"Princess, is there something you need?"
As soon as Qiao Xi opened the door, the two maidservants on night watch stepped forward and asked.
Qiao Xi glanced at them and strode toward the front courtyard. "Summon Lou Xin for me."
Lou Xin was a subordinate general under Su Heting. The five thousand men Su Heting had given Qiao Xi were led by him.
The two maidservants exchanged a glance.
On their wedding night, the prince had left in the middle of the night—how was it that in less than half an hour, the princess had also left the bridal chamber and was now summoning another man?
They were puzzled but no one dared to question it. One turned to go find Lou Xin, while the other followed behind Qiao Xi to attend to her.
Times were hard and grain was scarce, so the Prince of Jiangbei had not hosted a lavish wedding banquet. He had only arranged one extra round of porridge distribution for the common people at the city gate.
Apart from the table of fine dishes in the bridal chamber, close subordinate generals like Lou Xin had eaten an ordinary home-style meal at the prince's residence as a modest celebration.
Naturally, there was no drinking, which was why Lou Xin arrived quickly.
Lou Xin was about the same age as Qiao Xi, straightforward by nature. After paying his respects, he asked, "Princess, you summoned me—is there something you need?"
Qiao Xi nodded. "Pass down the order. We depart for Liangzhou in a quarter of an hour."
"Tonight?"
Lou Xin was stunned.
When the prince had told him to follow Qiao Xi from now on, he had mentioned that Qiao Xi might make a move on Liangzhou—but he hadn't expected it to be on her and the prince's wedding night.
Qiao Xi's eyes were resolute. "Yes. Remember to bring Bixiang's corpse. Don't let anyone else notice."
Su Heting's unhappy departure just now had only made her more eager to have her own forces and territory.
Whatever anyone else had could never compare to having it herself.
"This subordinate will make the arrangements now."
Though bewildered, he offered no objection or hesitation.
Qiao Xi knew it wasn't out of respect for her as the princess—it was fear of Su Heting.
Though Su Heting came from a humble background, he possessed outstanding military talent. He had led the rebel army to victory after victory, accumulating brilliant achievements, and had thereby earned the respect of the rebel forces and the common people.
Beyond that, his methods of governance were fierce and intimidating—which was also why no one had risen in rebellion after a year of continuous drought in Jiangbei.
Qiao Xi's eyes darkened. She wondered whether Su Heting would let the matter of the bridal blood affect their cooperation.
Su Heting was unaware of Qiao Xi's worries. At that moment, he was spurring his horse toward Liangzhou…
Two days later.
In the largest brothel in Liangzhou, the madam was sleeping soundly in her room when a longsword appeared at her throat.
Sensing danger in her sleep, she jerked her eyes open and saw a tall figure in black standing before her with a sword, nearly fainting from fright.
"Please spare me, good sir! Rob me of money or take me for pleasure, whatever you wish—just don't take my life…"
"Shut up."
Su Heting deliberately lowered his voice to a hoarse rasp. He grabbed the outer robe from beside the bed and roughly threw it over the madam's head, covering the bare shoulder exposed above the blanket.
"I ask, you answer. If you dare speak nonsense, I'll send you to the underworld immediately."
With her head completely covered, the madam understood that seduction would not work. She quickly said respectfully, "Ask away, good sir."
"Why would a woman have no bridal blood on her wedding night?"
The madam was dumbfounded. She hadn't expected a midnight assassin to ask about this.
Having spent half her life in the pleasure quarters, she quickly understood—this was a heartbroken man.
Since he was asking about her area of expertise, she quickly said, "Ordinary women bleed the first time. If there's none, it means it wasn't her first time."
Those words were like a thorn driven into Su Heting's heart.
His tone turned colder. "But she was in pain."
And that was precisely why he had stopped and finished hastily.
But that pristine white handkerchief reminded him of the Emperor's mocking words before the fire at the traveling palace.
"You think yourself so important, but in truth, Dayou can do without you as Crown Prince, I can do without you as a son, and Qiao Xi can do without you as a fiancé.
Do you really believe Qiao Xi likes you?
No, she has someone else in her heart. Your death won't grieve her—she might even rejoice at being rid of you as an obstacle."
The madam smiled apologetically. "If a woman engages in the act without being aroused, it will be too dry and painful. And if she hasn't done it for a long time, it will hurt just the same."
