Transporting grain was no spring outing. The mission had to prioritize the frontline, leaving no room for the convoy to dawdle. That was why Dai Li and the logistics grain team traveled day and night, hurrying nonstop for six full days before finally reaching Gengshui in Jingzhou.
Gengshui City was not a border town of Jingzhou; it sat deep in the region's heartland. This spoke volumes about how far south Qin Shaozong had fought, seizing city after city over the past half year and amassing extraordinary battle merits.
Gengshui City had already fallen, but its streets could not hold the entire Northern Army. Qin Shaozong had no intention of disturbing the local people, so his troops remained camped outside the city in the countryside.
The moment the grain convoy arrived at the frontline military camp, it immediately sparked a wave of excitement. With provisions finally here, every soldier was overjoyed. The great victory they had won not long ago could now be properly celebrated with a grand feast!
But then...
"Madam?" Mo Yanyun thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but after rubbing them and looking again, he saw the bright-eyed woman in a black riding outfit, with fair skin and vivid red lips. Who else could she be but their Madam?
"Madam, what on earth are you doing here?" Mo Yanyun hurried over to greet her. "The journey must have been tough. Let me make you a pot of hot tea to refresh yourself."
Dai Li cut straight to the point. "Where is Qin Changgeng? Is he in the main tent?"
Mo Yanyun's expression shifted, a mix of awkwardness and hesitation crossing his face. "...Yes, he is."
Hearing his confirmation, Dai Li immediately headed for the large military tent topped with a red tassel at the center of the camp. Mo Yanyun scurried after her, keeping pace step by step. "Ah, Madam, please don't worry too much. In fact... His Lordship is no longer in any mortal danger now."
Dai Li's breath caught, her heart feeling as if it had been tossed into a dye vat or a bonfire, so tangled she could no longer tell if the ache in her chest was sourness or raw distress. "He is safe now—so that means he was in mortal danger before?"
Mo Yanyun avoided her gaze, too nervous to speak a word.
Dai Li did not press him further, instead quickening her steps toward the tent.
It was high noon now, and with sufficient grain supplies, the soldiers were served three full meals a day. Just then, Dai Li spotted a mess sergeant carrying a food box toward the main tent. She stopped him in his tracks and took the food box from his hands.
The second Dai Li lifted the tent flap and stepped inside, a strong, heavy stench of medicinal herbs assailed her nostrils, so thick she felt for a split second that she had fallen straight into a giant vat of medicinal brew.
The main tent was not spacious, unlike the master bedroom in the Marquis's Manor which was divided into an inner and outer chamber. So Dai Li caught sight of the man lying on the soft couch in the far corner at once.
He was dressed in a plain black inner robe, a thin quilt draped over his abdomen, his eyes closed as he slept. Judging purely from his appearance, Qin Shaozong looked no more than a little pale, with no obvious signs of injury.
But she knew him well. Qin Changgeng was a man of boundless energy; even with only two hours of sleep a day, he would still be full of vigor. From what Qiao Wangfei and the others had told her, it was common for him to stay awake for a full day and night straight when leading troops in past campaigns.
Now it was broad daylight, and the war had temporarily drawn to a close with no urgent matters demanding his attention—yet he was fast asleep...
Dai Li stood watching him for a long moment, then tiptoed over and set the food box down on the low table. The wooden box tapped against the wooden table, and even with all her care to move as gently as possible, the faint sound still carried.
Perhaps because he had not heard the usual footsteps approaching, the man on the couch twitched his brows. Still with his eyes shut, he spoke, "Leave the things here and go out."
Dai Li noted that his voice did not have the usual robust energy, though it was far from weak and threadbare, and the tight knot in her chest loosened a little. "Food tastes best when eaten hot."
The man on the couch jolted awake, sitting straight up in a single swift motion. Halfway through the movement, he pulled at some hidden injury, his whole body stiffening for a moment, his face flushing a ghostly pale for a split second. But he only twitched the corner of his jaw, letting no other flicker of pain show on his face.
Dai Li was startled by his sudden move. "What are you doing? Stay lying down properly!"
Qin Shaozong's eyes blazed bright as he looked her over from head to toe, as if making sure he was not seeing her in a dream. Only after he confirmed she was real did he wave at her to come closer. "How did my lady come here?"
