Xie Yuzhang said she was not speaking to Ashina, and she did not speak to him. Besides, the weather was bitterly cold, so she stayed tucked inside the carriage chatting with Lin Fei.

The National Preceptor had pressured Ashina into swearing an oath before the Ancestral God not to step into Xie Yuzhang’s tent until she reached seventeen. He knew when to behave himself and truly stopped coming near Xie Yuzhang’s tent — though during the day he would ride up alongside her carriage and speak to her through the window.

His voice was enormous, his speech like rolling thunder, and his skin was thick as hide. Xie Yuzhang could ignore him all she liked, and he didn’t mind in the slightest.

He said, “Baohua, the sun is out today — come out and ride!”

Xie Yuzhang said, “I’d freeze into a block of ice out there — I’m not going!”

He said, “Baohua, that horse of yours is too fat. It must be a Hexi horse, right? It can’t compare to our Mobei horses. Let me give you a true fine horse!”

Xie Yuzhang said, “Your horses are ugly. I don’t like them!”

Each time Ashina came away empty-handed, the people around him roared with laughter, doubling over.

“And this has years still to go — the Khan has quite a lot of coaxing ahead of him!” They laughed uproariously.

Ashina just smiled and waved a hand. “Once she’s older, she’ll be fine.”

Lin Fei shared the carriage with Xie Yuzhang. She watched her, and after a long silence asked, “He enjoys this?”

“Yes.” Xie Yuzhang’s expression was serene. “He does.”

In that former year after Ashina had taken her by force, he had also tried every way to soothe and coax her.

He was an old man now. All men in their old age are far more enamored of youth and beauty than when they were young. Toward such a beautiful young girl, their capacity for indulgence is also much stronger than that of younger men.

Xie Yuzhang suddenly realized that now, as she looked back on her former life, it no longer felt as agonizing as it had at the moment she had been reborn.

She found herself thinking that — apart from the matter of the marriage bed — old Ashina had actually treated her quite well.

In her former life she had still been an innocent girl, wed to a barbarian outsider who was also an old man — that suffering had been real. The wedding night had happened the way it had, leaving deep psychological wounds around such matters for years afterward.

Only later, after going to Wuwei, had things gradually improved — she was older by then, her body more mature.

But now, Xie Yuzhang had lived through so much. Looking at Ashina again, age aside, he was genuinely a powerful, commanding lord.

The Xie Yuzhang of now could appreciate such men. She would no longer find fault with Li Ming’s short stature, nor hold Ashina’s age against him. What she saw was their power, their armies, their breadth of spirit and the weight they carried.

Her Fifth Brother, now — young and handsome as he was, did he bear even half a man’s worth of responsibility?

No.

This day Ashina rode up alongside Xie Yuzhang’s carriage again, his booming voice carrying over. “Baohua, Abaha says a cold wave is coming. Have your people made ready?”

Xie Yuzhang always spoke to him with the carriage wall between them. But this time, uniquely, Ashina suddenly heard the sound of the carriage window sliding open. Then the curtain was lifted, and half of Xie Yuzhang’s porcelain-pale face appeared.

“Will people freeze to death?” she asked, her voice laced with worry.

Wait — really? Ashina was overjoyed.

“No, no — my people have already checked. Your people’s thick padded coats have sheepskin coats over them as well. That is more than enough. Your Emperor is quite generous to his subjects.” He said with a smile.

“They are no longer the subjects of Zhao’s Emperor.” Xie Yuzhang’s small face was serious as she corrected him solemnly. “They are now subjects of the King of the Steppe.”

This way of talking pleased Ashina greatly. Delighted, he said, “Good girl — you’re right!”

But Xie Yuzhang had only said the first half. The rest was: “So the Khan must look after them well — he cannot let them freeze to death. Otherwise, I will remember that the Khan is a man who does not keep his word! Hmph!”

With a swish, the curtain fell. A sliding sound — the window pushed shut.

“…” Ashina’s booming voice called out, “I always keep my word! Don’t worry — my people will look after yours!”

From inside the carriage came Xie Yuzhang’s voice: “Then I leave it to the Khan.”

Seeing that Xie Yuzhang had no intention of opening the window again, the old man rode back to his place with a gratified grin.

A prince laughed. “Father Khan went to coax the Consort Baohua again?”

The Mobei people were not as bound by ritual decorum as the Central Plains people. The Khan joked and laughed with these men in his daily life — eating from the same pot, squatting at the same trench. When the group heard this, they all burst out in unrestrained laughter.

Ashina’s face flushed, then turned smug. “She came around!” Today she had actually opened the window to talk to him.

One of his old officials laughed loudly, “Khan, you’re getting on in years, but your skill at coaxing women is as sharp as it was back in the day!”

“Of course!” Ashina was pleased with himself. “Back in my time, Sesegulzha and Kebiersi nearly came to blows over me…”

The crowd roared with laughter again.

