Facing the flash of Cui Jinzhi’s blade, Shen Xiao showed not the slightest trace of fear.

But Shen Xiao’s fearlessness did not mean that others shared it. The soldiers were here to transport grain, not to fight — and the sight of drawn blades had rooted them to the spot immediately.

Cui Jinzhi swung himself straight down from the horse, and his twenty personal guards dismounted after him. Their blades gleamed and shone, pointed at the stupefied soldiers.

Cui Jinzhi strode to one of the grain carts, grabbed a guard standing nearby and shoved him aside with one hand, then raised his narrow blade and plunged it into the grain sack. He wrenched the blade back out, and the grain came pouring through the gash in a rushing torrent, as though blood were flowing from a wound.

“This blade of mine has no eyes. If anyone dares to make another move, the next thing it pierces will not be a grain sack!”

Five hundred soldiers heard these words, and it was as though a spell had been cast over all of them — every movement froze, even their breath pausing for a moment.

This was the legitimate heir of Duke Cuiguo. The blood in his veins carried the seed of men who had swept across battlefields and killed without hesitation. No one dared to move.

Cui Jinzhi was satisfied. He raised his eyes and looked at Shen Xiao on the high step, giving a cold, quiet laugh.

He had come here with this paltry collection of men and dared to try and seize grain under his watch?

Did he think Cui Jinzhi prayed to the Buddha?

Shen Xiao stood on the high step, not moving for a long moment, only watching Cui Jinzhi in silence. Just as Cui Jinzhi was beginning to think he had been frightened off as well, Shen Xiao abruptly flicked out his robe hem.

He walked down the steps and came to stand in front of Cui Jinzhi.

“This official has moved. Lord Cui — will you kill me?”

That thin face was utterly expressionless, betraying not the slightest hint of fear.

Cui Jinzhi was taken aback, and the hand gripping the blade went taut.

He had not expected Shen Xiao to have this much nerve.

Shen Xiao saw this and gave a cold laugh. “Since Lord Cui does not dare kill me — please stand aside and do not block this official’s path for moving grain!”

With that, Shen Xiao raised his hand and called out in a carrying voice, “Continue moving the grain.”

Those five hundred soldiers, who had just been standing there like wooden statues, now saw that Lord Shen himself had such nerve — and that Lord Cui had not made a move against him either — and their own courage returned. One by one they came back to life, some loading grain, some pushing carts.

The twenty personal guards still held their narrow blades and looked uncertainly toward Cui Jinzhi.

Cui Jinzhi’s face had gone iron-gray.

Shen Xiao, curse you!

Cui Jinzhi ground his teeth and said coldly, “Shen Xiao, I’ll give you one last chance. Tell your men to put the grain back in the estate — and as for everything that happened tonight, I’ll let it pass without a word.”

Shen Xiao heard this and said nothing. He only gave a short, cold laugh.

The torchlight fell across his lean face, and something fierce and unyielding burned in his eyes — the look of a man who would rather break than bend.

Seeing this, Cui Jinzhi’s voice went even colder. “Shen Xiao, I’ll ask you one last time: are you absolutely determined to take this grain?”

“I am absolutely determined.”

“Even so, you are still going to take it?”

Cui Jinzhi raised the narrow blade in his hand and pressed it straight against Shen Xiao’s chest, pushing the dark teal official robe inward until it formed a small depression.

If Shen Xiao moved again, the blade would slice through his robe and into his heart.

The five hundred soldiers who had just found their nerve now sucked in a collective breath. Every last one of them froze. None of them dared to move again, terrified that if they did, the next blade would be pressed to one of their own necks.

Shen Xiao looked down at the narrow blade at his own chest. Its edge glinted silver against his eyes.

He raised his hand slowly and closed his fingers around the tip of the blade, moving it upward.

He guided Cui Jinzhi’s blade to his own throat.

Shen Xiao looked up at Cui Jinzhi and smiled — cold and ruthless.

“Even so, I am still going to take it.”

The hand Cui Jinzhi held the blade with gave a sudden violent tremor, and then he tightened his grip even harder.

He had never before encountered anyone as reckless with his own life as Shen Xiao!

Shen Xiao met Cui Jinzhi’s gaze without flinching. “Lord Cui, you have two choices: either you take my life — or I take your grain!”

*

A light carriage came flying along the country road, raising a cloud of dust in its wake, and the driver still thought it wasn’t fast enough, lashing the horses again with the whip.

