Qiu Zhen’s audacity was growing without bound. If he was allowed to expand his power any further, he would end up tearing a hole in the very sky above Great Wei.
As for becoming a racehorse himself — Han Linfeng shook his head with a self-mocking smile. He had never harbored ambitions like Qiu Zhen’s. All he had ever hoped for in this life was to do as his father had urged: to uphold the standing of the Beizhen Prince’s household.
If one day he could dispel the Emperor’s wariness toward the Beizhen household — so that his own children would not have to spend their lives walking on eggshells — he would have no regrets.
Luoyun, listening quietly, nestled against him and took one of his hands in hers, turning it over to examine the lines of his palm.
The lines of this man’s hand were like his features — deep, clean, and decisive. The life line extended far, soaring upward, yet it branched off in several directions.
Han Linfeng lowered his head and looked at the crown of her hair. He asked in a low voice, “What is it — have you taken up palm reading now?”
Luoyun tilted her head and smiled up at him. “I can see that you are no ordinary man — destined to make a great name for yourself one day.”
Han Linfeng had no intention of believing flattery, but he said with pointed meaning, “Then look at my palm and tell me — will I have many children and heirs?”
There was a measure of probing in his words. If Luoyun showed even a flicker of guilt, it would ease his heart somewhat.
But he had not expected that this obstinate creature — who had refused to give him a child through sheer stubbornness — would actually let a faint blush rise to her cheeks, her eyes and the corners of her mouth curving with a smile as she said, “Why, are you impatient? If you can’t wait, just go take a few more concubines. Didn’t your mother mention earlier that she has a few good candidates among her distant relatives already set aside for you?”
When one counted it out, ever since she had stopped taking precautions, the two of them had been intimate several times. Perhaps in a few days more, a small new life might already be taking root inside her.
From her resistance to bearing children at the start of their marriage to her present quiet anticipation, it had not taken her very long to change.
Now that she knew what Han Linfeng looked like, she had even begun, against her will, to imagine what their child’s nose and eyes might resemble.
But her careless joke, when it reached Han Linfeng’s ears, was devastating — so that was her plan all along. She was simply waiting for him to grow impatient and take concubines to produce heirs, and then she would have every justification to walk away…
Did this woman have a heart made of stone? How could it refuse to warm no matter what was done?
Now that Su Luoyun’s eyes were clear, she could naturally see the man’s handsome face shifting from the relaxed ease of moments ago to a growing tension, anger gathering slowly in his eyes…
Luoyun was a little stunned. He was even attractive when he was angry?
Han Linfeng looked down at her with barely contained fury — then found that her eyes were not evasive at all. She only blinked her warm, wide eyes and stared back at him with an uncomprehending half-smile at the corner of her mouth. Truly infuriating.
In that moment, Han Linfeng nearly choked. If he could turn back time to the day he and she had first met — he would rather have risked his life holding off the soldiers on his own than ever have set foot on the boat belonging to this karmic torment of a woman.
They glared at each other for a moment, and in the end it was he who gave in first. Unable to help himself, he reached out and pinched her face, his own expression cold. “If you have anything left to say, say it.”
Luoyun felt that her tone had clearly been playful — anyone could have heard it. How had he actually taken it seriously?
She wound her arms around his neck and, mimicking him, pinched his face in return. “All right, all right — you’re so easy to tease. I don’t need anyone else to do it. I’ll give you a child myself. How about that?”
He watched her blink her roguish eyes, her tone obviously that of someone coaxing a child.
Han Linfeng knew he was about to return to camp — that they would be parting again for a time. Every moment together was precious; he had no desire to quarrel with her.
This matter could wait until after the fighting was over. He would sit down and work it through with her properly then.
With that thought, Han Linfeng took the initiative, dipped his head swiftly, and sealed her lips, pressing her firmly down against the pillow.
Even after their time together, he was left with a restless, unquenched hunger he could not quite name. And once again the thought surfaced — could it truly be that his face was not pleasing to her, and that was why he could not capture this woman’s whole heart?
He lowered his head and looked at the pretty young woman who had fallen asleep cradling his arm, her cheeks fragrant and sweet. He could not resist biting gently at that soft, sleeping cheek — though he could not bring himself to use any real force, and in the end it softened once more into a tender, lingering kiss.
The spring night was enchanting, but Han Linfeng did not have the luxury of losing himself in it as King Zhou of Shang had once done.
He had set this great wager with that inveterate gambler You Shanyue, and he would have to give it everything he had — otherwise it would be one of his arms he’d be offering as proof of his character as a betting man.
