The Ordos Tribe, guardians of Genghis Khan's mausoleum and ancestors of the Golden Family, held such formidable strength and status that the Mongol Tatar Tribe could not afford to overlook them. This was precisely why Ados was elected leader of the grain requisition army, and why Anda Khan opted for appeasement over military confrontation—to prevent the Tatar Tribe from being torn asunder, leaving vulnerabilities for the Oirat or the Ming Dynasty to exploit.
When Anda Khan saw Ados's demand, initial fury surged within him. How dare he ask for Hastuya, knowing full well she is my grandson's betrothed!
Yet upon reflection, Ados's request seemed reasonable. I stole his wife, and though he resents it, he wouldn't dare take mine. So he settles for my grandson's bride instead. Men cherish their pride—Ados seeks to wipe away his humiliation, and I can understand that.
She's just a woman. Let him have her. This could finally settle our grudge, and I'll owe the Ordos Tribe nothing more.
Anda Khan summoned his grandson Ba Han Naji and declared, "Ados wishes to marry Hastuya. I've consented. I shall select an even more beautiful, nobler-born girl to be your second biji."
Ba Han Naji was astounded. He had eased his grandfather's burdens by seizing grain in Bansheng Land and securing Zhongjin Khatun's stay, yet now his grandfather intended to offer his fiancée as compensation for past wife-snatching!
Having been doted on since childhood—granted stars but never denied the moon—Ba Han Naji revered his grandfather as the greatest of khans. But in this moment, that lofty image crumbled.
Devastated, Ba Han Naji erupted, "No! Hastuya is my betrothed! We are to share a tent soon! If Ados wants beauties, the Khanate Court has plenty—give him eight or ten and send him away!"
Anda Khan produced the letter. "Ados specifically requested Hastuya."
Ba Han Naji snatched the missive and tore it to shreds. "I don't care! I won't give her up! Hastuya belongs to me!"
As he stormed out of the hall, he raged, "Tonight I'll share a bed with Hastuya and plant my seed in her! Ados is too petty to raise another man's child—let him abandon this foolish notion!"
"Stop right there!" Anda Khan bellowed, lashing his whip across the table. Cups and plates clattered to the floor in a cacophony of shattered porcelain.
Not daring to defy his grandfather, Ba Han Naji slowly turned and knelt, tearing open his robe to bare his back. "I won't surrender Hastuya to Ados. Strike me, Grandfather. Beat me to death, and only then will I relent."
Anda Khan's knuckles turned white as he gripped the whip, nearly crushing its handle. Ba Han Naji was his most cherished grandson—the sole remnant of his third son, who had died young. The agony of outliving his own child lingered eternally. With each passing day, Ba Han Naji grew more like his father, as if the third son's soul had been reborn in him. Thus, Anda Khan indulged him, loved him, gave him all that was finest.
The whip trembled in Anda Khan's hand. "Ba Han Naji, would you defy your grandfather for a woman?"Ba Han Naji was only eighteen years old—a youth in the prime of his vigor, where passion ran high, and love and pride still held immense importance in his eyes. He declared, "Your grandson refuses to live a life of ridicule. If I cannot even protect my own woman, what kind of man am I? Since childhood, I have always obeyed you in everything, but this time, I must defend my woman. Even if you forcibly send Hastuya to Ados’s tent, I will lead men to snatch her back from the grand tent!"
Whoosh!
Anda Khan raised his whip. The long lash coiled like a venomous snake and, with a sharp crack, left a purplish-red welt across Ba Han Naji’s chest and back, swelling instantly.
Ba Han Naji gritted his teeth against the searing pain, not uttering a single groan, nor yielding to beg for mercy. He remained kneeling rigidly in place, awaiting further lashes from his grandfather.
This was a battle of wills between Ba Han Naji and Anda Khan. The Khan pressed his grandson to recant, while Ba Han Naji used self-inflicted suffering to force his grandfather’s hand: either kill me or grant my wish.
Each strike on the grandson’s body pained Anda Khan’s heart.
But this time, he could not indulge the boy. Anda Khan raised the whip again. In his youth, he had been a formidable warrior, and age had not dulled his skill. The whip landed perfectly over the first welt, splitting the swollen flesh open. Skin tore, flesh ruptured, and blood sprayed across the pristine white sheepskin rug.
Ah!
