Now that Shi Feiyu occupied the heartland under the court’s complete control, including the capital and Jiangnan’s largest logistical support system, he could be said to control half the empire in all but name.
In truth, the Governor-General of the Two Jiangs had originally been a powerful minister whose authority reached the heavens. Usually, only those who enjoyed the emperor’s absolute trust could hold such a position.
However, this governor-general had considerable ties to the Shi family. The fact that he had managed, amid such chaotic times, to maintain the emperor’s favor while keeping the Two Jiangs relatively orderly and well governed showed that he was an exceptionally capable administrator with both political finesse and governing talent—not some sycophant who had risen by flattery.
Shi Feiyu had dealt with such a clever man several years ago. Over the intervening period, he had made a point of maintaining their relationship, and was thoroughly familiar with the governor-general’s governing philosophy, as well as whether he was the sort of blindly loyal fool who would die for the imperial house.
With a man this intelligent, there was room for negotiation on many matters.
Long before the Northern Barbarians invaded, Shi Feiyu had hinted at the direction events would take. Through a series of exchanges of interests, he had guided the other man, step by step, into fulfilling the requirements of his plans.
Once the Northern Barbarians invaded and the emperor’s flight south became a reality, the Governor-General of the Two Jiangs knew that the dynasty’s fate was truly sealed.
A formidable warlord like Shi Feiyu—invincible in battle, capable of planning several steps ahead while others were still taking their first—stood at such an advantage that changing the dynasty’s name was merely a matter of time.
Thus, after the emperor arrived in Jiangnan, all the plans that had previously been held back in hesitation and observation began to move into action.
Now that the coup had succeeded, the new emperor was still a child, and the treacherous ministers had been thoroughly purged. Shi Feiyu naturally did not forget the Governor-General of the Two Jiangs or the others who had secretly supported him in advance when it came to distributing the vacant positions and the benefits that accompanied them.
The Governor-General of the Two Jiangs, however, was a truly clever man. Though he had already placed his bet on Shi Feiyu and hoped to earn merit by supporting the future emperor, he was already a minister of the highest rank. If the dynasty fell and he could keep his family from being implicated while preserving their existing prominence, that would already be an immense blessing. Asking for more would only be too much.
Therefore, he kept a very low profile during the subsequent distribution of rewards.
The Jiang family of the Grain Transport Association also changed allegiance as they had wished. Once members of a martial-arts organization, they had now entered the imperial court and taken up important offices.
Just as Pei Liang had predicted, after the new emperor ascended the throne, two rebel forces attempted to attack Jiangnan.
One was the rebel army that now occupied the lands south of Shu. This force had already grown into a formidable power and had proclaimed an emperor of its own in the southwest.
Their goal was to contend for the empire, so naturally they would not let such a moment of imperial transition pass them by.
They had keenly recognized that the court had undergone a tremendous political upheaval. The already rotten dynasty had been shaken to its foundations and was surely at its weakest. Moreover, the threat of the Northern Barbarians’ invasion had only just been dispelled, and the emperor had fled south to Jiangnan, where he had only just settled in amid chaos and instability.
What they had never imagined was that, despite having just fought the ferocious Northern Barbarian cavalry, the Shi family army was not exhausted and broken, as they had expected.
Shi Feiyu had gone south to escort the emperor. Rumors spoke of that undefeated army’s formidable bearing, but the rebels assumed the reports were merely meant to conceal the army’s actual weakness.
They thought the rumors were intended to intimidate the various rebel forces and buy the Shi family army time to recuperate. After all, exaggerating troop numbers to frighten an enemy was basic practice in military campaigns.
The southwestern rebel army was not even the most valiant among the various factions. Its expansion had relied largely on the advantages of its terrain.
This time, by taking the initiative to attack, they had surrendered their greatest advantage. Then they encountered the Shi family army, whose strength had not been exaggerated in the slightest. The result was a crushing defeat.
The other force that launched an attack did not harbor ambitions as grand as those of the southwestern army.
It was a powerful clan faction near Jiangnan, essentially a group taking advantage of the chaotic times to muddy the waters and seize whatever benefits it could.
They had never dreamed of ruling the entire empire. They knew their own strength well. Their plan was simply to plunder as much as possible while chaos reigned, then, once the empire showed signs of being pacified, pledge allegiance to the most promising contender.
To reduce the cost of subduing them, rulers would generally accept such a faction’s surrender. Once peace returned, the enormous capital accumulated during the war would be enough to secure their family’s wealth and glory for generations.
But Shi Feiyu had prepared for them long in advance. Their plan to loot this prosperous region came to nothing. In fact, the entire army was effectively handed over to him. He forced them to join his ranks, then led them in a counterattack, wiping out two sizable rebel forces in a single stroke.
The string of major victories Shi Feiyu achieved after taking actual control greatly boosted the confidence of everyone under his command.
Meanwhile, beneath the outward appearance of suppressing rebels and reclaiming territory, his displayed talent for governance also allowed the people of the empire to glimpse the dawn of an approaching end to the chaos.