After writing You Shanyue a lengthy letter of thanks, he tucked in two bank drafts for immediate exchange and handed everything to You Shanyue’s messenger.
After that, he set about escorting the ladies back to Liangzhou.
* * *
The Consort of Prince Zong was still weak from her illness, but her wits had returned. She suddenly recalled that Su Luoyun had apparently struck the back of her head with a rather unseemly lack of deference.
Su Luoyun happened to be sharing a carriage with the Consort, attending to her and administering her medicine. When the Consort brought up this old grievance, Luoyun simply played dumb. “Did I? My eyes still couldn’t see clearly at the time — I was so frightened I had no idea what I was doing. I don’t remember any of it.”
The Consort of Prince Zong was not about to believe that. Of all the women on the second floor that night, none had been as bold and composed as this daughter-in-law of hers — shouting orders in a sharp voice, slapping the back of her head — a complete disregard for rank and seniority.
The Consort was about to launch into a reprimand when Su Luoyun moved swiftly, delivering another spoonful of bitter medicine into her mother-in-law’s mouth. “Mother, drink it quickly — if it gets cold, it loses its potency…”
The Consort of Prince Zong had the greatest dread of bitter medicine. She immediately winced in distress and gestured at Luoyun to hand her a sour plum to take the edge off the taste.
Just then, the Princess’s carriage rolled past theirs, and a few words of coquettish wheedling drifted over from within: “Husband, you’ve been so good to me these past few days. Even if I were to die in this remote northern wilderness, I’d have no regrets…”
The Prince Consort, who had accompanied his wife on the return journey, evidently had no patience for saccharine talk, and replied with mild reproof, “You’re so much younger than I am — why would you die before me? And aren’t you afraid Guibei will hear and laugh at his own mother for talking like that…”
Zhao Dong was in a hurry to return to camp and had gone ahead, not waiting for the Consort of Prince Zong’s slower carriage.
The Consort of Prince Zong had also caught the Princess’s cooing words. She was roughly the same age as the Princess — both of them middle-aged women — and she simply could not imagine herself speaking to her husband in that tone.
So the Consort pursed her lips with an expression of tolerant displeasure. “Her youthful wildness still hasn’t left her. That’s what comes of being raised as imperial royalty — she’s simply not the same as the rest of us ordinary folk…”
By the end of that remark, Su Luoyun sensed dimly that beneath her mother-in-law’s words was something that sounded far more like envious wistfulness than genuine disdain.
Princess Yuyang might have lost some of the solemn gravity befitting a noblewoman of her years, but the ability to be playful and affectionate with one’s husband well into middle age — that was something no one else could match.
Luoyun understood that her mother-in-law was probably thinking again about her own ill-fated marriage and was about to pour out her grievances at length.
She made an excuse about the medicine going cold, stepped down from the carriage, and had a maid reheat it over a small brazier — escaping the incoming complaints about her father-in-law.
* * *
Once they reached Liangzhou, Han Linfeng went straight back to the Qianxi Grain and Forage Depot.
But he stayed only briefly. He had a person wrap up the terrain sand tables that Wen Qian had made for him, load them onto a cart, and then set off with the sand tables for the military camp at Jingzhou.
With the fall of Jiayong Prefecture, Jingzhou had become the next critical flashpoint. Zhao Dong had arrived ahead of him, coordinating the surrounding camps and rebuilding the defensive fortifications.
Wang Yun had been stationed here for years, drawing enormous military stipends every year — yet in a prefecture this strategically vital, the siege and defense equipment was decrepit and worn, utterly unfit for battle. If Jiayong Prefecture had been in the same state as Jingzhou, Zhao Dong finally understood how Wang Yun had managed to lose it in just two days.
He was still deep in the work of plugging gaps and shoring up deficiencies when word came that Han Linfeng, the transport supervisor of the Qianxi Grain and Forage Depot, had arrived to request an audience.
Zhao Dong raised his thick brows. It was not grain transport season — what was the man here for?
When he returned to his command tent, he found a large, cloth-covered sand table inside, and Han Linfeng in military dress standing guard beside it, waiting for him.
Zhao Dong and this younger man were relatives of a sort — connected by a circuitous chain of kinship — so he dispensed with the usual formalities of greeting and reception, dismissed everyone else, and asked him directly why he had come.
Han Linfeng was equally direct. “I wish to know, General, whether the invitation you extended to me previously still stands.”
