Chasing Jade (Zhu Yu)

Fan Changyu was stunned.

She only snapped back to her senses when a sharp pain came from her lips. Humiliated and angry, her other hand instinctively swung toward his face, but as if he had anticipated it, he easily intercepted her hand, pulling her more forcefully toward him. His hard chest and a pair of iron-like arms bound her tightly.

Fan Changyu had never been treated like this before. She struggled with brute force, but he neutralized her efforts with skillful leverage.

In her fury, she put all her strength into her teeth. As she bit down, Xie Zheng hissed softly. When they separated, there was blood on his lip. He frowned. "You—"

Before he could finish, Fan Changyu had already slammed her head forward, her forehead hitting his nose squarely. A dull ache spread from the bridge of his nose, forcing him to release one hand to cover it. In the next instant, Fan Changyu’s free hand landed a vicious punch on the corner of his eye.

Though in pain, Xie Zheng did not let go of her other hand. He yanked her backward, twisted her arms behind her back, and pinned her against the wall, pressing his body against her. His tone was somewhat cold. "Are you that aggrieved?"

Fan Changyu wanted to bite him to death. Her previously injured wrist made it impossible for her to break free from his hold for the moment.

She cursed, "What madness has gotten into you? If you're looking for a woman, the brothels are full of them willing to do business with you. What kind of person do you take me for?"

Xie Zheng's head snapped up, his dark eyes deep and gloomy. "Is that what you think of me?"

Pinned and unable to move, Fan Changyu was so humiliated and furious that sparks nearly flew from her eyes. "What do you think you were just doing? Taking advantage of my predicament!"

Xie Zheng was probably so incensed that he let out a low laugh. "Taking advantage of your predicament? If I truly wanted to take advantage of you, I wouldn't have waited until now."

He released her and took a step back, the curve of his lips cold. "You just can't let go of that ex-fiancé of yours, can you? Any man you find in the future has to be similar to him? Have you learned nothing at all?"

Having just been taken advantage of by him, hearing his sarcastic, lecturing tone now made her heart burn with rage. Before she knew it, she had swung another punch at his face. "Whether I can let go or not, what does it have to do with you?"

Xie Zheng neither dodged nor evaded, taking the full force of her powerful punch. The corner of his lip split open, and the flush that spread across half his face was unexpectedly bewitching against his jade-like features.

After landing the punch, Fan Changyu herself was taken aback. She knew exactly how much force she had put into it.

Why… why didn't he dodge?

Xie Zheng pressed his tongue against the cut on his lip, tasting a faint metallic flavor. He turned his head to look at Fan Changyu and asked, "Aren't you going to continue?"

Fan Changyu couldn't describe the feeling in her heart at that moment. Her knuckles still ached faintly; his face must be in a worse state.

But he had done such a thing to her, and she couldn't bring herself to apologize. She pressed her lips together tightly and turned to go back into the house.

But unexpectedly, the man who was a step away closed the distance like a phantom. Fan Changyu only saw his alarmingly dark eyes before he cupped the back of her head and kissed her again.

Her scalp was about to explode. Having lost the initiative, she was constrained at every turn. In the struggle, she was pressed against the wall. He seized both her hands and held them above her head, using his superior size to pin her down. As he lowered his head, his breath, unlike its usual light scent, fanned across her face. The kiss was even more savage and rough than the last.

Fan Changyu bit him hard in a fit of rage, but he quickly clamped down on her jaw. Using some unknown trick, he prevented her from biting down again. Yet he had no intention of retreating. Instead, he used the opportunity to force her teeth apart, sweeping his tongue inside her mouth several times.

When it was over, Fan Changyu was panting unevenly. Her mind, momentarily starved of oxygen, forgot to punch him again. She could only stare at him in disbelief.

Xie Zheng released her, wiped the blood from his lips with his forefinger, and said, "Now, this is taking advantage of your predicament."

The fury of being offended and violated shot straight to Fan Changyu's head. The moment Xie Zheng released his hold on her and stepped back, she drew the boning knife she always carried and pressed it to his neck. "Who do you think you are, that you can humiliate me as you please?"

Xie Zheng leaned casually against a wooden pillar. Even with a knife at his throat, his expression remained unchanged. Only when he heard her words did he raise his eyes, his expression uncharacteristically serious. "Instead of having poor judgment and finding another ingrate in the future, you might as well be with me."

