The conditions the Grand Princess had put forward today were harsh — Cheng Huaili could not possibly agree to them in full.

This meant that the forces from Yunzhou would continue pressing toward Shangjing.

Cheng Huaili could work to fracture loyalties and sow discord, but the Grand Princess currently did not have enough capable generals at her disposal. As long as she prepared thoroughly enough, there was still a chance to turn things around.

She was not afraid of him.

Only… she had been made to feel rather disgusted, all the same.

Frowning, she pressed a hand over her chest and leaned against the carriage window, watching the paving stones of the official road slip past one by one.

The carriage soon came to a stop outside the courtyard gate.

Chen Baoxiang climbed out looking deflated, and trudged inside in the same dejected state — hunched at the waist, both hands dangling at her front, every last bit of her usual spirit gone.

She pushed open the door to her room, only to find someone already inside.

She looked up in a daze.

“You’re back?” Zhang Zhixu had just set a platter of roasted meat on the table. “Come eat?”

The warm, fragrant aroma reached her a moment too late, flooding her senses.

She raised her brows in surprise. “Why are you all only eating lunch now?”

Han Xiao was shifting a sweet potato from one hand to the other to keep from burning himself, smiling cheerfully. “Brother Zhang said you’d definitely have eaten poorly over there, so he had Jiuquan go out and buy a whole sheep.”

“What? An entire sheep?”

“There are a lot of people in the courtyard. By the time everyone gets a share, it isn’t that much.” Zhang Zhixu wiped his fingers clean, set down his cloth, and walked over to her. He gave her face a brief once-over, asked nothing at all, and simply guided her to sit down at the table.

“They roasted it with spices just brought in from foreign lands.” Han Xiao was nearly dizzy from the aroma. “Chen-jiejie, you have to try it.”

“Han Xiao made this soup for you — it replenishes your qi and blood.” Zhang Zhixu ladled a bowl and set it by her hand. “Let it cool a little before you drink it.”

“I…” Chen Baoxiang said blankly. “I haven’t washed my hands.”

The man in front of her gave her a look of mild disdain, then wrung out a cloth, took her hands in his, and wiped them clean, bit by bit.

The warmth and dampness of the cloth carried a faint trace of ink and paper.

“There.” Zhang Zhixu let go of her hands. He did not look at her — only patted her shoulder. “Eat.”

Chen Baoxiang ate the most fragrant, delicious meal she had tasted in a very long time.

No one at that table was probing her or scheming against her. Han Xiao only cared whether the lamb shank in her hands tasted good, and Zhang Zhixu kept reaching over every so often to wipe her greasy fingers clean.

She wrinkled the tip of her nose, and suddenly, quite genuinely, felt a little aggrieved.

Han Xiao noticed that Chen-jiejie’s expression had shifted somewhat and was just about to turn and take a closer look, when an empty plate appeared from the side and blocked his view entirely.

“The meat’s gone. The two of us will go cut some more.” Zhang Zhixu said.

Han Xiao blinked and obliged, swept along as Zhang Zhixu lifted his sleeve and ushered him out the door.

Ningsu was making quick, efficient work of slicing the lamb ribs, while the two of them stood by with nothing to do but wait.

“Brother Zhang.” Han Xiao could not quite hold it in. “She already cried in front of me before — you don’t need to keep shielding her from me.”

Zhang Zhixu kept his eyes on Ningsu’s knife work, and replied with casual indifference, “It’s not that she can’t cry in front of you. She’s simply exhausted, with no energy left to explain herself. Just pretend you didn’t notice.”

Han Xiao nodded, half-understanding, half not.

By the time the two of them carried the freshly cut meat back inside, Chen Baoxiang had already recovered her spirits.

She was grimacing and digging at the meat lodged between bones, and when she saw them, she complained, “This is so hard to gnaw at.”

Zhang Zhixu, amused, separated the clean meat for her, then took the bone from her hand and slowly worked at it with the tip of a chopstick.

Compared to her hands, dripping with grease, the Second Young Master Zhang was, in a word, elegant.

She could not help looking at him with a smile, her eyes curved with warmth.

