After the Battle of Xiangyang, life was not much different from before.

At Shen Zhuxi’s suggestion, Li Wu sent people to deliver the false emperor’s head to Kong Ye, the Cangzhen Military Commissioner and loyal supporter of Emperor Yuanlong, who was to pass it along to Emperor Yuanlong through channels he alone knew.

By now, the court should have received word of the matter — so why had there been no news?

She trusted that Kong Ye’s character was above passing off someone else’s feat as his own, so had some other incident occurred along the way?

Shen Zhuxi worried that the messenger might have met with an accident en route, while the most directly concerned party remained utterly indifferent — eating and drinking as he pleased, living life far too comfortably.

The Shang River Weir had been repaired. The false emperor had been executed. The false Liao regime was collapsing like rotted timbers, and the unification of Great Yan was within reach. With nothing amiss except the court’s continued silence, it seemed as though peace had truly arrived — and they could, indeed, breathe easier.

On one hand, Shen Zhuxi felt that the present tranquility was dreamlike and unreal; on the other, she hoped with everything in her that this hard-won peace would last, long and undisturbed.

Carrying that contradictory feeling in her heart, Shen Zhuxi welcomed the second deep winter she had spent in Xiangyang.

One day, while she was overseeing the distribution of coal and charcoal within the household, she suddenly thought of the guest who had been installed in a side room in the rear courtyard’s corner.

“Has coal been provided for Master Tian?” Shen Zhuxi asked.

Tiang blanked for a moment, uncertain. “It should have been…?”

Shen Zhuxi frowned.

After Li Wu had brought Tian Shujiong out of the prefecture’s prison, he had kept him housed within the residence. Not only did he have red-braised pork sent to him every day, he had also stationed several soldiers to stand tight guard over the side room — no one allowed in, and no one allowed out — and Shen Zhuxi had no idea what Li Wu intended to do with him.

Did he know that there were already rumors circulating in the household — claiming that the prefect had taken a liking to Master Tian’s looks and was keeping him locked away as a private plaything?

“Come with me to the side room and take a look,” Shen Zhuxi said.

She rose from her seat and left the bedroom. Tiang hurried to take the fox-fur cloak from the clothing rack and drape it over her shoulders.

“It’s cold outside, Madam. Put on a little more.”

Shen Zhuxi arrived at the rear courtyard of the residence and immediately spotted the room guarded by two burly soldiers stationed at the door.

The two soldiers saw her approach and instantly straightened into a salute with clasped fists: “Your humble subordinates pay their respects to Madam!”

After telling them to stand at ease, Shen Zhuxi requested to see Tian Shujiong.

She had expected to be refused, but the two soldiers agreed without a second thought.

Shen Zhuxi entered the side room and found, besides Tian Shujiong, a maidservant — one unlike any of the usual maidservants of the household. Shen Zhuxi found her vaguely familiar, and after looking twice, recognized her as one of the female bandits from Pingshan Stronghold.

She remembered her because the woman looked like a female version of Li Kun.

Shen Zhuxi’s fondness by association gave this female bandit of dubious reputation a touch of extra warmth.

“Madam —” Red Lotus bowed her fist toward her, her voice rough and gruff.

From where he had been sprawled on the bed with his back to the door, Bai Rongling started violently at the sound, shot bolt upright, and stared wide-eyed at her.

What was he reacting so dramatically for?

“How did you come to be here?” Shen Zhuxi asked Red Lotus.

“In response to Madam — this person is treacherous and cunning, full of nothing but lies. The master stationed me here to keep watch and prevent him from smooth-talking his way into an escape.”

“You’re talking nonsense!” Bai Rongling erupted in furious indignation. “I’m treacherous and cunning, full of nothing but lies?! You’re the treacherous and cunning one! You’re old enough to be my mother, and you were still trying to lay hands on me!”

Shen Zhuxi looked at Red Lotus in disbelief.

Red Lotus’s plain, rough, round face wore an expression of complete innocence.

“Madam, don’t listen to his nonsense. I only thought Master Tian looked like my son, so I wanted to help him relieve himself.”

“Who looks like your son?!” Bai Rongling’s face flushed crimson with rage, his eyes practically shooting sparks. “Once this young master gets out, I’ll make sure you pay for this!”

Red Lotus cast an indifferent glance at the ceiling.

“Master Tian, if you want your freedom back, why haven’t you simply told us everything and gotten it over with?” Shen Zhuxi said.

“I —”

The moment Bai Rongling started to speak, Red Lotus shot him a piercing, withering look from the side.

“I… I don’t want to go! Who said this young master wants to leave?!”

Bai Rongling thought back to the terror of nearly being given a toilet assistance by a strapping woman pushing forty, and immediately switched his tune.

“He can keep this young master locked up for a lifetime if he’s got the nerve! I won’t leave until I’ve achieved what I came for!”

“And what did you come for?” Shen Zhuxi asked, puzzled.

