No matter what kind of attitude and harsh words Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui had towards Xia Yujin behind her back, as soon as Ye Zhao appeared, they became nothing more than meek and honest lambs, with artless and innocent faces, as if they’d never done anything bad.
The speed at which women turned their coats was simply amazing.
Boiling with anger, Xia Yujin went off in a huff.
Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui immediately made faces at his back, quietly applauding themselves.
Ye Zhao waited until Xia Yujin was sufficiently far away, then she walked up to them and knocked them both hard on the head. “You’re getting more and more unruly!” she berated them. “Don’t you bully my husband too much!”
Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui shrieked, holding onto their heads, and sadly looked at her, squabbling, “Where do you see any bullying?”
“And you dare to quibble? If you weren’t picking at him, why would he leave my room all happy and leave the courtyard furious?” Ye Zhao continued. “The two of you are troublemakers. Does it please you, to start fires I have to put out in my own home?”
The two young women looked at each other. The outspoken Qiu Hua, who couldn’t hold back her thoughts, spoke first. “General, we hate him! He’s a good-for-nothing who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, bathed in luxury. You have more strength in your little finger than there is in his entire body. General, the fact that you don’t despise him is a blessing he must have worked three lifetimes for! And he despised you first! It’s a waste that you treat him so well, general! He’s really not worth it! Anyone from our three armies would be better than such a despicable and spineless coward!”
“For example,” Qiu Shui added, “Military Advisor Hu, who’s a thousand times better than he is and actually respects you. He definitely wouldn’t have said a word if you’d let him marry you…”
“Fox?” Their silly words made Ye Zhao laugh. “Don’t bullshit me, he definitely wouldn’t have said a word because he’d have slit his throat or jumped into a river first. You’re young, there are many things you don’t know yet…”
Back when Hu Qing’s father had taught the Ye children, Hu Qing had been her second brother’s study companion, sitting in on their classes.
Ye Zhao was a terrible student and her second brother wasn’t much better than her, but Hu Qing had always been a smart, well-behaved and sensible child. He was known as a child prodigy. The Ye family mentioned him at length, themselves having nothing to brag about. They looked at their own two incompetent children, they couldn’t hold back their hand-wringing and their sighs, often comparing the three of them: “Look at Hu Qing, then at yourself,” or “Scoundrels, both of you. If the two of you combined were half as sensible as Hu Qing, I could live ten more years.”
How could Ye Zhao’s domineering temper bear to hear those words?
She and her group of young rascals tormented Hu Qing over and over, finding pretenses to “teach” him a lesson for three days, turning every unnoticeable part of his body black and blue, just to drive father and son away. For the sake of his father, Hu Qing kept mum on the whole affair, restraining himself. But he hated Ye Zhao from the bottom of his heart. He was anxious to be old enough to join in the imperial examination, get an official part-time job, triumphantly return home, and look for the chance to take his revenge on her.
Then…
There was no future for the young man’s dream.
That day, the Northern Desert went ablaze, the sound of slaughter shaking the sky. Their parents were killed in the slaughter of the fallen city, their home destroyed, and the resentment of their youth became trivial in the face of the hatred of their country’s enemies.
The two of them joined hands against the Man Jin, and their relationship improved.
Hu Qing still liked to stand in her way from time to time, something he considered revenge for what happened in the past.
“Fox and I are brothers. It’s already too sad that such a person stays a bachelor, so you mustn’t hurt his reputation and make it even harder for him to find a wife. If he hadn’t firmly decided he didn’t want rough women, I would have sent the both of you to him!” Ye Zhao paused, then cursed, “If you mess about again, I’ll have your father take you back and let you stay at home nicely, embroidering your trousseau! When the spring examination is over, I’ll choose two of the weakest scholars to take you home!”
Seeing the general lose her temper, Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui paled in fright and shook their heads like rattle drums.
“No matter how helpless he is, Xia Yujin is still the prince of Nanping, still the Empress Dowager’s openly favored nephew, still the local tyrant of the capital. If he ever sincerely wants to get rid of you, he can come up with nine or ten ways to do it, whenever. He’s kind-hearted now, and he doesn’t want to actually bother with the two of you, but don’t go gambling with his patience and trampling all over his dignity!”
