The sun was high in the sky when Tang Peiyi strode into the courtyard where Xie Zheng was staying. The personal guards standing watch outside stopped him. "General Tang, the Marquis was drunk last night and has not yet risen."
Tang Peiyi was puzzled. Xie Zheng was famous in the army for his ability to hold his liquor. He hadn't drunk that much last night, so how could he be drunk?
Despite his internal complaints, he still cupped his fist. "I heard from my men that Young Master Li seems to have left without a word, returning to the capital ahead of schedule. I found it rather odd and came specifically to discuss the matter with the Marquis."
Though he was a gruff man, he could still clearly see the power struggle between the Li and Wei Factions at court. For Li Huaian to leave without a word, not even attending last night's victory banquet, meant something was definitely amiss.
He had now taken command of the troops in both Chongzhou and Jizhou. Whether he leaned toward the Li Faction or the Wei Faction, a single misstep could lead to eternal damnation.
Rather than picking a side so quickly, it was better to first show goodwill to the Wu'an Marquis, who had removed himself from the affair.
For one, in a certain sense, the Wu'an Marquis could be considered his direct superior.
For another, compared to those civil officials who knew nothing of the hardships on the front lines, he felt that the Wu'an Marquis, being a military man himself, would be more considerate of the soldiers under his command.
Hearing Tang Peiyi's purpose, the personal guard outside the courtyard simply said, "We must trouble General Tang to return and wait for a moment. When the Marquis rises, this subordinate will inform him."
Tang Peiyi nodded and started to walk back, but he happened to run into Xie Wu, who was carrying a stack of clean, folded clothes. He had an impression of Xie Wu and immediately called out to him, "Aren't you Commandant Fan's personal guard? What are you doing here?"
Xie Wu's expression stiffened slightly, and he could only stammer out a lie. "The Commandant got drunk last night and is currently resting in the west wing. I... I was getting a change of clothes for the Commandant."
Tang Peiyi said, "The west wing is that way. You've walked all the way to the east wing."
Xie Wu said stiffly, "This subordinate is foolish and unfamiliar with the layout of the residence. I took a wrong turn."
Tang Peiyi waved his hand. "Alright, alright, hurry and deliver them to Commandant Fan."
Xie Wu could only turn on the spot and walk toward the west wing, clutching the set of new clothes.
After passing through a decorated gateway, Tang Peiyi came face to face with Zheng Wenchang, who cupped his fist toward him and said, "Greetings, my lord."
Zheng Wenchang had taken drinks for Fan Changyu last night and ended up drinking quite a bit himself, passing out at the banquet. He had been temporarily settled in a guest room in the residence by the servants.
Tang Peiyi nodded and asked, "Has Wen Chang also just risen?"
Zheng Wenchang said, "I'm ashamed. I drank too much and overslept."
Tang Peiyi had come to find Xie Zheng first thing in the morning before even having his breakfast, having been alerted by his subordinates. He was just about to go eat, so he invited Zheng Wenchang, "Have you had your morning meal? If not, join me for some."
Zheng Wenchang replied, "I've already eaten over in the west wing."
Hearing that Zheng Wenchang was also in the west wing, Tang Peiyi smiled. "What a coincidence. I heard Commandant Fan was also settled over there."
Hearing this, Zheng Wenchang frowned. "The twelve rooms in the west wing are all occupied by generals from the Tiger Might Battalion. Commandant Fan wasn't there, was she?"
Tang Peiyi recalled Xie Wu carrying a set of clean clothes outside Xie Zheng's courtyard, and then thought back to Xie Zheng's uncharacteristic decision last night. His face became a canvas of colorful expressions.
Seeing Tang Peiyi remain silent for a long while, Zheng Wenchang had no choice but to ask again, "Could General Tang have misheard?"
Tang Peiyi finally just mumbled, "Then I must have been mistaken."
A breeze from an unknown source stirred the gauze curtains, filling the room with a pleasant, warm fragrance.
Fan Changyu was pressed into the bedding, the man's forceful and fierce kiss leaving her breathless.
In the air she breathed, besides the faint scent of blood, was his unique, crisp aura, as if it were wrapped in the morning frost of the northern lands.
What had started as a kiss born of intense emotion had, at some point, changed in nature.
Xie Zheng's breathing had already deepened. No longer satisfied with just sucking and kissing her lips and tongue, he held her jaw with one hand and kissed his way from the corner of her mouth to her chin, then down her fragile neck.
Fan Changyu's neck was very sensitive, likely because it was one of the most vulnerable parts of the human body. Her entire body couldn't help but tremble.
Xie Zheng's thin lips pressed tightly against the delicate, thin skin of her neck, almost able to feel the blood surging beneath that layer of flesh.
His eyes grew darker. Unable to restrain the tingling in his teeth and the frantic desire to bite, he seized a small piece of skin and sucked hard until a red mark formed before he was satisfied.
