On a moonless summer night beneath a sky full of stars, Li Yunxiu tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
"My Lady, aren't you asleep yet?" Zi Ling asked, waking in the middle of the night. Hearing rustling from the inner room, she realized Li Yunxiu was still awake.
"Zi Ling, come in and talk with me for a bit." Li Yunxiu sat up and beckoned her inside.
Rubbing her eyes, Zi Ling was promptly pulled over to the edge of the bed.
Zi Ling had served Li Yunxiu since childhood. Though mistress and servant by title, they were as close as sisters. Lively and clever, she always knew her place as a maidservant, and Li Yunxiu trusted her completely.
As Li Yunxiu's personal maid, she was the only person besides Li Yunxiu and Qianqian who knew Wang Yu's true identity.
"Are you feeling nervous because the wedding is only two days away?" Zi Ling teased.
Li Yunxiu looked at her. "What kind of man do you think my husband is?"
Zi Ling blinked. "The Prince?"
Though surprised by the question, Zi Ling answered, "I think the Prince is exceptionally capable. Not only can he craft perfume and colored glaze, but everything he says and does carries sound reason. Besides, he's gifted in martial arts and brilliant at leading armies—"
Counting off on her fingers, the list of Wang Yu's virtues grew longer and longer, while Zi Ling's pretty face grew redder and redder.
"You little minx, have you gone boy-crazy?" Li Yunxiu tapped Zi Ling on the forehead.
Zi Ling sputtered for a moment. Seeing the teasing glint in Li Yunxiu's eyes, she took a bit of license. "I am Miss's maid. When Miss marries, I will be the bed-warming maid. Whomever Miss marries, I follow."
Li Yunxiu stiffened at her words, her thoughts thrown into disarray once more.
"Miss, have you fallen in love with Wang Yu too?" Zi Ling asked in a hushed whisper.
Li Yunxiu shot her a look. "Call him the Prince."
Zi Ling nodded repeatedly, lowering her voice even further. "Come to think of it, the Prince really is amazing. Last year, he had only just begun learning martial arts and wasn't even as skilled as me. Yet now he has already reached the Xiantian realm! Most people couldn't advance that fast even if they gorged themselves on spirit pills, right?"
Li Yunxiu shook her head. "Of course not. If taking pills alone could make someone reach the Xiantian realm, all those pampered sons of high officials and martial elites would have stepped into it long ago."
Zi Ling nodded, then asked again, "Miss?"
Li Yunxiu paused, remembering what the girl had just asked. Her heart skipped a beat. "I..."
"In truth, His Majesty bestowed the marriage between you and the Prince long ago," Zi Ling said. "It is entirely up to Miss whether you share a bed with him."
Li Yunxiu nodded silently. Back then, she had fled her wedding because she refused to marry a man she did not love. Later, she agreed to the Emperor's imperial decree only because Wang Yu was an impostor, meaning the marriage would be nothing more than a charade.
Accomplished in both civil governance and martial strategy, Li Yunxiu cared little for empty titles, but she had her own principles.
Yet the longer she spent with Wang Yu, the more she felt that resolve weakening.
The Emperor's recent actions had left her increasingly disillusioned.
By contrast, Wang Yu was leading the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor from strength to strength.
Her own efforts had certainly played a part, but the critical achievements—the perfume, the ironworks, the colored glaze, establishing ties with the Northwestern Army, and crushing the Black Qiang in a single battle—belonged entirely to Wang Yu!
Even though he usually seemed so unreliable, never bothering with official duties, teasing her at every turn, and putting on the willful, profligate facade of the original heir...
And yet—
Without him, the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor would never have amassed such a vast surplus in its treasury, could never have purchased so much land, could never have accommodated so many displaced refugees, and could never have funded the army's march beyond the passes.
Without him, Yan Xiangxue's injuries would never have healed. The weakened White Qiang would likely have been swallowed up by the Black Qiang, who would then have brought war to the two passes.
