The carriage rolled on, lamplight swaying inside as noise drifted in from the road outside—every so often, torchlight passed by in columns, and shouts rang out, forcing the carriage to slow.

When she woke, Lou Shuwan was still in the carriage, her elder brother Lou Shuwang seated beside her. Seeing her wake, Lou Shuwang reached to take her hand, but she instinctively pulled away, so that what began as a grasp turned into a pat instead. “Are you all right now?”

Having just woken, her memory still hung on the moment right before she had fainted. She sat up, then, coming to her senses, lifted the carriage curtain to look outside—a column of soldiers ran past carrying torches. They were already far from the Four Seasons Hall by now; she had no idea what state things were in over there.

“Brother, how could you do this…”

“I know what you’re thinking, but Ning Liheng has already caused a rift with our family that can’t be mended—and besides, he’s already brought a great deal of trouble down on himself… forget him. You shouldn’t have gotten close to him in the first place.”

“He…” Lou Shuwan lowered the curtain, thought for a moment, then furrowed her brow and raised her voice. “He… it was just some small matter! A minor misunderstanding with Second Brother! What’s so unforgivable about that!”

Lou Shuwang looked steadily at his sister, and though his tone remained calm, he raised his voice slightly. “Your second brother means to kill him.”

“Wh-what…”

“You think the family doesn’t know Ning Liheng is still in Hangzhou? Your second brother has seen him once already. He’s been unusually driven lately, making connections all over the place, all just to track Ning Liheng down and finish him off quickly. That Lou Jingzhi tonight—he’s one of the people your second brother befriended, someone I introduced them to… but after what happened tonight, your second brother won’t be able to do it himself.”

“How could Second Brother do this—he and Liheng only had some small friction between them! At most, he just had some feelings for Sister Tan’er because she’s pretty—having a bit of a crush is no reason to kill a woman’s husband! Brother… you’re supporting him too…”

Lou Shuwan spoke on, unable to believe it, but Lou Shuwang’s tone remained even. “Whoever your second brother wants to kill, I won’t interfere. But he’s a son of the Lou family, and it pleases me to see him striving for once. I knew all along where that Ning Yi was, but whether your second brother could find him or not, I never bothered myself with. If anything, I’d rather that Ning Yi stayed hidden longer, made himself harder to catch—the greater the difficulty your second brother faces, the more he’ll grow from it. I’ve also known for a while about your dealings with him…”

His gaze settled on Lou Shuwan, lingering there this time. “Ning Liheng… he’s different from the men you’ve kept company with before. You can’t handle him, can’t control him. What happened tonight… forget him.”

“You… Brother… are you saying I’m loose, that I go from man to man…” Lou Shuwan was, in fact, sensitive about this very subject. Having said this much, she gritted her teeth and raised her hand. “You men—Second Brother talks about being a real man, about a chancellor’s belly being big enough to hold a boat—yet you’d kill someone over a thing like this! Kill him! Killing a man to take his wife—that’s the kind of thing only villains do in old plays! It was such a small matter, the country itself is gone, and Second Brother still holds onto it this long… what kind of real man is that…”

Before she could finish, Lou Shuwang slapped his hand hard against the seat beside him. “You are loose with men!” He had grown weary these past days, and his sister’s words seemed to have provoked him—but his anger stopped there. The elder Lou son’s expression settled again, and he let out a sigh.

“But you’re my sister, and I know your nature. You’re not like those women who are truly loose. Back when you were made to marry Song Zhiqian, the family pressured you into it, and I know you didn’t want it. That Song Zhiqian couldn’t manage you—that’s on him, and I only ever wanted you to be happy. But afterward, with how things went… were you really happy? Those scholars who kept your company, whom you treated with real, genuine feeling at the time—which one of them didn’t grow tired of you soon after…”

“People need to know contentment. What kind of man you wanted, I understand well enough—if there had really been such a man anywhere in Suzhou or Hangzhou, wouldn’t I have helped you find him? But there was no one to find. Talented, romantic, refined, good-tempered and cultured—the kind you have in mind might exist in some noble household somewhere, but Shuwan, you’re no great beauty of letters yourself, and could our Lou family ever have matched with a man like that?”

