Wei Xichen pulled the reins, and the caravan came to a stop.
Yan Zhuyu, who had been walking with the help of her female attendant, also turned her head. When she saw the scene in the distance, she suddenly gripped the attendant’s wrist tightly, paying no mind to the attendant’s pained expression.
Her heart felt even more bitter.
That unruly scruffy horse, which had been nothing but wild and stubborn, gradually became docile under Jiang Yinyue’s training.
Its two ears, facing backward, twisted at the same time and drooped to either side.
Anyone who knew horses understood that this was a sign it was no longer irritable.
An old official from the Chamberlain’s Office smiled knowingly after watching the spectacle. “It’s been tamed.”
Another old official chimed in. “Jiang Song’s daughter is no mere flower vase. If she hadn’t been ignorant back then and offended Your Majesty, the still-vacant position of Crown Princess would have been hers for the taking.”
“I think you should watch your words, old brother.”
“Yes, yes, I spoke out of turn.”
Amid the crowd’s whispers, Yan Zhuyu looked toward Han Jian, who was walking with his head down. She tossed out, “Punish yourself,” before turning toward the Crown Prince.
“May this concubine ride with Your Highness?”
Wei Xichen paused for a moment, then leaned over and extended his hand, pulling her behind him. He paid no more attention to the situation at the back of the caravan.
“Continue on.”
No one dared to dawdle, and the playful mood dissipated.
The scouting horseman ahead suddenly turned back. “Reporting to Your Highness, there’s a group of soldiers approaching from ten li ahead.”
The newcomers numbered over a hundred, with sturdy soldiers and fat horses, their momentum like a rainbow. The leading general was particularly burly and imposing, exuding majesty.
Everyone in the caravan had their own thoughts.
Yan Zhuyu tugged at Wei Xichen’s sleeve. “Your Highness, when traveling outside, caution is paramount. We should hide first and observe from the shadows.”
Fu Zhongcai, walking nearby, glanced at Yan Zhuyu with a meaningful smile. A group boldly displaying their identity—could they really be uninvited guests?
Wei Xichen gently rubbed the texture of the reins and glanced toward Jiangning before urging his horse forward with his heels.
Along the way, branches fluttered with flying flowers under the crystal-clear midday sun.
At noon, the group crossed the snowy mountain one after another and rested temporarily at the foot.
Wei Xichen returned alone to the sandalwood carriage, propping his cheek as if dozing, not hurrying to the post station—as if waiting for something.
Before the hour of Wei, waves of hoofbeats stirred unrest among the caravan’s horses. In contrast, the scruffy horse that Jiang Yinyue had tamed raised its neck high and shook its long mane.
It was not as sensitive as the imperial horses.
Jiang Yinyue chuckled softly. As the sound of hooves grew heavier on level ground, she had a guess in her heart.
Moments later, a group of about ten arrived first. The armored general dismounted hurriedly, knelt, and cupped his fists. His deep voice carried respect for the noble guest. “Jiangning Deputy Commander-in-Chief Cheng Gao, under orders from the Guard Commander, has come especially to escort Your Highness the Crown Prince!”
His subordinates knelt and said, “We pay our respects to Your Highness. May Your Highness enjoy boundless fortune and well-being!”
After a while, endless hoofbeats continued as a dense mass of armored soldiers knelt in salute one after another, their grand momentum echoing endlessly at the empty mountain base.
Finally, a clear voice came from the sandalwood carriage, laced with warm laughter.
“All you brave generals, rise.”
A figure in white emerged from behind the curtain, wide sleeves billowing in the wind like a crane spreading its wings.
Elegant and otherworldly.
Wei Xichen stood at the carriage entrance, his gaze falling on Jiangning Deputy Commander-in-Chief Cheng Gao. “You’ve worked hard, General.”
Cheng Gao bowed, not daring to meet the Heir Apparent’s eyes. “Your Highness has crossed vast mountains and rivers, exhausted from the journey. We are merely providing midway escort— no hardship at all.”
Wei Xichen stepped down and personally helped this Second-Rank Official to his feet. “There’s a post station ahead. General, ride with Us there.”