"Of course I came to see you. All you wrote in your letters were nice, pleasant words, but you never told me a single bit of the real situation. Where is the sense in only reporting good news and hiding all the bad?" Dai Li walked over, but did not sit down beside the couch, even when Qin Shaozong shifted inward to make space for her.
Qin Shaozong said nothing, just smiled as he reached for her hand, trying to pull her onto the couch to sit with him.
Dai Li stood her ground, not wanting to crowd his injured body. "I heard you took an arrow on the battlefield, and after you got wounded, you did not leave your military tent for several days. Where exactly are you hurt? What did Doctor Ding say? Was there something wrong with your bright light armor? Otherwise, how could you have been injured so badly?"
One question after another came pouring out, but the man being asked did not answer a single one. The corners of his mouth just lifted higher and higher, until he finally let out a low, soft laugh.
Seeing that he still had the mood to laugh, Dai Li, who had been tormented by anxious fire all the way here, grew angry. She spoke in a sharper tone. "I am talking to you, Qin Changgeng. Stop being so playful and pull yourself together! These are all very serious questions!"
"It's just a minor injury, no big deal." Qin Shaozong pulled her onto the couch to sit down. "When did my lady set off for Jingzhou? Did you run into any trouble on the road?"
He brushed off the whole matter with that one light line about a minor injury, saying nothing else at all, as if the stiffness he showed when he got up a moment earlier never existed. Instead, he started asking her questions.
Dai Li felt a tight knot in her chest. The worry, hesitation and fear she had carried all along the journey, along with the wild, uncontrollable thoughts that had plagued her through one sleepless night after another, were now fermenting and surging in her veins, turning into a rush of hot blood that flooded her face and stung her eyes.
She did not want to sit at all, and abruptly shot to her feet. "Qin Changgeng, why are you still exactly the same?! You never tell me anything! I did not press you for answers in the past, but now even when I ask, you still keep quiet. You take every big and small matter all on your own. Have you ever spared a thought for how I feel? Is that any way for a husband to act?!"
Qin Shaozong saw her eyes turning red, and his head felt like it was about to split open. "Don't cry, my lady, I didn't mean to..."
He tried to get off the couch.
"Don't you dare move! Who told you to get up? Who gave you permission to get up? Stay lying down properly!" Dai Li snapped at him.
The man had no choice but to still his movements. "Fine, fine, I won't move. Don't cry, my lady. When you cry, I feel so uneasy that my whole body aches."
"That's just nonsense. Don't try to shift the blame onto me! Your whole body aches because of your injuries, what does that have to do with me?" Dai Li turned her eyes away from him.
Qin Shaozong sighed, and reached for her hand again. Dai Li tried to shake him off, but the moment she moved her hand, she heard a very exaggerated gasp of pain.
Dai Li pressed her lips tightly together, knowing full well he was faking it. The real discomfort he had felt was back when he first got up a moment earlier, and he had barely even shown it. She had only moved her hand a little, not punched him at all, so he was just pulling a cheap pity trick.
There was no end to the dissatisfaction bubbling up in her heart, but Dai Li still did not pull her hand away in the end. She let him pull her back to sit on the couch again.
Dai Li sat sideways, not facing him.
"I have fought on the battlefields for many years. Those wounds are nothing but superficial scrapes to me. But you, my lady..." Qin Shaozong raised his hand to brush over her red, tear-stained eye corners, his fingers gently grazing the wet dark eyelashes there. "Seeing your tears feels like ten thousand arrows piercing my heart. It makes me so restless that I cannot sit still."
"You'd be restless? I think you were perfectly at ease when you were lying to me," Dai Li snapped, turning her head to glare at him.
Qin Shaozong said in a low voice, "I never meant to deceive you. I just wanted to wait until I returned victorious to tell my wife..."
Even under her furious glower, Qin Shaozong did not change his expression. "Dai Li, I am your man. No man worth his salt would let his own wife weep day after day. Even if the sky were to fall, you would never need to concern yourself with it. I would hold it up for you."
Dai Li ground her teeth in frustration. "Qin Changgeng, can you rein in that damned overbearing male ego of yours? We are husband and wife. Spouses should be honest with each other. You were so injured you couldn't even leave your military tent, yet you still claimed it was just a minor nothing. What if—"
She could not bring herself to finish the rest of the sentence. Her voice choked up, and her vision blurred completely.