“What are you all laughing at! Get out of here! Go!” Ashina kicked his most loudly laughing son. “You — go make sure the people looking after Baohua know: if a single one of her people freezes to death, I’ll have your head!”

The son, still laughing, went off.

An old official, once his laughter had subsided, sighed. “Thinking back — Sesegulzha and Kebiersi have both been gone for so many years now…”

Another old official said, “Indeed. In the blink of an eye, we’re all this old.”

They had all been vigorous, battle-hardy young nobles in their day. But even the most handsome and heroic of young men will see the twilight of his years, just as the brightest sun must set.

Ashina thought of Xie Yuzhang’s face — the smooth, pale skin like the white of a hard-boiled egg, the delicate freshness of her features — and felt, in truth, that old age had arrived.

He let out a short grunt, then a long, slow exhale.

Xie Yuzhang’s people had the Mobei people looking after them, so none froze to death. Frostbite was unavoidable, and chapped skin and chilblained hands could already be considered a mark of good health.

Xie Yuzhang chose a timely moment to drop her “angry” state toward Ashina, and was willing to speak with him and eat dinner with him again.

“It’s really cold.” At dinner that day, Xie Yuzhang cradled a steaming bowl of goat’s milk and murmured.

All milk carries a gamey smell. Steppe people are used to it and don’t notice, but Central Plains people find it quite unpleasant. This goat’s milk had been treated by the Central Plains cooks Xie Yuzhang had brought along — simmered through several rounds, seasoned with spices to remove the smell, and finally sweetened with sugar.

White sugar, unique to the Zhao Kingdom.

As far as Xie Yuzhang knew, at this time only Zhao of the Central Plains could produce snow-white refined sugar. The surrounding nations could not manage the method, and made only dark-brown unrefined sugar. This white sugar was eagerly sought after by the upper nobility of all nations as a luxury good.

So Xie Yuzhang had done everything she could, and had extracted forty thousand jin of sugar from her own father.

“Bring the Khan a bowl too.” She told the maid.

The maid respectfully poured a bowl for Ashina as well.

Ashina was very pleased. He sliced off a piece of perfectly roasted meat and handed it to Xie Yuzhang. “Eat more — eat your fill, and you won’t feel so cold.”

Rough, unrefined hands — who knew if they had been washed. In all likelihood, not. Steppe people rarely touched water in winter; even on days when the snow was above the ankle, they habitually kept water use to a minimum. The people in charge of the livestock among the camp — whether herders or slaves — were all rank and odorous, impossible to say how many days since they’d last washed.

The maids didn’t dare look at the hand cutting the meat, much less at the piece being passed to their Princess.

In Zhaoxia Palace, the maids who waited on the Princess at close quarters washed their hands so many times a day that their hands always carried the scent of soap. How could the Princess possibly bring herself to eat a piece of meat that had been touched by such hands!

The maids kept their eyes lowered, their faces blank, hiding the anxiety roiling inside them — they did not know how to stop it, yet feared that if Xie Yuzhang refused out of disgust, it would enrage this fearsome old Khan. The hand holding the serving vessel gripped its handle tight, fingers damp with nervous sweat.

But Xie Yuzhang took the piece of meat, cut it into smaller pieces with her own silver knife, and placed it calmly into her own mouth. She chewed slightly, swallowed, and even praised it: “Roasted very well.”

The maids’ hearts were seized with both shock and sorrow.

This was not something to be told to Lin Fei back in the tent. If Lin Fei knew, there was no telling how distressed she would be.

Imperial princesses were raised with fewer constraints, often behaving with freedom and abandon, and their etiquette and conduct were not always the most refined.

This was why, when people in the Central Plains spoke of accomplished young women, it was the daughters of noble families who were most admired by scholars and men of letters. Their every move was subject to scrutiny; they were bound by more constraints and stricter rules.

Lin Fei came from the Lin family of Jiangdong, which was a Jiangdong noble house. Before the Lin family was charged with wrongdoing, Counselor Lin’s granddaughter Lin Fei had already been celebrated for her grace, serenity, and refinement. The Empress herself had handpicked her as the companion reader for Princess Baohua Xie Yuzhang, saying: “The Lin family’s upbringing — I trust it completely.”

Later, Lin Fei had taken refuge in Zhaoxia Palace and spent her days in Xie Yuzhang’s constant company. The Princess had such a lively and spirited nature, and yet no one had ever found fault with her conduct or etiquette.

In contrast, Princess Anle — that daughter born of a minor city-gate official’s wife — though she worked hard to read and study poetry and often flaunted her talents, had let slip minor lapses of etiquette on more than one occasion at gatherings of Yunjing’s noble young women. When you traced it to the root, it came down to the influence she had absorbed from that mother of hers.

Even the palace servants of Zhaoxia Palace had been kept in line by Lin Fei — every one of them conducted themselves with discipline and propriety.

If Lin Fei saw the Princess eat that piece of meat with such composure, she did not know how heartbroken Lin Fei would be.

