A horse carriage galloped past on the nearby official road. Nanyi wanted to chase after it for help, but in her haste, she tripped over vines buried in the snow and stumbled, falling completely to the ground.

The person inside the carriage seemed to sense something. A slender hand lifted the cloth curtain, and the man inside glanced outside, but there was only vast white snow everywhere, and he saw nothing unusual.

Cold wind rushed in, causing Xie Hengzai to cough uncontrollably several times. Qiao Yinzhi, sitting beside him, immediately reached out nervously, hurriedly helping him lower the curtain and adjusting his cloak, looking at him with heartache.

Xie Hengzai showed her a pale smile, then grasped her hand.

The carriage continued on its way.

Nanyi struggled to climb out of the snow. She caught a distant glimpse of the man in the carriage seeming to lift the curtain and look outside, but before she could even run over, the carriage had already traveled far away.

Nanyi was on the verge of tears. Behind her were pursuers, and ahead was the exposed official road with no cover. She was almost in a desperate, helpless situation with nowhere to turn. For a moment she felt panic – could she escape from his grasp?

At this moment, Nanyi didn’t know that the threads of time had begun to converge, and in the carriage she had brushed past sat someone who could significantly influence her fate.

Luoyang Town lay on the shady side of Tiger Kneel Mountain. Pass through a valley and you’d reach Li Du Mansion.

The Qin family’s ancestors included great scholars, but their descendants hadn’t produced even a single imperial examination graduate. By this generation they had gradually declined. While unremarkable in Li Du Mansion, in Luoyang Town they still counted as a wealthy household.

On this day, the Qin family’s tightly closed gates were knocked upon repeatedly.

The Qin residence sat in the center of Luoyang Town, occupying several acres of land, with the advantage of being peaceful despite the bustling location. With days of heavy snow, pedestrians on the streets were sparse, and at this hour, it didn’t seem like anyone would come visiting.

The steward came out to open the door with suspicious puffs of warm breath, only to see a small beggar knocking at the gate. The little beggar was disheveled and dirty, impossible to tell if male or female, with filthy clothes that even had bloodstains.

The steward disdainfully pulled out a few copper coins from his sleeve and threw them on the ground.

“Don’t beg at the Qin family’s gate. Go somewhere farther away.”

Nanyi, almost at death’s door, grabbed the steward’s trouser leg.

“I’m looking for Qin Yue.”

The steward was startled and looked at Nanyi more carefully: “What do you want with our master?”

“Go tell him I’m Little Oriole Fairy’s daughter.”

Hearing this was a serious matter, the steward hurriedly turned and ran into the courtyard.

Nanyi was an illegitimate daughter, the daughter of a courtesan. The courtesan had no real name, only a stage name – Little Oriole Fairy.

In her youth, she had been quite popular in the pleasure quarters, but she believed the lies of a playboy who promised to redeem her and make her his mistress, willingly bearing him a daughter.

However, the playboy had a formidable wife who absolutely refused to allow this illegitimate daughter, who couldn’t be brought into proper society, to enter their home. She even had people drive both the courtesan and her daughter out of town.

After giving birth, the courtesan had no money for proper recovery and suffered a severe beating, leaving her with a limp and suddenly aging considerably. Her beauty gone, she made a living washing clothes for others, raising her daughter with irregular meals.

But Little Oriole Fairy’s love for Nanyi was merely keeping her from starvation. She blamed all her life’s misfortunes on Nanyi.

From childhood, the words Nanyi heard most were: “If I hadn’t given birth to you, who knows how carefree and happy your mother would be now.”

Along with this, Nanyi also heard many of Little Oriole Fairy’s curses about Qin Yue. From these descriptions, Nanyi roughly understood that her father, whom she’d never met, lived a respectable life in Luoyang Town with both sons and daughters.

Even knowing who her father was, Nanyi still couldn’t claim a surname. She was used to drifting like duckweed in this world. If not for being at her wit’s end, she wouldn’t have knocked on the Qin family’s door. She didn’t dare to, nor did she hope for anything.

But she truly couldn’t walk much farther on her own two feet. She was too afraid of being caught by Xie Queshan, so she could only hold onto a thread of hope, hoping the Qin family would extend a helping hand for the sake of blood relations.

The steward left the door slightly ajar, and through this crack, Nanyi could see into the Qin family’s large courtyard.

Outside, snow blanketed everything, making every step difficult, but inside, someone had swept the courtyard’s snow clean for easy walking. The world inside looked so warm.

Nanyi waited like this. After a long time, the steward hurried back.

“Young lady, please come in.”

They’re willing to help me? Nanyi still found it hard to believe, but her numb feet stepped forward ahead of her consciousness.

Wonderful, she could live.

Nanyi immediately relaxed, then her vision went black, she fell forward, and lost consciousness.

