Shen Qingwu crossed the river with Zhang Xingjian to see the Imperial Princess.

At the same time, the soldiers who had followed Shen Qingwu to the Eastern Capital of the Great Zhou to carry out their mission had all lost contact.

Perhaps they were already dead. Perhaps they had fallen into the hands of the Great Zhou.

As for whether the Young Emperor lived or died, that was being kept tightly concealed from the world… The banners of the Yizhou army stood proud and tall, gazing across the river, yet no one knew whether they should send out troops, unsure if this was a trap set by the Great Zhou.

Li Mingshu had no mind for uncovering traps.

But Bo Rong was here.

And Zhang Xingjian was here.

During the time Li Linge had spent waiting for Zhang Xingjian, she had thought of a great many things. Zhang Xingjian had come to negotiate with her, and she needed urgently to understand the current situation in the Eastern Capital.

It was this train of thought that caused her gaze to grow faintly dazed when the tent flap opened and Zhang Xingjian walked in unhurriedly.

Silence spread between the two of them for several breaths.

At last Zhang Xingjian gave her a perfunctory bow of greeting. But Li Linge, who had grown up in the palace from childhood and was intimately familiar with every kind of etiquette, saw at a glance that this was not the bow of a subject to his sovereign.

Zhang Xingjian did not acknowledge her as ruler.

This was merely the courtesy exchanged between equals meeting in the ordinary course of things.

Or perhaps, in Zhang Xingjian’s eyes, she was nothing more than the leader of a rebel army — his bow was already courteous enough. What more could she dare ask for?

Li Linge’s mind turned over a great many thoughts.

On the surface, she simply and warmly invited the Great Zhou Chancellor to sit, had tea brought in, and dismissed all the servants and guards from the tent, granting the two of them privacy.

The negotiation and the probing proceeded without any outward disturbance.

Li Linge probed him, hoping to glean from his words whether Li Mingshu lived or died; Zhang Xingjian probed her, hoping to learn how firm her grip on the Yizhou army was, and whether she had the ability to hold half the realm indefinitely.

Finally, Zhang Xingjian smiled slowly. “Your Highness’s thoughts, I understand.”

Li Linge drank her tea and smiled without speaking, her eyes, hidden beneath long lashes, resting on the clear liquid in the cup — deep, silent, and touched with a hint of sharpness.

Zhang Xingjian said a great deal. “…What I have always sought is simple. There must be no great upheaval of arms. The Yizhou army exists to guard the border, to defend against the Western Di and watch over the nation’s gate. If you were to withdraw it entirely for the sake of internal war, and the Western Di chose that moment to attack, our border would stand undefended, and the losses would be catastrophic.

“Moreover, war is enormously costly, and it would gravely affect the lives of ordinary people. If Your Highness truly cares, surely you would not wish for such a consequence.”

Li Linge said nothing.

Zhang Xingjian smiled again. “Besides, Your Highness has no real certainty of success — isn’t that so?”

Li Linge answered gently. “I hold half the realm in my hands. The Yizhou army serves me, and I have a general like Shen Qingwu who obeys my every command without question. Why would I lack certainty?”

Zhang Xingjian said, “Do the generals under Shen Qingwu’s command truly obey you without question? Do they serve you — or do you merely carry Bo Rong’s banner and use it for your own ends? If I killed Bo Rong, what would you have left to hold your rebellion together? Revenge?

“But revenge is only a fleeting thing. As long as Bo Rong lives, you can control the sentiment within the Yizhou army. If Bo Rong dies, there will inevitably be those in the ranks who begin to doubt the point of following you.

“And General Shen… are you certain she serves you, and could not be turned to serve me instead? You can win people over to your side. Can I not do the same?”

Li Linge’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Her hand rested on the table; beneath her sleeve, the flesh of her palm clenched tighter and tighter. On her face, a cold smile. “Zhang Rong is your elder brother!”

Zhang Xingjian said mildly, “And also the traitor who destroyed the Zhang family’s honor.”

Li Linge said, “If you dare kill Zhang Rong, Zhang Wenbi will not tolerate it, and the entire Zhang family will lose heart because of it!”

Zhang Xingjian smiled. “Would they?”

