Li Fuxiang liked to stand high above the rest.
Thus, in the military camp, led by Ji Wei and Zhan Ji, everyone was eager to keep him lifted as high as possible.
In the camp, brothers ate and slept together, but the Xiaoqi Battalion was the only unit where their commander was often absent. Their commander, Li Fuxiang, had returned to the capital but was first confined to the palace to recuperate from injuries. Then, the emperor personally issued an edict to place him under house arrest. After much anticipation, when his house arrest was finally lifted, he barely managed to sneak out of the palace for a day before Miss Chen’s death dragged him into another murky whirlpool of troubles.
This separation had gone on for far too long. Although they were both in the capital, meeting each other was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
In a chaotic scene of rogue soldiers, the Jinyiwei precisely captured the leader and brought him before Li Fuxiang, forcing him to his knees by pressing down on the back of his neck.
Li Fuxiang looked at the unfamiliar face and asked, “Which battalion are you from?”
The man had three bloodstains across his face, and his beard was matted and filthy with dried blood. He stiffened his neck and replied, “What nonsense are you spouting? I, your father, don’t understand a word!”
Ji Wei turned around and delivered a kick to the man’s head. “Who do you think you are to call yourself ‘I, your father’ in front of him?”
Li Fuxiang didn’t bother addressing the issue of the man’s self-proclaimed arrogance. He could endure it, but others couldn’t. Just based on this man’s audacious words, a spot in the market outside the Meridian Gate would undoubtedly be reserved for him.
Gao Yuexing, holding an arrowhead just extracted from a wounded soldier’s body with a handkerchief, leisurely made her way through the crowd of soldiers and handed it to Li Fuxiang.
Li Fuxiang tossed the arrowhead at the feet of the bearded man and said, “These arrows are military-issued. Speak—where did you get them?”
The bearded man was rendered completely speechless upon seeing the incontrovertible evidence.
At that moment, a figure emerged from the forest. While everyone else was standing, the sound of footsteps crunching on dry grass was particularly attention-grabbing.
Gao Yuexing’s eyes lit up—it was Xi Heng.
Xi Heng held a damp handkerchief and meticulously wiped the dirt off his face bit by bit.
After being absent for so long, it turned out he had gone off to find a place to wash his face.
Xi Heng strolled leisurely into the crowd and said, “Turn your face around. Let me take a look.”
The Jinyiwei had seen their fair share of people. As a commander, Xi Heng had an internal ledger of all the prominent figures in the Great Xu dynasty. If even he didn’t recognize someone, it meant they were a nobody—not worth much at all.
The bearded man refused to turn his face toward him.
Li Fuxiang gave a subtle glance.
Zhan Ji stepped forward and twisted the man’s head to face Xi Heng.
Xi Heng tossed his used handkerchief onto the man’s face. “Wipe it off.”
Zhan Ji held the man’s face and wiped it thoroughly before finally removing the handkerchief.
Xi Heng took one look and said, “Oh, isn’t this the Chief Commander of the Defense Army of Jizhou—Bu Yaolian, Lord Bu himself?”
Ji Wei found the name familiar and muttered in a daze, “Jizhou?”
Li Fuxiang said, “Mount Jitian.”
Xi Heng added, “Exactly. That’s him. Autumn of Jingle Year 16, the bandit crisis at Mount Jitian. He requested over ten thousand troops from the imperial court to suppress the bandits. Instead, he colluded with them, handed over money and soldiers, and then submitted a fabricated report of complete victory to the court. Your Highness, do you remember the battle your Xiaoqi Battalion fought at Mount Jitian that year?”
How could I forget?
Li Fuxiang saw blood for the first time in that battle.
The Xiaoqi Battalion fought their first brilliant battle in Jizhou.
At that time, the western border was in urgent need of reinforcements, so they couldn’t afford to linger in Jizhou. They burned the granaries and fled. However, later, the bandits from Mount Jitian colluded with the Fox Hu forces, ambushing their retreat outside Xiang City and forcing them to retreat into Hucha Sea.
After Zheng Qianye completely annihilated the 80,000 troops of Fox Hu, he turned around and wiped out the reinforcements from Mount Jitian. The remaining bandits on Mount Jitian were eradicated the following spring when Zheng Yunji led the army to clear the mountain.
The officials of Jizhou, all guilty of treason and collusion with the enemy, were executed to the last man.
Still, some managed to escape.
