Chapter 10
After taking medicine, I slept for two days before waking.
The moment I opened my eyes, Lu Yan noticed from his place beside the bed.
He gathered me into his arms and gave me tea. Only then did my dry throat begin to feel better.
Lu Yan held me tightly, his face buried against my neck.
Something hot and wet touched my skin there.
He stayed like that in silence for a while. When he finally lifted his head, his expression was steady and stern once more.
Only the corners of his eyes were still red.
I looked at him for a while, then could not help smiling.
His voice was hoarse as he asked,
“Why are you smiling?”
I rested my forehead against his chest.
“For the same reason you smiled before.”
Someone came in to refill the empty teapot.
After lying down for so long, I wanted to get up and walk a little.
Lu Yan went with me, his hand firmly around my wrist.
From the room to the outdoors, he could not bear to take his eyes off me for even a moment.
The courtyard was large. There was a garden and a little pond.
I looked around, then turned back.
“Husband, you’re amazing. You can already afford such a large home in the capital.”
Lu Yan murmured agreement, then added,
“There’ll be larger ones. I’ll buy several. East, west, south, north—one everywhere.”
I burst out laughing.
“What would I do with so many courtyards?”
I leaned into his arms, and we watched the sun go down together.
Lu Yan kissed the top of my head.
“I command a thousand men now. The court has issued the appointment. A few more military honors, and I can rise another rank.”
I said softly,
“But husband, I don’t need so much. A thousand men is enough.”
Military honors. Two such weightless words.
Behind them lay untold sweat and blood.
But Lu Yan said,
“It’s what I want.”
He tightened his arms around me.
“I knew Pei Xuan had you locked in that tent. But there was nothing I could do.”
“There were too many guards. I couldn’t get you out. I couldn’t take you somewhere safe.”
“I was useless. There was nothing amazing about me.”
The sunset caught Lu Yan’s eyes. His hand was scarred.
It clasped my pale, sickly wrist.
Stubbornly, I said,
“You are amazing, husband. You are.”
Lu Yan said no more.
He had freed me, but he remained trapped in that tent himself.
The ropes that had bound me had fastened themselves around Lu Yan’s heart instead.
They twisted it tight, tormenting him by day and filling his nights with blame.
Suddenly, I turned and kissed the corner of his eye.
His bleak gaze stilled.
“But haven’t you already defeated Pei Xuan, husband?”
I gave an exaggerated little gasp of wonder.
“That day was quite miraculous, you know.”
“Like a storybook. The heroine goes into the mountains and meets a monster. She presses her palms together and wishes for someone to save her. Just before it eats her, the mountain god descends from the sky and kills it with a single blow.”
“When I couldn’t sleep as a child, my nurse told me stories. She said I must sleep well and eat well so I could run fast when I grew up. Then even if I met a monster, it wouldn’t eat me.”
“But I was frail and always ill. So I was always afraid of monsters.”
“That day, I was so sick I thought I would die. I wished in my heart to see you. Then I opened my eyes, and there you were.”
“Even such an impossible wish came true.”
My eyes curved with my smile, and my voice was light.
“Husband, are you the mountain god who protects me?”
I could not read Lu Yan’s expression.
He looked at me for a long time, as though trying to carve me into his heart.
“I am.”
His voice was certain.
“So what if I’m someone else’s blade? If they can use me, I can use them to climb higher.”
“A mountain god is powerful. Unyielding. Capable of anything. No one can stop a mountain god.”
Night slowly gathered around us.
Lu Yan fastened my cloak and held me while we watched the stars.
I was so warm, so safe, that I gradually grew sleepy.
Just before I drifted into dreams, I heard Lu Yan’s low, gentle voice.
“The mountain god will always protect you.”
“Because it was your wish that brought him into being.”
“As long as you’re here, so is he.”
We need not rue our empty purses; rare is the joy of marrying young.
The End