Fan Changyu heard the conversation clearly inside the tent. Regarding her parents' affairs, she indeed had a bellyful of questions she wanted to ask He Jingyuan. Without hesitation, she said, "Please ask the brothers outside to wait a moment. I'll change into presentable clothes and go over right away."
As she went to find clean robes, she suddenly remembered another issue. When she had come down from the battlefield that day, her military uniform had been too filthy to look at. Who had changed her clothes while she was unconscious?
Moreover, with both her hands wrapped up like this, even if she got the robes, she wouldn't be able to put them on herself.
Just as Fan Changyu was frowning over this, another voice came from outside the tent: "Changyu, is it alright for Auntie to come in?"
Recognizing Aunt Zhao's voice, Fan Changyu was both surprised and delighted. She quickly replied, "Please come in, Auntie."
When Aunt Zhao lifted the tent flap and entered, she immediately began helping Fan Changyu into the set of robes, saying, "I heard a general summoned you. Xiao Wu asked me to come help you change."
Fan Changyu remarked, "Xiao Wu is quite thoughtful."
Then she asked, "When did you arrive at the military camp, Auntie?"
Aunt Zhao sighed. "Xiao Wu brought me here two days ago. You scared me half to death, child! That outfit of yours was covered in blood. Thankfully, you didn't suffer any serious injuries. What would have happened to Ning Niang if something had happened to you?"
So it seemed Aunt Zhao had been the one to change her clothes while she was unconscious.
But Fan Changyu remembered that Xie Wu's injuries on the battlefield had been no lighter than hers. How had he been able to run home to fetch Aunt Zhao that same day?
A faint look of confusion appeared in Fan Changyu's eyes. "Xiao Wu wasn't injured?"
After helping Fan Changyu into the outer robe, Aunt Zhao was now fastening her waistband. She said, "That I wouldn't know. But these past two days while you were unconscious, Xiao Wu kept watch in your tent. I worried he'd exhaust himself and tried to send him to rest, but he wouldn't budge no matter how much I urged him."
At this point, Aunt Zhao looked up with a somewhat peculiar expression and said to Fan Changyu, "He followed you through life-and-death situations on the battlefield. Changyu... could it be Xiao Wu has developed other feelings for you?"
She suddenly looked troubled. "Xiao Wu is a good boy, but you already have Yan Zheng. Maybe I should arrange a marriage for Xiao Wu later?"
Fan Changyu knew that both Xie Wu and Xie Qi were Xie Zheng's men. Their loyalty to her was simply because they followed Xie Zheng's orders. She said helplessly, "Auntie, don't overthink it. It's not what you imagine."
Still, Aunt Zhao's mention that Xie Wu had been keeping watch over her these past two days made Fan Changyu feel somewhat strange.
After changing clothes, she left the tent to meet He Jingyuan first.
Xie Wu now counted as her personal guard and accompanied her to the central military tent, but could only wait outside on standby, not permitted to enter with her.
After the messenger leading Fan Changyu conferred with the guards at the tent entrance, one guard entered to report something before allowing Fan Changyu to enter alone.
When she lifted the tent flap, Fan Changyu was hit by a strong medicinal odor. Remembering the military etiquette she'd learned these days about not looking directly at superiors, she slightly lowered her eyelids and clasped her fists in salute. "Subordinate Fan Changyu pays her respects to the Lord Magistrate."
Having served in Jizhou for many years, whether it was the common people below or the generals under his command, they all privately preferred to address He Jingyuan as "Lord Magistrate."
Truth be told, it was because he seemed too scholarly and mild-mannered—less like a military officer and more like a civil official.From the bed came a voice, noticeably weak: "No need for formalities... cough cough ..."
Fan Changyu saw the person on the bed break into a violent coughing fit before even finishing his sentence. Hesitating for a moment, she finally stepped forward and patted his back with her bandaged, ball-like hands, asking, "Sir, should I call for the army doctor?"
It was only when standing close that she dared to discreetly observe this veteran general on the sickbed.
He seemed to have lost considerable weight, with hollowed cheeks and a pallid complexion. What had once been black hair with just a few silver strands was now half-white, making him appear significantly more aged all of a sudden.
Fan Changyu suddenly realized his condition was far worse than she'd thought.
