Chapter 88

The teacher and student, who had not seen each other for many years, talked by candlelight for quite some time. When Xie Zheng insisted on personally escorting Grand Tutor Tao back to his quarters, the old man said:

“That’s enough. There’s no need for such formalities between us. You should get some rest as well. This old man can make his own way back.”

Xie Zheng then ordered Xie Qi to escort Grand Tutor Tao back. After a brief pause, he added:

“If she learns that I was the one who asked Teacher to accept her as an adopted daughter, she’ll probably be unwilling to accept the favor. Tomorrow, when the camp breaks and we head down the mountain, I’ll arrange for her and Teacher to share a carriage. Whenever she has free time, she likes to read. She greatly respects learned people. Teacher, please guide her a little and persuade her to acknowledge you as her adoptive father.”

Seeing how carefully and thoughtfully he had arranged everything, Grand Tutor Tao slowly lifted his aged eyelids and asked:

“You’re putting this much effort into it. Is it really worth it?”

By then, Xie Zheng had escorted him to the entrance of the tent. Against the candlelight, his handsome profile was half-hidden in shadow.

“She’s worth it,” he replied with absolute certainty.

Grand Tutor Tao chuckled.

“Very well. We’ll do as you say.”

Then he asked:

“What is the young lady’s surname and given name? Do you know her birth date? Since I’m taking her as a daughter, I should at least give her a courtesy name.”

Xie Zheng answered:

“Her surname is Fan, and her name is Changyu. She’s sixteen this year. She should have been born sometime during the first lunar month of the second year of Qingli.”

He did not know Fan Changyu’s exact birthday. He had asked while they were still in Qingping County, but she had never told him.

Grand Tutor Tao’s expression instantly became extraordinarily colorful.

No wonder Gongsun Yin had previously said he had met Fan Changyu but refused to reveal any more information. So this was what he had been waiting for!

Noticing the change in his expression, Xie Zheng frowned.

“Is there a problem?”

Grand Tutor Tao looked at him with a complicated expression.

“The young lady I met on the road is also surnamed Fan. Her name is Changyu.”

Remembering the knowledgeable old eccentric Fan Changyu had mentioned while they were building the dam—the old man who constantly cursed his own students—Xie Zheng’s eyelids twitched violently.

The entire tent fell silent.

Teacher and student stared at each other speechlessly for a long moment.

Finally, Xie Zheng asked:

“Teacher was captured by the soldiers building the dam upstream of Ji Prefecture?”

The memory of being forcibly dragged up the mountain to dig dirt and haul rocks was not a pleasant one. Embarrassed, Grand Tutor Tao’s beard twitched.

Instead of answering directly, he counterattacked:

“That young lady told me that the husband who divorced her was a live-in son-in-law.”

He narrowed his eyes at Xie Zheng.

“When you fell on hard times, you became a live-in husband?”

Xie Zheng remained silent for a moment before responding with a low:

“Mm.”

Grand Tutor Tao looked at him in surprise.

No one knew better than he did how proud this student of his was.

When he had previously heard Xie Wu mention that Fan Changyu had killed Shi Hu, he had instinctively thought of her. But Fan Changyu’s former husband had been a live-in son-in-law. Given Xie Zheng’s temperament, how could he possibly have agreed to marry into someone else’s family?

Furthermore, Shi Hu was a fierce general. The commanders of both the Vanguard Army and the Left Guard Camp had been defeated by him. Although Fan Changyu knew martial arts, she was still a newcomer. How could she possibly have achieved such a tremendous military feat?

And the young woman Xie Zheng spoke of was intelligent and perceptive. The Fan Changyu in his memory was clearly a stubborn, simple-minded girl.

That was why he had never connected the two of them and assumed it was merely a coincidence of surnames.

Who would have thought that fate could be so coincidental?

Looking at his most outstanding student, whose brows now carried a rare trace of dejection, Grand Tutor Tao stroked his goatee and coughed lightly.

“In that case, I suppose I’ll abandon the idea of finding her another young man.”

Xie Zheng glanced at him.

For some reason, Grand Tutor Tao felt as though he could read the words, Did you really think I’d still go looking for someone else? in that look.

Xie Zheng merely said:

“I’ll still have to trouble Teacher with the matter of accepting her as an adopted daughter.”

Grand Tutor Tao shook his head and sighed.

“Believe it or not, when I met that girl on the road, I immediately thought she was a promising seedling. She lacks a little natural brilliance, but she’s broad-minded, kind-hearted, and possesses remarkable determination. With some polishing, she could become someone truly capable. I wanted to take her as my disciple, but she refused me repeatedly.”

