Chapter 5
Song Ling tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword, the veins on her hand rising slightly. Parting her lips, she ordered the guards behind her, “Tie him up.”
Shen Zhao glanced sideways at the cold gleam of the blade. Just as the guards were about to reach her, she abruptly raised her arm and knocked the sword away from her shoulder.
She swiftly lifted a leg and planted her foot against the wall of the Buddha hall, using the leverage to launch herself onto the temple’s western wall. Landing atop it, she raced forward.
Seeing this, Song Ling immediately leaped after her. When she saw that the person ahead was nearly at the northern wall, she hurriedly accelerated.
Shen Zhao jumped down from the northern wall. She had descended only four or five steps when she ran into two women supporting each other. Beneath the torchlight, both were covered in blood.
“Huang Chan! Tianyu! Stop him!” Song Ling flew down from the northern wall.
At her shout, the two women supporting each other instantly drew the swords at their waists.
Beneath the night sky, Shen Zhao was surrounded and attacked by all three. The torches on either side swayed wildly in the wind as though mocking her.
After more than a dozen exchanges, Shen Zhao began to lose ground.
When three swords were pressed against her neck, chest, and forehead, Shen Zhao stopped fighting. Beneath the glaring torchlight, she openly rolled her eyes at all three of them.
“Why are you rolling your eyes?” Huang Chan asked before looking at Song Ling. “Commander Song, who is he?”
“The person Her Highness ordered me to capture.” Song Ling instructed the arriving guards to tie her up.
Shen Zhao’s arms were twisted behind her back, and a hemp rope was soon wound around her arms and hands.
“How… is Her Highness?” Huang Chan’s face was somewhat pale.
“Why did it take you so long to return with the medicine?” Song Ling’s voice trembled slightly. “I saw the signal flare Xuanying released and knew something had happened to Her Highness, so I rushed here with our people. But by the time we found Her Highness, she… was no longer showing any symptoms of a relapse.”
The moment she said this, Huang Chan’s and Tianyu’s expressions changed drastically.
“We were intercepted on the way back.” Tianyu’s lips trembled slightly. “In that case, someone must have violated…” Tianyu abruptly stopped herself, her face instantly turning deathly pale.
At those words, the three exchanged glances before simultaneously looking toward the bound prisoner.
“Bastard!” Huang Chan clenched her fist and charged forward.
Shen Zhao took a punch to the stomach and let out a muffled grunt.
What was this supposed to mean? Saving a life did not count as a kindness but as a crime? Had she known touching Zhao Yunshang would end this way, she would have abandoned her and escaped alone.
Zhao Yunshang had clearly been the one to initiate it. Why were these people so unreasonable?
“Move!” A guard gave Shen Zhao a rough pull.
Shen Zhao had no choice but to walk toward the temple.
“Take him to the kitchen to warm himself by the fire. Do not let him freeze to death before Her Highness can question him tomorrow,” Song Ling instructed the guards.
Shen Zhao’s eyes immediately lit up. Her limbs were frozen stiff, and she yearned for warmth as parched earth yearned for rain. She might as well warm herself first. As long as they did not kill her, she would eventually have an opportunity to escape.
“Commander Song, these were found beneath the wall of the Buddha hall.” A young guard reported while carrying a saber and a rabbit.
Song Ling’s gaze landed on the rabbit, and her eyes froze. She looked toward Shen Zhao. “You caught that Moon Essence?”
Shen Zhao followed her gaze. “Moon Essence? You mean the rabbit? Yes, I caught it.”
Song Ling’s expression changed abruptly, and she tightened her grip on her sword. “You truly deserve to die. Take him away.”
Shen Zhao was escorted off, her heart filled with confusion. She had merely caught a rabbit. How did that mean she deserved to die?
She was taken to the temple kitchen, where seven or eight guards were gathered. All of them were women.
“Watch him. Do not let him escape.” With that, Song Ling closed the kitchen door.
Shen Zhao was thrown beside a stove. Warm air washed over her, gradually restoring sensation to her frozen limbs. Before long, she began to doze off.
“Sit up straight.”
Shen Zhao raised her eyes at the voice and saw a young guard prodding her with a scabbard. She struggled upright. “Miss, could I trouble you for a bowl of hot water?”