“I —” Bai Rongling had barely opened his mouth when he felt that pointed gaze from beside him again. He paused, then said, “I came to find my cousin.”

“Your cousin?”

“Yes. I have evidence that my long-lost cousin is right here in Xiangyang.” Bai Rongling stood up from the bed, shoved his feet into his boots, walked over, and plopped himself down at the round table in the center of the room. “Sit.”

Shen Zhuxi hesitated a moment, then sat down across from him.

Red Lotus walked over and positioned herself behind Bai Rongling, standing in the same spot relative to him as Tiang stood behind Shen Zhuxi. At first glance, she looked like a personal maidservant — except that Tiang held a handkerchief in her hand, and Red Lotus had her hand wrapped around the hilt of the blade at her waist.

“You came to find your cousin — so why did you drug an unrelated person?” Shen Zhuxi asked.

“Someone told me my cousin had a connection to the Xiangzhou prefect. So I thought I’d get a courtesan to pry the information about my cousin out of him while he was in a confused state.”

“That must be a misunderstanding.” Shen Zhuxi said decisively. “Apart from female soldiers like Red Lotus, my husband has no other women around him.”

“Why are you so certain about that? No man is ever faithful —”

“AHH!!”

Bai Rongling’s scream rang out.

Red Lotus had reached out with her large hand, seized a pinch of the soft flesh on his back, and twisted it clockwise one full turn.

Shen Zhuxi privately agreed with what Bai Rongling had said, but with an outsider present, she defended Li Wu without a moment’s hesitation.

“My husband is different.”

“All men are the same —”

“AHH!!”

Bai Rongling writhed like a caterpillar — same spot, this time a full counterclockwise turn.

Shen Zhuxi looked at him with suspicion. “…What’s wrong with you?”

“Madam, he has fits of madness. You’d best keep your distance from him,” Red Lotus said earnestly.

“I — you — “

Bai Rongling leaped to his feet and raised his fist at the hulking Red Lotus behind him, but under the provocation of her threatening, challenging gaze, the hand hanging in midair finally came down on top of his own head.

Bai Rongling straightened his hair crown, fuming beyond all tolerance, and spat out: “What’s so great about that man with the family name Li, that you defend him at every turn?”

“My husband treats me well in every regard — is it any surprise I’d defend him?” Shen Zhuxi said. “You, on the other hand — you call yourself Master Tian and claim you came to defect, then drug my husband under the guise of hosting a banquet; then you say you came to search for a cousin, but in your manner of speaking and acting you don’t seem to care about your cousin’s whereabouts at all — you’re just trying to drive a wedge between us.”

She frowned at him and said: “No wonder you’re still locked up. You’re still scheming.”

“Heaven and earth, I am more wrongfully accused than Dou E herself!”

Bai Rongling had plenty he wanted to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to reveal his real identity with Red Lotus standing right there — he was terrified she’d use it as an excuse to pin him down and do something worse afterward.

Caught between two bad options and boiling with frustration, he bellowed: “Where is that man surnamed Li?! Tell him to get out here and explain himself! What does he think he’s doing, keeping this young master locked up day after day?!”

“What’s the little rat shouting about?” Li Wu’s lightly drawling voice came from outside the courtyard. “I could hear your voice all the way from the rear courtyard gate. Hungry, are we? Someone — bring out the braised pork —”

“I’m not eating!” Bai Rongling shuddered.

One meal of braised pork was fine. Two was still bearable. But from the moment he had been brought out of the prison, braised pork had been sent to him without pause day after day — that was torture.

If he didn’t eat, he went hungry. If he did, his stomach couldn’t take it — he ended up vomiting and suffering through it, ending up both exhausted and starving.

Now, whenever Bai Rongling so much as heard the words “braised pork,” his stomach turned over and his legs began to shake.

In his dreams lately, all he could see was a plate of plain vegetables and a bowl of rice sitting before him.

Li Wu had just returned from the prefectural office and stepped into the side room. He pressed Shen Zhuxi back into her seat as she moved to stand, and sat down beside her. “What were you two talking about?”

Bai Rongling looked at him warily. “…What was there to talk about? Nothing at all!”

“Nothing to talk about and still in such high spirits? Little rat, you really do have a natural affinity with my Li family!”

“I —” Bai Rongling was so furious he felt himself smoldering from seven orifices at once, and he wanted nothing more than to spit squarely in the man’s shameless face — but the moment his mouth opened, an iron-clamp-like hand came to rest on his back.

“Yes?” Li Wu looked at him with an expression of sincere concern.

“You’re absolutely right — we do have an affinity —”

Bai Rongling forced out a smile with no warmth in it, and ground out the words “have an affinity” through clenched teeth.

“The way I see it, little rat, why not just stay? We could be a real family,” Li Wu said.

