The thoroughbred galloped at full speed, the fierce wind rushing past. The gale swept across their faces, tousling the loose strands of hair at their temples.

The horse’s back tossed her from side to side as she sat sideways in the saddle. Shen Zhuxi squeezed her eyes shut in fright, her hands instinctively clutching Li Wu’s lapels.

Li Wu’s voice cut through the sharp howl of the wind, ringing loud and clear in her ears.

“Shen Blockhead, aren’t you going to open your eyes and look at your husband’s territory?”

“I won’t look!” Shen Zhuxi cried out, both indignant and frightened, her voice coming out strangely.

“Shen Blockhead, you really won’t look? People are pointing at you, you know.”

Shen Zhuxi panicked and buried her face in Li Wu’s chest. “It’s all your fault!”

“What are they saying about you? I can’t hear clearly. Why don’t you open your eyes and see what all their chattering is about?”

Following Li Wu’s words, a dreadful scene materialized in Shen Zhuxi’s mind — countless people pointing at them on horseback, their faces full of disgust and contempt.

“You really won’t look? I guarantee you won’t be able to guess what you’ll see.”

Unable to resist Li Wu’s repeated goading and temptation, Shen Zhuxi finally forced herself to pry open her eyes, trembling with apprehension.

The scene she had imagined was nowhere to be found.

The main road leading to the government office was completely clear, lined on both sides by a continuous canopy of shade trees. The only person on the road was a scholar in a long gown who had stepped to the side, watching with astonished eyes as they raced past — there was no pointing, no gossip whatsoever.

Up ahead, the sounds of a noisy crowd grew louder. A stone staircase of six or seven steps appeared before them.

Li Wu dug his heels firmly into the horse’s flanks. “Hyah!”

The large chestnut-red horse accelerated toward the steps, and Shen Zhuxi instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face in Li Wu’s chest once more.

“Blockhead, open your eyes!”

Li Wu let out a commanding shout. Though Shen Zhuxi was reluctant, her eyes obediently cracked open just a sliver.

The thoroughbred reared up on its front hooves, leaping high into the air, clearing the steps in a single bound and landing squarely on the platform above!

A moment later, the horse charged into a vast square.

A company of a hundred soldiers in the middle of their drills came to a halt one by one, staring with dropped jaws at the fast horse that had come charging up from behind.

Subjected to the gazes of over a hundred men, Shen Zhuxi’s face burned crimson. She was mortified to the point of wishing she could find a crack in the ground to disappear into.

To make matters worse, Li Kun, standing at the head of the formation, came bounding out and began waving his two thick arms with gleeful enthusiasm.

“Piggy! Piggy!”

The galloping horse rapidly closed the distance with the formation. Li Wu gripped the reins firmly and called out in a loud voice: “The last thirty men to the finish line will be cleaning out all the latrines in the garrison tonight!”

Before Li Wu had even finished speaking, a commotion broke out in the formation. The sharper soldiers had already broken into a mad dash for the finish line, while those who had been caught off guard hurried to pump their legs and catch up.

Li Que, while swiftly overtaking the men ahead of him, managed to look back at Shen Zhuxi with effortless ease. “Sister-in-law, your little brother will go on ahead — I’ll come pay my respects in a bit!”

Li Wu gave the reins a light flick, and the thoroughbred followed at an easy, unhurried pace behind the formation of men huffing and puffing with exhaustion.

Li Wu rode at his leisure, occasionally calling out someone’s name to take a jab at them — a man truly talking big from the comfort of the saddle.

“Zhu the Third, you’re coming in last again today. If I were a bandit, your head would’ve already been lopped off with one stroke.”

“Zhang Dafu, don’t think I don’t know what you’re made of. What are you lagging behind for? Saving your energy to go steal chickens tonight?”

Every time he called out a name, that person would flush red and quicken their pace.

With Li Wu personally supervising, the formation’s morale and speed improved in a way that was visible to the naked eye.

Now that she was watching the men’s backs instead of facing their direct stares, Shen Zhuxi’s courage gradually returned. She looked around with curiosity at the dusty surroundings, her gaze eventually drifting back to the hundred or so men running with all their might.

“Do they run like this every day?” she couldn’t help asking.

“If they ran like this every day, would they have worked up all that flab?” Li Wu said irritably. “They’ve only been running for three days and they’re already crying to their mothers — they’re worse than those good-for-nothing young lords from the capital!”

The more Li Wu spoke, the more agitated he became. He shouted at the soldiers running up ahead: “Those pampered scions in the capital train with sandbags tied to their bodies even when they’re just practicing calligraphy. What gives you the right to slack off? Your births may not compare to theirs, but are you going to let them beat you in effort too?!”

Under Li Wu’s scolding, the formation surged forward another measure.

Shen Zhuxi shrank her shoulders guiltily.

