Xie Changgeng rode out of the city alone, making his way to the barracks stationed outside the northern gate, arriving before the low-roofed building where the military physician ordinarily treated wounded and ailing soldiers. He had not yet stepped inside when he saw a great crowd gathered outside — a long line of young soldiers pushing and jostling one another, each one standing on tiptoe and craning his neck to peer within, as though watching something of interest, while those at the back who could not see leapt up with all their might. Everyone looked tremendously excited, and so absorbed were they that even when he arrived and stood behind them, not a single one noticed.
“Liu Jia, what’s your ailment? I saw you bounding about lively as anything at morning drills — move aside, don’t hold up my turn to see the physician!”
One soldier yanked away a comrade who was blocking him and muttered under his breath.
“Who says I’m not ill? I’ve been feeling unwell for days now. This morning I forced myself through drills. If you ask me, it’s you who has nothing wrong with him — are you also here just to catch a glimpse of the Lady?”
His comrade replied without even turning his head.
The man’s face flushed red. “Who says I’m pretending? I was wounded in battle before, and it still hasn’t fully healed!”
“If it truly hasn’t healed, why did you wait until today of all days — not sooner, not later — to come crowding in?” his comrade teased.
“What’s all this quarreling! Form a proper line! The Lady does not treat injuries from falls, blades, or weapons — anyone here for those, go find the military physician! Anyone who is faking illness will be caught and punished under military law — twenty strokes of the rod! As for the rest, come one at a time! If your turn doesn’t come today, come back tomorrow! The Lady has said she will see everyone, in order of urgency!”
A squad leader, seeing the soldiers had blocked the entire doorway, bellowed this out — and then, having done so, suddenly spotted Xie Changgeng standing not far away, with no idea when he had arrived. He started, then hurried over and saluted him.
“What is going on here?”
Xie Changgeng swept a glance at the scene ahead and asked.
The squad leader saw his cold expression and the hint of displeasure upon it, and hastily explained.
“It is like this — the military physician heard that the Lady who had just arrived possessed medical skill, and that she had even cured the illness of some of the local tribespeople a few days ago, so he went to ask if she might examine a few of the ailing soldiers here. The Lady came, and after she had seen to them, more people arrived. So the Lady stayed on…”
As the two spoke, the soldiers crowding and jostling at the door finally noticed that the Military Commissioner had arrived. Seeing his two displeased eyes sweep over them, those who had come on the pretense of illness merely hoping to catch a look at the Lady’s beauty immediately felt their consciences prick them, and they hastily bowed their heads and scattered.
The doorway that had been thronged with people emptied in short order.
Xie Changgeng walked to the door of the building and stood outside, looking in.
The woman was dressed in ordinary blue-green cloth, working inside alongside the military physician to examine the soldiers — busy and occupied.
She kept her head lowered the entire time. He stood there for quite a while, and not once did she glance up in his direction.
“Has the Military Commissioner come to collect the Lady? Please wait a moment, Your Subordinate will go and summon her at once! The Lady has truly been put to trouble today — the hour is growing late, and she ought to be returning.”
The squad leader glanced at his expression and moved to go inside and call her.
“Never mind.”
Xie Changgeng stopped him.
“I was just passing by. When she has finished, tell her to make her own way back. Do not mention that I came.”
Xie Changgeng said this much, then turned and left.
Mu Fulan had already been occupied for an entire afternoon. Fortunately, aside from the first few patients, most of those who came afterward suffered from only minor ailments and were not troublesome to attend to. It was only that a moment ago she had still seen the queue stretching outside, but when she finally lifted her eyes after seeing to those inside, the people had all suddenly vanished.
Having been busy for half the day, with the sky now dark, she thought no more of it and rose to take her leave.
The military physician was deeply grateful to her and respectfully saw her out. She returned to the Military Commissioner’s residence, where the servants came to welcome her. She casually asked after Xie Changgeng and was told he had come back earlier but had since gone out again and had not yet returned. She thought nothing of it and went inside. Thinking that she had been buffeted by quite a bit of wind and dust throughout the day, she called for water to be prepared and, following her usual habit, bathed and changed her clothes first.
When she had finished washing and climbed out of the bathtub, a maidservant handed her her robe and said, “Nanny Mu is worried about the Young Princess and says you have been exhausted these past days, and that the food the cook here makes doesn’t suit your palate either, so she has gone to prepare something for you herself — it ought to be ready soon…”
Mu Fulan reached up to take the robe. The garment was slippery, and she failed to catch it in time — it slid from her fingers and fell to the floor, where it was dampened by splashed water.
The maidservant let out a small cry and hurried to apologize.
Mu Fulan sent her to fetch another robe and bring it in.
The maidservant went out. Mu Fulan dried the last of the droplets still clinging to her skin, and when she was done, she waited inside for a while. When no one returned, she called out, and hearing no response, and puzzled by this, wrapped herself loosely in the large cloth she had used to dry herself and stepped outside, just about to call out again — when her steps came to an abrupt halt.
The maidservant was nowhere to be seen. There was no one else in the room either. Standing across from her was, of all people, Xie Changgeng.
In his hand, he held one of her garments.
Mu Fulan was startled. Instinctively she pulled the cloth tighter, covering her chest, and turned to go back inside — when she heard the man behind her say, “Your robe.”
She stopped. Her back to the man, she sensed him turning toward her, taking steps, walking slowly in her direction, until at last he came to rest just behind her.
He shook out the garment and draped it over her shoulders.
He had apparently just come in from outside, and his fingers carried a cold edge. As he helped her into the robe, the back of his hand brushed the warm skin at her nape.
The room was full of warmth. Yet she could not help herself — she shivered, and the patch of skin at her neck where his fingers had touched broke into a swift rush of fine goosebumps, her whole body following with a prickling unease.
