The boats traveled for two more days before entering the Yangtze River, sailing southward along the river. After journeying for a few more days, they would be back in the Kingdom of Changsha.

At dusk, the fleet docked at a water relay station along the route to spend the night.

Darkness fell. Mu Fulan closed the porthole, brightened the lamp, and sat beside Xi’er, watching him practice his calligraphy.

Xi’er wrote a few characters, then slowly set down his brush.

Mu Fulan thought he was tired. “Are you weary? If you are, you don’t have to write anymore — go to sleep.”

Xi’er shook his head and looked at Mu Fulan, speaking softly. “Mother, if General Yuan hadn’t come, and we were still in that place — would the bad people have locked us up by now?”

Mu Fulan’s heart gave a faint lurch.

She smiled. “How could that be? Besides, haven’t we already gotten out?”

She paused.

“What has gotten into you, Xi’er — why would you think of something like that?”

The child hesitated, then said, “Last night, I had a dream.”

“I dreamed that Lord Xie was my father. That city was full of bad people, and they locked Mother and me up. At first, you told me not to be afraid — that Xi’er’s father would come and save us. I waited and waited for a very long time, but Lord Xie never came. When I asked you again when Father would arrive, you stopped speaking. Later still, Lord Xie still hadn’t come, but General Yuan did — he led me out of the city. But you were nowhere to be found, Mother. I wanted to go back and look for you, yet General Yuan covered my eyes and wouldn’t let me turn around. I was so anxious that I woke up…”

“It felt just like it was real.”

The child said softly, a faint shadow of sorrow passing through his eyes.

Mu Fulan’s heart ached. She pulled him into her arms and held him tightly.

“Xi’er, stop letting your imagination run wild! Remember this — it was nothing but a bad dream! Dreams are false; the things that happen in dreams will never come to pass!”

“Nothing has happened. We will be back in the Kingdom of Changsha very soon.”

“And Lord Xie — he is not your father!”

She looked into the child’s eyes and said each word with deliberate care.

Xi’er leaned quietly against her, silent for a moment, then seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and smiled.

“You’re right, Mother. Lord Xie is not my father, and what happens in dreams is naturally not real!”

Mu Fulan smiled warmly and gave a nod.

Just then, faint voices drifted in from outside the boat. A moment later, a maidservant came to summon her, saying that Liang Tuan wished to see her on a matter.

Mu Fulan told the maidservant to keep Xi’er company and made her way to the bow deck.

Liang Tuan said, “My lady, I have just received word that the Military Governor deployed troops to Pucheng, crossing a thousand li in a rapid march. The siege has now been lifted. Upon learning that General Yuan has already escorted my lady away, he has ordered me to return.”

Mu Fulan did not speak at first. She seemed lost in thought, and after a moment, she gave a faint smile.

“That is for the best. You have all worked hard on this journey out, and I am deeply grateful. Rest well tonight — I will have someone prepare provisions for the road. Setting out tomorrow morning is not too late.”

Liang Tuan said, “This is simply this humble officer’s duty — I could not accept my lady’s thanks. The rebel forces may regroup and strike again, and the Military Governor also sustained an injury. I will make brief preparations and set off promptly. Thank you for my lady’s kind intention.”

“I shall take my leave here. I must trouble my lady to bid farewell to the Young Master on my behalf as well.”

He went down on one knee and bowed respectfully.

Mu Fulan was slightly taken aback. She paused, but in the end said nothing more, only nodding. “Very well. Wait just a moment — I will have someone prepare provisions for the road.”

She turned around, just about to give the order, when she saw Xi’er come darting out of the cabin.

“How did he get injured? Will he be all right?”

Xi’er ran up to Liang Tuan, grabbed hold of his sleeve, and looked up at him with an anxious expression.

Liang Tuan hastened to reassure him. “Young Master, please do not worry. They say the Military Governor was struck by an arrow during the lifting of the siege, but fortunately it did not hit a vital point…”

Xi’er let go and turned to Mu Fulan.

“Mother, we’re not that far from there. Can you go help treat his wound first? Once he’s better, we can go back to the Kingdom of Changsha. Would that be all right?”

