The horses of the younger lords and ladies had all been carefully selected by their families for their gentle and docile temperament — perfectly adequate for riding through the city, but not especially impressive when it came to a true gallop in the open countryside. The older young men had used the excuse of a horse-run to shake off the younger group.

Xie Yuzhang, however, had followed them.

Her horse was a fine thoroughbred. Though it had been kept “too comfortably,” it was nonetheless superior to the companions’ mounts by a measure, and she managed to keep up.

What astonished everyone was her horsemanship.

Those who knew her as well as the Fifth Prince and Yang Huaishen could not help but find a thought rising in their minds: when had Zhuzhu’s riding become this good?

Li Gu was unlike the others, who galloped at full abandon. He stayed half a horse’s length behind Xie Yuzhang at all times, watching over her attentively, and so he had a clearer view. The technique by which Xie Yuzhang controlled her horse left him surprised.

The group ran for more than ten li without stopping before they drew in their reins, letting the horses slow to a walk to rest their strength.

Li Gu reined in beside Xie Yuzhang, and when he raised his eyes, Xie Yuzhang had already fallen into step alongside Li Weifeng and was talking with him.

“Shiyi!” Li Weifeng turned and called back, “Come here.”

Li Gu paused, then drew his reins to catch up, positioning himself to Li Weifeng’s left while Xie Yuzhang rode in the center.

“I was just asking whether Your Highness’s riding instructor came from the north.” Li Weifeng said.

Li Gu looked at Xie Yuzhang. Xie Yuzhang smiled faintly and said, “I couldn’t say. I don’t really know.”

A princess could hardly be expected to concern herself with where a riding instructor came from — this was entirely reasonable. Li Gu nodded and said, “Your Highness’s technique for controlling a horse is closer to the Hu method. It is not the style commonly seen in the Central Plains.”

Xha’erdan and Wuwei had both taught her. From their perspective, instructing her in horsemanship and archery was much the same as scholars of Da Zhao being accompanied by a fair beauty as they studied — an elegant pastime of a different kind.

That Li Gu and Li Weifeng, both being military men, would see through it was no surprise to Xie Yuzhang.

“I have not learned it well. When jumping over obstacles, I often cannot clear them.” She seized the opportunity to seek guidance from the future Emperor and Great General. “What is the reason for that?”

Li Weifeng gave Li Gu a look, then quietly reined in slightly to slow his pace — being very perceptive — and graciously ceded the opportunity to Li Gu.

Li Gu asked Xie Yuzhang some details, then said, “Before the jump, does Your Highness find that you yourself have already grown fearful?”

“Indeed.” Xie Yuzhang admitted. “I always worry I won’t clear it and will be thrown off.”

“A horse has a spirit, and can sense the confidence in its rider. If Your Highness’s own courage fails first, the horse will follow your lead and grow fearful and hesitant.” Li Gu said. “Your Highness must first overcome this fear.”

He then went on to explain in detail the key points of the approach, the leap into the air, and the landing.

He was not a person of many words. His explanations carried no excess ornamentation, spare in expression yet pointed and precise, yet they were remarkably clear and easy to understand. Xie Yuzhang had only offered this as a pretext to draw close to him, yet she found herself genuinely learning a great deal.

“I understand. Once I have time, I will practice properly.” When Li Gu had finished, Xie Yuzhang smoothed back a strand of hair at her temple. “Once I reach the grasslands, there will likely be plenty of time to ride.”

Li Gu suddenly went still.

That feeling of being choked, of something pressing uncomfortably against his chest — it filled him again.

He found himself tightening his grip on the reins against his own will, and said, with words that did not reflect what was in his heart, “The grasslands and the desert are different from here. They are also… quite beautiful, in their own way.”

Xie Yuzhang was taken aback. She thought of the time he had told her “Princess Baohua is very beautiful,” and asked with genuine exasperation, “What are you trying to compliment? Is ‘beautiful’ the only word you know?”

Having said this, she shot him a sideways glance, tugged on her reins, and rode forward.

Had he made her angry?

Li Gu was dumbfounded. He had entered the military ranks in his youth and had very little experience in dealing with young women, and he had absolutely no ability to gauge what was going on in a young woman’s mind.

Li Weifeng had been trailing behind the two of them all this time, and now spurred his horse forward, furious enough to want to give Li Gu another kick. “What were you even saying!”

