After arranging matters and finalizing the specific strategy for raiding the bandit fortress with her commanders, Li Shuang left Qin Lan in charge of the suppression operation. She knew Changfeng Camp’s strength and had no doubt they could take such a small stronghold. She returned to her tent to handle some routine military matters, then wrote a letter about Li Ting’s situation to be delivered to the capital, informing her father.
By the time she finished everything, the evening had fallen. Li Shuang collapsed onto her bed, massaging her shoulders. After going without sleep for an entire day, she was utterly exhausted. Closing her eyes, she quickly fell into a deep slumber.
She had expected a dreamless sleep, but for some unknown reason, from the moment she closed her eyes, she began dreaming continuously of a man. Bare-chested, wearing a black armor mask, he stood silently on a snow-covered mountaintop, embracing her with his burning warmth, then using his lips to trace intimate and dangerous paths across her forehead, cheeks, and lips.
In the dream, she wanted to struggle, yet remained standing in his embrace, unable to break free.
Just as the dream man kissed her neck and began to loosen her clothes, Li Shuang suddenly awoke.
Opening her eyes, she found it was midnight. Changfeng Camp was silent – since she had been sleeping, no one had disturbed her. Not even the candles were lit in her tent, and the cold darkness around her made the heat from her dream feel even more vivid. She lay staring blankly for a while before raising her hand to cover her face.
With a heavy sigh, she realized… she had dreamed such a dream.
Really…
She must be lonely.
However, when she sat up wanting to drink some water, she discovered her blanket had indeed been pulled down slightly, and her clothes were somewhat loosened. Li Shuang was bewildered – had she undressed herself in her sleep?
Something felt wrong. She lifted the heavy curtain at the doorway and stepped out. The guard outside was a recruit from this year, nodding off while leaning on his spear, but he instantly snapped awake when Li Shuang emerged, straightening up to salute: “General!”
Li Shuang studied him for a moment: “Did anyone enter my tent earlier?”
The soldier looked at her in confusion, blinking: “Report to General, no one was seen approaching the main tent.”
Even the most skilled person couldn’t have entered without alerting the guard at the door. So it really must have just been… a dream.
Li Shuang said nothing more and returned to her tent. Sitting on her bed, she heaved another deep sigh, thinking that perhaps next time she returned to the capital, she should just let her father arrange a marriage for her. It seemed that in this northern winter, she was unable to resist the arrival of life’s springtime…
The next morning, when Li Shuang left her tent, Qin Lan brought news that the bandits had been eliminated.
Li Shuang nodded, but her thoughts turned to the mysterious masked man she had encountered at the fortress. She was still troubled by how he had known her movements. Reviewing yesterday’s details, she suddenly remembered the red marking on his left chest that extended to his eye corner.
She felt she had seen a pattern similar to that tattoo somewhere before.
She pondered for a moment, then her eyes suddenly lit up: “Where is that young soldier Jin’an?” she asked Luo Teng. “Where is he now?”
Luo Teng seemed confused by her question: “That kid should be training with the other young soldiers. Why does General suddenly ask about him?”
Li Shuang considered: “Take me to see him.”
Luo Teng led Li Shuang to where the recruits were training. Sure enough, little Jin’an was doing physical training with several slightly older children, running laps around the training ground. Who knew how many laps they had already completed – the children in front were dripping with sweat, but Jin’an followed behind showing no sign of fatigue or change in expression. All the children were bare-chested except Jin’an, who still wore a single layer of clothing, barely sweating, his clothes still clean and neat.
Only someone with profound inner energy could maintain such composure.
“Hey… Jin’an!” Luo Teng called out loudly, then beckoned to him. “Come here, the General wants to see you.”
There was no need for Luo Teng to call – before he spoke, Jin’an’s gaze had already fixed on Li Shuang, his eyes bright as he stared at her. As soon as Luo Teng called, Jin’an immediately ran over, standing before Li Shuang, his eyes never straying from her.
Seeing his gaze, Li Shuang felt both helpless and amused. She crouched down to meet his eyes and asked: “Do I look very much like your mother?”
Jin’an started, then shook his head.
“Then why do you always stare at me like this?”
Jin’an thought for a moment, then answered: “Because you are special.”