Throughout this period, Pei Liang devoted herself wholeheartedly to making money and developing the economy.
The enormous investment she had poured into Shi Feiyu paid off with astonishing speed. Wherever his army went, everything Pei Liang did proceeded without obstruction.
With powerful backing and an army opening every door for her, Pei Liang was no longer merely free to act without restraint. The entire empire had practically become a land she could roam at will.
The various regions had suffered years of successive disasters, oppressive taxes and levies imposed by the court, and the devastation of war. The people everywhere were living in misery.
Land stripped of its labor force naturally produced little.
Yet with the rational allocation of resources, the people could temporarily survive the immediate crisis. As long as peace and stability allowed them time to recover, the land would naturally return to its former productivity.
After several years of war and disaster, the population of the Great Liang had already fallen to a dangerously low threshold.
When purging the remnants of the old political factions, Shi Feiyu showed no mercy. The wealth squeezed from the people by the leaders of the various rebel forces was also taken out, apart from what was necessary to maintain the functioning of the government.
It was used to compensate the people, provide disaster relief, and offer aid to those in need. The maritime fleet organized by Pei Liang was also constantly bringing back new food crops from abroad. Drawing on her own memories, she improved the quality and yields of several varieties, greatly easing the empire-wide food shortage and further promoting stability.
These lifesaving solutions were nothing unusual in later generations.
Pei Liang herself was not even a specialist in the field. Her food company had once placed a massive order for raw materials, and during a personal visit to the agricultural base, she had been told about the history and methods of crop improvement.
Who could have imagined that knowledge she had casually heard during what was essentially a routine business visit would one day save millions of lives here?
As the various regions were reclaimed, the territories quickly returned to order, and the overall situation of the empire was settled. The smaller rebel forces began choosing to surrender one after another.
There were still one or two factions that stubbornly resisted, but the local people could no longer endure their rule. Within only a few months, reports began arriving from various regions of starving mobs attacking the warlords.
Many civilians had even finished sewing banners bearing the character “Shi,” preparing to welcome the arrival of the Shi family army.
In truth, those warlords understood the situation perfectly. But the formation of an interest group was often such that an individual’s wishes became entangled in the group’s interests, carried along until they no longer knew in which direction they had strayed.
Back then, Pei Liang had gone with the flow and allowed Wei Yingshu and Li Shen to leave. Wei Yingshu’s heroine’s halo had allowed her to return to this point in the story once again, following the inertia of the original plot.
Li Shen, however, had vanished without a trace after that. Pei Liang assumed that, lacking such a halo, he had already been lost somewhere amid the chaos of war.
To be honest, Pei Liang had been a little disappointed at first. After all, in the original novel, Li Shen was, in every sense, one of the female protagonist’s greatest advantages.
He grew stronger alongside Wei Yingshu’s progress, and in the end even became a prince of a different surname, stationed at court. Yet the novel’s conclusion had tossed in a single, offhand line: he never married and died young, consumed by melancholy.
Of course, given the absurd nature of the original novel, that sort of plot was perfectly reasonable.
Pei Liang did not read many novels, but as a wealthy woman with a mind for making money in every possible field, she could tell at a glance exactly who the original work was meant to serve and what psychological needs it was exploiting to give its audience a sense of satisfaction.
A male supporting character like Li Shen—one who remained devoted unto death and was willing to give his life for the heroine—could never marry and have children of his own, even if the male and female leads eventually lived happily ever after. He could not simply forget her and move on.
At its core, such a character was the dregs of a fantasy designed to satisfy the audience’s desire to gain without effort. A supporting man like Li Shen could never seek someone else or betray the heroine, because doing so would undermine her position as the absolute center of the entire story.
But the fact that he had died young was rather intriguing.
Li Shen had no hidden illness and was a man of extraordinary strength and resilience. To claim that he had died young simply because he had wasted away from sorrow was laughable.
Come to think of it, in the original novel, the more powerful the men who fawned over Wei Yingshu were, the worse their endings tended to be. They died in all sorts of bizarre ways.
Looking at it that way, Pei Liang could now be one hundred percent certain: Shi Feiyu had clearly been using Wei Yingshu’s power of attraction to fish out and eliminate everyone he believed did not fit the world’s operating logic.
She had no idea what became of Wei Yingshu after the story’s conclusion. But based on what Pei Liang knew of Shi Feiyu, the subtle oddities she had noticed in the original novel convinced her that he had not been influenced by Wei Yingshu at all.
Still, these were merely idle speculations.
The reason she had suddenly thought of Li Shen was that, after disappearing for several years following his escape from prison, he had now reappeared—and had become the head of a powerful faction.
Li Shen was undeniably skilled at seizing opportunities amid chaos. When he had escaped prison back then, he had also rescued several of his subordinates.
The group had fled the capital. Rather than following the imperial entourage south, they had escaped to a place far beyond the reach of Shi Feiyu’s influence.
