After the long and exhausting journey by road and river, Shen Zhuxi and her company quietly entered the territory of Yangzhou in the middle of the tenth month.

The Qingfeng Army concealed itself in the deep mountains outside Yangzhou city. Shen Zhuxi and Li Wu left even Li Kun behind, disguised themselves as a coachman and a young lady, and joined the queue of people waiting to pass through Yangzhou’s city gate for inspection.

Li Wu wore an old cloth robe washed to a pale, faded white. Below his loosely hanging collar, a stretch of tawny chest was visible. He held a foxtail grass stem between his teeth and sat on the front of the cart with a languid, devil-may-care ease.

“Brother, do you know why Yangzhou is under martial lockdown?” Li Wu looked toward a middle-aged woodcutter standing nearby in the queue, the foxtail grass rising and falling between his lips.

The woodcutter had an axe tucked at his waist and had been standing there bored out of his mind. At Li Wu’s question he glanced over at him with mild curiosity and said, “You’re from out of town?”

“Our young mistress came from the capital. Her family suffered a calamity, and she’s come all this way to seek shelter with relatives in Yangzhou — we didn’t hear anything about something happening here along the road?”

In recent years, the capital region had repeatedly been struck by disaster, and countless once-prosperous families had fallen and been thrown into upheaval. Even those with no firsthand experience had seen enough to know the look of it. The woodcutter had not the slightest doubt about Li Wu’s story.

He said bluntly and without ceremony, “You’ve been busy rushing here, how would you have heard anything? You know the Bai Family of Yangzhou?”

“Of course!” said Li Wu. “Wealthiest under heaven — one of the richest families there is. Their money-houses are all over the country. Who doesn’t know the name of the Bai Family of Yangzhou?”

“Exactly so — they’re the ones. The sole heir of the Bai Family of Yangzhou, a man called Bai Rongling, seized the Princess of Yue some days ago and has since vanished without a trace. The Bai Family now has troops surrounding it like an iron barrel, all to wait for this fugitive to walk into his own trap!” The woodcutter clicked his tongue and said, “I just can’t figure it out — perfectly good days to be living, so why would this Young Master Bai go and seize a princess?”

“Yes, why indeed?” Li Wu wore a look of genuine bewilderment. “I reckon that man’s head must be a little bit off.”

The woodcutter glanced around at those nearby, and his face took on the particular expression of someone about to share a piece of romantic gossip.

“…I heard others say that this Young Master Bai must have been in love with the Princess of Yue, and couldn’t bear to watch his sweetheart be married off to someone else — so he took the risk of abducting the princess. Cousins…” He shook his head. “Don’t they have stories just like this in all the operas?”

“Is that so?” Li Wu clicked his tongue along with him, his expression one of absorbed interest. “Any other interesting news?”

“Anything else… no, nothing.” The woodcutter shook his head. “Fu Family soldiers are garrisoned inside the city — who would dare cause trouble? The teahouses and taverns have gone quite quiet recently; without any gossip to talk about, everyone would rather stay home.”

Li Wu kept up a loose, rambling conversation with the woodcutter, drawing him out on this and that, and before long it was their turn to pass through the checkpoint.

The woodcutter was on familiar terms with the city gate guards and sailed through inspection without a hitch. Then it was Li Wu’s turn. With a grinning smile he slipped a silver ingot into the sleeve of the guard on duty.

“Many thanks for your hard work, gentlemen. My young mistress hasn’t yet taken a husband and so it wouldn’t be proper for her to show herself — this is a small token of my appreciation, please use it to buy yourselves some cool tea, and I would be grateful if you could let us through.”

The head guard squeezed the silver ingot through his sleeve and cast a casual, sweeping glance over Li Wu and the closed carriage door behind him.

“Travel pass?”

Li Wu produced the forged travel pass. The head guard scanned it briefly, found nothing amiss, and handed it back to Li Wu before saying, “Rules and regulations still have to be followed — we have our own procedures to observe. Open the carriage door and let me have a look.”

Li Wu paused for a moment, then spat the foxtail stem from his mouth, turned, and opened the carriage door halfway.

Shen Zhuxi sat sideways inside the carriage with her sleeve held up to cover her face. Above the sleeve, half of a sallow, yellowish face was visible. The head guard took one look and withdrew his gaze.

“…Pass,” he said, waving his hand.

Li Wu thanked him and drove the cart into Yangzhou city.

Shen Zhuxi quietly slid open the carriage window a crack and, through this narrow sliver, observed the street scene receding behind them. Inside Yangzhou city, things looked much the same as the last time she had come — the same shops, the same establishments. Only the atmosphere was entirely different. Something invisible pressed heavily down over the town, and the people coming and going had lost their former ease and leisureliness; their expressions were subtly more grave and tense.

