Xie Yu stepped out of the cabin and looked around the deck, completely unfazed by the dense formation of soldiers surrounding the entire dock.
She hopped lightly off the boat—only to find that the captain and crew had been blocked onshore by several soldiers, staring at her with a mix of terror and awe.
"L-Little… Little Sister Yu?" The captain stammered as Xie Yu approached. "These people are all here for you?"
"Mm." Xie Yu nodded. "I already paid the fare. But I won't be traveling to Jiangnan with you all anymore."
Jiangnan? At a time like this?
The captain was on the verge of tears. What kind of passenger had she been transporting?
"L-Little—no—Lady Yu—just who are you?"
"Mm…" Xie Yu hesitated, found it too complicated to explain, and casually pointed behind her. "Remember that person who might have a crush on me?"
She pointed to Shen Changyin, who was walking toward them carrying two pieces of luggage: "That's her."
"She's a Regent. I guess that makes me… a princess."
The captain's knees nearly buckled. She grabbed onto one of the soldiers' arms just to stay upright.
Dear heavens—
She suddenly realized she was standing before the infamous Third Princess and the Regent known for 'purging the court.' And she had just eaten fish soup from the same pot as royalty? Her heart hammered wildly.
She knew nobles valued their dignity above all—and could quietly 'dispose' of someone who threatened that dignity.
And this wasn't just any noble. This was a princess.
Exaggerated or not, the Third Princess could very well be the next Empress—
And now add the Regent with the nickname "the Demon."
It was over—
She would never make it home again. She would never see her wife again.
Seeing the panic on her face, Xie Yu immediately understood what she was imagining and shook her head.
"Since I've already paid the fare, please do me a favor. Help me move my luggage and carriage down. Then you can head to Jiangnan as planned."
"Oh my heavens."
The captain's eyes lit up.
Her crew's lives were saved.
She quickly nodded in agreement. Since Xie Yu had spoken, the soldiers who'd been blocking her path stepped aside and even helped the captain carry down the luggage.
Xie Yu returned to the carriage first.
She tossed the luggage into a corner and sat right in the center of the soft cushions.
With the scene being so dramatic this time, Shen Changyin definitely needed a while to wrap things up before she could get into the carriage.
So Xie Yu wasn't in any hurry. She simply waited patiently.
Her heartbeat gradually calmed, her breathing grew long and steady, and the remaining traces of her earlier smile faded. In the quiet space of the carriage, as the impulse from just moments ago ebbed away, Xie Yu suddenly covered her face.
Back in middle school, her school had invited a motivational family-bonding speaker. That woman had told countless touching stories—like "a mother lifting a carriage to save her daughter"—and moved all the twelve- and thirteen-year-olds to tears. Xie Yu had even been so riled up she'd run onstage crying, shouting, "Mom, I love you!" — despite the fact that she was a boarding student and her mother wasn't even in the audience.
After the speech, she sat through four freezing Wednesday-afternoon math classes before the passion finally faded, and only then did she realize the performance-art disaster she had just created.
It was one of the darkest black-histories of her life.
And right now she felt like she had turned back into that same idiotic middle-schooler.
A massive question appeared in her mind—What on earth was she doing just now?
Was she… was she flirting with Shen Changyin?
As someone who had never experienced puppy love, unrequited love, or even a crush, she had actually said all of that??
Even if, just like shouting "I love you, Mom," it counted as coming from the heart—did she really have to say it out loud like that?
She inhaled deeply, but before she could calm herself, Shen Changyin had already finished dealing with everything and climbed into the carriage.
Hearing the carriage curtain lift, Xie Yu hurriedly lowered her hands and sat up straight, pretending she had not just suffered a breakdown from her own questionable boldness.
Shen Changyin glanced at her and sat down beside her.
The distance between them was neither close nor far—about the same as sitting next to a desk partner in school.
Xie Yu stared straight ahead, a little tense, unsure what Shen Changyin thought of her earlier behavior.
But after waiting a long time, the carriage remained painfully silent.
Without moving her head, she shifted her gaze downward, trying to observe Shen Changyin's reaction through the corner of her eye.
She could only see a hand—half-clenched, gripping the fabric of her robe, resting on her knee.
Why did it feel like Shen Changyin was nervous too?
Could it be… she was also embarrassed about what had happened?
Actually, that made sense. Compared to someone like her—who'd lose her composure at random—someone as gentle, poised, and serene as Shen Changyin was probably even more helpless at moments like these.
So… what were they supposed to do now?
Shen Changyin was the one who came looking for her. Shouldn't she be the one to break the silence?
Or, since she was the one who had been found, should she be the one to speak first?
The two sat facing the carriage curtain for a long, quiet moment.
Then suddenly, at the same time, both spoke:
"I—"
"You—go ahead, you go ahead," Xie Yu said quickly.