Qin Shaozong was never afraid of her sharp scoldings, nor of her giving him the silent treatment. But he was utterly helpless the moment he saw her tears. In a slight panic, he reached for something on the couch to wipe her face. "Don't cry. There are no 'what ifs'. I promise you. Your husband is as fit as can be, and I will live a long, full life right alongside you."
Dai Li felt the cloth against her face was far too large, big enough to wrap around her entire cheek. She grabbed his wrist and pushed his hand a little further away. The more she looked at that "handkerchief", the more familiar it seemed.
Thin ribbons hung down from it, apricot in color, with one side embroidered with meticulous peony patterns.
It was her own belly band!
This little undergarment was crumpled beyond recognition, all wrinkled like pickled vegetables, and it smelled a little odd too. She had no idea how many times it had been mishandled behind her back.
The heavy sorrow in her chest was suddenly cut short, left hanging halfway up and halfway down, making her throb with a headache. She pinched the bridge of her nose, then snatched the belly band right out of Qin Shaozong's hand, folded it quickly, and stuffed it under his pillow.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Qin Shaozong chuckled at the sight. "Why, are you disgusted even by your own things?"
Dai Li did not want to recall what had just been pressed all over her face. "Qin Changgeng, where are you injured exactly?"
Qin Shaozong said, "My right shoulder blade."
That was why his right arm barely moved, making it impossible for him to hold a brush and write letters.
"Didn't you wear your bright shining armor on the battlefield?" Dai Li frowned and asked him.
Bright shining armor had shoulder guards that covered the shoulders thoroughly. There was no reason for the battle-hardened Qin Changgeng, fully kitted out in armor, to get shot by a stray arrow so badly that he had to stay bedridden for days.
Qin Shaozong said, "I did wear it."
"Then tell me the truth, no more hiding anything. I'm already in the military camp now. Even if you won't tell me, I can just ask Doctor Ding, or Zhou Zhou and the others," Dai Li said sternly.
Qin Shaozong had not wanted to tell her, afraid the news would upset her. But he knew very well that if he kept it hidden, she would do exactly as she said and go ask someone else. So he tried to play it down as much as he could. "In the battle before, Liu Zhan sent out every single one of his elite generals. First they fought us head-on in a narrow pass, then they dueled with us right under the city walls. In several small skirmishes one after another, every soldier that fought me aimed for my right shoulder. After all, that's the hand that holds weapons. If you can't strike at the heart, going for the second-best target is only natural. I didn't think much of it at the time..."
They attacked, but he was no pushover. He blocked and struck back to take down his foes. But there were too many people on the battlefield, swords and blades had no eyes, and it was impossible to defend against every single thing.
The enemy attacked again and again. Those elite generals were like mad dogs, or as if they had lost their minds, fighting with total disregard for their own lives. Even though he had plenty of generals by his side, he still got grazed repeatedly by the blunt end of a blade. It wasn't anything serious. He had deflected over seventy percent of the force from every strike beforehand, and the remaining force was all absorbed by the bright shining armor.
After fending off wave after wave of attacks, the right pauldron on his armor had inevitably sustained damage. It was not completely broken to pieces, but it was certainly nowhere near as intact as it had been originally.
"... Later, some bystanders shot several arrows at me with heavy bows, and one of them got past my guard," Qin Shaozong said. Seeing her face pale slightly, he quickly added, "It's just an arrow wound. Before I married you, your husband marched north and fought south for years, and I've had countless arrow scars all over my body. Besides, with the Bright Light Armor blocking the way, that arrow didn't actually pierce very deep."
He spoke so casually, but Dai Li's heart was pounding with fright. Seeing that he was still trying to downplay the situation and gloss over the truth, she snapped at him, "You're lying again, aren't you? If that arrow really didn't go in deep, why did you never step out of the military tent after you got hit? Tell me everything, don't keep anything from me."
Qin Shaozong stroked her back gently, just like how one would soothe a flustered little animal. "The reason I stayed in the military tent the whole time was, first, to make Liu Zhan think his scheme had succeeded, and second, to mislead the Qinglian Sect."
