In July, a torrential downpour arrived, leaving the roads muddy and difficult to traverse.
On the wide official road, a convoy of horses and carriages was halted by the storm. The wheels were mired deep in the sludge; no matter how the horses neighed or how hard the servants strained, they could not pull the wheels from the pit.
At that moment, the young general leading the group suddenly dismounted. He unfastened his crimson cloak, tossing it to his deputy, while his black iron bracers and polished steel waist-seal clattered to the ground in succession. Crouching halfway into the muddy pit, the knotted muscles of his arms rose like mountain ranges, and the sinews of his neck quivered. With a thunderous roar, he actually lifted the carriage by sheer force and shoved it forward. Finally, the carriage broke free from the pit and resumed its jolting journey down the road.
Inside the carriage, a woman holding a small child breathed a sigh of relief. She was barely twenty years of age, and her picturesque features were tinged with a faint sorrow. “We have yet to reach my husband’s hometown, and already we encounter such rain blocking our path. In this rustic countryside, who knows what other obstacles lie ahead…”
“Is A-Jiao worried that my wife will make things difficult for you?” A hearty voice came from outside the window. The carriage curtain was lifted slightly, revealing the handsome, resolute face of the young general.
No matter how many times she saw it, Guo Jiao’s heart would always skip a beat at the sight of her husband’s handsome face. From the time he was a mere soldier, she had shared a single, chance glance with him in the military camp and had been captivated by that deep gaze. She had kept him in her thoughts ever since, trying every possible way to get close to him—sending him armor, food, and medicine. Even though he had initially refused her on the grounds that he had a wife at home, she found it impossible to let go.
Now, with his question hitting the mark, she could not help but complain, “My lord, you previously always said that your esteemed wife was beautiful, capable, and of an unyielding character. I am the one in the wrong in this matter, so is it not right for me to feel apprehensive?”
The young man gave a soft laugh. Suddenly, bringing the dampness of the rain with him, he leaped into the carriage and knelt before his wife. He said earnestly, “Though my wife is somewhat unyielding, she is a woman after all. You saved my life; it is only right that I offered myself in marriage. Lin Ruo has not remarried all these years, and you are willing to treat her with the status of an equal wife. With such a sacrifice on your part, she will surely understand the greater righteousness, call you sister, and get along. Besides, the Thousand Wonders Pavilion she manages is now the wealthiest in the land. If I do not reclaim her soon, wouldn’t this massive family estate eventually benefit outsiders?”
Guo Jiao bit her lip and whispered, “Sister has spent these years receiving and sending off guests; who knows how much hardship she endured to build such an estate. Husband, you must not be angered with Sister just because she showed her face in public all these years…”
“How could I be?” the young man laughed heartily. “I have already looked into it. In the beginning, she relied on the connections of a treacherous eunuch close to the Emperor of the Southern Dynasty. Even if there was some socializing at the start, my younger brother’s current power is enough to protect my wife’s honor. Besides, I was unable to return home for ten years. Even if she had an affair with someone, the fault lies with me. How could I ever despise her?”
Guo Jiao lowered her eyes slightly. “I wonder how my lord met such an extraordinary woman…”
“A-Jiao, didn’t you usually dislike it when I mentioned her?” The young man leaned closer to tease her.
“That… that was then. Today is different from the past…”
The young man paused slightly, then chuckled. “Then I shall tell you. This story begins ten years ago. At that time, I was only sixteen, hunting in the mountains…”
…
That day, he was hunting in the mountains when he noticed someone following him. He quietly hid in the woods and circled behind to see a young girl with skin as fair as snow and wearing strange clothing. She was muttering, “Where is he? I finally found a living soul and was just getting ready to run a scam… if I can’t catch up, it’ll be trouble…”
He only half-understood her words, but remembering that the Barbarian tribes had been heading south again recently, and seeing her foreign attire, he immediately grew wary. Thinking she was a scout sent by the Northerners, he secretly drew his bow, intending to use the weapon to intimidate her into revealing the enemy’s movements.
However, at that very moment, his peripheral vision shifted. In the bushes not far away, he saw a flash of golden-yellow.
A great tiger!
Behind the shrubs, the fierce beast had its ears pinned back and its front lowered. In an instant, it was about to pounce on the girl…
He instinctively drew his bow and fired an arrow at the tiger.
The powerful shaft left the string and struck the tiger’s forelimb. Startled, the fierce beast fell to the ground, its long tail sweeping straight across and kicking up a cloud of dust. The girl also turned around abruptly. With a scream, she scrambled up a nearby old pine tree like a monkey—her speed was not a bit slower than when she had been running on the ground.
But the tiger clearly didn’t know where the enemy was. Amidst its roars, it took a running start, rose up on its hind legs, and hooked its claws into the bark, leaping upward like a cat.
Startled, he drew his bow again. The arrow flew true, hitting the tiger squarely in the front of its neck. Blood gushed like a collapsed dam. At the same time, the girl let out a sharp cry; her legs hooked around the tree trunk, and using the downward momentum of her upper body, she drove a wooden spear heavily into the tiger’s left eye, deep into its skull.
In the next second, the tiger fell heavily from the tree trunk. After twitching for several breaths, it stopped moving entirely.
Everything had happened in the blink of an eye. Even he was stunned by the girl’s decisiveness and ruthlessness in the face of danger.
After a moment of silence, he slowly walked to the base of the tree and said to the still-trembling girl, “It’s over. Come down.”
In an instant, the girl’s tears poured out like a fountain, but in the next second, she opened her arms and lunged down toward him.
