Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The Imperial Grandson had Cui Ping teach me many things.

I had to learn horsemanship-once I was in the saddle, how to control which direction the horse ran, how to make it go faster, and how to make it stop. There were tricks to all of it. I also had to tie little sandbags to both knees, then run up the steps and back down again, over and over in a loop. More than that, I had to learn what to do if someone restrained the little knife I used for self-defense-how to break free, knife and all.

I was so exhausted that at night, I always fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.

It had been a very long time since I had slept well. Now, I could close my eyes and not wake until dawn.

I was sitting aboard the rickety, storm-tossed ship that was Ying’an Prefecture, with monstrous waves surging beneath me and the road ahead still shrouded in uncertainty. Yet somehow, I no longer felt as lost as I once had. Clearly, nothing had changed, but whenever I lifted my aching arms, I felt as though something had.

Later, however, my arms truly became too sore to lift. During a rest, I asked Cui Ping why the Imperial Grandson was not relocating the capital along with everyone else.

Cui Ping said relocating the capital was hardly some foolproof blessing. Even if the move succeeded, Beidi would still attack wherever they ended up if it wished to. His master was not fond of making a fuss anyway, so he had simply decided to remain in Ying’an Prefecture. Besides, the common people were still here too.

I narrowed my eyes and said with great seriousness, “No, that can’t be right. You palace people are all very formidable. If you stayed behind, it must be because you have some deep, far-sighted plan and are preparing to accomplish great things in the future, aren’t you?”

“That does sound stirring. Unfortunately, His Highness the Imperial Grandson had his spirit worn down long ago. He doesn’t have the ambition you speak of anymore.”

I asked why.

Cui Ping lowered his voice and told me that the Crown Prince and his own legitimate son did not, in fact, get along very well.

The Emperor excelled in civil matters but not in martial ones, and it had always been a regret in his heart. The Crown Prince took after him in that regard. Then one day, the Emperor discovered that his legitimate eldest grandson was cautious by nature yet ruthless when necessary, skilled in both letters and arms, and could even decipher a defense deployment map faster than his father. Naturally, the Emperor looked on him with special favor.

But the Emperor had favored him too openly in the past. Even though the one he favored was his own flesh and blood, it was inevitable that the heir apparent would feel slighted.

Later, father and son grew estranged. It was the Imperial Grandson who took a step back, hid his edge, and gradually made himself seem mediocre.

“Back when His Highness the Imperial Grandson had not yet concealed his sharpness, he often accompanied His Majesty on hunts. Everyone said that compared to the jackals and tigers in the forest, His Highness had the fiercer fangs-just as fierce as you were when you attacked him last time.”

“I told you, I wasn’t trying to attack him. If the imperial palace were still the palace it used to be, those words of yours could cost me my head at any moment.”

Cui Ping looked at me and sighed. “Miss Zhu, you are leaving too. In that case, I wish your head a long and safe future.”

At first listen, it was a strange blessing.

But I thanked him sincerely.

Still, when I left this time, I was only leaving the imperial palace.

I would go out of the palace and return home, wait for the ruler of Beidi to arrive, and then open the city gates.

Before I left, Mu Wanyan personally handed me a tablet.

Sigils were carved on it.

They were both unfamiliar and familiar. I had never seen them before-until one day, when I saw the banners of Beidi.

Mu Wanyan instructed me not to take it out in ordinary circumstances. If Beidi soldiers caused me trouble, then I should show it. It could help me escape disaster.

“Daoning, protect your life first. Staying alive matters most.” Mu Wanyan seemed able to see straight through my thoughts.

I raised my hand, opened and closed it once, and the token fell into my pouch.

In truth, the struggle in my heart just now had not been all that fierce.

Stories of people choosing honor over life and refusing to bend until death only happened in storybooks. It was not my turn to be the heroine of one.

With the thing Mu Wanyan had given me, I would not have to do anything to my face in the future, and my face would no longer be covered in scars.

Over these past days, my cheeks had gradually healed. Now my eyes looked like eyes, and my nose looked like a nose. I remembered that when Cui Ping finally saw my appearance clearly, he turned around and found a Willow Stream Painting, saying I looked like the lady washing her hands in the painting.

A little, perhaps.

In any case, I needed it.

But just as everything was about to fall into place, trouble came.

General Wulu’s daughter suddenly came down with a strange illness. She burned with fever, spoke nonsense, bit people, and crawled wildly all over the place.

He ordered the Grand Princess and the Imperial Grandson to list every famous physician in Ying’an Prefecture one by one and was preparing to send men to seize them, when I muttered, “This is exactly what I was like when I was possessed. A doctor won’t do. You need a shaman.” Somehow, he heard me.

He had me dragged over and asked what was going on.

I said her soul had been lost.

General Wulu asked suspiciously, “What does it mean for a soul to be lost?”

“A person has a soul and spirit. If part of the soul and spirit depart, the person falls ill. If all of it departs, the person dies.”

General Wulu had originally dragged me over because he wanted someone to vent his anger on, but seeing me speak in such a mysterious, solemn way, he actually believed me somewhat. “If her soul is lost, what must be done?”

“Allow me to think.”

Come to think of it, a person’s courage truly could be stretched larger bit by bit.

When had it begun?

When I hid Mu Yuchang? When I deliberately blocked the Grand Princess’s carriage? Or when I used a threat of informing on him to blackmail the Imperial Grandson?

Those reckless, hotheaded moments had trained me into having this thick skin before General Wulu.