A Figure on Jade Steps in the Wind and Snow 31

Chapter 31: A Cold

Halfway through the banquet, the Emperor rushed over.

The guests at the banquet looked at each other, their faces a mixture of astonishment and pleasant surprise, but Shen Zhishu had a “I knew it” look on her face.

…This is what should have happened, she thought.

After all, according to Jiang Yu, opening the Martial Hall was the Emperor’s idea, and the Eldest Princess herself was just a messenger.

Everyone stood up and bowed. The Emperor, supported by a eunuch’s hand, leisurely sat down on a chair and asked with a smile, “How are the discussions going?”

Xie Jin thought that since the Eldest Princess was present, it was her turn to reply, but she saw that the Eldest Princess had an indifferent attitude; she then glanced at her good friend and saw that Shen Zhishu was staring at her teacup in a daze, her gaze unfocused.

…Alright, you two are not going to say anything, so it’s up to me.

So Xie Jin raised her cup to the head of the table and said, “Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. The martial arts masters and the content of their teachings have all been decided. Would you like to hear about them, Your Majesty?”

The Emperor waved her hand, “It’s fine as long as you’ve decided. This was originally an idea I had a year ago. I didn’t expect Huai’an to send a message yesterday, saying that everything was ready. I ordered the Ministry of Works to start renovating the Martial Hall yesterday, and it should be completed in about a month. It’s all thanks to Huai’an’s swift and decisive action in finding all the people for me, otherwise, who knows when this matter would have been delayed. Huai’an, I toast you!”

The Eldest Princess held her wine cup and waved it gently to the side, her gaze on the snake-like pattern on the cup.

Shen Zhishu’s gaze shifted back and forth between the two of them impassively. She saw the Emperor’s hand, which was holding the wine cup, pause, and her eyes flickered, tinged with an imperceptible sadness.

She suddenly thought, the Eldest Princess was very good at analyzing micro-expressions and personal relationships, while she was a little inferior. For example, the Eldest Princess could observe the true relationship between her and Xie Jin just from one meal, while she couldn’t draw any conclusions from this toast.

If she had to say, the conclusion was probably—the Eldest Princess was not impressed by the Emperor’s words, and the Emperor was disappointed because she didn’t get any response.

So… what had happened between them?

If, as she had speculated before, the person who had drugged the Eldest Princess was the Emperor, and the two of them were now on the verge of breaking up…

Could they still sit together so peacefully and discuss official business?

Shen Zhishu felt a little confused and urgently needed an external opinion. She tugged on the corner of Xie Jin’s clothes beside her and asked in a low voice, “Do you feel that the atmosphere between the Eldest Princess and the Emperor is a little strange?”

“The two of them?” Xie Jin shook her head, “The two of them are of one mind, you respect me and I respect you, what’s so strange? You’ve had a little to drink, are you starting to have conspiracy theories?”

Shen Zhishu: …

She shouldn’t have asked Xie Jin!

**

Shen Zhishu ate this meal with trepidation—if the person who was spying on her and the Eldest Princess was the Emperor, then the Emperor probably wouldn’t have a good impression of her.

And the Eldest Princess frequently toasted her. Every time she braced herself to respond, she could feel the Emperor’s indecipherable gaze from the side.

When the Eldest Princess raised her wine cup to her for the third time and said some official words like “The General is both brave and resourceful, this Princess is very impressed,” Shen Zhishu took a deep breath and thought to herself that if she sat there any longer, the Emperor’s gaze would pierce through her.

She used the excuse of “not being able to hold her liquor” to go out for some fresh air, stepped out of the flower hall, and wandered aimlessly in the manor.

An attendant came over with a bowl of sobering soup, “Would you like a bowl, Your Excellency?”

Shen Zhishu waved her hand and smiled, “Thank you, but I’ll be fine after some fresh air.”

She walked leisurely and stepped into the pavilion again.

The pavilion was built by the pond, and a thin layer of ice had formed on the pond. The willow tree beside it was already bare.

The outermost part of the pavilion was a circle of chairs. Shen Zhishu leaned on the back of a chair, originally intending to rest for a while.

But perhaps it was because the surroundings were too quiet, or perhaps she was a little tired from drinking. In short, when she woke up, the sun was already gone. A young attendant was holding a lantern and shivering by her side, and six pairs of eyes were surrounding her, all staring at her.

Shen Zhishu: …

Xie Jin was the first to ask faintly, “Awake?”

General Qi repeated, “Awake?”

General Han smiled, “General Shen has been out for half an hour and there’s no sign of her. The attendants have almost turned the princess’s manor upside down. We were thinking that maybe the General had already returned to her manor? But then we thought, if she had returned to her manor, she would have at least come into the hall to say something. At the very least, General Xie should have known, but General Xie said she didn’t know either. So we looked for you again, and finally found you here.”

The Eldest Princess said in a faint voice, “Don’t sleep here, General, you’ll catch a cold. If you want to sleep, go to the guest room, it’s warm there.”

Shen Zhishu: …

She held on to the back of the chair and wanted to stand up, but her handsome face fell—her legs were numb.

Xie Jin laughed ungraciously, “Numb, right? It would be strange if your legs weren’t numb after sitting like that. By the way, aren’t you cold? It’s especially cold tonight, and you didn’t bring an outer robe when you came out. You just sat in the wind like that, I hope you haven’t caught a cold.”

Xie Jin was a very magical person, magical in that her words came true—

Shen Zhishu shook her head and was about to say she wasn’t cold, but as soon as she uttered a syllable, she found that her voice was hoarse and nasal.

