The three men stared at one another in stunned silence.

Li Que’s expression was awkward, Li Kun’s was bewildered, and Li Wu’s eyes bulged wide as he gaped at Shen Zhuxi in disbelief.

Shen Zhuxi wept aloud. “What are you all standing around for? Have you forgotten what your own eldest brother looks like?!”

Li Que glanced at the headless corpse on the ground, then looked at his elder brother standing beside him, face ashen as iron. He thought to himself: he did look rather unrecognizable, it was true.

“…Sister-in-law, what on earth happened?” Li Que asked.

Shen Zhuxi wept as she recounted the events, embellishing the story as she went along.

Li Que and Li Wu exchanged a glance, and gradually pieced together the situation. Only Li Kun still wore an expression of complete bewilderment.

“…It is all your eldest brother’s fault — blinded by greed, he stirred strife between brothers, brought harm to others and to himself, and in the end couldn’t even leave a whole corpse behind!”

Shen Zhuxi beat the ground with her palms, her voice breaking with grief:

“Husband, you were truly heartless… How could you leave behind a helpless woman like me? How am I to go on living…?”

Her emotions were overwrought, her face streaked with tears. Before she could finish speaking, her expression suddenly changed — her body swayed and she toppled straight backward.

Li Wu’s reflexes nearly sent him lurching forward to catch her, but Li Que was faster — he stepped in front of him in a single stride and caught the swooning Shen Zhuxi before she hit the ground.

Li Que glanced back at Li Wu and gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head.

Li Wu had no choice but to halt in his tracks. He ground his teeth in silence, watching another man hold his woman with such familiarity, while that man reached out to press his fingers against her philtrum to rouse her.

The maddening woman suddenly opened her eyes. She grabbed Li Que’s sleeve and sobbed:

“Please forgive your eldest brother! I am a helpless woman — there is nothing I can do to ensure he is laid to rest properly. I shall need you two younger brothers to help…”

Li Kun, who had been watching all this with his jaw hanging open, scratched the back of his round head and said, “Goodness gracious — has Piggy gone and lost his wits…?”

Li Que said, “Sister-in-law, set your heart at ease. After all these years of brotherhood, though the bond of sentiment may be broken, the bond of duty remains. Eldest Brother has already reaped what he sowed. Let what has passed be carried away on the wind.”

Shen Zhuxi turned her gaze toward Li Wu — who had been stripped of his identity and was now standing to one side in the guise of a mysterious stranger — and with an expression of profound sorrow, eyes glistening with unshed tears, she said:

“Brother Li, though we are no more than chance-met travelers who happened to walk the same road for a time, since you have appeared here, surely you must be a warm-hearted soul… Could you help them ensure my husband finds a proper place to rest?” Shen Zhuxi’s eyes brimmed with earnest tears. “My husband may have been petty, childish, long-winded, arrogant, prone to excessive flatulence, and utterly lacking in self-awareness… but he surely does not deserve to wander the earth as a forlorn, homeless ghost!”

She had neatly arranged the identities of all three men. Shen Zhuxi felt she had performed admirably — surely even the assassin lurking in the shadows would be taken in by her masterful act and depart with the head in hand, content that the mission was complete.

Yet for some reason, the air had fallen quite still.

Shen Zhuxi trained her innocent, tear-filled eyes on Li Wu and silently urged this oblivious man to keep pace with her performance.

Li Wu tightened his fists and said through clenched teeth:

“…Though your husband was petty, childish, long-winded, arrogant, prone to flatulence, and utterly without self-awareness — the dead deserve respect. I will help you.”

True to his word, the three of them found a suitable spot in the woods on the spot and dug a grave — a burial place for the merchant surnamed Jiang, whose name none of them knew.

“These are the last clothes my husband wore. I must keep them to remember him by…”

Shen Zhuxi choked back sobs as she peeled the duck-patterned robe off the corpse, and swiftly slid her hand into the inner lining.

The silver notes were still there. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

She then, with perfect naturalness, hugged the robe to her chest and broke into another bout of heartfelt, genuine-sounding weeping:

“Husband! I will take good care of myself and your two younger brothers — go in peace! In your next life, please be reborn as a better person—”

She snapped off a nearby stalk of foxtail grass and placed it at the head of the grave in lieu of a headstone.

This black-hearted man had someone to bury him even in death. But what of her A’Huang? A’Huang had never even been entered into the Li family register, and had simply fallen by the roadside.

Thinking of A’Huang, who had lost its life so innocently, Shen Zhuxi wept genuine tears that fell like rain.

Her expression was one of real anguish as she whimpered: “You wretched ghost — you didn’t just destroy yourself, you’ve made a widow of me! You may have lacked all humanity, but I still cannot abandon all sense of loyalty. The conditions here are crude — you will have to make do. Even if I must sell everything I own, I will find a way to have you moved back to your homeland…”

Li Wu watched her performance through clenched back teeth.

