In the Northern Border, the land was frozen solid. Many soldiers could not endure the dry, freezing climate. The north wind sliced across their faces like knives, and their military garments were not warm enough for the march. Many suffered from ulcerated hands and feet, becoming so weak they could barely lift their weapons.
It was not even the coldest part of the season yet. If they encountered heavy gales or blizzards, the march would become even more treacherous. Consequently, the Great Luo Dynasty usually avoided fighting in winter; the Fengdan tribe had chosen this time to occupy Qiongshou precisely because they calculated that Great Luo would be helpless against them.
The accompanying army physicians prepared ointments for the soldiers, but these were a mere drop in the bucket and extremely costly. Ah Xi, who had been outdoors following Mu Jinyu for the past two days, found that frostbite had begun to flare up on his own hands. He quickly took out the frostbite ointment he had requested from Die Qing. Ning Huan’s ancestors had used this ointment during winter campaigns for generations; it was a family heirloom that acted remarkably fast and felt comfortable and non-greasy.
Mu Jinyu recognized the ointment as the one Ning Huan had made.
Being deeply committed to military affairs, seeing Ah Xi use it made him think of the soldiers whose hands were too swollen to hold weapons. “Is that effective? How does it compare to the army physician’s?”
Ah Xi replied, “I didn’t use the army physician’s. I only used this. After applying what the Crown Princess gave me, my hands started to feel warm.”
Mu Jinyu still remembered the prescription; Ning Huan had written it down for him at the time. It happened to be useful now, so he shared it with the army physicians. Most of the required ingredients were relatively cheap, and sheep fat was not hard to obtain in the North. The physicians soon distributed the new frostbite ointment to the troops.
The culture of the Fengdan tribe differed from that of the Central Plains; they were largely savage and aggressive. After Mu Jinyu’s surprise attack on their granary, their grain supplies were temporarily cut short. Horrifically, news began to spread that they were using the common people of Qiongshou as “rations.”
Fury erupted throughout the army.
Since arriving in the North, Mu Jinyu had acted willfully, never listening to the advice of the veteran officials sent by the Emperor. General of the Front Zhang Zhao had many complaints. Zhang Zhao’s subordinates even spread rumors within the ranks, claiming that the people of Qiongshou were suffering this catastrophe only because the Crown Prince had seized the granary, effectively shifting the blame for the Fengdan army’s atrocities onto the Prince. Zhang Zhao went as far as to send an exaggerated report of this to the capital.
The army led by Zhang Zhao was technically the most elite unit, but in reality, Zhang Zhao had not been on a battlefield in over a decade, having lived a life of luxury in the capital. Outwardly, Mu Jinyu showed no reaction, but he knew this man could not remain as the vanguard general. Military morale could not be allowed to waver, and to establish true authority, merely killing a few local Hanzhou officials would not suffice.
Lieutenant General Wang Jun was one of Mu Jinyu’s supporters. On the journey north, he had repeatedly shown goodwill toward the Prince. He was not close to the Emperor and was a rare example of a smooth and gentle personality among the military officers. Mu Jinyu had initially had a good impression of Wang Jun.
Yet, in his dreams at midnight, he repeatedly saw Ning Huan.
Their time together as newlyweds had been too brief, and they hadn’t spent much time together. Suffering from insomnia, Mu Jinyu replayed every word they had exchanged during their time together. Ning Huan was always calm, showing very little emotional fluctuation; joy was merely a slight curl of the lips, and anger was just a cold sweep of the eyes.
Mu Jinyu really wanted to know what Ning Huan would be like when he truly felt emotion.
Ning Huan was quite eccentric and seemed to know things others did not.
“Once you reach the North, do not trust subordinates who use sweet words and smooth talk. Whether in victory or defeat, do not lose your head…”
Ning Huan’s words from that day remained vivid in his ears. Was the “smooth-talking subordinate” referring to Wang Jun?
He summoned a subordinate and gave a cold command: “Keep a close eye on Wang Jun these next two days.”
On New Year’s Eve, the army was stationed dozens of miles outside Qiongshou. Mu Jinyu was preparing to retake the city. As the soldiers conducted strict night patrols, Mu Jinyu studied the maps in his tent, his thoughts drifting back to Ning Huan.
As newlyweds, they should have been spending the New Year together, yet they were now worlds apart. After a moment’s thought, Mu Jinyu wrote a reply to Ning Huan. It had been many days since he last wrote; he wondered if Ning Huan would be angry.
In the middle of the night, a sudden commotion broke out in the camp, followed by a sky full of fire. Mu Jinyu wiped his fingers, folded the letter, and tucked it into his breast. The Fengdan had launched a night raid. Mu Jinyu’s personal guards immediately rushed to the front of his tent to protect him.
“Qiongshou has been retaken.” The Empress Dowager took a sip of tea, the fragrance blooming in her mouth. Though it was the same tea leaves, when Ning Huan brewed it, it had a different flavor. “The Crown Prince does have some skill. Come to think of it, he wasn’t this unruly in his teens; he even earned military merits back then. He just grew more crooked as he got older.”
Ning Huan finished steeping the tea, pouring the rich liquid into a translucent jade vessel. He curled his lips slightly. “The tree that stands taller than the forest will be destroyed by the wind. If the Crown Prince were virtuous and upright, there would be even more people wanting to destroy him.”
As his long fingers held the tea set, it was hard to tell which was more beautiful—his hand or the white jade. Empress Dowager Qiu grew pensive.
During this time, she had thought a lot. For some reason, the more she thought about it, the more she felt that Mu Jinyu looked like the late Emperor when he was a child—both had handsome, exquisite eyes.