“Your Highness honors me. I shall humbly obey.”
Cheng Gao hesitated, then carefully scanned the caravan before raising his hand slightly, signaling his subordinates to bring forward a small sedan.
“I heard that Consort Liangdi is traveling with Your Highness, so I specially had someone craft a soft sedan to spare Her Ladyship the bumps along the way.”
Wei Xichen shook his head upon hearing this but did not stop them. He watched as two soldiers carried the sedan past Yan Zhuyu and jogged toward Jiang Yinyue at the back of the caravan.
“We respectfully invite Your Ladyship to the sedan.”
The caravan erupted in murmurs—some snickered, some watched the drama.
Yan Zhuyu maintained her poise, though her figure wavered slightly.
Jiang Yinyue wanted to rub the eyes of the two soldiers. How had they so precisely picked the wrong person?
“Your lady is over there.”
The two soldiers turned in a panic. Despite the cold, sweat poured down their backs as they slunk shamefacedly to Yan Zhuyu…
“This lowly one has eyes but no sight. Please forgive us, Your Ladyship!”
Earlier, they had scanned the caravan and unanimously locked onto the more outstandingly graceful Jiang Yinyue in the group, overlooking the other woman.
Yan Zhuyu signaled her female attendant to help the two men up. “Ignorance is no sin. Rise.”
Cheng Gao, whose attempt to curry favor had backfired into a joke, felt extremely awkward and immediately echoed, “Her Ladyship is magnanimous.”
Yan Zhuyu did not hold a grudge. She entered the small sedan, and the moment the curtain fell, her upturned lips suddenly flattened.
The two groups merged and continued onward, arriving at the post station amid the twilight dusk.
Still at the rear of the caravan, Jiang Yinyue gave Wei Qin a look, signaling him to greet Fu Zhongcai and take their leave, while buying the scruffy horse.
Meeting was fate, but unfortunately ill-fated. She did not wish to linger and amplify her resentment. She thought that perhaps in this lifetime, she would never forgive Wei Xichen—even if he did not care and had forgotten the past.
This was perhaps what the elders meant: the end of fate was not life-and-death parting, but forgetting in serenity.
It was not that she could not forget Wei Xichen, but that she could not forget that past of being misunderstood and reviled.
Flowers bloom again, but people do not return to youth—nor does true sincerity.
Wei Xichen had taught her that true hearts must lose.
She reached out and stroked the cart-pulling horse. “One more tiring stretch, then we’ll rest ahead. I don’t even know what name Wei Qin gave you.”
The scruffy horse stretched its neck over, blocking her hand as if vying for affection.
Jiang Yinyue could not help laughing. From afar, she saw Wei Qin returning with a money pouch.
Fu Zhongcai refused their farewell, without stating it was the Crown Prince’s order—but it was obvious.
Wei Xichen was the sort who planned three steps ahead; he must have instructed Fu Zhongcai.
Watching Wei Qin unharness the cart, Jiang Yinyue jumped down from the carriage listlessly and wandered into the post station like she was sightseeing, asking the station worker about their quarters.
The post station was fairly large, but the two were still assigned to a remote small courtyard with a broken door latch.
Wei Qin went to the stables, while Jiang Yinyue pushed open the guest room alone and requested a bucket of hot water.
She barely secured the damaged latch, went to the bucket to wet a cloth, and slowly wiped her body with her back to the door.
When she rolled up her trouser leg, a bruise appeared on her left knee—likely from accidentally bumping it while taming the horse.
She pressed it hard and could not help hissing.
No wonder there had been a faint ache earlier; it was a minor dislocation.
Just then, someone knocked. The broken latch came loose.
Jiang Yinyue, holding up her trouser leg, turned and called for Wei Qin to help reset it—only to see the man at the door quickly turn away.
It was Crown Prince Wei Xichen!
In his hand, he carried goose fat pastries and osmanthus sugar sweet potatoes from Jiangning, brought by Cheng Gao.
All were snacks she had loved as a child.
Jiang Yinyue dropped her trouser leg and skirt hem; her dark lashes trembled like wings. “Does Your Highness not know to avoid suspicion?”
“We knocked.”