Xie Zheng remembered Fan Changyu telling him not long ago, with a sympathetic expression, that the eccentric old man was lonely and probably wanted a disciple to care for him in his old age.

At the time, she had been desperate to find Changning and simply had no spare energy to look after a temperamental old man. That was why she had politely declined. The old man had apparently been angry about it for quite a while.

Now that he heard the true reason from Grand Tutor Tao himself, his feelings became rather complicated.

Seeing that he remained silent, Grand Tutor Tao continued:

“She wasn’t willing to become my disciple back then. As for accepting me as an adoptive father now, I can’t guarantee she’ll agree.”

Xie Zheng replied:

“Do what we can and leave the rest to fate.”

Grand Tutor Tao sighed.

“You two are like a pair of stubborn mules that happened to meet each other.”

Xie Zheng said nothing.

After Grand Tutor Tao left, he stood alone outside the tent with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing into the dark night.

The rain had stopped.

The military tents arranged neatly in the distance looked like countless dark mounds under the flickering firelight.

Xie Wu approached hesitantly.

“My Lord, it’s already a quarter past midnight. You should rest as well.”

Xie Zheng’s thoughts were in complete turmoil. He felt not the slightest bit sleepy.

He instructed:

“Go remind the Left Guard Camp. Keep the matter of her killing Shi Hu quiet for now.”

Xie Wu knew this was for Fan Changyu’s protection.

If she did not intend to remain in the army in the future, publicizing the matter would only bring trouble upon her.

He immediately cupped his fists.

“Understood.”

After Xie Wu withdrew, Xie Zheng ordered someone to bring his warhorse. Without taking any attendants along, he rode alone around the camp aimlessly.

Before he knew it, he had arrived outside Fan Changyu’s tent.

Seated on horseback, he quietly watched for a while.

Then, after a moment, he tugged the reins.

The pitch-black warhorse beneath him, its coat smooth and glossy as satin, turned around and disappeared deeper into the night.

—

Inside the tent, Fan Changyu lay fully clothed on her bedding, equally unable to sleep.

When she heard hoofbeats outside, she instinctively held her breath.

The hoofbeats were very light, as though whoever rode the horse feared disturbing others and had deliberately slowed its pace.

After lingering for quite some time, the faint sound of hoofbeats finally resumed, clearly moving away.

Who else would have enough leisure to come look at her tent in the middle of the night?

Once she realized this, a complicated bitterness rose in her heart.

Everything that had happened over the past few months surfaced one after another in her mind, making her feel even more unsettled.

She kept turning over, trying to ease the restlessness in her chest.

When she nearly woke Changning, she rubbed her brow and sat up.

Since she could not sleep anyway, she might as well go for a walk.

She rose quietly, tucked a boning knife into her clothing, and stepped out of the tent.

The moment she emerged, she noticed an unfamiliar soldier standing guard nearby.

He looked like he was simply patrolling the area, but no one had ever stood guard around these tents at night before.

Their eyes met.

The soldier stared at her blankly.

His gaze carried a strange mixture of panic and admiration.

After a moment, as though he suddenly remembered his duties, he hurriedly looked away like a guilty thief.

Fan Changyu immediately guessed whose handiwork this was.

Her thoughts became even more chaotic.

Without saying a word, she headed toward the outskirts of the camp.

The guard was indeed one of the personal guards assigned to protect the Fan sisters.

Previously, Xie Wu and Xie Qi had handled the task.

However, Fan Changyu already knew both men well. If either of them were posted here, she would recognize them immediately.

Fearing she might become annoyed, Xie Zheng had deliberately assigned an unfamiliar guard instead.

—

By the latter half of the night, the moon emerged from behind the dissipating clouds.

The mountains glowed with a layer of silver radiance.

Even without a torch, the surrounding scenery was clearly visible.

Stepping over the rain-softened earth, Fan Changyu followed the sound of flowing water toward the river.

The wilderness was vast and open.

Crickets chirped.

Frogs croaked.

The fresh scent of the post-rain air was indescribably pleasant.

With one deep breath, the heaviness in her heart eased somewhat.

Had the grass not been soaked by rain, she would have liked nothing more than to spread her arms and lie down in it, sinking into the soft greenery and letting the peaceful night wash away all the turmoil and confusion in her heart.

A rustling sound suddenly came from nearby bushes.

Startled, she looked more closely.

A pitch-black warhorse was tied near the shrubs.

Beyond it, faint splashing sounds came from the riverbank.

Recognizing the horse, Fan Changyu’s heart skipped a beat.