Qiu Shui’s lips moved slightly, as if she was still feeling wronged on Hu Qing’s behalf, but when she saw the severe expression in Ye Zhao’s eyes, she quickly swallowed back her words.
Ye Zhao lowered her head and, in the most serious and distinct voice, warned them, “I never fight senseless battles and I never hold useless sieges. Since I chose him, my duty is to him. As for the kind of person he is, whether he’s good or suitable for me, I’m the one who knows it. I don’t need you to decide for me.”
Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui stood ramrod straight. They didn’t dare breathe too loudly.
“What happened today happened only this time,” Ye Zhao summarized. “I won’t have a repeat of it.”
Although the city censor was a small official, he still had a hundred and ten people under his orders.
When Chief Lao Yang, who was in charge of the clerical work, heard that a new censor was coming, he shivered with fear. He spent a whole night tidying up the previous accounts and archives. And when he heard that the new city censor was the prince of Nanping, he spent half a shichen in a daze, and then he worked overtime for ten nights to copy out all the accounts and archives again. He worked so much that he lost weight.
Xia Yujin arrived at the city censor’s court full of resentment. He and his subordinates immediately recognized each other and found out that most of them had met him on the streets before, so there was no need for them to actually get to know each other. When Chief Lao Yang delivered the paperwork, he took the documents describing the safety measures for the city, then put aside the blacklist and case records of known troublemakers and delinquents, carelessly waving his hand. “I don’t need to read it,” he said. “Are there any of these wretches whom I don’t know?”
Chief Lao Yang suddenly had the urge to cry.
If he’d known earlier, he wouldn’t have spent so much time erasing the prince of Nanping’s name from the records.
The first thing Xia Yujin did when he took up his post was take a stroll around, asking his subordinates to familiarize him with the job.
He rode on a docile horse with great fanfare. The delinquents of the capitals went into uproar; they gathered in groups and ran up to see the spectacle, sitting in tea or wine shops over wine or tea with melon seeds to point at Xia Yujin in his new official robes, remembering his past deeds. In clear: who watched the watchman?
Xia Yujin pointed at a few of the most mocking onlookers and told his men, “The guy in blue dined and dashed at the Drunken Cloud yesterday. The fat one with a mole on his chin was involved in a fight five days ago. That one, the one who’s as skinny as a monkey, is suspected of fraud. Bring them all back for questioning.”
Those depraved nobles, who had all done some disreputable acts, saw that Xia Yujin was embarrassed enough to get angry and turn hostile, so they quickly shut up and stifled their laughter hard enough to get a stomachache.
After making sure everyone behaved well, Xia Yujin strolled here and there down the streets, warning the people he was familiar with that he’d have to go after them if they committed any wrongdoings in the future and so, to save his own reputation, they shouldn’t openly stir up trouble. The men nodded deferentially and laughed, saying that they were aware and wouldn’t make His Highness’ life difficult.
By the time they passed by the Apricot Flower House, it was noon. Xia Yujin smelled the fragrance of wine and meat, and his empty stomach rumbled.
Xia Yujin got down from the horse, threw the reins into the awaiting server’s hands, and took his twenty errand-runners and subordinates inside for a meal. Thanks to his naturally winning face, his easy-going temper, and the others’ flattery, they threw back two or three cups of wine and became as close as decade-long friends.
As he drank, Xia Yujin’s sharp eyes caught a figure in blue and green who slowly walked inside, ordered a jug of wine and two dishes, and went to sit by the corner of the window facing the street by himself, drinking and relaxing by himself.
Xia Yujin excused himself, then hurriedly made his way and patted the man on the shoulder. “Brother Hu Qing?” he said with a smile. “Are you so busy these days? Why doesn’t a friend ever see you out and about for a drink?”
Hearing his voice, Hu Qing silently stared down at the cup in his hand, and discretely sucked in a breath. When he raised his head, the contempt in his thin eyes was covered by a gentle smile. He sighed. “The general has buried me under work. I’ve been too busy to even close my eyes and sleep.”
“That fierce lady really is good at ordering people about. Look at how pale you are! Tsk…” Xia Yujin felt sorry for this fellow victim of his wife’s oppression, so he called over the house’s boss, had him bring over two pots of Shaoxing yellow wine with half a catty of braised pig ears, and sat down to console him. “With your talents, brother Hu, you could take the civil service examination and score above all the provincial graduates without problem. Why bother with a small staff officer position? It’s such a waste.”
