The dawn light outside the window slowly whitened.

On the morning of his third day as a newlywed, Ye Xiao rose and finished dressing, ready to go out. He glanced at his new bride—the woman named Ruo Yue—who was still sitting up in bed with the covers pooled around her, her eyes fixed on him without blinking. He turned back to offer her a word of comfort, and she promptly threw herself into his arms, pulling him back down onto the bed.

He had not left their room in two days.

Before any of this, he truly would never have dared imagine that he could have such good fortune.

On that day when Prince Qin had spoken to him about the marriage, he had finally yielded to his superior’s barely-disguised order and accepted the arrangement. But in his heart, he had held no great expectations for the match.

After all, the other party was a foreign woman he had never met. He assumed she had likely been compelled to marry as well.

And to speak plainly, he had had no confidence in himself whatsoever.

The years had passed, never to return, and he was no longer the man he had once been—the well-born young man of an illustrious family with a glittering official career ahead of him. He was also considerably older than she was. Setting all of that aside, the ugly scar left on his face from an old wound alone was surely enough to frighten any woman away. So for their wedding night, he had made up his mind long in advance: if his new bride was unwilling to consummate the marriage, he would never force her.

He had not expected that the Princess would be not only beautiful, but deeply passionate. Their wedding night had not merely gone smoothly—it had surpassed all imagination. These two days, apart from the morning after the wedding when he had brought her to meet Prince Qin and the Princess Consort, nearly all the rest of the time he had spent on the bed with her. His little wife filled him with extraordinary happiness—like being in paradise.

He could easily imagine what people outside were saying behind his back these past two days, and had at first felt somewhat ashamed of himself. His early education made him feel he ought not to be so consumed, yet he could not resist her passionate ardor. After struggling with himself a few times, he had simply let go of all extraneous thoughts, followed his heart, and indulged fully in the affections this beautiful woman had bestowed upon him.

Just now, she had been reaching for his waist sash again.

To have taken such an exotic, passionate and bold little wife was an enormous sweetness—yet it also brought a small measure of trouble.

He caught her hand and stopped her movement, speaking quietly: “I must go now. Didn’t we agree?”

Seeing her say nothing, he continued: “Tonight I will come back to keep you company.” He went on coaxing his reluctant new little wife.

She finally lifted her head and said, in speech that was not entirely fluent: “Didn’t Prince Qin give you three days off? Today is only the third day—why must you leave?”

“Is it something I did wrong? Are you unhappy with me—you don’t want to be with me anymore?”

As she spoke, her gaze fixed on him, and her eyes slowly reddened, her expression full of grievance and bewilderment.

He had never imagined she would have such a misunderstanding. It made Ye Xiao think of what she had told him last night—some things about herself.

She had told him that before him, she had been on the verge of being sent to be a concubine to some old, ugly, rough Dongdi man. She had been utterly despairing and had at one point not wanted to go on living. Even when the arrangement to marry here had come through, she had not dared to hope for anything. She had not imagined that her husband would be so brave and strong, so gentle and thoughtful—as steadfast and dependable as a mountain. The very first time she had laid eyes on him, she had already liked him.

Her bold and ardent confession had moved Ye Xiao deeply at the time. Now, seeing her with so little sense of security, he felt even more tenderness and pity for her.

He explained to her that it was not that he did not want to be with her, but that there was a very important matter awaiting Prince Qin’s attention. He knew the Prince was waiting for him and did not wish to delay matters of consequence on his own account, which was why he wanted to end his wedding leave a day early and return to his duties.

Only then did she relax, showing relief in her smile. She hugged him and kissed him several more times before finally letting him go.

And so it was that early that morning, not only did He Hou and the others who had bet that Ye Xiao would still be absent today lose so badly they nearly had to hand over their trousers—even Prince Qin himself, upon hearing the news, was thoroughly taken aback…

To put it more precisely: set against the contrast of Ye Xiao, who had voluntarily returned ahead of schedule without even finishing his wedding leave to wait and attend to his duties, Li Xuandu—who was still refusing to get out of bed even after daylight—was mercilessly scorned by Pu Zhu once again.

He hurried to the front hall of the fortress, where he found Ye Xiao indeed back, dressed neatly, full of energy, standing at attention and waiting—clearly having been there for some time.

He said with due gravity: “You were given three days of leave. Why not take more time with your new bride and come back early like this?”

Ye Xiao replied respectfully: “I am grateful for Your Highness’s generosity. But your subordinate knows Your Highness has a matter of great importance—one that touches upon the grand strategy of the Governor’s Office—and dares not let his personal affairs cause any delay to Your Highness’s plans. Your subordinate has also rested for two days; that is enough. It is time to come back and do my duty.”

Li Xuandu was a little moved, but also faintly unsettled. He thought to himself: it was fortunate these words had not reached her ears—for with such a diligent subordinate who did not forget his duty even during his honeymoon, his own position in the future would only grow more precarious, and the chances of sneaking a moment’s laziness past her would dwindle even further.

He quickly set aside his stray thoughts, and his expression became grave: “Originally I intended to wait until your leave was over tomorrow before going to Yutan. Since you have come back today, there is no time to lose. I will hand things over here to you. I will set out today and make a trip to visit the Yutan Elder King.”