Li Gu pressed his lips tightly together. “What else was there to say?” He gave his horse a slap and rode forward too.

Li Weifeng said in irritation, “And now you’re sulking at your elder brother!” He rode after them.

Xie Yuzhang caught up with the Fifth Prince and Yang Huaishen ahead. “Wait for me, elder brothers.”

The two reined in to wait for her.

The Fifth Prince asked, “What were you talking about with the Seventh and the Eleventh?”

Earlier, when they had seen Xie Yuzhang drawn in close with those two, the Fifth Prince had said to Yang Huaishen, “Zhuzhu seems quite interested in the Seventh and the Eleventh, doesn’t she?”

The banquet at the palace had only been attended by the Crown Prince among the princes, and the Fifth Prince had not been present. The incident of Xie Yuzhang teasing Li Gu had been buried beneath the news of her marriage alliance, and everyone had talked only of the alliance — no one had brought up the matter of the princess playfully toying with a young general. The Fifth Prince did not know there had been any such episode.

Yang Huaishen was close to Xie Yuzhang, but that did not mean he was close to the Fifth Prince. In truth, the Yang family had a closer association with the Crown Prince.

From the moment Xie Yuzhang had said she wanted to join them for a ride, and had taken the initiative to ask Li the Eleventh for guidance, Yang Huaishen had understood that she was simply looking for an opportunity to get closer to Li Gu. He sighed inwardly.

But Xie Yuzhang’s manner was open and forthright, without concealment. Had he made a deliberate point of blocking her, he would have drawn attention. So he said nothing and simply watched quietly from the side.

In broad daylight with so many people present, beyond deliberately seeking to be near Li Gu, Xie Yuzhang had not done anything particularly out of the ordinary.

Especially given that she was about to be sent away in a marriage alliance — in everyone’s heart there was already a measure of pity for her, and they were inclined to indulge her. During the horse ride, everyone had been consciously lenient with her. Yang Huaishen was even less likely to say or do anything in particular.

In response to the Fifth Prince’s question, he sighed and said, “Zhuzhu is about to go to Mobei. She is probably trying to learn more about the situation beyond the frontier from the Eleventh and the others, is she not?”

The Fifth Prince also sighed. “Why did it have to be her of all people?”

Yang Huaishen thought the same: why did it have to be her?

He had been born into a powerful noble family, raised in an age of prosperity. In the past he had also lived a life of riding through the pleasure quarters, cock-fighting, and dog-racing. As a second son, though he could not inherit the title, there was a hereditary grace appointment to come to him. His family had also arranged a post for him early on. His troubles, such as they were, amounted to little more than a young woman who had become a nuisance after being led on.

As for affairs of state — there was the Emperor, there were the Chief Ministers, there were the Six Ministries and Nine Courts. No matter what happened, even when it came to their own family, there were still his father and elder brother to deal with it. Such things always felt far removed from him.

This time, however — Xie Yuzhang, a proper princess born of the Empress, his own beloved cousin, was being wed off to Mobei. It struck him like a blow to the head, leaving this formerly carefree nobleman in a daze.

For the first time, he came to understand that there were things his father was completely powerless to do anything about.

No one could help Zhuzhu. They could only watch helplessly as she was sent away.

That sense of powerlessness — it was truly unbearable.

Yang Huaishen tightened his grip on the reins.

Xie Yuzhang rode up to join them. “Wait for me, elder brothers.”

She answered the Fifth Prince, “I asked some questions about conditions beyond the frontier. The young General Li and his brother are always in contact with the Khanate’s side, are they not?”

Identical to what Yang Huaishen had said. The Fifth Prince nodded, and the three of them rode on side by side.

By the time they returned to Yunjing, the sky was approaching dusk, and those young men still had a drinking engagement to attend.

Xie Yuzhang took her leave from them, and smiled at Li Gu, saying, “I will have someone send that saddle to General the Eleventh later.”

She had not managed to get Li Gu’s dagger. But sending him something of her own was at least something, and not a poor showing.

Li Gu watched her depart as the group made their way toward He Chun Restaurant.

With the younger crowd gone, the young men finally drank their fill freely and openly. Li Gu and Li Weifeng drank everyone else under the table.

The household servants of each family were well practiced at handling these situations, and had long since arranged for carriages to come from home. One by one they were helped along — some supported by the arm, some carried on the back — into the waiting carriages.