Fan Changyu was dizzy from the kisses, her whole body burning up. A large hand slipped inside her disheveled lapels. When his scorching palm unintentionally touched the three-inch-long knife scar on her abdomen, she suddenly came to her senses, shoved Xie Zheng away, and tightly clutched her lapels.
Pushed away, Xie Zheng froze for only a moment before asking her, "Were you wounded in the battle at Lucheng?"
Fan Changyu silently nodded.
The gash was too long, stretching from above her navel all the way to her left waist. The scab had mostly fallen off, but it left a very obvious scar, its color a stark contrast to the surrounding skin, its shape twisted like a centipede.
She hadn't paid it much mind before, but when Xie Zheng's palm had brushed over it just now, she had pushed him away almost as a reflex.
She couldn't say why, but she just didn't want him to see it.
The desire in Xie Zheng's eyes had completely faded. He gazed quietly at Fan Changyu and said, "Let me see."
When he had gone to see her before, her wounds were already bandaged. He only knew she had also been injured on her abdomen, but he didn't know how bad it was.
His stare made Fan Changyu uncomfortable. She lowered her gaze, avoiding his eyes. "What military officer doesn't have a few scars? There's nothing to see."
She raised her hand to tie the sash of her front lapel, changing the subject. "I'm a little hungry. I wonder if the kitchen saved any food..."
The hand tying the knot was seized. Xie Zheng stared at her and repeated his earlier words, "Let me see."
Fan Changyu was silent for a while before finally releasing her grip on the sash.
So be it. She could hide it from him for a moment, but not for a lifetime.
The standard umber under-robe for military officers was pushed down to her elbows, hanging loosely between her arms. Her shoulders, as if carved, were slender but not frail, subconsciously bringing to mind bamboo growing from a barren rock face—craggy yet resilient.
On her left collarbone was a faint circle of teeth marks he had left long ago. Her chest was bound with plain cloth, forming an alluring curve. Further down, her waist was lean and slender, her firm muscles showing not a trace of excess fat.
It was a different, more extreme kind of beauty than the willow-soft waists of dancing girls, like a strong, aged liquor that, once tasted, made one unable to ever stomach cloying sweet soups again.
Xie Zheng's gaze fell on the centipede-like scar on her left abdomen. He looked at it in silence for a long while before reaching out to touch it. "Does it still hurt?"
Fan Changyu's skin had been exposed to the air for a while and was a little cool. When his warm fingertips suddenly touched it, it felt like an ant crawling over her, both numb and itchy, making her straighten her upper body in discomfort.
She frowned slightly, trying to keep her voice even. "The scab has already fallen off. It stopped hurting long ago."
As soon as she finished, she wanted to pull her lapels closed, but Xie Zheng didn't withdraw his hand. His eyes were half-lowered, making it impossible to see his expression. His calloused palm gently caressed the long, hideous scar. "What were you thinking when you were injured?"
Fan Changyu recalled the perilous situation that day and was lost in thought for a moment. Then she smiled nonchalantly and said, "There was no time to think about anything. I just felt there were so many people on the other side. Sabers, long halberds, axes, all coming for me. The soldiers who charged out of the city with me fell one after another, but I couldn't save them. I couldn't even save myself..."
As she spoke, she felt the hand on her waist and abdomen suddenly tighten, and she was forcefully pulled into the man's embrace.
Her head was forced to rest on Xie Zheng's shoulder. She could clearly feel his muscles tense up, the murderous aura around him so thick it made the air in the room feel thin.
He said in a hoarse voice, "I was late."
Fan Changyu was slightly stunned, then hugged his lean waist back in a comforting gesture. She rested her face against his chest, listening to his strong heartbeat, and said slowly, "I didn't think you would come then. It's too far from Kangcheng to Lucheng. I charged out to stall for time only because I felt that since Lord He had defended the city with his dead body until reinforcements arrived, I could risk my life to buy another moment, any moment. If I died in battle beneath the city walls, even if I couldn't overturn the verdict for my maternal grandfather, when future generations speak of the Meng family, they won't think the entire Meng clan was a bunch of treacherous villains who brought disaster to the country."
The arm around her waist kept tightening, making the bones in her waist ache faintly.
Xie Zheng's other hand pressed the nape of her neck, pulling her even more snugly against him.
Fan Changyu couldn't see his expression, only hearing him say, "From now on, I won't let you face these things alone again."
A mix of joy and sorrow surged in Fan Changyu's heart. She looked up at him and said earnestly, "I will find out the truth of what happened back then. Wei Yan killed my parents; he must know the hidden story of the Jizhou blood case. Now that he has colluded with the rebels and nearly caused Lucheng to fall into their hands, General Tang and the others all say the Wei Faction is about to fall. When we get to the capital, I will declare my true identity in the throne room, force the emperor to interrogate Wei Yan, and bring the truth of the Jizhou blood case from seventeen years ago to light."