The moment these words were spoken, not only Fan Changyu but Xie Zheng himself was slightly stunned. This was immediately followed by the numbing pleasure of reason being forcibly shattered.

That's right. Instead of her marrying someone else in the future, wouldn't it be better to keep her by his side?

Having made the opening, the words that followed seemed to come more easily. He fell silent for a moment, then said slowly, "I have a very powerful enemy out there. I might die at his hands, or he might die and I might live. If you're willing, wait for me for two years. If I die, someone will come to deliver a message to you. It won't be too late for you to remarry then."

Fan Changyu stared at him coldly. "You keep calling Song Yan an ingrate, but how are you any better than him? You take liberties with me, and then you tell me you have feelings for me?"

She sheathed her knife. The anger of being violated temporarily overshadowed all other emotions. She raised her sleeve and wiped her lips forcefully. "I hit you, so we can consider it even. The things are on the table. As soon as the city gates are unsealed, you should leave."

Xie Zheng watched her retreating back as she returned to the house, unable to even muster a cold, sharp curve on his lips.

So, he had been rejected?

A man who had only ever suffered one defeat in his life, on the battlefields of Chongzhou, had now tasted defeat in another arena.

He didn't take the things from the table in the main hall. He stood leaning against a porch pillar for a while before leaving the Fan family's courtyard.

Because of the recent siege by the rebels of Qingping County, and the current martial law imposed by the authorities, the streets of Lin'an Town were desolate. There were almost no farmers from the countryside coming to the market.

Xie Zheng wandered aimlessly to the pine forest by the river outside of town. The ground was covered in a foot of snow. The river, fed by the undulating terrain, flowed swiftly. The thin layer of ice that had just formed on its surface the previous night had already shattered, and only the tinkling sound of a mountain spring could be heard.

He lay down on a gentle slope in the snow, pillowing one arm behind his head, and stared blankly at the distant, faint outline of Lin'an Town.

He hadn't panicked when he was plotted against and on the brink of death on the Chongzhou battlefield. He hadn't felt fear when he luckily escaped with his life, pursued by martial assassins for over a hundred li. After falling off a cliff and being carried by the river to Jizhou, he had woken up on the riverbank, endured his many sword wounds, high fever, and the cold to search for a village, only to collapse in a field and be picked up by that woman.

Back then, all he had been plotting was how to stabilize the situation in the northwest and then, step by step, exact his revenge on the Wei family.

When did he start to become reluctant to leave?

That small house was always bustling with noise, full of the warmth of life. He had seen too many spines bent by hardship, but that woman, even if the sky were to fall, would straighten her slender back to bear it.

Perhaps… it had just been too long since anyone had been so purely good to him?

The tangerine peel candy when he drank his medicine, the red envelope for the New Year… A mocking smile crept onto Xie Zheng's lips. For a moment, the phrase "wagging his tail for pity" came to mind.

She was probably just too kind-hearted. Even if it hadn't been him she saved that day, but anyone else, she would have cared for them just as diligently, buying candy, preparing a New Year red envelope…

She was good to him because he was pitiful, not because she had any romantic feelings for him.

His words, "be with me," had truly become a joke.

A man who had been proud for half his life was not quite willing to admit to this joke of a failure.

In the sky, a gyrfalcon circled, crying out as if searching for someone.

This time, Xie Zheng did not whistle for a long while. He turned his head slightly and saw, near the riverbank where most of the snow had melted, a tender green sprout had broken through the snow. It stood, emerald green, amidst the vast whiteness.

Ice melts, spring streams flow; snow thaws, grass sprouts grow.

This was the New Year couplet he had written for her.

He watched it for a while, then lowered his gaze and sat up halfway. He plucked the sprout, tossed it into the rushing current, and silently watched as the river swept it away.

If his heart was in turmoil, he just had to pluck it out.

The gyrfalcon circling in the sky finally spotted him. As it swooped down, Xie Zheng did not raise his hand to receive it. The gyrfalcon landed and stood for a moment. Seeing that Xie Zheng did not retrieve the message, it tilted its head to look at him, then walked closer and gently pecked the back of his hand with its beak.

Xie Zheng raised his hand and smoothed the feathers on the gyrfalcon's head, his gaze still fixed on the distant current. After a long while, he finally took the paper from its leg.

He scanned it quickly. The paper turned to dust in his fingertips. He took one last look at the distant Lin'an Town and said, "Let's go. It's time to go back."

Jizhou.