“Please leave.”
Chasing him away without asking his purpose? Wei Xichen felt somewhat displeased, unsure if it was her rudeness or her distance.
His mind flashed to the bruise on the woman’s left knee, plus that phrase “reset the bone.” He suddenly turned back, stepped over the threshold, and walked straight to her.
“Dislocated?”
Caught off guard, Jiang Yinyue snapped angrily, “It has nothing to do with Your Highness.”
“A dislocation can have major or minor consequences.”
Jiang Yinyue let it go in one ear and out the other, perfunctorily gesturing “please” with a rather forceful air.
Yet Wei Xichen not only did not leave but set down the food wrapped in oiled paper, bent his knee, and squatted before her. As she backed away, he reached out and gripped her little leg.
When the trouser leg was rolled up, Jiang Yinyue lost her balance and leaned against the table edge behind her.
A contact absent for three years occurred in a flash.
Wei Xichen held her injured knee, carefully probing. As she tried to pull away, he suddenly applied force.
“Hiss…”
“There. Fixed.”
Wei Xichen looked up at the woman, both stranger and utterly familiar, his light pupils darkening slightly. He stood, took a step back, and reminded her not to ride horses for the next few days.
Jiang Yinyue felt no gratitude. Instead, she pointed at the food on the table, then at the door, silently shooing him away.
With no one around, she dared to be so unrestrained without consequence.
Wei Xichen, ever proud, saw his jade-like face gradually tense. He turned and left, ignoring the unwanted food on the table.
His straight figure merged into the dusk.
The evening clouds on the horizon grew thicker—dazzling from afar, stinging up close.
Jiang Yinyue patted her wrinkled trouser leg and slumped exhaustedly over the table, unable to fathom Wei Xichen’s intentions.
Making amends? Forgiving her last-minute flight?
Fate played tricks, and human hearts were hard to discern. On the eve of an assassination attempt, at a palace banquet, Wei Xichen, weary of socializing, had taken her to hide in a rockery in the Imperial Garden, away from false pleasantries, laughing as she chattered endlessly about daily trifles.
Even a man swamped with state affairs always made time to accompany her.
“Crown Prince Brother, I’m already ten days past my coming-of-age. Where’s your gift?”
Wei Xichen rarely kept her guessing, yet he had delayed her most anticipated coming-of-age present.
Sulking, she pouted and headed back to the hall. As she tried to pass the leisurely, nonchalant man leaning against the rockery, he grabbed her waist and pulled her back.
A kiss landed on her cheek.
The man smiled tenderly and asked softly, “Did you receive it?”
That was Wei Xichen’s only breach of propriety, crossing the line to hold the blushing her tightly in his arms, making her call his name.
Yet soon after, a premeditated assassination struck, besieging the Heir Apparent on his way out of the palace. That assassination became the watershed of their breakup.
Amid the uproar blaming her for fleeing while abandoning the Heir Apparent, Wei Xichen still treated her gently, as an honored guest—but never intimately again. It was she who later realized Yan Zhuyu had entered between them.
In the days after, whenever the Crown Prince took her in or out of the Eastern Palace, Yan Zhuyu came along…
Three years ago, they parted ways. If not for her father repeatedly reminding her of the consequences of offending the Eastern Palace, she might have shattered decorum and thrown a tearful tantrum.
“The Heir Apparent’s authority is not to be trampled—light punishment is demotion to commoner, heavy is exile to frozen wastes,” was her father’s warning, nearly gritted through silver teeth.
“The Crown Prince no longer indulges you. Don’t be willful—consider it a plea from your father.”
“But he shouldn’t have used your daughter like that.”
“You were arrogant and overbearing, out of favor with Your Majesty—that’s how you let others take the wedding dress you prepared!”
Without the Crown Prince’s indulgence, even her grievances became baseless whining. She burned with fever for three days and nights, unconscious, and received no more tonics or concern from the Eastern Palace.
The Crown Prince’s sole compensation was, “Yinyue, We can grant you a marriage to any talented youth in court, your choice”—plunging her into further turmoil.
Capital nobles shunned her like the plague, fearing to become laughingstocks alongside her.
