Zheng Hu and Song Qin both looked up, both sensing something unusual.

Wei Jiamin glanced toward Xiao Li, but then toyed with the tassels on her clothing, saying somewhat willfully: “Brothers at home have always listened to me. There’s no reason that just because there’s an additional sworn brother, I should start showing respect to him. I won’t go!”

Xiao Li’s face still showed no expression. Wei Qishan had no intention of blaming his daughter either, only shaking his head with a smile: “You girl, you’ve truly been spoiled by me!”

He looked toward Xiao Li sitting across from him, seeming to want to call him, but if he said “my son,” with both Xiao Li and Wei Pingjin present today, he wouldn’t know whom he was addressing. Realizing this, he asked: “My son Xiao Li, do you have a courtesy name?”

When Wei Qishan had his daughter come over to offer a toast, Xiao Li had already returned to his senses. Now hearing Wei Qishan’s question, he sat steadily unmoved, lowering his eyes and pausing for a breath before answering: “I do.”

Wei Qishan became interested, asking with a smile: “Oh? What is my son’s courtesy name?”

Xiao Li said: “Huaijin, the ‘Huaijin’ from ‘Huaijin Woyu’ (cherishing jade and holding gems).”

Wei Qishan was quite surprised, saying with a smile: “Jin—beautiful jade. This is truly an elegant name. Who gave my son this courtesy name?”

Amid the full table’s clinking cups and exchanging toasts, Xiao Li’s thoughts drifted for an instant back to that elegant room at Fengqing Tower in Yongzhou, where fine snow fell sporadically outside the window and iron wind chimes tinkled under the eaves.

The person sitting across from him had said: “My surname is Wen, given name a single character Yu, with the title Hanyang.”

“Is it the ‘Yu’ from the ‘A’Yu’ you mentioned before?”

“The ‘Yu’ from ‘Huaijin Woyu’.”

Xiao Li’s thumb pressed slightly tighter against the wine cup as he answered Wei Qishan’s question: “I received it from an old friend.”

Wei Qishan didn’t pursue the question of what old friend, only laughing: “Well chosen! This courtesy name suits my son very well!”

The table turned to other topics. After a round of string and bamboo music, Wei Qishan suddenly said: “Speaking of which, there is another joyous matter today.”

The generals at the table all looked over. Wei Qishan’s laughter resounded like a great bell: “My unworthy son has great admiration for the Princess, and fortunately the Princess has also shown him favor, willing to become husband and wife with him. In the near future, my son will marry the Princess.”

The table immediately erupted in a chorus of congratulations. Wang Wanzhen seated above wore a smile, but Wei Pingjin, seated to Wei Qishan’s left, had a somewhat forced expression.

Later, facing the toasts from the generals, he simply drank himself into complete oblivion.

After the banquet dispersed, when Zheng Hu left the residence together with Xiao Li and Song Qin, he couldn’t help muttering: “That former Jin princess doesn’t look ugly either. Why does that Second Young Master Wei have such an unwilling appearance?”

Song Qin was about to remind him that walls have ears when Wei Qishan’s constant attendant’s voice came from behind: “Prefecture Lord Xiao, please wait!”

The cold sweat on Zheng Hu’s back practically burst out in an instant.

Xiao Li and Song Qin’s expressions remained unchanged. After the few exchanged glances and turned around, they saw Wei Manor’s constant attendant leading two beautiful-looking women hurrying over.

Reaching them, he bowed to Xiao Li: “Hearing that Prefecture Lord Xiao has no one by his side who knows when he’s cold or warm, the Marquis specially had people select two virtuous household maids for the Prefecture Lord to take back to serve at his side.”

Both Zheng Hu and Song Qin’s expressions changed.

Xiao Li also seemed not to have anticipated this development. The tree shadows under the lantern light slightly obscured his brows and eyes, fine snow falling on his hair, making his entire person emanate an extremely unapproachable coldness. When he spoke, his tone was still relatively calm: “I’m grateful for the Marquis’s generous favor, but my late mother’s mourning period has not yet passed. Li once made an oath before my late mother’s grave to observe mourning for her for three years. I ask that the Marquis withdraw this command.”

The attendant quickly said: “Prefecture Lord Xiao has misunderstood. These two household maids are only being sent to attend to the Prefecture Lord’s daily needs. Those rough men in the military are clumsy and careless—how could they be as meticulous as these servant girls? The Prefecture Lord now has injuries, and should be cared for more carefully.”