“It’s fine,” Hu Qing said.
“So how did you get to meet my wife?” asked Xia Yujin.
“My father was the Ye family’s private tutor,” Hu Qing said after some thought. “I’ve known the general since childhood.”
Xia Yujin smiled. “She said she was extraordinarily wild when she was a child.”
Hu Qing nodded. “She was more than wild. She was a bully, simple as that. She’d been wearing men’s clothing since she was very young. She was uncontrollable and violent, always swaggering around town like she owned the place. She tyrannized anyone whose look she didn’t like. She was behind every evil act. The old General Ye loathed her behavior so much that he beat her almost every day. Every other week, he’d shout that he wanted to kick her out.”
“Didn’t everyone in the Northern Desert know she was a woman?” Xia Yujin asked, curious.
Hu Qing threw him a look. “Do you think they could have kept their reputation better with such an uncontrollable son or a daughter?”
Both were a source of shame. They naturally chose the least shameful option.
The Ye family was helpless against Ye Zhao’s despicable temper, so they couldn’t afford to admit she was a girl. They had to shut the servants’ mouths.
Ye Zhao was tall, an excellent martial artist, and had more talk and nerve than a man. Admitting she was a girl would be like pointing to an old tiger and claiming to see a sheep: no one would believe it.
As time went on, everyone in the Northern Desert believed the Ye family had three sons.
But Xia Yujin wanted to understand the most important thing. “If you hated her, why bother to follow her?”
“Hated her? Maybe.” Hu Qing’s thoughts were a little jumbled. He unconsciously remembered that night, six years ago, and once again fell into the nightmare he could never wake up from.
Raging fire surrounding him, the stench spreading up to him.
The border post of the Northern Desert had fallen. The Ye family had been the first target; they’d borne the brunt of the attack. The duchess, the concubines, the maids, the servants—not a single one of them had been spared. Amidst the towers of flame already reaching the sky, Hu Qing’s father had hidden him inside a wicker basket of the wood shed, spreading a thick layer of hay on top of him. He’d told him, live well. Hu Qing stared helplessly as a Man Jin soldier cut off his father’s head, not even past the door, and again as they kicked and played with it like a ball, laughing and merry, comparing who could make it roll the best and farthest.
The blood slowly flowed across the bluestones, penetrating the wicker basket, soaking the hems of his clothes, still warm.
His father’s body was lying quietly on the ground, his old hunched back already lying down to sleep forever.
He would never read aloud the Four Books and the Five Classics at night anymore, trying to lull him to sleep.
His ears were filled with the cheers and laughter of those beasts, the screams of the women, the furious roars of the men, and was that the coward Xiao Ma, madly telling them, “fuck you!”? That crying plea for mercy, was it the kind-hearted maid, who’d given him medicine when he had been injured himself? In the kitchens, Aunt Liu’s eight-year-old son Xiao Mao flew in the air, flopped and rolled on the ground, and then a blade pierced right from part to part and he stopped moving. Hu Qing wouldn’t need to secretly teach him how to read anymore. He would never become a scholar now, would he?
Who else? Who else could still be alive?
He lost his mind from the panic.
He shivered violently in the thick silence.
At nightfall, the Man Jin began searching around while holding torches, saying they wanted to find the sons of bitches from the Ye family.
But even a careful investigation turned up neither hide nor hair.
“There’s a little bastard here! You can hide, but don’t worry, daddy’ll kill you.”
The Man Jin soldier who’d found him, beaming, pulled him out of the wicker basket by the collar. Then he stared, dumbfounded, as he was cleanly cut in half by the waist. He slumped on the ground, still holding onto Hu Qing.
Lying in the pool of blood, Hu Qing raised his head.
Faintly, he saw a majestic and cold God of War, standing amidst the dazzling flames like a red lotus flower.
Her messy long hair fluttered slightly in the cold night breeze. She was covered in blood; her glass-colored eyes were ablaze with the intent of killing; in her right hand, she was holding a sword, dripping with blood. She was stretching her left hand towards him.
He sat on the ground, momentarily unable to move.
“Come on,” she said. “Come with me.”