His clear eyes gazed at her, feigning confusion. “What the Zhang family has served, generation after generation, has always been the imperial line ordained by Heaven, upholding the supreme principle of Heaven’s law. Isn’t that precisely the root cause of the tragedy that befell the Zhang family all those years ago?!”

A flicker of bewilderment passed through Li Linge’s eyes.

Zhang Xingjian said, “It seems Your Highness has been kept in the dark this whole time — you don’t know of the disputes within the Zhang family, don’t know why my brother faked his death and fled, and don’t know why he pushed you off that cliff for no apparent reason. You don’t understand his position, nor do you understand the difficulty he was in.”

Li Linge said, “I don’t need to understand.”

Zhang Xingjian smiled.

Li Linge looked at him. “Chancellor Zhang, there’s clearly more behind your words. Speak plainly.”

So Zhang Xingjian told her of the affair he had uncovered, letting her know the internal strife that had consumed the Zhang family over the question of imperial power. A fork in the road had appeared, and Zhang Rong had turned away from it.

Zhang Rong had already given it up — until that year Shen Qingwu entered the Eastern Capital, Shen Qingwu and Li Linge came to know one another, and Li Linge traveled to Yizhou in search of that hazy, uncertain figure who might or might not have been Zhang Rong…

Li Linge had, for a very long time, been thinking of how to seize military power, how to gain an army’s support, to help herself stand against Li Mingshu; Zhang Rong had, for a very long time, been thinking of whether he should withdraw from the world for the rest of his life, or become nothing more than someone else’s stepping stone, turning his whole existence into a joke.

Zhang Xingjian said gently, “When you arrived in Yizhou and saw Bo Rong — as you walked toward him smiling, in your mind you were thinking of how to use him, how to reclaim a love long lost. What was in his mind was how to destroy you, and also how to help you.

“Fate began on that night of bloodshed years ago, during the Zhang family tragedy, the moment you knelt at his feet and begged him to spare you.”

Li Linge’s eyes suddenly closed.

Her heart clenched with a sudden, violent pain, her eyes stung, and her whole body went rigid, unable to draw breath.

Countless memories and doubts surfaced in her mind. She held every emotion in check, refusing to let any weakness show. She told herself that Zhang Xingjian was trying to draw out her weakness, that Zhang Xingjian wanted to destroy her confidence, that Zhang Xingjian was testing her.

If a person is not ruthless, how can they withstand a world full of malice?

Li Linge opened her eyes again, still composed. “And what if that’s true?”

Something quieted at the center of Zhang Xingjian’s gaze as he looked at the cold woman before him.

It was only now that he realized how one-sided his understanding of Li Linge had truly been.

The ambition Li Linge had concealed for so many years had grown too vast, too unstoppable, to ever be pressed back down.

Li Linge spoke pleasantly. “Chancellor Zhang, do you want to win me over? Do you want to tell me that Zhang Rong loves me? Do you want to tell me that I still have a chance to turn back, that your Zhang family will arrange a way out for me? That for Zhang Rong’s sake, you’ll find a way to take me away, as long as I give all of this up?

“Chancellor Zhang, let me tell you the reason I can never turn back—”

Li Linge leaned back lazily in her seat.

She said, “As for what happened to Brother Rong’s parents dying so horribly, I had no choice but to beg him for it, because as long as Li Mingshu lives, I get to live. Li Mingshu was young — if he had died in his childhood, I, a young princess with neither power nor position, would have had to die alongside him.

“Even earlier than that, my father the Emperor, after only a few years on the throne, ruined himself chasing immortality and the Dao. Before he died, he made my brother and me swear an oath before his sickbed — that I must care for my younger brother, must see that he grew up safely and ascended the throne. As for me? Naturally I could only depend on my brother.

“A little later — after Li Mingshu took matters into his own hands and had the Zhang family killed — my mother the Empress Dowager was still alive then. She wept and made us swear the same oath all over again. My mother must have sensed something by then. From that point on, she kept her distance from me, constantly urging me to marry, even sending me a stream of handsome men. She wanted me to become a princess with no learning and no ambition, who wasted her days in idle pleasure — someone who wouldn’t overshadow my brother.

