“Your Highness, I heard that the captive actually… that she was actually seducing General Ying.” Lüyun trailed off, finding it difficult to say aloud, but thinking of Zhao Xueze’s genuine feelings for Ying Feihong, she decided she couldn’t hide it from her.
Zhao Xueze had heard some of the rumors herself, but she had already asked Jiang Ning about it when she went to visit her before. Jiang Ning had said she didn’t like Ying Feihong, and Zhao Xueze was willing to take her at her word.
Hearing Lüyun say this now, Zhao Xueze’s hand stilled as she stroked Sheep Two’s wool, her brow furrowing slightly. “Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Yesterday Jiang Ning went to the General’s military tent and seemed to want to… and then the General rejected her.” Lüyun had heard from a soldier that Jiang Ning had stayed in the tent for quite a while, and that Ying Feihong’s furious voice had come through afterward. If Jiang Ning hadn’t done something improper, how else could it be explained?
Zhao Xueze still didn’t believe it, but the fact that Lüyun was telling her this meant the rumor had already spread through the camp. The realization left a sour feeling in her chest. Thinking back carefully, Jiang Ning’s reaction yesterday really had been a bit strange, and then Ying Feihong had sent over that crossbow afterward. Could he have done something he felt guilty about and sent it over as an apology gift?
Lüyun had followed Zhao Xueze since childhood and knew her approach to Jiang Ning wasn’t as simple as it appeared, but the way things had developed had genuinely caught her off guard. She hadn’t expected Zhao Xueze to actually seem to care about that Jiang Ning.
Lüyun’s gaze settled on Zhao Xueze’s hands, watching her slowly stroke the wool, and she thought it over. If Zhao Xueze was willing to trust Jiang Ning, then she ought to as well. But with the rumors running wild, she felt some action needed to be taken.
“Also, Your Highness, a few days ago Eunuch Li intercepted a letter. It was one Jiang Ning intended to write to General Ying.” Lüyun held the note between her fingers, hesitating over whether to hand it over.
“Give it here.” Seeing the look on Lüyun’s face, Zhao Xueze’s heart sank, and she extended her hand.
Besides the note there were several letters as well, unsigned, but she recognized Ying Feihong’s handwriting. As she read their contents, Zhao Xueze’s brow knitted tighter and tighter, and the anger rising in her chest nearly pushed her past reason. Looking at the letters passing back and forth, and the intimate forms of address between them, she drew a deep breath. In the end, she couldn’t hold back. Grabbing the iron box from the table, she strode out of the military tent.
“Have them swapped out.” Every time Zhao Xueze went to see Jiang Ning, to be absolutely safe, she would replace the soldiers guarding the area around the sheep shed with her own people.
Before, Zhao Xueze had always stormed over with deliberately manufactured fury. Now the anger was real, and even the way she called Jiang Ning’s name carried a chill.
“Jiang Ning, come out here right now!” This time Zhao Xueze ignored the biting wind outside, not even wanting to step through the door.
The timing happened to coincide with the moment Jiang Ning’s water had come to a boil. She had a bit of an obsessive streak, preferring to finish one task before starting another. She was only halfway through breaking apart the hard mantou in her hand, and assuming Zhao Xueze had come to chat about Ying Feihong or Sheep Two again, she didn’t look up and simply said, “If you’ve got something to say, just say it. I can hear you.”
“I’m asking you. You went to see General Ying yesterday. What did you say to him?” For all her anger, Zhao Xueze still held herself in check, waiting for Jiang Ning to explain.
Jiang Ning hadn’t expected Zhao Xueze to come asking about that. Yesterday’s events weren’t exactly easy to explain, so she shook her head. “Nothing much.”
Since Jiang Ning didn’t look up, she missed the way the smile that usually hung on Zhao Xueze’s face had vanished entirely, replaced by a dark expression.
Zhao Xueze asked again. “What did you two talk about yesterday?”
Jiang Ning lifted her eyelids, sensing that Zhao Xueze’s state this time was different from her usual embarrassed fury. There was something cold and sharp about it. Recalling what she had just been asked, she roughly pieced together what had happened. The other party must have misunderstood something.
