A torrential rain fell with the onset of night, drenching the dense forest that steamed with mist. The air was thick with a cold, metallic stench. Meng Guqing collapsed to the ground, taking a long while to regain her senses. They had traveled quickly today and hadn’t seen any village or sign of life, so they were resting outdoors for the night. She was supposed to stay in the carriage with Xiao Shuo, but to assert her independence, she wrapped herself in a blanket and slept by the fire, determined to keep her distance from him.
Xiao Shuo stood by the carriage, clearly displeased. After a while, he came over and tugged at her blanket with a force she could feel but that wasn’t excessive. When she ignored him, he bent down to lift her up. Meng Guqing sat up abruptly, drawing a stick across the space between them as a “boundary,” warning him, “Keep your distance. Don’t come any closer.”
He chuckled lightly. “Childish.” Yet, in the end, he stayed put. “You’re not me, go sleep in the carriage. I won’t disturb you tonight.”
He scolded her for being childish but still obeyed her rule, which unexpectedly made Meng Guqing feel a little relieved. “Not just tonight. From now on, you must never enter my room without permission, never force me to do things I don’t like, and never lock me in. I mean I should be able to come and go by myself, without you accompanying me. Relationships aren’t a game. If I’m willing to try with you, I’m serious but you must make concessions and change.”
The boy’s face twitched slightly as he tried to suppress his reaction, then he quickly changed the subject. “You’re getting bolder. No one has ever dared set conditions with me before.”
“Then I’m honored to be the first.” Sitting by the fire, she smiled brightly. Though she constantly thought him twisted and erratic in her mind, in reality, he had never forced anything on her. Her courage had been built through experience. She hadn’t willingly run so far with him, this was a perilous journey, and she might as well make it more bearable. Crossing into this world, she wasn’t here to suffer. Back in the palace, she had endured endless compromises to protect those she cared about, but now she was alone, why fear anything?
Her serious expression made Xiao Shuo pause. Once they reached the capital, he had many matters to attend to. He wanted her to wait within the space he delineated, to accompany him, and to focus her attention entirely on him rather than plotting secret escapes. After spending so much time together, he roughly understood her temper, soft approaches worked better than force. He wasn’t truly trying to make her unhappy. Slowly, he said, “I said it. You can do anything you want. Leave everything else to me.”
Meng Guqing frowned. “The condition is that your interests come first, right? I can live freely, but if it conflicts with what you like or want, I have to compromise?” She had already endured enough in the imperial harem of Wu Dynasty. Even a small rabbit has a temper.
“As long as you don’t plan to leave, everything you want is included.”
Meng Guqing, already bracing herself for a perfunctory response, was caught off guard. She turned to look at his handsome face in the flickering firelight. His dark eyes glimmered with absolute sincerity. Even she could not doubt his true intentions. If he had continued joking, she could have plausibly refused him—but faced with such honesty, she found herself lost for words. Following her principle of “never strike a smiling face,” she relented, offering a compromise. “Then from now on, you must respect me. Don’t force me to do what I don’t want. Like now, we sleep separately, you must accept it calmly. And in the future, any major matter involving me, you must inform me beforehand so I can decide for myself. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” Surprisingly easy to deal with. Seeing her reluctantly relax, he leaned closer and whispered, “If you don’t like that pattern, I won’t make you wear it.” Meng Guqing froze for a moment, realizing he meant her intimate clothing. He liked to control every detail of her life, but his aesthetic was far from ordinary. Though the items he chose were expensive and well-made, she sometimes genuinely disliked them.
Their minor argument ended. As the rain began to fall more heavily, Meng Guqing, refusing to suffer in the open, climbed into the carriage. She slept fitfully, dreaming again of the night Zhao Donglin’s men had pursued them, the clashing of swords growing louder. She suddenly opened her eyes.
She lifted a corner of the curtain and took in the scene outside, fully awake. It wasn’t a dream, someone was attempting an assassination!
Could it be Zhao Donglin had sent men to follow them this far? Meng Guqing shrank back inside the carriage, wanting to call Xiao Shuo, but then realized that if these were Zhao Donglin’s men, their goal might be to capture her. Drawing attention to herself would be foolish, better to observe quietly. She peeked from behind the curtain, watching two groups of fighters clash fiercely in the towering forest.