There, they joined a rebel army. Thanks to Li Shen’s cunning and ruthlessness, as well as his previous experience as the leader of a faction, he quickly distinguished himself and won the appreciation of the commander.
When several factions later merged, he rendered outstanding service. Possessing both courage and strategic ability, he rose steadily until he became second-in-command.
But a man like Li Shen would never be content to remain beneath someone else—especially not beneath a rough peasant who had risen only by luck.
After several years of cultivating relationships, winning people’s loyalty, and gradually hollowing out the commander’s authority, Li Shen finally seized the opportunity and took the top position for himself.
By then, he was one of only two rebel forces still stubbornly resisting. Yet Li Shen actually launched an offensive, leading his army straight toward the Southern Capital.
When the army reached the city gates, countless civilians whom Li Shen had abducted were forced to march at the front, driven onward by bayonets.
The defenders and their commanders were so enraged that their eyes nearly burned red. Even the barbarian tribes and other inhuman creatures rarely committed such a depraved act.
Li Shen applied direct pressure outside the city gates, demanding that Shi Feiyu release Wei Yingshu.
If he refused, Li Shen would slaughter every civilian standing before the formation.
Shi Feiyu had almost forgotten the man. It was only after Sanxiang and Siji reminded him repeatedly that he recalled him as the cook who had often visited the Shi residence and spent quite some time clashing with Owner Pei.
Upon hearing this, Shi Feiyu stared in disbelief.
“He’s doing all this for that? For one woman? He abducted so many civilians and took up arms over her? Is this man an idiot or a lunatic?”
If Li Shen had led an assault on the city or attempted to break her out of prison in secret, Shi Feiyu could still have considered it understandable. But using the lives of innocent civilians to purchase one woman’s freedom—did this man possess even the slightest awareness of what it meant to be human?
Sanxiang and Siji asked, “How does the general intend to respond?”
Shi Feiyu said, “Bring that woman to the city gate. Use her as a hostage and exchange her for the civilians first.”
“If Li Shen is willing to go to such lengths for this woman—to raise an army and cause an armed rebellion—then she must mean more to him than anything else in the world. Negotiations should not be difficult.”
“Besides, since he has brought his army here himself, it saves me the trouble of going after him.”
Sure enough, after negotiations between the two armies, Wei Yingshu was exchanged for the innocent civilians at the front.
When Li Shen saw Wei Yingshu again, he could hardly recognize her.
Several years in prison had not been kind to her.
That said, Shi Feiyu’s administration was strict, and over the past few years, the entire organization had been working frantically to repair a country riddled with wounds. To be honest, no one had had the time to deliberately target her.
Wei Yingshu had not been tortured or subjected to anything particularly degrading.
But a prison was hardly a pleasant place.
Several years were more than enough to grind a flower-like young woman into someone entirely different.
Looking at Wei Yingshu’s dry, brittle hair, rough and cracked skin, and emaciated, malnourished body, Li Shen’s heart bled. In his mind, he tore Pei Liang to pieces over and over again.
His eyes reddened.
“Yingshu, you’ve suffered.”
Wei Yingshu burst into tears. Afterward, she washed and changed into clean, comfortable clothes. She was young, after all, and after being properly cared for, much of her color returned.
Wei Yingshu had not been idle during her years in prison. In fact, because she had come into contact with all kinds of people there, and because some of them had offered her guidance, many things that had once been shrouded in confusion had gradually become clear.
For example, she had once shared a cell block with a man who had embezzled military provisions and allowances. Before his execution, he had confided a great deal to her.
That was how Wei Yingshu finally learned the reason she had never been able to understand: why General Shi had taken a liking to that vicious, sharp-tongued woman, Pei Liang.
It turned out that Pei Liang was enormously wealthy, adept at dealing with people, and capable of providing General Shi with vast quantities of grain and supplies. She had also introduced countless capable talents to him.
Then Wei Yingshu connected this with the emperor’s earlier attack on General Shi over the allegedly unknown origins of his provisions. The pieces fell neatly into place.
It was clearly that despicable woman, using enormous profits to tempt General Shi and win his favor.
And she had foolishly believed that she was the one who could help General Shi. As it turned out, that shameless woman had already resorted to underhanded tactics long ago.
Wei Yingshu seethed inwardly.
“That makes sense. General Shi is farsighted. He knew long ago that the northern barbarians would move south once winter came, yet the entire court was filled with incompetent fools.”
“That despicable woman simply took advantage of the situation, currying favor with him by providing support. Come to think of it, that was exactly when General Shi began his ambiguous entanglement with her.”
“That woman merely took advantage of him when he was vulnerable. General Shi is a great man of towering integrity. How could he possibly tolerate her climbing over his head?”
Wei Yingshu sneered.
“I heard plenty while I was in prison. She has become even more arrogant than before. She has actually seized control of the entire treasury of Great Liang. Even General Shi has to watch her mood.”