Without him, the army could never have bypassed Yumen Pass, and under no circumstances could they have destroyed the Black Qiang in a single battle, integrated the White Qiang, and achieved a glorious triumph that shook the entire realm.
This victory was indisputable military merit. Wang Yu had not only firmly cemented his position as the Prince of Zhenxi, but his renown now resonated across the world!
A sudden wave of panic seized Li Yunxiu's heart.
Both the White Qiang and Ardai recognized Wang Yu, not Zhao Yu.
And riding the coattails of such an overwhelming triumph, even if the Emperor released the original heir, would the chieftains and commanders of the Zhenxi Army accept him?
Except for Zhao Rong, Li Yunxiu had no confidence whatsoever that the others would accept that arrogant, willful second-generation heir over this prince of real authority who was leading them from strength to strength and winning every battle!
Even with Zhao Jingjun and Zhao Defang, two men of the Zhao clan, she could not be certain.
Could an ordinary man have accomplished any single one of these feats?
Would such a man truly be content to remain constrained by the Emperor, ultimately giving up everything to retire into the mountains and forests?
Li Yunxiu felt as though she were finally seeing the true face beneath Wang Yu's indolent facade.
And what about herself?
Li Yunxiu searched her own soul. Considering the current state of the court and the useless grandees drawing salaries while doing nothing, was she truly willing to hand over the power of the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor to the imperial government?
Yet she was deeply indebted to the Emperor's benevolence, and her family still served as officials in the imperial court...
Must she eventually stand against Wang Yu?
Li Yunxiu's heart was torn with conflicting loyalties.
"Miss?" Zi Ling nudged her gently.
Li Yunxiu started. "What is it?"
"You were spacing out. What are you thinking about?" Zi Ling asked.
"Nothing." Li Yunxiu shook her head.
"Miss." A teasing glimmer danced in Zi Ling's eyes. "The Prince is genuinely a wonderful man. The imperial capital is vast, full of sons of civil ministers and military generals, scions of scholarly lineages, and heirs of martial arts sects... but in my eyes, none of them compare to the Prince—"
Li Yunxiu cut her off. "All right, let's go to sleep."
Aside from one small certainty in her heart, everything else remained in chaotic turmoil. Unable to untangle it for now, she thought it best to simply sleep.
***
While Li Yunxiu was tossing and turning, a detachment of riders was galloping through the night beyond the frontier.
"Envoy Yuwen, there is a small tribe up ahead—no, likely just an extended clan," the deputy Xiongnu envoy said, pointing ahead toward roughly a dozen tents and a few scattered torches.
"We'll stay there for the night," Yuwen Haojie replied.
They had fled the Black Qiang camp in great haste. Although they carried blankets with them, resting inside tents to keep out the night chill and mist was naturally preferable.
A troop of a hundred men riding in unison sent the thudding of hoofbeats echoing through the night, quickly alerting the inhabitants of the settlement. Over a dozen men rushed out gripping weapons, but when they saw a hundred fully armed Xiongnu cavalrymen, sheer despair washed over them.
"We are Xiongnu envoys!" the deputy envoy barked. "Prepare several large tents for us at once! Slaughter ten sheep, and bring out mare's milk wine!"
"Yes, yes, right away!"
A middle-aged man scurried forward from behind the others and hurriedly welcomed them into his own tent.
Yuwen Haojie, the deputy envoy, and a centurion walked inside, helping themselves to the dried meat and mare's milk wine presented by the tribal headman.
As for the freshly roasted mutton and sheep-bone broth, they would have to wait a while longer.
"No one enters without our permission, understand?" the deputy envoy commanded.
"Understood, understood!" Bowing repeatedly, the middle-aged man backed out of the tent.
"Whew..."
Once the man had left, the deputy envoy let out a long breath. "We've completely crossed out of White Qiang territory, haven't we?"
The centurion nodded hurriedly. "Yes, we are out."