He Jingyuan coughed for quite some time before barely suppressing the itch in his throat.
When he lay back against the pillows, it took several labored breaths before he recovered somewhat.
However, the arrow wound on his chest had started bleeding again from the violent coughing, staining a fingernail-sized spot on his white undergarments red.
Waving weakly, he said, "The injury reached my lungs. The coughing has been severe these past couple days."
Noticing Fan Changyu's bandaged hands, he asked, "How are your injuries?"
Fan Changyu replied, "These two hands are the only serious wounds this subordinate has sustained."
He Jingyuan actually laughed at this, though his laughter soon dissolved into soft coughing—fortunately not as severe as before.
He said approvingly, "The younger generation surpasses the old. Changxin Wang was a formidable figure in Great Yin. Trading these hand injuries for his life is more than worth it."
What flashed through Fan Changyu's mind, however, was the scar-faced man shooting Changxin Wang with an arrow before galloping over on horseback to rescue her.
She remembered the strength with which he'd pulled her onto the horse, and that familiar scent.
Without that final arrow, even if Changxin Wang would have eventually died from her knife piercing his organs, she would likely have been too exhausted to avoid his sword and perished beneath it.
But Xiao Wu had said Xie Zheng wasn't in Chongzhou at all.
Fan Changyu thought either she'd truly been too disoriented to remember correctly, or Xiao Wu had lied to her.
And the only one who could make Xiao Wu lie was Xie Zheng himself.
When this realization struck, her heart nearly leapt from her chest, and she wanted nothing more than to return to camp immediately and interrogate Xiao Wu about Xie Zheng's whereabouts.
Only He Jingyuan's presence kept her from acting on this impulse.
Since Xie Zheng's current identity couldn't be revealed, Fan Changyu didn't mention his disguised appearance on the battlefield to save her, merely replying humbly, "You flatter me, sir. This subordinate merely got lucky with that strike against Changxin Wang."
He Jingyuan's eyes shone with even more approval. "You're a good child. With such down-to-earth qualities, you'll go far in the future."
Fan Changyu responded stiffly, "Thank you for your praise, sir."
Noticing her tension, He Jingyuan gestured weakly to a small stool by the bed. "Sit. There are some things... it's time to tell you."
As Fan Changyu took her seat, his words made her fingers instinctively curl—only to grasp nothing, reminding her both hands were swathed in bandages.
Her spine straightened unconsciously as she asked, "Is it about my parents?"He Jingyuan looked surprised, as if he hadn't expected Fan Changyu to already know about his connection with her parents. After a moment, he nodded slowly. "I heard from Wen Chang that you've checked the records in Jizhou Prefecture, trying to find out who truly harmed your parents..."
He sighed softly. "When your parents entrusted you and your sister to me, they wanted to shield you from the burdens of their past, hoping you could live ordinary, peaceful lives. But alas, fate had other plans."
Fan Changyu thought of the simple, warm days when her parents were alive, followed by their sudden deaths and the assassinations in Qingping County. Her heart grew heavy as she asked, "What... were my parents' true identities?"
He Jingyuan gazed at her, as if seeing traces of old friends in her features. His voice carried the weight of years. "Your father was once a retainer of Wei Mansion. For his outstanding abilities, he was granted the Wei surname and called Qi Lin. After the Prime Minister married his sister to General Xie Linshan, your father followed to serve under General Xie. Later, he married into the family of Old General Meng, who was under General Xie's command."
At this, Fan Changyu's pupils constricted sharply. "Meng Shuyuan?"
The very name known even to three-year-old children in Great Yin—the man responsible for the tragic fall of Jinzhou.
Understanding her turmoil, He Jingyuan sighed. "Old General Meng was General Xie's most trusted veteran. Your father marrying his only daughter was meant to strengthen ties between the Xie and Wei families—a joyous union. But when Jinzhou was besieged, Old General Meng's failure in delivering provisions led to that irreversible catastrophe."
Learning that her grandfather was the one who caused the starvation of a hundred thousand soldiers at Jinzhou, leading to the deaths of Chengde Crown Prince and General Xie Linshan at the city gates and forcing the court to cede territory for peace, Fan Changyu felt as if she'd been plunged into an icy abyss.
One thought dominated her mind—her entire family were sinners against Great Yin.