At the end of his sentence, Qin Shaozong let out a mocking chuckle. "Those big rats hiding in plain sight are the hardest to catch. The moment they sense any disturbance or realize things are going south, they can run faster than anyone else. If I were unharmed, that Liudao person Qin the Second mentioned would definitely withdraw from Geng City immediately."
Dai Li had heard from Qin the Second that the sect leader's two nephews had been eliminated, which meant he had lost his most important right-hand men. Now that Qin Shaozong had started a war with Liu Zhan, he was certain that with old grudges and new hatred piling up, that man would not be able to stay put any longer.
There was a very high chance that Liudao was in Geng City!
And the moment Geng City fell, he had ordered the city gates sealed at once, with Qin the Second leading the search to hunt the target down.
Dai Li's brows were still tightly furrowed. Even though he had laid out all these reasons, she still felt something was off.
Just a moment ago, he had clearly been in severe pain when he got up, his rest during the day had been genuine, and there had been that obvious hesitation on Mo Yanyun's face back then...
"You still plan to keep it hidden from me, huh? Fine, then I'll go ask Doctor Ding myself. You rest well, my lord," Dai Li said as she stood up again.
Qin Shaozong's expression changed slightly.
Right at that moment, Ding Congjian's voice came from outside, "My lord, I've come to change your dressing."
Dai Li thought this was perfect timing, and quickly led Ding Congjian inside. The latter was stunned for a moment when he saw she had come all the way to the military camp, then subconsciously glanced at Qin Shaozong.
That tiny action did not escape Dai Li's notice.
She immediately stepped sideways, blocking Ding Congjian's line of sight to Qin Shaozong. "Doctor Ding, my lord just told me his injury is not serious at all. He doesn't want to keep lying still, and he even said that after so many days, his wound has almost healed, and he doesn't want to go through the trouble of changing dressings anymore."
"How can that be allowed? Scraping the bone to remove the poison is no trivial matter!" Ding Congjian blurted out.
The second the words left his mouth, he saw the color drain completely from Dai Li's face, turning as pale as a sheet. Ding Congjian froze, and hurriedly walked around her to look at Qin Shaozong, only to see his lord glaring at him fiercely.
His heart sank, and he thought to himself that he was in big trouble. The mistress had tricked him!
Just as he was about to say something to smooth things over, Dai Li spun around sharply. "Qin Changgeng, you've really grown capable..."
Before she could finish her sentence, tears started streaming down her face.
Qin Shaozong had been sitting on the couch this whole time, but the moment he saw those hot tears rolling out of her eyes, it was as if needles had pricked the cushion under him, and he could not stay seated any longer.
"You get back to lie down right now! You won't listen to the doctor, and you won't listen to me either. Why don't you just sprout a pair of wings and fly straight up to the sky?" Dai Li chided him.
Qin Shaozong did not lie back down. He walked over to take her hand, and said in a low voice, "My dear wife, save me some face. Congjian is still here. Once he leaves, you can scold me however you want."
"What good is saving face when your life is almost gone? Why cling to those empty formalities?" Dai Li said with a cold sneer.
Ding Congjian kept his eyes fixed on his nose and his mind fixed on his breath, not daring to make a sound, and even wishing he could vanish on the spot.
Qin Shaozong raised his hand to wipe the tears off her face. "You are not going to lose your life. Refusing treatment is the real danger. Now that I have pulled through, everything will be fine. Stop crying, my lady. The sight of your tears truly pains my heart. Speaking of which, we owe it all to that Mingguang armor. If not for it, the arrow would have sunk much deeper, and the poison would have been far harder to clear."
Dai Li would not look at him, and turned to speak to Ding Congjian instead. "I must trouble you, sir, to change his dressing now."
"Wait outside for me, my lady," Qin Shaozong said, knowing she could not bear to see the wounds.
Dai Li did not leave the tent. She only turned her back, and faint rustling sounds came from behind her. All the while, Qin Shaozong did not let out even a small grunt, acting as if he was not even there.
Ding Congjian finished changing the dressing quickly. Soon he tidied everything up, gave a few notes on post-treatment care, and then hurried to leave, afraid that if he stayed a moment longer, he would overhear things he had no business hearing.
"Lady Dai," he called out.
Dai Li did not want to turn around, but she was also worried that the man would get off the couch on his own and tear his wounds open, so she had to turn around.
