“This compound has six courtyards. I have let out most of it already. If you are willing, I can rent you the front courtyard — there are two side rooms there where you could make do.”

The innkeeper pushed open the double doors and led the four of them inside.

The side rooms stood on either side of the corridor just past the entrance. The innkeeper produced a key and opened one of the locked doors.

“It’s a bit small, I’ll grant you that. But there is bedding, a table, and chairs — all the essentials are there. The price is reasonable as well. The kitchen and the privy are shared with the tenants in the rear courtyard. There are rather a lot of them, but as long as you stagger your times, it ought not to be too great an inconvenience…”

“Those people?” Li Wu’s sharp ears caught the key detail. “Just how many people are you housing in this compound?”

“Not many, not many—” The innkeeper held up a number.

“Four?”

The innkeeper gave a sheepish chuckle. “Four hundred.”

Shen Zhuxi was dumbfounded.

“Four hundred?” Li Wu blurted out. “Do you think this is a duck pen? How could that many people possibly fit?!”

“They fit, they fit, they fit—” The innkeeper, afraid Li Wu would turn and leave on the spot, hurried on. “You move about in the front courtyard, they move about in the rear — neither party interferes with the other… Whether they fit or not in the rear is their own problem. Your front courtyard is your own, and whether those others sleep sideways or head-to-toe is no concern of yours. Besides — apart from these two side rooms of mine, do you have anywhere else in the city to go? If those four hundred had anywhere else to sleep, would they be bedding down in my courtyard? The fact that they’re here tells you everything.”

The innkeeper was not exaggerating. Aside from this place, finding lodgings anywhere else in the city would be nearly impossible.

Li Wu’s expression eased slightly. “What sort of people are these four hundred? Ordinary travelers? Or—”

“Innkeeper, good — you’re here.” A booming, rough voice cut Li Wu off.

A brawny man with a back like a tiger and a waist like a bear strode through the side gate connecting to the rear courtyard, a long saber at his hip clanging rhythmically against his leather armor with every step. Behind him trooped seven or eight men who were, to a man, his exact copy in build.

They were all clad in matching armor and bearing identical weapons — clearly belonging to the same unit.

Shen Zhuxi felt their gazes settle on her and became frightened, instinctively pressing herself behind Li Wu.

Almost simultaneously, Li Wu stepped in front of her.

The man at the front seemed merely surprised to find a woman there at all. When he saw Shen Zhuxi’s alarm, he immediately withdrew his gaze and turned instead to the innkeeper, saying in a rough and ill-tempered voice, “Innkeeper — what’s going on with the privy out back? Filth has backed up all over the floor — it’s shameful dirty! How do you expect the brothers to live like that?!”

“I’ve told you hundreds of times — I can’t understand your Sichuan dialect! If you have something to say, speak in the common tongue!”

The brawny man organized his thoughts and said in his halting, rough approximation of the common tongue, “I’m saying — what’s happened to that privy? The waste is overflowing!”

The innkeeper understood, and Shen Zhuxi understood too. She went pale and instinctively held her breath.

“Four hundred people relieving themselves in the same privy — what do you expect? Of course it will overflow.” The innkeeper said, exasperated. “Wait — I’ll have someone come and clear it. And stop throwing things down there!”

“But where are the brothers supposed to go in the meantime?” the brawny man asked.

Shen Zhuxi closed her eyes in despair. She could only curse herself for still possessing the faculties of hearing and smell.

“Go outside! Go down to the riverbank!” the innkeeper said. “If you block up the privy again, I’m charging you a cleaning fee on top of everything else!”

“Confounded swindler…” the brawny man muttered in Sichuan dialect.

“Don’t think I don’t know you’re cursing me!” The innkeeper’s brows shot up. “Four hundred of you, and I’m only charging for fifty — go out and ask around, find me anyone else in this city willing to do such a charitable deed! You’re welcome!”

The brawny man’s eyes went wide. “Only fifty of the brothers have a room to sleep in — the rest are sleeping in the courtyard, and you still have the nerve to charge the ones in the courtyard room fees?”

“I can’t understand what you’re saying! Sleep or leave — your choice!”

“I already paid — I’m not leaving!” the man declared.

“Then follow the rules!” The innkeeper caught himself and remembered there were others present. He cleared his throat and called out, “These four are guests who will be staying in the front courtyard from now on. None of you come wandering around there, and use the rear gate when you go out — understood?”

