Under wartime curfew, the streets seemed unusually quiet as the carriage passed through, firelight and lanterns scattered sparsely across the field of view, some flaring up, then sinking again into the still sea of night.
“When we get back… how are you going to explain this to your wife?”
“Kneel on a washboard, I suppose.”
“What?”
“Oh, I have a way of explaining it…”
On the way back to Xiliu Street, Chen Fan and Ning Yi kept up a desultory conversation. What struck Ning Yi as strange was that this shameless fellow beside him seemed to find the whole affair rather amusing and gleeful, without a hint of any other emotion.
“Speaking of which, why are you so pleased about all this? You fought with Dabiao for so many years, and you don’t feel even a little…something?”
“A little what?” Chen Fan tilted his head to look at him, then laughed and waved a hand. “Everyone thinks we ought to have something between us, don’t they?”
“Go ask around Xiliu Street — there are more people who think so than there are women named after a certain famous actress on that street.”
“What women named after…” Chen Fan frowned, then roughly caught the meaning. “Well, honestly… after fighting that long, it’s not that there’s zero feeling at all, but I really only ever thought of her as a sister. Her temper’s too prickly. I did have someone I liked before, but it wasn’t like that with her.”
“The neighbor girl, Cuihua…”
“She knows martial arts, and she’s already married.”
“Don’t tell me it’s some noble family’s eldest daughter, who knows martial arts, hit it off with you as kids, her father disapproved, so you started a rebellion or something like that…”
“None of that.” Chen Fan frowned, then waved him closer. “Fine, I’ll tell you, come here, I’ll tell you — don’t repeat it…” He lowered his voice as he spoke, and just then the curtain beside them bulged slightly; Chen Fan kicked backward, catching the Sabre Guard driver square in the back. “Eavesdrop again and I’ll duel you!”
With that said, he leaned in close to Ning Yi’s ear, his voice thin as a thread. “Sister Qian’er… tell anyone and I’ll kill you.”
Ning Yi was stunned for a good long moment. “Which one is that?”
Chen Fan leaned in again. “The Mandarin Duck Blades — Sister Qian’er.”
Only then did Ning Yi realize he meant Ji Qian’er of the Mandarin Duck Blades. Startled — though she was among the youngest of the “Debts Must Be Repaid, Lives Must Be Paid” group, she was already nearly thirty, and had always carried herself with the plain look of a country girl. She was well-liked in the Sabre Guard, easygoing with jokes and coarse humor no less than any man there. He’d never have guessed Chen Fan’s taste ran that way. Chen Fan leaned in again, explaining in a hushed but proud tone.
“When I first started learning under our master, I was still small, and Sister Qian’er was young too — full of spirit and vigor. When I went to the Sabre stronghold, she was very enthusiastic about teaching me swordplay. Her bladework, tsk tsk tsk… fast, fierce, terrifying — that’s how a woman ought to be! And within a few years she couldn’t beat me anymore, though by then she was already married. But… you don’t understand, she was really formidable back then, and at first I couldn’t survive two strikes under her blade. The moment I finally beat her, that feeling — I’ll remember it my whole life.”
He lowered his voice further, gesturing excitedly. “And have you noticed — Sister Qian’er has a melon-seed face, a nice pointed chin. That’s the kind you should marry. Xigua’s got a round chin — not that she’s got some bun-face or anything, but it’s just not sharp enough. And Sister Qian’er carries two fast blades — now that’s a blade for a woman. Liu Xigua wields one huge sword thing — swinging that down at you is terrifying, but as a woman, there’s just no feeling to it at all. I think of her as a sister, or maybe a little brother…”
Having said all this, he pinched his lips together. “But then again, if you don’t look at that sword she carries, and if you don’t necessarily need a pointed chin, Xigua’s actually quite good-looking. After all these years fighting alongside her, I know her clear as day — if she didn’t truly like you, there’s no way she’d have saved you like that in the throne hall. I always thought it would’ve been a shame if she really married Lou Jingzhi. Now that it’s you instead — well, brothers as we are, at least the fertile field hasn’t gone to some outsider. But all those family matters of yours… heh heh, you’ll have to sort that out yourself, best of luck. Haha…”
Once Chen Fan finished, Ning Yi couldn’t help but sigh. The whole way back to Xiliu Street, the streets already carried a faint, tense air; though not many people were visible, the watchful eyes and hidden sentries had clearly grown more alert.