“General Shi will become the ruler of the world sooner or later. How could he allow himself to be controlled by a woman? Just wait. She may be enjoying her triumph now, but her death is not far off. I’ll see exactly how she ends up.”
Li Shen nodded.
“That is what I think as well. However, now that the situation is settled, we need to think carefully about where we go from here.”
He looked at Wei Yingshu.
“The world is vast. There must be somewhere we can live together. At worst, we can withdraw to the great desert.”
“No!” Wei Yingshu refused without a second thought. “Why should I spend the rest of my life enduring the desolation of the desert for that vile woman?”
She looked at Li Shen, her eyes dark and resentful. “General Shi isn’t someone who places much importance on romantic feelings between men and women. Since that wretched Pei Liang can provide him with value and remain at his side, then surely I can do the same.”
“I’m not greedy, shameless, or disrespectful like she is. If it were me, I could do a much better job.”
Besides, once the empire was pacified and General Shi donned the imperial robes, he would surely reward his meritorious subjects and take in a harem. Why couldn’t she have a place in it?
Li Shen stared at her for a long while, his expression exceedingly complicated. At last, he said heavily, “Very well.”
And so Shi Feiyu received Li Shen’s terms for surrender once more. They actually required him to take Wei Yingshu into his household.
Pei Liang and Jiang Yuying were both present when they heard the news.
Jiang Yuying immediately rose to his feet and declared righteously, “General Shi has always cared about the people and shown consideration for his soldiers. Although Li Shen is unfit to be called a man, if we forcefully wipe them out, many soldiers will still lose their lives when the enemy fights to the death.”
“Negotiating a surrender is naturally the best outcome. We can settle accounts with Li Shen later. The lives of our soldiers and the common people must come first.”
“Fortunately, General Shi is already well practiced in sacrificing himself for the greater cause. This should pose no difficulty.”
“General, I, Jiang Yuying, can only admire your ability to bend without breaking and your open, honorable character.”
Shi Feiyu had started out being kept by someone on an absurdly lavish scale. After several years of it, with Pei Liang handling all his logistical needs, he had become practically invincible, able to focus solely on advancing without the slightest concern for what lay behind him.
How could he possibly be interested in ordinary arrangements with a wealthy patron?
At that, he merely sneered. “A mere rebel army whose fortunes have already run out wants me to sell myself to them? Such a shabby bargaining chip thinks itself worthy?”
Jiang Yuying: “…”
He had lost. He never imagined that the other man had become so completely at ease with being kept that he no longer cared about his dignity at all.
Yet Pei Liang said, “Agree to their terms for now.”
Shi Feiyu whipped his head around and looked at Pei Liang warily. “What are you planning? Don’t tell me you think I’m too expensive and want to find someone else to take over?”
“Let me tell you, what can they possibly offer you? They have no value to you whatsoever.”
Sanxiang and Siji had long since mastered the art of automatically turning deaf in situations like this.
But Pei Liang said gravely, “The two of them can’t possibly think that after committing such atrocities against innocent people, they’ll be able to walk away unscathed.”
“What was your original plan?”
Shi Feiyu replied, “Cut off Li Shen’s escape route, feint an attack on his left flank, and force them away from the cities and commanderies, so that scattered remnants of the defeated army won’t harm any civilians while fleeing.”
“Then lure them into the gorge to the east. We’ve already laid a net there, and the place is covered with jagged rocks. Even if Li Shen throws his life away and tries to trade one of ours for one of his, the terrain will prevent him from causing too many casualties.”
Pei Liang nodded. “Then proceed as planned. But Li Shen is a man who prepares for every possibility. He doesn’t trust you.”
“Even if he intends to surrender later and must honor his promises made before the battle, he won’t entrust the outcome to your sense of honor.”
“I suspect there are also civilians among his army—people who were taken captive during the raids.”
Li Shen was precisely this kind of person. He had no limits in his conduct and used vicious, filthy methods, but they were effective.
Pei Liang continued, “So agree to their terms first. Have the emperor issue an imperial edict betrothing Wei Yingshu to the Young Marquis. Give Wei Yingshu a concrete promise of status, so they’ll lower their guard completely. Then we’ll make our move.”
Shi Feiyu frowned. “Even if it’s only in name, I’m unwilling.”
He lowered his voice. “I’m the man you keep. Can’t you show some awareness of your position as my patron? Where are your domineering ways and possessiveness?”
“How can you possibly tolerate me marrying another woman?”
The more Shi Feiyu spoke, the more aggrieved he became. After sleeping with her for so many years, he had thought they must have developed at least some genuine affection and loyalty. Who would have thought she would treat him like this?
Pei Liang pushed his head away. “Are you an idiot? It’s only the Young Marquis. That doesn’t necessarily mean you.”
Shi Feiyu: “…”
In his concern, he had completely forgotten that there was more than one son in his family.
Several days later, it seemed that a decision had been reached.
