Li Gu’s party was about to set out on their campaign when a young man broke through the guards blocking his way and rushed to the front, grabbing Li Gu’s horse reins and calling out loudly: “Shiyi Lang, why did you not call for me to come along?”

Had Xie Yuzhang been there, she would have been utterly astonished.

This man was none other than Yang Huaishen, the cousin from her maternal uncle’s family.

In those earlier days, Xie Yuzhang had urged him earnestly to go to the Northwest to temper himself. Accustomed to Yunjing’s ease and comfort, he had always been unable to make up his mind.

Unexpectedly, Xie Yuzhang entrusted Lin Fei to his care — and Lin Fei, desperate to follow Xie Yuzhang to Mobei, had gone on a hunger strike in protest.

Several months later, when Prince Shou and the Fifth Imperial Prince returned, Yang Huaishen had gone out of his way to ask the Fifth Imperial Prince whether Fei Niang was safe. The Fifth Imperial Prince had been startled: “Fei Niang? I never saw her. Did she not remain with you?”

Yang Huaishen guessed then that Lin Fei, not wanting to be sent back by Xie Yuzhang, had most likely hidden herself with Nanny Xia the whole time, only emerging once they had crossed into Mobei territory.

At the time of Lin Fei’s hunger strike, he had asked her: How could things have come to this?

Lin Fei had said: I should have been a fleeting ghost upon the road of exile, uncertain whether I could even leave this world with my dignity intact. It was Her Highness who pulled me back from hell into the world of the living. From that moment, I resolved to give this life entirely to Her Highness. If I remain in Yunjing, what use is there in keeping this life? It would be better for me to follow my mother into death.

After that, Yang Huaishen found himself thinking of Lin Fei from time to time. Such a slender and delicate young woman — yet every time she appeared in his memory, she was filled with a kind of strength.

After a period of uncertainty, Yang Huaishen finally, heedless of his mother’s threats and intimidation, went to his father and said that he wished to go to the Northwest to temper himself.

Yang Changyuan had not paid enough attention to this second son in ordinary times. He had already arranged his future for him — as long as the boy committed no great wrongdoing and made no grave mistakes, for a family of their standing among the nobility, that was sufficient to be called a good child.

But he also knew that this son had grown accustomed to a life of pleasure and leisure, spending his days mingling with aristocratic young men of similar disposition, riding horses around the pleasure quarters.

When he suddenly declared he wished to go to the Northwest to temper himself, Yang Changyuan hardly recognized his own son.

Yet the proposal stirred something in Yang Changyuan’s heart.

He wrote a letter to Li Ming in Hexi. After an exchange of several letters, he entrusted his second son to Li Ming’s care, and Li Ming accepted.

Unexpectedly, Yang Huaishen’s maternal aunt — the wife of the Duke of Xun — learned of this and refused to let her second son leave Yunjing, raising such an uproar that the whole household was turned upside down, and the matter was dragged out again and again.

By the time Yang Huaishen truly departed Yunjing for the Northwest, Xie Yuzhang had already been married into Mobei for nearly a year and a half.

The one who received Yang Huaishen in the Northwest was none other than Li Gu himself. Upon meeting him, Li Gu had immediately asked: “What brings Second Young Master here?”

He said: “If you have come to temper yourself, I will speak to the commander and place you under my command. If you have only come to gild your reputation, I will have Seventh Brother take charge of you — I guarantee that within a year or so, you will return to Yunjing safe and sound, with honor and glory.”

Yang Huaishen was thoroughly confused — he could not understand why Li Gu had suddenly become so sharp and aggressive. When they had been in Yunjing, both Li Gu and Wu Lang had been quite cordial to him.

What he did not know was that, on one hand, Li Gu had returned to Hexi and no longer restrained the force of his presence the way he had in Yunjing.

On the other hand, though Li Gu and Li Weifeng had been somewhat friendlier to him in Yunjing than to others, they had ultimately only been passing acquaintances — not true friends. Now, whenever Li Gu looked at Yang Huaishen, he would think of him as Xie Yuzhang’s cousin, and he would think of how, back in Yunjing, Xie Yuzhang had placed such earnest, heartfelt hopes in him — hoping he would rise to become someone worthy.

And yet Second Young Master Yang was this addicted to comfort and ease. Seeing him made Li Gu genuinely angry.

But the fact that Yang Huaishen had come to the Northwest at all meant he had steeled himself with considerable resolve. When he went to pay his respects to Li Ming, Li Ming smiled like a kindly uncle and asked: “You are acquainted with both Seventh and Eleventh — which one would you prefer to follow?”

