Late September to early October was the transitional period from late autumn into early winter.

However, Jinan was already north of the Huai River, and the weather was already as cold as winter in the south.

Jiang Xuening had spent most of the past two years in the south and hadn’t experienced such dry, cold weather in a long time. Suddenly encountering it again, she was still somewhat unaccustomed. During this period of lingering in Jinan Prefecture with Xie Wei, she didn’t even have the heart to go out and see the sights, staying cooped up indoors instead.

Her body recovered very quickly.

After all, although she had been overly tense during their time in the mountains, she had slept well all the way while Xie Wei carried her back. After waking up, though her body was weak, the doctor treated her well, and within a few days she was as lively and energetic as an ordinary person.

Xie Wei, however, truly had quite an ordeal.

That Doctor Zhou said he had frostbite on his legs and feet from walking too long in the snow, and it would be best not to walk around carelessly for a short time. There were also freshly brewed medicines being brought to his room from time to time, with the doctor carrying his medicine bag for acupuncture and massage to invigorate blood circulation.

It wasn’t until the sixth day, when Jiang Xuening happened to push open her window, that she saw him standing under the corridor.

Xie Wei was, after all, a close minister to the Emperor and an important court official.

After he arrived in Jinan Prefecture, quite a few officials from Shandong Province came to pay their respects. He also completely acted as he had in Tongzhou, turning no one away. However, he didn’t mention anything to anyone about going to the frontier. Instead, he said that on the road they had encountered an ambush by unidentified assassins, and ordered Jinan Prefecture and the provinces along the route to strictly investigate and interrogate.

Who would be suspicious of this?

Naturally, each province went back to thoroughly investigate the matter, only suspecting it was the Heavenly Teachings causing trouble, and immediately reported the incident truthfully to the court.

Sometimes Jiang Xuening didn’t even dare to think: truly worthy of being a rebel minister who would one day wash the imperial palace in blood—he actually dared to do such righteous-seeming yet audacious things. And because he had found such good pretexts early on, no one would suspect him at all.

Poor these officials, so submissive and trembling…

How could they know that this sage-like Imperial Tutor Xie was actually a rebel with treacherous intentions?

Xie Wei, emerging from his room again, seemed to have much better color than the day she had gone to see him. His dark hair was bound with just a single ebony hairpin, most of it flowing loose. He wore a light robe with loose sash. That snow-white Daoist robe was simple to the point of returning to original simplicity, instead setting off a kind of unstained purity.

It was a tranquil and elegant bearing.

When she saw him, he also looked this way.

Jiang Xuening blinked. She still remembered the “trap” she had encountered that day when she went to see him after waking up. Her heart was both vexed and apprehensive, troubled by how to maintain distance from him. In the following days, she hadn’t dared to visit him no matter what.

But now their gazes met directly—she couldn’t pretend she hadn’t seen him, could she?

Steeling herself, she raised her paw and waved from afar, greeting him.

Xie Wei looked at her for a long while, as if observing something. Finally, he just smiled. He neither spoke nor showed any intention of walking over. Instead, he continued forward along the corridor, and after going out, headed south.

That was not the direction of the main gate.

Although Jiang Xuening hadn’t gone out these days, the courtyard was only so big. She had walked around and familiarized herself with it during her daily strolls, and immediately saw that the south side was clearly the kitchen.

For a moment, she was speechless.

But in her mind surfaced Xie Wei’s words from that day: “In the future, I’ll make something for you to taste and make you wholeheartedly convinced.”

Could this person actually be serious?

Jiang Xuening’s heart beat nervously. Watching Xie Wei’s figure disappear along the corridor, out of some kind of panic about the situation becoming real, she shut the window without another word, afraid of seeing something she shouldn’t see.

But one quarter-hour passed, two quarter-hours passed…

Sitting in the room, she always felt restless, unable to resist prying open the window crack from time to time to peek outside secretly.

She didn’t know if more than half a shichen had passed when Jiang Xuening was pondering that Xie Wei was probably just joking. After all, gentlemen stay far from the kitchen. No matter what, he was half a sage—he wouldn’t take it so seriously with her, would he?

But just as this thought crossed her mind, the window shutters began to tremble lightly.

Someone was standing outside, knocking gently with their knuckles: “Open the window.”

It was Xie Wei’s voice!

Jiang Xuening’s hair practically stood on end. Her body, sitting right under the window, immediately stiffened. Looking up, she could vaguely see through the snow-white window paper a tall, slender shadow cast down.

Her thoughts raced, and she simply made no sound, wanting to pretend she wasn’t there.

After all, the encounter earlier was earlier—couldn’t she have gone out for a walk and not be in the room?

