Chapter 8

From the moment I mounted a horse and set out, I was no longer Xiaozhu, Young Lady Jiang’s maid.

I was Ruan Qingzhu—the youngest martial instructor Bitter Bamboo Manor had seen in a century—Ruan Qingzhu.

I had neither father nor mother. Father found me and brought me back to the manor. He said I must have been born of heaven and raised by the earth; otherwise, how could I be a once-in-a-century martial arts prodigy?

But Senior Brother said I must have traded my brains for my talent.

Senior Brother was so annoying!

Bitter Bamboo Manor had a most peculiar rule: regardless of identity or background, anyone could exchange a single promise for half of one of the manor’s secret manuals.

Because of that rule, no matter who ruled the realm, the manor remained standing.

And because of it, nearly half the martial artists in the world had to honor the manor master and martial instructor as their teachers.

At Bitter Bamboo Manor, the cleverest person had always become manor master, and the strongest had always become martial instructor. In our generation, the manor master was my twenty-five-year-old Senior Brother Qin, while I was the martial instructor.

As luck would have it, the manor was based in the north.

And as further luck would have it, I had the authority to call in those promises.

So although the Jiang family’s maid couldn’t find the missing General Li, Ruan Qingzhu of Bitter Bamboo Manor could.

By the time I reached the north, the weather was bitterly, bitterly cold. Senior Brother Qin had received my letter two days earlier and ordered two of my martial nephews to meet me there.

They might have been my martial nephews, but both were rather old—twenty-five or twenty-six, at least.

One of them handed me a roast chicken and asked me to stop calling them old, because Senior Brother Qin would be angry.

The other told me that the manor had received intelligence suggesting General Li was most likely trapped somewhere in a particular mountain.

Soldiers from Yelan had surrounded the mountain over the past two days. Even if General Li was alive, his situation probably wasn’t good.

I led my two martial nephews past the army and into the mountain. Only after searching for three full days did we find General Li.

He was in fair shape. He could eat and drink, although he had grown terribly thin, and one of his hands was badly injured.

My nephew who specialized in medicine said the general’s hand could be saved, but in all likelihood, he would never wield a sword or grip a spear again.

To be honest, I didn’t care whether General Li could hold a sword. The eldest young lady was rich. If she liked him, she could support him for the rest of his life even if he became disabled.

What concerned me was that Princess Rouyi was there.

I looked at Princess Rouyi, disguised as a man and in a miserable state, then looked at General Li. Suddenly, bringing his corpse back to the eldest young lady didn’t seem entirely out of the question.

Still, courtesy demanded a few polite words.

I cupped my hands toward General Li and said sincerely, “I am Ruan Qingzhu of Bitter Bamboo Manor, here on the manor master’s orders to offer assistance. Your martial valor is remarkable, General. I truly wasn’t prepared for you to bring a lady on campaign.”

What I meant was: How are you going to explain this to the eldest young lady?

“Insolence!” While General Li was still staring in astonishment, a beardless, pale-faced man spoke first. “This is Princess Rouyi!”

General Li came back to his senses and rebuked the man with a frown. “Silence! Miss Ruan came to rescue us. Is this the time to throw your status around?”

The pale-faced man was furious. “General Li, the princess was only trapped in this peril because she came to rescue you!”

At those words, General Li’s personal guards erupted.

“Who asked your princess to rescue us? Would the general’s hand have been injured if not for her?”

“Exactly! Without her dragging us down, we would have escaped long ago!”

Princess Rouyi pressed her lips together and stubbornly said nothing. Only the pale-faced man continued arguing with the guards.

From their clamor, I pieced together more or less what had happened.

Princess Rouyi had apparently received word that the general was in danger and rushed off with her men to find him.

But the Yelan army had deliberately sent the message. As soon as the princess and her people entered the mountain, the trap snapped shut around them.

At the time, General Li and his men had been playing cat and mouse with the Yelan soldiers. The princess’s arrival forced him to reveal his position. In the end, he injured an arm and lost dozens of his personal guards before managing to protect her.

I listened to the whole tale with relish. It was almost like hearing a storyteller in a teahouse.

I simply found it strange. Princess Rouyi looked quite intelligent, so why had love turned her brain to mush?

Was a battlefield where men fought to the death really so easy to enter?

Shaking my head, I told General Li the plan Senior Brother had prepared for me.

The two martial nephews who had entered the mountain with me were about the same age and build as General Li. With a little makeup, he could leave disguised as one of them.

Bitter Bamboo Manor had always remained neutral and operated extensively in the north. Traveling under the identity of a manor disciple would be the safest possible course.

“But now we have an extra princess. Tell me, what are we going to do?” I folded my arms and asked General Li bluntly.