Yang Huaishen replied: “I wish to serve under Shiyi Lang’s command.”

Li Gu glanced at him sideways.

From that point on, Yang Huaishen’s life in the military camp became one of relentless hardship.

Even Li Ming, upon hearing of it, lectured Li Gu: “Why are you so strict with him? Train him a little casually — just enough that I can account for it to the Duke of Xun.”

But Li Gu replied: “I am on good terms with him. Having promised to forge him into something worthy, how could I go back on my word? This is what Yang Huaishen himself chose.”

Li Ming pressed his hand to his forehead.

After enduring the most grueling stretch at the beginning, as Li Gu put him through his paces relentlessly, Yang Huaishen gradually and surprisingly acclimated to life at the frontier. He witnessed the Gobi Desert, he witnessed the grasslands, he participated in suppressing several border disturbances — and slowly, he began to take on the appearance of a man reborn.

His skin had darkened. After drills, ravenous with hunger, he would grab a flatbread and stuff it into his mouth just like the others, never minding whether his hands were washed.

He was no longer the idle, pampered aristocratic young master of before — the one who had washed his hands with scented soap and then carefully smoothed on pearl cream.

When news arrived of Lin Xiupu besieging the capital, Yang Huaishen was completely stunned. Yunjing — the capital of Da Zhao, the seat of imperial power — had actually been… besieged by a military general with his troops?

Yang Huaishen immediately made to pack his belongings and return to the capital, but Li Gu held him back.

“What good would it do for you to go back alone?” he asked. “Are you a one-man army?”

Yang Huaishen grew anxious: “Then I cannot simply sit here and do nothing!”

Li Gu asked him: “Before you came here, did your father leave you any instructions?”

When Li Ming spoke of the Duke of Xun, he was quite respectful. A man whom Li Ming treated with such regard — Li Gu did not believe he was entirely without foresight.

Yang Huaishen fell into a daze, and at last recalled that before his departure, Yang Changyuan had hesitated before saying to him: if anything happens in the capital, there is no need to return — just take good care of yourself in Hexi.

At the time, he had not understood it at all. Something happens in the capital? What could possibly happen in the capital?

He had not given it another thought. But now, questioned by Li Gu, it struck him like a sudden clarity.

He gritted his teeth and stayed. He gritted his teeth and listened to every piece of news that arrived.

The siege. The rallying of loyalist forces. Until, at last, the capital fell!

When a close comrade rushed to tell him this news, Yang Huaishen truly felt on the verge of collapse.

He leapt up to find Li Gu — but Li Gu had already set out with his men, secretly making his way to Mobei. Yang Huaishen could bear to stay no longer, and once again began packing his belongings to leave.

This time, the one who held him back was Jiang Jingye.

“Is everything going to hell like this, and you want to go back and throw your life away?” Jiang Jingye snapped.

Yang Huaishen jumped to his feet, furious: “Then what am I supposed to do?”

Jiang Jingye said: “If your family is safe, there is absolutely no need to go back. And if your family is in danger — you have even less reason to go back!”

Yang Huaishen stood frozen.

Yang Huaishen hailed from the splendor of Yunjing, an expert in fine food, drink, and entertainment, equally skilled in the ways of romance. Jiang Jingye normally got along quite well with him, sharing a certain camaraderie between men.

Now that Li Gu was absent, he had been left in command of the central army — and if he let Yang Huaishen run off, he would have no way to answer to Li Gu. Knowing Li Gu’s temper, a round of military flogging would be unavoidable.

Having already stunned Yang Huaishen into silence, and with things having come this far, Jiang Jingye decided there was no harm in saying more.

“Yunjing — we will get there eventually. Rather than going back alone and throwing your life away for nothing, you are better off coming with us.” He said.

Yang Huaishen raised his eyes to look at him.

Jiang Jingye stared straight back.

His gaze and the meaning behind his words sent a chill through Yang Huaishen.

What has become of Da Zhao? What in the world has become of this realm?

The dream of peace and prosperity had shattered into pieces on the ground.

Yang Huaishen waited in anguish for Li Gu’s return, but instead, the first news to arrive was that Li Ming was dead — and that Li Erlang had taken Li Silang hostage.

Li Weifeng, Li Wu Lang, and Li Ba Lang all hurried to find Li Gu and discuss what to do. Jiang Jingye was so anxious his lips had cracked: “I’ve already sent out the best scouts to track him! He’ll be back soon!”