And she was a sinner in Xie Zheng's eyes too.
Xie Zheng, who harbored such hatred for her grandfather—how would he react upon learning she was a descendant of the Meng family?
Her thoughts in chaos, Fan Changyu instinctively avoided that question and asked instead, "So Wei Yan wanted my parents dead to avenge General Xie?"
But He Jingyuan shook his head. "After Jinzhou fell, your grandfather took his own life in atonement. Whether there were hidden circumstances behind the delayed reinforcements remains unknown to this day. But the Prime Minister did order your father to kill your mother back then. Unable to do it, your father faked their deaths to escape, coming to me for help to forge new identities and hide."
"Yet after more than a decade, the Prime Minister suddenly issued orders to hunt them down again—this time to retrieve an item."
Fan Changyu looked up at him in surprise.
What came next seemed difficult for He Jingyuan to voice. He looked at her with visible strain. "When the Prime Minister sent me to kill your parents, they seemed to have anticipated that day. They only begged me to spare you and your sister, then gave me a box, instructing me not to open it but to give it to the Prime Minister when he asked. After saying this... they took their own lives before me."
Fan Changyu's hands and feet turned cold. She'd never imagined that behind the truth of her parents' deaths lay such heavy secrets.
He Jingyuan said, "The assassination attempts on your family were the Prime Minister's men searching for that box."Being bombarded with so much explosive information at once, Fan Changyu felt a dull ache in her temples as she struggled to sort through her thoughts.
What the world knew now was that her maternal grandfather's failure in grain transportation had led to the disastrous defeat at Jinzhou. But her father had once been Wei Yan's subordinate, ordered by Wei Yan to kill her mother, only to later betray Wei Yan and fake their deaths to escape with her mother.
And whatever her parents had in their possession was something Wei Yan would chase them down to retrieve even after more than a decade.
So her grandfather's grain transportation failure might also be connected to Wei Yan?
But Wei Yan was just a minister at the time. Those trapped in Jinzhou included not only the Chengde Crown Prince but also his brother-in-law General Xie. What could he have gained from orchestrating all this?
Yet recalling how Xie Zheng had said Wei Yan was his enemy and nearly killed him, and how Wei Yan now held immense power, even overshadowing the imperial family, Changyu felt her speculation wasn't wrong.
If Wei Yan had nothing to hide, why would he want Xie Zheng dead?
It seemed her grandfather's grain transportation failure truly had something to do with Wei Yan.
After a long silence, Changyu asked He Jingyuan, "Back in Lin'an Town, when my family was attacked, troops arrived just in time to protect us. Was that your doing?"
He Jingyuan nodded.
Changyu knew the only clues likely lay in that box her parents left. After some hesitation, she asked, "Have you seen the contents of my parents' box?"
He Jingyuan wore a bitter, self-mocking expression. "Had I seen it, not only would the Chancellor have killed you and your sister, but even I wouldn't have escaped with my life."
After a pause, Changyu voiced her suspicion: "My grandfather's delayed grain delivery that cost the battle—Wei Yan was behind it, wasn't he?"
He Jingyuan sighed. "The blame for Jinzhou's defeat was entirely pinned on your grandfather. When discussing it with Grand Tutor Tao, we both felt Old General Meng was too cautious a man to not understand Jinzhou's situation then—too foolish to risk delaying military operations to rescue those hundred thousand trapped refugees. But how your father came to possess evidence against the Chancellor... that's what's truly worth pondering."
Changyu understood his implication—
Her grandfather couldn't have made such a mistake, meaning her father might have been Wei Yan's pawn. That would explain why her father possessed something Wei Yan would kill to retrieve even after so many years.
This realization brought little comfort.
While her grandfather wasn't the true culprit, because her father served as someone else's pawn, he'd borne the infamy for years. Just thinking about it made Changyu's chest tighten.
In her memories, her father had always been silent and inarticulate, rarely smiling. Even as a pork vendor, he was terrible at haggling. Only around her mother did his expressions come alive.
He quietly did countless things to clumsily please her mother. Because her mother feared the cold and couldn't find genuine mink coats in markets, he'd spend four or five days hunting silver minks in the mountains to make her a fur cloak.
And her mother? Though usually gentle and soft-spoken, when angered, it was another matter entirely.
