"Chen Jihuo? That's a strange name," Zheng Yu muttered.
Meng Ling'er picked up a branch and carefully wrote the three characters on the ground, stroke by stroke. "Chen, Ji, Huo. See it clearly now?"
"Wow, big sister, you know how to write!" Little girl Zheng Ke's focus was elsewhere.
A fleeting smile finally touched Meng Ling'er's lips. "My parents cherished me greatly. They hired a tutor to teach me to read."
Zheng Yu wanted to say more, but saw the young girl had already turned away. "I need to rest. You should go back now."
"You're sleeping here?" Zheng Yu asked.
That figure vanished into the thicket, offering no reply.
Zheng Ke gathered the wooden food box from the ground. "Elder brother, let's go back."
Zheng Yu glanced back twice, then left with his younger sister.
The Military Commissioner's Residence.
"General, the meal has been reheated." Xin Jin served the warmed dishes.
Huo Tingshan waved the maid away. After she left the main chamber, he rose and walked towards the window. "My lady, please eat something."
Pei Ying sat on the soft couch by the window, a book in her hand. She had been holding it for a while, but if not for the fact that she hadn't turned a page in ages, and that the book had been upside down the entire time, one might truly think she was engrossed in the travelogue.
She remained motionless, as if she hadn't heard Huo Tingshan.
The man said no more. He walked to the couch, reached out a long arm, and simply scooped the person on it up. She was like a startled nightingale, jolting back to awareness and instinctively struggling, but she quickly stilled.
Huo Tingshan carried her to the small table. Instead of placing her beside it, he sat down behind Pei Ying, encircling her in his arms. His arm reached past her from the side, pulling the tray closer. "My lady ate nothing at dusk. Have some food now."
Pei Ying shook her head. "I'm not hungry."
Since the incident until now, she had been in a daze, unable to stop the terrible images from flooding her mind.
"Not eating is not an option." Huo Tingshan's long brows furrowed. He changed his approach. "When the little one is found and brought back, if she sees her mother so haggard, how could she not blame herself?"
Pei Ying trembled slightly, like a withered tree finally receiving a drop of life-giving rain, finding a sliver of motivation.
She still had no appetite, but Pei Ying forced herself to eat half a small bowl of millet rice and a tiny bowl of steamed egg custard, then set down her jade chopsticks. "I'm full."
Huo Tingshan reached out and touched her abdomen.
Pei Ying flinched away from his sudden move, annoyed. "Huo Tingshan, what are you doing?"
"Seems rather flat to me. That's not full. Have some more." Huo Tingshan picked up the chopsticks and placed two pieces of chicken breast in her bowl.
"Don't want it," Pei Ying whispered.
Huo Tingshan pressed the chopsticks into her hand. "Suppose the little one returns in five days. If for those five days, my lady only eats half a bowl of rice and some custard per meal, losing one jin daily, that's five jin lighter in five days. Do you think others would notice a person losing five jin?"
Pei Ying pressed her lips together, but finally ate the two pieces of chicken clean. Seeing from the corner of her eye that he had picked up another pair of chopsticks, she hurriedly said, "Really, no more."
The man clicked his tongue softly. "Even a rabbit left here would eat more than you."
Pei Ying ignored him, extricated herself from his embrace, and returned to the soft couch.
The reheated evening meal was plentiful, enough for two. Pei Ying had eaten only a tiny portion, leaving much behind.
He didn't mind that she had eaten from the bowl of millet rice. Without changing it, he swiftly finished off the remaining dishes on the table.
This meal counted as a late-night snack. It wouldn't be long before it was time to sleep. Normally, the two would chat before bed, talking freely—about the modern world Pei Ying described, or about interesting sights Huo Tingshan had seen during his past campaigns.
But tonight was especially quiet.
After lying down, Pei Ying had little desire to talk, even though the man beside her tried a couple of topics.
In the darkness, she was drawn into a warm embrace. Then she heard a sigh whispered close to her ear. "Still, there is some regret."
"Regret what?" Pei Ying responded absently.
"If I could have met my lady ten years earlier, I believe you would not have hesitated for even a moment this evening," he said quietly.
Though not stated explicitly, Pei Ying understood.
That moment of hesitation referred to her fleeting thought of going to Chang'an. Ten years earlier, if they had met then, perhaps they might have had a child of their own. With a daughter captured, if she had another child, even if she didn't consider her husband, she might have forced herself to stay calm for the sake of the other child.