“Are you cold?”
The man’s hands did not leave her. His palms drew slightly inward, cupping her two fair, luminous shoulders through the fabric, as he bent his head down, and his smooth, well-defined chin grazed lightly against her hair.
His lips drew close to her ear, where the fine hairs stood on end, and in a voice low and profoundly gentle, he asked her.
Mu Fulan did not answer.
The man said no more, but those hands — still carrying their trace of chill — did not leave her. They moved over her shoulders for a moment, then slid slowly downward along the soft curve of her back, still over the fabric, coming to rest at her waist, where they paused — then gently parted the robe he had just draped over her, slipping beneath her arms, closing over the full, pale warmth of her front, taking silent possession of her.
Mu Fulan closed her eyes.
The room was utterly still. At her ear, there was only the sound of the breathing of the person behind her.
The man’s hands moved over her quietly for a moment, and then, without a word, he lifted her from the floor, carried her to the bed, and set her down — whereupon he pulled the curtains shut.
The candlelight was blocked out by the bed-curtains, and the interior of the bed dimmed at once.
His throat tightened. The gaze that was ordinarily as calm as still water now carried a shade of shadowed excitement. He drew the yielding — and, to him, somewhat unexpected — Mu Fulan toward himself.
And so, between a man and a woman, what must happen, happened.
She was so tense and unyielding that it gave him the illusion of something — followed swiftly by a certain faint, unspoken anticipation.
Perhaps this woman had been deceiving herself all along. After all, that day, he had not truly touched her.
He held himself back, not daring to be too forceful — as if the slightest excess of pressure would cause her unbearable pain. With a measure of care and tentative restraint, when at last he had with difficulty made her his, his forehead had already broken into a film of hot sweat, and he was very nearly on the verge of losing all control.
But in that precise moment, he stopped.
He hesitated briefly, then slowly withdrew, lowering his head to look at himself.
A sheen of moisture. Only moisture.
No trace of blood.
Xie Changgeng slowly raised his eyes and looked at her.
Mu Fulan lay beneath him.
Earlier she had kept her eyes closed. Now, as though sensing the shift in his mood, she opened them — and met the gaze he had turned upon her.
His eyes were deeply dark, threaded with a disappointment and fury he could not conceal.
She, however, was composed, not flinching in the least, holding his gaze as she lay there, enduring the weight of his scrutiny from above.
Xie Changgeng’s handsome face twisted almost imperceptibly. He looked away from her. His hands suddenly seized her two smooth, slender white legs in a near-rough grip and wrenched her toward him — and from that moment, without any shred of tenderness, he took complete possession of her.
He finished quickly. He lay atop her, eyes closed, breathing in ragged gasps. After a long time, when his breath had steadied, he opened his eyes, rolled off her, and without so much as a glance in her direction, swept aside the curtains and climbed from the bed. He dressed himself and, without uttering a single word, walked directly out.
Mu Fulan lay with her eyes open, watching through the curtains as that man’s silhouette disappeared. After a time, she pressed her arm against the bed and slowly sat up.
She reached up to support her slightly aching waist, knitted her brows, and when she had recovered somewhat, she took her robe and dressed, gathered her disheveled hair into order, looked down to confirm there was nothing amiss, then drew aside the curtains and got down from the bed to call for someone.
Nanny Mu entered, looked at Mu Fulan, hesitated, then said quietly, “Young Princess, did you have another quarrel with him just now? A moment ago I came by, meaning to call you for dinner. He…”
Nanny Mu fell silent and did not continue.
Earlier she had finished cooking and come over, and was met face-to-face with Military Commissioner Xie coming out of the room. She had invited him to eat, but he had left without so much as a reply, his expression dark and stormy.
Mu Fulan seemed not to have heard, and only asked, “What dishes have you made?”
Nanny Mu quickly said, “I stir-fried some duck slices with young ginger shoots. The duck pieces and carcass were taken and simmered with spring onions until thoroughly tender, then cooked into a soup with white winter melon. I also made chicken-and-fish-paste and lamb with fine noodles. The fish and vegetables here aren’t as delicate as what we have back home in the south, but thankfully the ducks are all nicely plump, and the lamb is excellent — lean and fat in just the right proportion. Even plain-boiled, there’s not a hint of gaminess, and braised with the fine noodles, it’s very flavorful.”
Mu Fulan smiled. “Those are all things I love to eat — just what I needed, since my stomach is empty. It’s a little warm in here and I worked up a bit of sweat; let me have another wash, and then I’ll come eat.”
Having seen this pair seemingly begin to mend things between them over the past half-month or more since arriving here, Nanny Mu had only just begun to ease her worries — and then had come the sight of Xie Changgeng walking away like that.
If he had come out of the room like that, naturally he and the Young Princess had fallen out again.
Nanny Mu had originally been worried for the Young Princess, but seeing how cheerful and at ease she seemed, and though still feeling a vague unease deep down, she didn’t think too hard on it, and let herself be carried along by the lightness of it. She smiled and said, “Of course — Young Princess, go wash first, and I’ll put the food in the carrier box and bring it to the room for you to eat while it’s warm, and then rest early. You’ve been exhausted these past few days.”
She called the maidservants in to attend Mu Fulan’s bath, and went herself to fetch the food.
Mu Fulan bathed once more, washing away the sweat and grime that had settled on her. Coming out, she ate and drank her fill in the warm and comfortable room, and once the meal had settled, she went to bed.
She thought of Xi’er, and fell into dreams quickly. She slept well that night and did not wake until the next morning.
Xie Changgeng had not returned last night, and would not return today either.
The steward told Mu Fulan that he had affairs to attend to and had left in the night for Xiutu, with no mention given of when he would return. She gave it no further thought.