Originally, a few men had guarded the carriage, but seeing the attackers ignore them, they joined the fight. Meng Guqing’s eyes lit up, the attackers weren’t after her! Their obsessive focus was clearly on Xiao Shuo, making her irrelevant. A rare opportunity: if she didn’t take it, she would remain tied to him indefinitely.
She quickly checked her belongings. The clothes sewn with silver coins were safely packed at her feet. With this money, she could hide anywhere and live without worry, and when done, she could return to Gaochang. Resolute, she crept to the carriage door, assessing the outside situation. The carriage was parked on a slight slope not far from the official road, only twenty to thirty yards away. Nervous, the horse’s head faced that direction. She plucked the jeweled ornament from her hair and jabbed it into the horse’s rear. With a shriek, the horse reared and bolted.
Prepared for the worst, she clung to the door as wind and rain battered her. She glimpsed a broad road in the distance, a sliver of hope. But as soon as the carriage reached the road, someone came flying toward her. With a shout, “Duck down!” the wooden carriage creaked under the impact of fastened spikes. When she looked again, a terrifying scene unfolded: the road split ahead, divided by a massive locust tree, thick enough for four or five people to embrace. A collision would surely kill her.
The horse, spurred too hard, was uncontrollable, charging directly toward the tree. In a flash, someone yanked her up into the air. Dizzying heights followed, then violent fighting. Only when rain pounded her face mercilessly did Meng Guqing shiver and fully regain clarity. Fortunately, only five attackers had pursued Xiao Shuo. The man moved with incredible skill, and before she could even see his strikes clearly, the attackers fell one by one.
Having never witnessed such real combat, Meng Guqing was terrified, heart pounding. Supporting herself against a tree, she braced her legs. As she stood, the indomitable man before her fell. Had he been hurt? Stumbling to his side, she finally saw a hidden weapon embedded in his leg; fortunately, it wasn’t deep and bled little. Her worry lifted slightly when he spoke.
“The weapon was coated with a narcotic and tendon-softening powder. It acts fast. There’s a knife at my waist, draw it, and listen carefully.”
No wonder his sword had faltered earlier, the trap had affected him. She remembered the sound of the carriage being nailed down, likely the moment the hidden weapon was deployed. Following his instructions, she drew the knife. The cold metal sharpened her senses. Lowering her head near his face, she said, “I’m listening.”
“This place is Linji in Zhou territory. Going back is too far. Follow the main road ahead for twenty-odd li and you’ll reach Linji City. Then hire a carriage and escorts to return you home.”
Meng Guqing’s suspicion grew. Was he really letting her go? Unsure whether to be relieved or anxious, she asked, “You’re letting me leave? What about you? Your men aren’t here, shouldn’t I wait for them before I go?”
“They’re trapped, survival unlikely.” The old wolf Wang Xiao was bold, sending hundreds of skilled assassins to deal with him. Xiao Shuo’s eyes flashed with deadly sharpness, then he glanced past her at the struggling man in the distance, lips curling into a small smile. “You’re timid, you hate blood. If you don’t leave now, won’t you be scared later?”
Meng Guqing noticed the pursuing assassins hadn’t all been killed, only the last one fell to Xiao Shuo, weakened by the tendon-softening powder. Though grievously wounded and bleeding, this attacker would have been no match for him. She finally understood, he really intended for her to escape, to leave him behind.
Gripping her knife, she looked at the stumbling assassins in the rain and at Xiao Shuo, immobilized. She recalled his earlier words: “You said if one day you were to die, you’d kill me first, won’t I have company in the underworld? Why now do you tell me to go?”
Xiao Shuo, however, smiled irresistibly, with a hint of regret. “I truly meant that at the time. But now… I find I can’t bear it.”
Meng Guqing was furious. Of course she longed to return home, but the scene, her conscience, their bond, made it impossible to leave and watch him die. And then, with that same teasing remark, he provoked her hesitation further: “This is your only chance. Haven’t you always craved freedom? Go now, while you can. If I die here, it would settle everything, what are you crying for?”
Following his words, she wiped her face, it really was all rainwater mixed with tears. Meng Guqing took a deep breath, gripped the knife again, and stood up. This time, instead of retreating, she walked straight toward that man. Just as he realized and tried to raise his blade in counterattack, she struck first, with far more force than when she’d stabbed the horse earlier. Once wasn’t enough. She stabbed again. Only when he convulsed and fell to the ground, his life slowly ebbing away in the rain, did she stop.
