The fiery morning sun gradually climbed out from behind the mountain valley, its golden-gauze radiance lending the lush, dense woodland an added brilliance.

Shen Zhuxi stood at the entrance of the abandoned Guan Yu temple, gazing with anxious eyes toward the far end of the empty mountain road.

“My lady, please come in and rest for a while.” Diniang said with worry.

“No.” Shen Zhuxi said with resolve. “That loud crash earlier was strange as well. Something may have happened on the road. I need to go and see.”

“My lady!” Diniang said in alarm. “You could just send a few people to check. How can you go traipsing around yourself? Have you forgotten how precious you are right now?”

Shen Zhuxi would not wait any longer. She called over Li Wu’s trusted deputy general and asked him to muster the soldiers to go ahead and meet Li Wu.

Just as the soldiers were readying to set out, a battered figure came stumbling and staggering toward them.

Shen Zhuxi recognized him and was stunned. “White Cousin!”

She stopped the soldiers from drawing their weapons and walked quickly to Bai Rongling, looking at him in shock — he was bruised and battered all over. “What happened to you? Weren’t you supposed to be in Xiangyang?”

“It’s a long story, there’s no time — follow me back to Yangzhou at once!”

Bai Rongling’s face was all urgency. His right hand gripped his injured left hand tightly, and fresh blood that had not yet clotted kept seeping from the back of his hand.

“Follow you back to Yangzhou?” Shen Zhuxi looked past him. “Where is Li Wu?”

“Li Wu told me to! He says to follow me back to Yangzhou immediately — there’s no time, let’s go!” Bai Rongling bumped her with his shoulder and began pushing her toward the carriage without any room for argument.

Shen Zhuxi stumbled into the carriage in a daze, her eyes still turning again and again toward the far end of the mountain road outside the window, as though Li Wu might appear on horseback at any moment and announce they could all get moving together.

“Where is Li Wu?” Shen Zhuxi said. “At the very least, leave these three hundred soldiers with him…”

“Leave them my backside!” Bai Rongling cut her off immediately. “Think about it yourself — does he need protecting, or do you need protecting? If you leave these three hundred soldiers with him and go back to Yangzhou alone without an escort, he would sooner—”

He came to an abrupt stop, and under Shen Zhuxi’s bewildered gaze, softened his tone and said:

“…sooner pluck out every last feather from his own duck than ever accept it.”

But Shen Zhuxi had read something in his manner. Her expression shifted in a way that was hard to name, and she stared fixedly at Bai Rongling.

“…Something has happened to Li Wu?”

“Nothing happened! What could happen to him…” Bai Rongling said with an air of ease.

“If you don’t tell me exactly what has happened, I am not going back to Yangzhou with you.” Shen Zhuxi said.

Bai Rongling faltered, then said in annoyance: “Why do you have to—”

“He is my husband, and the father of my child.” Shen Zhuxi placed her hand over her abdomen and looked at him with unwavering resolve. “Without a reason that convinces me, I am not going back to Yangzhou with you.”

Bai Rongling instinctively said: “Child? That can’t be—”

He stopped himself halfway, a thought suddenly flashing through his mind. He swallowed the second half of the sentence and said instead:

“All the more reason you should come back to Yangzhou with me! You’re with child and you still want to take risks on the road — if something goes wrong, how would you answer to Li Wu?!”

Bai Rongling’s words made Shen Zhuxi’s resolve waver. She was quiet for a moment, then met Bai Rongling’s eyes and said:

“I’ll go back to Yangzhou with you — but first, tell me what happened to Li Wu, and why you’re here in Jianzhou.”

“I’ll tell you, but let the convoy start moving first.” Bai Rongling said.

Shen Zhuxi hesitated.

“Even if you go up there now, you won’t find Li Wu! I’m doing what’s right for both you and Li Wu by having you come back with me to Yangzhou! Not trying to harm you. I swear on my own father’s name — if there is a single lie in what I’ve said, may my father lose all function below the waist for the rest of his life!”

The oath was a weighty one, if with a certain inexpressible problem to it.

Under Bai Rongling’s repeated urging, Shen Zhuxi finally gave the order for the convoy to reverse course and head back in the direction of Yangzhou.