“In your dreams, you —”

Not only did Bai Rongling’s reaction come out in a shriek, Shen Zhuxi nearly had her jaw fall clean off.

What did he mean by that? Surely he wasn’t actually taken with Master Tian’s looks?

“Since the little rat isn’t interested, I won’t press.” Li Wu let out a performatively disappointed sigh. “Come to think of it, you’ve been staying here with me for quite some time now. Just now on my way back, I saw New Year prints pasted up large and small all along the streets. Little rat, if you want to get back in time for the family reunion, you’d need to set out soon.”

Bai Rongling’s eyes went wide in disbelief.

“You’re letting me go?!”

“When did I ever say you weren’t allowed to leave?” Li Wu said. “I’m only saying — you can go, but you can’t take away so much as a needle or a thread from this place.”

Bai Rongling’s expression twisted with conflict. His gaze moved from Li Wu’s face to Shen Zhuxi.

Shen Zhuxi looked at him, puzzled.

“Aren’t you worried I’ll go back and bring the family elders?” Bai Rongling looked back at Li Wu again, eyes fixed on him.

Li Wu sat at ease on the round stool and showed his teeth in a grin.

“I even dared to take the false emperor’s head,” he said. “What do you think my answer is regarding anyone else’s head?”

Bai Rongling choked on his own retort.

Fine, fine — get out first, figure the rest out later. If he didn’t get out soon, he was afraid that one night he’d accidentally fall asleep and that formidable, middle-aged woman beside him would have her way with him.

Bai Rongling clenched his jaw and said: “Fine. I won’t take a thing. Just let me go.”

The same familiar scene. The same familiar rhythm.

Shen Zhuxi still didn’t fully understand the game these two were playing, but she knew perfectly well what was about to come next.

“You can,” Li Wu said, “once you’ve settled your bill.”

Bai Rongling stared. “What bill?”

“Your lodging bill, of course.” Li Wu said with perfect self-righteousness. “My principle is that even with family, accounts must be kept clear. Though we’re not blood relatives, the principle remains. Little rat, you’ve lodged here for quite some time now — with highly skilled soldiers guarding you, a sharp-eyed and attentive maid to attend you, all the braised pork you could eat every day, and the company of a prefect himself for conversation. Is it not reasonable for me to charge you a modest room and board fee?”

There’s no getting around it when someone has you under their roof.

Bai Rongling swallowed his fury and plastered on a grotesquely twisted smile. “…And how much would this modest room and board fee be?”

“Not much, not at all.” Li Wu said. “Two hundred thousand hu of unhulled grain will do nicely.”

“Two hundred thousand hu?!” The fury inside Bai Rongling burst through the top of his skull in an instant. He was incandescent with rage, glaring at Li Wu with a pair of eyes stretched round as a bull’s. “Why don’t you just rob people?!”

Even Shen Zhuxi was stunned by his outrageous demand.

Compared to two hundred thousand hu of unhulled grain, the previous one ten-thousand taels of gold and fifty thousand taels of gold seemed like mere small change.

One hu was ten dou, one dou was eighteen jin — and Li Wu had opened his mouth with two hundred thousand hu of unhulled grain on the table. That was enough to feed an enormous army in a short amount of time.

“It’s fine if the little rat doesn’t want to pay — he can just stay on here a little longer. Even if my storehouses are scraping the bottom, I’ll make sure the little rat still has his fat and fragrant braised pork every single day —”

Bai Rongling’s face changed drastically, and a resounding dry heave wrenched itself from him.

His starving stomach held nothing but stomach acid, and the lingering greasiness of braised pork. The days of culinary torment, combined with the need to stay half-alert every night for fear of what might happen while he slept, had pushed Bai Rongling past his limit — he couldn’t take another moment of this.

This mess had better be handed over for the family elders to sort out! He’d go home and take his beating honestly!

“Two hundred thousand hu of unhulled grain —” He turned his head, gritting his teeth as he glared at Li Wu. “That’s not a small sum. It’s not possible to move without the family elders knowing.”

“I’m not afraid. Why should you be?” Li Wu countered.

“Fine —” Bai Rongling threw caution to the wind. If he wanted grain more than he cared about consequences, why should he himself be the one to stop him? “You want two hundred thousand hu of unhulled grain — fine! But you have to guarantee you’ll release me after that!”

“Of course. Don’t you trust my character?”

After all the time they’d spent in each other’s company, Bai Rongling would sooner believe that a pig could speak than trust a word out of this man’s mouth.

He didn’t budge, and said with absolute firmness: “I want your guarantee!”

“Alright.”

Li Wu gave a nod and said:

“My dear —”

Shen Zhuxi, who had been unexpectedly addressed, looked completely bewildered.

Li Wu put his arm around Shen Zhuxi’s shoulder and, right in front of Bai Rongling’s furiously glaring eyes, said:

“Come — let’s both of us wish our generous-hearted, deep-pocketed cousin-in-law an early Happy New Year.”