Mu Chun heard someone calling him and turned to look. It was Xu Zengshou, who had just emerged from an antique shop. Xu Zengshou had probably squeezed some more silver from his brother-in-law, Prince Yan Zhu Di, and was holding a half-worn fan, treasuring it against his chest like a precious item.
Seeing that Xu Zengshou had arrived at the antique shop by carriage, Mu Chun invited himself aboard and commanded the driver to follow the carriage ahead at a distance, the one with ten guards as escort.
Xu Zengshou opened his fan like presenting a treasure, pointing at the flowing calligraphy on the fan surface. “I really found a bargain today! This fan surface was personally written by Fan Peng, one of the four great poets of the Yuan Dynasty – only fifty taels of silver. What a steal, right? Look at this calligraphy, it’s definitely authentic—”
Mu Chun folded up the fan, interrupting Xu Zengshou’s words. “I’ll take this into the palace and have Fan Peng’s own granddaughter authenticate it for you – but let’s talk business. What exactly did you find out?”
Xu Zengshou held out his hand. “Where’s the IOU?”
Mu Chun pulled a folded square of paper from his pouch and quickly flashed it before him. “I’ve been carrying it with me this whole time.”
Xu Zengshou saw the paper seemed to have traces of a red handprint and felt relieved. He said, “Do you remember that this spring, the Great Ming announced the third northern expedition? Your father Mu Ying was appointed commander and led troops to campaign in the northern desert, achieving great victory?”
At the mention of his father, Mu Chun snorted coldly through his nose. “Of course I remember. When he returned victorious, the first thing he did was make me kneel in the ancestral hall. He even tried to whip me, disgusted that I had embarrassed him at the Imperial Academy. The next day he stuffed me into the Embroidered Uniform Guard to watch the gates.”
Xu Zengshou asked again, “Do you know how your father achieved victory?”
“The person you were supposed to find – did you actually get clear information or not?” Mu Chun’s eyes showed distrust. “That person died in the second northern expedition. The Grand Marshal of that expedition was your father, Duke Weiguo Xu Da, which is why I asked you to investigate. Why are you bringing up my father?”
Xu Zengshou said, “Because both of these northern expeditions are related to the person you’re looking for…”
Since the founding of the Great Ming, there had been three northern expedition campaigns against the Yuan Dynasty and Northern Yuan regime. The first was in the first year of Hongwu, just after the Great Ming was established. Xu Da served as Grand Marshal to Subdue the Barbarians and achieved great victory, capturing the Yuan capital Dadu (present-day Beiping), destroying the Yuan Dynasty.
The second northern expedition still had Xu Da as commander, but this time the Great Ming was defeated. Hu Shanwei’s fiancé died in this war. The Great Ming was forced to negotiate peace with Northern Yuan. To show sincerity in the peace negotiations, Emperor Hongwu even commanded his second son, Prince Qin, to marry Wang Yinnu, the younger sister of Northern Yuan’s Prime Minister Wang Baobao, in a political marriage.
The third northern expedition took place this spring of the thirteenth year of Hongwu. Emperor Hongwu appointed Marquis Xiping Mu Ying as marshal to lead the Ming army stationed in Shaanxi as the northern expedition force. The expedition army traveled all the way to Lingzhou in Ningxia without encountering Northern Yuan forces. Just as the expedition army was about to get lost in the desert and grasslands, at the crucial moment, Marshal Mu Ying received intelligence from scouts: Northern Yuan forces were stationed at Nailu, preparing to bypass the expedition army and attack the Great Ming border.
Mu Ying immediately force-marched his troops, traveling day and night for seven days without rest. They crossed the Yellow River, traversed Ningxia, climbed over the Helan Mountains, and when they were fifty li from the enemy’s main camp, divided into four routes and surrounded the Northern Yuan army like wrapping dumplings, achieving great victory.