On the jolting carriage, Diniang tactfully moved outside to sit. Shen Zhuxi called for gauze and clean water to tend to Bai Rongling’s injured left hand.

The wound was at least an inch long, cutting almost clean through the entire palm. The blood loss had been enough to turn an entire basin of clean water red. The one consolation was that the blade had struck in a place that narrowly avoided the tendons of the five fingers — otherwise, Bai Rongling’s left hand would have been ruined entirely.

“How did this happen?” she asked, her brow deeply knitted.

“No idea!” Bai Rongling said with irritation. “My mind went hot and it ended up like this! Who in his mother’s name knows what got into me!”

Even Bai Rongling — the kind of refined, aesthetics-loving young gentleman who liked to affect scholarly elegance — had let slip Li Wu’s habitual curses without a thought. The power of a certain someone’s charisma was truly something else.

“Tell me — what exactly happened?” Shen Zhuxi asked.

She picked up a wrung-out cloth and gently, carefully wiped away the grit and dirt from his wound. Bai Rongling was wedged in the corner, wincing and hissing like he was being lowered into a pot of boiling oil. Had Shen Zhuxi not had a firm grip on the wrist of his injured left hand, that strongly retracting hand would have slipped right out of her grasp.

“Don’t move!” she said, her voice firm.

The lingering authority of a princess made Bai Rongling stop his pain-fueled squirming. He forced himself to keep still, his contorted face a declaration of suffering.

This was not the first time Shen Zhuxi had handled such a scene.

After wiping away most of the grit and dirt with the cloth, she took out a silver needle and methodically picked out the remaining bits of grit and debris embedded in the blood and flesh.

“…Aren’t you frightened?” Bai Rongling squinted at her through narrowed eyes, a look of disbelief crossing his face.

“What is there to be frightened of.” Shen Zhuxi said. “If you’d seen the refugees who flooded into Xiangyang after the Shang River Weir collapsed…”

The silver needle pierced the flesh and accurately drew out a fragment of stone lodged within.

Shen Zhuxi’s expression did not waver:

“You would know… that blood is nothing.”

Bai Rongling looked at her in silence, his expression complicated, as though he were seeing her for the very first time.

Shen Zhuxi wrapped the gauze tightly around his wound, tied it off with a slip knot, let out a breath of relief, and looked him directly in the eye. “Now — what happened?”

Bai Rongling hesitated for a moment. “…Tell you when we’re back in Yangzhou.”

Shen Zhuxi’s expression immediately hardened.

“All right, all right, I’ll tell you!” Bai Rongling cried. “I escaped from Xiangyang! You people are truly heartless, leaving me stranded there! That female demon was drooling over me every single day, and beside her there was that fellow surnamed Niu fanning the flames, saying the demon was going to beat me to death and eat me sooner or later — how could I possibly stay?!”

Shen Zhuxi started, and said: “Then what about Li Wu?”

“I’m getting to it!” Bai Rongling’s mind raced. “I left Xiangyang heading for Yangzhou, and when I passed through Jianzhou, a band of mountain bandits saw me looking fat and prosperous and held me captive to demand a ransom from the Bai Family. If I just sat around waiting for them to extort my family, where would the reputation of this White Young Master go? So I escaped from the mountain stronghold during the night, and at the foot of the mountain I ran into Li Wu — those bandits had felled a tree to block his way!”

“And then?” Shen Zhuxi pressed.

“And then — then the bandits who gave chase got into a brawl with Li Wu, and my hand — that’s when I was injured.” Bai Rongling’s eyes shifted back and forth, his words coming out in a rapid rush. “Li Wu has gone up the mountain to wipe out the bandits and sent me to take you back to Yangzhou first, it’s too dangerous here. Once he’s done, he’ll naturally come to Yangzhou to collect you.”

“If he’s just wiping out bandits, why does he need me to go back to Yangzhou?” Shen Zhuxi said with suspicion. “And even if he wants me to leave, shouldn’t I go back to Xiangyang?”

“We can’t go back to Xiangyang!” Bai Rongling said without thinking.

“Why not?”

“I — how should I know how his mind works. He just said to take you back to Yangzhou and wait there until it’s safe, and then he’ll come for you.” Bai Rongling reached into his chest with his good right hand, rummaged, and produced a small pouch. “This is what he asked me to give you. Believe me now?”