One upheaval after another struck Hexi — chaos heaped upon chaos. Yang Huaishen watched it all, and felt deeply how much of an outsider he was.

At the same time, he felt the helplessness and insignificance of one caught in the eye of a vortex, utterly unable to control one’s own fate.

Lost and adrift.

Li Gu finally returned — and brought back an even more astonishing piece of news.

“I killed the old man,” he said.

“Old man” was the Hexi people’s way of referring to Ashina — just as the Mobei people called Li Ming “Li the Short.”

It was the only truly heartening piece of good news amid all the chaos!

“Excellent!” Li Weifeng exclaimed with delighted surprise. “Mobei will descend into turmoil for a while regardless — that is perfect timing for us to free our hands and deal with our own affairs.”

No one had known why Li Gu had suddenly made a secret journey into Mobei, and everyone assumed the purpose of his trip was to assassinate Ashina.

Li Gu, of course, did not bother to spend the words explaining.

The sudden upheaval in Liangzhou left Li Gu with no time to spare for a privileged young gentleman like Yang Huaishen. The Four Tigers had joined forces and surrounded Liangzhou, demanding that Li Erlang account for the circumstances of Li Ming’s death and surrender Hexi’s rightful heir, Silang Li Qi.

Yang Huaishen had followed along with the rest of the commanders to Liangzhou. Li Gu only discovered he had come along after arriving there.

But now that Li Gu was marshaling his forces for the campaign, everyone around him had been assigned orders and given commands — and Yang Huaishen alone had been overlooked.

Yang Huaishen suddenly realized that as events had unfolded step by step to this point, he could no longer afford to sit idle.

He broke through the guards blocking his way, seized Li Gu’s horse reins, and demanded to know why he had not been taken along.

Li Gu looked at him and said: “Jingshan, this is a matter of Hexi and Hexi alone.”

Yang Huaishen gripped the reins tightly, yet knew that apart from Hexi, he now had nowhere else to go. He said: “You kept saying you treated me as one of your own — that was why you trained me so hard, and I endured all of it. And now you treat me as an outsider.”

Li Gu stared at him for a long moment, then said: “You must understand — if you ride with me today, from this point forward, you are a man of Li’s army. I will give you no special consideration whatsoever. Military commands and military law will apply to you exactly as they do to everyone else.”

For the first time in all his years, Yang Huaishen’s mind was utterly clear. His life crossed a threshold here — finally breaking free from the shelter of his father and elder brother, his family and clan — and for the very first time, as “Yang Huaishen” himself, not as “the Second Young Master of the Duke of Xun’s household,” he made his own political commitment.

He called out: “From this day forward, I am nothing more than a subordinate general under your command, Li Shiyi Lang! Whatever orders you give, I will not dare to disobey!”

Whatever it meant to be the Second Young Master of the Duke of Xun’s household, whatever it meant to be an aristocratic young master of Yunjing — all of it was extinguished together with the blood and fire that had consumed the capital.

From this moment forward, as a man — and a man alone — he would face this world directly.

“Very well,” Li Gu said. “Mount up and ride with me.”

Yang Huaishen mounted his horse with resolve and gripped his blade.

Jiang Jingye clapped him on the shoulder. Li Weifeng laughed and gave him a punch.

Li Gu dug his heels into his horse’s flanks, and the men followed closely behind.

Behind them, rumbling forward, was the Flying Tiger Army — whose might shook Mobei and Hexi alike.

The banners bearing the winged tiger snapped and billowed in the wind.

In this lifetime, though Li Gu had made his secret journey to Mobei on a sudden impulse, and returned to Liangzhou somewhat later than he had in his previous life, this only shortened the duration of the siege’s standoff — nothing more.

The course of his life was not greatly different from what it had been before.

Liangzhou fell. Li Sanlang was cut down by Li Shiyi Lang’s blade. Li Erlang fled back to his own territory.

Li Dalang held back and watched. But Li Liulang, Li Jiulang, Li Shilang, and Li Shier Lang all threw in their lot with Li Erlang — and the renowned Huo and Wang clans of Hexi joined in, stirring up further turmoil.

Hexi descended into the darkest and most chaotic period in its history — later recorded as the “Hexi Upheaval.”

Long afterward, Mantou would recall the words Li Gu had spoken before his secret journey to Mobei, and still find them uncanny, like a prophecy.

At that time, Li Gu had said: the iron slab that is Hexi is going to shatter. To rebuild it, there must be deaths — rivers of blood must flow.

And rivers of blood indeed did flow.

Li Shiyi Lang unleashed a great slaughter.