As the elder brother of the household, Lou Shuwan had always looked up to Lou Shuwang, though the two of them had never been especially close emotionally. But hearing her brother speak this way now, her eyes nearly reddened with tears. “But I… I said back then too, I didn’t want to marry, not without someone I loved!”

“A woman grown—how can she not marry!” Lou Shuwang said. “Besides… when you first married Song Zhiqian, weren’t things good between you at first? His background wasn’t the best, but he did have some literary talent. At the time, he was already the best option available. It’s not as though you needed to marry into some great and powerful clan—the Lou family could keep you comfortable for life. A smaller household, so long as it wasn’t overly submissive, would have done well enough. You wanted a man entirely unbowed, unyielding, and yet treating you as an equal in every way—where on earth could you find such a person!”

Lou Shuwan clenched her jaw. “Ning Liheng… he’s just…” She stopped, then added, “…treating Sister Tan’er that way…”

“Him?” Lou Shuwang looked at her. “How would you know what goes on between husband and wife? He may appear humble and unassuming, but underneath, he’s proud to the bone—you couldn’t control a man like that.”

Lou Shuwan fell silent for a while, then said quietly.

“So you’re saying he’s good, too, Brother.”

“Am I saying he’s good? I’m saying you couldn’t handle him. You might feel now that beneath his gentle, refined manner lies a certain strength, and think that, as a woman, perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to be a bit dependent, a little softer with him. But you’ve never once in your life had to bend to anyone’s will, and before long, you’d grow tired of it all the same—that part wouldn’t matter, since with the others before, you simply drove them away when you’d had enough. But this one… you’d come to admire his talent, come to love him, and then, once he grew tired of you, you wouldn’t even have anywhere to cry. You’re my sister…”

Lou Shuwang paused. “Forget it—I shouldn’t be telling you all this. Just live a good life with Zhiqian. There’s no life that can’t be gotten through. Shuwan, in the end, you were simply spoiled too much as a child. Wanting more than you have, always looking at the next hill as greener—that’s all this is.”

In truth, these were things Lou Shuwan herself had considered before, but even having thought of them, what was there to be done? She had already been indulged this way for so many years—it wasn’t as though simply thinking about it could change who she was.

The carriage fell silent for a while. After some time, Lou Shuwan spoke softly. “So… what exactly did Liheng get himself into, that this General Li would be so relentless about killing him?”

“He crossed blades directly with Shi Bao and the others. He killed Gou Zheng, Lu Qiao, Yao Yi, and Xue Dounan—just as Li Tianyou said, he has the blood of several thousand rebel soldiers on his hands. Shuwan, you really didn’t know any of this?”

“How could that be… he’s just a scholar, nowadays he only handles the accounts…”

“Heh, ‘just a scholar’…” Lou Shuwang gave a laugh, then, his expression turning serious, related what he had heard of Ning Liheng’s past—from the explosion at Taiping Lane to the long flight through Huzhou, finally captured only because his luck had run out…

“A man like that—do you really think you could control him?”

Lou Shuwan listened to all of this, at first with some astonishment, then, her eyes widening, her whole body began to tremble faintly. Only now did she understand that behind Ning Liheng’s usual understated ease lay something else entirely. Facing off against Shi Bao, and reportedly even against Fang La’s most formidable general, the Marshal himself; then the long flight afterward, holding the fates of several thousand lives in the palm of his hand, turning things around entirely as he saw fit—these were things she had only ever heard of in old storybooks, and never imagined that the man she had recently come to know would turn out to be someone of that caliber.

“Then…” She thought of the scene at the Four Seasons Hall. “Even against Li Tianyou, surely he wouldn’t… he wouldn’t…” She trailed off, not quite sure what to say, and finally managed, “Then why did you let Second Brother go after him at all, Brother? If Liheng is this formidable, how could you let Second Brother…”

In what he had said earlier, Lou Shuwang had not concealed his own admiration for what Ning Liheng had done, but now, looking at his sister, he only smiled and shook his head, seeming largely unconcerned.