This was to protect Su Tan’er and Xiao Chan and the others — Ning Yi understood that much. Though Xigua herself was likely still in a state of disordered emotions after what she’d blurted out in the throne hall, she had thought ahead in the very first moment and taken the necessary precautions.
Getting off the carriage at the gate of the small courtyard, the long street around them was quiet. As he pushed open the courtyard gate, Su Tan’er, who had been sitting on a stone bench under the parasol tree, stood up, a flicker of light in her eyes, followed a moment later by a trace of anxiety, as she watched Ning Yi come in. The moonlight was pale and ghostly, tree shadows crisscrossing the ground, giving her figure a lonely, solitary air — but the moment she made out the injuries on Ning Yi’s body, she hurried over.
“Don’t run, I’m fine.”
Su Tan’er was already five months along; even bundled in her winter coat, the shape of her belly could be faintly seen. She came to support him, and he in turn steadied her, closing the door behind them and tapping her cheek. “Why were you sitting out in the courtyard?”
Su Tan’er checked over his wounds, already bandaged or patched, and gave a somewhat complicated smile before lowering her head. Ning Yi glanced around; under the eaves, Lu Hongti had also appeared in the doorway, gesturing around to indicate that watchers were posted on every side.
His injuries had been tended to afterward by Lu Hongti — not light, but nothing that would damage bone or sinew. The couple said nothing for a while; back in their room, Xiao Chan and Juan’er brought in hot water and tea, and though worry and doubt showed in their brows, they withdrew quietly. Su Tan’er wiped his face gently, then said softly, “You said there was nothing else to worry about — how did it end up like this again…”
“Bad luck… no, actually, pretty good luck, all things considered. It’s just — there was a bit of an accident afterward.”
“But there’s no other way to handle it now, is there.”
“About as good as it’s going to get, I suppose. Nothing better.”
In truth, there had been a slightly worse contingency plan Ning Yi had prepared, but it wasn’t something he wanted to bring up now. After killing Bao Daoyi, he had decided to leave the response entirely to Xigua, because in that situation, only her desperate protection could have gotten him out safely. But sitting back and simply waiting for death was never his style either, and in the rush of the moment he had only managed to think of one backup plan.
That plan had been: if Xigua’s efforts weren’t quite enough to save him, Lu Hongti would visit Fang La under her true identity, posing as a member of Tian Hu’s faction. As Ning Yi saw it, though Lu Hongti had always been in the north, her master’s reputation was formidable enough that there might well be people in the martial circles of the south who knew of it, and combined with her own skill, a demonstration or two could carry real weight if she came forward. With Hangzhou under siege and all news cut off, there would be no way for anyone in Fang La’s camp to fully verify Lu Hongti’s relationship to Tian Hu — and with the Sabre Guard’s own strength added in, he would surely have been extracted safely. Once the city fell, none of it would matter anymore anyway.
This particular consideration, of course, was not something he could tell his wife. Su Tan’er was an extremely perceptive woman; in fact, once word of Xigua saving him in the throne hall had reached her, she had already worked out most of the implications herself and understood there had been no other choice. But understanding that it was unavoidable didn’t necessarily make it any easier to bear — and yet none of this could really be counted as her own husband’s fault. By this point, her feelings had grown quite complicated.
“They might really come to force me and my husband apart, mightn’t they…”
After a long silence, spent discussing small, incidental matters — checking his wounds, applying medicine again — it was only once they were nearly ready for bed that she crouched in front of Ning Yi and finally, softly, said this. Pregnant women shouldn’t crouch like that; seeing her look up at him, Ning Yi quickly helped her up.
“Don’t overthink it for now — the city’s under siege, we’re not going anywhere.”
Su Tan’er wasn’t a foolish woman; an answer that was purely meant to placate her wouldn’t do. But had there not been a siege, someone from Fang La’s side could well have forced her to write a letter of divorce and send her out of the city. With the army encircling the walls, though, such measures had little practical use anymore — at most, they could put on appearances, and even that would be hard to satisfy them with. Su Tan’er nodded and lay down on the bed. “I… even if it’s fake, I don’t want anything like that to happen, but…”
She trailed off there, finally burying her face against Ning Yi’s neck and shoulder, saying nothing more. After a long silence, just as Ning Yi thought she might have fallen asleep, she spoke again softly. “Husband, you… let’s not keep this matrilocal status of yours anymore…”
“Hm?”