She hoped with all her heart that Li Wu would never have the chance to learn the truth in this lifetime.

After galloping five laps around the vast empty square on horseback, the men began collapsing at the finish line one after another, their faces flushed scarlet and their bodies drenched in sweat. Those who hadn’t fallen were either throwing themselves on top of those who had, or clutching the pouches at their waists and scanning the surroundings with wary eyes.

Li Wu sat on his horse, his expression calm as he watched the brazen robbery unfold right before his eyes.

“What are they… doing?” Shen Zhuxi asked in surprise.

“Big Brother gave each of them a pouch.”

Li Que, still catching his breath, walked over and unhooked the pouch from his own waist, holding it up to Shen Zhuxi on the horse.

Shen Zhuxi took it and looked it over. The dark blue pouch had fine, even stitching and smooth, flowing seams. Though it was made from cheap coarse cloth, it was sturdy and durable. The bottom was slightly uneven, and when she turned it over to look, she found a single character embroidered there in cotton thread a shade lighter than the fabric — a stiff, rigid-looking character for “duck.”

Who had made it was abundantly clear.

Shen Zhuxi strongly suspected that he had been unable to recall how to write the character for “Wu,” and had settled for the next best thing by embroidering the synonymous character for “duck” instead.

“Every day when drills end, any man still in possession of this pouch can collect an extra fifteen copper coins from Big Brother on top of their regular pay. Those who lose their pouch get no supper and have to clean up the entire garrison’s mess after meals.”

Once Li Que finished his explanation, Li Wu spoke up from behind her with self-satisfaction: “I’ve got a mountain of things to deal with every day and no time to watch them constantly, so I let them watch each other. The alert ones get rewarded, and the careless ones get punished — scrubbing latrines is still better than getting run through by bandits, isn’t it?”

Shen Zhuxi looked at the soldiers before her — half-dead with exhaustion but still struggling to their feet to guard against opportunistic hands — and had to admit that Li Wu’s method was genuinely effective.

Li Wu swung down from the horse first and walked over to several soldiers sprawled limp on the ground, sending a kick at each of them to get them up.

“Get up! Bandits won’t give you time to rest!”

“Move if you don’t want to die!”

In just three short days, Li Wu seemed to have become one with these soldiers. Shen Zhuxi watched them cry out in protest, yet show little real fear of him. One of them climbed up from the ground, clutching his pouch tightly, and looked up at Shen Zhuxi on horseback.

“Commander, is that the honorable wife who sewed our pouches?”

Shen Zhuxi tensed up, unsure how to handle the situation.

She had never had so many men from outside the household staring at her before — and they were disheveled, drenched in sweat. If she wished to be recorded in the Biographies of Exemplary Women, the proper thing to do now would be to gouge out her own eyes.

But Shen Zhuxi was afraid of pain, and deep down she had no desire whatsoever to be recorded in the Biographies of Exemplary Women.

So she stood stiffly on the horse, casting a helpless, uncertain look down at Li Wu.

“That’s her.” Li Wu’s expression was one of unmistakable pride as he raised his voice. “Every one of those pouches was embroidered by her own hand.”

A wave of exclamations immediately rippled through the soldiers.

“The Commander’s wife has wonderful needlework — this pouch is far sturdier than anything my wife makes!”

“No kidding, I showed it to my mother when I got it and she said the same thing —”

“The needlework is good, but the character looks a little off… the ones from the embroidery shop I bought are actually more —”

A lean soldier caught sight of Li Wu’s darkening expression and jabbed an elbow into the chubby soldier beside him, cutting him off.

“More… more inferior.” The chubby soldier spotted Li Wu’s face and stumbled over his words. “Maybe it’s my eyes that are the problem…”

“Don’t doubt yourself — your eyes are definitely the problem!” Li Que said with absolute conviction. “The character on this pouch is upright and magnificent, full of heroic spirit. Sister-in-law tailored it to Big Brother’s very image. If you think it doesn’t look right, it’s only because you haven’t yet come to appreciate what true heroic spirit looks like.”

“Then… why is there a ‘duck’ character on the pouch?” the chubby soldier asked.

Before Li Wu could respond, Li Que puffed out his chest. “What’s wrong with a duck? Duck meat is delicious, duck down keeps you warm, and duck droppings make excellent fertilizer. Big Brother — ahem, Big Sister-in-law — embroidered the duck character on the pouches because she places great hope in every one of us. She wants us all to be as versatile and useful as a duck — valuable from top to tail!”

“Precisely,” Li Wu said with a satisfied nod. “Li Que has said exactly what I meant.”

Li Que gave a modest bow. “It is Big Brother and Sister-in-law who are wise. Your little brother was merely presenting flowers borrowed from another — giving voice to ideas that were not my own.”

Comprehension spread through the soldiers as they murmured amongst themselves.