She threw the knife aside, breathing harshly. After swallowing hard, she dared not even glance in that direction again. Crawling and stumbling, she made her way to Xiao Shuo, feeling his body still warm, only then did the tension in her chest release, and she burst into sobs. “You b*stard! It’s all your fault, I killed someone! I’ve never killed anyone before!”
“I know,” Xiao Shuo’s right arm wrapped around the trembling figure lying on him, “you’ve never even killed a chicken.” No one noticed that, in his left hand, a short blade that had been ready to strike suddenly flicked once and slipped back into his sleeve. A flicker of something dark crossed his eyes before it melted into tenderness. He pressed a kiss to her hair. “Don’t be afraid. Even if you hadn’t finished him off, he wouldn’t have lived much longer.”
At first, she’d been terrified. But as she calmed down, though her hands still trembled, the fear gradually ebbed. She remembered when they first met, how he’d mocked her for being too soft-hearted. Back then she’d thought she could never take a life. Turns out, it was only because she hadn’t been driven to the brink. In that moment, there had been no room for hesitation. If Xiao Shuo hadn’t come after her, if he’d stayed with his skilled subordinates, he never would’ve been ambushed. And she, by sheer luck, had been caught up in his pursuit; otherwise, she would’ve died when the carriage crashed into the tree.
As for the man she killed, just as Xiao Shuo said, he’d already been at his limit, slower than she was. Otherwise, how could an untrained, frail woman land a fatal strike? Meng Guqing never did things she’d regret. She had killed, and that was that. Forcing the scene from her mind, she got up, ready to ask what to do next but Xiao Shuo seemed to have reached his limit. His eyelids were drooping. She cupped his face.
“Stay with me. Don’t fall asleep yet. Is there an antidote in the carriage? What if they come again?”
Her words roused him a bit. He reached down, pulled the hidden weapon from his leg, and in the blink of an eye stabbed himself again. The sound alone made her heart clench painfully. His face still managed a faint smile. “I told you, you gave up your only chance. Don’t even think about running again.”
Meng Guqing had no strength left to argue. Watching blood gush from his wound and spread across the rain-washed ground, she muttered, “Wait here for me.”
The frightened horses had long since bolted, leaving only wreckage behind. In the dim moonlight, she gathered what useful things she could from the broken carriage, but after searching for a long time, she found no medicine and had to give up. Returning to Xiao Shuo, she helped him up. “Where do we go now?”
“Keep walking, there’s an abandoned temple nearby.”
No wonder he’d been so composed, stabbing himself and bickering with her at the same time. He’d already had a plan. After a while, a dilapidated clay structure appeared through the trees, barely recognizable as a temple. She’d been wondering earlier: if there was any shelter on the road, even a ruined one, why hadn’t they stopped before?
One look and she understood. The place was so decrepit it was a miracle the four corners still stood. Fallen beams barely formed a tiny triangular space, too small for a large person to fit. Meng Guqing helped Xiao Shuo to what had once been the doorway, now just a frame, and chose the least broken corner. There might be rats, but she couldn’t care less. Using a stick to clear a patch of ground, she helped him sit.
But he refused the inner spot, insisting she take it instead, further from the rain. He handed her the cloak from the carriage. “Sit on half, cover yourself with the other half.”
She hesitated. How could she take things from an injured man? But he held her cold hand, a trace of concern in his voice. “Be good. I have internal energy to protect me. Once the drug wears off, I won’t feel the cold. You, on the other hand, have no martial arts to guard your body. Don’t argue, just stay warm.”
She was cold. She’d lived comfortably for too long, never hungry, never chilled. This body was more delicate than she thought. Yet hearing the coaxing tone in his voice made her uneasy again. “You won’t pass out again, will you? I couldn’t find any antidote. If you faint, when will you wake up?”
The drug was indeed strong, but their organization had experts in toxins. When he was still a nobody, he’d been used for testing poisons, he’d tasted them all. His body had long since built tolerance. Not immune, but far more resistant than most. The worst of it had passed; he wouldn’t faint again.
Hearing that, Meng Guqing finally relaxed. Her mind could turn to other matters. “You already knew someone would try to assassinate you, didn’t you? That’s why you were so cautious these past few days.”