Shen Changyin shook her head. "It's nothing. Your Highness, please speak."
"I actually don't have anything to say."
"Ah…" Shen Changyin dragged out the sound slightly. "I see. There's some dry rations in the carriage."
"This was a field deployment, so I happened to bring some. They're developed by the army cooks—meant to be portable. There are four or five types. Would Your Highness like to try them?"
Xie Yu nodded several times in succession.
"But I should warn you, no matter how hard the cooks work, rations are still rations. They definitely can't compare to the palace chefs' fresh dishes."
Shen Changyin took out four or five oil-paper packets, unfolded the folding table against the carriage wall, pulled it between them, and placed the rations on top.
She was just about to ask which one Xie Yu wanted—only to find Xie Yu had already opened all of them with practiced ease.
Shen Changyin suddenly felt like she had just discovered one of her Third Princess's "bad habits."
Some people, when given several snacks, would finish one packet before opening the next.
But Xie Yu's approach was to open everything, then taste each one first.
Strictly speaking, this was not a "good" habit. People might call it greedy, overly focused on food, lacking patience—and in frugal households she'd get scolded for opening everything and risking spoilage.
But Shen Changyin didn't find it bad at all. In fact… she found it very human.
Most of the rations were dense blocks pressed in wooden molds, looking like neat square cakes. Shen Changyin watched as Xie Yu carefully broke off a small corner from each piece to taste. Sometimes her eyes lit up; sometimes she looked offended.
Even the rations Shen Changyin was tired of eating suddenly seemed interesting.
Was this why humans loved feeding children and pets?
And Xie Yu—who had survived her school years by eating compressed biscuits as snacks—adapted to these ancient compressed rations beautifully, even critiquing the seasoning.
With this, the earlier awkwardness faded significantly.
That night, the two returned to the capital.
The moment Xie Yu arrived home, she rushed straight to her bedroom. Shen Changyin followed at an unhurried pace, watching her rummage through drawers.
"What is Your Highness looking for?"
"My planner—oh, you can think of it as my diary."
Xie Yu rested one hand on the table, crouched halfway on the floor, the other hand about to pull open a drawer—when she suddenly froze and turned to look at her:
"You didn't read my diary, did you?"
Shen Changyin stiffened for a moment.
Strictly speaking, yes—but that was in her previous life.
Back then, Xie Yu had just died. Shen Changyin hadn't yet been made into a living medicine vessel, had inherited her early-departed wife's enormous wealth, and was required to stay in the princess manor for mourning.
After eating enough delicacies, counting all the gold and jewels, and losing interest in fine silks, she unexpectedly discovered her late wife's diary.
Of course she read it. After all, every part of Xie Yu's estate—including the diary—was legally hers.
But in this life, she truly had not read it.
She was about to say so when Xie Yu pulled out an intricate wooden puzzle box, snorted, and said:
"I know you didn't."
"I specifically went to the finest carpenter in the capital and ordered this mechanism box. It takes many steps to open."
"Sure, you could force it open—but then I'd know you looked."
Xie Yu's face shone with pride—Look how clever I am—as she fiddled with the mechanisms.
She fiddled for a long time… and gradually her smug expression faded into silence.
Shen Changyin rubbed her nose. "Your Highness… did you forget how to open it?"
"You can't blame me. I brought it home, watched the carpenter demonstrate once, planned to practice a few times—then the very next day was our engagement banquet, and we got stabbed and had to flee together. It's been over twenty days. With such a complicated mechanism, isn't it normal I don't remember?"
Shen Changyin looked at her and said softly, "As expected—when someone doesn't want to admit their mistake, they start talking a lot."
Xie Yu pointed to the door. "Get out."
Shen Changyin didn't move.
"Villain," Xie Yu muttered, and seeing she truly didn't remember the steps, placed the box on the ground, stepped back, and prepared to simply jump on it and break it open.
But Shen Changyin reached out and stopped her.
Giving her a look, she picked up the box, examined it for a moment, then began adjusting the mechanisms.
"You don't need to try, it's really complex—"
Before Xie Yu could finish, a click sounded, and she watched in disbelief as the box opened.
Shen Changyin placed the box and the diary on Xie Yu's desk, then said:
"Conversely, when someone is truly intelligent, she speaks very little."
Xie Yu muttered, "Actually, I don't talk much when I'm hitting people either."
Shen Changyin left her room smiling.
Xie Yu sat at the desk and briefly recorded the events of the past twenty days.
Of course, the direct and fundamental reason she returned to the capital was Shen Changyin coming to find her.
But she also had concerns about the situation in the capital.
Death soldiers were tools. If one tool could create something as big as the Death-Soldier Village incident, then whatever the mastermind planned was far bigger than merely raising death soldiers.
Since the night she transmigrated, she had never changed her assessment—The Empress was aging, and the other six princesses were all ambitious. A battle for the throne would erupt at any moment.