Xu Zengshou dipped his finger in tea water and began drawing a map on the carriage wall. “At that time, your father was here… the Northern Yuan army was here. Your father didn’t have far-sight abilities – how could he be certain the Northern Yuan army was exactly there, to cross the Yellow River, climb over the Helan Mountains, catch the enemy unprepared, and surround the Yuan army?”
Mu Chun had no interest in his father’s glorious achievements. “Didn’t you just say? Because he received scout intelligence!”
“Do you know who delivered this intelligence to your father?” Instead of continuing, Xu Zengshou again dipped water and wrote the two characters “Wang Ning” on the wall.
In the sweltering heat, Mu Chun seemed frozen solid, motionless. After a long while, he finally reacted. “You mean he didn’t die? He went undercover in Northern Yuan and became a secret agent for the Embroidered Uniform Guard, serving as the expedition army’s eyes and ears?”
Xu Zengshou said in a low voice, “This is military intelligence. I found it in a secret letter from my father’s study. You must not let this information leak out.”
Mu Chun nodded like sleepwalking, then shook his head. “It can’t be such a coincidence, right? There are too many people in this world with the same name. Wang Ning is a very common name.”
Xu Zengshou said, “The secret letter only mentioned Wang Ning without detailing his origins. However, I’ve fulfilled my promise – you should return the IOU now, right?”
As Xu Zengshou spoke, he quietly locked the carriage door, thinking that if Mu Chun tried to renege on the debt, neither of them would be getting out of the carriage.
The shocked Mu Chun didn’t notice Xu Zengshou’s little maneuver. He was thinking: Should I tell Sister Shanwei about this?
If this Wang Ning was the person he was searching for, this truth would be more cruel to Sister Shanwei than any lie.
The person she was waiting for had long ago chosen between romantic feelings and achieving merit and fame, selecting the latter and abandoning her.
Her waiting, her persistence, her despair, her entry into the palace seeking a way to survive – it would all become a joke.
Ah, so there really are people like me in this world, abandoned by the entire world…
Seeing Mu Chun sitting motionless like an old monk in meditation, Xu Zengshou lunged forward to snatch the IOU from the pouch. Opening it, he was dumbfounded: the paper was almost completely blank except for a red handprint.
“Where’s the IOU I wrote?” Xu Zengshou asked.
Mu Chun said, “You ate it long ago – that day when you grabbed the IOU, it was real, not toilet paper. If I hadn’t created a fake one, you definitely wouldn’t have agreed to help me.”
Without the fake IOU in hand, Xu Zengshou wouldn’t have risked sneaking into his father’s study to look at military secrets.
All’s fair in war and stratagem. Xu Zengshou pointed at Mu Chun: “You, you, you… you deceived me.”
Mu Chun opened the carriage door and looked at the speeding carriage ahead. “It’s not deception – you don’t have to repay the money anymore.”
Mu Chun’s body was in the carriage, but his mind had already flown away. He roughly guessed why Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Mao Qiang was so determined to drive Hu Shanwei out of the palace.
The street copyist Hu Shanwei would never have any connection with Wang Ning in her lifetime – they would each live their separate lives.
But becoming a female palace official was different. If this Wang Ning was that Wang Ning, and Wang Ning’s intelligence was the key to his father Mu Ying’s victory in the third northern expedition, when the Emperor eventually rewarded merit and granted titles and offices, Hu Shanwei would surely discover the truth about her fiancé.
What would happen then?
Wang Ning abandoning romantic feelings to go undercover in Northern Yuan, providing intelligence that turned the Great Ming’s defeat into victory – this was behavior everyone would praise.
If Sister Shanwei accused Wang Ning of being heartless, everyone else would instead blame her for not understanding the bigger picture, not knowing to prioritize the greater good, being petty-minded with a woman’s narrow perspective.
But what had Sister Shanwei done wrong?