“No. Commander Song personally brought you here, so you must be a serious criminal. And you still expect water? Stay thirsty.” The young guard refused without the slightest courtesy.
Helpless, Shen Zhao lowered her gaze and closed her eyes. She was considering how to escape later when she heard the young guards talking.
“I heard the Eldest Princess is going to increase our pay next month.”
“What is there to be happy about? No matter how much she raises it, I won’t be able to keep any. My father will definitely come asking for it.”
“Ugh, mine too. My older brother relied on my wages to marry a wife.”
“My younger brother is the same. My wages pay for his studies at a private school.”
Shen Zhao’s eyes flew open. She had only ever read about such outrageous things in histories of the previous dynasty. “You use your own wages to bleed yourselves dry supporting your brothers?”
Besides, it had been a long time since she had heard of families with a father and mother. At the northern frontier of Great Wei, most families now had a mother and a mama, and many women seeking marriage no longer chose men at all.
The young guards glanced at her, but none answered.
Shen Zhao did not mind and continued trying to engage them. “You earn those wages yourselves. Wouldn’t it be better to keep them?”
The young guards froze at her words.
“You also think we should keep them?”
Seeing that they were finally responding, Shen Zhao hurriedly nodded. “Of course. It is only right that you keep what you earn. If you save it, you can use it to marry a wife someday, can’t you?”
At those words, the young guards widened their eyes and stared at the beggar-like person before them.
“We’re all women. How could we marry wives?”
Shen Zhao went rigid. What kind of place was this? Why could women not marry each other here? Then why had Zhao Yunshang offered to discuss marriage with her? Oh, right. She had forgotten—that had been a lie.
She suddenly realized that this place seemed very far from Great Wei.
One of the young guards walked over. “Do you believe women can marry each other?” As she spoke, she glanced at another young guard, her face full of bashfulness.
Shen Zhao blinked and nodded stiffly. “As long as they love each other, why not?”
“You really think so?” The young guard brightened. “My name is Feng Zhaodi. What about you?”
“Wei Zhao.” Shen Zhao frowned. Zhaodi was a name mocked by later generations. Why were people here still giving such a name to their children?
“Hey, Wei Zhao, have you seen two women together before? Or did you read about it in a book? You men are allowed to study, so you must know a lot. Tell me about it,” Feng Zhaodi said eagerly.
You men? Shen Zhao looked down at herself. Oh, she was currently dressed in a man’s robe. But men here were permitted to study? Were women not allowed?
“Then I’ll tell you a story about a female general and a princess.”
The young guards immediately erupted into chatter. “A female general and a princess? Can a woman become a general? Would a princess accept another woman?”
Their reactions drained Shen Zhao’s face of all color. “Is a woman becoming a general truly so shocking? Aren’t all of you guards?”
“We’re different. Only Her Highness’s residence employs female guards.”
“Is that so?” Shen Zhao pondered for a moment. “Then are there no female generals in the neighboring kingdom either?”
“No. Great Chu only shares a border with Qing, and those Qing barbarians are even less likely to have female generals.”
Boom!
Shen Zhao felt as though she had been struck by lightning. Great Chu? Qing? She had never even heard of them. At that moment, Shen Zhao had no choice but to admit that she most likely could not return home. This was not merely a matter of her soul inhabiting someone else’s body. Her soul was no longer even in her homeland.
“Hurry up and tell the story. I want to hear it,” Feng Zhaodi urged.
“I want to, but I’m too thirsty. My throat is so dry.” Shen Zhao’s gaze landed on a black-glazed bowl.
“Here, drink some hot water.” Feng Zhaodi brought over a bowl and held it to Shen Zhao’s lips.
Shen Zhao drank in great gulps. After finishing three bowls, her eyelids began to droop. She blinked twice, yawned, and began her tale. “Now then, during the Zhenyuan era, there was a female general…”
Meanwhile, in the meditation room, Huang Chan and Tianyu knelt together before Zhao Yunshang.
“Your Highness, we deserve death. Please punish us.”
“Both of you, rise.” Zhao Yunshang’s face was pallid, as white as fine paper. “I was the one who insisted on traveling incognito, allowing others to discover my movements and scheme against me. This was not your fault!”
“I know that you did everything within your power. Being able to see each other alive is already an immense blessing. We will speak no more of punishment.” Seeing that they remained kneeling, Zhao Yunshang added, “Must I personally help you up?”
