The candlelight that illuminated the room was faint and silent.

The fastening that should not have been difficult to undo became somewhat troublesome under his too-burning gaze.

In truth, Pei Zhaoye said nothing, not even touching a corner of her clothes.

Yet for some reason, Lizhu suddenly felt her breath quicken, as though he were using those eyes of his to stroke, inch by inch, the skin exposed outside.

“I… I can’t undo it, you do it yourself!”

Unable to undo it after a long time, Lizhu threw it aside in irritation.

Seeing her so impatient, Pei Zhaoye couldn’t help but laugh:

“How could the princess, so clever, not undo it? Try again, perhaps in the future the princess will still have to help me put it on many times.”

Lizhu stared blankly for a moment at the faint smile at the corner of his lips.

Giving this armor was originally to wish him peace and safety, and a long life.

But at this moment, Lizhu belatedly realized that once he put on this armor, it also meant sending him into one battle after another of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

She suddenly fell silent.

Her slender, pale fingers touched the iron plates.

The dark armor was hard as ice, faintly carrying a cold murderous gleam, yet her fingers were like newborn willow shoots, containing a kind of tender vitality.

…Wanted to bite it piece by piece into the stomach.

His throat moved.

Clack.

“Undone.”

Feeling the hidden clasp inside, Lizhu easily opened it. Sitting upright, she asked curiously:

“Where are you taking me?”

“A good place.”

He packed the armor away into the chest, loosened the crown he had painstakingly tied up earlier at the coming-of-age ceremony, slipped his fingers in and ruffled it a little. Black hair hung down against his neck, the ends fine and sharp.

Seeing Lizhu staring at him, Pei Zhaoye glanced at her sideways:

“What? You think I still look more pleasing with my hair tied and crown on?”

Quite the opposite.

Although Lizhu thought he looked most fitting to her taste when his hair was tied and the tassel knotted beneath his chin, but like this now… it seemed to suit him even better, and was easier on the eyes.

“Both are fine,” she said with a smile, “I like you however you are.”

“……”

Just after she finished speaking, Lizhu saw him pause for a moment, lift his eyes, then suddenly take big strides toward her.

The scent of soap mixed with a bit of citrus rushed toward her face, Lizhu was still wondering when he had eaten a citrus, when suddenly everything went black before her eyes, and her lips were seized by someone.

He propped one hand on the ground, the other hand clasping the back of her head.

He kissed Lizhu fully until her lips went numb and slightly painful, then released her.

Panting slightly, he said in a hoarse voice: “Do you still like it this way?”

Lizhu bit him on the lips angrily.

He did not even frown, instead he gave a muffled laugh, his chest trembling as well.

Someone knocked at the door outside, it was Danzhu’s voice: 

“Princess, tonight there is a nuo opera in Yedu City, we plan to go see the fun——oh oh, not coming to call for you, Gu Bing’an said you two have things to do, I’m just coming to say hello, bye!”

After saying that, she ran down the stairs with pattering footsteps.

Pei Zhaoye raised an eyebrow: “Quite tactful.”

Lizhu was half a beat slow, and after a while realized what Gu Bing’an’s words ‘have things to do’ referred to.

“You told him?”

Lizhu’s face flushed red with anger.

Pei Zhaoye fetched a cloak and wrapped it around her: 

“Princess take heed, what happens between the two of us I never tell anyone.”

“Damn, then he knows far too much!”

Pei Zhaoye nodded: “This man must not be left, I will go assassinate him for the princess later.”

“……cough, forget it, better spare his life.”

“Princess magnanimous.”

Lizhu finally understood why the emperor disliked ministers who could read his thoughts too clearly.

Indeed, it easily made people furious!

New-year auspicious snow, the lanterns shone like daytime, the streets and lanes were crowded shoulder to shoulder.

No matter how the common people usually lived, on days like this the officials above and below would decorate the city into a scene of peaceful prosperity.

Pei Zhaoye did not say where they were going, Lizhu did not ask much, the two of them walked and stopped along the street market.

At first he thought she was truly interested in those cheap little things, after walking a while he discovered she was using these goods to inquire about other news.

“……This place already has the most complete spices on this street, if the young lady does not believe she can go look at other shops, none will be more complete than mine.”

The shopkeeper arranged the goods while sighing: 

“Business has not been good this month, every merchant has few good goods on hand, if the young lady doesn’t buy soon, I’m afraid even these will not be available to buy……”

After they had walked some distance, Pei Zhaoye said: “You want to inquire about the Wuhuan’s news?”

Lizhu lifted her head, somewhat surprised by his sharpness, and nodded:

“The Xue clan is restless, I worry the Wuhuan might join hands with Beiyue and take advantage of the situation.”

Actually, it was not worry.

In the previous life, around this time, the Xue clan had already officially risen in rebellion, and the Wuhuan had indeed allied with Beiyue, beginning to test the borders near the Shrine of the Divine Maiden.

Now the Xue clan was still lying low, would the Wuhuan and Beiyue also remain still?

Lizhu did not know.

However, the shortage of spices in Yedu City was not a good sign.

Warfare had always been closely tied to commerce.

“Heaven wants rain, mothers want marriage, and barbarians want war—all are things beyond control, we can only block soldiers with generals and stop water with earth—”

Pei Zhaoye stuffed a piece of candied fruit, bought at some unknown time, into her mouth.

Looking straight ahead, he said: “Since you have given me armor, matters of war are mine to worry about.”

Lizhu tilted her head and smiled at him:

“Eat the ruler’s salary, do the ruler’s work. Then I suppose I should work harder, otherwise what if there’s no salary for you to eat?”

He glanced at her: “You had better truly be that diligent.”