“Later still — whenever I offered any opinion on matters of state, good or bad, if Li Mingshu so much as said two words, everything would proceed according to his wishes instead. Even when his decisions cost the court dearly, he was still the young emperor who had not yet ascended, and everyone treated him with indulgence. The whole world said: once the emperor grows up, things will be fine.

“And me? I had to appear ignorant and useless. I had to earn a name for infamy. I had to seem lost in idle indulgence and vice… otherwise, how could I have survived? A princess is allowed to have ambition, but alongside that ambition, she must also have visible weaknesses, fatal flaws — otherwise, how could I have made it this far?”

Li Linge propped her chin on her hand and smiled. “Chancellor Zhang, just as you’ve never understood why I, who played the role of princess so well, would rack my brain scheming to rebel — I don’t understand it either. I clearly have the ability, so why did I have to pretend to be weak? Li Mingshu and I share the same father and mother; I am a full cycle of years older than him. When I was already accomplished in my youth, he was still a swaddling infant who understood nothing… so why should he be the one blessed by heaven, while I am the one who must depend on him?

“Chancellor Zhang, tell me — by what right?”

Her smile grew sharper by degrees.

Li Linge said, word by word: “If I were given the chance…”

Zhang Xingjian asked in return, “If you were given the chance?”

Li Linge said, “That’s right. If I were given the chance, I would certainly do far better than Li Mingshu.

“Zhang Yuelu — as for you, I’ve been studying you all this while. The Zhang family is a great and ancient clan; I still hoped to reconcile with it, hoped the Zhang family might aid me. At first I treated you as though you were Brother Rong. But later I discovered you’re not like him at all.

“He runs warmer. You run colder. Perhaps your family’s upbringing changed somewhere along the way — perhaps your family decided that someone too passionate about the mortal world cannot perfectly guard the clan, and changed course, deciding they no longer wanted a sun, but wanted instead a cold, distant moon.

“I am this beautiful, and I hold this much power. I wanted to sleep with you, and you refused.”

She looked at him with amusement, as though she found it all rather funny. “Would it really be so bad? Just bodies, no feelings involved, and we support one another in matters of state besides… what’s wrong with that? I gave up long ago on cultivating anything as fine as love. Loving anyone even a little more makes me feel sick, disgusted.

“All I want is advantage — advantageous to you, advantageous to me both.”

Zhang Xingjian said gently, “Your Highness, you truly are quite mad.”

The beautiful princess blinked and gave an indifferent little laugh.

She watched him steadily. “And so what if I am? If I weren’t mad, would you even be negotiating with me? If I weren’t mad, if I hadn’t pushed things this far, would the lofty Zhang family moon ever have so much as glanced my way, ever have cared what I wanted? If you weren’t unable to kill me, would you be standing here negotiating with me at all!”

Her expression turned cold by degrees.

She leaned forward. “If I’m not ruthless, if I’m not mad, I get no chance at all.”

Zhang Xingjian said, “What is it you want?”

Li Linge said, “It has always been the same thing, from beginning to end — I need an ally.”

Zhang Xingjian said, “I’m not certain you’re a suitable ally.”

Li Linge said, “Then let’s talk.”

Zhang Xingjian smiled.

Zhang Xingjian rose to his feet.

His air of easy elegance truly resembled Zhang Rong’s — and yet, from some indefinable moment onward, grew less and less like him.

Zhang Xingjian looked at this princess with the dim, flickering eyes. “Your Highness, in truth, it is you who needs something from me now, not I who needs something from you.”

Zhang Xingjian said, “You have no ally at all. There’s no need to put on airs of superiority trying to lull me into complacency. You put on a show of strength while your heart is powerless underneath — who understands that better, you or I?”

Li Linge said, “How can you say I have no ally?”

Zhang Xingjian said, “If I kill Zhang Rong, the Yizhou army will begin to grow distant from you; you cannot make Shen Qingwu fully devoted to you, but I can take her away; and by taking her, I could also move troops to dismantle the Yizhou army.

“I simply choose not to.

“The world for now only sees you as a compassionate princess, leading them in revolt against the tyrannical rule of the young emperor. But once the revolt succeeds, no one believes you ought to ascend the throne. They’ll choose a new emperor, they’ll argue and fight over it, but you will be excluded from consideration entirely.

“That is why you need an army. That is why you need an ally.

