If Lou Yun displayed her talents without reservation, her status would likely set a whole crowd of aristocratic scions scheming again.
She might as well use her frail body to put an end to their intentions for the time being and spare herself plenty of trouble.
Only upon seeing the jade pendant his younger sister always wore did Su Changqing finally set his mind completely at ease.
He took the letter, unfolded it, and read it carefully. His eyes, filled with suspicion just moments before, instantly softened. "Yun'er, you've suffered."
They really were brother and sister-even their choice of words was identical.
After reassuring Su Changqing a little, Lou Yun grew serious. "The news currently sent back to court is that my brother is recuperating from his injuries and will soon lead the army home. Now that I'm here, we can keep the court's spies fooled. But Uncle, your secret search for my brother will have to be even more discreet."
Su Changqing nodded. "Understood. In three days, I'll order the army to return to court. As for you, Yun'er, stay hidden in the carriage under the pretext of recovering from your injuries. I'll handle everything else."
"I'll leave everything to you, Uncle."
After all, she was not the one who had spent every day with the soldiers, and there were bound to be differences between her and Lou Ze'an. It was best to be cautious on the journey back to the Capital.
That was all well and good, but far too many people wanted the crown prince dead on the road home. What was more, his severe injuries now prevented him from commanding the army.
On the journey back to the Capital, various factions kept probing. Lou Yun sat in the middle of the carriage, holding a secret report sent from the palace.
She had known it would not be so simple. The second prince's faction had likely caught wind of something and kept sending scouts to test her identity.
Among the scouts who kept appearing, aside from the second prince's men, there was actually another force belonging to Imperial Preceptor Pei Qing...
Presumably, her consort mother was also keeping her imperial brother's disappearance from the imperial preceptor.
It was just as well to keep him in the dark.
The imperial preceptor's letter informed her imperial brother that she had perished in a sea of flames and offered him comfort.
Lou Yun picked up the letter with its elegant handwriting. It was written on fine Xie Gong stationery. She wondered whether he had chosen such distinctive paper because he was sending it to someone he trusted.
She did not know what ink he had used, either, but the letter carried a unique, delicate fragrance.
From these details alone, it was not hard to guess that the writer had an extraordinary background and some accomplishments in calligraphy.
The letter's words were earnest, every sentence soothing and comforting its reader.
Pei Qing's concern and care for Lou Ze'an were plain to see. Lou Yun sighed inwardly. Though the love between these two men was somewhat unacceptable to the world, Pei Qing truly had not let her brother's sincere feelings go to waste.
Pei Qing, Great Yan's imperial preceptor, was the teacher of all under heaven. While responsible for instructing the scholars of the realm, he naturally also served as imperial preceptor to all the princes.
That was how Crown Prince Lou Ze'an had met Pei Qing.
Despite their transgressive teacher-student relationship, the two were still willing to break through worldly conventions. Lou Yun truly admired that.
Previously, she had felt it a pity that, given her imperial brother's status, Pei Qing was destined to lavish his devotion on the wrong person. Now her imperial brother's whereabouts were unknown, too. If Pei Qing really learned the news, she did not know whether he could bear it.
But these were all things she had discovered by accident as a child. Pei Qing had yet to openly take a side at court, presumably on her imperial brother's instructions. No wonder her empress mother did not trust him enough and was keeping him in the dark.
"Ah..."
The girl let out a long sigh. Never mind. For the sake of his sincere devotion to her imperial brother, she would look after him a little more once she returned.
At the final stop before their return to the Capital, just as everyone began to relax, a sharp cry tore through the night. "Protect the general! Quickly! Protect the general!"
The night was dark. The soldiers guarding Lou Yun had barely lit their torches before assassins killed them. Flames flared and died in the darkness, and the flickering light immediately sent everyone into a panic.
Another flurry of chaos erupted. "Quick! Put out the torches!"
Someone objected. "But there are so many of us. If everyone lights a torch, won't we light up everything around us?"
For a moment, everyone was caught between lighting their torches and leaving them unlit.
Meanwhile, an assassin had already slipped into the carriage and closed in on Lou Yun.
Lou Yun kicked the assassin out of the carriage, vaulted down, and circled around to the back. She picked up the utterly unfamiliar Dragon Chant Spear and tested its weight. It was not as light and handy as a longsword.
Lou Ze'an excelled with the spear, while she excelled with the sword. Besides, using a long spear against close-range killers put her at a disadvantage however she looked at it, but she could not concern herself with all that now.
A spear thrust □□ into an assassin's chest, sending blood spraying, only to be caught by the red tassel on the spear. She turned her wrist and swept the shaft sideways. In the suddenly cramped
space,
its long span pointed at enemies above and caught allies below.
Tsk. What a nuisance.
Clang!
She planted the spear in the ground, driving its shaft a foot deep.
The spear's reach was too broad, making it easy to injure allies when friend and foe were mixed together in the dark. Lou Yun could only abandon it and draw the dagger at her chest to block the hidden weapons flying at her from every direction.
Simply defending was no lasting solution... She had to find an opportunity to attack. Just as Lou Yun was struggling with that problem, a faint fragrance suddenly reached her nose.
This scent...
Lou Yun turned, but before she could find the source of the fragrance, that person had already moved behind her to guard her back.
The closer distance finally reminded Lou Yun where she had smelled it: the imperial preceptor's letter to her brother!
