As the sun sank in the west, the tattered banners slanted across the battlefield were dyed a bloody crimson tinged with a faint golden glow by the setting sun. The corpses littering the ground created a scene of boundless desolation.
The approaching unit of Iron Cavalry was like a steel blade, thrusting hard into this war-torn land. The rebel soldiers who had just laid down their arms and surrendered grew even more alarmed, huddling together like a flock of lambs to the slaughter.
As they drew nearer, Fan Changyu got a clearer look at the man charging at the very front, all alone. His face was like cold jade, and his eyes, like stars clustered in a fire, were fixed on her like a wolf hunting on the steppes. He whipped his horse viciously and charged toward her.
Seeing this, Fan Changyu’s heart jolted. She murmured to Xie Wu, “Now that he’s closer, how come he looks even more like him?”
Xie Wu was on the verge of tears. Seeing Xie Zheng’s murderous, ferocious expression, he reacted instinctively, “Miss Fan, run!”
Fan Changyu’s helmet had long since fallen off. The small topknot on her head was on the verge of coming undone after her life-or-death struggle with the rebel general, and her messy hair flew about, making her stand out among the grimy soldiers.
She thought Xie Wu’s panic was because her disguise as a man to fight on the battlefield in Yan Zheng’s place had been exposed. Her heart sank. With no time to ponder why the general on horseback looked so much like Yan Zheng, she bolted and ran toward the densest part of the crowd, hoping to hide.
Alas, two legs were no match for four. The large black horse, a head taller than a man, seemed to kick up a gale as it galloped. Before Fan Changyu could even pick up a helmet from the ground to put on, she was hoisted onto the horse by her waist.
She was slung head-down over the front of the saddle, the air knocked out of her. The warhorse immediately galloped back the way it came, and for a moment, all she could see was the surrounding scenery flashing past.
Someone in the Iron Cavalry shouted, “The rebel commander Shi Yue has been slain by the Marquis at the gorge! Here is his head as proof! The army returns in triumph!”
The exhausted Yanzhou Army instantly erupted in a tsunami of cheers.
Snatched onto the horse, Fan Changyu instinctively struggled a couple of times. But she had spent too much energy killing enemies earlier, and a wave of fatigue was now washing over her. Her limbs were sore and weak, and the hand pressing on her back and waist was like an iron clamp, preventing her from thrashing about.
As she struggled, she caught a whiff of a clean, bitter medicinal scent mixed with the thick smell of blood on the man. Fan Changyu’s struggles weakened. She tried hard to turn her head to look at the man on horseback, whose handsome face seemed to be covered in a layer of frost, and called out uncertainly, “Yan Zheng?”
Xie Zheng glanced down at her without a word. His eyes fixed forward, he suddenly kicked the horse’s belly even harder and yelled, “Giddy-up!”
Although the voice was cold, deep, and filled with rage, Fan Changyu could still recognize it as Yan Zheng’s.
She suddenly stopped struggling, hanging on the horse like a dazed goose. Her eyes, reflecting the setting sun and the mountain forest, were filled with nothing but confusion and bewilderment.
Yan Zheng wasn’t a common soldier; he was a general.
Why did he lie to her?
Xie Zheng’s warhorse had already left his retinue of personal guards far behind. On either side of the official road, green mountains and flowing streams kept them company.
Noticing Fan Changyu’s strange quietness, Xie Zheng reined in his horse to slow it down. He reached out to pull her upright, but he didn't expect her to suddenly attack. She twisted her elbow to evade his large hand and sprang up like a leopard, pinning him down on the horse’s back. Her roundish almond eyes blazed with anger as she stared at him and snapped, “You lied to me!”
The coldness on Xie Zheng’s face faltered slightly. “I can explain,” he said.
The sky was growing darker. Fan Changyu looked at the man she had pinned to the horse by his collar. After the anger came a sense of grievance she couldn’t quite name.
She had seen how gravely he was wounded and feared he would die on the battlefield, so she had devised a plan to take his place in secret. But it seemed he had been lying to her from the very beginning.
If his injuries were truly that severe, how could he have lifted her onto the horse with one hand?
Fan Changyu pressed her lips together, anger and that sense of grievance intertwining in her heart. She demanded, “Are you going to explain why you’re a general, or are you going to explain why you lied about your injuries never healing?”
The web of her thumb, which had split open, was bleeding again from the force she was exerting. Xie Zheng felt the warm, sticky sensation and his expression changed before he could answer her question. “You’re injured?”
As he spoke, he grabbed the hand she was using to hold his collar, intending to get up and look at her wound, but Fan Changyu forcefully pushed him back down.
Xie Zheng’s face grew colder. His heart was still pounding, whether from the frantic ride or from some lingering fear, he didn’t know. He suppressed a sliver of anger in his eyes and said, “I can explain everything you mentioned. Let me take you back to have your wound looked at first.”
Fan Changyu’s anger had not subsided. She spat out a few hard words, “None of your business.”
With no one holding the reins, the warhorse had already stopped after trotting for a short distance. After releasing her hold on Xie Zheng, she was about to jump off the horse, but the man behind her suddenly grabbed her waist and pressed her tightly into his embrace.
