chapter 2
The Western Capital Garrison lost all fighting strength overnight.
I sat in its former command tent, rubbed my face, and drank hot tea. The captured commander knelt before me, trussed like a festival roast.
“Bitterly cold today, isn’t it, General Jiang?”
He glared at me, then cast a wary look at Ran Mu.
“Second Princess, this is rebellion!”
“How so? They would not let me bring my male favorites into the capital, and I could not bear to part with them. We had no choice but to lodge here.”
He stared at Ran Mu. “That is a male favorite?”
Ran Mu turned away. “As if I could be that lucky…”
I ignored him and asked whether General Jiang knew anything about my sister.
“I am stationed outside the city. I know nothing.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You seem to have forgotten who cleared your family’s name, saved your life, and gave you a future.”
Shame flickered over his face. “Your Highness, I am a man of little influence!”
People were always like this. A man without morals could not be bound by morality. He could invent ten thousand grievances in an instant.
I glanced at Ran Mu.
He stepped forward. “Your Highness, this man has repaid kindness with treachery. He deserves death.”
General Jiang immediately became cooperative.
He told me an absurd story. Shen Qingbi’s power had supposedly waned over the years.
It had not waned. The ruined capital had simply recovered, and she had lowered her guard. Such was the innocence of a woman from another world.
Recently, she had taken an interest in Chi Yuan. Unfortunately, Commandery Princess Jiashu, the empress dowager’s niece, was already in love with him. The women quarreled in the palace, and Jiashu pushed Shen Qingbi into the water.
“In such freezing weather, the Grand Princess fell ill. She has been recuperating behind closed doors…”
Even I needed a moment to absorb such melodrama.
Shen Qingbi had fought another woman over a man—and lost?
“Do I look like an idiot?”
General Jiang shook his head frantically.
My anger became a laugh. “You think she has no one left to defend her, so you can smear and humiliate her at will?”
“I would never! It is only what I heard…”
I slammed the table. “Where is the Grand Princess? What have you done to her?”
Ran Mu sprang backward. “Your Highness, do not be rash!”
“Pass down my order. Slaughter the—”
Before I could say “camp,” a subordinate dashed inside.
“Your Highness, Prince Liang has arrived.”
Prince Liang was my younger half-brother, recently granted his princely title.
He glanced at Ran Mu as he entered, then quickly looked away. Eight years had passed. He was no longer the child who hid behind Shen Qingbi and me to cry.
“Where is our elder sister?”
He sighed. “Second Sister, she truly is ill.”
“Fifth Brother has grown up. Have you forgotten that when the palace abandoned you, Eldest Sister insisted on going back?”
He sat beside me. “How could I forget?”
When the city fell, his injured leg had kept him from walking. Because his birth mother was lowborn, the palace attendants had deliberately abandoned him rather than carry him.
“When Eldest Sister came back, I was lying beside my mother’s body, waiting to die.”
His grief seemed genuine.
“Then may I hear one honest sentence from you?”
“She truly is ill.”
And he repeated the same tale about Shen Qingbi fighting over a man.
“Young Master Chi is peerlessly handsome. Countless noblewomen adore him. Eldest Sister is a woman too. Why won’t you believe it?”
I wanted to kill someone.
Shen Qingbi delighted in helping lovers. She had often said she hated women being pitted against one another. She had also joked that the easiest way to destroy a woman’s authority was to slander her private virtue.
Ran Mu coughed, warning me to calm down.
“Eldest Sister is ill,” Prince Liang continued. “Come back with me, Second Sister. Let this matter end so she can rest.”
I studied my fifth brother. The capital was a marvelous place. Even this once-timid boy had learned to lie.
“Have you visited her?”
His expression did not change. “Every other day.”
I smiled. “Then she is indeed in her residence.”
“Of course.”
I accepted his condition and agreed to choose only “a few beloved favorites” to accompany me.
Ran Mu objected. “He is lying. With the Western Garrison fallen, the capital hangs by a thread. Luring you inside earns him victory without bloodshed.”
“I know.”
“Then why not attack now? Speed is everything. The longer we wait, the worse our position.”
“What if they use my sister as a hostage?”
“Your sister cannot be allowed even the slightest risk?”
“Correct.”
Ran Mu finally retreated to sulk nearby.
“All lies. You promised endless skies, open country, and nothing but horses…”
I crouched before him. When he was a fugitive, I had told him my fief was vast and invited him to raise horses with me. To my surprise, he had come and diligently done so for years.
Now he understood. Knowing Shen Qingbi’s trusting nature, I had raised this private army for her. I had prepared it for this day.
“I did lie to you,” I admitted. “Help me once more. I only want to save my sister.”
Anger and helplessness warred on his face.
“A descendant of the Ran clan will not desert before battle. But when this is over, you will compensate me.”
I promised.
I chose one hundred “male favorites” and rode brazenly through the capital. Passersby stared and criticized me.
“Such shameless behavior for a woman.”
I frowned. Shen Qingbi had founded schools for girls. How had the capital become like this again?
She was indeed in trouble.