This time, Ba Han Naji could no longer suppress a muffled groan. His chest and back felt as if scalded by boiling oil, his muscles twitching uncontrollably.
Anda Khan’s heart ached for his grandson, and he paused the whipping. "Have you thought it through?" he demanded. "Will you choose the woman or the greater good?"
Gasping heavily on the ground, Ba Han Naji replied, "I have thought it through. Your grandson wants only Hastuya."
As Anda Khan raised the whip for a third strike, San Niangzi entered, clutching his arm. The lash went astray, striking the rug and sending tufts of wool flying.
San Niangzi commanded the onlookers, "Why are you all standing there? Take him away for treatment at once!"
Anda Khan seized the opportunity to step down. "Lock him up! He is not to leave!"
Ba Han Naji struggled, but his injuries left him helpless. Six guards swiftly subdued him and carried him to a side chamber for treatment.
Wei Caiwei arrived with her medicine chest to tend to Ba Han Naji’s whip wounds. She applied ointments to stanch the bleeding and took out sutures to stitch the torn flesh, meticulously sewing over fifty stitches.
No sooner had the stitching been completed than a woman’s desperate cry echoed from outside: "Ba Han Naji! Save me! Anda Khan is giving me to Ados as his wife!"
At the sound, Ba Han Naji surged toward the door as if injected with adrenaline. "Hastuya! I’m coming to save you!"
A dozen guards surrounded him, struggling to pin him to the ground. Ba Han Naji thrashed like a stranded carp, shouting wildly, "Let me go! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you!"
Fresh blood soaked through his clothes once more—Ba Han Naji had torn open the wounds Wei Caiwei had painstakingly sutured.
Fearing for his life if the frenzy continued, Wei Caiwei had no choice but to administer a "special concoction" to Ba Han Naji, rendering him unconscious.
Finally, Ba Han Naji lay still. Wei Caiwei retrieved her needle and thread to repair the damaged wounds.
Exhausted and sweating from the effort, Wei Caiwei packed her medicine chest and stepped out. Several maids rushed up to her, urgently pleading, "He Daifu, please go check on Hastuya—she has fainted!"Hastuya was so enraged that she fainted, but after Wei Caiwei applied a few acupuncture needles, she regained consciousness. Upon waking, she was determined to die and insisted on seeing Ba Han Naji.
The maids had no choice but to tie Hastuya up with ropes. Watching the pitiful woman being treated like an object, passed back and forth, and listening to the girl's heart-wrenching sobs, Wei Caiwei felt deeply unsettled. However, as a foreign physician, she was powerless to change the situation.
Wei Caiwei was in a troubled mood when Ding Wu came to find her. "Come with me to the Rouge and Powder Shop—Lu Ying has returned."
After more than three months, Lu Ying had finally brought back the Longqing Emperor's response from the capital.
Although the Longqing Emperor had pushed through the maritime ban lift against all opposition, allowing private overseas trade, he showed no interest in opening border markets in the northwest—simply because the maritime trade brought substantial tax revenue to the Great Ming, while border markets yielded little profit.
However, several ministers in the Grand Secretariat were weary of war and advocated for recuperation and rebuilding.
The Chief Grand Secretary, Li Chunfang, even exploited the Longqing Emperor's habit of opposing his father. He argued that since the Jiajing Emperor had consistently refused to open border markets, frequent battles had plagued the border regions, leading to depopulation and abandoned fertile fields. Opening border markets would not only generate tax revenue but also bring peace and help restore agriculture in the northwest.
Upon hearing this, the Longqing Emperor thought: My father enforced the maritime ban, so I will lift it. My father forbade border markets, so I will open them. Thus, he agreed to cooperate with San Niangzi, cease hostilities between the two nations, and open the border markets.
Lu Ying brought the Longqing Emperor's secret letter, along with a chest full of clothing and jewelry bestowed upon San Niangzi by Empress Chen.
"Wait," Wei Caiwei asked, "When did Li Chunfang become the Chief Grand Secretary? Wasn't it Senior Grand Secretary Xu Jie before?"
Lu Ying explained, "There was infighting in the Grand Secretariat. Xu Jie and Gao Gong were at odds. Xu Jie was a senior minister from the previous reign, while Gao Gong was the emperor's tutor. Their conflict intensified, with each directing their subordinates to impeach the other. No official is without vulnerabilities. They stabbed each other in the back, resulting in mutual destruction—both were caught with their flaws exposed and resigned one after the other, retiring to their hometowns. With the tigers gone, the amiable Li Chunfang seized the opportunity and became the Chief Grand Secretary."