He was shocked and instinctively wanted to dodge, but he was blocked by the tiger’s body beside him, allowing the girl to crash right into him.
“Ah!”
Even with the tiger acting as a cushion, he felt a sharp pain surge through him.
“Ah… my fault, sorry, sorry! I was nervous just now and didn’t grip the tree, so I fell…” The girl’s expression was more awkward than panicked. After getting up, she reached out to press against his chest and even pressed her ear against it to listen. “Little brother, are you alright? I didn’t bruise you, did I? Does it hurt?”
“Stop it!” he said through gritted teeth. “Let me do it myself!”
After checking, he found that two of his ribs were broken and his right ankle had already swollen. The girl’s expression was full of guilt as she whispered, “How about… how about I take you back?”
“No need.” He rose with difficulty, intending to skin the tiger. This was a massive harvest; this tiger skin should be enough for this year’s military service levy, and it could also be exchanged for grain. The tiger bones and claws could also…
“Don’t move, let me do it!” The girl snatched the hunting knife from his waist and made two swipes at the tiger, but she couldn’t break the skin.
Such little strength…
Just as he was about to say he would do it, he saw the girl carelessly toss his knife aside. She pulled a small, white, jade-colored knife from her bag. As if cutting paper, she sliced into the tiger’s belly. Without seeming to apply any force, she easily cut all the way down.
“This,” his pupils constricted, “what kind of divine weapon is this?”
“This? A ceramic knife. It’s for cutting fruit, nothing special. But as long as you don’t cut anything hard, it’s quite useful.” The girl blinked at him. “Little brother, my name is Ruo Ruo. What’s yours?”
“None of your business!”
“Don’t be angry, little brother. A-Ruo didn’t mean it,” the girl smiled as bright as a flower. “Don’t worry, I will definitely take full responsibility for you!”
“Who wants you to take responsibility? Where are you from, you spy…”
“Spy?” The girl’s eyes widened in surprise, then she seemed to think of something as a smile gradually spread across her face. “I am an immortal from the heavens.”
…
“A-Ruo said she was a person from the heavens who fell into the mortal realm, and that she has seven lifetimes of marital destiny with me. She even took out a divine portrait. That painting was neither silk nor wood; it was as smooth and reflective as a mirror, and it had my image on it, looking just like a real person,” Xie Song mentioned this with a slight blush on his cheeks. “Only after seven lifetimes are completed can she return to the heavens in peace…”
Thinking back now, there were other words on that paper. Unfortunately, he was illiterate back then and only remembered something about “craniofacial reconstruction,” though he didn’t know what it meant… When he asked A-Ruo back then, she only said it was a contract document from their past lives and shouldn’t be shown to others.
The smile on Guo Jiao’s face was becoming hard to maintain. “Husband, you… you also believe this is a marriage ordained by heaven?”
“Naturally,” Xie Song said in a low voice. “She is a woman of immense learning, knowledgeable in astronomy and geography. My ability to read and write is thanks to her teaching me stroke by stroke in the sand. She even pawned the crystal bracelet she brought from the heavens to build waterwheels and smelt armor for our tribe. Under her guidance, I led men to wipe out mountain bandits and gather followers, shedding the status of a leader of displaced people. Later, when I joined the army, if it weren’t for her helping me with everything she had, I would have died on the battlefield long ago. How else would I have met you?”
“Then,” Guo Jiao couldn’t help but hug the swaddled infant in her arms tighter, whispering, “But when the news of your death was sent back then… perhaps she already counted that as one lifetime…”
Xie Song chuckled. “It matters not. She said I was the second lifetime; we still have five lifetimes of marital destiny to fulfill…”
Guo Jiao felt increasingly uneasy, and tears began to fall. “Husband, in your heart, I suppose you have never forgotten Sister…”
Xie Song snapped out of his memories instantly and immediately comforted her. “Jiao-jiao, don’t cry. Naturally, I have never forgotten her. But a great man living between heaven and earth cannot be trapped by mere romantic feelings. Now that I have some measure of power, and your father has helped me achieve my great goals, I am not an ungrateful person. Even if I take another wife, I will never betray you.”
Guo Jiao bit her lip. “All these years, every time I asked you to take her in as a concubine, you refused. It wasn’t until I agreed to let her be an equal wife that I understood you never let go of her in your heart. You didn’t want to marry her because you feared slighting her… Tell me, back then, if it weren’t for my fath—if it weren’t for the urgent military situation and your need to borrow troops for reinforcements, would you have ever married me?”
Xie Song was silent for a moment before putting his arms around her. “She cannot tolerate a single grain of sand in her eyes. When I married you, I already knew there would be a rift between us. But I am no longer the man I was. Even if I must force this fate, I cannot let her go. I know this makes things difficult for you, but Jiao-jiao, you are the primary wife. I ask for nothing else in this life but for you to help me this once…”
Guo Jiao’s tears flowed freely, carrying a fragile and sorrowful smile. “Naturally. Who else are you but my most beloved husband…”
“A-Jiao, what have I done to deserve a wife like you…” Xie Song rested his head on her shoulder, his heart filled with infinite tenderness. “How could I not love and respect you…”
In a direction he could not see, Guo Jiao’s gaze turned resolute. She would protect this home. This man was someone she had schemed to steal. Once that woman entered the inner court, she had plenty of ways to make her husband grow to loathe her…
That which cannot be obtained is always the most beautiful. She would make her lord realize that all women in the world transform into something else for the sake of love…
This was the inner court; this was a war that belonged uniquely to women.
She was already prepared.
Come then, Lin Ruo. I do not fear you!