Roused by her firm voice, he finally stood up and followed her, shivering, to the outer wall at the rear of the woodshed, where there was a secret breach she used to slip away from the house when she was grounded. They cut two Man Jin soldiers to pieces after getting out, then crossed two other houses. Relying on Ye Zhao’s knowledge from her local bully days, they turned here and there, and the two of them actually went through the Man Jin lines, escaping into the forest on Black Mountain outside the city.
After running away all night, he was so tired that he was gasping for breath, and his legs seemed to weigh a thousand catties. He couldn’t move anymore.
“Let’s take a break.” She halted to a stop, halfway up the mountain and overlooking its foot. “The fire in the city is getting bigger and bigger,” she said softly.
The wind dispersed her warm breath and blew across the treetops, playing a mournful tune.
The desperate screams still echoed in their ears.
The two of them, who’d once hated each other, stood side by side, quietly watching—watching the raging fire, a wide burning sunset on the curtain of night, ruthlessly swallowing up their home. Friends from the Ye mansion, classmates from the Siji Academy, precious wines from the Cinnamon House, beauties of West Street, antiques from the Crescent Moon shop, plum blossoms from the Eternal Pavilion… Only with loss could the beauty of these things truly be understood.
He’d dreamt of coming back home in glory and honoring his father.
But now where was his home? Where was his father?
He could never go back.
He could never go back again.
Fresh air tore through his chest. His fear disappeared, pain twisted his heart, and his tears finally fell, large drop after large drop.
The sixteen-year-old boy finally hugged his knees and sobbed himself hoarse.
Ye Zhao silently stood by his side all night long. She didn’t speak; she didn’t cry. She only looked at the sword in her hand, her thoughts impossible to read.
The air was heavy with sadness.
When dawn broke, she finally spoke. “I’ve been learning martial arts since I was little, but my father said I was a woman, no matter how strong I become. That my future was to be shut within four walls, only seeing the sky. None of my training will have any use, except to make my husband dislike me.”
Hu Qing raised up his head to look at her in astonishment.
Ye Zhao’s voice was cool, as though what she was speaking of had nothing to do with her. “I pride myself on being naturally better than a man, learning better than a man, working harder than a man. How can I accept this? So I hated my father and the manacles that my identity as a girl fettered me with. I even hated the whole Ye family and the Northern Desert. I ran amok with my gang of delinquents, showing off my aggressiveness. Those jerks worshiped me; violence made me happy. I even stole my father’s military seal and forged documents, took a scadron out for a fight. I wanted to aggravate him. I wanted to prove to myself that I was stronger than a man… I thought it could break this cocoon around me and give me some relief.”
Only heart-wrenching pain could make immature children grow up in one night.
Ye Zhao brushed over the character “Ye” engraved on the sword and said softly, “When I ran back to the Ye mansion, Mother was still breathing. She handed my father’s most treasured sword and told me that, as his daughter, he was the proudest of me and most reluctant to part with me. Enough people from the Ye family have died on the battlefield; my father hoped I would not risk my life fighting at the front like my elder brothers, but marry like an ordinary girl and simply be happy.”
Her mother told her not to take revenge but flee, flee westward.
To the west of the border post city was Menqi Town, which the Man Jin had not yet reached.
She ought to take advantage of dawn, when the guards’ vigilance was at its lowest, to flee there quickly.
The fire over the border city gradually died out. Their homes were almost entirely burned out, and few people had survived. Only hatred remained.
Father, I’m sorry.
I can’t fulfill your last wish yet.
Ye Zhao straightened, looking over her destroyed native land, and firmly said, “The Northern Desert is my home. In my veins flows the blood of the Ye family; I have lorded over this place and committed many unforgivable crimes here. Now that disaster has struck, how can I abandon the people of the Northern Desert and run away?”
She picked up her father’s sword, lifted her father’s military tally, gathered the remains of her father’s troops, and fought back on a new battlefield.
She made blood flow to wash away her faults.
She was determined to use her life to atone for her sins.
Ye Zhao walked east.
Venus was shining bright over the horizon, a beautiful spark.
Hu Qing wiped his tears and followed in her footsteps. Loudly, he asked:
“Hey, you uneducated boor, you can’t read anything. Need a military advisor?”