"Huo Tingshan, there aren't that many 'what ifs' in this world. Even if we had met ten years ago, the 'me' standing before you would not have been the same. Ten years ago, you didn't have the leisure you do now. You were likely busy building your career, disdaining matters of the heart. Meeting the right person at the wrong time doesn't necessarily lead to a result," Pei Ying said softly.
She knew his reflection tonight stemmed mostly from her attitude at dusk, which must have hurt him somewhat.
When faced with a choice between her daughter and her husband/stepson, her first instinct, from the depths of her heart, had been her daughter.
Suddenly, he turned her over so they were face to face. "If you are the right person for me, then what am I to you?"
It was pitch dark, with light-blocking curtains drawn over the windows, leaving the room in deep gloom. Yet even so, Pei Ying felt an intense sensation of being watched.
He was looking at her, his gaze burning.
Pei Ying gave a soft "Mm."
"What does 'Mm' mean?" he pressed, unwilling to let it go.
Pei Ying turned her head slightly, trying to escape that gaze. "You are the right person."
"Are you just humoring me?" He first grasped her wrist, then slid his hand up, gently squeezing her fingertips.
That large palm was very warm, as if invisible threads were winding around it, pulling her thoughts back to this evening—it was these hands that had steadied her firmly in her panic.
Pei Ying withdrew the hand he was holding.
Huo Tingshan's movement paused.
But the next moment, a soft, slender hand slipped into his palm, fingers sliding between his, slowly intertwining with his in a ten-finger clasp. "Huo Tingshan, you are the right person."
Before their palms could fully meet, he gripped her hand tightly, closing his own around it. In the darkness, someone chuckled lowly. "I knew my lady's heart was mine."
Pei Ying sighed inwardly.
The Wilderness.
After sleeping in a tree, Meng Ling'er woke up and scratched the mosquito bites on her cheek and neck, then climbed down.
The sky was tinged with a faint fish-belly white; dawn was still about half an hour away. But Meng Ling'er couldn't wait. She had escaped via the river; surely, her pursuers would be searching along the waterways.
She had to leave quickly.
But after walking for a while, Meng Ling'er suddenly stopped.
Her teacher had once said that great rivers flow east to the sea, and most rivers flow from west to east. But depending on the terrain, some flow from north to south or from south to north.
"That river seemed to flow from north to south. If I head north, I might run into those people," Meng Ling'er murmured to herself?
Worry aside, she still pressed on, continuing forward.
She had to return to Sizhou as soon as possible.
Meng Ling'er was unaware that just a few hours after she left, around the initial period of the Wei hour in the afternoon, a group of men arrived at the small village located outside the county town, coming from the direction she had come from.
The leading man had a scarred face and an aura of fierce brutality. "Go and ask around if any outsiders have come to the village."
The man acknowledged the order, but as soon as he dismounted, he was called back by Scarface.
"Commandant Chang?" the man asked, puzzled.
"Forget it, come back. Let Zhuang Xiang go instead," Chang Mingyuan named another man. "Zhuang Xiang, you go and check. Don't ask adults; pick some young children to question. If others ask, claim to be a relative of the young lady. If necessary, you can offer dates or copper coins as gifts."
The named man had a kind, round face, appearing exceptionally amiable and gentle among the group of expressionless men.
Zhuang Xiang accepted the order.
The others waited outside the village. About a quarter of an hour later, Zhuang Xiang returned.
"Commandant Chang, I have a lead!"
He reported excitedly, "A young lady traveling alone arrived at the village yesterday evening. The child said she looked very disheveled, with many grass leaves and mud on her face and clothes, obscuring her appearance. She seemed to have been scrambling through the woods for a long time. The child also said the young lady stopped the Zheng family's child at the time and exchanged some silver coins from her person for two pieces of flint and a meal."
A glint flashed in the scarred man's eyes. "What happened afterward?" he hurriedly asked.
But Zhuang Xiang shook his head. "The child doesn't know what followed. Commandant Chang, I suspect she might be at the Zheng family's house."
"Everyone, follow me to take a look." Chang Mingyuan dismounted and led his men into the village.
He had initially thought this was a simple task, never expecting the girl to be so cunning and surprisingly skilled. A moment of carelessness had allowed her to kill two of their men and escape.
If this news got back to Chang'an, it would become a laughingstock. How could he ever hold his head up among his colleagues again, let alone continue to earn the trust of Grand Marshal Ji?
He absolutely could not let the daughter of the Pei family escape.
The village was sparsely populated; with a few casual inquiries, they found the Zheng household.