Zhao Dong studied Han Linfeng’s resolute face. He knew Han Linfeng was referring to the offer he had made before — to have him serve under his command.
Last time, the young man had turned it down flat, saying he had no children yet and could not afford to risk his life.
Zhao Dong put on a perfectly solemn expression and asked, “From what I can see, your wife doesn’t look as though she’s expecting… What happened — have you taken a concubine on the side who’s already given you an heir?”
Han Linfeng bore Zhao Dong’s teasing without embarrassment or irritation, and replied with a polite and apologetic air, “I have only one wife. There have never been any concubines.”
Zhao Dong pressed further. “Being a grain official and staying comfortably behind the lines — wasn’t that perfectly good? What made you change your mind and want to serve under my command?”
Han Linfeng said in a steady voice, “The explosion in Huicheng was a genuine wake-up call. If all of us hide away behind the lines seeking ease while the General leads brave soldiers to fight and die for the country, how can that be right? In the end, it would only be our own wives and daughters who suffer.”
Zhao Dong found these words greatly to his liking, and finally gave an approving smile. “If that’s truly your thinking, then good… I’m short of men at the front. Come and do a few days’ work, and give me time to consider properly before I assign you a position.”
Han Linfeng clasped his hands in salute. “I thank the General for his regard. However, I have not come this time to seek a rank — I have come to offer a plan.”
Zhao Dong narrowed his wide, round eyes and asked with some skepticism, “Offer a plan? What plan do you have?”
Han Linfeng laid out the idea he had been turning over in his mind.
When General Zhao had heard him out, his eyes went wide again — and stayed that way for a long time, without a word.
In his view, Han Linfeng’s idea was far too bold and reckless — the kind of wild fantasy only a hot-blooded young man could dream up, with a considerable element of gambling to it.
“Your notion is far too fanciful. It has no chance of succeeding.”
Han Linfeng reached over and pointed at the cloth-draped object beside him. “I’ve brought the General something worth looking at. If the General would kindly take a look…”
With that, Han Linfeng pulled away the white cloth. Zhao Dong found that beneath it lay sand table models of the surrounding prefectures.
He could not tell whose handiwork these were, but they had been made with extraordinary precision — an almost exact replication of the terrain, painstakingly detailed. Even the artillery emplacements on the city walls, and the cliff faces and mountain springs among the peaks, were fully represented.
Han Linfeng pointed at the sand tables. “Now that the General has seen these, does he still feel my plan has no chance?”
Zhao Dong studied them for a long time. He no longer thought Han Linfeng’s earlier words were the reckless boasting of a young hothead.
From the sand tables alone, the meticulous preparation behind them was clearly not the work of a day or two — which meant Han Linfeng’s plan was not something dashed off on a whim.
“Your plan is sound, but Qiu Zhen is hardly going to oblige you at every step. How do you know where he intends to strike next?”
Han Linfeng replied with calm certainty, “He is a bandit, and we have crossed blades several times — each encounter more or less even. But I’ve come to know something of his character.”
Zhao Dong raised an eyebrow. “And what is his character?”
Han Linfeng smiled slightly. “A man who rose from banditry is naturally ruled by greed and the compulsion to plunder. Discovering where he plans to strike next is not difficult — you only need a sufficiently tempting bait. An enticement so rich that even a hungry wolf cannot refuse it. The wolf goes where the bait is, without fail.”
* * *
Back on Qiu Zhen’s side of things: he had come within a hair’s breadth of killing Han Linfeng in Huicheng, and had nearly seized the Shizi’s consort as well.
But fortune had not favored him. Just a fraction short — and the whole endeavor had come to nothing.
Qiu Zhen had taken a blade wound from Han Linfeng. Fortunately, his men had dragged him back onto the boat in time, and after a ragged, ignominious flight, he had managed to slip out of the city.
Meanwhile, You Shanyue continued to withhold the bank drafts — infuriating beyond measure.
The rebel army’s morale had only just been stabilized. If wages and provisions were not delivered on time, who would willingly fight for someone else while going hungry?
On the Great Wei side, ever since Zhao Dong’s arrival, everything had entered a phase of consolidation and repair.
With the loss of Jiayong Prefecture, Jingzhou had become the frontline against the enemy. Wang Yun’s earlier defeats had cost a significant number of troops. Even with Zhao Dong’s considerable ability, he could not muster and redistribute forces overnight.
Word had it that the troops from Qianbei Camp had been assembled and transferred to Jingzhou.
