Time moved back two quarter-hours.
The night was seductive. A distant partridge cried faintly. Shen Changyin leaned against rough tree bark and quietly lowered her gaze to the wound on her hand.
The cut from the thrown knife wasn't deep. It had stopped bleeding, and after being soaked, even the traces of blood were gone, leaving only a clean, shallow line.
"You really are useless."
The hallucination sat on the branch above her head, legs happily swinging, dark red blood falling like rain.
"With someone this incompetent, why are you even alive? Why did I die while you lived?"
The hallucination hopped lightly down before her.
"You can't even run without someone holding onto you. Afraid of heights, can't swim. What's the point of being reborn? Your future is still becoming a blood-drained medicine vessel."
Shen Changyin did not look at her. She only lifted her head, quietly gazing at the direction Xie Yu had left, rubbing her eyes.
She knew she was likely feverish. She clenched her fist and struck her own forehead, but her eyelids still wanted to fall shut.
The hallucination suddenly smiled sweetly.
"It's alright. Sleep. Close your eyes."
She sat beside her, her voice soft and coaxing.
"Have a nice dream. Stop being so tired."
Shen Changyin's mind drifted, harder and harder to hold onto clarity.
Yes, a nice dream.
It was only sleep.
"Do you see that river? Don't be afraid. The water is your cradle, your warm bed. Go on."
The night wind was gentle now. It wasn't cold anymore. It carried warmth, like the soft touch of air brushing against her.
The wind raised ripples on the water, like smooth fabric laid across a bed, waiting for a weary person to lie down and rest.
Shen Changyin stood.
"Go on, go on." The hallucination encouraged her endlessly.
"You can do it. You can make it."
Shen Changyin took her first step toward the river.
"Believe in yourself. You can fall asleep there."
"Wonderful. You're doing great. A little farther. Let's lie in the water."
Shen Changyin quickened her pace.
The water rose above her thighs. It should have been freezing, yet instead brought a strange warmth.
"Feels good, doesn't it? Now close your eyes."
Shen Changyin closed her eyes.
"Lie down, lie down, lie down."
With her eyes still shut, she stood in the middle of the river and fell backward.
The moment she hit the water, her eyes snapped open, utterly clear.
She flipped over immediately, swallowed several mouthfuls of water, and didn't dare pause for even a breath, stumbling her way toward the riverbank.
She grabbed a tree for support. Her vision held only the small fire ahead. She rushed to the flames, half kneeling, reaching her hands toward the heat, trying to warm herself.
When her hands finally regained normal temperature and her fingers weren't stiff anymore, she touched her forehead. She wasn't surprised to find that she had developed a high fever.
So that explained her lost reason earlier.
She took out the dagger Xie Yu had tossed to her earlier and cut two lines across her own wrist.
She controlled the depth perfectly. She was deeply familiar with cuts that caused enough pain to clear her mind without risking her life.
Once she calmed down, she tore a cloth strip and wrapped her wrist. She didn't dare lean against the tree again.
Just like how someone lying on a bed or sitting in a chair with a back will fall asleep more easily than sitting on a stool, people become more vulnerable when they have something to lean on and lose their rationality faster.
She sat upright and waited. Only when she heard rustling footsteps in the woods did she finally lift her head.
Xie Yu emerged from the darkness with a bundle of firewood in her arms, her steps light, her eyes bright.
"Firewood is pretty easy to find here."
She dropped the dry branches beside them, sat cross-legged by the fire, and added some wood to the flames that had already grown small.
The air was filled with the scent of dried leaves, fresh leaves, wet clothes gradually drying by the fire, burning twigs, and a faint trace of blood.
Neither of them said a word.
Xie Yu looked up at the sky. The brightest evening star was nearly at the center of the heavens.
She turned to Shen Changyin.
"It's getting late. You sleep a bit. I'll keep watch."
Shen Changyin sat with her head lowered, knees pulled to her chest, her chin resting against them. She plucked a thin twig from the fire, put out the burning tip in the sand, and began tracing lines, writing the Heart Sutra from memory.
At Xie Yu's words, she lifted her head, shook it once, then let it fall again.
"You can't do that." Xie Yu snatched the twig from her hand. "That's way too cute. Acting cute is my job. Between the two of us, I'm the cute one."
She made a little finger-gun gesture.
"You're the intimidating, domineering one."
Shen Changyin straightened up, adjusted her clothes, and finally spoke. Her voice was hoarse and quiet.
"Your Highness, asking me to remain elegant in circumstances like this is a bit too demanding, isn't it?"
"That's why I'm telling you to sleep."
Did this person not understand subtext at all?
Shen Changyin said, "There are poisonous snakes and beasts in these woods. It is thawing season. Snakes come out at night to hunt."
"Then I'll catch them. You sleep."
"We still don't know where we drifted. Pursuers may arrive tonight."
"If I run, I'll drag you along. Sleep."
"One person staying awake all night is too taxing."
"You don't understand the true prestige of staying up until dawn, sleeping half an hour, then dragging yourself to an eight-a-m class." Xie Yu poked at the fire, making the flames roar brighter and warming them. "Sleep. I'm the queen of all-nighters."
Shen Changyin thought, You don't even consider me a friend. At most I'm your arranged-marriage partner. Why are you this stubborn?
She was about to speak again, but Xie Yu straightened and looked directly at her.
Xie Yu gazed at her paper-white lips, then at the Heart Sutra lines drawn in the dirt. Even now, her strokes were perfectly clean and orderly.
"My dear Regent." Xie Yu leaned side to side, trying to find an angle that forced Shen Changyin to look at her.
"I already know you're capable of everything, flawless in all you do. You've proven it. So it's fine to sleep for a while."