This seemed to be the second time Jin’an had said these words to her. Li Shuang interpreted it simply as gratitude – she had rescued him from the wilderness, so the child probably felt indebted and had grown attached to her.
Li Shuang ruffled Jin’an’s hair.
Being touched by her seemed to be incredibly pleasant – Jin’an’s eyes narrowed slightly, clearly enjoying her touch.
But Li Shuang withdrew her hand after just a moment. He glanced at her hand, pressing his lips together as if suppressing an urge to touch her in return. Li Shuang asked him, “Do you have a red mark on your chest? I saw it the day we brought you back.”
Jin’an didn’t try to hide anything, nodding: “Do you want to see?”
“Yes.” Then Li Shuang paused. “Is that not allowed?”
“You can see anything of mine.”
Hearing this, Li Shuang choked, momentarily speechless, while Luo Teng beside her shouted: “You little rascal, being indecent again! Who taught you to speak to the General like that!”
“Alright, alright.” Li Shuang quickly waved it off. Originally she had thought nothing of examining a child’s chest, but now it felt somewhat awkward. She took Jin’an into one of the camp tents and had him remove his upper clothing himself.
Li Shuang turned the half-naked Jin’an around for inspection. On his left chest was indeed a flame-like mark, while the rest of his body was as tender as any child’s – even more delicate than Li Ting who had been raised in the capital.
He didn’t have a single scar, which made Li Shuang think back to the day she had found him. Jin’an had been in rags, his clothes completely soaked in blood, but looking at him now, that blood must have belonged to others. Otherwise, wounds that had bled so much couldn’t possibly have healed without leaving any trace in such a short time.
After turning Jin’an around, Li Shuang’s gaze finally settled on the marking on his chest. She reached out to touch it with her fingertip, and as she made contact with the red mark, she felt Jin’an’s whole body tremble.
Li Shuang withdrew her hand: “Does it hurt?”
Jin’an shook his head. It wasn’t pain – he felt that Li Shuang’s fingertips held some kind of power, and even that light touch was enough to make him shiver with joy. He watched as Li Shuang raised her hand again, her fingertips tracing the mark on his chest.
Jin’an lowered his gaze, his eyes gentle. He liked Li Shuang’s touch.
Her fingertips were like sunlight, able to dispel all the shadows in his heart and the cold that sometimes felt almost painful.
But Li Shuang couldn’t see into Jin’an’s heart. She only traced the mark on his chest for a moment, finding nothing unusual about its texture, and asked him: “How did you get this mark? Do you remember?”
As her fingertips left his chest, Jin’an felt an undisguisable disappointment, but still remembered to answer Li Shuang’s question: “I don’t remember.”
He couldn’t remember anything – his name, his background, his past, why he had become like this. His earliest memory was running through the forest on a cold night, covered in blood, with a metallic taste in his mouth and ice in his veins.
As expected. Li Shuang pondered for a moment, thinking that if this child wasn’t lying, then he truly had lost his memories. And the mark on his chest was almost identical to the pattern on yesterday’s mysterious masked man. It seemed that to learn that man’s identity, she would have to investigate herself.
Li Shuang told Jin’an to get dressed and return to training. As she turned to leave the tent, Jin’an caught the edge of her clothes.
Li Shuang looked back: “What is it?”
“Can I follow you?”
The question came abruptly. Li Shuang considered for a moment: “You’re still young. You need to master the basics with the training captain first.”
“I know everything already.” He gazed at Li Shuang, his usually emotionless eyes now filled with longing, even taking on a pitiful quality. “I can protect you.”
Li Shuang couldn’t help but laugh at this. She had intended to refuse, but after a moment’s thought, she surprisingly nodded: “Very well.”
Hearing these words, Jin’an’s hopeless expression suddenly brightened: “You agree?”
“Yes.” Li Shuang nodded. “I’ll give the orders. From today, you’ll be one of my guards. Go pack your belongings today, and from tomorrow you’ll move into my guards’ quarters. After all, you’ve had conflicts with your current tentmates – it would be awkward to stay there.”
At these words, Jin’an’s face lit up. He nodded and left – the most willingly he had ever departed from Li Shuang’s presence.
Watching Jin’an leave, Li Shuang thoughtfully summoned Qin Lan. Among her twelve personal guards, all brought from the general’s mansion and all highly skilled and loyal, Qin Lan was one. He was also her guard captain, though in recent years, as he had also served as her deputy commander, that title was rarely mentioned.