“Ahh, so that’s what it means…”

“The Madam truly puts so much thought into things…”

“The Madam is a remarkable woman. She doesn’t look down on us and even went so far as to embroider pouches for us…”

“The Commander is truly fortunate to have married such a capable, supportive wife — not like my own shrew at home…”

Numerous moved and friendly gazes landed on Shen Zhuxi. All she could do was offer an awkward yet polite smile.

“A capable and supportive wife? The woman I chose after careful consideration helps in every way, inside and out!” Li Wu declared, raising an eyebrow with supreme satisfaction. “If any of you want someone like her, go accumulate eight hundred years of good fortune first!”

Li Wu’s praise was making Shen Zhuxi’s face feel like it was about to catch fire. He was utterly unapologetic about it, completely unaware that his words were wildly extravagant — the kind that made a person itch all over and curl their toes.

He walked to the side of the horse and reached up to help her dismount. Shen Zhuxi was wearing a skirt and found it difficult to maneuver, fussing and dawdling as she tried. Li Wu ran out of patience waiting, hooked his right hand around her waist, wrapped his left arm around her legs, and hauled her clean off the horse’s back.

In front of all these people, Shen Zhuxi swallowed the startled cry rising in her throat.

Not that it would have mattered.

Because the hundred or so soldiers before her had already erupted into a raucous roar, and even if her small, animal-like whimper had escaped, only Li Wu — right there beside her — would have heard it.

Li Wu set her on the ground, waited for her to find her footing, then took her hand and laced his fingers through hers, leading her forward.

Even as the teasing uproar behind them shook the heavens, Li Wu remained utterly unfazed. He didn’t look back, didn’t respond, and walked forward with Shen Zhuxi — composed and fearless, easy and free.

Influenced by him, the tension slowly drained from Shen Zhuxi’s body.

“Lost any part of you?” Li Wu raised his voice above the commotion.

“What?” Shen Zhuxi was taken aback.

“So many people just watched me take you for a ride and then lift you down off the horse — and you haven’t lost a single piece of yourself.”

She hadn’t been thinking about it, but once he brought it up, Shen Zhuxi immediately recalled his outrageous behavior.

“That was completely improper!” Shen Zhuxi said indignantly. “People are going to say —”

“I don’t care what they say.” Li Wu cut her off, his tone absolute and unyielding. “I just want them to see what a remarkable woman I married.”

The reproach Shen Zhuxi had been forming died in her throat.

“You don’t have to be like those other women — timidly standing in the shadows behind a man. And I won’t confine you to the inner courtyard to live quietly, spending your days doing nothing but revolving around me. I don’t care if other men see you, because you are the woman I chose with great care and brought home — Shen Zhuxi, you are the woman I am proud of.”

Shen Zhuxi was stunned.

“Since you wish to abide by propriety, propriety says that a wife follows her husband. So now, I command you —” He looked into her dazed eyes and said slowly, “Forget all their chatter. Before you learn to be a woman, you must first learn to be a person.”

Li Wu turned back and continued walking, leading her onward.

He looked straight ahead, his expression unchanged, entirely unaware of the inner transformation taking place in Shen Zhuxi at that very moment.

His words were like surging waves, crashing again and again against the deeply ingrained shackles that bound her.

He was nothing more than a lowly man born in the mud, yet he was capable of things that many others could not do.

He had saved her life — but it went far beyond that.

She wanted to repay his kindness without counting the cost, just as he had shown her kindness without counting his. But the truth was, even now, she had yet to manage something as simple as being honest with him.

Shame gnawed at her heart.

Shen Zhuxi stopped walking. The hands clasped between them brought Li Wu to a stop as well.

“What is it?”

Shen Zhuxi looked at the man before her.

He was about the same age as Fu Xuanmiao, yet what he did for her was entirely different.

So it turned out that not every man would strip a woman of her right to care about her appearance and to engage with the world.

So it turned out that not every man wanted a canary locked in a cage.

Was it a matter of nature? Or of origin?

Shen Zhuxi believed it was both.

Born into poverty, barred from education, his ignorance of the Confucian classics had, by a twist of fate, preserved his naturally open and unrestrained spirit.

That was why Li Wu was Li Wu.

A Li Wu that not even thousands upon thousands of people could produce — a Li Wu that she, in the vast ocean of humanity, had somehow managed to find.

“…You are too.” Shen Zhuxi said.

Shen Zhuxi followed his earlier example of fearless courage, holding her head high and meeting his bewildered gaze directly.

“No matter how this campaign against the bandits turns out — whether you go on to wear gold and purple, or live out your days as a man of the fields and mountains…”

A voice screamed inside Shen Zhuxi: a woman should not speak such shameless words.

…But so what?

Her guilt transformed into courage. She broke free from the shackles that had bound her for seventeen years, and said:

“I am proud of you.”