Li Que, without a word, pulled Li Kun down to kneel before the grave, and with a complicated expression, bowed his head low.

“Eldest Brother, may you rest in peace.”

Li Wu’s fist cracked audibly as he squeezed it tight.

Shen Zhuxi took out a handkerchief and dabbed at her tears, and with Li Que supporting her as he urged her repeatedly to contain her grief, she rose slowly to her feet, trembling.

“Sister-in-law, what do we do now…” Li Que said to her, though his eyes were fixed on Li Wu standing nearby.

“Your sister-in-law is in no state to travel. Why don’t we find a village nearby to rest for the night?” Li Wu said.

“That would be best.” Li Que spoke, then paused, and seemed about to say something more.

“Is there another problem?” Li Wu asked.

“We only have one horse…” Li Que said delicately, and as soon as the words left his mouth, he dropped his gaze to the ground.

A sharp crack rang out — it was Li Wu’s clenched fist expressing its opinion.

Li Wu smiled with his lips but not his eyes. “Eldest Brother trusted you most in life. Then you shall be the one to take your sister-in-law back to the inn first, and then send a cart back for us.”

Li Que let out a sigh. He steadied Shen Zhuxi — who was committed to her performance right to the end and was still weeping without cease:

“…Sister-in-law, let us go.”

“A’Huang…” Shen Zhuxi’s tear-blurred gaze drifted.

“Once we have the ox cart, we will of course bring A’Huang back.” Li Wu said.

Shen Zhuxi’s heart settled.

She was helped onto the horse by Li Que, who then mounted behind her. He gathered the reins and, under Li Wu’s deathly stare, dug his heels lightly against the horse’s flanks, and said softly: “Giddy up!”

Once the horse carrying Shen Zhuxi and Li Que was nothing but a receding shadow, Li Kun scratched his round head with a look of complete confusion.

“Has Third Brother and Sister-in-law abandoned us?”

Li Wu cast him an icy look. “No one thinks you’re mute if you don’t speak.”

He walked to the roadside and found a clean boulder to sit on. Li Kun, unable to find a boulder of his own, crouched down beside him like an endearingly dim-witted large dog.

“Diao’er… tonight I want piggy,” Li Kun said with a smack of his lips.

“No piggy,” said Li Wu. “Only A’Huang.”

……

To shake off any possible pursuit, Li Que deliberately traveled seven or eight li before renting a small hut deep in the hills from a passing hunter, to serve as their lodging for the night.

Unwilling to leave Shen Zhuxi alone in the hut, Li Que borrowed an ox cart from the village below the mountain and brought her back to the main road with him, where they collected Li Wu and Li Kun, along with A’Huang — who had grown thoroughly cold — and the four of them returned together to the hut in the hills.

On the ox cart, Shen Zhuxi shed no small number of tears for A’Huang.

After climbing down from the cart, Shen Zhuxi stroked the large yellow horse’s soft mane and let her tears fall silently, unwilling to leave its side.

“Don’t worry. I will find a proper place and give A’Huang a decent burial.” Li Wu came to stand beside her.

“Its name is Li Juan,” said Shen Zhuxi sadly.

“…You can give it a new name after it’s dead?”

“You can. It is called a posthumous honor.”

Li Wu had a strong urge to crack open that pretty little head of hers and see what variety of nonsense it was packed with — but he couldn’t bear to.

“Very well. I will find a good place to bury Li Juan.” Li Wu gave his promise once more.

Shen Zhuxi sniffled and stepped into the wooden hut with many a reluctant backward glance.

Li Wu turned around and looked at Li Que, who stood behind him with lowered eyes and bowed head, the very picture of a man awaiting punishment.

“Go. Carry A’Huang into the kitchen.”

That evening, a pot of rich, fiery braised meat was set upon the creaking old wooden table.

Great chunks of red meat lay nestled in a vivid crimson broth. Translucent tendons arched across the meltingly tender pieces of meat, while the fragrance of cassia bark and bay leaves drifted in and out of the steam curling above the bowl.

Li Wu reached in with his chopsticks and lifted out a piece of skin-on meat soaked in the red broth, swirled it once through the spicy liquid, and sent a dried red date rolling up from the bottom of the bowl.

He held the piece of meat aloft — right under Li Kun’s longing, starving eyes — and placed it squarely into Shen Zhuxi’s bowl.

“Try it,” said Li Wu, in his characteristically economical fashion.

Shen Zhuxi had been weeping for the better part of the day and had nearly exhausted every last bit of her strength. Even with such tempting food before her, the grief of losing Li Juan the Third still hovered around her heart, and she had not the slightest appetite. Yet not wanting to disappoint Li Wu, she picked up the piece of meat and placed it carefully into her mouth.