“Why should we use the rear gate?” One of the men behind the brawny man looked put out.

Before he could finish, the brawny man sent an elbow firmly into his ribs.

It landed with solid force, and Shen Zhuxi flinched at the sound.

“Can you not see they have a woman with them? I know to steer clear — why don’t you? Who was it that told me you had been to a private school?” The brawny man turned back to Li Wu and his group and pressed his fists together in a respectful salute. “Rest easy here. I’ll keep the brothers in line — they stay in the rear courtyard. Anyone who dares harass your lady, I’ll chop off his hand personally!”

“The brothers need to use the privy — hurry up and get that sorted!” The brawny man shot the innkeeper one last glare, then turned and strode back toward the rear courtyard. The seven or eight men behind him filed in after him.

The front courtyard was instantly quiet, broken only by the occasional burst of noise drifting from the rear.

“So, what do you say, guests?” The innkeeper came back to himself, rubbing his hands together as he looked at Li Wu. “Not bad, is it, my front courtyard? Will you take it? Past this village, there’s no such inn — don’t take it now and then regret it two hours later, because the chance will be gone…”

Li Wu considered, then said, “Thirty coins a night.”

“Thirty coins a person?” The innkeeper blinked.

“Thirty coins for all of us. One night.” Li Wu made as if to leave. “If not, never mind. I’ll go sleep in the mass grave — at least there’s more room.”

“Hey, you—” The innkeeper wavered for a moment, then hastily grabbed Li Wu’s arm. “Fine, thirty coins it is! Since I’m being so generous, you’d better stay a good few days!”

After pocketing the thirty coins, the innkeeper, mindful of his proper business at the inn, and also eager to have someone come deal with the backed-up privy in the rear courtyard, hurried off in a rush.

Just as he was stepping out the door, he remembered something. One foot already outside, one still inside, he craned his neck and called back to the four of them: “I will be doing a thorough inspection at checkout — if anything is missing or damaged, I expect a hundredfold in compensation. You have been warned!”

“Still going on about this? I’ll tell you now — I’m not staying anymore. Give me back my thirty coins!” Li Wu shouted.

The innkeeper drew his head back in like a tortoise and fled at a run, clutching Li Wu’s thirty copper coins.

Shen Zhuxi, sleeve raised to her nose, said indistinctly: “…Are we really staying here?”

“We stay one night and see. Tomorrow I’ll go into the city and make some inquiries — see if there’s any merchant family surnamed Wang,” Li Wu said.

Since Li Wu had decided, Shen Zhuxi raised no further objections.

“You won’t abandon me here alone and go off without me?” she asked with worry.

“Of course not!” Li Wu said, sounding genuinely astonished. “You think I’d leave you alone with four hundred men? They’ll have to step over my dead body first!”

Shen Zhuxi’s heart settled, and she stopped resisting the idea of staying there.

Compared to sleeping in the open, these side rooms were without question their best option.

They split into two groups and each settled into one of the side rooms on either side.

About half an hour later, Shen Zhuxi was still sorting through the luggage brought in from the carriage when the resonant voice she had heard earlier rang out just beyond the door.

“Little brother! Little brother!”

Li Wu opened the door. Across the way, Shen Zhuxi could see Li Que had opened his door as well. The brawny man who had been leading the group earlier stood at the entrance to the rear courtyard and called out to them across the front courtyard: “Little brothers! We’re making a mutton spine hotpot tonight — come join us!”

Li Wu glanced at Li Que.

“In this weather, and you’re having a mutton spine hotpot? Brother does know how to live well.” Li Que stepped out of his room with a smile and cupped his hands respectfully toward the brawny man. “May I ask your name, Brother?”

“My surname is Niu! Call me Niuwang! You’re younger than me — just call me Big Brother Niu!”

“Of course, Big Brother Liu,” Li Que said with a cheerful smile.

“Not Liu — Niu — Niu—” the brawny man said, shaking his hands in frustration.

“Willow? As in willow tree?”

“No! Niu! Niu! The one that plows the field — moo!” The brawny man was so worked up a moo escaped him.

Li Que finally deciphered the name from that patchwork of broken common tongue.

“I understand now — Big Brother Niu.” Li Que smiled. “My sister-in-law and second brother have been traveling all day and are quite worn out, but my eldest brother and I do happen to have a craving that’s been building. If you don’t mind, shall we bring two jars of good wine this evening?”