When Xie Queshan returned to the military camp, He Ping behind him brought back a female corpse with an unrecognizable face.

“Caught up with her and killed her.”

He tersely informed Gusha.

Gusha hadn’t paid attention to what that girl looked like either. He casually glanced at the female corpse – it was indeed freshly dead – and confidently had someone throw the body into the mass grave.

Once back in the empty tent, He Ping asked Xie Queshan in confusion: “Young Master, what was worth saving about that little thief? Why go through such trouble to find a corpse from the mass grave to deceive people?”

“Games must follow rules,” Xie Queshan stood by the wash basin, meticulously washing his hands, using soap to clean all the bloodstains from under his fingernails.

He Ping handed him a towel, looking bewildered.

“It’s not over yet,” Xie Queshan said with certainty.

When Nanyi awoke, she mistakenly thought she was in a celestial paradise. The room was filled with fragrant incense, warm as spring, and the bedding beneath her was soft as clouds.

She moved her body and only then felt the aches and pains throughout her limbs surge up all at once. She tried to sit up but had no strength at all.

“Awake?”

A woman helped Nanyi sit up. Her hands were very soft. Nanyi instinctively shrank back – well-maintained hands represented years of pampered living, and she feared dirtying those hands.

Nanyi moved to the corner of the bed, nervously looking at the woman. The woman’s smile was impeccable. Though there were already some wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and a few strands of white hair at her temples, one could still see the beauty and dignity of a proper young lady from a good family.

“I am your legitimate mother. You may call me Mother. What is your name?”

Nanyi’s mind was buzzing. She was dazed for a while before answering: “Nanyi. Nan as in south, yi as in clothes.”

Madam Qin studied Nanyi.

When she first arrived, she looked like she’d been fished out of mud – smelly and dirty. But now, with the grime washed away, this pretty face fully revealed its brilliant beauty.

When she looked at you timidly with those jet-black pupils, the light and shadows in her eyes swirled in countless ways, like an ocean ready to burst forth. Even Madam Qin had to admit this was a beauty.

“Nanyi, the physician said you seem to have walked mountain paths for a long time, completely exhausting your strength. You need to rest quietly for some time.”

Nanyi shook her head, knelt up, hunched her shoulders and spoke quietly: “Madam… Madam Qin, I didn’t come to disturb you, nor do I want to demand any status or position. I just want to go to Fufeng Prefecture to find my friend, but I really have nowhere else to turn… You don’t need to take me in, just lend me some silver, and I will definitely repay you in the future.”

Madam Qin continued smiling that way, calmly observing Nanyi.

“A friend? A young master or a young lady?”

“A reliable young master named Zhang Yuehui. I met him at Deer River. Three years ago he went to join the army and should now be in the Fufeng Prefecture camp. If I can find him, he will take me in.”

“Is he your lover?”

Nanyi hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Indeed, there was no marriage contract between her and Zhang Yuehui, nor had they made any vows of eternal love. When he left, it was very rushed – he only left behind a valuable jade bracelet and a few words. But she was certain that in those days of small bridges and flowing water, she had sensed there were different feelings between them. Otherwise, why would he give her such a precious token?

Even though she was still naive about love, she had decided she would marry Zhang Yuehui. He was her last remaining family in this world.

Relying on this belief, she had traveled thousands of miles to find him. If she didn’t even have this hope, she would truly have nowhere to go.

She didn’t want to explain too much to Madam Qin, so she acknowledged him as her lover to save some explanation. Whether the Qin family members were repulsive or kind, she didn’t want too much involvement with them.

“Then Mother will send someone to find him. You can rest peacefully at the Qin residence to recover your health,” Madam Qin reached out to lovingly stroke Nanyi’s face. “Back then I was young and impetuous, wronging Little Oriole Fairy and letting the Qin family bloodline wander outside for years. Fortunately you grew up safely and have become so graceful and beautiful. Now… I want to make amends. Are you willing to give Mother this opportunity?”

Nanyi felt a natural resistance to this kind-looking woman. In her mother’s years of cursing, this madam had the face of an old witch and the heart of a viper. Nanyi only half-believed her words, but Zhang Yuehui was her weakness.

“Really… you can help me find him?”

“Naturally. Your father has also agreed. Whatever you want, he will help you achieve it.”

Nanyi still harbored some wariness, but this bait was simply too big and too tempting. She still nodded.

“Madam Qin, I have one more matter. I want to make a trip to Li Du Mansion.”

“Li Du Mansion has been occupied by the Qi people, and Tiger Kneel Mountain is full of Qi soldiers. Plus with all this heavy snow lately, making a trip there wouldn’t be easy. Tell Mother, what do you want to do in Li Du Mansion?”