This Bu Yaolian was one of them.
When Fox Hu’s supplies were burned, he had sensed that the situation was dire and fled overnight.
The court had issued a wanted order for some time, but who would have thought he’d finally be caught here?
Xi Heng looked at Li Fuxiang and said, “Take him back first. There’s something deeper here that might take time to unravel. This guy knew to run when things went south on Mount Jitian back then—he’s someone who can read the room and values his life. If he’s afraid to die, that’ll make things easier.”
Li Fuxiang, ever easy-going, handed all the captives over to the Jinyiwei without complaint. Relieved of the burden, he led his troops back, saying he’d treat them to meat and wine once they returned to the capital.
However, he didn’t hand over the prayer beads. Xi Heng didn’t press him for them either—after all, the beads were ultimately destined for the emperor.
At the root of it all was the leftover trouble from Prince Wen’s faction that hadn’t been entirely dealt with.
When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter.
The shade-providing tree that was Prince Wen had fallen, but the scattered monkeys had yet to be fully cleaned up.
On horseback, Gao Yuexing rode alongside him. Taking advantage of the moment when no one was paying attention, she quietly asked, “After you return to the capital, are you going out to have fun with them?”
Li Fuxiang glanced at her and asked, as if it were only natural, “Aren’t you coming?”
Gao Yuexing chuckled. “It’s not suitable for me to go.”
As a healer, her role in the army allowed her some freedom from constraints, but as Miss Gao of the Gao family, it wasn’t possible.
She thought he would brood over it for a while, and the words of comfort were already at the tip of her tongue. To her surprise, Li Fuxiang decisively changed his mind. “Then I won’t go. I’ll go home with you.”
Gao Yuexing was startled. “You’re not going?”
Li Fuxiang replied, “Not going.”
She persisted, “But you haven’t seen them in a long time.”
Li Fuxiang said, “What’s there to see? Back in Hucha Sea, we ate and slept together every day.”
The others couldn’t hear their conversation, but Ji Wei and Zhan Ji, who were standing nearby, caught every word clearly.
Feeling uneasy, Gao Yuexing turned back to glance at them.
Ji Wei, surprisingly cheerful, said, “The little lord is absolutely right. What’s so fun about hanging out with a bunch of old men? Serious matters are more important.”
Zhan Ji, confused, asked, “Serious matters? What serious matters does the lord have to attend to?”
Ji Wei lowered his voice slightly. “A lifelong matter, of course. You—no wonder you’re still single in your thirties. Serves you right!”
Zhan Ji: “…”
Li Fuxiang said he would go home with her, but as soon as their group reached the city gate, they saw the imperial guards waiting in formation, with Ding Wenfu standing at the forefront. It seemed they had been waiting for quite some time.
What was supposed to be him going home with her turned into her going home with him.
Once inside the city, Gao Yuexing, unable to ride a horse properly, was ushered into a carriage that Ding Wenfu had prepared in advance. Lifting her skirt, she stepped into the carriage, and Li Fuxiang immediately followed her inside before Ding Wenfu could stop him.
Inside the carriage, Gao Yuexing noticed a clean set of clothing placed prominently, clearly prepared for her.
From outside, Ding Wenfu called helplessly, “Your Highness.”
Li Fuxiang had no choice but to step out again. “What is it?”
As soon as he stepped out, Gao Yuexing slammed the carriage door shut with a bang. “My clothes are dirty. I need to change. Wait there.”
Li Fuxiang, now shut outside, glanced at Ding Wenfu, then at himself, and said, “My clothes are dirty too. Where’s mine?”
Ding Wenfu pressed his hand to his forehead. “There’s a set prepared for you in the palace. His Majesty has been restless ever since he heard you left the city. You’d better hurry back.”
Li Fuxiang stood by the carriage and called out, “Are you done changing yet?”
Gao Yuexing didn’t respond, but the carriage had gone completely silent, with not a sound coming from inside.
Just as Li Fuxiang reached out to pull the door open, Ding Wenfu grabbed him by the waist and carried him away. When Li Fuxiang was younger and disobedient, Ding Wenfu often carried him like this. Over the years, it had become a habit.
Ding Wenfu ordered someone to bring Li Fuxiang’s small red horse and firmly helped him onto it.