Two Ferghana horses were harnessed to the carriage — the sweat left on their necks was the color of blood.

Horses of this caliber would have been the finest warhorses in any cavalry unit. Yet now they had been hitched to a carriage harness to pull a passenger cart.

The horses felt the sting of the lash and bolted forward in a kind of frenzied gallop.

The country road was uneven, and the horses were running at a reckless speed. The carriage pitched and bucked so violently that the passenger inside could not even keep her seat.

Li Shu gripped the window frame with both hands, bracing herself. She had no attention to spare for the jolting — her mind was consumed with anxious dread.

It was her fault. She had never imagined that the estate’s steward, in his panic and confusion, would go and summon Cui Jinzhi.

How many soldiers had Cui Jinzhi brought? If he had taken back the grain Shen Xiao had seized, what then?

Or what if Shen Xiao did not dare to face Cui Jinzhi head-on and simply buckled at the knees?

If that happened… if that happened, her entire plan would be ruined, and everything that followed would be nothing but empty talk!

With the grain levy collapsed, she would have broken her promise to His Majesty, and His Majesty would be disappointed in her. And beyond that… if she wanted to extricate herself cleanly from the Crown Prince, she would never find as good an opportunity as this again!

Li Shu tightened her grip.

Shen Xiao, Shen Xiao — you must hold firm. Hold Cui Jinzhi off long enough for me to get there.

As long as she arrived in time, she could absolutely stop Cui Jinzhi and let Shen Xiao take the grain away safely.

“Faster!”

The command came from inside the carriage. The driver cracked the whip with full force. The horses screamed and lunged forward at even greater speed.

……

“Your Highness, we’re nearly there!”

Li Shu heard this and peered through the carriage window. In the ink-dark night, the land in front of the estate blazed with countless torches, as though they might burn a hole in the darkness.

Among the countless motionless figures, Li Shu saw it — Cui Jinzhi’s blade, glinting silver, pressed to Shen Xiao’s throat.

The horses screamed and reared as the driver used his whip to drive the soldiers aside, plowing the carriage straight into the crowd.

Before the carriage had even come to a stop, Li Shu threw open the curtain and jumped down.

“Stand down!”

She had come in such a rush that she twisted her ankle when she leaped from the carriage, but Li Shu felt nothing. She drove straight toward Cui Jinzhi and planted herself in front of Shen Xiao.

The blade’s edge caught the light against her pale, unadorned face. Her brows were long, her eyes cool and sharp. She stood before Shen Xiao, putting herself between him and the blade.

“Cui Jinzhi, have you gone mad?!”

To think he actually wanted to kill someone?

Cui Jinzhi had not expected Li Shu to appear so suddenly. He had barely registered it when she came rushing through the crowd and then placed herself squarely in front of Shen Xiao.

She and Shen Xiao were standing on the same side, facing him together.

Cui Jinzhi’s fury surged up instantly. He raised his voice. “Li Shu, get out of the way!”

His blade hand shifted and the edge came closer to Shen Xiao’s throat. In an instant it had broken the skin.

Li Shu turned her head sharply. She saw blood flowing down Shen Xiao’s neck, disappearing into his collar. Below the round-collared official robe was his pure white inner robe at the neck — and in an instant, the blood had stained it red.

But Shen Xiao only frowned slightly, making no sound at all. His gaze, deep and still, was on her.

Li Shu had not seen much blood before. She was immediately thrown into a panic — she had no idea whether Shen Xiao’s wound was light or serious — and called out again and again, “Quickly — someone come at once and treat his wound!”

Li Shu reached hurriedly into her sleeve and pulled out her own handkerchief, pressing it somewhat haphazardly into Shen Xiao’s hand. “You… you stop the bleeding first!”

If anything happened to Shen Xiao, not only would her plan collapse, but Cui Jinzhi would be finished too! Killing a commoner was bad enough — killing an appointed court official was worse still.

Li Shu was, for once, unmistakably flustered.

Shen Xiao took her handkerchief. He saw the panic on her face.

He thought back to the last time he had seen her this distraught — it had been some two months ago, he thought, when Cui Jinzhi was injured at the Yongtong Canal site. She had rushed into the tent in a tumult of distress and hurled frantic words of concern at him.

So it seemed she was capable of losing her composure over someone other than Cui Jinzhi.