An imperial edict was read directly before the armies: Wei Yingshu, sworn younger sister of General Li, was to be betrothed as a secondary wife to the Young Marquis. The Li family army would submit to the imperial court, all past grievances would be pardoned, and they would henceforth become part of Great Liang.
From every angle, the result seemed perfectly ordinary. However, Li Shen was naturally suspicious, so he could use the negotiations to buy time.
Wei Yingshu, on the other hand, was impatient. From the moment she had first laid eyes on Shi Feiyu, she had wanted to marry him.
Though he had once treated her with cold indifference, he was a man who had set his sights on ruling the world and was now only half a step away from achieving it. No one else beneath the heavens could compare to such a man.
His appearance, his power, and the audacity to establish an entirely new dynasty—how could Wei Yingshu possibly forget a supreme figure who stood at the pinnacle of his age?
She could hardly wait to sprout wings and fly to General Shi’s side. As a result, she became increasingly dissatisfied with Li Shen’s delays.
She caused a commotion and pressured him day after day, until at last Li Shen had no choice but to speed up the proceedings.
Yet on the day they had made all their preparations and were about to enter the palace to offer thanks for the imperial favor, Shi Feiyu launched a surprise attack.
The assaulting troops first tore through the army at the very location where the eunuch who had handled the negotiations these past few days had discovered the captive civilians.
Once the troops broke through from there, creating a diversion while striking elsewhere, it was already too late for Li Shen’s men to regroup and use the civilians as hostages.
Shi Feiyu then carried out the rest of his original strategy. In the end, the Li army surrendered without ever reaching the point of a desperate last stand.
Li Shen was devoted to Wei Yingshu, willing to gamble the lives of everyone under heaven for her. But the other generals and soldiers under his command were unwilling to sacrifice themselves for one woman.
By the time Li Shen and Wei Yingshu were brought before Shi Feiyu, they knew that everything was over.
With tears streaming down her face, Wei Yingshu said, “General Shi, we are already husband and wife in name. Even if I die by your blade today, I will have no regrets.”
Shi Feiyu kicked the man standing beside him—a man Wei Yingshu found somewhat familiar. “Several days ago, I relinquished the title of Young Marquis. The title has been inherited by my second brother.”
Shi Er was still hopelessly useless, shrinking back from everything day after day. After his birth mother had been divorced, he no longer dared dream of anything beyond his station.
The irony was that the very things Madam Shi had schemed and plotted for—going so far as to drag her entire maternal family down with her—had now fallen effortlessly into her son’s hands.
Wei Yingshu’s eyes widened. She stared at Shi Er in disbelief and shook her head. “No. That can’t be. It’s impossible.”
Li Shen cast Shi Feiyu a venomous glare and laughed coldly. “General Shi is truly a master strategist. I, Li Shen, accept this defeat wholeheartedly.”
“Don’t be so quick to accept it.”
A woman’s voice rang out.
Li Shen and Wei Yingshu looked up.
Who else could it be but Pei Liang?
Pei Liang waved her hand. The soldiers before them parted, revealing the civilians who had been seized by Li Shen and held hostage behind them.
There were men and women, old and young alike. After several days of confinement and mistreatment, deprived of enough food, they were all desperately hungry.
Li Shen knew very well that Pei Liang was utterly merciless. His heart sank.
Sure enough, Pei Liang said, “Do the two of you really think that for the sake of your twisted entanglement of love and hatred, you can trample over the lives of countless others without it interfering with the romance in your hearts?”
Wei Yingshu hated Pei Liang so much she was nearly beside herself. She let out a cold laugh and said nothing.
Pei Liang nodded, and several baskets of sweet potatoes were carried over.
Li Shen and Wei Yingshu were both puzzled. Pei Liang then said, “Shopkeeper Wei, speaking of which, you and I have known each other for quite some time. The only proper contest between us was at Tianxiang Restaurant all those years ago.”
“The match before the emperor doesn’t count. I had no intention of cooking for a bunch of parasites.”
“Now that several years have passed, I imagine neither of us has forgotten who was truly the better chef. Since we have this opportunity today, Shopkeeper Wei, why don’t we have another contest?”
Pei Liang continued, “This time, the judges will be the common people who were taken hostage because of you. The winner will be whoever earns the approval of more people.”
“If Shopkeeper Wei loses, you’ll leave your life here.”
Wei Yingshu was startled. “You want these people, who have a deep grudge against me, to judge us?”
Pei Liang replied, “The cooking process will be separated, so you needn’t worry about me cheating.”
“From this moment on, however, you’ll have to bring out everything you have. After all, your life is now in the hands of the very people whose lives could once be decided by a single glance or smile from you.”
Wei Yingshu looked at the starving people before her. Their clothes were ragged, their faces gaunt and sallow, their expressions numb.
She had never cooked for people like these in her entire life. Yet now, her life or death was to be decided by their tastes?
Wei Yingshu felt that Pei Liang was humiliating her to the extreme. But with others holding the knife and her own flesh on the chopping block, she had no choice.