Su Heting recalled how Qiao Xi had kept her eyes closed the entire time, her brows tightly furrowed, wearing the expression of someone marching nobly to their death.
From beginning to end, she had not looked at him once, as though completing an unwilling task that she had no choice but to finish.
Su Heting suddenly felt irritated, thinking that coming all this way was truly ridiculous.
To Qiao Xi, this marriage was merely a cooperation, and consummating it was naturally just a task—how could there be any arousal?
Yet he had worried that the shrewd people at the brothel in Jiangbei might learn of his new marriage, guess it was him, and ruin Qiao Xi's reputation—so he had made a special trip to Liangzhou to ask. Even more ridiculous.
But what he actually said was, "You say it's normal—then what about the abnormal cases?"
Oh, so he's a lovesick fool after all.
The madam grumbled inwardly.
The facts were right before his eyes, yet he was still making excuses for the other party. She wondered what good deeds that woman had done in a past life.
Constrained by the sword at her neck, the madam did not dare delay, and swallowed the words about the importance of prior experience.
She replied, "This humble one has only heard of it—things like severe external injuries, violent movements such as horseback riding, or falling from a height could also cause a woman to bleed prematurely.
But this humble one has run this brothel for half a lifetime and dealt with countless women, and I've never actually heard of a girl truly losing her chastity by accident.
Mostly it's women who had a lover before marriage making up excuses. However, there is one other situation…"
Here she hesitated.
The sword at her neck tightened, and the man's cold voice rang out, "Speak."
"You must promise this humble one—spare my life—and only then do I dare say it."
Su Heting let out a low "Mm" from his throat.
The madam then said, "If the man's size is too small and he never truly **, then there would also be no blood…"
Su Heting leaped out the window with a dark expression.
At the same time, Qiao Xi, dressed in black nightclothes, darted across another street.
The two headed in opposite directions!
Also sneaking into someone's room at night, but the person Qiao Xi sought was far more vigilant than the madam.
The moment she landed, the other party sprang up from the **, weapons pointed at each other.
"Who are you?"
"Someone who's come to cooperate with you."
Qiao Xi called out the other's name: "Xu An."
Xu An snorted coldly. "We've never met. How do you know I'll cooperate with you?"
But inwardly he was suspicious—why did this woman who came in the middle of the night know his name, and what did she want to cooperate on?
Qiao Xi sheathed her sword and took out a piece of paper, handing it to him. "Why don't you take a look at this first, Lord Xu?"
Xu An unfolded the paper with one hand. By moonlight, once he saw the portrait on it, his pupils constricted violently. "Who exactly are you? Where is the person in this drawing?"
"Your elder sister, Xu Ling'er, is in the capital."
Qiao Xi slowly uttered two words: "The cold palace."
"You're deceiving me. My sister was all alone—how could she have gone to the capital, much less entered the imperial palace?"
And into the cold palace at that.
Women who entered the cold palace were all women the Emperor had cast aside.
How could his sister have become the Emperor's woman?
But the person before him knew his sister's name, and even had a portrait of her—one that showed her at a slightly older age than when she had disappeared.
Qiao Xi sat down by the window. "Lord Xu must have heard that there is a favored grand eunuch by the Emperor's side, Cao Ying."
Xu An nodded.
As an official of the court, even stationed far in the borderlands, one had to pay some attention to affairs in the capital.
Qiao Xi smiled. "Then does Lord Xu know that Cao Ying has another name? She is called Ying Baiyun.
She is not a true eunuch, but a woman. She also has a daughter, Ying Xue, who changed her name to Bixiang after entering the palace.
The mother and daughter were once saved by Lord Xu's father. Later, Ying Baiyun brought her daughter into the Xu household as a second wife.
Just one year later, the Ying mother and daughter disappeared while out sightseeing in town. Your father, while searching for them, met with an accident, leaving you and your sister to depend on each other.
Five years ago, Cao Ying came to the borderlands on imperial orders to search for medicine, and your sister Xu Ling'er disappeared."
"You're saying Aunt Ying took my sister away?"
Xu An did not believe Qiao Xi's one-sided account. He asked, "Words alone are no proof. Do you have evidence?"
Qiao Xi rose to her feet. "Does Lord Xu dare to come with me to meet Bixiang?"