Even Li Gu and the others, having drunk more than was sensible, switched to riding in a carriage.

At one point Li Weifeng climbed out of the carriage at the side of the road and retched. A servant passed over a water flask, and he gulped down some water in long pulls. The cool night breeze blew over him, and with his head still swimming, he climbed back into the carriage.

The carriage had no lamp lit inside. In the deep darkness, the light from the night market filtered through the bamboo curtain in thin stripes. Li Gu lay sideways, propped against the carriage wall, his face pressed near the bamboo curtain, peering out at the scene beyond, the lattice of shadows falling across him in fine lines.

“What are you looking at?” Li Weifeng mumbled. He curled his body directly into a ball, his head resting on Li Gu’s legs.

Li Gu did not, as he usually would have, kick him off. He simply went on gazing at the lights outside.

Li Weifeng shifted, muttered something, and closed his eyes.

After a while, he heard Li Gu say something.

His mind was slow from the wine, and it took him quite some time to process it. Finally he realized: Li Gu was asking, “Are all the young women of Yunjing this composed when faced with difficulties?”

After a long circuit of thought, Li Weifeng finally understood who he meant.

“Are you talking about Princess Baohua? But she’s a princess — imperial blood of the highest standing. Can she really be compared to any ordinary young woman?” Li Weifeng said, yawning widely.

He had been born of humble origins, and even now that he had official rank, he still harbored a deep awe for imperial power and the imperial family in his heart.

Li Gu’s background was similar to his, and he understood him. But Li Gu, gazing out at the lights beyond the window, thought to himself: if the imperial house were truly so worthy of reverence, why would it need to send its own daughters, raised in golden luxury, to distant lands in marriage?

If men could hold up their half of the sky, why should women need to bow down and shoulder it?

Li Gu frowned, staring at the splendor of Yunjing, and felt his awe — both for this city heavy with history and for imperial power — diminish by several degrees.

On returning to the Li residence, servants had already prepared sobering soup. The two drank it down before going to see Li Ming, where they reported on the day’s outing with the noble sons and daughters.

“Yang the Second from the Duke of Xun’s family is passable enough. The rest — nothing to speak of.” Li Gu said.

Li Ming shook his head. “The Duke of Xun’s residence is one of the Eight Founding Dukes, and has produced many generations of fierce military men. Only now… it is not what it once was.”

The three of them chatted a while longer about the noble families of the capital. As Li Gu and Li Weifeng were about to take their leave, Li Ming suddenly said, “By the way, Princess Baohua sent over a gold saddle. What is that about?”

Li Weifeng let out a grin. “She actually sent it?” So she was a young woman who kept her word. He then told Li Ming, “It was an archery competition — the Eleventh took first place, and this was the stake the Princess put up.”

Li Ming was surprised. “Princess Baohua went with you all?”

Li Gu said, “She did not. Her Highness was out on an excursion with other people and we happened to meet.” He recounted the circumstances briefly.

Li Ming looked thoughtful. “This girl has a great deal of ambition.”

Li Weifeng jumped in eagerly. “The Princess acted as though nothing at all was wrong. She asked us openly and without hesitation about the north, saying she wanted to know in advance and be mentally prepared.”

Li Ming sighed once more. “What a pity.”

Li Gu lowered his gaze.

On returning to his own courtyard, his personal guard came forward in delight, holding out the saddle. “General, look! It’s gold!”

Not just gilded — it was inlaid with pearls and precious stones, beautiful and dazzling to behold. At a single glance Li Gu could see it was an exact match to the one Xie Yuzhang used herself.

Li Gu froze. In the flickering candlelight, his expression was layered and unreadable.

“Store it away carefully,” he said to his guard after a long while. “Be very careful with it.”

The guard, seeing and touching such a precious saddle for the first time in his life, had not needed telling to be careful — but he could not help asking, “General, are you not going to use it? Just think how impressive that would look!”

Li Gu stroked the finely inlaid gemstones and said softly, “If I use it, it will wear out. Better to put it away properly.”

The moment Xie Yuzhang returned to Zhaoxia Palace she gave an instruction, “Where is that matching pair of gold saddles of mine? Find them for me.”

Lin Fei came to meet her, startled. “Whatever is the matter? What do you need that for?”