Shen Zhuxi and Li Wu took lodging at a long-established inn in the city.

To get an audience with the head of the Bai Family, walking into the Bai Residence and giving themselves up was obviously out of the question. The two conferred briefly and decided to seize a different opportunity.

They could not go to the Bai Family with Fu Family soldiers watching, but they could go to the Shen Family.

The last time Shen Zhuxi had come to Yangzhou, she had lodged at the Shen Family home. The Shen Family was not conspicuous in Yangzhou, but the fact that the Bai Family had placed her with the Shen Family at the time made it clear the two households were in close private contact.

Now there was nothing for it but to stake everything on this one bet.

That same evening, the two of them paid a visit to the Shen Family.

Shen Laoye and Shen Furen were greatly startled to see Shen Zhuxi and Li Wu, and hurriedly welcomed them inside. Just as they had anticipated, the Shen Family appeared independent in Yangzhou on the surface but had in fact long since bound their fortunes to the Bai Family — their fates intertwined, rising and falling together.

Now that the Bai Family was in trouble, the Shen Family’s days in Yangzhou were not easy either.

Upon hearing Shen Zhuxi’s request, Shen Laoye deliberated briefly before agreeing, promising to arrange an opportunity for her to meet with Bai Anji.

Two days later, the opportunity arrived.

Bai Anji and a business partner were enjoying a boat outing on the calm, wind-stilled waters of the Grand Canal aboard a painted pleasure craft. Partway through, Shen Laoye, in the act of offering a toast, accidentally knocked over the fruit bowl on the table, sending ripe grapes tumbling onto Bai Anji’s robe. The juice squeezed out upon impact stained his clothing.

The maidservants on the pleasure craft escorted Bai Anji to the adjacent room to change clothes. When Bai Anji pushed open the door and stepped inside, he found himself face to face with Shen Zhuxi and Li Wu.

The maidservant whom Shen Laoye had arranged quietly drew the door shut, cutting off all outside eyes and ears.

Shen Zhuxi had spent much of the journey mentally rehearsing what to say. Her nerves were on edge, and she was just about to speak when Li Wu beside her dropped without a moment’s hesitation to his knees with a resounding thud.

“Your son-in-law Li Wu pays his respects to Uncle.”

Before Bai Anji had even fully registered what had happened, he had already received the bow. He looked at Shen Zhuxi with a mixture of surprise and delight: “Your Highness!”

“Uncle…”

Shen Zhuxi had not expected to feel anything in particular, but when a true family member was standing right before her eyes, her voice trembled in spite of herself.

“I heard from Rongling that you had fallen from a cliff and gone missing — what on earth happened? That boy Rongling doesn’t know a thing when you ask him. Your maternal grandfather and grandmother still don’t know about your fall from the cliff — it was I who had people keep it from them. The two elderly people are not as strong as they once were; if they had learned you were missing and unaccounted for, they surely would not have held up.”

“Uncle was right to think of it. Were it me, I would have concealed it as well,” said Shen Zhuxi, her voice catching. “If my maternal grandparents were to suffer anything because of me, I would truly be beyond pardon.”

“…Now that you’ve come back safely, I no longer need to lie to the two elders while swallowing my guilt.” Bai Anji said with a complicated expression, “Back alive — that’s what matters. Back alive…”

Bai Anji’s eyes were entirely on Shen Zhuxi. The snubbed Li Wu could only scratch the back of his head sheepishly and rise to his feet on his own. He cleared his throat twice and forcibly inserted himself into the reunion between the two family members.

“As for what exactly happened that day — it’s a long story—” he said, patting the dust off his knees and deliberately leaving them in suspense.

“Then make it short,” said Bai Anji, casting him a glance, his expression cool.

Li Wu did not take it to heart in the slightest.

Shen Zhuxi’s uncle was his uncle too. When your own family gives you the cold shoulder, all you can do is put up with it. And besides —

He could always collect what he was owed from Bai Rongling!

Li Wu gave a rough account of what had happened on the day of the cliff fall, and everything that followed — though his account was so rough that Shen Zhuxi had to interject from time to time with additional details.

Bai Anji listened with his brow deeply furrowed and finally arrived at a broad understanding of what had occurred.

“To think that Fu Xuanmiao would be so utterly without conscience… to even be capable of raising his hand against you…” Bai Anji let out a sigh. “When that betrothal was first arranged, it truly was a ruinous match…”

The sound of Bai Anji’s sigh faded into the silence of the room.