No matter what kind of attitude and harsh words Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui had towards Xia Yujin behind her back, as soon as Ye Zhao appeared, they became nothing more than meek and honest lambs, with artless and innocent faces, as if they’d never done anything bad.
The speed at which women turned their coats was simply amazing.
Boiling with anger, Xia Yujin went off in a huff.
Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui immediately made faces at his back, quietly applauding themselves.
Ye Zhao waited until Xia Yujin was sufficiently far away, then she walked up to them and knocked them both hard on the head. “You’re getting more and more unruly!” she berated them. “Don’t you bully my husband too much!”
Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui shrieked, holding onto their heads, and sadly looked at her, squabbling, “Where do you see any bullying?”
“And you dare to quibble? If you weren’t picking at him, why would he leave my room all happy and leave the courtyard furious?” Ye Zhao continued. “The two of you are troublemakers. Does it please you, to start fires I have to put out in my own home?”
The two young women looked at each other. The outspoken Qiu Hua, who couldn’t hold back her thoughts, spoke first. “General, we hate him! He’s a good-for-nothing who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, bathed in luxury. You have more strength in your little finger than there is in his entire body. General, the fact that you don’t despise him is a blessing he must have worked three lifetimes for! And he despised you first! It’s a waste that you treat him so well, general! He’s really not worth it! Anyone from our three armies would be better than such a despicable and spineless coward!”
“For example,” Qiu Shui added, “Military Advisor Hu, who’s a thousand times better than he is and actually respects you. He definitely wouldn’t have said a word if you’d let him marry you…”
“Fox?” Their silly words made Ye Zhao laugh. “Don’t bullshit me, he definitely wouldn’t have said a word because he’d have slit his throat or jumped into a river first. You’re young, there are many things you don’t know yet…”
Back when Hu Qing’s father had taught the Ye children, Hu Qing had been her second brother’s study companion, sitting in on their classes.
Ye Zhao was a terrible student and her second brother wasn’t much better than her, but Hu Qing had always been a smart, well-behaved and sensible child. He was known as a child prodigy. The Ye family mentioned him at length, themselves having nothing to brag about. They looked at their own two incompetent children, they couldn’t hold back their hand-wringing and their sighs, often comparing the three of them: “Look at Hu Qing, then at yourself,” or “Scoundrels, both of you. If the two of you combined were half as sensible as Hu Qing, I could live ten more years.”
How could Ye Zhao’s domineering temper bear to hear those words?
She and her group of young rascals tormented Hu Qing over and over, finding pretenses to “teach” him a lesson for three days, turning every unnoticeable part of his body black and blue, just to drive father and son away. For the sake of his father, Hu Qing kept mum on the whole affair, restraining himself. But he hated Ye Zhao from the bottom of his heart. He was anxious to be old enough to join in the imperial examination, get an official part-time job, triumphantly return home, and look for the chance to take his revenge on her.
Then…
There was no future for the young man’s dream.
That day, the Northern Desert went ablaze, the sound of slaughter shaking the sky. Their parents were killed in the slaughter of the fallen city, their home destroyed, and the resentment of their youth became trivial in the face of the hatred of their country’s enemies.
The two of them joined hands against the Man Jin, and their relationship improved.
Hu Qing still liked to stand in her way from time to time, something he considered revenge for what happened in the past.
“Fox and I are brothers. It’s already too sad that such a person stays a bachelor, so you mustn’t hurt his reputation and make it even harder for him to find a wife. If he hadn’t firmly decided he didn’t want rough women, I would have sent the both of you to him!” Ye Zhao paused, then cursed, “If you mess about again, I’ll have your father take you back and let you stay at home nicely, embroidering your trousseau! When the spring examination is over, I’ll choose two of the weakest scholars to take you home!”
Seeing the general lose her temper, Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui paled in fright and shook their heads like rattle drums.
“No matter how helpless he is, Xia Yujin is still the prince of Nanping, still the Empress Dowager’s openly favored nephew, still the local tyrant of the capital. If he ever sincerely wants to get rid of you, he can come up with nine or ten ways to do it, whenever. He’s kind-hearted now, and he doesn’t want to actually bother with the two of you, but don’t go gambling with his patience and trampling all over his dignity!”