“I put it up as a stake and lost the competition, so I have to send it over — I am not the sort of person who goes back on her word.” Xie Yuzhang said with a smile.

Lin Fei was already glad she had gone out to clear her head, and seeing her in such good spirits, her own mood lifted in kind. She smiled teasingly, “Then it had best go out quickly — otherwise people might think our young princess is like that other time, when she clearly lost that jade tiger to the Fifth Prince but absolutely refused to hand it over.”

If Lin Fei had not brought it up, Xie Yuzhang, reborn into this new life, would have nearly forgotten the whole incident.

She changed out of her riding clothes, freshened up, and while a palace maid served her by redoing her hair, she looked into the mirror and suddenly asked Lin Fei, “A’Fei, what do you make of Fifth Brother?”

Lin Fei raised her clear bright eyes. “Why do you ask me that?”

She set down the outer robes in her hands and passed them to a palace maid. Taking the ivory comb from the maid combing Xie Yuzhang’s hair, she dismissed the others and slowly drew the comb through Xie Yuzhang’s waterfall of dark hair and said, “The Fifth Prince is of imperial blood. He is hardly someone this servant can presume to comment upon freely.”

Xie Yuzhang twitched the corner of her mouth. “A’Fei, we will be leaving soon.”

Many of the old cautions no longer mattered to Xie Yuzhang, a person destined to leave. She just wanted to hear an honest assessment of this fifth elder brother of hers from someone else.

Lin Fei reflected for a moment and chose her words carefully. “The Fifth Prince has very great ambitions.”

Just as she had expected somehow, Xie Yuzhang thought.

Fifth Brother was daring in word and deed. For a younger sister, this naturally made him more appealing than the Crown Prince, who was cautious in action and considered every word before speaking. She had always, in the past, been fonder of this fifth elder brother than of the Crown Prince.

He was indeed ambitious — and his ambitions had all been turned inward, toward the inner palace.

After her rebirth, Xie Yuzhang knew that as a princess, her voice carried too little weight in great matters. After failing to reach an understanding with the Crown Prince, she had also tried approaching the Fifth Prince, hoping he would urge the Emperor to slow the pace of curtailing the military governors’ power.

Xie Yuzhang naturally hoped that this Da Zhao dynasty would not collapse. Even if its collapse was fated, she still could not bear it and still hoped to delay it by even a single day.

But this fifth elder brother of hers was, just as Lin Fei said, ambitious — great ambition and meager talent.

His eyes were fixed only on the inner palace, on the imperial presence, on the Emperor and the Crown Prince. At a time when the great powers in the realm were gradually lifting their gazes toward the realm and the throne itself, his scope of vision was too narrow.

And yet his desires were great — and later on, he had implicated so many people.

Having lived a second life, Xie Yuzhang truly could not feel toward this fifth elder brother of hers the same warmth and closeness as she had in her past life. But she also could not relegate him to the indifference she felt toward the Noble Consort and Princess Anle.

“Let us leave it at that. No need to speak further of him.” She ended the topic. “Has Fuchun come by today?”

Lin Fei was about to say he had not, when a palace servant came to report, “Fuchun from Hanliang Hall is here.”

Lin Fei clicked her tongue. “How is it that speaking of him brings him here?”

Xie Yuzhang also laughed in spite of herself.

Fuchun entered the hall and told Xie Yuzhang, “The responsible officials have already submitted the roster to the imperial presence.”

He watched as Princess Baohua immediately sat up straighter. It was plain to see she had been greatly preoccupied with the matter of the attendant roster.

Fuchun had studied a few books in the inner palace, and his heart was not entirely given over to calculating self-interest. After his godfather’s passing, Xie Yuzhang was the first person who had been so kind to him, and Fuchun genuinely wanted to do something for her, so that this gnawing sense of guilt might lessen somewhat.

Seeing Xie Yuzhang moved, he quickly said, “Your Highness, it would be best not to trouble His Majesty these next two days.”

Xie Yuzhang was startled. “What has happened to Father Emperor?”

Fuchun leaned in and lowered his voice. “This servant doesn’t know the full details. Only that after the Chief Ministers left today, His Majesty flew into a great rage. It seems to be about some matter in the south. This is not a good moment.”

Having someone at the Emperor’s side truly was convenient.

Xie Yuzhang earnestly hoped that this person, when he was at another Emperor’s side in the future, would still be willing to help her in this way.