After a moment, he spoke with a hesitant expression. “When you departed last time, Your Highness had only just found that new life was growing within you. Now that is…”

No matter how little it showed, it was impossible for one’s belly to be as flat as Shen Zhuxi’s was today. Bai Anji had guessed that something had changed, and did not want to ask rashly and cause Her Highness distress, yet when he returned home the two elders would inevitably ask about it — torn between concern, he finally brought himself to ask.

Since Bai Anji had raised the subject, Shen Zhuxi had no reason not to explain the whole misunderstanding, flushed as she was with embarrassment when she did so. Bai Anji too could not help but find the whole affair more tragicomic than he had words for.

“…Looking on the bright side, if there truly had been a child, it certainly would not have survived all of this. This way is better…” Bai Anji paused and then said, “Your Highness is currently lodging at the Shen Family home? Yangzhou now has Fu Family soldiers patrolling and searching on all sides — you and your companions must exercise extreme caution within Yangzhou. Go out as little as possible if you can help it. Shen Laoye is a trustworthy man; in extraordinary times, you may have him relay messages on your behalf. I don’t suppose there are others traveling with Your Highness?”

“Three thousand five hundred Qingfeng soldiers,” said Shen Zhuxi.

Li Wu added on her behalf: “The three thousand five hundred is only the force I’ve brought to Yangzhou. The main body of the Qingfeng Army is on standby in Jinzhou, and I also have deployments in Xiangzhou. Uncle, rest assured — with the Bai Family’s support, retaking Yangzhou from the Fu Family soldiers will be easy work.”

That Li Wu could infer so much from so few words left Bai Anji somewhat surprised, and he gave him a second look.

“One thing must be confirmed beyond all doubt: once we raise our banner, the court will brand us as traitors and rebels… Your Highness, you have truly thought this through?” Bai Anji clasped his hands and bowed toward Shen Zhuxi, his expression grave.

“The court today is Fu Xuanmiao’s court, not the court of Great Yan,” said Shen Zhuxi. “We raise our banner to purge those who threaten the throne. Our conscience is clear.”

“Well said!” Bai Anji struck his hands together in approval. “Since Your Highness has made this resolve, I need say nothing more. Once I return to the Bai Family, I will immediately inform my father of this matter so we can discuss the details and then report back to Your Highness. Please, Your Highness, await word at the Shen Family home.”

With the initial discussions concluded, Bai Anji changed into clothes Shen Laoye had prepared and left the room as though nothing had occurred.

When the pleasure craft docked, Shen Zhuxi and Li Wu, disguised as relatives of the boat crew, were the last to disembark and attracted no one’s attention.

Bai Anji hurried back to the Bai Family and told Bai Yougang and his wife — who had known nothing of any of it — everything that had happened to the Princess of Yue along the way. The two elders inevitably dabbed at their eyes.

“To think this Fu Xuanmiao… could be such a vicious man,” Bai Laofuren said through her tears. “If Her Highness had truly gone through with that marriage, what sort of life would she have had?”

“Since Her Highness has already come to Yangzhou, the Bai clan will absolutely not hand her over again!” Bai Yougang said with a stern face, in a firm voice. “We may as well see it through to the bitter end! Don’t think for a moment that my Bai Family is truly afraid of this Fu Xuanmiao — when I was making my name across the Jiangnan region, he was nothing but a yellow-haired child who had just learned to stand while relieving himself!”

Bai Yougang let out a cold snort and said:

“He still wants to play the devoted lover and add some gloss to his own name? Dream on! This betrothal — the Bai Family rejects it entirely!”

Bai Laofuren nodded in approving relief.

Bai Anji, thinking of the storm this matter was bound to stir up, hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and quietly concurred with the old patriarch’s decision.

That same evening, the gates of the Bai Family home — which had been sealed for days, with all comings and goings subject to advance application and screening by Fu Family soldiers — were opened from within. Bai Anji walked out, dressed in his customary refined and elegant manner, and handed a letter to the soldier on duty at the gate.

He bowed courteously and said with perfect civility:

“This is a letter from the Bai Family’s patriarch to the Associate Administrator of Political Affairs. Please be so good as to have it forwarded.”

The guard on duty looked him over with suspicion and did not immediately take the letter from Bai Anji’s hand.

“And what is inside?”

Bai Anji had no interest in explaining. He pressed the letter directly into the guard’s hands.

He gave the guard an unhurried look and said:

“This is the Bai Family’s decision. You have no need to know.”

Before the guard could even collect his wits, Bai Anji had already stepped back across the threshold of the Bai Family gates, which swung shut once more behind him.

And the letter of betrothal dissolution — its ink barely dry — was sent by urgent dispatch to Jianzhou.