Qiu Shui’s lips moved slightly, as if she was still feeling wronged on Hu Qing’s behalf, but when she saw the severe expression in Ye Zhao’s eyes, she quickly swallowed back her words.
Ye Zhao lowered her head and, in the most serious and distinct voice, warned them, “I never fight senseless battles and I never hold useless sieges. Since I chose him, my duty is to him. As for the kind of person he is, whether he’s good or suitable for me, I’m the one who knows it. I don’t need you to decide for me.”
Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui stood ramrod straight. They didn’t dare breathe too loudly.
“What happened today happened only this time,” Ye Zhao summarized. “I won’t have a repeat of it.”
Although the city censor was a small official, he still had a hundred and ten people under his orders.
When Chief Lao Yang, who was in charge of the clerical work, heard that a new censor was coming, he shivered with fear. He spent a whole night tidying up the previous accounts and archives. And when he heard that the new city censor was the prince of Nanping, he spent half a shichen in a daze, and then he worked overtime for ten nights to copy out all the accounts and archives again. He worked so much that he lost weight.
Xia Yujin arrived at the city censor’s court full of resentment. He and his subordinates immediately recognized each other and found out that most of them had met him on the streets before, so there was no need for them to actually get to know each other. When Chief Lao Yang delivered the paperwork, he took the documents describing the safety measures for the city, then put aside the blacklist and case records of known troublemakers and delinquents, carelessly waving his hand. “I don’t need to read it,” he said. “Are there any of these wretches whom I don’t know?”
Chief Lao Yang suddenly had the urge to cry.
If he’d known earlier, he wouldn’t have spent so much time erasing the prince of Nanping’s name from the records.
The first thing Xia Yujin did when he took up his post was take a stroll around, asking his subordinates to familiarize him with the job.
He rode on a docile horse with great fanfare. The delinquents of the capitals went into uproar; they gathered in groups and ran up to see the spectacle, sitting in tea or wine shops over wine or tea with melon seeds to point at Xia Yujin in his new official robes, remembering his past deeds. In clear: who watched the watchman?
Xia Yujin pointed at a few of the most mocking onlookers and told his men, “The guy in blue dined and dashed at the Drunken Cloud yesterday. The fat one with a mole on his chin was involved in a fight five days ago. That one, the one who’s as skinny as a monkey, is suspected of fraud. Bring them all back for questioning.”
Those depraved nobles, who had all done some disreputable acts, saw that Xia Yujin was embarrassed enough to get angry and turn hostile, so they quickly shut up and stifled their laughter hard enough to get a stomachache.
After making sure everyone behaved well, Xia Yujin strolled here and there down the streets, warning the people he was familiar with that he’d have to go after them if they committed any wrongdoings in the future and so, to save his own reputation, they shouldn’t openly stir up trouble. The men nodded deferentially and laughed, saying that they were aware and wouldn’t make His Highness’ life difficult.
By the time they passed by the Apricot Flower House, it was noon. Xia Yujin smelled the fragrance of wine and meat, and his empty stomach rumbled.
Xia Yujin got down from the horse, threw the reins into the awaiting server’s hands, and took his twenty errand-runners and subordinates inside for a meal. Thanks to his naturally winning face, his easy-going temper, and the others’ flattery, they threw back two or three cups of wine and became as close as decade-long friends.
As he drank, Xia Yujin’s sharp eyes caught a figure in blue and green who slowly walked inside, ordered a jug of wine and two dishes, and went to sit by the corner of the window facing the street by himself, drinking and relaxing by himself.
Xia Yujin excused himself, then hurriedly made his way and patted the man on the shoulder. “Brother Hu Qing?” he said with a smile. “Are you so busy these days? Why doesn’t a friend ever see you out and about for a drink?”
Hearing his voice, Hu Qing silently stared down at the cup in his hand, and discretely sucked in a breath. When he raised his head, the contempt in his thin eyes was covered by a gentle smile. He sighed. “The general has buried me under work. I’ve been too busy to even close my eyes and sleep.”
“That fierce lady really is good at ordering people about. Look at how pale you are! Tsk…” Xia Yujin felt sorry for this fellow victim of his wife’s oppression, so he called over the house’s boss, had him bring over two pots of Shaoxing yellow wine with half a catty of braised pig ears, and sat down to console him. “With your talents, brother Hu, you could take the civil service examination and score above all the provincial graduates without problem. Why bother with a small staff officer position? It’s such a waste.”