Unfortunately, Xie Wei was not so easily fooled. His voice came through the window paper again, already tinged with a half-smile: “When did you become a turtle?”

Very clearly, he had seen through her.

Jiang Xuening couldn’t keep pretending. Deflated, she pushed open the window shutters and indeed saw Xie Wei standing outside. Only one of his sleeves was already rolled up partway, and in one hand he held a plate of sugar-colored, tempting peanut brittle.

The slightly sweet scent and the unique aroma of roasted peanuts mixed together and immediately drifted in on the breeze.

Jiang Xuening, inside the window, quickly glanced at the peanut brittle, then swiftly turned her gaze back to Xie Wei. She put on a smile and first awkwardly called out: “Master Xie.”

Xie Wei placed the plate of peanut brittle on the windowsill for her.

Jiang Xuening had already experienced this person’s deep schemes the other day and had secretly warned herself to be more vigilant. Seeing this now, she quickly said: “Master’s favor—this student is unlearned and incompetent. How dare I accept it? It has always been students who show filial respect to their teachers. Please withdraw your kind intentions, Master.”

Xie Wei’s deep, pool-like eyes steadily watched her, without much teasing intent. He said flatly: “Even the desire for food and drink must be restrained, being cautious and wary in every way. Living like this, how much more comfortable are you than I am?”

Jiang Xuening froze.

After Xie Wei finished speaking, without looking at her expression or reaction, he turned around with his hands behind his back and walked along the corridor again.

It was a long time before Jiang Xuening reacted and looked down again.

The plate of peanut brittle just sat there quietly on the windowsill.

Her instinct was that Xie Wei saying this was just another kind of “scheme.” But her mind churned, and she felt that what he said was absolutely right, like a thunderclap awakening her, and it had a strange persuasive power.

For a moment, she couldn’t judge whether she agreed too much with Xie Wei’s words, or whether the aroma emanating from this plate of peanut brittle before her was too tempting. After resisting again and again, she finally couldn’t control herself and reached out her sinful little hand…

With one bite, the sugar coating was perfectly sweet, wrapped around the peanut kernels like a layer of oil, congealed on top like caramelized amber, yet it was caramelized without being burnt. The peanuts were crispy and crunchy. After biting through them, mixed with the sugar, that flavor completely transcended either sugar or peanuts alone, perfectly fusing together and exploding on her tongue.

Jiang Xuening almost swallowed her tongue along with it.

It was so delicious!

In her previous life, she had only been fortunate enough to taste the wild rabbit roasted by someone surnamed Xie and the peach cakes he made. But after all, the wild rabbit was in the wilderness mountains and the peach cakes were just a few slices. The former was somewhat inferior in taste, and the latter was gone after eating it for just a while.

In this lifetime, this was the first time eating something else Xie Wei had made.

She could hardly believe that someone in the world could make food so delicious!

Was there no justice left?

Being first in studies was one thing—after all, someone surnamed Xie was reportedly precocious and brilliant from childhood. Playing the qin well and having strategies superior to others naturally followed suit.

But this person could also cook so well?

Jiang Xuening suddenly had the illusion of being severely slapped in the face, humiliated from top to bottom.

But her hands couldn’t control themselves.

Eating one piece, then taking another.

Needless to say, she hadn’t been able to guard against Xie Wei’s “scheme.”

Just like how men in the world take mistresses and keep concubines, Jiang Xuening couldn’t control herself. Having crossed the boundary, eating Xie Wei’s food and drinking Xie Wei’s drinks, there was only the difference between zero times and countless times.

Having already eaten, what could be done?

Spit it out?

Moreover, what Xie Wei said was truly without fault. She had already lived a second life. Although there was indeed no true freedom in the mortal world, if she couldn’t achieve and satisfy even this small desire for food and drink, then what was the point of living? Besides, she had sworn to Xie Wei back then that she was reluctant to die precisely because she couldn’t bear to part with the various attachments and desires of this mortal world.

Eat then.

When living under someone’s roof, how could one not bow one’s head?

She thought that she still had to go to the frontier, find Yan Lin, and rescue the Princess. There were many places where she needed to ask favors of Xie Wei, and there would always be times when she had to speak softly. If he was willing to make food for her, she would just accept it. If the relationship soured, wouldn’t that just be lifting a rock to drop on her own foot?

So, smashing the broken pot, she simply felt at ease following Xie Wei around for food and drink.

Within a few days, she couldn’t eat the dishes made by the chef in the separate residence anymore.