Wei Caiwei immediately grew alert. It seemed that this shift in the officialdom was almost identical to what had happened in her previous life. Xu Jie and Gao Gong had clashed like fierce tigers, both suffering heavy losses. Both used old age as a pretext to request retirement, seeking a dignified exit.
However, after Xu Jie returned to his hometown, he never rejoined the court. His youngest son tyrannized the local community, seizing fertile lands, and was reported to the emperor by Hai Rui—the most upright and incorruptible official of the Great Ming. Xu Jie nearly lost his reputation in his later years.
After Gao Gong left, the Longqing Emperor reminisced about the difficult times in his princely estate, recalling how his tutor Gao Gong had steadfastly educated and encouraged him. Moved by old sentiments, the emperor issued an edict to reinstate Gao Gong, who returned to the Grand Secretariat like an old piece of meat thrown back into the pot, becoming "twice-cooked pork."
The amiable Chief Grand Secretary Li Chunfang knew he was blocking Gao Gong's path. Rather than being ousted and risking a tarnished reputation like Xu Jie, he chose to step down voluntarily, requesting retirement to his hometown.
Once Li Chunfang left, the "twice-cooked pork" Gao Gong became the Chief Grand Secretary, and then...
Wei Caiwei asked Lu Ying, "Since Senior Grand Secretary Xu has resigned and returned to his hometown, did your third sister accompany him to Huating?" Xu Jie was a native of Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture (present-day Songjiang District, Shanghai).Lu Ying said, "After Grand Secretary Xu retired, my third brother-in-law also chose to step back, taking a position in the Ministry of Justice in Nanjing—a quiet post far from the political turmoil of the capital. My third sister and their nephew accompanied him to Nanjing. This is just as well. Since their family settled there, my second sister no longer resents her for refusing to help the Yan family back then. They've reconciled and often correspond. Why? Does Doctor Wei see any issue with this?"
The Xu family had completely withdrawn from officialdom, and Lu Ying's family had lost its most powerful backing. In the future... Wei Caiwei thought, what is destined to come will come. In this lifetime, at least Lu Ying and the Lu family still have us.
The wind sweeps through the tower heralding a rising storm in the mountains, yet only Wei Caiwei was aware of it at this moment.
Wang Daxia remained oblivious, currently too excited to contain himself as he eagerly sought recognition from Lu Ying. "Commander Lu, while you were away in the capital, we've uprooted the White Lotus Sect entirely. Nearly all fifty thousand followers have dispersed, reclaiming wasteland within the passes and starting new lives, no longer believing the sect's deceitful lies. Now, leaders like sect leader Zhao Quan and deputy leader Li Zixin have become toothless tigers, no longer a threat to the Great Ming—utterly useless. The Embroidered Uniform Guard should seize the chance to arrest them, bring them to the Ming for trial, and publicly execute them to appease the souls lost in the Gengxu Rebellion."
Lu Ying hadn't anticipated victory arriving so swiftly; a severe drought and natural disaster had changed everything. On the verge of a great accomplishment, she gazed excitedly at Ding Wu. "Before you came to Fengcheng, you vowed not to return until the White Lotus Sect was destroyed. Now that your ideal is about to be realized, I'll take you back with me."
Ding Wu also looked steadily at Lu Ying, a smile in his eyes, and said, "Good, I'll go back with you."
Their gazes seemed glued together, inseparable for eternity.
A match made in heaven, Wei Caiwei and Wang Daxia exchanged knowing smiles. Wang Daxia, ever mischievous, quietly slipped off his bright red embroidered shoe and, under the table, extended his large foot to entangle Wei Caiwei's leg like a snake, coiling tighter and creeping higher.
Wei Caiwei savored the sweetness, yet her mind kept flashing back to Hastuya's piercing cries. Only a woman could truly empathize with another woman's pain; the happiness she felt now was matched by Hastuya's despair.
Thinking of how Hastuya would be forced into wedding clothes tomorrow, bound and carried into a carriage like a gift for Ados, Wei Caiwei could no longer sit still. She said:
"Everyone, I have an idea. Since Zhao Quan and the others are already useless, why don't we make use of this waste?"
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