His eyes were rimmed with red as he pleaded without stopping.

Liang Tuan felt a quiet stirring in his heart.

The Young Master’s wish was no different from his own. Yet he could see clearly that the relationship between the Military Governor and his wife was shrouded in complexity, and so he had not dared to presume to say anything earlier. Now that the Young Master had spoken first, he gathered his courage and added, “The situation in Hexi is tense at present — the Governor cannot be spared. With a rebellion stirring here as well, he will likely be stretched on all sides. If my lady could wait until the Governor’s wound heals before departing…”

He glanced at Mu Fulan and stopped.

Mu Fulan was silent for a moment. She gestured for Liang Tuan to wait, then took Xi’er by the hand and led him back into the cabin.

A short while later, she emerged again, and said with an apologetic air, “For me to go back would be somewhat inconvenient. Besides, military physicians are likely more experienced with battle wounds than I am. There is only one thing I must trouble you with — please return and convey a message to the Military Governor on my behalf. The weather is growing warmer; amid all his pressing affairs, he must remember to have the military physician change his dressings in a timely manner.”

She handed Liang Tuan a prescription she had just written.

“This is a formula for internal use. It will aid in removing decay and promoting the growth of new flesh at the wound site.”

Liang Tuan understood that she would not be returning. He had no choice but to accept the prescription, bow his farewell, and take his leave.

Mu Fulan stood at the bow of the boat, watching until the figures of Liang Tuan and his companions disappeared into the darkness of the night.

She had a sense — a kind of intuition. That man’s rapid march of a thousand li to lift the siege of Pucheng had perhaps been connected to her and her son.

But what of it?

At this very moment, as that thought flickered through her mind, something deep within her heart gave rise instead to an overwhelming, crushing sense of loneliness — as though she stood utterly alone between heaven and earth, with only the moon’s reflection on the waves at the bow, like a pair of cold eyes, gazing back at her from below her feet with a cool, glittering stare.

Even so — even so — she did not wish for him to remember what had come before. She did not wish for Xi’er to remember.

Let it be this way. That man had forgotten, and Xi’er had forgotten too. In this lifetime, if they each lived well and in peace, that was enough.

Though the rebel forces of the Prince of Pingyang had been blocked from advancing northward, they did not yet dare to engage the Hexi army in open battle, and so they withdrew several hundred li and made camp.

Xie Changgeng likewise did not press the pursuit. He held his position for the time being.

That day, after finishing a council with his generals, he sat alone in his tent, his gaze resting on a sealed letter before him.

The letter had been sent from the capital. Beyond informing him that Empress Dowager Liu was deeply displeased with his defiance of the imperial will — that he had deployed troops to Pucheng without authorization — it also conveyed another matter.

At the outset of the rebellion by the Prince of Pingyang and the Prince of Lu, someone had secretly reported to Empress Dowager Liu that envoys of the rebel princes had previously entered and exited the Kingdom of Changsha, raising suspicion that Changsha had been secretly collaborating with the rebels. However, Prince Qi had quickly come forward to vigorously vouch for the Kingdom of Changsha’s innocence, and Empress Dowager Liu had let the matter rest without pursuing it further.

The military physician entered and, seeing the Military Governor staring at the letter in his hand with a darkened expression, said with great caution, “My lord, it is time to change the dressing.”

Xie Changgeng slowly set down the letter and opened his robe.

The military physician bent close and set to work changing the dressing. As he peeled away a strip of gauze, he accidentally tore away a piece of skin and flesh that had adhered to it.

Blood welled up.

The military physician was startled and quickly apologized. “Please do not be displeased, my lord! This humble one’s skill is lacking. If my lady were here, your wound would surely heal more quickly.”

Xie Changgeng frowned and told him to be quick about it.

The physician hastened his movements. At that moment, a voice called from outside the tent, announcing that Liang Tuan had returned to camp with his men.

Xie Changgeng’s gaze shifted slightly. He called him in.

Liang Tuan entered, paid his respects, and then stood to one side and reported on the movements of Mu Fulan and her party, saying they should reach the Kingdom of Changsha before long.

Xie Changgeng said nothing.