“Mn.” He answered simply. Truthfully, he’d been waiting. He wanted to gauge the Wang family’s strength. Though they’d sent over a hundred killers, all were mercenaries, not unexpected. The only variable was her. The assassins’ target was him; as long as she’d stayed far enough, she should have been safe. But he couldn’t rest easy unless she was within sight. Considering how she’d performed earlier, he decided to let her off for running away.
She must have been exhausted after all that. He didn’t plan to talk further, wanting her to rest. But Meng Guqing couldn’t let it go, she knew if she didn’t ask now, he’d dodge her questions tomorrow. “Who were those people? Why did they want to kill you? They failed this time but what if they come again?”
He didn’t answer right away. Saying it now would only keep her up all night. Still, his secrets couldn’t be hidden forever. So he compromised. “Give it two days. Then I’ll tell you everything, whatever you want to know, I’ll tell you.”
“As for those assassins, they took heavy losses. They won’t be coming back.” More accurately, he wouldn’t give them the chance. Xiao Shuo was a man who never forgot a grudge, every slight repaid tenfold. Since Wang Xiao had chosen this “hospitality,” he would be sure to return the favor, thoroughly. He wasn’t just good at revenge; he was good at wiping the slate clean.
As long as they didn’t come again, that was all that mattered. Once was enough to nearly cost her life and force her to do something she’d never imagined she could. If it happened again, she wasn’t sure she could handle it. Thinking of that pale face in the rain, the man she’d killed, she shuddered and nestled closer into Xiao Shuo’s arms.
They’d both come through the storm drenched, yet somehow his clothes were already drying. So he really could use his inner energy to warm himself. She couldn’t help but sigh, having martial arts must be nice. Maybe she could still learn? Lost in those drifting thoughts, she soon dozed off.
And she didn’t wake for two whole days.
She only remembered the ache all over her body, sore limbs, burning throat, and the sensation of someone testing her temperature with their lips, holding her in their arms, murmuring softly: “Frightened and drenched… of course you fell ill. Get better soon. I won’t make you angry again.”
She wanted to scoff, not make her angry? Yeah, right. Didn’t he realize how low his emotional intelligence was? The only way not to anger her was not to talk to her at all. But he could never resist teasing her until all her attention was on him. He was the real childish one.
But she couldn’t say any of that, her throat wouldn’t allow it.
She knew she was sick and badly so. In her half-conscious haze, she always felt herself in his arms. He was either feeding her porridge or giving her medicine. The medicine was unbearably bitter, coating her tongue and throat. It made her suddenly homesick. Without realizing it, she began to cry. “Dad… Mom… I miss you. I want to go home… home…”
It was only then that she understood, the place she longed to return to had always been her home in the modern world, where she’d lived nearly thirty years. Nowhere in this era truly felt like home. Even when she spoke longingly of “returning to Gaochang,” it was only because she’d arrived there after crossing over, some part of her hoping that if she stayed, maybe one day she’d accidentally find a way back.
But that fragile hope shattered then. For the first time, she knew, she could never go back. The home that raised her was lost forever.
So she cried harder.
In her fevered daze, she heard a voice, shameless and domineering, coaxing her: “I’ll bring your maid here, and your father, your brother and sister-in-law too. If they won’t come, I’ll tie them up and bring them myself.”
Even half-delirious, Meng Guqing almost laughed through her tears. Are you a bandit? Always using force, isn’t ruining one person enough? Leave my poor family alone.
But she couldn’t wake up or speak.
The illness dragged on; she remembered little except that she’d never slept so deeply, so peacefully. When she finally woke, her body felt light, almost weightless. And beside her lay the man who’d tended her all that time, the same one who’d whispered to her in her dreams.
Looking at his sleeping face, remembering how he’d cared for her without rest, much of her resentment quietly dissolved.
Maybe she’d finally understood: the world she wanted to return to was forever out of reach. Since she couldn’t go back, why couldn’t this place become her home?
He could be infuriating, yes, but he treated her well. Her parents were gone, her blood kin lost.
Maybe, just maybe, this man before her might be the right one.
That question had no clear answer and besides, it felt far too distant to think about now. Meng Guqing sighed and stopped dwelling on it. At the faintest sound beside her, the man next to her stirred awake. Seeing the brightness in her eyes and her clear, alert expression, he smiled. “You’re awake?”
“Mhm. I think I’ve recovered.” She glanced around at the small wooden cabin: simple, peaceful. It must be nighttime; outside she could clearly hear the chirping of insects and birds. “I think I’ve slept three or four days. Where are we?”