Li Fuxiang’s lifelong disadvantage might have been his frail constitution. Damaged by medicine while still in his mother’s womb, he was born with less-than-ideal bones and muscles. His troubled childhood further robbed him of a healthy body, and by the time he had the chance to receive formal training in both civil and martial arts, he was already ten years old.
No one expected him to amount to much, and his tutors treated him with unparalleled leniency.
In the capital, while other children woke at dawn to study, he would sleep until the sun was high in the sky.
His cousins, Zheng Yan and Zheng Yi, practiced martial arts relentlessly, training through the bitter cold of winter and the scorching heat of summer, forging bodies of steel. Meanwhile, he spent his winters clutching a warm brazier and his summers nibbling on ice, sitting under the veranda admiring the spring blossoms and autumn moon.
That he had achieved what he had today was something no one anticipated—nor dared to.
Not even the emperor.
Li Fuxiang was returning to the imperial palace.
Gao Yuexing had assumed the carriage would take her back to the Gao residence. But as she noticed the imperial guards surrounding them and realized they had passed the gates of the Gao residence without stopping, she couldn’t help but lift the curtain to look.
To her surprise, Li Fuxiang was riding alongside the carriage. When he saw her finally show her face, he bent down and asked, “Why won’t you let me into the carriage?”
Gao Yuexing shot him a glare.
Li Fuxiang sulked. “Fine then.”
Gao Yuexing said, “Don’t play dumb. You know exactly why.”
Li Fuxiang replied matter-of-factly, “I know. You’re not of age yet. I still have to wait.”
Slowing his horse’s pace, he paused for a moment, then leaned down again and said, “I’ve seen weddings in the capital before. The bride sits in a sedan chair, and the groom rides a horse, just like we’re doing now.”
Gao Yuexing seemed to think of something, her expression softening. She shook her head gently and said, “That’s for ordinary families. We’re not the same.”
Li Fuxiang was puzzled. “We’re not the same?”
Gao Yuexing lifted the curtain with one hand, raising her eyes slightly to look at his face.
He had never experienced it.
But she knew.
If she were to properly marry Li Fuxiang, it wouldn’t be like an ordinary wedding. Ten miles of red bridal trimmings would stretch all the way to the gates of the Imperial City. Li Fuxiang would wear a royal robe and come with an imperial procession from the palace, arriving to marry her at dusk, just as the sun began to set.
On that day, there would be few onlookers in the streets.
To this day, Gao Yuexing remembered the elaborate protocols of that day with complete clarity. Truthfully, there had been no joy in it. The suffocating rules that loomed over her had made even breathing feel difficult.
Back then, she had thought she never wanted to endure such torment again in her life.
But now…
Gao Yuexing looked at Li Fuxiang. If it were him, she could force herself to anticipate it—perhaps even endure it multiple times.
She lowered the curtain and latched the window shut.
Li Fuxiang reached out to knock on the window, wanting her to come out again, but Gao Yuexing closed her eyes and ignored him.
Although they had been husband and wife in their past lives, as an unmarried woman now, her demeanor should carry a bit more shyness.
Li Fuxiang knocked on the window several times, but seeing that she refused to respond, he had no choice but to ride his horse to the front.
Ding Wenfu pulled out a small oil-paper package from his pocket and shoved it into Li Fuxiang’s hand. It was a steaming-hot rice cake he had bought at the city gate.
Li Fuxiang had always had a fondness for it, and even after all these years, his taste hadn’t changed. He broke off a piece and stuffed it into his mouth. Though the sweetness filled his mouth, his expression remained gloomy.
Ding Wenfu said, “Your Highness, good things take time. You must have patience.”
Li Fuxiang lowered his eyes. “It’s been so long since we last saw each other… but now that we’re reunited, it doesn’t feel as close as it did when we were children.”
Ding Wenfu replied, “People change as they grow. It’s natural to be different.”
Li Fuxiang suddenly asked, “Have you married your little palace maid yet?”
Caught off guard by the question, Ding Wenfu hesitated before answering, “She still has two years before she’s of age to leave the palace. It’s still early.”
Li Fuxiang asked, “How do you hold yourself back from seeing her?”
Ding Wenfu smiled. “I think about the future. She’ll eventually be mine, so there’s nothing I can’t endure.” He added, “Your Highness, with your extraordinary perseverance, surely you understand this principle.”
Li Fuxiang turned back on his horse and looked at the carriage with a gaze suddenly filled with longing and reluctance. He murmured, “But… I always feel like I don’t have that much time to wait…”