An urgent report from Jinzhou was delivered to the Jizhou Prefecture yamen. All the officials who read it were greatly alarmed.

"The Northern Turks have really attacked Jinzhou!"

"Thankfully, the Wu'an Marquis did not perish in Chongzhou. With the Wu'an Marquis guarding Jinzhou, the Northern Turk barbarians will probably be terrified at the mere mention of his name!"

Seated at the head of the council hall, He Jingyuan's face was as grim as water. Before he could say a word, another guard reported from outside the hall, "Lucheng is in peril! Changxin Wang's general, Guo Xinhou, is leading fifty thousand troops to besiege Lucheng!"

At these words, the officials in the hall erupted into an even greater uproar.

How long had it been since the Changxin Wang's heir, with a group of martial assassins disguised as farmers, had instigated the people of Qingping County to rebel?

If the rebellion in Qingping County had not been suppressed and the common people had truly revolted, Lucheng, being the first line of military defense bordering Chongzhou, would have been caught between two fires, with Qingping County right behind it.

An official cursed, "This is clearly a premeditated plot by the rebels! With Jinzhou in peril, the Wu'an Marquis's heavy troops stationed in Huizhou will surely be transferred to Jinzhou, leaving him with no strength to deal with the rebels! The rebels are trying to use this opportunity to swallow up the northwest!"

A military official said, "The urgent matter at hand is that the rebels are already at the gates of Lucheng. We must figure out how to defend Jizhou."

If Lucheng fell, Jizhou would lose its shield.

Amidst the clamor, He Jingyuan said, "Guo Xinhou is a veteran general, skilled in the art of war. I will personally go to Lucheng to oversee the defense."

"Your Excellency, you absolutely must not! Lucheng is perilous right now. The rebels have fifty thousand troops pressing down, while Lucheng has only twenty thousand. If any harm should befall you, we would be guilty beyond redemption!"

Amidst a chorus of "you must nots," He Jingyuan raised his hand, signaling the officials to say no more. He said, "Is it perilous for me to go, but not for the soldiers defending Lucheng? If I go, the rebels will be wary of me, and Lucheng will actually be less perilous. This will also give you all enough time to conscript more soldiers from the populace."

As soon as the meeting concluded, cavalrymen with conscription orders galloped toward the various prefectures and counties.

Lin'an Town.

Fan Changyu had been stewing in anger all afternoon because of Xie Zheng's insolence.

She opened the book on the table, hoping to distract herself, but when she saw the densely packed annotations in small characters, a lump of frustration lodged in her chest, unable to go up or down.

All the annotations in this book were written by him during those nights he stayed up late.

As her anger slowly subsided, the thought of him saying he might die at his enemy's hands left a sour taste in her mouth.

Had he been saying he had to leave all this time because he was burdened by a great feud?

She walked out of her room. Passing through the main hall, she saw that the pile of things she had prepared for him was still on the table. The divorce papers were there too. Both copies only had her name on them; he hadn't signed or stamped them. Her feelings grew even more complicated.

Changning and Yu Bao'er had gone out to play with the other children in the alley and hadn't returned yet.

Fan Changyu walked to the door of the south room. After a moment's hesitation, she knocked.

There was no answer from within.

Fan Changyu pressed her lips together, knocked twice more, and called out, "Yan Zheng, are you there?"

She was met with silence again.

Thinking that she had spoken harshly in her anger and that Yan Zheng might have left without a word, Fan Changyu pushed the door open forcefully. When she saw that none of his personal belongings had been taken, her heart finally settled back into place.

So he had probably just gone out to clear his head?

Fan Changyu closed the door and was about to return to her room when she heard a clamor of crying and shouting, mixed with the curses of soldiers, from outside the alley.

"Sir! Sir! He's my only son! Please have pity on us, mother and son…"

"The rebels are about to attack Jizhou! If the young men don't go to the battlefield, are we to wait for the rebels to come and slaughter everyone in Jizhou?"

Fan Changyu's heart skipped a beat. She opened the courtyard gate to look out and saw armored soldiers with sharp weapons barging into houses one by one to seize the men.

The one sitting on the ground, wailing for all she was worth, was Kang Popo.

She clung to her son and wouldn't let go, but she was no match for the strength of several able-bodied soldiers. Her son was dragged away by them.

Kang Popo howled, "My son, don't be afraid! I'll go to the Song family and find Scholar Song. I'll have him plead with the county magistrate to let you come back."

