Gongsun Yin, sipping tea at that moment, immediately sprayed it out. Normally eloquent and smooth-tongued, he found his tongue now completely tangled. “Be—became the husband by marriage?”

Even the emperor himself wouldn’t dare say such a thing! For Xie Zheng to marry into the household of a common woman—what kind of joke was that?

Seeing his agitation, Carpenter Zhao became even more certain of his own suspicion.

He hurried to explain, “That boy Yan Zheng was carried back by my niece from the snow, clinging to life. Later, his injuries and sickness left him bedridden for months. My niece didn’t despise him—she kept him, let him recover under her roof, and earned money slaughtering pigs to buy him medicine and food. After all that… how could there not be affection between them?”

Gongsun Yin had just wiped the tea from his lips when, hearing this, his expression twisted into something strange. “Your niece… is a butcher?”

He had already wondered earlier—how could an ordinary girl have carried Xie Zheng back herself?

Afraid that he might look down upon Fan Changyu, Carpenter Zhao said earnestly, “That girl’s a child of hardship. Her family made its living by slaughtering pigs, and they even ran a butcher’s shop in town. Life was good enough until her parents were killed by bandits, leaving only her and a five-year-old younger sister. To keep them alive, she had no choice but to continue the family trade.”

As he spoke, his eyes flicked surreptitiously toward Gongsun Yin’s face. Seeing the official’s expression grow increasingly difficult to read, a hint of smug satisfaction rose in his heart.

He said all this simply to make clear that Fan Changyu’s kindness to Yan Zheng was a debt of life itself. If they forced Xie Zheng to marry some general’s daughter, it would be immoral.

Even taking a step back—if Yan Zheng did agree to such a marriage—then his character would truly be disgraceful. For a man who could abandon the wife who saved his life, any official family seeking to marry him in ought to think twice.

What Carpenter Zhao did not know was that Gongsun Yin, after hearing all this, had conjured up the image of a broad-shouldered, thick-waisted woman with a butcher’s knife in hand and a fierce look on her face.

He hissed through his teeth, rubbed his arms in discomfort, and thought of Xie Zheng’s earlier words—“She’s the one unwilling to stay with me.”

No wonder that fellow kept his distance from women! So this was his “type”?

Clinging to one last thread of hope, Gongsun Yin asked with a complicated expression, “So, Yan Zheng married into your niece’s household… out of gratitude?”

Carpenter Zhao immediately blew out his beard and glared.

“How could it be merely out of gratitude! Those two are truly affectionate! Once, a gang of local hooligans came to cause trouble at my niece’s home—my nephew-in-law was the one who beat them off! He’s literate and well-spoken, and seeing my niece working herself to the bone slaughtering pigs day and night to earn money for his medicine, even before his injuries were fully healed, he begged me to help him find work at the bookshop in town writing essays. During New Year, he even wrote couplets for all the neighbors along the street! When my niece got too busy at the butcher’s shop, and once he recovered a little, he went to help her sell pork there…”

Carpenter Zhao was still talking endlessly about the loving daily life of the young couple, while Gongsun Yin, imagining Xie Zheng selling pork, couldn’t help another shiver crawl up his arms.

What had that man gone through during those days of hardship?

Marrying into the family of a pig butcher?

Hiss—far too shocking.

From what he knew of Xie Zheng, if there was something that man didn’t want to do, even the Heavenly King himself couldn’t force him. Which meant Xie Zheng must have willingly married into that household.

Realizing that made it feel even more absurd.

Could it be that fellow actually liked sturdy, broad-shouldered, fierce women?

Gongsun Yin thought that if the noble ladies of the capital ever heard about this, half of them would cry their hearts out.

Carpenter Zhao, noticing the official’s ever-shifting expression, feared they still harbored intentions toward Xie Zheng. He quickly added, “Once this war’s over and my nephew-in-law returns home, who knows—maybe the child will already be able to run around by then.”

Gongsun Yin’s expression could only be described as horrified. “Your—your niece is pregnant?”

Carpenter Zhao mumbled, “Hard to say for certain. Back in our village, there were times when a man was conscripted, and not long after he left, his wife found herself with child.”

What he was thinking, however, was quite different: Those grand families who marry off their daughters—they might tolerate their future son-in-law having maids or concubines, but never a bastard child before the wedding.

Usually genteel and refined, Gongsun Yin’s composure truly shattered this time. A storm raged within him.

That proud and aloof Xie Zheng—actually ensnared by a butcher’s daughter?

Gongsun Yin couldn’t help it; he pinched his thigh hard enough to twist his mouth in pain, just to be sure he wasn’t dreaming. When he confirmed he was fully awake, his expression grew even more disillusioned. After a few forced polite words with Carpenter Zhao, he left the tent looking utterly shaken, as though questioning the meaning of life itself.

