Jiang Xu’er nodded in a daze, looking around nervously before taking a few small steps forward.
Xiao Biehe was surprised. His mother had always refused to see him; if they crossed paths in the manor, she would cover her eyes and turn away as if he were a harbinger of bad luck. She never even allowed him to call her “Mother.”
“Do you wish to go inside, Mother?” Biehe asked.
She nodded, her beautiful almond eyes flickering toward him several times. She seemed less afraid now. “I have something to ask of you,” she said, walking into the room.
Biehe turned to lead the way. Inside, Jiang Xu’er sat down, flanked by her two maids. Biehe brewed tea and offered a cup to her. He didn’t expect her to take it, but she did, taking a light sip.
Her gaze lingered on him, uneasy. After a long silence, she looked at the bloodstains on his white robes. “Are your injuries serious? Should I have someone bring you medicine?”
The concern was so foreign to him that it felt impossible. He didn’t dare hope for it. “I am fine, thank you. What did you wish to tell me?”
Jiang Xu’er got straight to the point. Her eyes darkened with a resolute firmness he had never seen before. “I want you to help me send someone to prison. I know of his crimes.”
“Who?”
“The Minister of Works!”
Biehe was stunned. The Minister of Works was the man his mother had truly loved for twenty years. He was the reason she hated Biehe so much because his birth had destroyed her chance to be with him.
Now, she wanted him to gather evidence to imprison that man. “Mother, are you sure?”
The beautiful woman nodded, her eyes filled with pain and finality.
“Very well,” Biehe replied. “I will help you.”
For the next three days, Xiao Biehe did exactly what she asked.
Jiang Xu’er knew the Minister had been involved in bribery and corruption for years, but she had no proof. Biehe moved with lethal efficiency. He didn’t rest, traveling through the freezing wind and snow to gather evidence that would normally take the courts months to find.
By the end of the third day, the Minister of Works had been stripped of his title and thrown into the Heavenly Prison.
That night, as the snow fell, Biehe’s legs finally gave out. Paralyzed by the cold and his accumulating injuries, he collapsed once more. When he woke on the fourth day, the area around him was clean not a snowflake in sight and a thick, bright red robe had been draped over him. He picked it up, feeling a strange sense of familiarity.
When Biehe returned to the General’s Manor, the whispers from the townspeople followed him like ghosts. At the gate, the guards told him to go to the main hall.
The atmosphere inside was even heavier than before. Everyone was waiting. Biehe dragged his nearly numb legs into the room, wondering if today would be the day he finally died here. Perhaps then, his parents would finally stop looking at him with such hatred.
“Mother,” he said, “it is done.”
Jiang Xu’er was backed by Xiao Changfeng and her other two sons. She looked at Biehe as if he were a monster she had never met. Her face was tear-stained, her voice hysterical. “I never imagined you had such a malicious heart! You monster… you are not my son!”
Xiao Changfeng was livid. “Who gave you the right to do this?! Do you have any idea how important the Minister was to your mother? By destroying him, you have destroyed her you have destroyed this entire family! You wretched son!”
Changfeng shook with fury. “Go to the ancestral hall and kneel! Do not get up until I say so! Tonight, I will send someone to your room myself. Then, I will tell the Emperor that you are a man of poor virtue, unworthy of the Prince!”
Biehe didn’t argue. He walked to the ancestral hall, but for once, he didn’t kneel. He bowed to each spirit tablet and lit incense. Then, he led his white horse his companion of many years and left the General’s Manor for good.
Outside the capital, hidden deep within a forest, lay a grove of peach blossoms.
Though it was mid-winter and the branches were heavy with frost, it looked like a paradise. This was a place Biehe had bought from a farmer years ago; no one else knew of it. Whenever he had nowhere to go in the capital, he came here.
As he entered, he saw pink petals dancing in the air as if he had stepped into spring. Deep in the grove, a table was set before a small wooden hut. A jade-colored teapot sat on the table, steam rising from it.
A youth sat there, holding a white paper fan. He smiled at the falling blossoms and at Xiao Biehe. Using his internal energy, he sent a cup of tea flying toward Biehe. “Brother, have some tea.”
Biehe caught the cup without spilling a drop. He felt a rare sense of lightness. His eyes curved slightly as he returned the smile. The north wind no longer felt biting.
Standing under the peach trees, the sunlight filtered through the branches, illuminating his snow-white robes. With the cinnabar mole between his brows, he looked like a cold, merciful deity someone to be observed from afar, for to approach would be a desecration.
Biehe took a sip and walked toward the youth.
Lu Guanyan stood up. In the setting of the blossoms and the beauty, his wild, rebellious face looked almost innocent. “Brother, my name is Lu Chacha. I stumbled into your grove by mistake and have nowhere to go. Will you take me in?”
Biehe didn’t answer. He sat in a bamboo chair and tasted the tea again. “My tea?” he asked.
It was indeed tea Lu Guanyan had scavenged from Biehe’s own supplies.
Lu Guanyan sat back down. He reached out and took Biehe’s hand, pulling it toward his own face to feel it. He sniffed the hand as if it were a rare treasure. “If you’re willing, Brother, I can certainly be yours,” he replied, ignoring the question.
Biehe pulled his hand back, his expression returning to its usual calm. “Thank you for the other day.”
Lu Guanyan looked surprised. He leaned in close, showing the tips of his fangs, and smirked. “You remember me?”
Then he laughed. “Don’t thank me yet. Who’s to say I don’t have the same intentions as those other people?”
The youth propped his head on his hand, leaning across the table, his predatory, beautiful face pressing toward Xiao Biehe.