Due to a sudden wind, even Zheng Hu shrank his neck from the cold.

The two beauties following the attendant had slightly open collars, exposing delicate collarbones, and were shivering in the cold wind with slightly pale faces—anyone who looked would feel pity.

But Xiao Li showed not the slightest yielding attitude. The scattered hair at his forehead was blown by the wind, drooping slightly before his eyes. The gaze overflowing from those long lashes and scattered hair became even more indifferent: “Xiao himself is originally a rough man—how would I need others to care for me? The thirty thousand volunteer troops are all brothers who share life and death with me. Since I have established military regulations forbidding consorting with prostitutes, I should lead by example. If I were to bring back two beauties this time, how could I command respect in the military afterward?”

“I appreciate the Marquis’s kind intentions, but I will not take these people back.”

After speaking, he cupped his fists and led Song Qin and Zheng Hu away.

The attendant stood in place watching Xiao Li’s party depart into the distance before returning with the two household maids.

—

On the guest-receiving pavilion of Wei Manor, Wei Qishan stood with his daughter at the wooden railing of the tower platform, clearly seeing the scene below.

Seeing Xiao Li refuse those two beauties, he was half gratified, yet half troubled that this young man had no interest whatsoever in money or beautiful women, not knowing how to win him over.

Cold wind mixed with fine snow blew in. Wei Qishan pointed at Xiao Li’s receding figure and said to Wei Jiamin standing beside him: “That is the husband Father has selected for you. He has upright character, is skilled in strategy and martial arts, has the courage of an overlord reborn, and is also a filial son—a person worthy of entrusting yourself to. If you can wait three years, Father will find a way to arrange a marriage for you both.”

Wei Jiamin glanced at Xiao Li’s tall, straight back, recalling the handsome, heroic face she had glimpsed earlier at the banquet. She lowered her eyes and continued playing with the tassels on her waist sash, saying in a completely indifferent tone: “Such a crude, martial brute—Minmin wouldn’t fancy him!”

Wei Qishan looked at his daughter’s face that bore six parts resemblance to his late wife, yet couldn’t become angry. He only shook his head and sighed with slight indulgence and worry: “With your fearless temperament, if I don’t find you a formidable husband to protect you, if Father is no longer here one day, you’ll surely be bullied by others.”

Upon hearing this, Wei Jiamin immediately dropped the tassel in her hand and turned to embrace Wei Qishan’s arm, eyes slightly reddened as she said stubbornly: “Then Minmin won’t marry! Father will live a hundred years and protect Minmin for a lifetime!”

Wei Qishan’s shoulders were draped with a great cloak. After weathering several decades of hardship, the area beneath his eyes could no longer hide his weariness. Hearing his daughter’s words, his heart rarely softened a few degrees. Just as he was about to say something, an extremely gentle and obedient voice came from behind: “Greetings to the Marquis, greetings to the County Princess.”

The father and daughter turned around to see Wang Wanzhen.

Wei Jiamin seemed to dislike her extremely, glancing at her once then coldly snorting and turning her head away.

Wei Qishan also only nodded faintly toward Wang Wanzhen, indicating she should rise.

“The Young Lord drank too much. I’ve already had people send him back.” Wang Wanzhen still kept her head half-lowered, her words full of respectful humility.

Wei Qishan nodded, saying: “You may withdraw.”

After Wang Wanzhen curtsied again, she retreated several steps facing Wei Qishan and his daughter with impeccable deportment. Only when she reached the corner did she turn to watch her path.

Behind her, Wei Jiamin had already begun defending her brother: “Father too—Brother’s status is so noble, how could you have him marry a lowly actress as his legitimate wife?”

Wei Qishan seemed to rebuke his daughter, but his tone held not half a note of censure, sounding more like he was analyzing the advantages and disadvantages for her.

Wei Manor’s shadow guards were still lurking in the darkness nearby. Wang Wanzhen dared not linger to listen carefully. She walked away with composed steps, the conversation of that father and daughter behind her already becoming indistinct.

She lowered her eyes to look at her hands wearing deep jade-green jadeite bracelets beneath her brocade luxurious garments, the slightly curved corners of her lips holding faint mockery.