The subject of this contest was sweet potatoes. Wei Yingshu sneered inwardly. After studying under a master, Pei Liang had clearly picked up some wild, unsophisticated techniques from who knew where.
In the end, the thing he was best at was still such crude food.
Still, as a top chef, she could turn even sweet potatoes into a hundred different delicacies. Fortunately, Pei Liang had not restricted her choice of supplementary ingredients.
Once she had decided what to make, Wei Yingshu set to work.
Although the common people were kept separate, the two cooking stations were not far apart.
When Wei Yingshu saw what Pei Liang intended to make, she gave a cold laugh. She had been worried that he might come up with something unconventional and ingenious. If that had been the case, she would have been certain to win.
More than half an hour later, both of them had finished their dishes.
The soldiers carried the food out and set it on a long table. Pei Liang and Wei Yingshu did not go outside, but they could observe everything from behind the curtain.
Apart from maintaining order, the soldiers offered no hints or guidance.
Everyone’s eyes first fell on Wei Yingshu’s dish: beautiful crystal sweet-potato cakes.
The outer layer was made by steaming sweet potatoes until soft, mixing them with milk and honey, then sifting in finely ground glutinous rice flour. Once steamed, the translucent glutinous rice flour blended with the golden sweet potato to form an elegant, pale-gold color that looked exceptionally luxurious.
The cakes had been shaped into lively little animals, or pressed into graceful forms using molds with exquisite patterns.
Shi Feiyu picked up one of the crystal sweet-potato cakes and broke it open. Inside was a molten rose filling made from crushed rose petals. Its fragrance rose into the air, making one want to take a bite at once.
There were also fillings of date paste, red-bean paste, taro paste, and pork floss. Every filling was smooth, rich, and fragrant. Combined with the astonishing quantity, the display was visually striking.
In Shi Feiyu’s eyes, these pastries would have been eye-catching even on the emperor’s dining table, let alone before a crowd of commoners.
These starving people had been plundered from poor regions by Li Shen. Most of them had probably never eaten anything good in their lives. Even the pastries sold by the largest shop in the nearest town would not have looked one-tenth as exquisite as these sweet-potato cakes.
By contrast, on the other side were merely several buckets of sweet-potato porridge, boiled to just the right consistency, with pale orange pieces of sweet potato floating among the grains of rice.
Yet Shi Feiyu knew at a glance which dish had been made by whom.
The common people were already ravenous. When they heard that they could begin eating, most of them instinctively reached for the crystal sweet-potato cakes.
A smug smile appeared on Wei Yingshu’s face. Anyone with eyes would know what to choose.
Her culinary skill was unparalleled, honed by the demanding palates of countless high-ranking nobles and wealthy officials. A bunch of wretches who could not afford to eat meat more than a few times a year—what could they possibly know about fine food?
At her level, to those impoverished people, her cooking would be a gift from heaven.
Wei Yingshu turned and said smugly to Pei Liang, “Owner Pei, perhaps your porridge buckets are too tall, or perhaps they’re simply too hungry to wait for bowls of porridge. Give it a little more time. Eventually, some of them will grow tired of my sweet-potato cakes and go ladle out some of your rice soup to cleanse their palates.”
Pei Liang smiled. “Shopkeeper Wei, I already told you that your life is in the hands of the people outside. How can you still be treating this contest so lightly?”
“I truly admire your fearlessness in the face of death.”
“Do you even know what you’re saying?” Wei Yingshu sneered. “Can’t you see what’s happening outside—”
Before she could finish, she saw the faces of the people outside twist in pain. They were pounding desperately at their chests.
After struggling for a long while, they finally swallowed. But instead of reaching for more cakes, they hurriedly picked up bowls of porridge that had already been served.
The moment they took a mouthful, the fragrance of rice mingled with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes and warmed their limbs. The cakes that had been stuck in their throats slid down at once.
The porridge was also at the perfect temperature—not too hot, not too cold. It could be swallowed in large mouthfuls without losing its warmth and aroma.
The people’s eyes brightened.
Unlike the delicately made sweet-potato cakes, sweet-potato porridge was not unfamiliar to them. But its taste was entirely different from the bland, watery porridge in their memories.
Each grain of rice was plump and sticky. None had been overcooked until it split and turned mushy, yet none was so hard that it was difficult to swallow.
The grains remained distinct, but melted in the mouth. Some old farmers recognized that it was not the fine, precious rice eaten by the wealthy. It was merely the white rice they themselves usually grew.
And yet the porridge had drawn out every bit of fragrance and essence from each grain.
Its flavor seemed to carry them back to the peaceful years of the distant past—to years of favorable weather, when they had shouldered their hoes and walked through fields filled with the fragrance of ripening rice.
Many of them began to weep. Scalding tears fell into their earthenware bowls.
“I—I want to go home and farm again.”
“So do I.”
“Next year, after the harvest, we’ll cook a pot of thick sweet-potato porridge just like this.”
