After the deputy pulled the car to a stop in front of the Wen Mansion and bid his farewells to Shi Ting and Yan Qing, he drove back toward the camp.

The moment he was gone, Yan Qing pressed anxiously, “What were you and Commander Li talking about earlier? Did he say anything about Li Haotian?”

“Nothing.” Shi Ting walked alongside her through the main gate. “Not a single word.”

Yan Qing frowned lightly. “This Commander Li truly is no ordinary man. His son is about to be sentenced to death for murder, and he can still race horses and drink with you?”

Then a new thought struck her and she reconsidered. “The horse race — was he trying to intimidate you from the start?”

Shi Ting laughed and shook his head. “Let’s go inside first.”

Once they were indoors, Yan Qing had the servants bring hot tea.

During today’s horse race, Shi Ting had been without his overcoat, and even when drinking with Commander Li afterward he had remained in just his leather jacket. Now, when she touched his fingers, they were ice-cold.

“They’re soldiers — they drill through the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter. How can you compare yourself to them?” She spoke with gentle reproach, and immediately had Jin Shan fetch a hot water bottle, pressing it into his hands without a word of negotiation.

Shi Ting had gotten quite thoroughly chilled. On the ride home he had sneezed several times.

Seeing how anxious she was on his behalf, he smiled softly and drew her to him, coaxing her: “When in another’s world, you follow their ways — I was in a military camp, so I had to abide by the camp’s customs. When everyone else is in thin uniforms, I can hardly walk around bundled up like a dumpling. Not a good look, is it?”

Yan Qing understood this perfectly well. She was simply concerned for him — even the most robust of constitutions could fall ill after being subjected to that kind of exposure.

She blew gently on a cup of tea until it had cooled to just the right temperature, then held it to his lips and fed it to him herself, one cup after another, until a full pot was gone.

“By the way — how did you tame that wild horse? It seemed extremely ferocious, throwing a fit at anyone who came near.”  Yan Qing didn’t understand horsemanship and couldn’t read the finer points of what she’d witnessed.

“Horses are like people — each has its own temperament. Find the right way to approach it, and you can get along with any of them naturally.” Shi Ting, having been made to drink so much tea, spoke with a distinct hint of Dragon Well on his breath.

“I thought it was a fine horse. A pity it lost in the end — but you’re nothing like those cavalrymen. You never trained like they did, so losing is nothing to be ashamed of.” In Yan Qing’s eyes, her man was admirable no matter what.

Shi Ting looked at her expression and couldn’t help laughing.

“Do you think I actually lost?”

“Didn’t you?” She had clearly seen Wild Grape fall behind by half a length.

Shi Ting gave an enigmatic smile, tapped the tip of her nose, and neither confirmed nor denied it.

Whether Shi Ting had truly lost or not, no one understood better than Li Yongqi.

At that very moment, Li Yongqi was sitting inside the military tent, a teacup in his hand — never raising it to his lips.

Li Ruizhen gave a knock and entered.

“Commander, I’ve come to accept my punishment.” Li Ruizhen’s expression was grim, his spirits visibly deflated. “I lost.”

Li Yongqi set down the teacup. “A matter of skill, nothing more. No fault of yours.”

“I didn’t expect Director Shi to be such a seasoned rider. I underestimated him.”

Li Yongqi said, “This Shi Xingzhi — he has genuinely exceeded my expectations.”

His eyes sharpened with quiet contemplation. “He knew full well he could outride you, yet he didn’t want to win. So he deliberately chose Wild Grape. If he had picked any other horse, he would have had to hold back deliberately — and the effort would have been too obvious. But Wild Grape is different. The horse had never been on a racing track. It was completely unfamiliar with the course, and could do nothing but follow in your horse’s wake the entire time. He didn’t even need to try to lose — the horse ensured it for him.”

Li Ruizhen picked up the thread: “I’m the cavalry battalion commander. If I were beaten by someone who doesn’t know his way around a saddle, it would shake the morale of the entire battalion. So he was never going to beat me in this race. But losing on purpose is no simple thing — the remarkable part is how flawlessly he managed it, without giving anyone cause to see through the artifice.”

