Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Since word spread that the army brothel was being dissolved, Pei Qingfeng knew that several men had secretly offered to take me away.
He never asked about them or publicly claimed me.
He seemed certain I would never go with anyone else.
He nipped my ear. I turned my head away.
He scoffed. “Quite a temper you have.”
“Nothing between us will change after I marry the princess. I bought a house outside the city. That will be our home.”
He seemed to have forgotten the red plum blossom he had once left beneath my window.
He had also forgotten what he said two years earlier, when he recovered me and held me as though I were precious beyond measure.
“Hongliu, when the war is over, I will marry you and take you home.”
The woman he had sincerely wanted as his wife was the brilliant legitimate daughter of the Qi family.
In his eyes, I had since fallen to the rank of an army prostitute.
Everyone else could abandon me.
I could not abandon myself.
I smiled and leaned meekly against him without a word.
Pei Qingfeng did not know that before coming to see him, I had sent a message to the centurion named Zheng Yuan.
I had accepted his offer.
On the day Pei Qingfeng married the princess, I would return to Jiangcheng with Zheng Yuan and become his wife.
It was my only way out of this hell.
The court permitted soldiers to take a favored army prostitute home as a reward for a great victory.
Zheng Yuan happened to want me, and he happened not to be a bad man.
Imperial envoys arrived with a decree. The generals were to leave first for the capital and receive their rewards.
That night, Pei Qingfeng held a banquet for the officials. Cups passed through the main tent. Bored, one of them said, “I hear Qi Hongliu is here.”
Their glances met, their thoughts wandering.
“The Peony of the Capital is famed not only for music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but for her dancing. Why not have her perform for us?”
They were asking only for a dance because they still cared about appearances.
Pei Qingfeng had no reason to refuse.
When his men delivered the costume, I was applying medicine to my body.
The gauze was nearly transparent. Once worn, it would barely cover me, much less conceal the bruises Pei Qingfeng had left.
I held the costume in silence.
The man waiting outside grew impatient. “What’s wrong? Don’t know how to put it on? Want your brother here to help?”
“I cannot dance.”
He barged into the tent. “General Pei orders you to perform, and you dare refuse?”
“Yes.”
I drew the dagger Pei Qingfeng had once given me for protection from beneath my pillow and drove it into my thigh.
Blood spurted at once.
I looked at the man coldly. “I said I cannot dance.”
He fled to report what had happened.
When Pei Qingfeng returned after pacifying the officials, he carried the chill of the night with him. He stared at my unbound wound for a long while.
“Things are different now, Hongliu.”
“They only asked you to dance. Given your status, what grounds do you have to refuse?”
I raised my eyes. “And what status do I have in your eyes?”
He glanced toward the tent entrance and snorted.
“It seems I have indulged you too much. We return to the capital tomorrow. Except for those who signed marriage contracts with soldiers, every army prostitute will be sent to a brothel according to law. You can go there and learn some obedience. I will collect you after I finish reporting in the capital.”
My head snapped up.
He meant to send me to that place?
He watched me heavily for a moment, then turned to leave.
I knew Zheng Yuan had already drawn up our marriage contract. Once Pei Qingfeng departed tomorrow, Zheng Yuan would take me to Jiangcheng.
He would marry his princess.
I would marry my man.
Perhaps this was the last time we would ever see each other.
“General Pei.”
I rarely addressed him so formally. He stopped, startled.
I bowed and thanked him for protecting me during the past two years.
“May your journey be smooth. Hongliu will not see you off.”