“…This journey is perilous beyond measure. You must take every precaution. Fu Xuanmiao sent His Majesty out of the palace and on the road to Yangzhou because he intends to use His Majesty as a bargaining chip…”

Shen Zhuxi stood in the room, her heart a tangle of complex feelings, as she arranged the armor on Li Wu’s body. The coldness of the metal plates seeped through her fingertips and into her skin and blood, and her heart grew cold and tight along with it.

She summoned her courage — heavy, cold courage — and looked up at Li Wu, who was gazing at her steadily. It was as though some other person, someone not quite her own, had taken hold of her body and was speaking through her trembling voice:

“If it ever comes down to a choice between two…”

“You must preserve yourself…”

Li Wu gently took her hand in his and transferred his warmth to her, little by little. Shen Zhuxi thought of how, in just a short while, he would be walking out through the door in his armor, setting off into an unknown future — and her heart ached involuntarily. She quickly bowed her head to hide her blurring eyes.

Li Wu lifted her chin, compelling her to meet his steady, resolute gaze.

“I will come back,” he said. He used the pad of his thumb to gently wipe the trace of a tear from the corner of her eye, then deliberately adopted a light, buoyant tone. “…Wait for me.”

Shen Zhuxi blinked back her tears and nodded.

The two of them were still lingering in each other’s presence when a sudden commotion broke out beyond the room. The household servants seemed to be rushing to tell one another something — the sound of hurrying footsteps and voices came one after another in a continuous stream.

Shen Zhuxi looked puzzled. She watched as Li Wu went to the door and pulled it open.

“What’s going on? What’s all the noise out there?” Li Wu called over the nearest maidservant.

The maidservant did not dare to look directly at Li Wu’s face. She kept her head lowered and said nervously, “This servant didn’t see for herself — but I heard from the servants in the front courtyard that Young Master Bai has returned…”

“Bai Rongling?” Li Wu’s brow arched.

Shen Zhuxi startled and quickly stepped forward. “Is my cousin all right? Is he injured?”

“I don’t think so…” the maidservant replied with an uncertain expression. “If he were injured, the whole household would have been turned upside down.”

Getting nothing reliable out of a maidservant who was herself only going on hearsay, Shen Zhuxi simply stepped out of the room and walked briskly toward the front courtyard.

Li Wu immediately followed. The two of them made their way together along the covered walkway toward the front of the house.

Shen Zhuxi’s heart was aflame with urgency. She longed to be in the front courtyard the next instant, to see Bai Rongling with her own eyes.

On the day they had escaped from the hunting encampment, they had split into two groups. Shen Zhuxi had later fallen from a cliff. Bai Rongling had managed to evade Fu Xuanmiao’s troops, but his whereabouts had been lost entirely after that. Although her maternal grandparents and uncle had never mentioned Bai Rongling in her presence, she understood well that they too had been deeply worried about him.

She also carried her own guilt. If she had survived while something had happened to Bai Rongling — how would she ever face the Bai Family?

Walking quickly all the way, Shen Zhuxi finally reached the main hall of the front courtyard. She had not yet drawn close when she heard Bai Rongling’s loud, wailing sobs. The moment she crossed the threshold, the sound was even more thunderous and earth-shaking. The comically absurd wailing — which sounded not unlike a sow in distress — along with the sight of Bai Rongling kneeling before Bai Yougeng, arms wrapped around the old man’s legs, weeping with a face covered in snot — all of it drained the sadness and emotion of a reunited family from Shen Zhuxi’s heart. She still had teardrops in her eyes, but the corners of her mouth curved upward of their own accord.

“…Father! Grandfather! Do you have any idea what kind of bitter days I’ve been living through this past month and more?” Bai Rongling wept, clinging to Bai Yougeng’s legs, his face awash with snot and tears. Compared to when they had parted, Bai Rongling — though now dressed in plain rough-spun clothes — had a noticeably rounder face, and showed absolutely no sign of hardship or suffering.

Bai Anjie, who was standing at Bai Yougeng’s side and looking down at his son’s round face with a furrowed brow, said, “…I have no idea.”

“This past month,” Bai Rongling said with heartbroken despair, “I didn’t dare contact the Bai silver house for fear of giving away my location. I hid and fled the whole way, surviving on coarse food and bitter scraps — I lost so much weight…”

Bai Yougeng, who was trying to pry his grandson’s filthy hands from his fine silk robes, said, “…Where? Off your conscience?”

“Father! Grandfather!” Bai Rongling raised his head and looked at the two of them with an expression of disbelief. “Am I actually your flesh and blood?”