The carriage ahead stopped. Ten plainclothes Embroidered Uniform Guards dismounted, and Hu Shanwei and Jiang Quan entered a bookshop. About the time it takes to drink a cup of tea later, the two emerged with several books, boarded the carriage, and headed to another bookshop.
When passing Hu Family Bookshop, Hu Shanwei didn’t get out. Jiang Quan said nothing and went to the bookshop alone.
The piercing cry of an infant carried incredible penetration, reaching into the carriage. After a while, Jiang Quan returned with a book, and the carriage continued moving.
Jiang Quan said, “It’s a boy, looks very healthy. Manager Hu was overjoyed – he was still holding the baby while collecting payment. Even when the boy wet his clothes, he kept laughing cheerfully.”
Her father had indeed gotten his wish – gaining a son in middle age, delighting in it.
Hu Shanwei thought she no longer cared, but hearing Jiang Quan describe it this way, her heart still ached. When she was small, her father had doted on her the same way. After her mother died and the family was ruined, father and daughter depended on each other, their affection serving as mutual motivation.
But now her father’s happy life could no longer accommodate her – she was superfluous. Without her, this family would be better off, more harmonious.
Then… let it be this way.
Tears spun in her eyes – it must be the carriage jolting too much, almost jolting the tears out. Hu Shanwei didn’t want anyone to see her vulnerable side, so she clenched her fists and forcibly held back.
Jiang Quan, at her age and with rich experience, was most understanding of people’s feelings. Knowing Hu Shanwei was enduring pain, she made an excuse about the stuffiness inside the carriage and stepped out to sit beside the driver.
Sure enough, as soon as Jiang Quan left, Hu Shanwei’s tears began falling, dropping onto her fists one by one, scalding like hot oil.
The carriage passed Chengxian Street, turned into a quiet alley, taking a shortcut to Gongyuan Street. Both sides of the lane were lined with massive trees that required two people to embrace, standing there for hundreds of years, displaying the lingering charm of the ancient Six Dynasties capital. Here, the tree shade blocked out the sky, much cooler than the bustling main streets.
Sitting beside the driver, Jiang Quan heard that the suppressed, kitten-like whimpering from inside the carriage had stopped, knowing Hu Shanwei had dried her tears and she could return.
Jiang Quan sighed inwardly: Another pitiful girl – clearly having a family, yet worse off than having none.
Jiang Quan leaned back, shifting to a half-crouching position, preparing to return to the carriage.
But at the instant she lowered her head, a sharp arrow suddenly shot forth, passing right through her hair ornament and piercing the neck of the driver beside her with a thud!
If Jiang Quan hadn’t lowered her head, that arrow would have pierced straight through her neck!
The driver’s hands holding the reins went slack as he tumbled from the carriage, dead on the spot. The carriage immediately lost control. Jiang Quan screamed and rolled and crawled her way into the carriage compartment.
The emergency came too quickly – there was no time to collect the driver’s body. The leading Ji Gang immediately jumped from horseback directly onto the carriage, taking the driver’s place and grasping the reins again, shouting loudly, “Nobody stop! Keep moving forward! If we get trapped here, not one of us will escape!”
As soon as he finished speaking, more arrows rained down from above. Of the ten Embroidered Uniform Guards, seven were instantly shot from their horses!
Not only that, the two horses pulling the carriage were also struck by arrows in their bellies. In excruciating pain, the two horses began galloping wildly like maddened beasts, completely out of control.
Arrows fell like rain. The plainclothes Ji Gang wore no armor. Since the reins were useless anyway, he simply shrank into the carriage, squeezing together with the two terrified female officials.
Ji Gang shouted, “You two hold onto each other – the carriage is going to overturn!”
In panic, Jiang Quan and Hu Shanwei embraced each other. Ji Gang pushed both women into the gap beneath the seats, using seat cushions to shield their heads. At this moment, the two arrow-struck horses collapsed, and the carriage overturned with them. Ji Gang’s head struck the wall and he immediately lost consciousness.