She had thought the faint scent on the letter came from some special ink. Only now did she realize it was clearly the medicinal fragrance on Pei Qing's body.
"Pei Qing?"
Chapter 2
"It's me."
The familiar, cool voice set Lou Yun's mind at ease.
Delighted, she was just about to ask for a weapon when cold metal touched the back of her hand.
That cool voice sounded again. "I didn't know what weapon Your Highness usually uses, so I only brought a longsword."
In the darkness, Lou Yun reached back and took the hilt. Her smile was unrestrained as she said confidently, "Just what I wanted. Thank you, Imperial Preceptor."
With a longsword in hand, Lou Yun was like a tiger given wings. She charged straight into the enemy ranks, Pei Qing close behind, staunchly defending her vulnerable rear.
Though this was their first time working together, they trusted each other utterly, as though they had rehearsed countless times. Together, Lou Yun and Pei Qing swept through the enemy like splitting bamboo, carving out a path to survival in an instant.
Experiencing such an exhilarating battle again after so many years put Lou Yun in an excellent mood. She thought to herself that she must spar with Pei Qing if she had the chance. Opponents who could match her evenly were truly rare, but she believed Pei Qing had the ability.
A bone whip coiled around the last assassin's waist, and a longsword followed, plunging into his heart. The two exchanged a smile, clearly neither having expected their movements to be so perfectly in unison.
Lou Yun's gaze swept over the long whip in the young man's hand. What she had expected even less was that the imperial preceptor, who had created the Rippling Waves Sword Technique so sought after by martial artists throughout the world, was actually most skilled with a whip.
Once the dust had settled, Lou Yun wanted to say something to Pei Qing, but a subordinate beside him had already spoken up in reminder. "Young master, we should go."
Lou Yun looked up. Dawn was just breaking, a slender band of white light splitting the night sky in two. Day was coming.
When she turned back, all that remained for Lou Yun was the young man's briskly retreating back and the last fleeting corner of his veil.
Only after Pei Qing and his party disappeared did Lou Yun come back to herself. She stroked the blade. Pei Qing had come and gone so quickly that, if this sword had not remained in her hand, she might have thought their fight side by side last night had been a dream.
Handing the longsword to the hidden guard beside her, Lou Yun pulled up the spear, swung onto her horse, and called to the army, "Back to court!"
"Yes!" Ten thousand soldiers answered.
The fully risen sun hung high overhead, unstintingly pouring its radiance over the army. A golden halo wreathed every soldier; from afar, they looked like divine troops descending from heaven.
They continued toward the Capital. When they were still over a hundred li from the city walls, they saw the assembled officials in the distance, come to offer their congratulations.
Most conspicuous of all, amid the sea of staid official robes,
was a young man dressed in snow-white, his bearing straight as a pine.
The two gazed at each other from afar. Although they had only just met during the night, only now did Lou Yun get a clear look at Pei Qing's appearance.
The young man stood at the head of the officials, several meters apart from the others, looking cool and aloof. His flowing dark hair was tied behind his head with a blue-and-white ribbon embroidered with peonies, exposing full, rosy earlobes. Blue-green jade tassels hung from them, glittering in the sunlight.
Unlike Lou Yun's interested gaze, Pei Qing's eyes held not the slightest ripple. Had that man not admitted his identity yesterday, she might have thought she had mistaken him for someone else.
The young man stepped forward first and bowed with clasped hands. "This subject congratulates Your Highness the Crown Prince on your triumphant return."
The officials behind him offered their congratulations in unison. "We subjects congratulate Your Highness the Crown Prince on your triumphant return."
Lou Yun raised a hand, signaling for the officials to rise, and the great procession entered the city.
The commoners lining the streets in welcome kept throwing flowers at Lou Yun, but more often, they threw them at Pei Qing, who had fallen in behind her at some point.
Lou Yun glanced out of the corner of her eye at the commoners throwing flowers to Pei Qing. Besides the young girls in the first flush of romantic yearning, quite a few boys also wore shy expressions, looking as though love had just begun to stir.
...A scourge to the nation and its people.
For no reason, those words sprang into Lou Yun's mind. After considering them for a while, she felt they hardly wronged Pei Qing. Not only were ordinary commoners infatuated with the imperial preceptor, but even her dear brother, His Highness the Crown Prince, had long since lost his heart to this man. If Lou Ze'an really remained unmarried for life because of Pei Qing, then this illustrious imperial preceptor of Great Yan would truly become a bewitching consort who brought disaster upon the nation and its people.
Not long after their return to the Capital, the palace prepared a victory banquet for the army.
That was only natural. In this dynasty, where men reigned supreme, even the death of an imperial princess could not dilute the joy of the crown prince's return with military honors.
What was more, to Lou Qing, the crown prince's triumphant return was the only good news in recent days. Even he dragged his ailing body to the victory banquet, let alone everyone else.
Amid the clinking of cups and the mingling of guests, Lou Yun imitated her brother's usual manner, trading toasts with the court officials and keeping up appearances.
She could not help recalling those days in her previous life as an emperor, when worry and headaches had been unavoidable daily companions. She smiled bitterly inwardly. After all those twists and turns across two lifetimes, she was still fated to toil.
Her gaze shifted. The young man in robes white as snow sat high in the hall, with not a soul within three paces of him. He really had managed to secure some peace and quiet, keeping his head down as he ate away.