But Xie Wei wasn’t really a chef who could cook every meal. So Jiang Xuening had to watch for him walking from the corridor toward the southern kitchen, then follow him under the pretext of “showing filial respect to the teacher,” and stay to eat what had just come out of the pot.

Xie Wei originally had the air of a reclusive scholar.

But when he took off his outer robe and rolled up his sleeves, he also looked quite proper while cooking.

Occasionally, when she lifted her gaze from the cutting board or the ingredients in the pot to look at him, she felt that this Xie Wei steeped in heavy worldly smoke and fire was much more pleasing to the eye than that half-sage who occupied high positions in court and plotted strategies.

These days, Xie Wei didn’t seem in a hurry to set out. Having met all the officials from Shandong Province, the separate residence quieted down. He would occasionally play the qin, read books, and cook.

Very patient.

Although the journey was delayed, he showed no sign of panic. Though he clearly had calculations in his heart, aside from making some food for Jiang Xuening, there were no extra actions.

Being slowly boiled by him like this, Jiang Xuening almost forgot her initial vigilance.

She didn’t know how to do anything and could only watch the fire in the kitchen.

Even then, she would occasionally be disdained by Xie Wei for not controlling the heat well and ruining the texture of the ingredients.

Today it was already October. The severity of winter was beginning to show. On one side of the kitchen was a stove heating water, and on the other was a burning stove pit, creating a warm atmosphere throughout.

News of the Princess being trapped by the Tatars had long spread throughout the land.

It was discussed endlessly on street corners and in alleyways.

Jiang Xuening added a piece of firewood to the stove pit. Thinking that she hadn’t seen Daoqin these days, she stared at the flames for a long while before she couldn’t help but look up at Xie Wei.

Xie Ju’an’s slender fingers pressed down on the fresh, soft fish belly on the cutting board, unhurriedly bringing down the knife, pulling it bit by bit into thin slices. The calm seriousness in his expression was no different from reading books or playing the qin.

In the pot before him was a small half-pot of water that had already boiled to crab-eye bubbles.

He lifted his eyelids to glance at the water. Without even needing to look at Jiang Xuening, he knew her mind had wandered again: “Not enough firewood. Even tending the fire you’re distracted. If there’s something you want to ask, just ask.”

Hearing this, Jiang Xuening felt stifled. But now relying on him to make food, she obediently added two more pieces of firewood to the stove pit and said: “We’ve stayed in Jinan for so long already. Didn’t you say we’d go to the frontier before the snow arrives?”

Xie Wei’s knife never stopped slicing fish: “If I’m not afraid, what are you afraid of?”

Jiang Xuening rolled her eyes: “But didn’t you say Yan Lin already went ahead to the frontier? You need to forge the edict, but—”

Xie Wei interrupted her: “The ‘imperial edict’ is already on its way to the frontier.”

Jiang Xuening was immediately shocked. Her mind then recalled Daoqin, who had been missing these days: “No wonder Daoqin has disappeared!”

But…

She couldn’t help but frown again: “If we don’t arrive, can Yan Lin succeed on his end?”

Xie Wei lowered his head. His hand paused, and his voice carried an inexplicable indifference: “If he cannot succeed without me, then all these years of suffering and wandering would have been endured in vain.”

Jiang Xuening’s heart inexplicably trembled.

After quite a while, she asked with some hesitation: “Then when do we set out?”

Xie Wei finally finished slicing the fish. He glanced at her, then took several pieces of ginger from the side to cut, his voice steady and calm: “No rush.”

The setting sun was blood-red.

The border town was desolate.

The northern wind blew from the northwest. Ancient banners covered in dust only fluttered on the city walls. Outside were the barracks where border troops were stationed, stretching across the land. On the high general’s platform, fallen leaves scattered. The bronze-cast qilin’s claws and fangs had not been polished or sharpened by anyone and were already covered in rust.

The young man’s features were more profound and distinct than in his youth, and his eyes had more composure and restraint than in the old days.

Only when they occasionally lifted, they were still like an unsheathed sword—

Brilliant as the blazing sun, with sharp edges fully exposed!

Deep blue fitted clothing, sleeves bound tight, solid arms with smooth lines, back straight, possessing the aesthetic of stored power. His palms, which had grown some calluses from grinding swords and blades, slowly brushed across the rusted qilin casting.

Something crawled up along the ancient grooves.

Though it was so cold, Yan Lin felt a long-missed burning heat.

The general’s platform stood three zhang above the ground, a hundred chi wide.

Fifty thousand border troops were arrayed below!

Yet he alone stood on the high platform. Raising his eyes to look, there was only the vast wilderness, banners welcoming the wind, rolling red clouds on the ground, and swords like covering snow!