She immediately turned to leave.

Unfortunately, the person by the river had already noticed her.

“Who’s there?”

The cold voice had barely fallen when several pebbles shot toward her like meteors.

Fan Changyu instantly rolled across the ground.

Only then did she barely avoid the stones, which carried enough force to punch holes through a person.

As she pushed herself up with both hands, a sudden chill touched her neck.

The person who had been standing across the river only a moment ago was already in front of her.

Water dripped from his body.

A steel blade pointed directly at her throat.

“It’s you.”

The sharp hostility in Xie Zheng’s eyes vanished the moment he recognized her.

He withdrew the blade and carefully looked her over.

Then he extended a hand to help her up.

“Are you hurt?”

Fan Changyu shook her head.

Ignoring his hand, she climbed up on her own.

Yet inwardly, she could not help being amazed by his speed.

She had seen him kill before.

But this was the first time she had witnessed such beast-like alertness firsthand.

Though the blade had already been removed, the skin along her neck still tingled.

The feeling of having her life entirely in another person’s hands, even for an instant, was genuinely terrifying.

Xie Zheng said:

“I thought you were an enemy scout.”

She was dressed in ordinary soldier’s clothing.

For convenience, her hair had been tied into a small topknot.

At a distance, in the darkness, it really was impossible to tell who she was.

Fan Changyu thought that if she truly had been an enemy scout, even if those stones had somehow missed her, she would never have escaped his blade.

Feeling somewhat awkward, she explained why she was there.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I came out for a walk. I happened to see your horse and guessed you were by the river, so I was planning to avoid you.”

Xie Zheng was wearing only a pair of military trousers.

Having just emerged from the river, water streamed down his body.

Without caring that the grass was wet, he sat down directly on the ground.

A few strands of his soaked hair had slipped free from his crown and hung messily across his face, shoulders, and neck, lending him an unexpectedly youthful appearance.

Hearing her words, he looked at her in surprise.

“You couldn’t sleep either?”

The way he leaned back on both hands made his collarbones even more pronounced.

Under the moonlight, his skin appeared pale and cold as frost.

Droplets of water slid from the tips of his hair onto his collarbone, then traced a path down the firm contours of his body.

Below that was his lean waist…

Fan Changyu suddenly felt her face growing warm.

She quickly looked away.

Afraid he might misunderstand, she said:

“I killed a lot of people today. My heart feels heavy.”

The word “either” in his question clearly implied that he too could not sleep.

As for why he could not sleep, the reason was obvious.

Although she truly had been unable to sleep because of the things he had said earlier, she had already clearly rejected him.

Admitting now that his confession was the reason she could not sleep felt rather strange.

Of course, everything she had experienced on the battlefield was also making her uneasy.

Xie Zheng remembered the night in Lin’an Town when she had killed someone for the first time and been so frightened that she had crept to his bedside and sat there all night.

His gaze softened.

He had long ago learned from Xie Wu that, on the battlefield, she could not bring herself to kill ordinary soldiers outright.

Whenever possible, she avoided fatal blows, merely disabling them so they could no longer fight back.

She held such reverence for life and death.

Yet she had still gone to war and fought for him.

How had she found the courage?

Something seemed to scald his heart.

A voice in his mind screamed for him to pull her into his arms.

His fingers, braced against the ground, dug deeply into the muddy grass.

Yet in the end, he did not dare cross that line.

It felt as though insects were burrowing through his blood.

Every bone in his body trembled under the strain of restraint.

Finally suppressing the swelling urge inside his chest, he lowered his eyes and said calmly:

“The first time I came back from a battlefield, I had nightmares all night.”

“The second time I went into battle, I killed even more people than before. That night, I simply refused to sleep. I spent the entire night training at the practice grounds until I collapsed from exhaustion. Once I closed my eyes, I fell asleep immediately and didn’t dream at all.”

As he spoke of those old memories, a trace of cold mockery appeared at the corner of his lips.

He himself did not notice the layer of hostility that had begun to surround him.

Like a stray dog abandoned on the streets.

Covered in wounds.

The moment it sensed someone approaching, it instinctively bared its teeth and growled viciously, as though doing so might protect it from being hurt again.

Then a hand settled gently atop his wet hair.

Even through the cold, damp strands, he could feel the warmth of her palm.

Xie Zheng lifted his phoenix eyes.

Within them was reflected the silver moon above.

And reflected there as well was Fan Changyu’s bright, sunlit face.

Pressing her lips together, she gently patted his head as though comforting a child.

“It’s all in the past now.”