“I have no wish to pass judgment on any of this. I only mean to say — apart from me, you will find no ally. And if you wish to persuade me, you must show me your worth.

“Setting aside whether or not you are a woman, I can assure you — across this entire realm, you would be hard-pressed to find a second person like me.”

Zhang Xingjian smiled faintly. “Perhaps Zhang Rong wouldn’t mind either. But do you trust him?”

Li Linge stared at him in silence.

Li Linge said with certainty, “You’re fond of Shen Qingwu.”

From that phrase — setting aside whether or not you are a woman — Li Linge had sharply caught the telltale sign.

Zhang Xingjian’s eyes narrowed.

Instinctively he meant to deny it, but the words caught somewhere on their way to his lips; for some reason his quick, clever tongue faltered, and he could not get the denial out — and so he lost the moment to do so.

Li Linge seized that lapse, and it set the princess laughing aloud.

The taut atmosphere turned absurd under that laughter.

The princess laughed until tears came to her eyes. “How ridiculous!”

— A man of the Zhang family, too, trying to understand a woman’s needs, trying to solve her difficulties, all for her sake!

Zhang Xingjian said, “I want you to release Shen Qingwu, to let her come with me.”

Li Linge said, “Impossible.”

Zhang Xingjian went on calmly, “Whether you and I can cooperate — the initiative lies with me, not with you. You said you wanted a chance equal to Li Mingshu’s. You already have it — I intend to see for myself what difference there is between the southern Great Zhou under your rule and the northern territory controlled by Li Mingshu.

“I want to judge for myself whether you and your brother are truly so alike. If you want me as your ally, you must give me an answer that satisfies me. Otherwise — Your Highness, I will not cooperate with you.”

Zhang Xingjian smiled gently. “I came on this journey because I did not wish to see the realm plunged into war. But if it comes to that, I am not incapable of raising troops either. None of this, truly, has anything to do with me.”

Li Linge said, “You are Zhang Yuelu of the Zhang family, the moon on whom such great hopes were placed, the Chancellor of the Great Zhou. How can it have nothing to do with you?”

Zhang Xingjian said, “I am also Zhang Xingjian.”

He, too, longed simply to be Zhang Xingjian.

The tent fell quiet, and silence stretched on for a long while.

Li Linge broke that stillness. “If I were a man, none of this would be so complicated.”

Zhang Xingjian said, “If you were a man, the moment treasonous intent stirred in you, I would have sensed it, and I would have killed you. Things would never have come this far.

“Your status as a woman has brought you injustice, but it has also protected you — your being a woman is exactly why, through all this long stretch of time, I never suspected you harbored rebellion.”

Li Linge propped her forehead in her hand.

Li Linge said, “Shen Qingwu is one of my generals. I cannot let you take her.”

Zhang Xingjian said, “Her body carries a great many wounds. As things stand, you cannot move to war — what use is she to you now? I intend to take her to recover and heal. I won’t let her wear herself down fighting other people’s wars. I will take her with me, without fail.”

Li Linge said, “If my answer satisfies you, will you cooperate with me?”

Zhang Xingjian said, “I still have a condition — you give Shen Qingwu her freedom, and only then will I cooperate with you.”

Li Linge said, “What do you mean by ‘freedom’?”

Zhang Xingjian said, “Freedom as I define it.”

Li Linge looked at him in astonishment.

Was that really all?

He asked for no guarantee of power, sought no achievement for the Zhang family, demanded no promise of how she would treat the defeated?

Zhang Xingjian said, “Your Highness, I have never put my trust in anyone’s oaths. However you choose to treat the realm, I will simply watch, and form my own judgment.

“It’s only the matter concerning Shen Qingwu that I must take to heart. She says you’re a woman, that you’d understand her, at least a little. I don’t quite believe that, but I’m trying to. …If she trusts you, can you truly not bring yourself to grant her even a little freedom?”

Li Linge lowered her eyes.

After a long moment she said, “I need to think it over.”

Zhang Xingjian answered promptly, “Take your time to think it over, Your Highness.”

He took his leave at once, unwilling to linger a moment longer.

As he turned away, he heard Li Linge say, without any particular emphasis, “You don’t suspect that Shen Qingwu’s trip to the Eastern Capital, and your following her back here now, might all be part of my design?”

Zhang Xingjian paused.