What a fine scene of paternal kindness and filial piety, of family happiness.

These heavenly nobility, born with golden spoons in their mouths—how could they know that she, this lowly actress, in her early years had even fought with wild dogs for a full meal?

She liked her current surname, and she liked this name.

After all, she had always been nameless and without surname. Later when she entered the theatrical troupe, the troupe master gave her the stage name Meiyun.

Meiyun, Wanzhen.

Of course Wanzhen sounded better.

Wang Wanzhen smiled slightly as she looked back at the brightly lit Wei Manor pavilion in the distance, what ignited in her eyes was the ambition of a beggar receiving a white steamed bun, a dried fish obtaining sweet rain again.

She, a person from the mud, also wanted to climb up to see those positions that the heavenly nobility had grown tired of.

—

Xiao Li led the army that went to support Yanle Mountain and traveled for two days, finally returning to the camp at nightfall on the second day.

Because Tao Kui had gone to deliver medicine to Wen Yu for several consecutive days afterward, and Wen Yu had asked him each time whether Xiao Li had returned to the military, after Xiao Li returned to camp tonight, right after he sent his personal guards to discreetly find Doctor Tao for wound medicine, Tao Kui ran off to report to Wen Yu.

These past days, after learning from Tao Kui the approximate troop distribution of the entire camp, Wen Yu no longer harbored the extravagant hope that the Liang camp’s people might find a way to rescue her.

This military camp of tens of thousands had clearly been forged by Xiao Li into an iron barrel. Even if the other routes of Liang troops that had fled separately to draw off pursuers knew she had been captured and wanted to turn back to save her, facing this camp that still had several thousand men even after sending forces to support Yanle Mountain, they could only stare helplessly.

When the envoys from the Liang and Chen camps came to negotiate for her return, based on what Xiao Li had said that day, he would not release her back.

If she wanted to leave here, she could only have another proper talk with Xiao Li.

Therefore, after Tao Kui came to report, she said: “I want to see your Prefecture Lord. Can you help me pass on a message?”

Tao Kui immediately agreed. When leaving the military tent, his mountain-like frame even carried a hint of hand-waving joy.

Xiao Li’s central command tent was not far from the military tent where Wen Yu was under house arrest. When Tao Kui jogged over to inform him of this matter, his personal guard was using a dagger heated over a brazier and doused with strong alcohol to scrape the putrid flesh from Xiao Li’s back.

The knife wound on his back had too large an opening. On the day of the victory banquet he had also drunk wine, then returned traveling through wind and snow and being stifled for a full two days—the outer skin and flesh had already developed some suppuration and ulceration.

Hearing Tao Kui’s words, he endured the pain of scraping putrid flesh from his back, enduring it until his forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat, his complexion also pale as fresh snow. Yet his expression remained calm to the point of near indifference, his gaze extremely sharp and fierce. Not a single pained groan escaped as he only said: “Let her come.”

When the guards outside summoned Wen Yu and she arrived, the putrid flesh on Xiao Li’s back had already been scraped clean by his personal guard. After the guard used a cloth to wipe away the excess blood and gore, he took potent wound medicine and dumped it all onto that hideous, everted wound.

As soon as Wen Yu entered the tent, she smelled an especially pungent bloody odor. Seeing the bloodstained gauze that had been changed and piled on the ground, her brows unconsciously furrowed.

“What matter do you seek me for?” Xiao Li’s voice without fluctuation came from above, slightly hoarse due to enduring pain.

Wen Yu did not immediately speak.

Xiao Li seemed to understand her concerns. Taking the gauze the guard was preparing to wrap around his back, he said to the guard: “You may withdraw.”

After the guard tactfully retreated, while bandaging himself Xiao Li said to Wen Yu: “There are no others present. You may speak.”

His expression was extremely indifferent, yet the pallor on his face could not deceive. The potent wound medicine corroding the new flesh where the wound was a bloody mess felt like frying in oil and fire. His muscular upper body, bare in the firelight, gradually seeped with sweat from enduring the pain.

Wen Yu still did not utter a word. She silently watched him for a while, then lifted her feet to step up onto the carpeted platform inside the tent, her slender pale fingers grasping that section of gauze in his hand.

Xiao Li raised his eyes to look at her. Under eyelids covered in fine sweat, those eyes like a wolf’s or an eagle’s still held ferocity from enduring pain.