They entered the front courtyard directly.
"Who are you?" Mother Zheng, who was weaving a bamboo basket in the front yard, asked in shock.
Chang Mingyuan paid her no mind. The soldiers behind him swiftly entered the house and thoroughly searched the modest-sized dwelling.
"Commandant Chang, nothing found."
"Only this woman is in the house. The others are probably out."
The search concluded quickly.
Chang Mingyuan shifted his gaze to Mother Zheng. "Where is that young lady from yesterday now?"
"What young lady?" Mother Zheng's face turned pale.
Chang Mingyuan drew his blade and with one slash, cut the half-woven bamboo basket to pieces. "Answer the question honestly. You wouldn't want to share its fate."
Mother Zheng was frightened out of her wits. "The... the young lady you mentioned, I haven't seen her. I don't know."
"Don't talk nonsense." The long blade swept horizontally, coming to rest on Mother Zheng's shoulder, the edge just an inch from her neck.
Mother Zheng trembled violently like a sieve. "I truly don't know. That young lady never entered the village. She only asked my child to bring her a meal. After eating outside, she left. I have no relation to her; there's no reason for me to hide anything for a stranger."
Chang Mingyuan stared fixedly at the woman before him. Her face was as white as paper, looking as if she might faint at any moment.
It seemed she wasn't lying.
Just as Chang Mingyuan was about to withdraw his blade, footsteps sounded outside the door—someone was returning.
The blade, poised to move away, stilled. So, when Zheng Yu and Zheng Ke returned, they saw the courtyard filled with strangers, and one of them had a blade pressed against their mother's neck.
"Mother?!" Zheng Yu's face changed dramatically.
The little girl, having never seen such a scene, was frozen in terror.
"Boy, I'll ask you a few questions. Answer them truthfully, and I'll spare your mother. If you try to be clever with me, I'll cut off your mother's head and pickle it in wine," Chang Mingyuan said coldly and fiercely. The scar on his face at that moment seemed like a living, writhing worm, exceptionally terrifying.
Zheng Yu was only fifteen or sixteen and was instantly intimidated. "Let's talk properly. Please, don't hurt my mother."
Chang Mingyuan: "What was the clothing of that young lady outside the village like yesterday?"
Zheng Yu tried hard to recall. "It was already dark when I met her, so I couldn't see clearly. I only remember she was wearing a bluish-green dress..."
He paused, then added as if suddenly remembering, "The skirt seemed to have a silvery shimmer on the surface, like falling stars, but it was very tattered."
Chang Mingyuan asked again, "What about her face?"
Zheng Yu shook his head. "She was standing in the shadows at the time, and besides, her face seemed to have mud on it... She's a young lady; it wasn't proper for me to stare."
Fifteen or sixteen—the age for discussing marriage. Chang Mingyuan didn't doubt his last statement. "Where is she now?"
Zheng Yu: "I don't know. Last night, I told her there were black bears outside the village and suggested she stay in the village for the night, and that I would go with her to the county to report to the authorities tomorrow. But she refused, then went back into the woods. I didn't know her. She paid for our family's food, and I delivered the meal to her. That settled our transaction. I didn't ask anything else."
Chang Mingyuan narrowed his eyes. "Report to the authorities? What identity did she claim?"
"She said she was a merchant's daughter, traveling with her family on business, and unfortunately got separated from them after encountering forest bandits," Zheng Yu said.
Chang Mingyuan gave a cold laugh.
A merchant's daughter? Hah.
"I've told you everything I know. Please, don't harm my mother," Zheng Yu pleaded.
Chang Mingyuan sheathed his blade and led his men out of the Zheng house. However, they didn't leave the village immediately but went to search the neighboring houses. After spending half an hour turning the entire village upside down and indeed finding no one, Chang Mingyuan and his group finally departed.
After they left, Zheng Ke whispered, "Brother, you didn't mention that sister's name earlier."
Zheng Yu patted his little sister's head. "Those people came with ill intentions, likely enemies of that young lady. Only the two of us know about the name. Let's consider it doing a good deed."
The little girl nodded. "Brother is right. Perhaps there will be good karma."
...
At the same time, another group of men was traveling from east to west.
This group rode sturdy horses, the riders clad in black armor. Their leader had a handsome yet stern and cold countenance. He had neither slept nor rested all night, had encountered several waves of obstructing forces from various factions along the way, and was tormented by anxiety. Now, faint red threads were visible in the corners of his eyes.
"Envoy Chen, there's a discovery at the ferry crossing over there."