"QIN! CHANG! GENG!" Dai Li rushed over, half anxious and half furious, when she saw that he was indeed trying to get out of bed. "Where have your ears gone? Why did you not listen to a single word Doctor Ding said? Are you tired of living? Let me be honest with you. I have no strict principles, and I do not value chastity that much. If I become a widow again, I will not say no to finding a new man."
"How dare you?" He did not react much to any of her previous words, but that last line made him fly into a rage.
"Why wouldn't I dare? You always say I have the guts of a bear and a leopard all over me. Finding a new man is hardly anything at all, isn't it?" Dai Li pushed him back down onto the couch. Seeing how furious he was, and worried that his wounds would split open, she softened her tone and added, "That's why you have to live a long, long life. Best to live a full hundred years, and grow old together with me."
Qin Shaozong gripped her hand tight. It was hard to tell if he was angry or deeply moved, as overwhelming emotions surged in his chest, making his heart race and his mind feel full to bursting. He could only press a firm, heavy kiss to her wrist. "Rest assured. I will never break my promise to you."
Dai Li was just about to check his wounds carefully, when a voice came from outside the tent. "Father, Liudao has been arrested."
It was Qin Yanzhou's voice.
Dai Li froze, and was just about to get up to see the situation, when she heard Qin Shaozong speak. "We spent nearly half a month hunting him down like looking for a needle in a haystack, and finally we have him. Bring him in!"
Someone outside said, "Bring more ropes, tie him up a few more times. Even though both his hands are crippled, it's better to be safe than sorry."
Soon the tent curtain was lifted. Dai Li saw Qin Yanzhou and Qin Qinian drag a man in, one on each side.
The man was dressed in a white robe, lean and thin, with large dark bloodstains on the fabric. He looked about six parts similar to Diting, fair-skinned and clean-jawed. Even though the years had left a few lines of weathering at the corners of his eyes, he still carried an uncanny, almost ethereal air of a Taoist immortal.
When Liudao stepped into the tent, he saw there was more than just Qin Shaozong inside. His gaze fell on Dai Li, and in an instant he figured out exactly who she was. He suddenly laughed softly and shook his head. "I thought you were just like me, someone who yearned for that paradise where everyone is equal. It seems I misjudged you after all."
He did not say her name out loud as he spoke, but the answer was clear in his eyes.
The veins on Qin Shaozong's forehead tensed up.
"You scoundrel! Who do you think you are, to speak to my mother like that?" Qin Qinian burst into anger and kicked him hard.
Liudao took the full force of that kick without dodging, spitting out a mouthful of black blood. "Lady Dai, you have been blinded by the allure of power. One day you will regret ever standing at his side. What good is the position of empress? It pales in comparison to the thrill of reshaping the entire world."
"Hand over the list of the Qinglian Sect's core members, and I will grant you a swift death," Qin Shaozong said coldly.
Yet from start to finish, Liudao did not so much as glance at Qin Shaozong, as if he found him beneath his notice or simply did not care. His eyes were fixed only on Dai Li. "I was just a step too late. If you had met me first, who knows what the world would look like today. Everything could have turned out differently..."
If Qin Shaozong had still managed to hold his temper a moment earlier, he could no longer restrain himself now. He flew into a rage, shot to his feet, drew the sharp sword from the side of the couch with his left hand, and strode over, ready to slice Liudao's head off with a single strike.
Qin Yanzhou hurried forward to stop him. "Father, we do not have the list yet."
Qin Shaozong shoved him away. "This man has lost all his most trusted lieutenants, the Qinglian Sect has been dealt a devastating blow, and you, Qin the Second, are already familiar with the sect's ways of operating. Even if we never get the list, it will only take a little extra effort to handle the rest. They cannot possibly stir up any real trouble. Stand aside. I will kill him today no matter what."
But before Qin Shaozong could raise his sword, thick streams of black blood gushed from Liudao's seven orifices, exactly the same way the White Elephant had died suddenly before. He had taken poison in advance, and the toxin had already run its course, killing him instantly.
Qin Shaozong was so furious that he hurled his sword to the ground. "He got off far too easily. Chop his corpse into eight pieces and throw it into the unmarked common graveyard outside the city to feed the stray dogs!"