And the Empress's obsession with witchcraft was far too reminiscent of a dynasty's final days.
For now, Shen Changyin, who rose to power in the northwest, had likely pacified the tribes beyond the borders, reducing the risk of external invasion.
But even then, it didn't mean chaos wouldn't start—from within—just like the disasters of late Eastern Han.
Originally, knowing her own limitations, she had no plans to involve herself in these "things great people should worry about."
But now, through coincidence (and mainly Shen Changyin's insistence), she was already in the middle of it.
So she figured she might as well handle the matter in her hands properly.
She was still thinking when she heard Shen Changyin call her.
Their current living setup consisted of symmetrical suites aligned in a row—almost like shared roommates.
She leaned halfway out of her room and saw Shen Changyin waving at her from her study, with Old Jin and Zhu Ting standing beside her.
Xie Yu stood up and walked over. "So, did anything progress?"
Shen Changyin looked toward Old Jin. "Since Her Highness is here, you can speak."
Old Jin nodded. "We did manage to get some information these past two days."
"According to Old Li, their death-soldier unit's codename is the Yazu Battalion, and it isn't the only hidden thing their mistress has."
"What we currently know is that the mastermind built a town on her secret fields, large enough to rival a small city. Everyone there calls it Hidden Radiance Town."
"The Yazu Battalion lives and trains there on a daily basis, but Hidden Radiance Town also has an even more top-secret security force, as well as thirty small buildings or estates where death-soldiers are strictly forbidden to enter."
"Old Li observed that on the first and fifteenth of every month, ten large carriages drawn by four horses each enter the town. They don't stop along the way and head straight into those buildings."
"Based on her observations, the carriages seem to be carrying bound people."
"In my judgment, that place is the mastermind's main base. As long as we take it, we'll never lack evidence."
Shen Changyin curled her fingers and tapped the table lightly, acknowledging it, but said, "To avoid alerting the enemy, I can't leave the capital to command personally. That leaves one question—who will lead the troops?"
"I will," Xie Yu said as if it were obvious.
"By your own definition, I'm a princess. I naturally hold the right to govern this country. If something threatening my family's empire appears on someone's secret land, isn't it reasonable for me to be the one to strike?"
"I may not have officially led troops before, but Old Jin can assist me."
"And," she added, looking straight into Shen Changyin's eyes to emphasize it, "I'm just as smart as you."
She still remembered the grudge over the wooden box.
"How could Your Highness be the same as me? You should be even more brilliant," Shen Changyin said with a soft smile.
"Then it's settled."
That night, Old Jin delivered all the documents. Xie Yu spread maps, testimonies, administrative layouts, and terrain reports across her desk and studied them carefully.
The desk wasn't big enough in the end, so she moved everything to the bed. Papers were spread in perfect rows and columns. One leg bent, the other folded, she sat on the bed, charcoal pencil in hand, brows furrowed as she circled key points.
That was the scene Shen Changyin saw when she walked in.
Hearing her enter, Xie Yu didn't even lift her head. She asked, "I'm using the quantity and frequency of their grain wagons to estimate the population of the town, but something feels off."
Shen Changyin placed the sweet osmanthus rice-wine dumplings on the table, pulled over a stool, sat by the bed, pressed her hand on the soft quilt, and leaned closer. "Where's the problem?"
Xie Yu handed her a few sheets.
The two of them leaned close, heads nearly touching as they examined the calculations.
The candlelight was bright, casting their silhouettes on the wall.
—
The next morning, Xie Yu accompanied Shen Changyin to the barracks to familiarize herself with the troops she would be commanding.
She had expected chaos—she'd already planned how to deal with troublemakers to establish authority.
She had prepared multiple methods to help the army adapt to her style.
She had even considered the worst-case scenario: if she truly couldn't command them directly, she would just issue orders to Old Jin, who would translate them into commands the troops could accept.
But once she entered the barracks, she realized all her worries had been unnecessary.
Shen Changyin's troops fit her hand like a perfectly tailored glove. They followed orders strictly, understood her style instantly, and never showed confusion.
The soldiers' basic skills were high. They even used modern-style scouting techniques and understood how to charge in teams of three.
Xie Yu commanded them as smoothly as breathing.
If she didn't already know these troops belonged to Shen Changyin, she would have thought she had trained them herself.
Ancient soldiers?
Impossible.
Xie Yu refused to accept it. Her suspicious gaze on Shen Changyin grew stronger.
Finally, during a break in training, she saw Shen Changyin enter a tent alone. Xie Yu quickly followed.
The tent was dim. Shen Changyin stood behind the sand table, puzzled to see her rush in.
Xie Yu peeked outside to ensure no one was around, then tightened her grip on the tent flap and lowered her voice.
"Odd stays the same, even changes?"
Shen Changyin blinked. "What?"
—
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