Wei Yingshu’s face turned deathly pale, her eyes filled with disbelief. “How is that possible? It’s nothing more than ordinary sweet-potato porridge.”
She had watched Pei Liang’s entire cooking process. He had added no expensive ingredients—only rice and sweet potatoes. Such coarse, cheap fare was something no one would even bother eating if it were thrown away. How could it possibly compare with her pastries?
Pei Liang’s voice came from beside her.
“Sweet potatoes are difficult to swallow, and so is glutinous rice. Did you really think that these people, who have been starved for days, were the same as the high-born nobles you once took such pains to please?”
“Do you think people who are starving will eat two-bite-sized cakes slowly, savoring every mouthful?”
Anyone driven to the brink of hunger would gulp down whatever they could get their hands on. These people had gone without enough food for so long that cramming food into their mouths had become instinctive.
But how could anyone swallow sweet potatoes and glutinous rice so quickly without choking? Naturally, they had choked.
And the people present had no inclination to savor the elaborate flavors in Wei Yingshu’s food. Her beautiful spread was like making flirtatious eyes at a blind man—its charms were completely wasted on them.
Pei Liang’s sweet-potato porridge, on the other hand, contained finely chopped sweet potato, and had been boiled to precisely the right thickness. It could be swallowed whole without causing trouble, while still allowing them to taste its delicious flavor.
Chef Sui had said before that the simpler a dish was, the more it revealed the skill of the cook. To turn something utterly plain into a delicacy fit for the human realm—that was what it meant to have truly mastered the craft.
At first, it was only natural that everyone would be drawn to the brightly colored pastries that looked so substantial. But after choking them down, they realized that although those treats were precious, they were not something they could stomach at that moment.
Who would have thought that the utterly ordinary-looking congee would bring such a feeling of having passed through the worst and survived a catastrophe the moment it touched their tongues?
With a side dish of minced meat and stir-fried pickled beans, the several large barrels of sweet-potato congee were emptied in no time.
After eating their fill, the color returned to everyone’s faces, and they savored the lingering fragrance between their lips and teeth.
Shi Feiyu smiled. “The result is already obvious.”
Sure enough, when the final vote was taken, every single person voted for the sweet-potato congee.
Wei Yingshu shrieked, “No! This doesn’t count! They’re just a bunch of starving refugees driven mad by hunger. What kind of taste could they possibly have? This wasn’t a contest of culinary skill at all—it was nothing but a cheap trick!”
Pei Liang said, “Before the contest began, I warned you. Your life now rests on their decision.”
“Shopkeeper Wei, when your father, Wei Qigui, first came to Tianxiang Restaurant, he was a starving refugee fleeing disaster as well. I’m sure that when he passed his culinary skills on to you, he never told you that all this talent was meant solely to please the powerful and wealthy.”
“How long has it been since you last considered the preferences and needs of ordinary diners? You’ve become so indifferent that you don’t even care what so many people desperately need right now.”
Wei Yingshu stumbled backward in desperation. “So what if I don’t care? You said it yourself—does one have to be the best chef in the world to run a restaurant? Does that mean cooks like me, who serve only the nobility, aren’t worthy of being called cooks? What, then, are the imperial chefs of the Palace Kitchens supposed to think?”
Pei Liang smiled faintly. “That’s true. But the imperial chefs of the Palace Kitchens don’t routinely torment innocent people, nor do they need to repay a debt like this one.”
“I gave you a chance.”
With that, she waved her hand.
Several soldiers moved forward to drag Wei Yingshu away, but Li Shen struggled with all his might and somehow broke free of his restraints.
He lunged toward Wei Yingshu, pulled her to his side, snatched up the confiscated knife, and pointed it at everyone present.
“Who dares touch her?”
Wei Yingshu cowered behind Li Shen. “Li Shen, I’m scared.”
“Don’t be afraid. If they want to touch you, they’ll have to step over my corpse first.”
Pei Liang applauded a few times, her manner careless. “Young Master Li is devoted to Shopkeeper Wei, loyal to her even unto death. If the two of you had managed to achieve a happy ending, perhaps you wouldn’t have dragged so many innocent people into this and ended up where you are today.”
Wei Yingshu was already being driven nearly mad by Pei Liang’s taunts. At those words, she screamed, “You shameless woman, don’t you dare sow discord while taking advantage of the situation! My heart belongs only to General Shi. Even if you kill me, you’ll never change my devotion!”
Pei Liang nodded. “Oh. So Shopkeeper Wei enjoys having one man devote himself to her completely, even going so far as to sacrifice his life, and takes it all for granted—while remaining hopelessly devoted to another man?”
Pei Liang considered herself a heartless scumbag of a woman, but compared with the female protagonist, even she had to admit defeat.
A shadow fell over Li Shen’s eyes. He gave a cold laugh. “You don’t need to provoke me. Yingshu once saved my life. If she hadn’t given me food day after day back then, I would have died during the winter when I was eight.”