The moment Fan Changyu saw that these soldiers were wearing the uniforms of the Jizhou Prefecture army, she knew that pleading with the county magistrate would be useless, unless the magistrate was willing to humble himself and cozy up to the officer in charge of conscription, offering some benefits.

She immediately began to worry about Yan Zheng.

Once conscripted, they could only return home when the war was over. More likely, they would die on the battlefield, perhaps without even a place for their bones to be buried.

The children playing outside saw the commotion and no longer dared to be mischievous, each running back to their own homes.

Changning led Yu Bao'er to their gate, and they both hid behind Fan Changyu, peeking out with only half their heads, timidly watching the soldiers who had stormed into the alley.

Changning looked up at Fan Changyu nervously and asked, "Big Sister, Yanzi's big brother was taken by those soldiers. Will they take Brother-in-law too?"

Fan Changyu had no answer. This was also the first time she had witnessed a conscription.

She had heard from Aunt Zhao that one could pay silver to avoid conscription, but this time it didn't seem to be an option.

She herded the two children into the courtyard, saying, "You two go inside first."

She had just closed the courtyard gate when the platoon leader from the alley arrived at her gate with the soldiers.

According to the dynasty's laws, the populace was organized into squads of five households and platoons of ten. Taxes and conscription were carried out based on these units of ten neighboring households. If anyone harbored a fugitive, all ten households would be held jointly responsible.

The platoon leader looked embarrassed as he reported Fan Changyu's household situation truthfully to the soldier: "This is the head of this household. Her surname is Fan, name is Changyu. She has a live-in husband."

The soldier was surprised to hear he was a live-in husband. Seeing only Fan Changyu outside and the courtyard gate shut tight, his expression soured. He barked, "Where is your husband?"

Fan Changyu's lips tightened. If she said at this moment that she and Yan Zheng were already divorced, but Yan Zheng hadn't yet put his fingerprint on the divorce papers in the house, she would undoubtedly be pushing the other nine households into a fiery pit.

But if she let Yan Zheng be taken away, it would be an undeserved disaster for him.

After careful consideration, Fan Changyu answered truthfully, "He is not at home."

The soldier seemed accustomed to this excuse. With a hostile expression, he raised his foot to kick the door. The soldier next to him, holding a register, was apparently literate. He had already found Fan Changyu's entry in the Lin'an Town roster and quickly stopped his companion. "Wait."

He looked at the roster again, then at Fan Changyu. "Fan Changyu, is that right?"

Fan Changyu replied, neither servile nor overbearing, "That is I."

The literate soldier said to his companion, "Her husband is already on the conscription list. He must have been among the batch we rounded up on the road just now."

Fan Changyu's heart pounded wildly. She asked quickly, "My husband has already been taken away? Sir, are you sure you're not mistaken?"

The literate soldier glanced at the roster and said, "Isn't your husband named Yan Zheng?"

Hearing that name, Fan Changyu's last shred of hope vanished.

She said in a hoarse voice, "That is my husband."

The platoon leader led the soldiers to knock on the next door. Fan Changyu sank to the ground by her courtyard gate, her hands and feet cold.

With Yan Zheng's skills, the soldiers couldn't have stopped him if he wanted to leave.

He had read so many books and was well-versed in the law. He must have willingly let the soldiers take him away because he was afraid of implicating the other nine neighboring households, right?

Fan Changyu thought of the pile of things she had prepared on the table in the house, and their recent unhappy parting. A heavy, suffocating feeling grew in her chest, a mix of guilt and something else.

She sat numbly for a moment, then, as if remembering something, she raised her head and asked the soldier who was knocking on the next door, "Sir, where is my husband now? Can I see him one more time? He was taken away while he was out, and I want to give him some things."

The soldier glanced at Fan Changyu and said, "The batch rounded up on the road has already been escorted to the county town. They're about to head to Lucheng with the main army. If you hurry now, there's no telling if you'll be able to catch up."

Upon hearing this, Fan Changyu said her thanks, entrusted Changning and Yu Bao'er to a neighbor, rushed into the house to grab the bundle of things from the table, stuffed two more bags of tangerine peel candy inside, and hurried off toward the county town.

Finding the ox-cart too slow, she borrowed a horse from someone. But when she reached the county town gate, she was still a step too late. The first batch of conscripts from the county had already left for Lucheng with the garrison.