Zhao Xueze’s features were bright and open, and when she smiled, warmth spread across her face, the dimples enough to lift anyone’s mood. Even now, frowning with a tense face, it somehow didn’t look out of place on her.
“Dropping the act?” Jiang Ning had long known that Zhao Xueze wasn’t as simple as her surface suggested. She just hadn’t expected her to show her true colors over something like Ying Feihong looking for her yesterday.
Zhao Xueze pressed her lips together and refused to respond. After a long silence, she asked one final time. “Yesterday, with General Ying, what did you say?”
Zhao Xueze’s voice rose, turning rather aggressive. But Jiang Ning wasn’t the least bit frightened. ‘What I said is none of your business. If you want to know so badly, go ask your dear General Ying yourself.’
There was a mocking edge to that last sentence. Having said her piece, Jiang Ning went back to breaking apart her mantou, watching the hot water bubble and roll, her eyelids lowered and her expression indifferent.
Zhao Xueze had been raised in luxury since childhood, and hardly anyone dared defy her. She had come here to settle accounts in the first place, and now, seeing Jiang Ning not even bother to lift her head, a fire suddenly blazed up inside her. She marched over, intending to knock the mantou right out of Jiang Ning’s hand.
Jiang Ning dodged backward, and Zhao Xueze’s hand struck the rim of the pot instead. With the force behind it, the pot flipped over entirely. The hot water hit the ground with a sizzle, splashing everywhere the moment it met the frozen earth.
Jiang Ning set the half-broken mantou aside and looked at Zhao Xueze without a trace of amusement in her eyes, her gaze turning cool. The atmosphere froze solid. But before Jiang Ning could say a word, she watched Zhao Xueze’s tears come splashing down in fat drops.
[The Female Lead is crying. Deducting 40 Points. Reason: Dual trauma, emotional and physical.]
The alarm sound made Jiang Ning frown in irritation. The scalding had brought Zhao Xueze back to her senses somewhat, and a flicker of regret stirred in her chest. Then she looked up and saw Jiang Ning staring at her with a furrowed brow, as if she found her annoying, and every ounce of anger dissolved into pure grievance.
“What are you yelling at me for?” The villain playing the victim. So this was what that looked like.
Zhao Xueze’s tone was fierce, but alas, her red-rimmed eyes drastically undercut the intimidation. She herself had no awareness of this, and the tense standoff from moments ago dissolved instantly the moment she started crying.
Zhao Xueze could have simply ordered her soldiers to drag Jiang Ning out and torture her if she refused to talk. The fact that she had come to ask first rather than pass judgment outright already marked a departure from her usual style, and yet Jiang Ning still wouldn’t appreciate the courtesy.
Gritting her teeth, Zhao Xueze fought to hold back her tears. She hadn’t gotten anything out of her, and now she was crying in front of her “love rival” no less. She wanted to turn and leave, but that felt like it would cost her even more dignity, so she stood rooted in place.
Zhao Xueze’s palm had been scalded a bright red, and even the back of her hand had caught some splashing water. The involuntary tears simply would not stop. As she glared at Jiang Ning, who seemed content to watch coldly from the sidelines, the System continued its broadcast:
[The Female Lead is still crying. Deducting 20 Points. Reason: You jerk. Have you never seen a girl cry before? Quit staring. Where’s your sense of decency?]
That bit of psychological profiling left Jiang Ning silent. Watching Zhao Xueze wipe at her little tears while stubbornly refusing to speak or leave, looking exactly like a child who’d made a mistake standing before a parent, Jiang Ning’s irritation melted away. She sighed, stepped around Zhao Xueze, and walked outside, pinching up a bit of snow from the ground and rubbing it between her hands.
“Crybaby.”
“Hold out your hand.” For all the disgust in Jiang Ning’s voice, she was considerate enough not to press the snow directly onto Zhao Xueze’s hand. Instead, she placed her own snow-chilled palm against the scalded red skin.
“I am not crying!” Zhao Xueze noticed Jiang Ning’s attitude had softened, and she retorted stubbornly, but a tear splashed down onto the back of Jiang Ning’s hand all the same, and the heat rose in her cheeks.