As if his words carried another meaning, but Lizhu did not catch it, only worrying aloud.

“It’s all that Xue Xiwen’s fault for ruining the Yuedan Review. We were already short of funds, and now one more way of earning is gone… we can’t always rely on your salt pools as military funds, either. I don’t know when my father will finally have a bit more money at hand, to send me more pay and grain…”

Pei Zhaoye secretly laughed in his heart.

That dog emperor would never have money at hand.

Why did she think her father had never settled accounts with him, the salt smuggler?

It was obvious—if he turned over all the profit from smuggling salt as military funds, Emperor Mingzhao would turn a blind eye, never mentioning the salt smuggling again.

But if he did not hand it over, the refugee army could not be maintained, and Emperor Mingzhao would suddenly “recover his memory,” and along with the old matter of Pei Zhaoye kidnapping the princess, settle all new and old debts together.

Pei Zhaoye knew it well, and did not bother to argue with that dog emperor.

Especially tonight.

He even said: “Forget it, it’s fine. The court has many places to spend money. Your father isn’t having it easy either.”

Lizhu looked at him in surprise: “Why are you suddenly so… respectful to your elders today?”

Before, he was still calling him ‘dog emperor’ every other word.

“I’ve always been respectful to my elders.”

His expression did not change. “By the way, have you told your father about us?”

Lizhu felt a little guilty, her two fingers twisting inside her sleeves:

“……Now isn’t the right time to talk about it, but I will tell him, just wait a little, once the war is over, I’ll definitely give you a proper title…”

In truth, she felt certain her father would oppose it.

The son-in-law in his ideal was always someone like Tan Xun—an elegant gentleman, outstanding in both learning and family background.

Lizhu thought in her heart that his opposition would be useless anyway. In this regard, she was exactly like her father.

He himself had chosen his wife by her looks, not her family.

“It’s alright.”

He looked ahead and said:

“Then tonight, let’s face the direction of Luoyang and kowtow a few times, to count as bowing before the elders.”

…Why did they have to kowtow?

Led by him against the flow of people, Lizhu soon understood the reason.

Moonlight shone over the great river, and by the riverside a small boat was moored.

Lizhu’s face instantly grew hot.

This boat… wasn’t it a bit too small…

She herself didn’t mind, but with his height, surely he couldn’t even lie down properly…

He pretended not to notice, his expression calm as he reached out a hand toward her:

“Come up.”

The boat rocked slightly. She held onto that burning hot hand and stepped aboard.

Pei Zhaoye sat at the stern, slowly rowing. The little boat parted the still surface of the water. Seeing the overly straight, slightly stiff back of the person sitting before him, the corners of his lips couldn’t help but curve.

Lizhu almost wanted to bury her entire face into the fur collar of her cloak.

…Was it really going to be here?

Wouldn’t it be too cold?

She glanced at the snowflakes drifting outside, nearly on the verge of tears.

He might not fear the cold, but she was the type who wanted to clutch a hand-warmer the moment snow began to fall. Accompanying him in this kind of torment, she feared…

Before she could speak, something in the silent night suddenly caught her attention.

One light, two lights…

Over the dark river, a scattering of orange lights gradually flickered and swayed, reflecting one another, turning the quiet, deep water into a splendid canopy of stars.

“Are those orange lanterns?”

Lizhu gathered up her sleeves and scooped a lantern from the water, only then realizing that it was made from an orange peel.

Thinking back, Lizhu suddenly understood:

“No wonder I smelled oranges on you… Don’t tell me all of these were made by you?”

A single lantern like this was not rare—what was rare was so many of them, so dense together.

Fine snow drifted down, dreamlike and illusory, the small boat sailing amid this sea of orange lanterns, as if slowly gliding through the river of stars in the heavens.

“I was only out for one hour, even if I had eight hands I couldn’t have peeled them all.”

Pei Zhaoye rowed the oar, glancing toward the dim riverbank, where people were still releasing more lanterns.

“In Yedu City there’s no shortage of women who need to earn money. Peeling oranges is easier than washing clothes for others. It doesn’t cost much, and they can peel neatly and whole. The leftover oranges will be sent back to Yanshan tomorrow for the soldiers to eat—nothing wasted.”

Lizhu leaned over the edge of the boat, stirring the floating orange lanterns along the way.

“Pei Zhaoye, you’re really virtuous.”

He said, “No choice. Who told the princess to take all my money to raise other men? Want to set off fireworks—no money. Want to buy an expensive gift—no money. Poor couples grieve for a hundred days, princess.”

Lizhu couldn’t help but laugh at his words.

Come to think of it, they really did resemble a poor couple now.

From selling her gold hairpin, to planning to sell calligraphy for money—the destitute refugee army cried out for food every day, and their own pockets grew emptier by the day.

“But I don’t feel sad at all.”

Her skirt trailed and spread softly across the boat floor, her fair face made gentle and beautiful by the reflection of the lanterns upon the water. Resting her head on her arm, she smiled at him and said:

“I’m very happy. Every day I meet you feels happier than the one before.”

After he was buried, Lizhu had gathered all the things he once used.

She had prepared herself to live the rest of her life without him.

Yet she had never thought that someone who had died could live again, that time gone forever could flow backward.

She had met a young, sincere, imperfect, yet real version of him.

Even though they hadn’t met the same way as in the previous life, he still loved her just as he had before.

Pei Zhaoye’s fingers slowly tightened around the oar.

At his heart, endless warm blood flowed through all his limbs and bones.

“Heaven is high, earth is low; the ruler solemn, the minister respectful. Man and woman join in union, mandarin ducks in paired flight. Without order, none may stand; with harmony, family prospers and the state endures.”