The pouch was indeed Li Wu’s — Shen Zhuxi remembered it perfectly, every stitch of it sewn by that person himself, and then worn openly on his person while he went about boasting to everyone that she had made it for him with her own hands.

That Bai Rongling could produce the pouch meant that he had indeed seen Li Wu.

But why would Li Wu tell her to go back to Yangzhou?

The story held together, yet it wasn’t Li Wu’s style. Shen Zhuxi could sense that something was off. Bai Rongling was definitely hiding something from her.

But he had sworn on his uncle’s lower-body function for the rest of his life… If she turned back now to find Li Wu, she probably wouldn’t find him anyway.

“Since you’re injured yourself… is Li Wu all right?” Shen Zhuxi asked, holding the pouch.

Bai Rongling paused, then said with a raised voice: “Good people die young, but scourges live on for a thousand years — just you relax. He will outlive me, guaranteed!”

“Answer me one more question… and don’t lie to me.” Shen Zhuxi said.

“Ask.”

“If I stayed behind — would I be unable to help Li Wu, and would I only cause him more trouble?”

“…He wouldn’t necessarily be in trouble, but you staying behind won’t do any good either. You and these three hundred soldiers… can’t help him.” Bai Rongling said, half-hiding, half-revealing. “This is something that only heaven can decide now. Right now only the Bai Family of Yangzhou can give you any protection. If you keep yourself safe, Li Wu will be able to put his whole mind to his own affairs.”

Bai Rongling had said a great many things, but it was the last sentence that finally persuaded Shen Zhuxi.

If staying behind meant she could not help in any way, and might even weigh on Li Wu’s mind and become one of the reasons he failed, then she was better off withdrawing to the rear and staying safely under protection.

She said no more. She sat in silence in the carriage, watching the scenery retreat outside the window.

Bai Rongling glanced at her expression and tentatively said: “You just said you… are with child? Has a physician examined you?”

“One was called—” Shen Zhuxi hesitated. “But because of a certain situation, the examination never happened.”

Bai Rongling visibly relaxed: “No wonder—”

“No wonder what?” Shen Zhuxi asked, puzzled.

“You misheard me. What I said was — wonderful!” Bai Rongling said. “Once we’re back in Yangzhou, I’ll find you the best physician in Yangzhou to take your pulse. Don’t you worry, you’ll be pampered until you’re plump and glowing. Oh, by the way — that sachet I gave you, do you still have it on you?”

“I put it under my pillow. I use it every night when I sleep — do you want to see it?”

“No need, no need. Good, that’s good. Just keep it under the pillow.”

The conversation came to a close. Shen Zhuxi was still worried about Li Wu, heavy-hearted, staring out the window.

Bai Rongling was in no better state. The anxiety in his heart far surpassed Shen Zhuxi’s.

The pain throbbing from his palm made him wince and fidget.

The dagger Fu Xuanmiao had given him had, in the end, been driven into the back of his own hand.

Li Wu’s words — “Well, I still have to bring you along before I can run, don’t I?” — had made his mind go hot, and at the risk of being discovered by Fu Xuanmiao, he had driven the dagger into himself. Li Wu had saved his life; doing this was his way of returning the favor. Only, there was nothing more he could do beyond that.

Li Wu had fallen from a cliff thousands of feet deep — nine chances of death to one of survival. Jianzhou had turned, and Fu Xuanmiao chose to march in haste back to Jianzhou. Before leaving, he had commanded him to escort the Princess of Yue back to Yangzhou without a hair on her head disturbed.

“…If the Princess learns the truth, all it will be is a moment of grief — but those who caused the Princess grief will not get off with something as simple as tears.”

Fu Xuanmiao’s words, pointed yet understated, echoed in his ears again. Bai Rongling thought of that calm, impassive expression concealing dark clouds and cold rain, and could not suppress a shudder.

Father! Grandfather! How could you have abandoned him at a time like this!

What was he supposed to do? He was helpless too!

A battle between a Military Commissioner and a Vice Administrator — what did any of this have to do with him, a common man without rank or office?

Was being wealthy also a crime?!