“You really caught a cold?!” General Qi said in surprise and turned to call for his attendant, “There’s a doctor a li west of this street. He should still be open at this time. Go and get him.”

“Hey, there’s no need to be so troublesome,” General Han shook his head and waved his hand, calling for his own attendant, “My manor is only a li from here. Go to my manor and find Doctor Wang.”

Just as that attendant was about to leave, she was stopped by the Emperor—

“My dear ministers are joking. I am here, how can you need to find a doctor?” The Emperor turned her head and said firmly to the court eunuch, “You send someone to the Imperial Hospital to find Imperial Physician Zhang. Be quick. If he’s not here in two quarters of an hour, you can go and receive your punishment.”

Shen Zhishu: …

I just caught a cold, I didn’t break an arm.

Shen Zhishu’s legs had recovered from the numbness. She quickly stood up and smiled, “Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty, but there’s no need to make such a fuss. I’ll just go back to the Shen Residence and have a doctor take a look.”

As her voice fell, the Emperor’s “Then my dear minister, go home and rest quickly” and the Eldest Princess’s “Why don’t you rest here, General? I have an experienced old doctor here who can treat you” sounded at the same time.

So Shen Zhishu saw a fleeting and indescribable expression on the Emperor’s face, probably a mixture of three parts embarrassment, three parts shyness, and four parts displeasure, like a painter’s palette.

The palette cleared her throat and said, “There’s no need to trouble Huai’an. The General will definitely be more comfortable in her own home.”

As she spoke, she shifted her gaze to Shen Zhishu’s face, “Right, my dear minister?”

Her gaze was like a torch, making Shen Zhishu feel that if she shook her head, she wouldn’t see the sun tomorrow.

So Shen Zhishu nodded like a garlic pounder, “That’s right. This subordinate will be fine after resting at home. There’s no need to trouble Your Highness.”

“Is that so?” the Eldest Princess said. “But I still have something to say to the General. Why don’t you stay here for the night? The old doctor in my manor was given to me by my Imperial Sister. He is a retired old imperial physician from the Imperial Hospital and can bring the dead back to life and heal white bones. The General’s small cold is naturally no problem. Right, Imperial Sister?”

As she spoke, she gracefully turned her head and met the Emperor’s gaze.

The two of them looked at each other for a long time, and in the end, it was the Emperor who was the first to be defeated.

The Emperor gritted her teeth and said, “Yes.” Probably thinking that out of sight, out of mind, she flicked her sleeve, said nothing else, and strode away.

**

So Shen Zhishu really stayed at the Eldest Princess’s Manor—Jiang Yu calmly told her that if she returned home openly, it would be considered deceiving the monarch.

Lantiao ran around, ordering people to tidy up a room for her. Shen Zhishu had originally thought of learning from Huamei and secretly escaping by flying over the eaves, but after seeing the tidied-up room, she suddenly couldn’t think of a reason why she had to leave—

The bedding was new and fluffy, and the glass hydrangea lantern in the corner lit up the room brightly. On the shelf were a purple sandalwood Guanyin statue, a white jade Maitreya Buddha, and various sword ornaments carved from boxwood roots. On the west wall hung a map of the Kingdom of Nan’an, with all the places she had conquered during her eight years of war circled.

Lantiao stood by with her head held high and her chest puffed out, with two large words written on her face: Ask me.

Shen Zhishu turned her head, “May I ask…”

Lantiao’s small mouth opened, “Her Highness made it by hand.”

“I wasn’t asking about this,” Shen Zhishu smiled. “I was just wondering, what time does your Highness usually go to bed?”

Lantiao: …

Lantiao’s spirits deflated a little, but she still replied respectfully, “She rests at the Hour of the Pig (9-11 PM).”

Shen Zhishu: “Thank you.”

Lantiao: “You’re too kind, General.”

…Actually, Shen Zhishu just wanted to ask where the map came from.

The map was really made with great care. Looking at the cities marked in red, she could recall the scenes of that day.

Wei City, where she had led five hundred people to hold out against the siege of seven thousand enemy troops for six days. When the reinforcements arrived, she was the first to kill her way out of the city gate with her sword; Sui City, where the enemy surrendered at sunset. She heard all the weapons on the other side clatter to the ground and saw the blood on the ground merge with the evening glow; Bin City, where she had three arrows in her chest. She raised her sword with a blank expression, and with a single stroke, the enemy leader’s head fell to the ground…

So she suddenly had the urge to go and see the Eldest Princess.

The attendant said that Jiang Yu rested at the Hour of the Pig, and it was only the Hour of the Dog (7-9 PM) now, so there was still an hour.

Shen Zhishu straightened her collar in front of the bronze mirror on the boxwood table and asked Lantiao, “Where is your Highness now?”

“I don’t know,” Lantiao said. “It’s not my turn to be on duty today, but according to the usual situation, she’s probably in the pavilion.”

Shen Zhishu’s hand, which was straightening her collar, paused, and she frowned imperceptibly, “On such a cold day, she’s going to the pavilion at night? What if she catches a cold?”

“We’ve also advised her,” Lantiao smiled. “But Her Highness always says she knows what she’s doing, and the hand warmers and braziers are always ready, so she tells us not to worry. We can’t persuade her no matter what.”

“What is she doing in the pavilion?”

“Playing chess.”

“Playing chess in the pavilion at night???”

“That’s right,” Lantiao pouted. “But Her Highness never says why, so we servants don’t know why she does it.”

Shen Zhishu left a sentence, “I’ll go and take a look,” picked up the outer robe hanging on the rack by the door, put it on swiftly, and strode out of the room.