She spoke on, half in a daze. “Anyway… anyway we already talked about this before… if there’s really no other way, then let’s just annul this marriage for now… whether it counts for anything at this moment or not, once we get back to Jiangning, you can marry me again… if there’s truly no other way, that’s the only path left.”
Saying these words was, in the end, not an easy thing for Su Tan’er. Ning Yi had, after all, married into the Su family as a matrilocal husband; though the two of them were deeply attached to each other by now, to actually change that status wasn’t something Su Tan’er’s heart could entirely accept without a flicker of unease — that was only human. “Why can’t things just stay as they are” — “maybe things are fine as they are now” — “he’s always been the one who married in, and I’ve always respected and loved him for it, what’s wrong with that…” — by this point, saying these words out loud was, in a way, also a means of convincing herself. Ning Yi patted her back. “It won’t necessarily come to that. In fact, I’m rather curious now what Liu Xigua is going to say to me tomorrow about all this… we’ll deal with the rest when it comes.”
But Xigua’s confrontation with him didn’t wait until the next day. Not long after they’d gone to bed that night, someone came knocking at the door. “The Lord has returned from the palace and requests Master Ning to come discuss matters.”
It was already close to midnight. Ning Yi dressed and got up, and by the time he reached the main estate, the lanterns along the way had already dimmed. In the courtyard of the main house, only the study belonging to Liu Xigua showed a faint light. He made his way in to find the girl seated at her desk in a moon-white dress, putting on an air of handling official business, head down, not looking at him. Then, without any particular rise or fall in her tone — though not using that deliberately gravelly voice of hers either, but rather an unguarded, cool feminine voice — she spoke.
“Sit. Something happened suddenly today, and everyone’s been busy all day and must be exhausted. I’ll keep this short. None of this is your fault — what happened in the throne hall, there was nothing I could do about it. You’ve handled so much on my behalf, worked so hard, and since we’re… comrades now, I’ll protect you, no matter what. I’ll do everything I can to keep your wife and family safe too, but there’s a great deal of trouble ahead, as you know. Within three days, we… we’re to be married…”
Though she had kept her head down the whole time without once looking at him, the girl paused here, sitting frozen for a long moment, then set down the writing brush she’d been holding for show with a soft click.
“This is something I have no way around either. Your family… your wife — she might… ahem, well, you’ll have to handle those matters yourself. I’ll deal with everything else, that should be fine, right.”
Ning Yi looked at her for a long while, then nodded. “…Oh.”
Xigua nodded sharply as well. “Then that’s settled — the wedding arrangements can go to Uncle Nan. It’s getting late, you should go back.”
“…Mm.”
Ning Yi held back the urge to laugh — a strange, intriguing sort of amusement — and turned to walk toward the door. Just as he reached it, though, a soft voice called out from behind him.
“Hey, Ning Liheng.”
“Hm?”
Turning back, he found the girl already looking up at him from behind the desk, and in the depths of her expression there was, in fact, some measure of bewilderment. “You… I know this whole thing is really absurd… the way it’s turned out. Do you have anything you want to say?”
Ning Yi looked at her. “For the wedding… let’s keep it simple.”
“Mm.”
“Though… we should still have a lively celebration within the Sabre Guard.”
“Mm.”
“As for what happens after — we’ll see how it goes.”
“Mm.”
“As for this whole business…” Here Ning Yi found himself somewhat at a loss for words, but after a pause he said, “Thank you. And… I’m sorry, in a way.”
“Heh.” The girl laughed, then waved a hand in front of her, as if setting something down all at once. “It’s fine.” Then she lowered her head to look at the things on her desk again. “You should go on back.”
Long after Ning Yi had left, the girl finally lifted her head again from behind the desk, and then let it slowly droop forward, her forehead knocking against the desktop with a soft “ah” of a sigh, her large eyes blinking, blinking again…
That night, all the way until she climbed into bed and hugged her blanket, the girl’s gaze remained troubled and complicated, staring out at the faint starlight through the window, close to tears.
“Father, your daughter’s getting married… whatever am I to do…”
And then, the very next day, this whole tangled affair of a wedding began, with great fanfare, throughout the Sabre Guard.