He had suspected it.

He was, even now, still suspecting it.

But…

Zhang Xingjian said softly, “Between her and me, none of that matters.”

Zhang Xingjian said, “Your Highness, rather than trying to make me suspect Shen Qingwu, you might first ask yourself whether you suspect her — of the thousand soldiers who marched to the Eastern Capital, only she alone has returned. How great is the chance that I turned her to my side?”

Li Linge smiled. “Trying to drive a wedge between me and General Shen? I don’t believe a word of it. A’Wu is an upright, dependable woman. She would never betray me.”

At those words, Zhang Xingjian turned back, gave her a bow, and smiled with easy composure.

He had already reached the doorway when he heard Li Linge ask once more, “Is Li Mingshu truly dead or not?”

Zhang Xingjian said playfully, “Guess.”

As he reached to lift the tent flap, he heard Li Linge ask, her voice weary and trembling beneath its coldness, “Do you truly care for Shen Qingwu? Do the men of your Zhang family truly have hearts? That story you told me about the Zhang family — was it true? Brother Rong… you didn’t kill him, did you?”

Zhang Xingjian would not answer that question.

Dealing with a political rival required strategy.

From that point on, whenever he faced Li Linge, he would treat her as a political rival. Between rivals, there was no room for useless pity.

Only, once the tent flap fell and Li Linge’s pale face vanished from view, a trace of melancholy rose in Zhang Xingjian’s heart as well.

Was the path he was taking the right one?

He wanted to protect the people of the realm, he did not want war to break out… was he doing the right thing? —

Zhang Xingjian left the military camp and nearly collided with Shen Qingwu, who came hurrying over.

Shen Qingwu had already changed into her military armor, and she crashed into him stiffly enough to knock him back a step. He naturally didn’t notice that, in the midst of this commotion, Shen Qingwu had silently returned the jade pendant she had borrowed, fastening it securely back at his waist.

Even as he stumbled back that one step, his wrist was caught firmly in Shen Qingwu’s grip, keeping him from staggering further.

Having just been through that bloodless battle inside the tent, Zhang Xingjian felt somewhat drained, and he raised his face in a daze.

Shen Qingwu thought to herself: such a handsome, delicate young man, with such long lashes and such an innocent look in his eyes — really quite adorable.

The soldiers following Shen Qingwu clapped their hands. “Our general’s skills are amazing! Caught Young Master Zhang in one move… Young Master Zhang, our general saved you from falling. Aren’t you going to thank her?”

Zhang Xingjian: “…”

Li Linge knew about the relationship between him and Shen Qingwu, but Li Linge was clever enough not to make a show of it within the army, in case it was ever useful. So within the camp, Zhang Xingjian and Shen Qingwu always maintained an outward appearance of having no feelings for one another — it made things easier for Shen Qingwu.

So Zhang Xingjian bowed, mild as ever. “My thanks to the general, for the rescue.”

Something lit faintly in Shen Qingwu’s eyes.

But she avoided his gaze and went to announce herself at the tent.

Li Linge’s voice carried out from within; Shen Qingwu passed by Zhang Xingjian and went into the tent —

Shen Qingwu, having returned, ought to have reported to Li Linge right away.

Only Li Linge had been occupied negotiating with Zhang Xingjian, and Shen Qingwu had been occupied trying to learn jade carving, so the audience had been delayed.

By the time Li Linge finished her talk with Zhang Xingjian, she was already exhausted. Shen Qingwu came to see her in full armor; Li Linge asked a few idle questions about Yang Su’s situation and the state of the Eastern Capital, then signaled that Shen Qingwu could go.

But just before Shen Qingwu withdrew, Li Linge said, weighing her words, “A’Wu, do you think Li Mingshu is dead or not?”

Shen Qingwu answered firmly, “Without a miracle-working physician to save him, he’s certainly dead.”

Li Linge said, “But what if there is a miracle-working physician?”

Shen Qingwu said, “…Yang Su and I already did everything we could. If he can survive that, then maybe it really is the will of Heaven?”

Li Linge’s smile turned cold.

Li Linge said softly, “Why should the will of Heaven favor him.”