That camp had always been a place where idle sons of wealthy capital families were parked — more a comfortable posting than a fighting one. But now even they had been pushed to the front lines, which showed how severely Great Wei was running short of men.
Though the Great Wei military was short on soldiers, provisions move before troops — and the Qianxi Grain and Forage Depot had recently managed to accumulate a new stock of grain. Cart after cart rolled in day and night without stopping, quickly filling the depot’s empty granaries.
Beyond grain, Han Linfeng had apparently arranged for a large amount of silver to be transferred through Huicheng’s exchange houses. Reports from sharp-eyed scouts came in one after another: someone had presented several large-denomination bank drafts at Maoxiang Money House in Huicheng, exchanged them for silver, and loaded it onto carts bound for the Qianxi Grain and Forage Depot.
More word arrived as well: someone in Huicheng had spotted Commander Cao. He appeared to have recovered considerably and was even able to ride on horseback.
There was also talk that Cao Sheng intended to surrender to the court, and that the rebel army’s ledgers and bank drafts he held in his hands were to serve as his offering of submission.
The several cartloads of silver already sent to the Qianxi Grain and Forage Depot were only a preliminary gift — a stone thrown to test the waters — with far greater wealth to follow.
These reports came in wave after wave, and Qiu Zhen felt as though a hundred ants were crawling beneath his skin.
That silver was the rebel army’s military funds — by rights, it should have passed to him.
Infuriating — that stubborn old stone Cao Sheng, rather than supporting his own legitimate son-in-law, chose to aid outsiders instead.
Still, he was only half-convinced by these rumors. The Wild Boar Ridge was familiar ground to Qiu Zhen.
So several times, under cover of darkness, he circled around Wild Boar Ridge to scout out the Qianxi Grain and Forage Depot.
The camp had indeed added many new granaries. There was also a newly built silver vault. When the soldiers moved the silver, they used sacks — coins spilling like scattered gravel every so often — and when the transfer was complete, iron rakes used for clearing snow were brought out to gather the loose silver off the ground and sweep it into the vault.
In the wavering light of the torches, the spilled silver scattered across the ground shimmered with a hazy, bewitching gleam.
Even in the middle of the night, carts continued to arrive. Qiu Zhen, concealed by the roadside, watched as the seals on every cart bore the stamp of Maoxiang Money House.
Qiu Zhen was a man who had risen from banditry. Watching silver that rightfully belonged to him flowing freely into someone else’s vaults — the fire burning through him was beyond description.
* * *
After Qiu Zhen returned to camp, Cao Pei’er rose and made her way to his tent. They were, after all, still newlyweds. Yet after the first night of their wedding — when he had spent the occasion in the bridal chamber as a matter of form — he had never come back.
Cao Pei’er, spirited though she was, could not bring herself to raise the subject. She knew Qiu Zhen was busy with military affairs, and she tried not to disturb him in the ordinary course of things.
Lately, he not only failed to return to sleep at night — she barely caught a glimpse of him in the camp during the day either.
Ever since their quarrel in Huicheng, Cao Pei’er had had no opportunity to speak with him. When he came back wounded, it had been his newly purchased personal maidservant who dressed his injuries.
The neglect was so obvious that Cao Pei’er could not fail to notice it. She resolved quietly that tonight, no matter what, she would bring Qiu Zhen back to sleep in her tent.
But this time, when she reached the entrance to Qiu Zhen’s tent, she could clearly hear coming from within… the sounds of a man and a woman in intimate congress.
She stood there dumbly for a moment. Then, the next instant — heedless of the guards trying to bar her way — she threw herself inside like a woman possessed.
What she found was Qiu Zhen in bed with the newly purchased maidservant, the two of them entwined together.
The moment Cao Pei’er burst in, the girl shrieked in shame and pulled the quilt over her face.
Qiu Zhen had been carrying a smoldering temper for days and had been using the maid to vent it. He was in the midst of his enjoyment when Cao Pei’er came charging in.
Cao Pei’er’s eyes burned red with jealousy. She lunged at the maidservant, hauled her off, and beat her with both fists.
While she struck, she also screamed, “You shameless pair — have you no decency at all?”
Qiu Zhen’s own wife had caught him in the act, yet he felt not a shred of shame. He was still seething over his father-in-law funneling the rebel army’s funds to the Qianxi Grain and Forage Depot.
Seeing Cao Pei’er blunder in without any sense of timing, he felt the embers of his sullen rage flare. He ignored the women’s brawl, swung his legs off the bed, pulled on a robe carelessly, and — seeing that the maid had already been pinned beneath Cao Pei’er with no way to fight back — strolled over unhurriedly and dealt Cao Pei’er a vicious open-handed slap.