Ye Xiao understood the purpose of his planned trip to Yutan—to form an alliance with Yutan and jointly deal with the Baole Kingdom.

Baole Kingdom had a population of nearly a hundred thousand and a fighting force of about thirty thousand—not only the largest kingdom in the central Western Regions, but also controlling a convenient main route heading westward. Because of this, it had always been an object of intense competition and courting by both the Central Plains dynasties and the northern powers.

Ten years ago, when Pu Zhu’s father had traveled through the Western Regions, Baole had for a time aligned itself with the Li Dynasty—but over the years, as the Li Dynasty withdrew from the Western Regions, it had been brought firmly back under the grip of the Dongdi.

Before, when Huaiwei had gone to the capital and when Li Xuandu had later escorted him back westward, neither journey could take this shorter road—they had been forced to go around by way of the southern route.

Along the southern route were also distributed ten or more kingdoms of varying sizes. Yutan was one of the larger of these, and being far from the Dongdi, it had managed to remain relatively independent. Moreover, it was fond of the Central Plains and still pledged allegiance to the Li Dynasty. Crown Prince Wei Chishengde had returned home from the capital only the year before.

Yutan’s national strength was naturally no match for Baole’s—its entire military force, even at full capacity, amounted to only seven or eight thousand men. But if an alliance could be formed, together with Shushu Kingdom, the Governor’s Office would have ten thousand men at its disposal. In a campaign to take Baole, it would not be impossible.

But this was only a concept.

Yutan nominally pledged allegiance to the Li Dynasty, but when it truly came down to it, for various reasons, it might well refuse to actually send troops to assist the Governor’s Office. So from the very moment Li Xuandu had arrived here, he had planned to go to Yutan himself as soon as possible.

There had been too many urgent matters at first for him to leave. Now the Shushu Kingdom had submitted, and the various affairs of the Governor’s Office were gradually falling into order. Ye Xiao, knowing what was on his mind, had ended his wedding leave early so that Li Xuandu could slip away and attend to business.

Li Xuandu summoned Zhang Shishan and Zhang Zhuo, leaving Zhang Shishan behind to support Ye Xiao in holding the fortress. Zhang Zhuo was to select a hundred soldiers and travel with him on the road.

After settling all the arrangements, Li Xuandu returned to tell Pu Zhu that he would be setting out for Yutan today and should be back within half a month.

Just this morning she had been reproaching him for being lazy—and now, with the turn of a moment, he was about to leave for another place entirely.

Pu Zhu was momentarily confused, but quickly she understood.

The Western Regions were not a peaceful paradise. They were a land filled with all kinds of danger and uncertainty.

Her father had met his end in this very place.

Perhaps from now on, these sudden departures of his would become routine.

She would need to learn to accept them.

He had just told her the purpose of this trip to Yutan.

Given the relationship between Yutan and the Li Dynasty, this journey should carry no real danger. At worst, Yutan might be unwilling to truly commit, and he would have made the trip for nothing.

So there was truly nothing for her to worry about. She told herself so again in her heart.

She silently helped A’mu pack his traveling things, and saw him off. He told her there was no need to see him out. So she stopped at the doorway, watching his figure pass beneath the grapevine trellis and cross the courtyard, heading outward.

The shadows of sunlight, filtered through the gaps in the grapevine branches, fell in dappled patches across his back.

Half a month… It seemed it would be a long, long time before it passed…

Her heart felt a little hollow. She watched as his retreating figure grew smaller and farther away—and the hollowness grew and grew, growing and growing…

Then suddenly, as he reached the courtyard gate, she saw his footsteps pause. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, then turned his head, looked back at her, and then raised his hand, beckoning her over.

Her heart gave a leap. She immediately flew toward him.

It was only a short run from the doorway of the room to the courtyard gate—nothing at all—yet she seemed to arrive breathless, her heart fluttering, her breathing thrown into disorder.

“Did Your Highness need something?” she asked, slightly breathless, her chest rising and falling faintly.

He glanced at her, then dipped his head, bringing his face close to hers—his lips pressing to her ear, whispering to her: “Ye Xiao ruined things for me. I had been meaning to properly teach you a few new self-defense moves this evening, and then set out for Yutan tomorrow once I was done teaching…”

He sighed softly.

“Anyway, at home, you had better keep practicing the moves I taught you last time. No slacking off. When I return, I will test you.”

Her heart was thumping wildly.

Pu Zhu’s mind flashed to the scene from that time when he had “taught” her “self-defense moves,” and her face immediately flooded with color.

What on earth was Li Xuandu rambling on about?

In broad daylight, how could he say such shameless things so easily…

He, however, remained utterly unruffled, his tone perfectly natural.

“Remember—if I see no improvement when I return, I will punish you without mercy…”

Pu Zhu suddenly felt confused again.

Could it be that she had been reading too much into it, and he really was talking about self-defense?

But that night, she clearly remembered—he had barely taught her a single move before…

Was he teasing her, or was he really talking about self-defense techniques?

He saw her tilt her face up toward him slightly, lips just barely parted, completely still—an expression he had never seen on her before.

A shadow of a smile, imperceptible, passed through the depths of his eyes. He raised his hand and lightly pinched one of her flushed cheeks—then said simply, “Be good and wait for me at home,” dropped her, turned, and walked away.