Outside, the daylight was brilliant. The personal guards held their breath in concentration, waiting. When that tall figure appeared, they all knelt on one knee in unison: “General!”

Shao Mingyuan raised his hand, and the personal guards immediately stood up. Their movements were neat and uniform, producing no unnecessary sound.

Shao Zhi led a horse over.

Shao Mingyuan took the reins and mounted in one fluid motion. The imposing cavalry formation headed toward the city gate.

“Look quickly, it’s Marquis Guanjun!”

“Wonderful! Marquis Guanjun has come out, Marquis Guanjun has come out!”

Many common folk knelt weeping bitterly. Someone in the crowd shouted: “General, you must avenge us!”

Soon, such voices merged into a torrent. People knelt one after another, a dark mass of kneeling figures.

Shao Mingyuan had no choice but to rein in his horse and cup his fists toward the people.

“My lord, the army awaits orders outside the city. Please do not delay,” Jiang Yuanchao reminded him coolly.

Shao Mingyuan gazed once toward the direction of West Street.

The imperial edict required his immediate departure without error. He naturally understood the principle that speed is crucial in warfare.

It was just that he hadn’t expected that, having just proposed to Zhaozhao while in prison, he would now have to march out without even time to see her once.

With his return uncertain, his heart was not without regret.

At the Li family residence in Xingzi Alley.

Binglu rushed into Qiao Zhao’s chamber and grabbed her hand: “Miss, quickly, quickly! The young master is about to depart for war. Chen Guang has come to take you there.”

“So soon?” Qiao Zhao couldn’t spare time to change clothes and immediately ran outside with Binglu.

She had been waiting for this day all along, yet didn’t know which day it would be. She had originally planned to personally cook a table of dishes to wash away his misfortune, but who would have thought—

“Miss, please hurry!” Binglu quickened her pace, but finding that Qiao Zhao was stumbling as she pulled her along, she simply carried her on her back.

Hmm, the miss was good in every way, with only one flaw: her legs were too short.

Chen Guang was waiting at the second gate. Seeing Binglu carrying Qiao Zhao over, he quickly got on the carriage and called: “Miss, get in quickly.”

Qiao Zhao and her servant got into the carriage, which soon began moving rapidly.

The broad bluestone street was empty, and the carriage raced at full speed. But the further north they went, the more people there were. Chen Guang had to stop the carriage: “Miss, the carriage can’t get through. Let’s go on foot. The general should be approaching the north gate now.”

Qiao Zhao quickly jumped down from the carriage. With Chen Guang leading the way, pushing aside the people blocking their path, they rushed forward.

“Miss, look, that’s the young master!” Binglu was gasping for breath as she pointed toward the city gate.

At that moment, with spring light brilliant and a gentle breeze on their faces, amid the crowd of people she spotted at a glance that young general in silver armor sitting upright on his horse. Behind him, a large red cloak fluttered in the wind, and the red tassel on his silver helmet swayed along with it.

Seeing he was about to pass through the city gate, with the jostling crowd stretching between them, Qiao Zhao opened her mouth but didn’t call out.

At such a distance, with so many people, in such a noisy environment, it would be impossible for him to hear.

“It’s over, it’s over! The young master is going out.” Binglu was even more anxious than Qiao Zhao, shaking her arm vigorously.

Qiao Zhao stared intently at that figure, watching as he was about to disappear at the city gate. In a flash of inspiration, she took the bone flute hanging around her neck and blew it with all her might.

The short, high-pitched flute sound rang out. Shao Mingyuan immediately stopped and turned around sharply.

The flute sound continued. Following it, he quickly spotted Qiao Zhao in the crowd.

Seeing that he had noticed her, Qiao Zhao stopped playing the flute and raised her hand to wave at him.

Shao Mingyuan showed a gentle smile, gazed deeply at Qiao Zhao once, then untied the red tassel from his silver helmet and hung it on the tip of a city guard’s spear before spurring his horse away.

Qiao Zhao stood there in a daze, watching the red tassel flutter in the wind, unable to tell whether her heart felt joy or loss.

As a military general, how many such partings would he experience? On their wedding day years ago, when he received orders to march out, what had been in his heart then?

Chen Guang struggled through the crowd to the city gate, retrieved the red tassel from the guard, and brought it to Qiao Zhao.

Qiao Zhao lovingly caressed the red tassel and sighed softly: “Let’s go back.”

The return journey was not so easy. Those common folk were spontaneously seeing off Marquis Guanjun, continuing to rush toward the city gate. Chen Guang had to firmly protect Qiao Zhao behind him to help her avoid the collisions.

Finally making it through that most crowded section, Chen Guang breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

Many scattered objects lay on the road, even shoes that had been trampled off. Beggars had already begun picking them up, and soon several beggars got into conflict over them.

Chen Guang glanced toward the city gate, concealing the envy in his eyes: “Miss, let me escort you back.”

The General had said that once he married the Third Miss, he wouldn’t have to serve as a coachman anymore. If they didn’t get married soon, he would die of anxiety.

Qiao Zhao got into the carriage that stopped not far away: “To Marquis Guanjun’s residence.”

“Right away!” Chen Guang cracked his whip in a beautiful flourish, and the carriage drove toward Marquis Guanjun’s residence.

Not long after, Jiang Yuanchao and Jiang He appeared on the street.

“Sir, shall we also return?” Jiang He asked cautiously.

He had seen the scene just now when Marquis Guanjun removed the red tassel from his helmet and gave it to his fiancée. Ying ying ying, so touching! If he were a young lady, he would want to marry Marquis Guanjun immediately…

Uh, he’d better hide such thoughts quickly, or the sir would punish him by making him scrub chamber pots.

Jiang Yuanchao gazed in the direction where Qiao Zhao had disappeared without making a sound.

So this was what mutual affection felt like. Even though sudden separation gave them no chance to say even one word to each other, in their hearts they had never been apart.

A beggar was pushed down by another beggar and fell sprawling at Jiang Yuanchao’s feet.

Jiang He quickly kicked him: “Get lost, get lost! If you obstruct our sir, he’ll twist your head off!”

Seeing the clothing that marked them as Jinlin Guards, the beggar nearly fainted from fear. But Jiang Yuanchao reached into his purse, pulled out a piece of broken silver, and tossed it to the beggar before striding forward.

“Sir—” Jiang He hurried to catch up.

Something was wrong. The sir was truly not right.

Jiang Yuanchao suddenly spoke: “I was once like this too.”

He, too, had once fought with others over a steamed bun like these beggars, until his adoptive father’s appearance ended those nightmare days.

Jiang Yuanchao thought of how Jiang Tang always looked at him with a smiling, squinting expression, and his breathing grew somewhat heavy.

If his adoptive father and adoptive sister hadn’t died, even though he only had brotherly feelings for his adoptive sister, he would at least have had a family. Now, aside from his identity as the Jinlin Guards Commander, he probably had nothing left.

He always lost those important things when completely unprepared. His adoptive parents’ sudden death was like this, and his adoptive father’s sudden demise was also like this.

The carriage stopped at Marquis Guanjun’s residence. Qiao Zhao entered with Binglu and saw Chi Can standing under a tree in the courtyard.

“Elder Brother Chi?”

Chi Can turned around and smiled: “I guessed you would come here.”

Qiao Zhao walked over: “Elder Brother Chi was waiting for me?”