The flavors of the spices and the spicy broth rushed into her mouth like a bold and ambitious army, igniting every taste bud in an instant.

Hunger stirred to life in her mind. Only then did Shen Zhuxi remember she had not had so much as a drop of water or a grain of rice for the better part of the day.

With a newfound reverence, she bit gently into the meltingly tender meat. The hot broth burst out through the supple, yielding skin and wrapped itself around the tip of her tongue.

“What meat is this?” Shen Zhuxi was thoroughly conquered by the magnificent texture. She exclaimed in wonder, “This doesn’t taste like pork, beef, or mutton — I have never eaten anything like it before!”

“It is water deer,” Li Wu said, placing another piece of skin-on lean meat into her bowl. “Since you like it, eat more. You worked hard today.”

Shen Zhuxi looked at him with touched eyes.

This insufferable man was different now. He even knew she had worked hard.

“Sister-in-law genuinely gave me a fright today,” Li Que said as he too placed a piece of broth-coated meat into Shen Zhuxi’s bowl, his voice full of admiration. “Sister-in-law is both brave and resourceful — a true example that women need not yield to men. Compared to those delicate, pampered young ladies, she surpasses them by far—”

Shen Zhuxi’s cheeks went pink. “It was nothing. I only acted as the moment required…”

Li Que shook his head, persisting in his praise. “Of the women I have dealt with — not a thousand, perhaps, but certainly a hundred — not one would think to resist when danger struck, let alone throw herself recklessly forward to wrestle a weapon from an assailant. None of them have your quick thinking and ability to seize the moment… By any measure, sister-in-law is truly one in a hundred.”

Li Wu’s eyes snapped wide, and he said in an utterly shameless tone: “The woman I chose — only one in a hundred?”

“No, no, no — one in ten thousand, at the very least!” Li Que hastily corrected himself. “The fact that I said one in a hundred only reflects the limitations of my own experience and narrow view of the world.”

Li Wu, upon hearing this amendment, gave a satisfied nod and finally let the matter rest.

Li Que grinned in an ingratiatingly appeasing manner and placed yet another piece of red meat into Shen Zhuxi’s bowl.

“Goodness gracious! Piggy fell down, eat meat to make up for the meat…” Li Kun, following their example, also placed a piece of meat into Shen Zhuxi’s bowl.

The pieces of meat piled in her bowl were nearly rolling out over the rim, and Shen Zhuxi was so moved she nearly brimmed over into tears.

In all her life, no one had ever praised her so lavishly!

“Once the assassins report back and discover they killed the wrong person, what then?” Li Que said.

“We will deal with the future when the future arrives.” Li Wu picked up two pieces of braised meat and placed one each into Li Kun and Li Que’s bowls. “By the time they realize there is no Zhen Pi in Yangzhou and no Zhu Zhu in Yongzhou, we will have long since reached Xuzhou. Han Fengnian’s arm may be long, but it cannot reach too far beyond the territory under the command of the Wuying Army. And if he dares try—”

Li Wu curved the corner of his mouth and said with unhurried ease: “The men of the Military Commissioner of Shu’an would be most happy to cut down Chunyu An’s right-hand men.”

“But we have no one to vouch for us and cannot enter Xuzhou,” Shen Zhuxi said with worry.

“What use is worrying now? When we reach Xuzhou, I’ll dig a tunnel under the walls if I have to — I’ll get you inside.” Li Wu was entirely unbothered, calm as still water. “Worry is all self-inflicted. Instead of fretting ahead of time, you’d do better to eat a couple more pieces of meat and store up your strength.”

Li Wu made a great deal of sense. Shen Zhuxi nodded and picked up a piece of meat dripping with broth and put it in her mouth.

Water deer — truly delicious! Once she returned to the palace, she would absolutely recommend this dish to the imperial chefs!

When the meal was done, Li Que busied himself with clearing up the table. Li Kun wandered off somewhere no one could determine. Shen Zhuxi found Li Wu sweeping the room and said to him:

“Where was Li Juan buried? I would like to go and see…”

Li Wu’s broom paused mid-sweep. He raised his head and said with great moral authority: “Look at this room — look at all the dust on the floor and the bed. Can you sleep here tonight? Instead of coming to help, all you do is think of ways to give me more trouble?”

“I will only look for a moment and come straight back…” Shen Zhuxi implored.

“Do you not understand the principle of visiting a grave only deepening your grief? Stop insisting, and learn to let go.” Li Wu stood, thrust the broom into her hands, and said, “This is where you sleep tonight. Whether it gets cleaned is entirely up to you. I am going to help Li Que tidy the kitchen.”

Shen Zhuxi stood holding the broom in disappointment, forced to admit that the insufferable man had a point.

Seeing it would only make her sadder. So be it.

Li Juan — rest in peace. In your next life, be reborn as a member of the Li family once more.