Except for those on the conscription list, unauthorized people were still not allowed to enter or leave Qingping County easily.

The snow was falling heavily. Fan Changyu stood at the city gate, holding the large bundle and leading the horse, gazing at the official road that stretched into the distance beyond the gate's archway.

Her chest felt terribly tight. She led the horse and walked back without a word.

On the way, someone bumped into her, and the contents of her bundle scattered all over the ground. Fan Changyu silently picked them up one by one. When she got to the two bags of tangerine peel candy, she picked one up and put it in her mouth.

It's a good thing I didn't catch up, she thought. These two bags of candy I bought are too sour, not as sweet as the previous ones.

Even if I had given them to Yan Zheng, he probably wouldn't have liked them.

After gathering her things, as Fan Changyu hung the bundle on the saddle, she rested her head against it for a long while.

How did it end like this?

She was angry with him, but he had been conscripted and taken away without even a single word of farewell. She couldn't help but feel that she owed him.

On her way back to town, she happened upon the second batch of soldiers escorting newly conscripted men to the county town.

Family members followed, weeping and wailing, while the conscripts, their own eyes red, repeatedly told their families to stop following.

Fan Changyu noticed that the elderly Zhao Mu Jiang was also in the crowd.

She couldn't help but call out, "Uncle Zhao, why are you going to Lucheng too?"

Zhao Mu Jiang's old face was wrinkled with bitterness. "I blame this old man for choosing the wrong trade. A veterinarian in my youth, a carpenter in my old age. Those military sirs said that in the army, I can treat warhorses and also build siege equipment."

The soldiers brandished their whips, urging the crowd to move faster.

Fearing that Uncle Zhao, at his age, would die of exhaustion just from the journey, Fan Changyu hesitated for a moment before saying, "Uncle Zhao, take this horse!"

When the soldier saw Fan Changyu approaching, he was about to shoo her away, but upon hearing she was giving a horse, he immediately turned a blind eye.

A horse was a valuable asset. It could carry a person or goods, and if they were attacked, riding a horse could mean a faster escape and a chance to save one's life.

Zhao Mu Jiang refused. "This horse is so valuable, how could I?"

Fan Changyu handed the horse's reins to Zhao Mu Jiang. "Please take it. The things in the bundle are for Yan Zheng. I didn't catch up to him. Uncle Zhao, if you see Yan Zheng in Lucheng, please help me give these things to him."

Hearing this, Zhao Mu Jiang no longer refused. He felt sorry for the young couple and said, "Don't you worry. As long as this old bag of bones is still alive, I will definitely deliver the things to him for you."

Fan Changyu watched Zhao Mu Jiang walk away before heading back to town on foot. She took out some silver to pay for the horse.

When she went to Aunt Zhao's house to pick up Changning and Yu Bao'er, Aunt Zhao, upon hearing that Fan Changyu had bought a horse for Zhao Mu Jiang, wept as she expressed her gratitude.

If a conscript brought his own horse, it was considered the soldier's private property. In the military camp, they would most likely be assigned to the cavalry.

Even if their physique was weaker and they couldn't join the cavalry, they wouldn't be treated poorly.

After comforting Aunt Zhao for a while, Fan Changyu took Changning and Yu Bao'er home. The two children, perhaps because someone was missing from the house, were no longer boisterous. Enveloped in this silence, Fan Changyu felt more and more that the house had become strangely cold and empty.

How strange. It wasn't as if Yan Zheng was a talkative person.

Why was it that now that he was gone, everything suddenly felt different?

Fan Changyu went to the south room to tidy up. She found that the desk he had used was very neat, requiring almost no cleaning from her.

On the corner of the desk lay a pair of leather vambraces, alongside tools like files, with a sheet of paper tucked beneath them.

Judging by the size, they didn't seem to belong to Yan Zheng.

Fan Changyu picked up the paper and saw only eight words written on it: "Happy birthday, everlasting joy and no sorrow."

Memories of Yan Zheng asking about her birthday flooded her mind, and suddenly the vambraces in her hands felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

She lowered her gaze to examine them closely and noticed that one appeared to have been meticulously refitted—when fastened around her wrist, the leather fit perfectly.

As she tried to unbuckle the vambraces, whether due to her trembling hands or the lingering ache in her knuckles from punching Yan Zheng earlier, she struggled several times without success.

Giving up, she leaned back in the chair, staring blankly at the vambraces on her hands, feeling an inexplicable emptiness in her chest.