Liang Tuan, seeing him silent, glanced at the blood-soaked gauze that had just been removed and recalled something.

“My lady, upon learning of the Governor’s wound…”

He paused.

“…expressed great concern. She asked me to convey to the Governor that as the weather grows warmer, amid all his pressing affairs, he must remember to change his dressings in a timely manner.”

He produced the prescription and presented it.

“My lady left this prescription. She says it has the effect of removing decay and promoting the growth of new flesh, and will aid the Governor in recovering from his wound.”

The military physician was overjoyed. “Excellent! I will prepare it according to the prescription at once—”

“Get out.”

Xie Changgeng’s voice cut across him suddenly.

Both men startled and exchanged a glance. Not daring to say another word, they withdrew as ordered.

The great tent fell silent, with only Xie Changgeng remaining.

He picked up the prescription and stared at the neat, graceful handwriting. His expression was rigid. Then, slowly, the tightly pressed corners of his lips curved into a cold smile.

Truly, it was as though he had owed her something in his past life.

Taking a Mu woman as his wife — from the very first time he had gone to the Kingdom of Changsha and laid eyes on her, he had retreated, again and again.

Even he himself could not believe that he had, for the sake of a woman, allowed himself to be reduced to such a state.

And what she returned to him was this — a thin slip of paper with a prescription on it.

Slowly, he clenched his fist, crumpling the paper bearing the prescription little by little in his palm, until it was crushed into a ball, which he cast at his feet.

Half a month later, Xie Changgeng answered Empress Dowager Liu’s urgent summons and arrived at the capital.

It had been a full year since he last entered the city.

The palace of the capital was as imposing and magnificent as ever, yet the court was no longer what it once had been.

The court officials had been struck one after another by a succession of news in recent days, left utterly at a loss.

First came the rebellion of the Prince of Pingyang and the Prince of Lu, with urgent dispatches from all fronts flying in ceaselessly like snowflakes. Just when word had finally arrived that the rebel forces of the Prince of Pingyang had been blocked at Pucheng by the Hexi army — allowing the southern front to breathe a temporary sigh of relief — before anyone had even had a chance to exhale, another piece of news arrived, inconceivable as a bolt from the blue.

Liu Hu, the Empress Dowager’s nephew, titled Pacifying-Might General, who had been dispatched to assist Prince Qi in resisting the rebel army of the Prince of Lu — had inadvertently discovered that Prince Qi was the mastermind behind the entire rebellion by the Prince of Pingyang and the Prince of Lu. Prince Qi’s earlier display of initiative in volunteering to lead troops to the eastern front to resist the Prince of Lu had been nothing but a feint. Liu Hu was horrified. His attempt to flee on the spot had failed, and he had been seized by Prince Qi’s men and held captive as a hostage.

No one had imagined it — that Prince Qi, who bore such a towering reputation and had long been regarded as the foremost of the imperial clan and a paragon of loyal ministers, harbored treasonous designs and had committed an act of the gravest treason.

It was as though one of the great pillars propping up half the court had crumbled overnight with a thunderous crash, sending the entire court into an uproar.

And that was not all. In rapid succession, news continued to arrive — that Prince Runan, Prince Zhao, and other princes had followed Prince Qi’s lead, issuing manifestos denouncing Empress Dowager Liu’s usurpation of power, claiming to act in the name of restoring the imperial house.

Civil and military officials alike were like headless flies, panicked and dismayed. Upon learning that Xie Changgeng would arrive in the capital this day to seek an audience with Empress Dowager Liu, they all gathered outside the palace gates. The moment they saw him appear, as though they had caught sight of the very pillar of their cause, they surged toward him, competing to pay their respects. Some cursed Prince Qi for his shameless duplicity. Others showered Xie Changgeng with praise for his meritorious service to the court.

In that moment, not one of the officials crowding around him gave any thought to the origins that had once been a subject of reproach.

Xie Changgeng, Military Governor of Hexi, had clearly become the last lifeline of this tottering court.

Xie Changgeng’s expression was grave, his gaze fixed straight ahead. His footsteps did not slow. He passed through the officials gathered around him and walked directly into the imperial palace.