Xiao Shuo smiled wider, his tone calm and sure. “Didn’t I tell you I was bringing you here to marry you? This is the place. Tonight is the perfect time. I thought you wouldn’t wake up in time, but you did, so come on, let’s go bow to heaven and earth.”
“Huh?” What sort of act was this now? Meng Guqing was completely bewildered. She let him pull her up, help her dress and put on her shoes, then urge her to drink a bowl of savory porridge. It actually tasted quite good. When she found out he had made it, she was surprised, she thought it was only because her tongue was dull from illness that it tasted so pleasant. But he seemed dissatisfied. “It’s really not bad! When my master used to throw me into the mountains barehanded, I’d catch wild chickens and rabbits until I got sick of them. After that, I started bringing a bit of rice. It’s nothing hard. If you want more, I’ll make it again next time.” Of course, he’d always lived roughly, this porridge was the only dish he could make well.
“All right, it is pretty good. Thanks.” She paused. “But could you maybe explain this whole wedding thing?”
A wooden hut perched right by a cliff’s edge, where just a few steps forward the ground dropped into a deep, gaping abyss like the open mouth of a giant beast, who in the world would choose that spot to get married?
Yet somehow Xiao Shuo had picked precisely this place. Everything for the wedding that had been lost during the ambush, he had replaced it all, even a beautiful, ornate wedding gown. Unable to resist his urging, she looked at the gown laid out on the bed and tried to stall. “I’ve been sick for days; I’ve sweated a lot. Shouldn’t I bathe and freshen up before putting on a wedding dress?” Who ever got married straight out of bed after a fever? It felt absurdly rushed.
But even that excuse he dismissed, saying she hadn’t fully recovered yet, bathing might bring the chill back. Meng Guqing admitted his reasoning made sense, but still, the whole thing felt far too hasty. With no way to refuse his persistent urging, she dawdled and finally changed. When she turned, she saw he too had dressed in scarlet wedding robes. His normally cool, austere aura now blended with the vivid red, fierce yet refined, strikingly beautiful.
Meng Guqing blinked. She wouldn’t admit it aloud, but his beauty was truly irresistible. No wonder he never allowed others to stare at him when they were out; pure admiration was rare; more often, gazes were filled with lust and covetous greed.
He led her by the hand to the edge of the cliff, where an altar table stood. On it were offerings, a marriage contract, and two cups of wine. Perhaps she had been wrong to call him careless, there was a certain solemnity to it all. After bowing to heaven and earth, they pressed their handprints on the marriage paper, and drank the wine. The moon shone bright as day, illuminating the mountains so clearly they could see each other’s faces as if in daylight. Meng Guqing watched him carefully fold the marriage paper and tuck it close to his chest. Finally breaking free of her dazed compliance, she asked, slightly annoyed, “Can you tell me what’s really going on now?”
It was the strangest wedding she had ever seen: no dowries, no guests, no parents, just the two of them. Yet, honestly, maybe the purest kind of marriage was only about the two people involved. No matter how grand the ceremony, even if blessed by the whole world, if the couple could not live well together, they would still part in the end. She wasn’t one to care for pomp. When she had married Zhao Donglin and become Empress, everyone envied her but only she knew how hollow that life had been.
This wedding, stripped of all the trappings, was in a way, deeply sincere, even romantic in its purity.
Xiao Shuo held her hand and took another step forward, gesturing for her to look down. Under the moonlight she could make out, on the opposite cliff face, a number of square boxes suspended in midair. Could it be what she thought? Before she could ask, he said, “You’re not mistaken, they’re coffins. They belong to couples from our organization, those who shared deep love and stayed together until death. My master used to say that all the new couples from the organization come here to marry, believing it grants a blessing. I never believed in that… but I did grow up in the organization…”
He trailed off. Meng Guqing almost laughed. The Xiao Shuo she knew, arrogant, unrestrained, defiant, when had he ever abided by anyone’s rules? Yet he had brought her here to perform this ritual, had solemnly kept the marriage paper, perhaps that meant she held far greater weight in his heart than she’d imagined.
Realizing that, she thought maybe life with him wouldn’t be so unbearable after all. But before she could recover from the humble shock of this strange wedding, he dropped another bomb on her that made her head spin.
“Now that we’re married, there’s something I need to be honest about,” he said lightly. “Let’s start over. My real name is Yuwen Shuo.”