Hearing Li Shuang’s arrangement, Qin Lan started: “That child…”
Li Shuang knew Qin Lan would have objections. She spoke directly: “The other day when I took ten men to the bandit fortress, it was a sudden decision. No one outside the camp should have known my movements.”
Qin Lan’s gaze sharpened: “General suspects… that child is connected to the mysterious man?”
Li Shuang nodded: “Though we don’t yet know that man’s intentions, nor can we confirm if Jin’an leaked the information to him, the matching marks on their chests and their shared immunity to cold suggest they may be connected.”
“Chest?”
Qin Lan repeated these words. Li Shuang suddenly realized – yes… in this freezing frontier weather, how had she seen the man’s chest… She coughed once: “In any case, better to keep Jin’an under your watch than let him roam freely among the recruits. The guard quarters are full of skilled fighters – there’s no need to worry about controlling him.”
Hearing Li Shuang change the subject, Qin Lan could only clench his fist silently and bow in acknowledgment.
“As for the rest…” Li Shuang considered for a moment: “I originally thought a child’s background didn’t need investigation, but now it seems we have no choice.”
Li Shuang reasoned that if the red flame mark on the chest and immunity to cold appeared in more than one person, it might mean that here in the northern frontier, there existed some unknown clan or tribe that she didn’t know about – and they seemed very well-informed about her Changfeng Camp…
Li Shuang gave orders: “The camp has no pressing matters this afternoon. Three soldiers will accompany me to investigate where we found Jin’an.” Li Shuang narrowed her eyes in the distance. “I remember there was a forest behind that spot, and there had been considerable disturbance the night before.”
Li Shuang took Luo Teng and two other personal guards with her. Just as they were about to leave Changfeng Camp, Jin’an appeared before Li Shuang, carrying his blanket and his meager belongings.
“Are you leaving camp?” His gaze fixed intently on her.
Before Li Shuang could answer, Luo Teng, already mounted, berated him: “Where are your manners? Since when does the General need to report her movements to you!”
Jin’an just stared steadily at Li Shuang until she spoke: “Going on patrol outside the camp. We’ll be back by dark.” Only then did he reluctantly withdraw his gaze, lowering his head in disappointment.
Li Shuang was usually surrounded by rough soldiers – she was their general, and her interactions with them were mostly orders and authority. She had never been depended on like this before. Even when Li Ting occasionally acted spoiled with her, he never showed such a pitiful, dejected manner. Seeing Jin’an like this, Li Shuang felt her heart soften a bit, and she patted his head. Jin’an’s downcast gaze immediately softened: “Go take care of your tasks first.”
Jin’an could only nod. He watched Li Shuang mount her horse with graceful authority, and though he disliked her leaving, he still found himself mesmerized by her figure.
Riding ahead of the group, Li Shuang led them directly to where Jin’an had been found. On the wasteland, the large bloodstain from that day had been buried by wind and sand, with only a few rusty traces remaining to prove Jin’an had indeed collapsed there.
Li Shuang looked up at the desolate forest before them. Though almost all the leaves had fallen from the trees, the dense growth still created an eerie darkness. The horses couldn’t enter the forest, so Li Shuang ordered them tied to the outer trees. Following the trail of broken branches, she led her men in search of Jin’an’s path out of the forest that day.
Though Luo Teng was usually rough in manner, he had deep expertise in tracking. As they went deeper into the dense forest, his brow furrowed increasingly, until they reached the depths and saw the devastated scene. Looking at the area where tree trunks had been knocked down in the chaos, Luo Teng exclaimed: “By heaven, General… this doesn’t look like damage a small child could cause.”
Within a ten-zhang radius, tree trunks were shattered, large rocks crushed, and beneath the covering of chaotic dead branches, they could dimly see white human bones! As Li Shuang examined the bones that had been cleaned by wild beasts, a guard behind her called out: “General! There’s an underground chamber entrance here.”
Li Shuang went to where the guard pointed. Hidden under rocks and broken branches was a stairway leading underground. The interior was pitch black, but a foul odor emerged from within, making one want to retch.
The stairs were covered in bloodstains which, combined with the smell, made one’s scalp tingle with horror.