Shen Xiao didn’t quite know how, but his thoughts had drifted here. He pressed the handkerchief to his neck and said quietly to her, “It’s nothing serious.” There was something almost reassuring in his tone.

Steward Liu stood inside the gate watching the unfolding scene outside and, hearing the Princess’s commands, hurriedly called for someone to go fetch a physician.

In the midst of all the commotion, the soldiers, seeing Shen Xiao like this, became leaderless and panicked too.

Once Li Shu saw that Shen Xiao could still speak and didn’t look like he was about to die, she breathed out in relief.

She turned around and raised her hand. The guards she had brought with her drew their blades and rushed forward, intercepting Cui Jinzhi’s personal guards head-on.

Cui Jinzhi saw Li Shu guarding Shen Xiao with such determination and his eyes narrowed sharply. Rage erupted from within him. He shouted, “Li Shu, look clearly at what you’re doing! It is Shen Xiao who seized your grain! I am helping you! Whose side are you on?”

Li Shu raised her voice in reply. “I am not on anyone’s side!”

“Causing the death of a court official — Cui Jinzhi, do you know what crime that is?”

At its most severe, it meant paying with one’s own life. At minimum, exile to the frontier.

Cui Jinzhi had gone mad!

Even if the grain was not to be released, one did not draw a blade and point it at an official like this.

Cui Jinzhi stared at Li Shu for a long moment, then suddenly sheathed his blade with a sharp sound.

He had never truly intended to kill Shen Xiao.

Shen Xiao was, after all, the Emperor’s own hand-picked top examination graduate — a court official, and a man serving under the Second Prince. If he openly killed Shen Xiao, to say nothing of the Emperor — even the Second Prince could seize on that and pursue it to the end, demanding his life in return.

He would never do something so foolish.

His original reason for drawing the blade had been to frighten Shen Xiao and force him to back down. He had never imagined that Lord Shen would truly have the guts and the nerve — that he would stake his very life rather than give back the grain.

Cui Jinzhi raised his eyes and looked over. Shen Xiao now stood behind Li Shu, pressing her handkerchief to his neck, his head tilted slightly to one side, watching him.

In his gaze there was something that could only be called provocation.

Cui Jinzhi’s eyes narrowed sharply. Then he reached out and seized Li Shu’s wrist, pulling her back to stand at his side in one swift motion.

“So we’re just going to let him take the grain like this?” Cui Jinzhi’s face was ashen as he lowered his voice to her.

He couldn’t swallow this insult.

Li Shu shook her head. “Naturally not.”

Li Shu stood beside Cui Jinzhi and steadied herself, turning to face Shen Xiao, who stood a few steps away.

“Lord Shen has real nerve. In all the years that anyone has dared to cause a scene in This Princess’s household, you are the first. Tonight This Princess is thoroughly convinced — Lord Shen may take every last bit of this grain. This Princess will not stand in your way.”

“However…” Li Shu gave a short, cold laugh. “Thirty thousand shi of grain — This Princess fears Lord Shen may not be able to digest it. In time, you will have to spit it back up.”

“Breaking and entering, plundering an estate with soldiers, disgracing a princess, insubordination, defying those above you… these charges will give Lord Shen quite enough to answer for.”

Shen Xiao met Li Shu’s gaze and smiled faintly. “Then this official will await Your Highness’s impeachment.”

She had set a stage, and he naturally would see it through to the end.

He saw in the firelight that Princess Pingyang’s hair had come somewhat loose — likely jostled in the violent lurching of the carriage — and stray wisps of hair clung to her cheeks in the thin sheen of sweat there. She was breathing in shallow, hurried breaths.

She looked the way she had on that night three years ago.

Shen Xiao suddenly looked away.

He should not be thinking of such things at a moment like this.

Shen Xiao spun sharply on his heel. He raised his hand. “Move the grain!”

The five hundred soldiers sprang into action, and one by one the carts moved away along the narrow field paths and disappeared into the distance. Shen Xiao leaped onto his horse and looked back once.

Princess Pingyang and Prince Consort Cui were standing together. Cui Jinzhi still had not released her arm. The two of them stood very close.

Shen Xiao turned his gaze ahead, toward the deep and boundless darkness of the night.

He tucked the handkerchief into his sleeve, pressed his legs against his horse’s flanks, and the horse began to run.

There was still a hard battle ahead of him tomorrow.