“His desire for victory is fierce, yet he knows how to set it aside for the greater good. His mind runs deep, his vision is long. He is genuinely not someone to be taken lightly.” Li Yongqi turned the teacup slowly in his hands, lost in thought.

“Commander — what about the matter of Haotian?”

Li Yongqi set the teacup down slowly, his gaze drifting into the distance. “From what I’ve observed, Shi Xingzhi is principled and upright to the core. He would never bend the rules for personal reasons. So even if I swallowed my pride and went to beg him directly, he still would not make an exception.”

“Then are we to just stand by and watch Haotian be sentenced to death? He is your only son, Commander.” Li Ruizhen gritted his teeth. “If it truly comes to a point of no return, I’ll have men storm the execution and bring Haotian out — even if it costs us everything. The Li line cannot be allowed to die out.”

Li Yongqi shook his head. “Just before he left, Shi Xingzhi said something. He said: what you see is not necessarily the truth, and what you hear is not necessarily the facts.”

“What… what does that mean?” Li Ruizhen was baffled.

“It must be connected to Haotian’s case. He was telling me, in an indirect way, that Haotian may have been wrongly accused.”

“Haotian is innocent?” Li Ruizhen felt a surge of relief — and then, just as quickly, his spirits sank again. “The newspaper was unequivocal about it. That Haotian killed two people has been treated as established fact. What’s more, the branch bureau already has more than enough evidence. Getting Haotian to confess is only a matter of time.”

Li Yongqi said, “We wait and observe for now. I don’t believe Shi Xingzhi is willing to make an easy enemy of me. After all, the folk saying goes that whoever has the Li family army has the world. All three of the Shi sons are angling for power — so unless he is left with no other choice, he won’t want to make an adversary of me.”

“Then I’ll have men watching quietly in the shadows. The moment things start going against Haotian, I’ll be ready to protect him at first notice.”

Li Yongqi waved a hand. “Go. Keep it quiet — don’t let anyone find out.”

He had spent his whole life on the battlefield, his military accomplishments renowned. He did not want to end up with the name of a man who had indulged a son who killed without consequence. If this matter with Li Haotian could be resolved cleanly, he would owe Shi Ting a debt of gratitude for life. But if it ended in the loss of his only son, he might not be able to make Shi Ting answer for it in kind — yet should Shi Ting one day seek to claim the Marshal’s seat, he would make sure to stand as his greatest obstacle.

Li Yongqi never expressed these thoughts aloud, but Shi Ting understood them clearly.

The trap laid by the other side was designed to drive him and Li Yongqi to open warfare. And the only way for him to escape it was one: find the true killer.

“Cough, cough.” Shi Ting opened the documents Bai Jin had delivered and couldn’t suppress a few coughs.

Yan Qing pressed her hand to his forehead — no fever, which was a relief. But even without a fever, today’s ordeal had still brought on a chill. Strong as he was, he was not made of iron.

Yan Qing instructed Jing Zhi to prepare ginger water. When it was ready, she poured it into a white porcelain bowl and stirred in a spoonful of honey.

This was a remedy she had found in a book of folk treatments: honey and ginger water together not only dispelled the cold, but also soothed a cough. She had tried it herself once, and it had actually worked.

The ginger water was not particularly pleasant in taste, and when she held the bowl to his lips, he wrinkled his nose with just a hint of reluctance.

“Do I have to drink the whole bowl?”

Yan Qing gave a small shrug — her silence made clear the answer was not up for discussion.

For all his air of fearlessness, Shi Ting had a particular aversion to medicine — especially bitter, pungent Chinese remedies.

But when there was truly no alternative, he could manage to get it down, brows pinched the whole time.

Watching Shi Ting drain the ginger broth in one long swallow, Yan Qing curved her lips into a smile. “Good boy. Was it very spicy?”

Shi Ting was tempted to stop her mouth and let her experience it herself — but then, remembering that he’d caught a chill and didn’t want to pass it to her, he restrained the impulse.