Nanyi blinked and quickly thought up an excuse: “…Before my mother died, she had a dying wish. She wanted to go to Guoyu Tower in Li Du Mansion to buy a pastry. I think it must have been a very important memory for her. I want to help fulfill this small wish and taste that flavor for her.”

“How about this – you tell me what you want to buy, and I’ll discuss with your father about having someone go buy it for you.”

“Madam, could you get paper and brush to write it down? I’m afraid it’s a bit complicated and I might forget.”

Madam Qin amiably fetched paper and brush.

Nanyi recited: “Buy a portion of orange sand dumplings made in the shape of peach blossoms. Peach blossoms usually only have five petals, but I want them in a six-petal shape.”

Several days later, when Nanyi met her father Qin Yue, she finally understood why she had no tokens of identity, yet the Qin family had no doubt about her parentage.

Before, neighbors all said she resembled Little Oriole Fairy, but she actually only shared her mother’s face shape. Her eyebrows and eyes more closely resembled Qin Yue’s – high brow bone, upright and deep-set eyes – so she didn’t have Little Oriole Fairy’s seductive appearance.

This was the power of blood relations. Even having never met, it still left a stubborn mark on her.

Unfortunately, they weren’t familiar at all, and meeting was even somewhat awkward.

Qin Yue was still a bit nervous, opening the food box in front of him with a stiff smile on his face.

“The orange sand dumplings you wanted – I had the servants buy them directly from Li Du Mansion. But the round trip is quite far, so the pastries are completely cold.”

“These are from Guoyu Tower?”

“Yes, your mother even specifically wrote a note with instructions – look, the food box still has Guoyu Tower’s sign carved on it. But there’s no mold for six-petal peach blossom shapes, so they weren’t easy to make. The filling in these dumplings has leaked out.”

The filling leaked? Maybe six-petal peach blossom orange sand dumplings just couldn’t be made well, so it also symbolized a leaked plan. This thought quickly flashed through Nanyi’s mind. She glanced at the characters on the food box, pretended to understand them, and nodded, thinking this should be correct. The message was probably delivered, and the weight in her heart finally settled.

“Thank you, Master Qin.”

The distant address “Master Qin” made Qin Yue even more rigid, but he didn’t have his wife’s ability to smooth things over like spring rain, so he could only laugh awkwardly and pretend not to hear it.

“Nanyi, there’s another matter – quite coincidentally. I was just thinking of sending someone to Fufeng Prefecture to search for traces of your fiancé when I learned that a team from the Fufeng Prefecture camp had arrived at Tiger Kneel Mountain. The prefect of Li Du Mansion and I have a drinking friendship, so I asked him to inquire, and learned that this team indeed has a captain named Zhang Yuehui.”

“Really?”

Nanyi was so surprised she stood up immediately, then realizing she seemed too abrupt, sat back down awkwardly, but her eyes and face were full of anticipation.

Qin Yue quickly glanced at Nanyi’s face, then looked away, pointing to the bracelet on Nanyi’s wrist.

“Of course it’s true. I even specifically went to meet with him. He said he gave you a bracelet as a token – it’s the one on your wrist, isn’t it?”

Nanyi’s reserved face showed the brightest smile she’d had in days: “Yes! It really is him. Can I see him?”

“You two are people about to be married – how can you meet privately?”

Before the person arrived, Madam Qin’s voice floated into the room first. Hearing this voice, Qin Yue seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and hurriedly got up to welcome his wife to sit down.

“What marriage?” Nanyi was completely confused.

“Come, let your mother explain it to you in detail.”

“First, he’s in the army and can’t go out alone casually, but he has leave in three days.”

“Then I’ll go see him in three days.”

“Child, why are you in such a hurry? Second, Mother was thinking that in these chaotic times, meeting is already difficult – today is here but tomorrow is uncertain. Why not take advantage of his leave in three days to complete your marriage? With the name of husband and wife, it will be easier for you to meet in the future.”

Nanyi’s eyes widened. The lover business was something she made up – how did it jump straight to marriage? Was this really Zhang Yuehui’s intention? Was he willing to marry her?

Seeing her expression still hadn’t relaxed, Madam Qin kindly took an orange sand dumpling from the plate and placed it in Nanyi’s hand.

“Come, eat some pastry first, and we’ll talk slowly. You’ll marry from the Qin family, and we’ll prepare a dowry for you – we absolutely won’t let their family look down on you.”

Nanyi was about to say something when she suddenly noticed something wrong.

The skin of the orange sand dumpling in her hand was actually still soft. From Luoyang Town to Li Du Mansion and back, passing through Tiger Kneel Mountain in such heavy snow and wind – even with the food box wrapped in cotton cloth, the orange sand dumplings should have frozen hard. How could they possibly still be soft?