced wildly in his vision.

Li Gu had never imagined that Xie Yuzhang could be so bold and unguarded.

She bent to kiss him.

She seemed to call him “General,” and laughed. Then called him “Your Majesty,” and laughed again, soft and teasing.

Color flushed her cheeks in a way he had never seen before. Her dark hair trailed across his chest, and a pair of alluring, shimmering phoenix eyes were bewitching enough to steal his very soul.

Well then — it was only a dream. What did it matter to be a little unrestrained?

Only how could he allow her to run so wild. He caught the back of her head and drew her down. Those deep red lips — he had wanted them for ten years.

Heat exploded through his body. A general’s battlefield does not tolerate another’s command. Blade in hand, arrow on string — refusal meets only the sword.

After all, it was a dream. No need for tenderness, no need for restraint. Neither General nor Emperor — only a man and a woman. Primal charge, wild battle.

In the end — who would lay down their weapons, who would beg for mercy? Who would bite their lip, sobbing softly, eyes blurred with tears, toes curling?

When Li Gu woke, the faint light of morning was filtering through the curtain.

Li Gu was rather startled, for no matter how late he slept, he always woke before dawn. Waking only when the morning light brightened was, for him, already sleeping in.

With sufficient sleep, his energy was full, and his body felt an inexplicable sense of ease.

Xie Yuzhang’s sleep-calming incense was indeed remarkable.

The room was filled with a pleasant fragrance, masking all other scents. Only it seemed slightly different from the night before — had she changed the incense for him after he fell asleep?

Li Gu dressed, quietly pushed open the partition door, and walked into the side room.

The daybed in the side room was not by the window but against the wall, its position the same as the bed in the inner chamber. An embroidered screen blocked the line of sight. When he occupied Xie Yuzhang’s bed, she would sleep on the daybed in the side room to watch over him. The handmaids would set up this embroidered screen at night, at least providing some small barrier.

It truly was putting her to hardship.

In the past few times, she would have been awake by now, wrapped in her outer robe, slipping her feet into shoes, asking him, “Did you sleep well?” But today she had also risen late, with no sound or movement from her at all.

Li Gu’s gaze passed through the semi-transparent gauze of the embroidered screen, and he could faintly make out a figure lying on her side, her back to him.

The room was warm from the underground heating. The covers were light, clinging close to her body, mountains and valleys rising and falling.

In just that one glance, the glamorous and intoxicating dream from the night before rushed over him all at once.

Between his lips he seemed to still sense soft fragrant warmth; in his palms he could still feel the delicate tenderness of the skin from that dream.

Her slender waist — in his grasp, barely a single handful. He had controlled the rhythm, not permitting her to act on her own accord.

Li Gu did not dare look a second time. He turned and walked out with quick strides.

On the road back to the palace, riding on horseback, his mind drifted the whole way. The cold wind blew against him the entire journey, and only when he saw the great gates of the palace city did those vivid and dazzling images finally scatter.

On that side, the sun was already high by the time Xie Yuzhang rose in a languid haze. Yawning, she asked, “How is Jia You?”

The handmaid said, “She’s already up and had her morning meal. She looks well — eyes and brows all bright and lively. Everyone is keeping a close watch on her now, not daring to look away.”

Xie Yuzhang gave a murmur of acknowledgment, then asked, “And His Majesty?” Her tone was lazy and soft, the kind of voice that made a person feel limp just hearing it.

The handmaid replied, “He left early in the morning. He told us not to wake Your Highness.”

Xie Yuzhang made a quiet sound of acknowledgment, and rather than eating her morning meal first, she called for water to bathe.

In the bathing room, all but the closest personal attendant were dismissed.

When her robes were removed, the marks on her skin made the handmaid draw in a sharp breath — shocked, and then tittering with laughter.

“No laughing, you wicked girl,” Xie Yuzhang settled into the warm water and scolded her. “You’re not even married yet and you’re not the least bit shy.”

The handmaid flushed, gave a little spit of mock indignation, but her eyes were smiling as she asked, “How did our His Majesty, stiff as a block of wood, suddenly become so enlightened?”