The two men looked at Bai Rongling and fell into thoughtful silence.

“…That is a question I have wondered about for many years,” Bai Yougeng said with a sigh.

“The child has finally made it back safely, and you can’t even say something kind?” the elder Madam Bai said. She extended a hand toward Bai Rongling, and he immediately flung himself onto her knee and began crying softly.

“There, there… You know your grandfather and father perfectly well by now, don’t you? When you’re safe and sound like this, they act this way — and when you were not back, they were driving their people day and night to scour everywhere for any trace of you.”

Only then did Bai Rongling cease his aggrieved sobbing, and he looked up at Bai Anjie and Bai Yougeng through his hiccuping breaths.

“Especially your father,” the elder Madam Bai continued. “He would sit in your room for a whole day at a time, often—”

“Mother…”

Bai Anjie felt uncomfortable and cut her off.

“All right. You’ve come back safely — that is better than anything else. Now that we are all together again as a family, there is nothing left to fear.” The elder Madam Bai’s eyes glistened with tears, but she was smiling as she patted Bai Rongling’s hand gently.

Once the Bai Family’s reunion had settled somewhat, Shen Zhuxi, who had been waiting at the doorway, finally stepped forward. “Cousin, you have suffered this past while…”

“Your Highness!” Bai Rongling only now caught sight of Shen Zhuxi and startled. In his surprise, he instinctively moved to rise and pay his respects. Shen Zhuxi stopped him and said with a smile, “We are all family now — why stand on such ceremony?”

Bai Rongling was uncertain how to proceed, and looked to the one who held authority here.

Bai Yougeng blew at his white mustache and said with mild exasperation, “Her Highness has spoken. If you insist on going through all those formalities, wouldn’t you be failing to appreciate her goodwill?”

Only then did Bai Rongling relax, and he offered Shen Zhuxi a smile.

“While I was out there on the run, I heard snippets of news about Your Highness from time to time — every piece had me on the edge of my nerves… It’s fortunate that in the end we all came through safely, and we’ve managed to come together in one piece. Oh! That’s right—” Bai Rongling suddenly remembered something and exclaimed, “There’s one more person I haven’t introduced to you all. If it weren’t for her, I would have died on the road long before now!”

“Who saved you?” Bai Yougeng asked.

“A kind-hearted mute woman. She learned a bit of martial arts when she was young. She was the one who escorted me back to Yangzhou.” After saying this, Bai Rongling raised his voice toward the door and called out loudly, “A’Xue! Come in!”

Everyone looked toward the doorway with curiosity.

After a brief moment of silence, a slender, tall figure appeared outside the main hall.

Shen Zhuxi looked at that familiar silhouette — and her heart seized with a violent shock. The name burst from her lips before she could stop it: “Yu Sha!”

On the blood-soaked day of that wedding, it was this loyal palace maidservant who had exchanged wedding dresses with her, drawing away the rebel soldiers with her own life to give Shen Zhuxi a chance to escape. She had believed they would never meet again. And yet here she was — living, breathing — standing before her once more.

Yu Sha’s eyes shimmered with tears. Under the astonished gazes of everyone present, she walked to Shen Zhuxi’s side and slowly knelt before her.

“Ah…”

She opened her mouth. Tears streamed down her face. The only sound that came from her throat was a trembling, wordless cry.

As Yu Sha tilted her head up, Shen Zhuxi saw the terrible scar concealed beneath the collar of her garment.

A scar like the ridge of a mountain — long and raised — lay across Yu Sha’s pale throat. In an instant, Shen Zhuxi understood. It was the mark of a self-inflicted wound to the neck. In the rumors that had spread, the Princess of Yue had drawn a sword and cut her own throat before the rebel soldiers rather than suffer their violation.

The Princess of Yue had not cut her own throat. But Yu Sha, who had remained in her place, had truly done so.

Grief welled up all at once, and Shen Zhuxi could not form a single word. She was already weeping as she knelt down before Yu Sha.

A hand was placed on her back.

Yu Sha patted her gently, tears washing over a face that still wore a smile.

After a moment, another hand rested on her shoulder — Li Wu’s large hand, warm and firm, supporting her with quiet, steady strength.

She did not know how much time passed before Shen Zhuxi finally drew herself out of her grief. She took Yu Sha’s hand and helped her to stand, and said through her tears, “You suffered so much… all of it for me…”

Yu Sha shook her head firmly. She took Shen Zhuxi’s right hand and wrote in her palm:

“This servant’s life has always belonged to Your Highness.”