She lifted her chin and gave a proud little grin.
"I'm watching over you. You can depend on me. I'm super reliable."
She put extra emphasis on the word "super."
"I promise you'll live to see the sunrise tomorrow."
Shen Changyin stared directly at her.
"You promise."
"Yes. I promise." Xie Yu added, "And I also promise that if you don't sleep, I'll keep talking nonstop until you're annoyed to death."
Shen Changyin finally leaned back against the tree and closed her eyes. Her head tilted slightly to the side.
The woods returned to quiet, broken only by the crackling of burning wood.
A few minutes later, Xie Yu said, "Your fake sleeping skills are terrible. You're not going to fall asleep like that."
Shen Changyin's eyelids trembled. Her lashes fluttered like a butterfly about to take flight, but she stubbornly refused to open her eyes.
"Slow your breathing." Xie Yu snapped twigs into shorter pieces. "Exhale for a count of five. Inhale for a count of five."
Shen Changyin gave no response, intending to ignore her.
But Xie Yu continued on her own.
"Slowly now. Inhale, one-zero-zero-one, one-zero-zero-two, one-zero-zero-three…"
Shen Changyin inhaled slowly.
"Exhale, one-zero-zero-one, one-zero-zero-two…"
"Feel the air moving. Feel your hands sinking, your feet sinking…"
With a strange sense of safety, Shen Changyin fell asleep.
Xie Yu turned her head and checked. She smiled. She knew this woman must have a fever. She reached out as if to touch her forehead but drew her hand back.
Instead, she picked up a thin little twig and very steadily brushed aside the loose strand of hair lying across Shen Changyin's cheek, tucking it behind her ear.
Then she leaned back, lifted her chin toward the night sky. There was only a narrow new moon tonight, but the stars were scattered thick like diamonds across black velvet.
She hummed lightly.
It was a mischievous song.
"Little baby, go to sleep…"
The stars faded. Dawn brightened in the east. Shen Changyin seemed to have slept very well and still hadn't woken.
Xie Yu calculated the time. Normally, Shen Changyin would already be awake preparing for court. Now she was still sleeping peacefully.
What, did this disaster count as her vacation?
She woke her and pointed at a wooden grave marker among the trees.
"There's definitely a village nearby. Let's get something to eat, then you figure out how to contact Old Jin and the others."
When Shen Changyin was awakened, she still looked confused, her eyes unfocused and slightly watery. She couldn't even understand Xie Yu's words at first.
After rubbing her eyes, she murmured softly and stood up.
But her composure returned quickly. Within minutes she reverted to the flawless, poised Master Shen.
Xie Yu looked from herself to her and back again, baffled.
"We're both supposed to be stranded. How come you look more like a stranded princess? And why are your clothes cleaner than mine?"
Following the traces the villagers left behind, they reached a village before noon. They stopped at the fence at the village entrance.
Someone who ate early had already lit their cooking fires, and they could hear children chasing after cats and dogs, giggling.
But Xie Yu's eyes were fixed on the flowering tree at the entrance. The pale greenish-white double-petaled pear blossoms looked like clouds dropped from the sky, making the small village seem like a fairyland.
"Double-petaled pear blossoms." The same dried blossoms worn by the assassins who attacked them.
Shen Changyin glanced at the pear blossoms and surveyed the village entrance.
"Judging by the river's direction and speed, we can't know our exact location, but we're definitely inside Jian Prefecture."
"Jian Prefecture's administrator, Zhang Pingzheng, is one of the few people I once had the chance to kill but didn't."
Xie Yu asked, "Does that mean she's a good person?"
"During her four years in office, she had literacy steles erected across the entire prefecture. Every village recorded by the government, big or small, has one."
"Richer villages have several stones carved with thousands of characters. Poorer ones have a single stele with only a few dozen basic words like rice, firewood, oil, one, two, three, four."
"But every registered village has one."
"This village does not."
Shen Changyin said, "This is a hidden estate belonging to a noble family."
Xie Yu said, "No way it's that much of a coincidence. Did we drift straight into the culprit's lair?"
"If she dared attack me inside the capital and on the day of the royal engagement banquet, her courage comes from her power. Her influence can't be small."
"Our chances of drifting into her territory are much higher than you think."
Xie Yu sighed. "Alright, then how do we sneak in?"
Shen Changyin looked at her, suddenly showing a pitiful, fragile expression.
"This is my young mistress…"
A quarter-hour later, the two sat in the village chief's house drinking hot water. Shen Changyin spoke gently and softly.
"I am my young mistress's childhood betrothed. We went to the capital for her examinations, but were attacked by mountain bandits. Our two servants died on the road. My young mistress and I barely escaped, but both of us were injured."
She pressed a finger to the skin beneath her eyes, even though no tears had fallen.
"In times of disaster people often abandon one another, but I could not. My devotion to my young mistress can be witnessed by heaven. I beg the village chief to shelter us for a few days. Once our letter reaches home, there will be generous thanks."
Some of the aunties listening couldn't help sighing.
"What a beautiful pair. What a wonderful wife…"
The auntie patted Shen Changyin's shoulder gently.
"Child, don't be afraid. Just stay here peacefully. When your family comes to pick you up, then you two can go home."
After comforting Shen Changyin, she turned to pat Xie Yu's back as well.
"And you—having such a wife by your side, what trouble in life can't you get through?"
Xie Yu kept her head down, numbly drinking her water.
—
T/N: If you're enjoying this translation, feel free to check out my Patreon. If you're unable to support financially, you can still subscribe for free and receive chapters two hours earlier, along with updates and announcements. Paid tiers offer early access and daily chapters.
Thank you so much for reading!
patreon.com/Baenz