Jiang Yinyue pulled back her thoughts and gave a bitter laugh, her clear voice hoarse and sweet. She picked up the two packages of food and tossed them into the wastebasket by the door, then fixed the latch and wet the cloth to continue wiping her body.
When Wei Qin returned, she had changed into fresh clothes, looking clean and refreshed, with no sign of sorrow—and she did not mention the dislocation again.
“What’s the name of your old partner?”
Wei Qin understood she meant the cart-pulling horse. “Chasing Wind.”
“Then the new partner shall be Lightning Chaser.”
Wei Qin looked at her seriously. As realization dawned on her, he pulled out the money pouch from his sleeve.
Evidently, the deal had fallen through.
“Consort Yan Liangdi said the horse was a gift from the Crown Prince—priceless, not for sale.”
A gentleman does not seize what others cherish. Jiang Yinyue had no desire to compete, but Han Jian’s whipping could have killed that young, stubborn colt.
Yan Zhuyu wanted to conquer it through whipping, merely to salvage her lost face from yesterday.
Business required mutual consent. Jiang Yinyue was angry but helpless—what could she do, run to Wei Xichen and wheedle like before?
“Forget it.”
Jiang Yinyue did not consider herself particularly kind; she would not push beyond her means. She stood to open the window for air, when her left knee suddenly throbbed.
Wei Xichen’s resetting technique was skilled, but a dislocation was still a misalignment. Even minor, it needed time to heal.
Seeing her wince and clutch her knee, Wei Qin stepped forward. His extensive horse-training experience let him guess without asking. “Let me see.”
“It’s fine.”
In stubbornness, Jiang Yinyue could not outmatch the man before her.
The obvious bruise on her left knee resembled a withered rose against her straight, snow-white leg.
Wei Qin raised his sword-like eyebrows slightly. “Someone fixed your bone for you?”
“Yes, yes.”
Having received help that wasn’t of her own choosing, she had nothing to feel guilty about. Jiang Yinyue straightened her back and righteously recounted the freak mishaps from that time.
Wei Qin said nothing. He helped her onto the bed to rest, then silently left the relay station. No one knew where he went. When he returned, he carried a bag of ice wrapped in thin cloth.
His ten fingers were flushed red from smashing ice in the stream.
Jiang Yinyue felt a twinge of guilt. When he rolled up her trouser leg again, she still stared at his pale yet rosy knuckles.
Wei Qin’s hands were even and slender, with calluses on the pads of his fingers. As he massaged her with safflower oil, a faint itch spread along her delicate skin, striking straight to her tailbone.
Jiang Yinyue curled her toes, a bit embarrassed. A young lady had thin skin and found it hard to adapt to such unbarred touch.
She sneaked a glance at Wei Qin, who stood by the bed, bending over her.
An excessively refined face wore a serious expression. It made Jiang Yinyue vaguely sense his gentleness, yet his rigorous demeanor also seemed cold and aloof.
“What are you looking at?”
Wei Qin suddenly lifted his eyes, meeting Jiang Yinyue’s furtive gaze.
Her face heated up with an indescribable flush of embarrassment. The pressure from his fingertips on her left leg stimulated every inch of her skin.
It was plainly just an ordinary massage, yet with a man and woman alone, it turned intimate.
After a moment, Wei Qin released her leg and applied a simple ice pack to the injured area. He noticed her reddened cheeks.
“Sorry. I offended you.”
Jiang Yinyue took a deep breath. She didn’t feel offended—Wei Qin was only helping her.
“There’s something on your face.”
A slick of oil brushed her cheek. Wei Qin rubbed it away with his fingertip and realized it was safflower oil. He met her curved almond eyes and knew she was teasing him to dispel the awkwardness.
“You have some on your face too.” His voice came low.
Jiang Yinyue couldn’t dodge. She wrinkled her face as Wei Qin paid her back tit for tat, leaving both cheeks glossy, like mutton-fat jade coated in osmanthus honey.
Outmatched, Jiang Yinyue conceded and fixed her gaze tightly on Wei Qin as he wiped his fingers at the table’s edge.
How did this man manage to fool around with her so straight-faced?