Bai Rongling had been stunned into silence by this entirely unexpected turn of events, and only now managed to collect himself.

“You knew each other before?” he asked with bewilderment, voicing the question that was on everyone’s mind.

“…She was my personal palace maid before I left the palace. On the day of the palace coup, it was she who sacrificed herself to help me escape.” Shen Zhuxi composed herself as Li Wu used his sleeve to wipe away her tears.

Yu Sha nodded, affirming her words.

“So you deceived me?” Bai Rongling stared at Yu Sha with an expression of stunned disbelief. “You were planning to come back to the Bai Family with me from the very beginning?”

When Yu Sha looked at Bai Rongling, she resumed the cool, composed expression of a composed older sister that Shen Zhuxi had known of old.

She shook her head lightly and made several signs with her hands.

Shen Zhuxi could not understand them, but Bai Rongling could.

“What did she say?” Shen Zhuxi pressed.

“She said…” Bai Rongling answered with poorly concealed indignation, in a low, reluctant voice, “When she helped me, she didn’t yet know I was the young master of the Bai Family. When she found out afterward, she simply took advantage of the situation.”

“Regardless of the circumstances, today is a happy day,” Li Wu said to Shen Zhuxi. “Not only has your cousin returned — your former palace maid has come back to you as well. Since Yu Sha was willing to give her life for you, knowing she will be here to look after you while I’m away puts my mind at ease.”

“Where are you going again?” Bai Rongling asked, staring at him.

“Better late than never,” Li Wu said. “It’s not just me who’s going anywhere — it’s we who are going somewhere—”

Bai Rongling stared blankly.

He had no say in the matter.

Poor Bai Rongling, not even an hour after returning home, was “borrowed” away by Li Wu without so much as a word of explanation. The only three Bai Family members who might have spoken up for him turned a deaf ear to his wailing and protest. In the end, Bai Rongling had no choice but to appeal to Shen Zhuxi, straining free of Li Wu’s iron-grip arm to crane his head back toward the increasingly distant Shen Zhuxi and shout:

“Your Highness, save me!”

Shen Zhuxi simply waved goodbye.

That evening, Bai Yougeng prepared a lavish banquet to honor Yu Sha — who had saved both Bai Rongling’s life and Shen Zhuxi’s life.

And Shen Zhuxi came to understand at last what had happened to Yu Sha in the time since they were separated.

Fu Xuanmiao had specifically instructed Yu Sha not to act on her own. But Yu Sha could not bear to see Shen Zhuxi fall into the hands of the rebel soldiers, and so she violated Fu Xuanmiao’s orders, finding a way against all odds to help her escape the palace.

After Shen Zhuxi had escaped, the Yu Sha who remained behind — unwilling to be dishonored at the rebel soldiers’ hands, and determined to make them believe completely that she was the Princess of Yue — picked up a sword from the ground and cut her own throat.

The rebel soldiers threw what they believed to be her corpse on a mass burial grounds.

By fortune, she had not yet died at that moment. And by even greater fortune, she had encountered a barefoot country physician.

The physician used her to test his remedies. Whether because the medicine was effective, or because she herself was not yet ready to die, she survived — after a half-dead year — though her vocal cords had been damaged, and she could no longer speak.

Once she was able to care for herself, she took her leave of the physician. Having violated Fu Xuanmiao’s orders, she did not dare seek refuge with the Fu family either, and so she wandered from place to place, searching for word of the Princess of Yue.

It was by a twist of fate that she ended up rescuing the fleeing Bai Rongling — and once she learned his identity, she resolved to accompany him back to Yangzhou.

Bai Anjie summoned Yangzhou’s most reputable physician to examine Yu Sha’s throat. The physician first sighed, then shook his head.

Yu Sha had long since let go of any hope. It was Shen Zhuxi who wept again on her behalf.

Yu Sha gently patted Shen Zhuxi’s arm and, with a small smile for her tear-reddened eyes, dipped a finger in the tea and wrote on the table:

“To be alive and to see Your Highness again — Yu Sha is already content beyond measure.”

“Losing my voice is heaven’s punishment for my serving two masters.”

“I have done many wrong things in the past.” She paused, not daring to raise her eyes to Shen Zhuxi’s face, and her trembling fingers continued to write: “Can Your Highness forgive me?”

Shen Zhuxi smiled through her tears. “I have never held hatred for you — so what is there to forgive?”

Yu Sha let out a smile of deep relief. She dipped her finger in the tea once more and wrote:

“From this day forward, Yu Sha no longer exists. I am simply Your Highness’s A’Xue.”