As a child, Changyu had been disciplined by her mother wielding a broom. When her mother was furious, even her father dared not intervene.It was precisely for this reason that Fan Changyu felt her mother, given her temperament, would never have chosen to live in seclusion with her father after learning he had harmed her maternal grandfather.
She suddenly asked He Jingyuan, "Lord He, did my mother know the secret in that box when she passed?"
He Jingyuan recalled the scene of the couple taking their own lives one after another in the snow, a lingering sorrow in his heart. He nodded and said, "The lady was very composed. She must have known."
Fan Changyu then said with certainty, "If my father had harmed my grandfather, my mother would never have forgiven him. There might be more to what happened back then."
He Jingyuan was somewhat surprised. He wanted to speak but couldn't suppress the itch in his throat, coughing for a while before saying, "Grand Tutor Tao also raised doubts. But it's been seventeen years. Apart from these conjectures, there's no solid evidence to go on. Even if we wanted to investigate, there's no way to start. That's why Grand Tutor Tao decided to go to the capital to see the Prime Minister in person. Unfortunately, there's been no word from him since."
He looked at Fan Changyu and spoke earnestly, "I've heard a thing or two about you and the Marquis. I've thought about keeping these matters buried, taking them to my grave when I die. The affairs of the older generation should be laid to rest with them... dust to dust, earth to earth.
"But I fear... if the truth comes to light later, the enmity of a father's death is not something anyone can easily overlook. Rather than waiting until it's beyond repair, it's better to tell you all this now and let you make your own choices."
Fan Changyu's heart was a tumult of emotions. She knelt by He Jingyuan's bedside and solemnly kowtowed to him. "Thank you, Lord He."
He Jingyuan covered his mouth with his hand, coughing for a long while before gasping out, "If you don't hate me, call me Uncle. Your father and I were sworn brothers. The swordplay you use was something we created together back then."
Fan Changyu looked at this man who seemed to be nearing the end of his days, a faint sting in her eyes, and called out, "Uncle."
He Jingyuan seemed to have waited many years for this moment. His smile deepened the wrinkles on his face as he responded, "Yes."
Leaving the central military tent, Fan Changyu felt as if even breathing was a burden.
She didn't see Xie Wu outside the tent and, after searching around, asked the personal guard stationed there, "Have you seen the young man who came with me?"
The guard replied, "The tall lad? He left in that direction about a quarter of an hour ago."
Fan Changyu frowned. Xie Wu had been by her side for some time and had never been so discourteous before.
Suddenly, as if struck by a thought, she hurried in the direction the guard had indicated.
But she hadn't gone far when she saw Xie Wu walking toward her.
The real Xie Wu.
Not as tall as the one she'd seen when she first woke up, and walking unsteadily, likely due to his injuries. When he saw her, he called out, "Squad leader."
He didn't dare meet her eyes directly, scratching the back of his head with an embarrassed smile as he explained why he'd left early. "I... I've been drinking a lot of water with my medicine these past couple of days. I just went to find the latrine..."
But Fan Changyu didn't listen to his excuses. Instead, she tore off the bandage wrapped around her hand, grabbed him by the collar, and demanded, "Where is he?"
If they'd brought the real Xie Wu here, he must have left some time ago.Fan Changyu's grip was unusually strong, and the wound on her hand from catching Changxin Wang's blade earlier began to bleed again. Yet her gaze was chillingly cold.
Xie Wu had never seen Fan Changyu like this before. Shocked and worried her injury might worsen, he hurriedly said, "The master has left the camp."
Without hesitation, Fan Changyu abandoned Xie Wu and went after Xie Zheng.
She had been careless. When she first woke up, her mind was still foggy, and too much information had distracted her. She had sensed something was off but failed to realize that Xiao Wu was actually Xie Zheng in disguise.
Why had he come to the battlefield to save her, only to hide his identity? Why even stay by her side under another guise?
Instinct told her Xie Zheng must have uncovered something about the events seventeen years ago before arriving, which led him to act this way.
She didn’t know what good it would do to chase after him now or what she could even say. But a voice inside her insisted she had to.
At the very least, she owed him an apology on behalf of the deceased elders.
And she needed to tell him that even if he chose to end their relationship over his father’s grudge, she would keep investigating.