“Good! Excellent! Wine is best of all!” Niuwang broke into a loud laugh. “Once the pot is boiling, I’ll send someone to call you!”

Li Que pressed his fists together in thanks. Niuwang headed back to the rear courtyard with great good cheer.

“Eldest Brother, Second Brother and I will go buy the wine first.” Li Que said. “We’ll come get you once everything is ready.”

“Go on,” said Li Wu.

After he closed the door, Shen Zhuxi — who had heard everything — said with worry, “There are four hundred of them. The two of you going in there alone — is that really all right?”

“Aren’t you curious what four hundred people are all doing crowded here?” Li Wu walked to the bed, sat down, and picked up a garment that lay in disarray on the sheets, beginning to fold it.

“I’ll do it myself, thank you.”

Shen Zhuxi could not bear to watch him fold it into such a crumpled mess. She took it back, shook it out, and refolded it into a neat, proper square.

Li Wu watched her, and said with a note of quiet feeling, “…You used to not even be able to hang up your own clothes.”

Shen Zhuxi said with satisfaction, “Have I not grown a great deal?”

There was no answer from beside her for quite some time.

She looked up with a puzzled frown — and met Li Wu’s dark, deep eyes directly. He was silent, and reached over to take her hand in his.

“You’re—” Shen Zhuxi’s face went warm. She started to draw her hand back.

Li Wu said, “Have I made you suffer?”

She froze where she stood. The hand she had just begun to pull away was reclaimed into his.

“When we first married, I said… marrying you wasn’t meant to make you suffer.” Li Wu paused, then said, “And yet I still managed to make you suffer.”

His usual languid ease had given way to something else. A flash of self-reproach moved through his eyes.

Shen Zhuxi could not bear to see him like this, and immediately argued back. “I have not suffered at all!”

“…You followed me sleeping in abandoned temples and mountain caves. The calluses on your feet healed only to split open again. You have never had a stable place to sleep — and you call that not suffering?”

“That is not suffering!” Shen Zhuxi said heatedly. “I don’t feel the slightest bit of hardship in any of it!”

Li Wu looked at her deeply, for a long while. Then he said in a low voice, “Shen Blockhead…”

“What?”

“Once you reclaim your identity as a princess of the Chu Kingdom — will you still be the same Shen Blockhead I know?”

“…Is being a Chu princess not good enough?”

“Not good enough.” Li Wu said quietly. “The person I know is resilient and tenacious, prone to tears and to blushing, with a heart cleaner than anyone else’s. That is the Shen Blockhead I know — not a Chu princess with attendants before her and guards behind, elevated above everyone.”

“When I was on my way to Xuzhou with you, I had my doubts. I was afraid that once you met Emperor Yuanlong, you would no longer be the Shen Blockhead I know.” Li Wu was quiet for a moment. “If I told you that I am truly relieved Emperor Yuanlong is not in Xuzhou — Blockhead… would you blame me?”

Shen Zhuxi’s feelings were complicated. After a long pause, she shook her head.

On the road to Xuzhou, had she not been caught in exactly the same contradiction herself?

So it turned out that all this time, Li Wu had traveled beside her carrying those same feelings. He had been unwilling to hand her over to the Emperor, and yet he had honored his original promise and brought her all the way to Xuzhou.

“I—” Shen Zhuxi gathered her courage. She wanted to tell him her true identity.

Not the princess of Chu — but the Princess of Yue, already promised in marriage to another.

She had deceived him. She was the very Princess of Yue he held in contempt for her luxurious and dissolute life — the one he found so deeply unworthy.

“Eldest Brother—” Li Que’s voice rang out beyond the door. “Niuwang has come to call us — shall we go?”

“Give me a moment!” Li Wu called back, and then continued to look at Shen Zhuxi. “Go on — what were you saying?”

“…Nothing. Go on, you should go!” Shen Zhuxi’s courage had entirely deserted her. She smiled with forced composure. “I only wanted to say — I need to go out and look around the street.”

“Take Li Kun with you,” said Li Wu.

“I know.”

Li Wu rose and walked to the doorway, then looked back at her as though waiting for something.

Shen Zhuxi understood, and said:

“Come home early.”

The corner of Li Wu’s mouth lifted in a free and easy smile.

“I will.”