At those words, Huang Chan and Tianyu hurriedly rose.
“Huang Chan, answer me. Can the Plum Blossom Lure be deliberately triggered?” Zhao Yunshang asked quietly as she stroked the plum-blossom petal that had spread across her wrist.
“Your Highness, my master once mentioned that several medicinal ingredients combined with plum-blossom stamens can be refined into an incense capable of triggering it.”
Understanding dawned on Zhao Yunshang. “That explains it. Even I have been unable to determine any pattern to the Plum Blossom Lure’s relapses. How could those people from Qing have known it would flare up while I was at the temple? They must have secretly used something to trigger it.”
“Huang Chan, Tianyu, select several capable people and leave them here to investigate thoroughly. At daybreak tomorrow, you will return to the residence with me.” As Zhao Yunshang spoke, she turned her head aside and began coughing.
Huang Chan’s expression tightened. “Your Highness, please allow this subordinate to take your pulse.”
Zhao Yunshang nodded and rolled up her sleeve.
The moment Huang Chan saw the blossoming petal, her eyes reddened. They had failed to protect their mistress…
Only after Huang Chan finished taking her pulse and left did Zhao Yunshang draw the quilt around herself and lie down.
She was exhausted, yet she could not sleep!
With her eyes closed, she endured until the fifth watch. Then she rose from bed, dressed without assistance, put on her cloak, and left the meditation room.
In the neighboring room, Xuanying lay quietly on the bed.
“Your Highness…” Seeing her enter, Xuanying tried to push herself upright.
“Lie down.” Zhao Yunshang sat beside the bed. “I came to see you. Do your wounds hurt too much for you to sleep?”
“Your Highness, there is something this subordinate cannot understand. When those people from Qing fought me, they appeared to be holding back for some reason. They had two opportunities to take my life, yet both times they stopped. Otherwise, I could not possibly have survived to see Your Highness again.”
“Oh? Such a thing happened?” Zhao Yunshang was deeply surprised. “You are one of my trusted subordinates. Those people from Qing came with a deliberate plan, so why did they refrain from killing you?”
“This subordinate cannot make sense of it either.”
“Since the people of Qing have come, the truth will eventually be uncovered.” As Zhao Yunshang spoke, she raised her head and looked outside the window. The first pale light of dawn had already appeared…
“Your Highness, the carriages and horses are ready,” Song Ling reported from the doorway.
Zhao Yunshang looked at Song Ling. “Where is the person I ordered you to capture?”
“He is with the guards of Squad Three who have come off duty.”
“Xuanying, wait for me in the carriage.” Zhao Yunshang stood and headed outside. “Commander Song, take me to him.”
Song Ling promptly led Her Highness toward the easternmost kitchen. At that hour, every room throughout the temple was silent. They did not encounter a single abbess or nun along the way, nor did the customary sound of scripture chanting emerge from the meditation rooms. There was only the sound of their footsteps crunching through the snow.
Before Zhao Yunshang even reached the kitchen, she heard a hoarse yet impassioned voice from inside and frowned slightly. Was Wei Zhao a prisoner or an honored guest?
Standing outside the kitchen, she peered through the gap in the door and saw Wei Zhao seated on a prayer mat, surrounded by a crowd of guards.
“Another bite of steamed bun with sliced meat,” Shen Zhao said to Feng Zhaodi inside the kitchen.
“If you take another bite, you have to continue the story.” Looking visibly pained to part with it, Feng Zhaodi tucked a slice of meat into the steamed bun and stuffed it into Wei Zhao’s mouth.
Shen Zhao took a large bite. After swallowing, she gestured with her mouth toward the bowl of hot water.
Feng Zhaodi hurriedly held the water to Shen Zhao’s lips.
Shen Zhao took a long drink, thoroughly satisfied. Just as she was about to resume her story, she suddenly caught a faint trace of a familiar fragrance. She glanced outside. Dawn had arrived.
“Do you still want me to continue? Aren’t you about to go on duty?” Shen Zhao probed.
Once these young guards changed shifts, she would find an opportunity to escape. That way, she would not implicate any of them.
The moment she finished speaking, the door opened. Shen Zhao looked outside, and her heart tightened.
It was her…
She actually had the nerve to come!
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