Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The night Zheng Yuan came to see me, Pei Qingfeng summoned me to his tent.
I had barely stepped inside with my qin when he shoved me face-first against the table from behind. One hand slid beneath my clothes while the other closed around my throat, forcing my head back.
His kiss came like a storm, without a trace of tenderness.
I did not know what had possessed him. He was unusually rough, taking me from the table to the bed, from night until the first pale light of dawn.
Spent, I sagged over the edge of the bed.
Pei Qingfeng wrapped an arm around me from behind.
“I’m marrying the princess. Are you jealous?”
He paused, then added, “What right do you have to be jealous of her? Qi Hongliu, you are no longer the Peony of the Capital.”
I had not heard that name in so long that it stirred memories I thought buried.
Back when I lived in the capital, I had been rather famous. Many sons of noble and official families admired me, and Pei Qingfeng had been one of them.
Among those spoiled young men, his courtship was the most outrageous.
He would climb over our courtyard wall and risk a beating from my father just to leave a dew-damp plum blossom beneath my window.
At the Lantern Festival, he bribed the women at a pleasure house before my friends and I passed by. They leaned over the railing, waving handkerchiefs of different colors that came together to form the character for Liu.
My parents and elder brother called him shameless.
They never knew that when I looked up that night, starlight shone above him. Lounging among the women, he flashed his white teeth in a careless, rakish grin—and my heart missed a beat.
The war between Chen and Great Yan had just begun. Many sons of great houses were sent to the front to gild their reputations, Pei Qingfeng among them.
They departed in haste. I had neither time nor standing to see him off.
Yet at dawn that day, I found a fresh red plum blossom beneath my window. A note lay under it, the handwriting bold and wild, just like him.
Wait for me to return in glory. I will marry you.
Before he could return, my father chose the wrong side at court. Our estate was confiscated, and the charge against us was grave.
My father and brother died. My mother took her own life. I alone survived, sent to the army as a prostitute.
On my first night, dozens of men poured into the tent and cornered me like starving wolves.
“So this is Qi Hongliu, the untouchable Peony of the Capital.”
“They say half the young lords in the capital wanted to marry her. No wonder—look at that face.”
“Let your brothers here teach you what a man feels like.”
Despair unlike anything I had ever known swallowed me whole. I shook so violently I could not move. Perhaps this was enough, I thought. Death might be kinder.
Then a man in silver armor stormed inside. His bloodstained spear swept across the space before me, shielding me from their filthy stares.
“You dare touch my woman?”
“You must have a death wish.”
When I saw Pei Qingfeng again after three years, he was darker and thinner. A scar slashed across his cheek, giving him a savage air.
But when he faced me, he gathered me into his arms as though he had recovered a priceless treasure.
“Thank heaven. You’re safe.”
His hands trembled with lingering fear.
Afraid the camp would break me, he moved me into his tent and took me walking by nearby streams and meadows whenever he had time.
He knew I loved music. In that barren wilderness, he somehow found a qin and placed it on my bed like a boy presenting a treasure.
I played him a song, and his smile was warm as spring.
“To hear one song from Hongliu—I’d die content.”
I truly believed then that I could entrust the rest of my life to him.
Pei Qingfeng was capable. Within a year, his victories piled up and his rank rose again and again. Under his protection, no one dared touch me.
But his banquets with the other commanders ran later and later. Sometimes they summoned young, beautiful army prostitutes to the main tent and indulged themselves through the night.
I could hear the obscene sounds. At first I lied to myself that Pei Qingfeng could not possibly be one of the men inside.
Then one night in bed, he abruptly rolled me over and forced me into a humiliating position over the edge.
When I realized what he wanted, I instinctively pushed him away.
He frowned. “Not even this? The others… Never mind. Go to sleep.”
He stalked off to wash, then returned and held me as he always did.
But all I could hear was the sentence he had left unfinished.
The others allow it.
You are all army prostitutes, so why must you be different?
My heart plunged.
The fighting intensified. Pei Qingfeng was constantly away, and he came to see me less and less.
One night, a brazen soldier who thought I had fallen out of favor slipped into my tent. He clamped a hand over my mouth and nose, pressing his foul-smelling lips toward me. When I fought, he struck me across the face.
My ears rang. My mind went blank.
Fortunately, Pei Qingfeng returned in time. He kicked the man away and drew me into his arms.
I thought he would punish him. Yet only days later, I saw the same man unharmed, laughing with others beside a roasting lamb.
“General Pei was never going to make an enemy of me over some whore. He even drank with me. Said women are just clothes, while brothers are the ones who trust each other with their lives.”
“That girl is tender. Shame I didn’t get her. Next chance I have, I’ll take her for sure.”
He caught my eye and licked his lips.
The nightmare rose before me again. Terrified, I asked Pei Qingfeng what had happened.
He was reading at his desk. His handsome brows drew together. He pulled me onto his lap and stroked the back of my neck.
“Hongliu, speaking personally, the man’s uncle is my deputy. He once saved my life. I cannot punish him.”
“And officially… what charge would I use? Insulting an army prostitute?”
I stared at him.
His hand had already slipped beneath my skirt, casual and presumptuous.
As desire clouded his senses, he soothed me. “You are mine. I will never let another man have you. Just wear more when you leave the tent…”
It was as if I were seeing him for the first time.
That was when I understood that no man could be relied upon. If I wanted to escape this hell, I would have to save myself.