“Shuwan, in this world, there are things accomplished because of the person, and things that make the person because of the circumstance—but in the end, both always work together. Without the tide of the times behind you, no matter how capable you are, you can’t accomplish much; and even someone of ordinary talent, if the times favor them, can sometimes achieve great things… There’s no such thing in this world as someone who can truly turn things around with a mere wave of the hand! You’ve simply heard the stories told in a marvelous light. Ning Liheng had old ties with Qian Xiwen and received the backing of the local government; he himself has some ability, sure—but during that flight, Tang Xiuxuan and the others were on that same road too. Do you really believe it was all Ning Liheng’s doing, one man alone?”

He drew a breath. “Even if he really had some divine gift, now that he’s here in Hangzhou, what can he possibly do? Tonight, Li Tianyou has made up his mind to kill him, willing even to offend the Overlord Blade Battalion over it—how far could the Overlord Blade Battalion really go to protect him, even with all their strength? If the man hadn’t already made up his mind fully, would he have gone to the Four Seasons Hall like this? Even the Marshal himself, in a situation like that, could he beat an entire floor of armed soldiers?”

“We’re almost home.” Lou Shuwang said, patting his sister’s shoulder. “Don’t dwell on it anymore. It’ll turn out the way it turns out, regardless. He has no way out.”

“But… since he’s managed things like that before… maybe there’s still a chance…”

“Even if there were, it wouldn’t matter now.” Lou Shuwang answered. “Your second brother still means to kill him, and you can’t stop that. Unless you really mean to turn against your own family over this Ning Liheng?”

Lou Shuwan fell silent. She couldn’t bring herself to do such a thing. Only as she lifted the curtain again did she look back toward the direction of the Four Seasons Hall, though of course the building itself was long out of sight by now. She knew, too, that there was likely no chance of any turnaround—but since no definite news had come yet, she could still allow herself to imagine, just a little, whether there might be some hope. Perhaps he was still alive, perhaps he was still alive… but amid the greater tide of her thoughts, she seemed to see Liheng already dead, the Pacification Battalion departing in triumph. Though she tried hard not to let herself dwell on it, whenever the thought drifted past, she found herself hugging her own body all the same. The night was cold as water, and time could not be called back to that earlier dusk when Ning Liheng had still been alive; she felt the chill settle into her, her thoughts drifting numbly between faint, hopeless fantasy and the knowledge that there was truly nothing to be done…

Once, before she could have imagined it, she had come to know a man of such remarkable caliber—but perhaps, in the time it takes to burn less than a stick of incense, in some place she could not see, he was already dead.

…

Elsewhere, back at the Four Seasons Hall.

The man in the lead held the severed head in his hand, and the air itself seemed to freeze cold where he stood. A little further back, Liu Jin, watching all this, had gone still as well, wanting to step forward for a closer look.

Then came the sound of a sharp intake of breath.

“How could this be…”

“Tang Kou…”

“What is he saying…”

It was only a faint murmur at first, but then everyone turned to look toward that dark doorway, because what the man held in his hand was, unmistakably, the severed head of Tang Kou himself. No one understood what had happened; those further back hadn’t even gotten a clear look at the head yet. It was Li Tianyou who reacted first.

“He has men lying in ambush!” He seized the blade in his hand and used the flat of it to knock down a lantern hanging above, sending a faint shaft of light flying into the darkness. Someone kicked in the already broken door with a resounding crash.

Those further back still didn’t understand what was happening, but the reaction of those around them made it clear enough. Li Tianyou’s men rushed madly toward the room. “Seize him!” “He has men hidden in ambush!”

“That man is actually dead…”

“Did Master Ning kill him?”

Amid the whispering that broke out at once, there was a shared sense of stunned disbelief. Liu Jin glanced behind him, then at the severed head, and just at that moment, a thunderous crash sounded from within the room, a flash of light bursting out for an instant, startling nearly everyone present. Once the light settled, someone inside could be seen slowly waving the small flame of a fire-striker, lighting a lamp. His voice, when he spoke, no longer carried the cold hardness of before—it sounded almost relaxed now.

“I won, right?”