Others all assumed things had long since progressed between the Emperor and the Princess. But these closest personal attendants knew that the situation between these two was very strange indeed.

If there were no feelings between them — they could share a room in a state of undress, and the Emperor even slept in the Princess’s bed.

If there were feelings — the handmaids knew full well the two of them had never truly had any skin-to-skin intimacy.

The Emperor was clearly in the prime of his years. The Princess’s beauty could overturn kingdoms. Neither of the two was ignorant of the ways between men and women, yet they had somehow managed to hold themselves in check — quite extraordinary.

Xie Yuzhang, her waist aching and her legs soft, let the hot water soak her as every part of her went boneless and languid. She said lazily, “Waiting for him to become enlightened? That would take ten thousand years. Besides, last night she used the sleep-calming incense.”

The handmaid was startled into uncertainty. “Then…”

Xie Yuzhang’s fingertips stirred the flower petals on the surface of the water. “Whether he remembers or not is another matter entirely.”

The handmaid stamped her foot in frustration. “What on earth are you trying to do?”

Xie Yuzhang gave a humph, and said with exasperation, “You don’t know what kind of fool he is — he says nothing, the kind of person who could literally vex someone to death. Why should I be kind to a fool? Watch and see — if he remembers, fine. If he doesn’t, then let it go. It was simply meant to be that we two have no fate together.”

This mistress’s temper had been growing increasingly unruly over these past two years. The handmaid was so flustered that she accidentally poured half a bottle too much essence oil, and the bathing basin was filled with curling wisps of steam, the bathing room entirely enveloped in fragrance.

After her morning meal, Xie Yuzhang went to see Jia You.

Though Jia You was still quiet, the coldness was gone from her brows and eyes, and they had softened considerably. Xie Yuzhang sat beside her on the same daybed, and Jia You leaned toward her, resting her head on Xie Yuzhang’s shoulder and holding her arm in a tight embrace.

Xie Yuzhang’s heart was flooded with tenderness.

Jia You had such little strength. A person fragile as a willow branch, yet with thoughts of “avenging” Fukang filling her mind, she had tucked a pair of scissors into her sleeve and dared to go and kill Li Gu.

With Li Gu’s skills, killing her would have been as easy as wringing the neck of a small chicken. He had summoned Hu Jin and Liang Chen from the side room into the main room not to protect himself, but for fear that Jia You might injure herself. She was a young woman, so Li Gu was not easy about handling her, and Hu Jin was not well-suited to intervene either. It was fortunate that Liang Chen had been there.

“From now on, don’t act on your own judgment,” Xie Yuzhang held her gently and said in a soft voice. “If there is anything you want, tell your sister. As long as it is the right thing to do, your sister will see to it that you can do it. But you must never take risks, and must never hide things from your sister.”

She sighed. “Yesterday you were truly reckless. We were fortunate that His Majesty understood your situation and did not hold it against us. He is a man known far and wide for killing — had it been anyone else, by now you would have been in two pieces. Are you frightened?”

Jia You did indeed shudder. Last night she had truly resolved herself to die if that was what it took. How was she to know she could not even reach the hem of Li Gu’s robe? One misstep, and her shoulder had been dislocated. The pain was enough to make a person want only to scream.

Good — knowing fear was a good thing. Xie Yuzhang patted her on the back, but then called forward the handmaids who had failed in their duty the night before, and punished them in front of Jia You.

She told Jia You, “You see — not one of us lives alone. Even if you spend all day without speaking, if you do the slightest thing out of the ordinary, the people close to you who care for you will be punished for it.”

Jia You’s eyes reddened. She nodded.

Xie Yuzhang said, “You be good. Once Wanxiu returns, we’ll let Ya’ya come in to keep you company again.”

But Jia You shook her head, and actually opened her mouth to speak. “Ya’ya is not a younger sister to me. I cannot be her elder sister.”

Xie Yuzhang was both startled and delighted. “You are willing to speak today.”

Jia You said, “From now on, I will speak.”