It didn’t matter if he couldn’t understand why she believed her father had never betrayed her mother or grandfather based on her mother’s attitude—she would keep searching for the truth.
She would also kill Wei Yan to avenge her parents.
Once, he had reached out to her, but she hesitated, daunted by the obstacles ahead. Silently, he had paved the way for her.
Now, if he wanted to stop, she would keep moving forward—until she could lay the truth before him and prove that none of it had to stand between them.
Fan Changyu chased all the way to the camp’s entrance but saw no sign of Xie Zheng. After asking the guards if anyone had left, she learned a one-eyed, scar-faced man had ridden out not long ago. Borrowing a horse, she set off in pursuit.
Fortunately, her reputation in the Jizhou army carried enough weight that the guards not only let her pass but regarded her with reverence.
The wound on her hand was deep, and the pain turned her face pale as she mounted the horse. Ignoring the fresh blood soaking through the bandage, she cracked the whip and shouted, "Hyah!"
The warhorse surged forward. After galloping four or five li, she finally spotted a lone rider on a distant slope.
Not daring to call his real name for fear of drawing trouble, she shouted instead, "Yan Zheng!"
The figure on horseback seemed to glance back. Digging her heels into the horse’s flank, she closed the distance in a few breaths until she could see him clearly.
Even with one eye covered by a patch and a scarred face mask, Fan Changyu recognized him instantly.
Her horse slowed to a walk as she approached.
Gripping the reins, she met Xie Zheng’s gaze across the distance. Her throat tightened, and her voice came out hoarse. "You came to see me, but didn’t want me to know?"
Xie Zheng remained motionless atop his horse, watching her in silence.
His dark phoenix eyes were fathomless, his posture straight and unyielding—like a weathered cliff standing firm against wind and sun, exuding a cold, unshakable resolve honed by time.
Fan Changyu’s voice trembled. "Lord He told me everything today. You already knew, didn’t you?"
At last, Xie Zheng answered, slow and heavy. "Yes."After interrogating Zhao Xun, he had already guessed most of it, though he hadn't dared to believe it yet.
Today, after hearing the conversation between He Jingyuan and her, everything was finally settled.
—The worst possible outcome he had anticipated ever since interrogating Zhao Xun and learning of Grand Tutor Tao's disappearance.
Fan Changyu looked at him with reddened eyes, choking back sobs as she said, "I'm sorry."
Then she continued, "My grandfather would never betray General Xie, and my father would never do anything to betray my mother. Whether you believe it or not, what happened back then definitely wasn't what you think..."
A sorrow and fear she had never known before overwhelmed her, making her explanation come out in a jumbled mess. She tried hard to steady her voice, but by the end, it was choked nearly to silence.
"Fan Changyu," Xie Zheng suddenly called her name.
Changyu lifted her tear-filled eyes in a daze to meet his gaze.
Xie Zheng's dark eyes showed no emotion whatsoever as he said, "Let it be. From now on, I'll only regard you as a junior fellow disciple."
He would never love another girl like this in his lifetime. But his father's death had been a mountain weighing on his heart all these years, a nightmare that haunted his entire childhood and youth.
The murder of his father—he simply couldn't let it go so lightly.
If there had truly been some hidden truth about what happened back then, Wei Yan wouldn't have been in such a hurry to kill He Jingyuan or detain Grand Tutor Tao.
But even if he learned that her father had most likely been Wei Yan's lackey, he still couldn't bring himself to harm her in the slightest.
Uprooting someone planted in your heart, roots and all, truly hurt like hell.
Then stay far away.
He would give her connections and military merits.
Never seeing each other again in this life would be for the best.
Hearing his words, Changyu stared at him in disbelief, her breath trembling, large teardrops falling uncontrollably. "It's really not like that..." she murmured.
Xie Zheng met her gaze, his hand gripping the reins so tightly it turned white.
He had always hated seeing her cry.
She was like poison to him—when she cried, it made him want to kill.
He wanted to hold her.
To coax her, tell her not to cry.
But with the metallic taste of blood from biting his molars and the whites of his visible eye tinged red, he ultimately couldn't say a word.
In his life, before being haunted by endless nightmares, he had briefly known familial love.