Although they had slipped away from the battlefield early and appeared to depart with composure, they had in fact been terrified out of their wits—it was no exaggeration to say they had practically scrambled for their lives.
The northwestern steppe was the Qiang tribes' domain. If the White Qiang had truly pursued them by sending two Xiantian experts leading a thousand cavalrymen with three mounts per man, nobody among them besides Yuwen Haojie could have made it back to the Xiongnu alive.
The deputy envoy looked toward Yuwen Haojie. "Who could have expected the Black Qiang to be wiped out just like that! That Prince of Zhenxi is truly sinister!"
Yuwen Haojie shook his head. "That was not sinister. That was the wisdom of the Han Chinese."
"Bypassing Yumen Pass and enlisting masters from the Tianshan Sect—even Zhao Zheng could not have pulled that off in his lifetime," Yuwen Haojie remarked indifferently. "Zhao Yu is far harder to deal with than his father."
The deputy envoy flattered him, "Still, his martial arts are weak. If he dared to face Envoy Yuwen in single combat, you would undoubtedly slay him!"
Yuwen Haojie did not deny it. In clashes between nations, however, martial arts were merely an aid, while national power was the bedrock.
And with the Central Plains in decline and the Xiongnu rising, the balance of national power was already set.
"A defeat this time is just a defeat," Yuwen Haojie said with a calm smile. "We will decide the victor next time."
The deputy envoy promptly gave a thumbs-up. "We were unfamiliar with the terrain this time and fell into Zhao Yu's trap. Next time, once we are properly prepared, we will certainly take his head!"
Just then, the tent flap was pushed open.
The deputy envoy turned around angrily. "Didn't I tell you that no one enters without our permission?"
"Cough, cough!" a cold, detached voice came. "I wasn't aware you had the right to give me orders."
Seeing the newcomer, the deputy envoy's pupils contracted violently. "Lord Qiao Riyan!"
"Qiao Riyan?"
Yuwen Haojie was equally astonished to see Qiao Riyan appear so suddenly. "You're injured? Who wounded you? Surely Yan Xiangxue wouldn't stoop to bullying the junior generation, would she?"
Qiao Riyan did not answer the question, asking instead, "The fact that you are here means the mission failed. What happened with the Black Qiang? Even if the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor deployed its troops, the Black Qiang shouldn't have fallen this quickly!"
Yuwen Haojie stared steadily at Qiao Riyan without speaking.
Neither the deputy envoy nor the centurion dared to utter a word.
After locking eyes with Yuwen Haojie for a moment, Qiao Riyan gave ground. "It was Zhao Yu. I was careless and fell victim to his underhanded trick."
A trace of disdain flashed across Yuwen Haojie's eyes. "Careless?"
"He disguised himself as a profligate fop and deliberately let me flick his sword away," Qiao Riyan said, his cheek twitching. "Both of us had heard of his reputation in the capital. How could I have known he had already entered the Xiantian realm?"
Recalling his own impression of Wang Yu upon meeting him, Yuwen Haojie nodded, accepting Qiao Riyan's explanation.
"Twenty thousand troops of the Zhenxi Army bypassed Yumen Pass, accompanied by Gu Nanfeng and the Tianshan Twin Eagles," Yuwen Haojie said, detailing the situation the Black Qiang had faced.
Qiao Riyan drew in a sharp breath, immediately understanding why the Black Qiang had collapsed so swiftly.
The Black Qiang must have marched out their forces, only to have their royal court and rear base ambushed by the twenty thousand troops circling around Yumen Pass. Deprived of supplies and racked by panic over the fate of their families, their morale must have shattered before the pincer attack of the Zhenxi Army and the White Qiang.
How could they not have lost?
"Using himself as bait—what a scheme!" Qiao Riyan spat bitterly.
Yuwen Haojie finally let out a sigh. "Now that this man has united both Qiang tribes, he will surely become a formidable enemy of the Xiongnu in the days ahead."
Deep in the steppe, the voices inside the tent gradually quieted into the night.
Chapter 130