Thinking of the Li family's machinations in the battle of Lucheng, Xie Zheng's eyes darkened. He raised a hand to gently stroke the long hair on Fan Changyu's back. "Wei Yan has been scheming for many years. There is more to the Lucheng matter than meets the eye. The Li Faction is currently denouncing Wei Yan, but it's still uncertain who will be the one to fall."
Fan Changyu looked perplexed. After a slight hesitation, Xie Zheng told her about how the Li family had allowed Wei Yan's subordinate to collude with the enemy.
This was a common tactic of the Li family, just like with the flood relief back then.
The more the people suffered and the more corpses littered the fields, the greater the crimes they could pin on Wei Yan.
Once the denunciation of Wei Yan began, the common people would be grateful to them. The word on the street was that the Li family was the leader of the upright faction, but no one knew that it was these very upright gentlemen who had coldly watched them suffer and die.
After listening, Fan Changyu fell into a long silence.
"So many soldiers died in Chongzhou and outside Lucheng. How can their consciences be clear?"
After a long while, she finally murmured, her hands by her sides clenched into fists.
Grand Tutor Li enjoyed a high reputation among the common people. They all said that while Wei Yan committed evil, only Grand Tutor Li wholeheartedly served the people.
It turned out that his entire good name was manufactured.
She suddenly looked up at Xie Zheng. "What about Li Huaian? Did he run away?"
Xie Zheng already knew about the vile things the Li family had done, and Li Huaian had been absent from last night's victory banquet. It was easy for Fan Changyu to guess that Li Huaian had probably fled.
Xie Zheng gave a faint nod. Seeing how furious she was, he added, "I let him go on purpose."
Fan Changyu's brows furrowed. "Why?"
Because of their embrace, the binding on her chest had been loosened slightly. When Xie Zheng unintentionally glanced down, he caught sight of the ample fullness barely contained by the cloth. His throat bobbed, and he averted his gaze. "To have him lead my men to find someone."
Fan Changyu, completely oblivious, was still lost in a fog. "Find who?"
A cold light glinted in Xie Zheng's phoenix eyes. "Sui Yuanhuai. Or rather, he should be called the Eldest Imperial Grandson, Qi Min."
The amount of information in that sentence was so great that Fan Changyu couldn't process it for a moment.
He knew the Sui Yuanhuai who died was a fake?
But how was this connected to the Eldest Imperial Grandson?
Too many questions piled up in her mind, and she couldn't find a thread to start with. She just frowned and asked, "The emperor doesn't even have a son yet, so where did a grandson come from?"
She had, after all, hired several advisors at great expense. Although she hadn't memorized the complex marital and student-teacher relationships of all the civil and military officials at court, she had at least remembered how many people were in the current imperial family.
Xie Zheng choked slightly. "The Eldest Imperial Grandson I'm talking about is a descendant of Chengde Crown Prince."
Fan Changyu was even more confused. "Didn't that Eldest Imperial Grandson die in the fire at the Eastern Palace seventeen years ago?"
She pondered for a moment and quickly figured out the key point. She looked up at him urgently. "Just like the person who died wasn't Sui Yuanhuai, the one who died in the Eastern Palace seventeen years ago wasn't the Eldest Imperial Grandson either, right?"
Because she had suddenly straightened her back, the shadow between her slightly loosened chest bindings appeared even deeper.
Xie Zheng had meant to answer her, but the sight he saw when he looked down made it impossible for him to look away. His mind felt like an overturned jar of paste, all the blood in his body rushing to his scalp. A hunger that shot straight to his marrow surged through him, making him wish he could devour the person before him bite by bite.
Noticing his strange gaze, Fan Changyu looked down and finally realized. She hastily crossed her hands to pull her lapels together, her face as red as a boiled shrimp.
She warned him in shame and anger, "Don't look!"
They had kissed many times, and he had kissed her collarbones and shoulders, but beyond that, he had never crossed any further lines.
Earlier, he had been looking at the wound on her abdomen, his eyes filled only with pity and not a single stray thought, which was why she had let her guard down.
Without a word, Xie Zheng pushed her into the bedding and kissed her to his heart's content. After his breathing had calmed slightly, he raised a pair of eyes filled with desire and aggression. "You'll have to show me sooner or later."
Fan Changyu lost control and slapped him off the bed.
The commotion was probably so loud that the personal guards outside the courtyard noticed. A guard hesitated before knocking on the door and forcing himself to speak. "Master, a team from the Blood-Clad Cavalry has returned."
Xie Zheng seemed to have anticipated the news from the guard. After climbing up from the floor, he passed Fan Changyu her outer soft armor. Despite being hit again, he was in an excellent mood. "Don't be angry. I'll take you to see two people you want to see."
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