She was also slowly numbing herself, letting herself believe that Ning Huan’s hints were true. The late Emperor was dead, but he had left a child behind. Mu Jinyu’s absurdity over the years was merely a ruse to make the current Emperor let his guard down so he wouldn’t be killed.
A trace of sorrow touched the Empress Dowager’s brow. “Although the Crown Prince won the battle and retook Qiongshou, he executed Zhang Zhao, which incensed the Emperor—”
“Zhang Zhao was derelict in his duty; his patrolmen failed to detect the Fengdan night raid. The Prince’s execution of him was a bit heavy-handed, perhaps, but military law has always been merciless. How can it be like the capital, where everything is weighed against personal favors? If Zhang Zhao isn’t killed today, another derelict Zhang Zhao will appear tomorrow. The Prince and the army were lucky to turn defeat into victory this time, but what about next time?” Ning Huan refilled the Empress Dowager’s empty tea cup, his voice cool. “After all, this concerns the very survival of our Great Luo Dynasty.”
The New Year had arrived, and the weather in the capital had warmed slightly, but Ning Huan knew the North remained as freezing as ever.
The Empress Dowager was old now; her eyelids drooped as she frequently reminisced about the past. Just then, a consort came to pay her respects—it was Consort Qiu, the Empress Dowager’s niece.
Consort Qiu had a delicate face, but she was truly ordinary compared to the rest of the harem; she could not match the Empress’s world-toppling beauty, nor the Noble Consort’s voluptuous and vivid charm. The Qiu family had sent her to stabilize their own position, but the Emperor didn’t care for her face at all, granting her the rank of Consort only out of respect for the Empress Dowager.
Consort Qiu was a woman of few words; she spoke a few gentle sentences and then left.
The Empress Dowager shook her head. “The girls of our Qiu family are all like this. They can’t learn the tricks to enchant men, so they can never win the Emperor’s favor.”
Ning Huan gave an inexplicable light laugh. “Speaking of which, the young master of the Qiu family is quite the romantic. I heard he got into a fight with Prince Rui over a girl named Ying Ying from the Zuihua Pavilion.”
The Empress Dowager grew unsettled. She remembered that Prince Rui and Prince Yue were exactly like the Emperor—they loved beauty above all else. One went to Zuihua Pavilion to hear girls play the lute, the other went to Chunfeng Tower to drink with male entertainers. These two were close to her on the surface, but in reality, they didn’t even have the patience to sit down for a cup of tea. They were not close to the Qiu family either; Prince Rui had actually beaten her young nephew over a woman from a brothel.
The Empress Dowager had returned to secular life after her time as a nun specifically to look out for the Qiu family and the girls they sent to the palace, but now she felt she hadn’t served any purpose at all.
After Ning Huan left, the Empress Dowager sent a message to the Qiu family, telling them to support the Crown Prince in court. Although the execution of Zhang Zhao wasn’t quite right, the Prince had achieved a great victory; his merit outweighed his fault, and besides, Zhang Zhao truly deserved to die.
Ning Huan lazily walked out of the Empress Dowager’s palace and encountered the Emperor shortly after.
The Emperor had sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, sporting a well-groomed beard; he looked spirited and very majestic. Ning Huan looked at the people following behind the Emperor, memorizing their faces one by one, before bowing.
The Emperor had heard that Ning Huan had visited the Empress Dowager several times lately and asked about it casually.
Ning Huan replied, “The Empress Dowager heard that I have an interest in Buddhist scriptures, so she has been explaining them to me.”
The Emperor knew the Empress Dowager was lonely. Because of her eccentric personality, the princesses and princes were not close to her, and even the Emperor himself didn’t like to visit often.
Ning Huan was different from what the Emperor had expected. He had thought Ning Huan would be a troublemaker, but the Crown Prince’s Estate had not been turned upside down by him. Fortunately, the Marquis of Dingyuan’s power was small and held no real authority. Now that he heard the relationship between Ning Huan and the Prince was lukewarm, he figured that even if it improved later, the Ning family wouldn’t be much help to the Prince.
The Emperor had originally thought the Prince would never return; with such a volatile and impatient personality, it would be a miracle if he could beat the Fengdan. He hadn’t expected the Prince to retake Qiongshou by some fluke. The Emperor felt a bit stifled, and combined with the fact that the Prince had killed his confidant Zhang Zhao, he hadn’t even been able to eat last night.
“The Prince is not in the capital; it is good for you to accompany the Empress Dowager more,” the Emperor said. “Retaking Qiongshou is a joyous occasion.”
“A tiger father does not have a dog for a son,” Ning Huan complimented. “The Prince is brave and good at fighting likely because Your Majesty is wise and divine. With Your Majesty as an example, the Prince is invincible on the battlefield.”
The Emperor laughed. This aspect of the Prince was indeed like him—he had the demeanor of the Emperor’s youth. The Emperor had led troops and held great power when he was young, which allowed him to easily kill his brother and seize the throne. His weak and incompetent brother certainly couldn’t have gone to the front to kill enemies; the late Emperor couldn’t even protect his own empire.
Upon returning, Ning Huan bathed and changed his clothes. A letter arrived from the North. A man named Chu He in the Estate was now following Ning Huan’s orders; this man was indeed one of Mu Jinyu’s confidants—efficient and straightforward, someone Ning Huan found very comfortable to work with.
He took the letter from Chu He and said nonchalantly, “It’s time to spread the word about the Huimin Pharmacy Bureau. Have the storytellers in the capital’s taverns tell everyone about it.”
Chu He replied, “Yes.”
Initially, Chu He had been very unhappy. He only followed the Crown Prince and was completely unwilling to take orders from the Prince’s woman. But after spending time together, Chu He discovered that Ning Huan never showed his emotions on his face—he was definitely not as simple as he had thought.