Zhao Xueze badly wanted to yank her hand back and prove she had some backbone, but Jiang Ning’s hand felt so comfortable. After a moment’s thought, she used her other hand to wipe the tear off the back of Jiang Ning’s hand, destroying the evidence, and repeated herself. “I’m not crying!”
“Right, right. Only pigs like to cry.” Jiang Ning looked at Zhao Xueze’s reddened eyes, which made her look like a little rabbit, and showed no mercy in her words.
“You…” Zhao Xueze glared at her for the insult, about to say something more, but then she noticed Jiang Ning starting to pull her hand away. Surrendering to the pleasant warmth, she swerved mid-sentence. “Move it a little to the left.”
“You’re not allowed to tell anyone about today. Otherwise next time I won’t just knock over your pot, I’ll smash your rice bowl too!” Zhao Xueze turned her head away, refusing to look at Jiang Ning, tossing out her “threats” while quietly debating whether to postpone the whole reckoning by a day.
Seeing Zhao Xueze puffed up with indignation, Jiang Ning found it rather amusing. The words even sounded familiar somehow. Lowering her head to check how badly Zhao Xueze’s hand was burned, she suddenly spotted a small mole on the fingers of Zhao Xueze’s left hand, in exactly the same position as the one on Lin Yiren’s hand.
“You… why are you staring at my hand?” Zhao Xueze noticed Jiang Ning’s fixed gaze and felt a sudden flush of embarrassment.
Jiang Ning snapped back to attention at her words and let go of her hand, picking the pot up off the ground and scooping in some fresh snow to boil again. “Why the sudden questions about yesterday?”
At the mention, Zhao Xueze remembered why she had come in the first place. She handed the papers over to Jiang Ning, her tone unhappy. “General Ying has been writing you letters, and you still claim there’s nothing between you.”
“Since when does a few lines of writing mean two people are involved?” Jiang Ning prodded at the flames with a stick. If her hands hadn’t been occupied, she would have reached out to feel Zhao Xueze’s forehead for a fever. How was this logic supposed to work?
“Because General Ying’s subordinates said he’s already received several replies.” That only made Zhao Xueze sadder. Jiang Ning had sworn up and down that she never wanted to see Ying Feihong again, and yet the two of them had been exchanging letters. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, would she have been deceived forever?
Jiang Ning tilted her head to look at her and took the handful of envelopes. One day apart feels like three autumns. A passion whose source I cannot name, yet which runs ever deeper. Clearly she was playing the “talented poet” card again. And the replies signed “Jiang Ning” were even more direct: Brother Ying, when will you come see me? I miss you.
The System briefly imagined Jiang Ning speaking to the Male Lead in that tone, and the entire System nearly went into shock. It had to be said that the Heavenly Dao really was a dog. It could tell just now that Zhao Xueze’s rage had a buff stacked on top of it, as if a person who normally wouldn’t be that angry suddenly had to be furious and do something about it, like being puppeteered.
Seeing that the two of them had tacitly agreed not to mention Zhao Xueze’s odd behavior on arrival, the tension eased considerably. The System quietly breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that the Female Lead’s constitution was so sensitive. Otherwise things wouldn’t have blown over this quickly, and might have gotten far more complicated.
Seeing that Zhao Xueze wasn’t leaving without an explanation, Jiang Ning flipped through the letters casually and said, “First of all, this one is signed ‘Brother Ying.’ I’m already twenty. Ying Feihong is only eighteen, isn’t he? I could call him my kid brother. This reply was clearly forged by someone who didn’t know the first thing about me.”
Zhao Xueze stared at her in astonishment, seemingly finding the age of twenty hard to believe, so Jiang Ning explained, “I gave a false age to everyone else.”
“And how do I know you’re not lying to me right now?” Zhao Xueze had already started to believe her the moment Jiang Ning proved willing to explain, but she didn’t want to look like she’d overreacted, so she said it half in doubt.