The maid kept her eyes down, her grip tight on the serving vessel, her expression revealing nothing. But in her heart, she had arrived at a far clearer understanding of what lay ahead and how she should face it.

If even the Princess could do this, what right did any of them have to falter?

“My people tell me they’ve learned a great deal. The people the Khan sent are very dedicated — teaching them everything step by step.” Xie Yuzhang sighed. “The way to survive on the steppe is so different from the Central Plains.”

Ashina smiled. “I hear your people are fast learners — show them something once and they’ve got it.”

In truth it was because Xie Yuzhang and Yuan Yu had made preparations long in advance. The people accompanying them had been organized into groups, with leaders in place, and those sharp-minded individuals selected so that whenever anything new came up, they would be sent first to learn from the nomads, and once they had it down, they would return and slowly teach everyone else.

“Of course — my people and I are all clever. Our ability to adapt is strong. It’s just that we’ve only just arrived and need time to adjust,” Xie Yuzhang said earnestly. “Khan, don’t rush us. We’ll get used to it here quickly and make the steppe a comfortable home. After all, this is where we will spend our lives.”

Ashina loved to hear Xie Yuzhang say things like this. No weeping and wailing, no poorly-disguised contempt — just a calm, earnest declaration that this was home.

The more he looked at Xie Yuzhang, the more endearing and lovable she seemed. Delighted, he said, “Good girl! Don’t rush — take your time, and if you need anything, just tell me.”

Xie Yuzhang gave him a slanted look. “I don’t need anything — I just need the Khan not to bully me!”

Ashina’s face reddened. “I would never bully you.”

The old wretch actually denied it now!

Xie Yuzhang’s temper flared. She reached out and grabbed his great beard. “You injured all my maids! And you won’t even admit it!”

Steppe men and Central Plains men alike love to grow their beards, only in different styles. Central Plains men favor three long, flowing strands as the mark of elegance; steppe men favor a thick, full bushy beard as the mark of vigor.

Ashina, for all that he didn’t wash his hands before meals, kept this beard neatly trimmed. Paired with his commanding features, it gave him an air of authority and presence.

That air of authority was now firmly in Xie Yuzhang’s grasp.

Ashina threw up both hands to shield his beard, crying, “I admit it! I admit it! I was wrong! Baohua, let go!”

Xie Yuzhang, from her former life, had often used her small silver scissors to help him trim that beard, and knew better than anyone how much he treasured it. She refused to release him, pressing her charges: “And you hit women. Will you hit me too, one day?”

“I don’t normally hit women! Really, I don’t! I was very drunk that day! Truly!” Ashina swore, “How could I ever hit you? You’re so precious — no one could bear to lay a hand on you. Anyone who dared touch so much as a single hair on your head — I’d wipe out their entire family!”

Xie Yuzhang said, “You can’t hit the maids either! My maids are not to be casually struck!”

“I won’t — I absolutely will not hit them again!”

“That’s not enough — you have to swear on the Ancestral God!”

“Fine, fine — I swear! Ahem — Ancestral God above, I, Ashina, swear that for the rest of my life, I will never again strike Baohua or any of her maids. There, will you let go now?”

“No. My maids are all lovely — you cannot hit them, and you cannot touch them either! And you cannot make them bear children for you! Swear it!”

“Ah! Fine, I swear — I won’t touch them, and I certainly won’t have them bear children for me!”

Xie Yuzhang was finally satisfied and released Ashina’s beard.

“You don’t lack for wives to bear your children anyway — you already have more than thirty sons, and dozens of daughters by now, I’d imagine.” Xie Yuzhang murmured. “It’s only three years — once I’m seventeen I can bear children for you myself. What’s the rush!”

Ashina, smoothing out the beard he had barely rescued, heard this and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. What a child!

It was fortunate there were only the two of them eating together, with no one else around to see this.

“I’ve eaten my fill, Khan. Eat slowly — I’ll head back first.” Xie Yuzhang rose and executed a proper, formal bow before turning to leave.

Central Plains women — every movement, every gesture, so beautiful to look at.

Ashina watched her go, then lifted his bowl and took a long drink of goat’s milk.

……

So sweet.

The maids filed behind Xie Yuzhang. Compared to how they had been before, their shoulders sat higher, their waists straighter, every step measured and proper. No one dared lift their eyes toward Xie Yuzhang’s face — which, the moment she stepped out of the tent, had gone smooth and expressionless.

The playful petulance, the feigned simplemindedness, the tender coquetry they had just witnessed inside the tent — if they had not seen it with their own eyes, who would have believed this was the same Princess, the one they had always known for her sweet, artless spirit?

Xie Yuzhang’s maids — even those who had been merely ordinary in appearance back in the Yunjing palace — stood out on the steppe in contrast to the rough-hewn women here, transformed into refined beauties of delicate grace.

The nomadic guards outside the tent watched them with admiring eyes, their gazes lingering.

Consort Baohua and her maids had become a landscape unlike any other on the steppe.