Watching his stunned and bewildered back, Carpenter Zhao instead felt quite pleased as he sipped a cup of tea.

At last, he thought, he’d managed to block one more troublesome “rotten peach blossom” for the young couple.

· ─ ·✶· ─ · 

When Gongsun Yin stepped out of the tent, he happened to run into that Jizhou captain coming again to ask Carpenter Zhao for more medicinal plaster.

The man recognized Gongsun Yin and immediately bowed respectfully. “Mr. Gongsun.”

Still dazed, Gongsun Yin returned a nod and asked, “That carpenter who used to be a veterinarian—the one who cured your rheumatism?”

Captain Hu was a straightforward man, unbothered by the notion of being treated by a former animal doctor. His waist no longer hurt, and he’d been feeling comfortable these past few days. He grinned broadly and nodded. “That’s him, Mr. Gongsun. Did you need something from him?”

It seemed he had indeed found the right person.

That “nephew-in-law” the carpenter spoke of was undoubtedly Xie Zheng.

Gongsun Yin said, “Just asking casually.”

When he returned to the Yan Prefecture camp, looking thoroughly disillusioned with life, Gongsun Yin summoned a trusted guard, murmured a few instructions under his breath, and finally said with a complicated expression, “Don’t disturb that woman—just keep an eye on her movements.”

After the guard left to carry out his orders, Gongsun Yin stood staring at Xie Zheng’s tent for a while. Remembering the man’s earlier look of silent loss, he shuddered violently and muttered under his breath, “Could it be he’s simply been without women for too long?”

Because his mood was foul, Xie Zheng—who had just returned from a circuit of the camp, leading a black warhorse whose breath steamed white in the cold—happened to catch that last half of the sentence. He stood not far away and said coldly, “If I’ve been too long without women, shall I have someone throw you into the Red Fragrance Courtyard tonight?”

In the past, Gongsun Yin would never have dared to respond. But after what he’d learned from Carpenter Zhao today, he’d suffered too many shocks already. Meeting Xie Zheng’s icy gaze, he actually thought it over for a moment before saying, “Jiuheng, neither of us has ever been to a brothel. Why don’t we go have a look?”

He mainly wanted to confirm whether this fellow’s taste—or his eyes—had somehow gone wrong.

Xie Zheng’s hand, coiling the whip, paused slightly. When he raised his eyes again, the languid indifference in them had vanished completely. “If you were one of my officers, I’d have you flogged a hundred times for that.”

Knowing he’d misspoken, Gongsun Yin didn’t bother to apologize. At a time like this, if he meekly accepted punishment, their friendship would be finished. He shrugged and said with a grin, “Fortunately, I’m not.”

Xie Zheng handed his warhorse to the guard, walked past him toward the tent, and left only one sentence behind: “Don’t violate my military discipline.”

Gongsun Yin clicked his tongue softly as he watched him go. “For someone to make you lose your composure, I’m all the more curious what sort of divine creature that butcher girl is.”

· ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Lin’an Town.

Night had fallen. Snow had piled thick again upon rooftops and tree branches, and the whole town lay silent—no barking dogs, not even a breath of wind.

“Bandits are coming!”

“They’re killing people—run!”

The terrified cries of refugees fleeing from the county seat pierced the stillness of the snowy night. The townsfolk, startled awake, hastily threw on clothes, snatched up their children, and rushed to the doors—only for the first man who opened one to have a bright blade driven straight into his chest.

The dying man was kicked aside by the bandits outside. A woman inside the house clutched her child and tried to hide in the corner, but the raiders burst in, tearing the child from her arms and flinging it away. With a leering grin, one of them seized her hair and dragged her toward the bed—

Before long, flames engulfed Lin’an Town. The shrieks of children and the shouts of the marauding bandits mingled into a hideous, piercing clamor.

Amid the firelight, a man sat astride a tall horse, watching the slaughter and plunder with cold eyes. In his grasp, limp as a dead dog, hung the magistrate of Qingping County. The rider lowered his gaze lazily and asked, “That woman—where does she live?”

When Magistrate Liu had first heard that mountain bandits were attacking Qingping County, taking advantage of the army’s conscription of all able-bodied men, he’d fled with his entire household, thinking that once the bandits had slaughtered the townsfolk, they would be satisfied.

Who would have thought that after his carriage had gone barely ten li, this man would pursue him on horseback?

Now he was drenched in blood, battered from being tossed across a saddle the whole way, and terrified out of his wits. He could only stammer, “I—I don’t know, my lord! I truly don’t know…”