Shen Qingwu had always been a woman of few words, with no gift for comforting speech. Li Linge clearly had something weighing on her mind, something she thought about endlessly — and it was exactly the sort of thing Shen Qingwu had no interest in. Shen Qingwu took her leave; Li Linge, head lowered, gave no response at all.

Shen Qingwu left the tent and sighed.

If only the war could end soon —

Shen Qingwu had her own troubles.

No matter how the negotiation between Li Linge and Zhang Xingjian went, it did nothing to solve her own problem —

Just then, Shen Qingwu sat on the railing beside the training grounds, watching the soldiers drill, kicking up clouds of dust.

She turned the jade pendant over and over in her hand.

A young soldier, overcome by the heat, was helped off the field and happened to sit down beside Shen Qingwu, panting.

The soldier didn’t dare strike up conversation with this famously strange-tempered woman general, but to his surprise, this famously taciturn general spoke to him first. “Look at this pendant.”

Shen Qingwu, still seated on the railing, kicked him lightly. The soldier looked up in bewilderment and caught the pendant tossed his way.

Fumbling to catch it, he saw it was a fine piece of jade, a lovely rich green — and carved into it, something —

He said in delight, “The general’s giving this to me? What — what’s carved on it?”

Shen Qingwu, unruffled, said, “What do you think it’s supposed to be?”

The soldier held the jade up to the sunlight, struggling to guess. “A — a swarm of ants? A heavenly dog devouring the moon? No, that’s not right either… could it be soldiers playing cuju? General, you really do have refined tastes.”

As the soldier rambled on, Shen Qingwu’s last flicker of hope died.

She recalled what the craftsman had told her: “My lady, if you want to carve something into a piece of jade, besides having the strength for it, don’t you also need real skill at drawing? These crooked, twisted marks of yours… they’re simply not suited to jade carving. Why don’t you go learn to draw first?”

But Shen Qingwu had been learning to draw for years now.

With no talent whatsoever.

And no progress to show for it.

She had tried to copy the design on Zhang Xingjian’s jade pendant, working at it with real effort, spending an entire morning on it — only to ruin yet another piece of jade.

Sitting on the railing, Shen Qingwu tilted her head back, squinting up at the sun, thoroughly vexed: such fine-quality jade, and she’d thrown away good money on it for nothing.

She was getting poorer by the day.

How was she supposed to explain herself to Zhang Xingjian?

No… it hadn’t come to that yet. Simply figuring out how to handle his questions about the pendant was already trouble enough.

Shen Qingwu wasn’t one for talking to strangers, but she was in such a bind now that she stammered out a question to the soldier:

“I have this friend, who got involved with someone rather petty and small-minded…”

The soldier caught on at once. “A sweetheart?”

Shen Qingwu, relieved, nodded. “Right, a sweetheart. They had a fight once, and my friend broke the token that marked their relationship. My friend never expected the two of them to make up afterward…”

The soldier nodded with real sympathy. “When a woman gets clingy like that, even the toughest man can’t handle it. If that sweetheart cries and acts all coy to corner him, it’s only natural your friend’s general would be at a loss.”

Shen Qingwu perked up. “Right! You think that’s totally normal too, right?”

But wait, the soldier had said “a woman”…

Never mind. Not important.

Shen Qingwu said, “That sweetheart wants my friend to produce the token, and my friend can’t. What should they do?”

The soldier said, “Uh, lie your way out of it? Buy the sweetheart something even nicer, smooth things over, let them forget about it?”

Shen Qingwu said, “But that sweetheart has an especially good memory, not ordinary at all… remembers every little trivial thing, doesn’t say anything about it most of the time, but there’s really nothing he ever forgets…”

The soldier began to feel sorry for her.

The soldier said, “Then — then maybe your friend’s general should just admit fault.”

Shen Qingwu relaxed.

Shen Qingwu said, “That’s what my friend was thinking too.”

Just as she’d settled on this plan and was about to act on it, the soldier, still turning the jade pendant over in his hands, suddenly said, “But General, even admitting fault requires the right timing.”

Shen Qingwu said, “How so?”

The soldier said, “If the sweetheart is in the middle of being upset or angry, and your friend goes to admit fault right then, wouldn’t that just make them even angrier?”

Shen Qingwu said, “Hm, that’s true, that’s true.”

The soldier said, “As the saying goes, fights at the head of the bed end in peace at the foot of it.”