He couldn't remember the face of the man who died in battle at Jinzhou, gutted and hung on the city walls, but he still recalled him teaching martial arts in the garden. He remembered the corpse full of holes brought back in a coffin.
Before hanging herself, that woman had washed the body—sixty-seven arrow wounds alone, countless sword and knife injuries.
They said when the Northern Turks gutted him, only weeds and roots came out.
That woman had cried herself unconscious countless times holding that corpse. When conscious, she only repeated to him: take revenge.
With no reinforcements or supplies coming, his father had died in Jinzhou in that brutal way when he was just a child.
All these years, he had never forgotten—to take revenge.
Xie Zheng stared fixedly at Changyu, watching her cry as if his own chest were being torn open, waves of pain lancing through him.
Even if she stabbed him multiple times, he could still hold her tight without letting go.
But her father had helped Wei Yan kill his!
Xie Zheng's jaw clenched tightly as his bloodshot eyes remained locked on Changyu. "Don't cry," he said softly, voice barely audible.
He seemed to want to comfort her, but only made the redness in his eyes deepen. "When I uncovered this truth, it took me days before I dared come see you."He removed his blindfold and mask, as if wanting to take one last good look at her before leaving. "I also wish your father wasn't the mastermind behind it all, but I couldn't find any evidence proving his innocence. On the contrary, He Jingyuan nearly got silenced on the battlefield just like I did back then. The Old Man was detained when he went to the capital, and your father held evidence that could threaten Wei Yan..."
His dark eyes were filled with broken fragments as he gazed at Fan Changyu: "Tell me, how can I believe your father wasn't the mastermind?"
Fan Changyu's tears fell even harder.
She wanted to explain further but found herself at a loss for words. Her parents had been deeply in love, but that wasn't proof enough to convince Xie Zheng of her father's innocence.
Xie Zheng's gaze fell on her hand, where the bandage was stained red with blood. "I just bandaged this—how did it get like this again?" he said.
His tone was scolding, yet he lowered his eyes just as before, unwrapping the bandage to apply medicine. He tore strips from his own robe to wrap around her hand, calmly instructing, "Don't get it wet or lift anything heavy until it heals..."
"Xie Zheng."
The person before him called his name with a sob, a clear teardrop landing on his hand.
Her entire body trembled.
Xie Zheng's hand stiffened slightly. Silently, he tied the bandage securely before suddenly cupping the back of her head and kissing her fiercely.
More violent than any kiss before, his lips and tongue ravaged hers with a desperate, almost mad intensity.
Fan Changyu even tasted blood—and the salt of tears.
But just as abruptly, he pulled away.
Forehead pressed to hers, he let her see all the love, hatred, and unwillingness in his eyes.
"Fan Changyu," he said, "the man who died in Jinzhou, who was gutted and left exposed—that was my father. I can choose not to hate, but I can't allow myself to keep loving the daughter of Wei Qilin. This is the best path I can choose for you."
Cradling her face in both hands, he gently wiped away her tears even as his words remained resolute: "If I kill Wei Yan and survive, I'll never leave the northern frontier again. I won't see you for the rest of my life. When you marry someday, don't let me know."
He laughed at himself, but his eyes were dark, devoid of any light. "I know what kind of person I am. If I ever regret today's decision, I'd drag you into my coffin and bury us together—even if it kills me."
Looking at her, he added in an almost inaudible whisper, "I'd do it."
Whether he was saying it to Fan Changyu or himself was unclear.
Fan Changyu stood frozen, only her tears continuing to fall silently.
Perhaps afraid of frightening her, Xie Zheng gently stroked her cheek with his thumb before murmuring softly, "I'm leaving."
With that, he withdrew his hand and spurred his horse away.
As if staying even a moment longer would make him change his mind.
Only when Xie Zheng had ridden far into the distance did Fan Changyu snap out of her daze. "Stop right there!" she shouted.
Against all odds, the distant figure actually reined in his horse at her command.
Seeing this only made the bitterness in her chest swell even more.
Taking a deep breath, she declared, "I'll uncover the truth of what happened back then. I'll clear my grandfather's name after seventeen years of slander—and give your father, and all the innocent soldiers who died in Jinzhou, the justice they deserve."
Without waiting for Xie Zheng's response, she turned her horse around and galloped back the way she came, cracking her whip fiercely.
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