Zhang Zhixu maintained his composure outwardly and refused to meet her gaze.

But it was not long before the tips of his ears began to turn slowly red, and he asked her with mild irritation, “What?”

“Elder Granny Ye taught me a phrase once — ‘so beautiful it makes you want to eat them up.’ I couldn’t remember it at the time, and I didn’t know how to write it.” She smiled sunnily. “But now, out of nowhere, I’ve remembered.”

Zhang Zhixu: “…”

Han Xiao listened from the side, oblivious to anything unusual, and asked in delighted surprise, “Jiejie, have you studied?”

“I’ve only heard a few words and phrases here and there, but I can’t write them.” Chen Baoxiang wrinkled her nose. “I think I was born with a grudge against strokes and characters — rather than spending time on calligraphy practice, I’d rather spend it lifting stone locks.”

“Oh.” Han Xiao nodded.

Zhang Zhixu finished picking the bone clean and set it in front of her with a thud. “Eat.”

Chen Baoxiang held up her dirty hands with a grin. “How about you feed me?”

Han Xiao froze, looked left, then right, and drew in a slow, sharp breath a beat too late.

Zhang Zhixu’s ears went even redder. He said through gritted teeth, “I’m busy. Feed yourself.”

“What are you busy with? And once you’re done, will you be willing to feed me?”

“…”

Han Xiao picked up the empty plate and ran.

Ningsu outside had just sat down to rest, and looked up in bewilderment when he saw him bolt out. “Done eating so fast?”

“No, no, I’m just hiding out here for a bit — it seems like Master Zhang is about to lose his temper.” Han Xiao patted his chest, still rattled. “So frightening.”

“Lose his temper?” Ningsu’s brow arched in genuine puzzlement. “My master, at Director Chen?”

“Yes! You should’ve seen it — his expression changed completely.”

Ningsu’s face grew complicated. He wanted to say something, then stopped himself.

In the end, Ningsu dropped a piece of lamb brain onto Han Xiao’s empty plate. “Eat more. Good for you.”

“Thank you, you’re so kind.” Han Xiao dug in right then and there.

In the room, now with only two people left, Chen Baoxiang opened her mouth wide with an “ahh.”

Zhang Fengqing, mortified and indignant, fed the meat into her mouth. “Leading a child astray, just like that.”

“You’re not that much older than her.” She closed her eyes in satisfaction. “Drop the official airs.”

He had no choice but to give in, feeding her a few more bites and then lifting the bowl so she could drink a sip of soup.

As Chen Baoxiang ate, she felt the energy gradually return to her limbs, and she asked, “Fengqing, do you know a man named Song Juqing?”

“I’ve heard of him from my elder brother.” Zhang Zhixu said. “He said the man commands troops with uncanny brilliance — he’s broken out of direct engagements with the Pingye main forces twice near the Yunzhou border without taking significant losses. He currently has four thousand cavalry under him.”

Four thousand sounded like a small number, but cavalry…

Chen Baoxiang’s expression grew considerably more grave.

Elder Granny Ye had once said: a soldier with nothing is like a grain of sand on the battlefield — a gust of wind and they are gone without a trace. A soldier with standard armor and blade is like a thumb-sized stone — painful if it hits you, but not necessarily lethal.

But a well-equipped cavalryman, clad in black iron armor and wielding a hundred-fold forged steel sword, is a great boulder — one casual sweep, and he can crush a multitude of men beneath him, and strike such dread into the enemy that their will to fight crumbles before the battle even begins.

No wonder Cheng Huaili had dared to carry himself with such arrogance. Song Juqing truly was his greatest source of confidence.

The Grand Princess’s side naturally had cavalry as well, but they had not been deployed in a long time — their actual strength was hard to say.

“I don’t know the state of the court, nor do I know the movements of those beyond Shangjing.” Zhang Zhixu said. “But I suspect a battle is about to break out near Shangjing very soon.”

Chen Baoxiang raised a brow. “Why?”

“Several of the Zhang Family elders left the capital today.” He smiled faintly. “The last time they left the capital was when Cheng Huaili escorted the new Emperor into the city.”