Cao Pei’er had not expected him to strike her again. She clutched her face and sobbed, “Qiu Zhen — you’ve gone too far! We’ve barely been married a few days and you’re already carrying on with some disreputable woman behind my back? Didn’t you once promise that after we married, you would treat me well?”
Qiu Zhen flexed his wrist and said with a cold sneer, “I never promised to treat you well. What I said was that if you helped me take the realm, I would make you empress. And what is the duty of an empress? It is to manage the six palaces full of consorts and concubines, and to make sure I never have to turn the same card twice in a row. Have you looked at yourself? If not her, should I sleep with you every single night?”
There is no greater humiliation a man can inflict upon a woman. Cao Pei’er was shaking with fury at Qiu Zhen’s brazen shamelessness — and just as she was about to throw herself at him, Qiu Zhen kicked her hard and sent her sprawling.
“That father of yours is practically praying for a chance to sacrifice me to the heavens — doing everything he can to trip me up. And you — you charge in at the worst possible moment to ruin things for me. What an absolute disgrace. If you’re short of a man in your tent, go grab a couple of soldiers. Now get out of my sight — the further, the better.”
Cao Pei’er had never been a woman Qiu Zhen found attractive. Taking her had been purely out of consideration for her father. Now that the marriage was done and the army’s morale was settled — and with Cao Sheng turning traitor and doing everything he could to undermine him — Qiu Zhen looked at this wife from the countryside and saw absolutely no further use for her. He would not waste another moment on her.
That kick had been delivered with no restraint whatsoever. Cao Pei’er was left dazed by the force of it. But she still refused to accept it and tried to come at him again.
Yet a strong, physically powerful man who truly means to prevent someone from approaching — even if Cao Pei’er was sturdier than the average woman, what could she do?
Before she could get close, Qiu Zhen raised his foot and kicked her to the ground again, even harder than before.
This time, she did not know which part of her was injured, but the pain was so severe she could not straighten up. She lay hunched on the ground, fingers clawing at the new grass sprouting through the earth.
Qiu Zhen did not spare her so much as a glance, and simply ordered someone to drag Cao Pei’er back to her own tent.
He then tossed a handkerchief — embroidered for him by Cao Pei’er herself — to the maid sobbing on the floor. “Wipe the blood off your nose. Get back in bed and stop disrupting my evening.”
The maid knew Qiu Zhen’s temperament well. She obediently pulled herself up at once and climbed back into the bed.
* * *
As for Cao Pei’er — she was dragged back to her own tent like a dead dog and thrown onto the bed. By that point, her heart had gone cold as ash. She was sobbing so hard she could barely breathe.
She had not known many men in her life. She had believed that a handsome man must surely be decent in character.
One wrong step, and every step after had gone wrong. She had brought it on herself — judging by appearances alone, refusing to listen to her father’s counsel, and marrying something worse than a beast.
Pressing a hand to her abdomen, still aching with unbearable pain, Cao Pei’er wanted to run away. Yet even if she managed to escape — where would she go?
For a moment, Cao Pei’er’s thoughts drifted back to the time she and Qiu Zhen had traveled to Huicheng — and the striking couple she had seen at the exchange house there.
She knew that the transport supervisor called Han Linfeng was Qiu Zhen’s sworn enemy. Yet she had not expected the man to be even more handsome and distinguished-looking than Qiu Zhen.
What struck her most was that Han Linfeng seemed to be genuinely good to his wife. Even though his wife appeared to have a condition affecting her eyes, there was not a trace of disdain in his manner toward her…
That woman was truly fortunate — unlike her, who had placed her trust in entirely the wrong person. Cao Pei’er curled herself into a ball in pain, with no idea what path lay before her.
* * *
As for Qiu Zhen — after a satisfying night, he had long since put Cao Pei’er out of his mind.
First thing the next morning, he rose to go and scout out Jingzhou.
His forces had been reorganized and reassembled. The original plan had been to proceed step by step and launch the expected assault on Jingzhou.
Now, Zhao Dong’s men were a mix of soldiers drawn together from various regions — without proper training or coordination, they were nothing but a rabble.
But Zhao Dong’s greatest strength was defense.
Word had it that every city wall in Jingzhou had been reinforced two layers deep with blue brick and clay packed with glutinous rice paste. Walls fortified this way — even with saltpeter explosives — could not be breached in short order.