Qin Yanzhou and Qin Qinian then carried the body out together. The military camp was located on the outskirts, not far from that unmarked graveyard.
When they arrived at the site, Qin Yanzhou did not dismember the body and discard it as Qin Shaozong had ordered. Instead, he had his men dig a deep pit, and laid Liudao's lifeless body gently into it, completely intact.
"Second Brother, why are you giving him a whole body and a proper burial? He does not deserve to rest in peace," Qin Qinian said, sounding rather reluctant.
After patting down the last handful of soil over the grave, Qin Yanzhou said calmly, "Think of it as me repaying the last bit of kindness I owed him."
Once the task was done, Qin Yanzhou led the others away. He did not look back. A gust of wind picked up, swirling dead leaves across the ground as it brushed past the lone, silent grave.
In the battle at Gengshui, all the key fierce generals of the Jingzhou Army were cut down by Qin Shaozong's blade. Their cities fell, their forces were routed, and Liu Zhan had to lead his troops in a retreat again and again.
As if they had agreed on the timing, Nangong Xiong led his army out of Yizhou at that very moment, attacking the Jingzhou Army from the flank while Qin Shaozong's northern forces pressed in, sandwiching them between two fronts.
The subsequent south-north conflict dragged on for four full months before a final outcome was reached. It ended with Liu Zhan taking his own life by the sword, and the southern forces being completely wiped out.
From that point on, looking across the entire realm, the only piece of land not under Qin Shaozong's control was Qingzhou, the home base of Nangong Xiong.
Before Qin Shaozong could make his next move, Nangong Xiong came to the northern military camp in the dead of night. The two of them talked inside the command tent for more than an hour, and finally walked out side by side, both smiling and appearing perfectly pleased with the discussion.
When news of the recapture of Jingzhou and Yizhou reached the imperial court, Empress Dowager Wang could not sit still for a single moment.
Now that Liu Zhan was defeated, there was no one left in the whole realm who could check Qin Shaozong's power. The problem was no longer simply whether the young emperor would lose his authority - it was whether he would even keep his life.
If they did not step down, they would die. If they yielded the throne, they might still get to live out the rest of their days in comfort and plenty.
It was not a difficult decision to make. When Qin Shaozong returned to the capital in triumph after the campaign, an imperial edict for the emperor to abdicate the throne in his favor was issued.
"...The realm under heaven is not the domain of a single individual, but the shared domain of all people under heaven. Only a virtuous ruler can occupy the throne to ensure the eternal stability of the state and the well-being of all countless subjects. Today, Qin Changgeng, the Marquis of Wu'an of the Qin clan, possesses the literary talent to secure the nation and the military prowess to pacify its borders. All within the four seas look to him with admiration and pledge their allegiance; this is truly the mandate of Heaven and the will of the people..."
According to historical records, Emperor Yanren abdicated the throne to Emperor Taizu of Ning in the 45th year of Yongde, bringing the Great Yan Dynasty to a complete end. A brand new, world-renowned Great Ning Dynasty, as dazzling as a bright pearl in the pages of history, slowly unfurled its grand chapter.
The 45th year of Yongde was also the first year of Shengjing, when Emperor Taizu of Ning ascended the imperial throne. On the very same day of the same month and year, Dai Li, the biological mother of Emperor Chengzong of Ning, was conferred the title of Empress Shengwu. From then on, the two sovereigns ruled the realm side by side.
...
Dai Li, clad in the formal imperial robes of an empress, ascended the Wangxing Terrace in the imperial palace together with Qin Shaozong. Standing at this high vantage point, they could clearly overlook the entire imperial city and the rolling landscapes stretching far into the distance.
Gazing at the beautiful scenes spread across the city, Qin Shaozong pulled the person beside him into his arms and said joyfully, "My lady, our empire's land is as picturesque as a fine painting."
"Your words are a little premature," Dai Li said with a soft laugh. "The new dynasty is still in a state of disarray after years of upheaval. We can only claim our land is truly picturesque once we have restored and rebuilt everything."
"You are right..."
[I have sailed through countless trials and hardships, no longer carrying the recklessness and impulsiveness of my younger days. I know full well that a chasm once lay between us, and I understand clearly the price we must pay to stay together through every season. Even so, I still want to break through every obstacle, to walk hand in hand with you until our hair turns white in old age.]