“The life I have now was given to me by Yingshu. I’ve lived all these extra years, so I’ve already gotten my money’s worth. What would it matter if I gave it back to her?”
Wei Yingshu’s expression changed. She hurriedly said, “You don’t need to tell her all that.”
Pei Liang, however, seemed thoughtful. “From what Young Master Li has said, Shopkeeper Wei must have still been living in the capital at the time, right next door to my family.”
“But your mother has always been miserly. She wouldn’t even let you take a single pastry out of the house, and you used to share my snacks instead. It’s rather strange that she would have given Young Master Li food for several days in a row.”
Li Shen was just about to sneer at her for being suspicious of everyone when Pei Liang suddenly seemed to remember something.
“Now that I think of it, when I first began learning the culinary arts, I often practiced at home.”
“That winter, there were several injured little beggars. I was shy by nature and embarrassed to meet strangers, so every day I gave you several pieces of candy in exchange for your carrying food to those children. One of them wouldn’t happen to have been Young Master Li, would it?”
Li Shen’s pupils contracted violently, his face filled with disbelief. He looked at Wei Yingshu in confusion, only to see the guilt and resentment she had failed to conceal in time.
Li Shen knew Wei Yingshu down to her very bones. At that moment, how could he fail to understand?
He found it difficult to breathe. It seemed that all the sacrifices he had made over so many years had been nothing but a joke.
His true lifesaver had never been Yingshu. She had merely been willing to run the errand after being given a few pieces of candy. Looking back, the many layers of gratitude he had added to his memories shattered one after another.
Back then, Yingshu had indeed delivered the food every day with an expression of impatience.
And his true benefactor was the very person he had tried to kill again and again. Wei Yingshu had known this all along.
From beginning to end, she had known that the person Li Shen wanted to harm was his real savior.
He glanced at Pei Liang, then closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath.
Unease spread through Wei Yingshu. She said in a panic, “Li Shen, don’t listen to her. She’s eloquent, and she’s always putting on an act. She’s lying to you. You can’t start doubting me just because of a few words from her.”
Li Shen smiled at her gently, and Wei Yingshu breathed a sigh of relief.
But before that breath had even left her, the smile turned strange. Then she heard Li Shen say, “Yingshu, you seem to have forgotten. Other than you, I, Li Shen, never make a losing bargain.”
“And now, you’re no exception.”
Wei Yingshu heard a crack come from her neck. Then everything went black, and she lost consciousness forever.
Li Shen tossed her corpse onto the ground. He then turned toward Pei Liang, too ashamed to meet her eyes.
He said softly, “I’m sorry.”
Then he placed the long knife against his neck and drew it across. The female protagonist and her male counterpart thus went to their deaths together.
Pei Liang merely shrugged. She felt no particular emotion.
She had deliberately revealed the truth from all those years ago not to earn Li Shen’s gratitude or remorse. She had never expected anything from him.
She had done it because Little Chef Pei, the introverted and awkward yet fundamentally kind-hearted woman from the original story, had watered a poisonous crop with her own good deeds. Others had stolen the fruits of her kindness and used them against her, turning them into the blade that destroyed her family.
That injustice deserved to be known.
Just as when she had reclaimed Tianxiang Restaurant, Pei Liang could feel the original Little Chef Pei’s resentment finally vanish completely.
With Li Shen’s forces subdued, the last remaining faction quickly surrendered as well.
Only then could the realm truly be said to have been pacified. The era of chaos that had dragged on for years had finally come to an end.
As the saying went, founding a state was easy, but preserving it was difficult. The realm’s submission was only the beginning. From then on, Shi Feiyu faced even more complicated responsibilities.
For a long time, even Pei Liang rarely saw him.
By then, the court’s officials had already moved back to the capital, and everyone understood that the dynasty would change hands within days.
The imperial clans and aristocrats who had been attached to the former dynasty were all living in fear. Yet after some time passed, they discovered that Shi Feiyu’s attitude toward them was fairly tolerant and gentle. Those members of the imperial clan who were charitable and enjoyed a good reputation among the people were granted noble titles, allowing them to retain their wealth and status.
Those who had accomplished little else were demoted to commoners as well. The court would no longer support these idlers. Though they had lost their wealth and honors, at least their lives were spared.
After several years, nearly everyone who needed to be dealt with had been dealt with. Those who remained were no longer capable of stirring up any trouble.
One day, Shi Feiyu, whom Pei Liang had not seen for quite some time, came to her residence.
After an intense bout of lovemaking, Pei Liang asked, “Aren’t you busy? What brings you here today?”
Shi Feiyu stroked her hair, his eyes gleaming with barely suppressed excitement, as though something he had long awaited was finally about to come true.
He said, “It’s been a long time since we played make-believe. Since I’m free today, how about indulging me one more time?”
Pei Liang arched a brow. “Oh? What would you like to play this time?”
“The Emperor and Empress. What do you say?”