“It’s fine,” Hu Qing said.
“So how did you get to meet my wife?” asked Xia Yujin.
“My father was the Ye family’s private tutor,” Hu Qing said after some thought. “I’ve known the general since childhood.”
Xia Yujin smiled. “She said she was extraordinarily wild when she was a child.”
Hu Qing nodded. “She was more than wild. She was a bully, simple as that. She’d been wearing men’s clothing since she was very young. She was uncontrollable and violent, always swaggering around town like she owned the place. She tyrannized anyone whose look she didn’t like. She was behind every evil act. The old General Ye loathed her behavior so much that he beat her almost every day. Every other week, he’d shout that he wanted to kick her out.”
“Didn’t everyone in the Northern Desert know she was a woman?” Xia Yujin asked, curious.
Hu Qing threw him a look. “Do you think they could have kept their reputation better with such an uncontrollable son or a daughter?”
Both were a source of shame. They naturally chose the least shameful option.
The Ye family was helpless against Ye Zhao’s despicable temper, so they couldn’t afford to admit she was a girl. They had to shut the servants’ mouths.
Ye Zhao was tall, an excellent martial artist, and had more talk and nerve than a man. Admitting she was a girl would be like pointing to an old tiger and claiming to see a sheep: no one would believe it.
As time went on, everyone in the Northern Desert believed the Ye family had three sons.
But Xia Yujin wanted to understand the most important thing. “If you hated her, why bother to follow her?”
“Hated her? Maybe.” Hu Qing’s thoughts were a little jumbled. He unconsciously remembered that night, six years ago, and once again fell into the nightmare he could never wake up from.
Raging fire surrounding him, the stench spreading up to him.
The border post of the Northern Desert had fallen. The Ye family had been the first target; they’d borne the brunt of the attack. The duchess, the concubines, the maids, the servants—not a single one of them had been spared. Amidst the towers of flame already reaching the sky, Hu Qing’s father had hidden him inside a wicker basket of the wood shed, spreading a thick layer of hay on top of him. He’d told him, live well. Hu Qing stared helplessly as a Man Jin soldier cut off his father’s head, not even past the door, and again as they kicked and played with it like a ball, laughing and merry, comparing who could make it roll the best and farthest.
The blood slowly flowed across the bluestones, penetrating the wicker basket, soaking the hems of his clothes, still warm.
His father’s body was lying quietly on the ground, his old hunched back already lying down to sleep forever.
He would never read aloud the Four Books and the Five Classics at night anymore, trying to lull him to sleep.
His ears were filled with the cheers and laughter of those beasts, the screams of the women, the furious roars of the men, and was that the coward Xiao Ma, madly telling them, “fuck you!”? That crying plea for mercy, was it the kind-hearted maid, who’d given him medicine when he had been injured himself? In the kitchens, Aunt Liu’s eight-year-old son Xiao Mao flew in the air, flopped and rolled on the ground, and then a blade pierced right from part to part and he stopped moving. Hu Qing wouldn’t need to secretly teach him how to read anymore. He would never become a scholar now, would he?
Who else? Who else could still be alive?
He lost his mind from the panic.
He shivered violently in the thick silence.
At nightfall, the Man Jin began searching around while holding torches, saying they wanted to find the sons of bitches from the Ye family.
But even a careful investigation turned up neither hide nor hair.
“There’s a little bastard here! You can hide, but don’t worry, daddy’ll kill you.”
The Man Jin soldier who’d found him, beaming, pulled him out of the wicker basket by the collar. Then he stared, dumbfounded, as he was cleanly cut in half by the waist. He slumped on the ground, still holding onto Hu Qing.
Lying in the pool of blood, Hu Qing raised his head.
Faintly, he saw a majestic and cold God of War, standing amidst the dazzling flames like a red lotus flower.
Her messy long hair fluttered slightly in the cold night breeze. She was covered in blood; her glass-colored eyes were ablaze with the intent of killing; in her right hand, she was holding a sword, dripping with blood. She was stretching her left hand towards him.
He sat on the ground, momentarily unable to move.
“Come on,” she said. “Come with me.”