Zhao Xueze sat down beside her, tilting her head to watch with the air of a diligent student, which made Jiang Ning feel like she was conducting some sacred lecture.
Composing herself, she pointed at one line of verse. “‘Pacing back and forth, at the city gate tower.’ This should refer to when Ying Feihong was attacking Tongcheng, standing on the city wall longing for someone. Am I right?”
Seeing Zhao Xueze nod, Jiang Ning continued, “Then look closely at this line. ‘Your blue collar, my aching heart.'”
“The person that ‘blue collar’ refers to is a man.”
Zhao Xueze hadn’t read the letters all the way through at the time, so she’d missed the problem. Now that Jiang Ning pointed it out, following that line of logic, this letter was Ying Feihong writing to some man. And then that line after it, one day apart feels like three autumns…
At that thought, disbelief filled Zhao Xueze’s entire face. “Impossible. If General Ying liked men, why would he keep sending me gifts?”
“Maybe he hadn’t figured out his own heart yet, and pretended to like you to distract himself.” Not many people enjoyed being used as a diversionary tool, and whatever else she was, Zhao Xueze was still a princess, respected and doted upon since childhood. Hearing Jiang Ning’s words, she couldn’t help feeling a little unhappy at that theory all the same.
“Then by your logic, he’s already understood his own feelings and written to that person. Why would he still send me gifts yesterday?” Zhao Xueze pulled the Nine Palaces Crossbow out of the box, still unable to quite believe it.
Jiang Ning had assumed Ying Feihong had sent her some little trinket again, but when she turned her head and saw clearly that it was her own Nine Palaces Crossbow, her eyes narrowed. “You’re saying Ying Feihong gave you this?”
“Of course. I found it in the main tent. No one in the army but him could walk in there so easily. It must be his gift.” Zhao Xueze didn’t notice the odd note in Jiang Ning’s voice and kept talking to herself. “If he didn’t say anything, it must be because he wanted to surprise me.”
Watching Zhao Xueze, as if trying to convince herself, launch into praise of how capable Ying Feihong was and how good he’d been to her, Jiang Ning’s eyes darkened. So she had been working hard only to make some other person’s wedding dress, in the end.
She had meant to come right out with the truth, but something made her hold back. Instead, she feigned ignorance, acting as if she’d never seen the thing, and asked Zhao Xueze to let her look at the Nine Palaces Crossbow. Then, putting on a disdainful face, she said, “This thing? Doesn’t look like much to me.”
Zhao Xueze knew she wouldn’t get anything kind out of Jiang Ning. Exasperated, she snatched it back and tucked it into the box.
“If you’ve never seen the world, keep your mouth shut. This is a fine piece of work.” Zhao Xueze adored weapons with hidden mechanisms, and this one used rare materials and exquisite craftsmanship besides.
“In my opinion, whoever gave you this thing had nothing but bad intentions. Probably scheming after you for something.” Disdain dripped from every word, and if one listened closely, there was something strange hidden in them too.
But Zhao Xueze assumed Jiang Ning was simply determined to paint Ying Feihong as worthless, having noticed that no matter what he gave her, in Jiang Ning’s eyes it was all worthless junk.
She got angry on the spot. “You’re talking nonsense! Let me tell you, I don’t just like this Nine Palaces Crossbow, I like the man who gave it to me. One day I’m going to marry him!” Pushed past her limit, Zhao Xueze was saying the exact opposite of everything Jiang Ning claimed.
Jiang Ning hadn’t expected her to take the bait so quickly. Faking a cough to smother her laughter, she deliberately edged a little farther away and waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, please. I have no desire to marry a shrew like you.”
“Who said anything about you marrying me!” The word “shrew” made Zhao Xueze livid. A princess of the Southern Kingdom, first called a pig and now a shrew. The sheer insolence of it!
But the moment the words left her mouth, she registered the information buried in the exchange, and her face went stiff.
“Wait. You gave me this thing?” Zhao Xueze stared at Jiang Ning in shock. Seeing her nod, Zhao Xueze replayed everything she had just said, and in an instant the crossbow felt a great deal hotter in her hands. She silently set it aside.
Was it too late to take it all back?