After she had flipped up, she had been sitting facing him. Now, her waist was squeezed so tightly it felt like it would break, and her jaw was gripped forcefully by one of his hands, the bones aching faintly. His eyes were tinged with a bloody aura as he spoke, almost viciously, “None of your business? Then you shouldn’t have drugged me to go onto the battlefield! Do you have any idea what a battlefield is? It’s a place where human lives are worthless! Have you completely forgotten what I told you when you went down the mountain to seize grain?”
He seemed angrier than he had ever been. The veins on his temples bulged, and his gaze was so fierce it was as if he wanted to eat her alive. Yet the hand gripping her waist was so tight its knuckles had turned white, as if desperately protecting his most precious treasure that he had almost lost.
Fan Changyu was already angry and aggrieved by his deception. Now, being yelled at by him, her eyes inexplicably stung. She fought back the stinging sensation, gritted her teeth, and snapped, “I was just afraid you would die on the battlefield!”
“Even if I had died there, you shouldn’t have gone!”
As soon as he roared these words, Xie Zheng looked at Fan Changyu, whose eyes were welling with tears she stubbornly refused to let fall. His heart felt as if it had been seared by a red-hot iron, the beating muscle clenching in pain. Both of their breaths were trembling.
His face remained taut, but when he lowered his eyes, his voice softened. “If I had died, you should have taken your sister and left the army camp. Find a new place to settle down, open a pork stall, or build a pigsty to raise pigs. Live a good life. In the future, marry a refined and handsome scholar you like, have children…”
When the tear Fan Changyu had been holding back so desperately splashed onto his hand, he watched as large teardrops fell from her eyes, the girl crying without a sound. The blood-red in his eyes deepened, and he suddenly cupped her jaw and kissed her fiercely.
Boom—
A clap of thunder exploded in the sky. A bright flash of lightning split the dark night curtain. After half a month of clear skies, a sudden spring downpour had finally arrived this night.
Fat drops of rain hammered down. Fan Changyu pushed him hard several times but couldn't shove him away. Rainwater slid down her eyelids, making it impossible to tell if the streaks on her face were from rain or tears. She jabbed her elbow into his body several times and heard a muffled grunt, but the hand cupping the back of her head didn't loosen in the slightest. Instead, he kissed her even more ferociously, as if his life depended on it.
Lightning flashed across the mountain terrain. After a moment of brightness, the world plunged back into boundless darkness.
When it came to being crazy, Fan Changyu was no match for him.
Her chest was a tangle of unknown and unfamiliar emotions; she couldn't even cry properly.
When it ended, he rested his forehead against hers. His hand, covered in dried blood, gently stroked her rain-soaked hair. His voice was very soft, his eyes pitch-black. “As long as I’m alive, you can forget about having children for anyone else in this lifetime.”
Fan Changyu had cried her fill, venting all the terrible emotions in her heart with that good cry. When she lifted her eyes to look at Xie Zheng, she threw a punch without holding back.
She didn't pull her punch. Xie Zheng was knocked right off the horse’s back.
Without a single glance back at him, Fan Changyu yanked the reins and shouted, “Giddy-up!”
The warhorse galloped off, kicking up a spray of muddy water.
Xie Zheng lay on his back in the rain, one hand covering the left eye Fan Changyu had hit. He sucked in a sharp breath of cold air. After a long moment, he finally lowered his hand and, looking up at the rainy night sky, let out a hearty laugh.
Fan Changyu galloped her horse all the way. On the road, she wiped her lips with the back of her hand, but they hurt at the touch. They were definitely swollen.
The cool rain hit her face, yet her cheeks felt faintly hot. Fan Changyu scrubbed her lips harder a couple of times, as if trying to wipe something away.
Up ahead on the official road, she ran into the group of personal guards who had come looking for Xie Zheng, Xie Wu among them.
When he saw Fan Changyu, he quickly urged his horse forward and called out, “Miss Fan.”
Seeing Fan Changyu on Xie Zheng’s mount, he looked behind her but saw no sign of Xie Zheng. He asked, “Where is the Marquis?”
Fan Changyu had thought Xie Zheng was just a general. Hearing Xie Wu call him Marquis, she first froze, then said with a stern face, “He fell to his death!”
With that, she ignored the expressions on the personal guards’ faces and rode straight on.
Xie Wu quickly ordered a few men, “You escort Madam back. The rest of you, follow me to find the Marquis!”
The dozen or so personal guards split into two groups. One group followed Fan Changyu from a careful distance, while the other went to find Xie Zheng in a hurry.
When they saw Xie Zheng on the official road, Xie Wu and his men quickly dismounted and went to greet him. “Marquis!”
The pine-resin torches burned steadily even in the rainy night. When the personal guards saw the bruise on the corner of Xie Zheng’s eye, they were all stunned.
Madam hit the Marquis?
Xie Wu, remembering that he had also helped deceive Fan Changyu, and then recalling the miserable sight of the rebel general being bludgeoned to death by her hammers, swallowed with great difficulty.
When they got back, would Madam beat him up too?
Xie Zheng didn’t notice his foolish thoughts. He asked, “Where is she?”
This “she” could only be Fan Changyu.
Xie Wu quickly came to his senses and replied, “Xie Jiu and the others are escorting Madam back.”
Xie Zheng asked no more questions. He mounted a warhorse that Xie Wu led over and said, “Back to camp.”
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