Roused by her firm voice, he finally stood up and followed her, shivering, to the outer wall at the rear of the woodshed, where there was a secret breach she used to slip away from the house when she was grounded. They cut two Man Jin soldiers to pieces after getting out, then crossed two other houses. Relying on Ye Zhao’s knowledge from her local bully days, they turned here and there, and the two of them actually went through the Man Jin lines, escaping into the forest on Black Mountain outside the city.
After running away all night, he was so tired that he was gasping for breath, and his legs seemed to weigh a thousand catties. He couldn’t move anymore.
“Let’s take a break.” She halted to a stop, halfway up the mountain and overlooking its foot. “The fire in the city is getting bigger and bigger,” she said softly.
The wind dispersed her warm breath and blew across the treetops, playing a mournful tune.
The desperate screams still echoed in their ears.
The two of them, who’d once hated each other, stood side by side, quietly watching—watching the raging fire, a wide burning sunset on the curtain of night, ruthlessly swallowing up their home. Friends from the Ye mansion, classmates from the Siji Academy, precious wines from the Cinnamon House, beauties of West Street, antiques from the Crescent Moon shop, plum blossoms from the Eternal Pavilion… Only with loss could the beauty of these things truly be understood.
He’d dreamt of coming back home in glory and honoring his father.
But now where was his home? Where was his father?
He could never go back.
He could never go back again.
Fresh air tore through his chest. His fear disappeared, pain twisted his heart, and his tears finally fell, large drop after large drop.
The sixteen-year-old boy finally hugged his knees and sobbed himself hoarse.
Ye Zhao silently stood by his side all night long. She didn’t speak; she didn’t cry. She only looked at the sword in her hand, her thoughts impossible to read.
The air was heavy with sadness.
When dawn broke, she finally spoke. “I’ve been learning martial arts since I was little, but my father said I was a woman, no matter how strong I become. That my future was to be shut within four walls, only seeing the sky. None of my training will have any use, except to make my husband dislike me.”
Hu Qing raised up his head to look at her in astonishment.
Ye Zhao’s voice was cool, as though what she was speaking of had nothing to do with her. “I pride myself on being naturally better than a man, learning better than a man, working harder than a man. How can I accept this? So I hated my father and the manacles that my identity as a girl fettered me with. I even hated the whole Ye family and the Northern Desert. I ran amok with my gang of delinquents, showing off my aggressiveness. Those jerks worshiped me; violence made me happy. I even stole my father’s military seal and forged documents, took a scadron out for a fight. I wanted to aggravate him. I wanted to prove to myself that I was stronger than a man… I thought it could break this cocoon around me and give me some relief.”
Only heart-wrenching pain could make immature children grow up in one night.
Ye Zhao brushed over the character “Ye” engraved on the sword and said softly, “When I ran back to the Ye mansion, Mother was still breathing. She handed my father’s most treasured sword and told me that, as his daughter, he was the proudest of me and most reluctant to part with me. Enough people from the Ye family have died on the battlefield; my father hoped I would not risk my life fighting at the front like my elder brothers, but marry like an ordinary girl and simply be happy.”
Her mother told her not to take revenge but flee, flee westward.
To the west of the border post city was Menqi Town, which the Man Jin had not yet reached.
She ought to take advantage of dawn, when the guards’ vigilance was at its lowest, to flee there quickly.
The fire over the border city gradually died out. Their homes were almost entirely burned out, and few people had survived. Only hatred remained.
Father, I’m sorry.
I can’t fulfill your last wish yet.
Ye Zhao straightened, looking over her destroyed native land, and firmly said, “The Northern Desert is my home. In my veins flows the blood of the Ye family; I have lorded over this place and committed many unforgivable crimes here. Now that disaster has struck, how can I abandon the people of the Northern Desert and run away?”
She picked up her father’s sword, lifted her father’s military tally, gathered the remains of her father’s troops, and fought back on a new battlefield.
She made blood flow to wash away her faults.
She was determined to use her life to atone for her sins.
Ye Zhao walked east.
Venus was shining bright over the horizon, a beautiful spark.
Hu Qing wiped his tears and followed in her footsteps. Loudly, he asked:
“Hey, you uneducated boor, you can’t read anything. Need a military advisor?”