Everyone had only just startled at this; no one paid him any mind for the moment, as someone had already broken straight through the wall nearby and charged into an adjoining room. Ning Liheng emerged from the room with a blade in one hand and a hand-cannon in the other, wiping the blood from his face along the way. Li Tianyou stood with both fists clenched, staring at the headless corpse of Tang Kou lying in the room, and said nothing for a moment—then, finally, spat out one harsh order. “Search! Find his accomplice!”

Ning Liheng did not argue or protest the matter. Though today’s injuries did not look severe, he looked thoroughly disheveled by now, though he still carried himself with that same bearing. He glanced at Liu Jin, then walked over and sat down at a nearby table. For a moment, chaos reigned across the second floor—everyone was certain he could never have killed Tang Kou on his own; the hand-cannon, moreover, had not been fired during the killing. He had deliberately darkened the surroundings earlier, which surely meant he had a hidden accomplice lying in wait somewhere. For now, he offered no argument at all—letting Li Tianyou swallow this loss without being able to say a word about it.

Only now did a touch of scholarly composure show through in his manner. So long as there was no proof, no one could reasonably argue him down on principle. Before long, everyone was discussing the matter, all agreeing that he must have had another accomplice—but compared to Li Tianyou, who had arrived with a whole company of soldiers in a show of overwhelming force, Ning Liheng, with barely three men on his side, and no one able to find any flaw in his account, had, in everyone’s eyes, pulled off quite an impressive feat.

And amid this small chaos, another minor incident, unnoticed by most, was unfolding downstairs at the same time. Zhu Yanlin had gone down earlier to handle something, and with everyone’s attention on the fierce fighting, no one had paid much mind to it. Just as everyone was still searching the room, Li Tianyou turned around, his gaze bloodshot, fixed on Ning Liheng—but before he could speak, a voice rose up from downstairs.

“The winds and clouds of this world… rise up from men like us, and once you enter these rivers and lakes, the years press on…” The voice was Zhu Yanlin’s; he seemed to be reciting a poem. Though it did not carry far, since it was already night and the Four Seasons Hall stood open and empty, those upstairs could still hear it clearly.

Li Tianyou froze for a moment.

Then everyone saw one of Li Tianyou’s aides hurry up from downstairs and lean in to whisper something in his ear.

Had anyone been downstairs a moment earlier, they might have noticed that, just at the door, a beautiful young woman carrying a long wooden case in her arms had gotten into a dispute with the soldiers guarding the entrance. Zhu Yanlin had come down afterward, and after some back and forth, the woman had said, “Isn’t this a literary gathering? Why can’t I come in—do you think I don’t know poetry? I know it too—I’ll write you one right now to see…”

Then, right there on the wooden platform by the door, the woman had scrawled out a poem, somewhat crookedly, and Zhu Yanlin had read it aloud. Reciting poetry properly called for a certain rise and fall in tone, and though the verse itself might not have been especially refined, it carried a striking air all the same—one that seemed to catch hold of Zhu Yanlin himself, so that those upstairs could hear his voice, hesitant at first, growing steadier and more fluent as he went.

“Grand ambitions spoken of in idle laughter, life itself no more than a single drunken spell. Sword raised astride a steed, stirring up a rain of ghosts, white bones piled like mountains, startled birds take flight!”

By this point in the poem, the grim, chilling air of the martial underworld had already been fully conjured. Everyone present had only just lived through that brutal fight; with Li Tianyou and his men still standing there, and Ning Liheng sitting there covered in blood, the lamps dim, the room in disarray—it all lent the verse an even greater sense of atmosphere. Someone came walking up from downstairs, light of step, gaze uncertain, and what everyone noticed first was the long wooden box she held against her chest.

Just as Zhu Yanlin, from below, sighed out the lines “This mortal world churns like the tide, people flow like water—in vain I lament how few return from these rivers and lakes,” everyone caught sight of the young woman’s face. She was strikingly beautiful, her features exquisite, yet no one recognized her. She glanced around the room, seeming somewhat curious, though her eyes betrayed little.

She looked, it seemed, like some maidservant of the Overlord Blade Battalion…

Li Tianyou stood there, watching her for a good long while.

Then, his face utterly expressionless, he said simply: “Leave.”