The soldier gave Shen Qingwu a suggestive wink, clearly hoping she’d catch his meaning.

Shen Qingwu caught it.

Shen Qingwu said thoughtfully, “That makes a lot of sense.” —

A gust of wind kicked up sand, forcing the group to squint and shield their eyes.

At the head of the group, Zhang Xingjian even coughed once or twice.

But as he turned his face aside, hair sweeping across his cheek, he still caught sight of Shen Qingwu sitting at the edge of the training grounds, chatting animatedly with a young soldier.

Half a quarter-hour now.

Still talking.

Wasn’t she supposed to dislike talking?

Zhang Xingjian lowered his eyes, feeling for a moment that his own pettiness was disrespectful to her — she spent every day in the army camp, surrounded naturally by men. But at the same moment, he also felt that for someone who supposedly disliked talking to be chattering on so freely was a clear sign that something was off.

After struggling with himself for a good while, Zhang Xingjian said to the general accompanying him on his walk through the camp that he’d like to go take a look at the training grounds.

That general had been ordered by the princess to keep watch over Zhang Xingjian day and night. When Zhang Xingjian said he wanted to visit the training grounds, the general naturally accompanied him.

And so Zhang Xingjian arrived at the training grounds, robes fluttering, a figure like carved jade. His bearing, utterly unlike anything else there, drew the quiet stares and murmurs of many soldiers even as they trained—

“That’s the Chancellor Zhang. So young.

“So this is what a great noble young master looks like. If I’d been born into a family like his, with people waiting on me hand and foot, I bet I’d look even better than him.

“He looks so delicate. What’s he doing here?”

Zhang Xingjian turned his face slightly, stealing a glance at Shen Qingwu, who was not so very far away now.

Shen Qingwu noticed Zhang Xingjian’s arrival, but with a guilty conscience over the pendant, she didn’t dare meet his eyes. She lowered her head and kept talking earnestly with the soldier.

Zhang Xingjian lowered his face, brow furrowing slightly.

The general escorting him introduced things proudly. “Young Master, our soldiers train every single day. Look at this crossbow, these arrows — we spend good money ordering the finest materials for them… nothing like those decorative showpieces you see elsewhere.”

Zhang Xingjian nodded. “Indeed.”

The general said, “Young Master, feel free to try one.”

Distracted, Zhang Xingjian picked up an arrow, nocked it to the bow, and gave it a test draw.

He heard the soldiers murmuring among themselves. “He’s even picked up a bow. Does he actually know how to use it? Bet he can’t hit a thing.”

“A fancy young master from the Eastern Capital, all show and no substance — perfectly normal.”

Zhang Xingjian wasn’t one to be swayed by others looking down on him; this had never been his battlefield to begin with. But something stirred in him all the same — the thought that Shen Qingwu spent her days surrounded by men like these. Might she, too, think him frail and useless, unworthy of being called a real man?

She’d seemed so indifferent to him, time and again…

Did she prefer men who were strong and imposing?

She’d followed Bo Rong for so long, too… and Bo Rong’s martial skill was excellent.

Zhang Xingjian fell into thought.

Zhang Xingjian changed his mind and said to the general with a smile, “Let me try a few shots, if that’s alright?”

The general gestured for him to go ahead.

And so the soldiers training on the field found their attention drifting entirely away from their drills, all of them stealing glances at this elegant young man.

Zhang Xingjian noticed that Shen Qingwu, too, seemed to glance in his direction.

Zhang Xingjian thought to himself: I’m plenty strong too — no less than any of the men in your army you’ve come to know.

With that thought, he loosed an arrow…

A gust of wind blew past.

He missed the target completely—

An awkward silence fell over the training ground.

Zhang Xingjian’s face froze.

He stole a glance at the figure not far away—

Sitting on the railing, hair tossed by the wind, Shen Qingwu tilted her face up toward the sunlight and burst out laughing.

The soldier chatting with her grew nervous, thinking he’d said something wrong. “General, what’s wrong?”

Shen Qingwu said, perfectly straight-faced, “Nothing.”

She looked at the soldier earnestly, laughing for a good two beats before she managed to stop. “Don’t go turning around to gawk. Someone’s fragile little heart needs looking after.”