PRINCESS MENGZE wore robes of pale gold with a cape thrown over top, her thick hair wound in a low bun. As she stepped out of the shadows of the flowers beside the doorway, her handmaiden Yueniang followed at her heels, carrying a sandalwood box wrapped in golden brocade.
Mengze entered the room, eyes sweeping across the faces of everyone present. Her gaze took in Gu Mang, insensible beneath the gauze canopy, then finally came to rest on Mo Xi's bloodless face. "You were about to risk yourself again, weren't you?"
Mo Xi said nothing.
Broken light glimmered in Mengze's eyes. "The last time your heart shattered, it was also because you wanted to redeem this shixiong of yours. He nearly killed you that time. It was I who rescued you, and I asked nothing of you. My only wish was that from then on, no matter what people or situations you encountered, you would first consider whether it was worth your life."
The room was terrifyingly silent save for the sound of Mengze's low, heartbroken voice. "Mo-dage, so many years have passed. I ask you now, are you going to be just as stubborn as you were back then and make the same choice?"
Mengze was of course speaking of the battle at Dongting Lake. Mo Xi had tried to barter his life for Gu Mang's return and been rewarded with a stab through the heart. It was a blow so decisive and final that ever afterward, Mo Xi felt bitter devastation at the very thought of it.
But now that he knew the truth, recalling it once more merely made him feel Gu Mang had suffered too much.
Who do you think you are? You think that if you die, I'll feel guilty and turn back? Don't be a fool!
As a general, as a soldier, and as a person, you can't be too attached to past affections.
What had Gu Mang felt when he spoke those words and did those deeds?
Mo Xi closed his eyes. There was no way to explain all this to Mengze in a short time; the twists and turns were too difficult to follow. His heart was in chaos. He wanted to preserve Gu Mang's mind, wanted to protect this man covered in bloody wounds, wanted to demand the justice this spy who had immersed himself in evil for a full five years deserved. But the Shennong Terrace elder's words echoed unceasingly in his head—
Might not remember anything…might lose the ability to speak. If his mind has fallen apart completely, he might even lose the use of his eyes.
The brilliant and gentle black eyes in his memories curved in a smile, twinkling like the reflection of stars on water. They blinked. When they opened again, they had become an azure blue, as if a lake unpolluted by the dust of the mortal world flowed from them.
Before he was tempered, Gu Mang's eyes danced with laughter; afterward, they gazed at Mo Xi with quiet obedience. Those eyes called to him—Mo-shidi, Mo Xi, my princess, my lord…
Mo Xi's hands were trembling. He didn't respond to Mengze but walked straight to Gu Mang's bedside. Mo Xi bent to stare fixedly at that face; with the blood wiped away; it was white as bone. After a long silence, he turned to the elder from Shennong Terrace. "Continue."
Mengze's eyes finally flashed with anxiety. "Mo Xi—"
"I will explain everything to you afterward, if you only trust me."
Mengze fell quiet.
"I have to save him."
In the silence that followed, it was as if an invisible current churned beneath the surface. Almost everyone believed Mengze would lash out or explode or break down. But she only went still for a long time and then slowly said, "Very well. If this is your choice." Pausing, she stepped forward. "Then I will help you."
"Princess!" Yue-niang exclaimed.
Mengze seemed to be doing her utmost to restrain some emotion. She had always been proficient at enduring hardship in silence, but this time, there was no one who couldn't see the hurt and pain filling her eyes. Her lips parted slightly as if to say more, but it seemed she had overestimated her ability to remain stoic; the rims of her eyes reddened before any sound left her mouth. She turned away, eyes downcast.
Yue-niang's heart ached for her mistress. Disregarding the lines between master and servant, she wailed, "Princess, wh-why are you doing all this…"
Mengze closed her eyes, lashes trembling. As she strove to master herself once more, she finally swallowed down that overflowing grief. Her eyes opened. "Bring me my medicine chest."
Everyone was stunned. Did Murong Mengze plan to work the healing arts herself after all this time?!
Chonghua was home to two grandmaster healers. The first was Jiang Fuli of the three poisons Greed, Wrath, and Ignorance. The second was Murong Mengze of the three sages Virtue, Mind, and Wisdom. In order to save Mo Xi many years ago, Mengze had overdrawn the power of her spiritual core; there were many spells she could no longer perform on her own. After painstakingly tending to her health for so many years, her body was only just starting to recover. If she used healing magic now, the results were sure to be unparalleled—but she might come out a complete invalid. How could Mo Xi allow her to make another sacrifice like this?
He caught her wrist, stopping her quietly. "Mengze, go home. I already owe you a life. I cannot let him owe you more."
Murong Mengze's slender eyes gradually filled with tears. Perhaps all her waiting and endurance had been too much; this imperial princess who never let her emotions slip fell so far as to show red-rimmed, wet eyes before a staring crowd.
"Mo-dage…you're so sad when something happens to him. But have you ever thought of me?"
The crowd had never heard Princess Mengze express herself so frankly, and for a moment, all of them were at a loss. This wasn't something they should see or hear—but they couldn't leave, so they could only stand as still as statues.
Mengze's voice shook. "If you come to any more harm, what do you think will happen to me? I can never cultivate the proper path again. Was my life worth so little in your eyes that it couldn't buy you more than a few short years of peace?!"
As she spoke, a tear finally trickled from her eyes, rolling down her luminous cheek and landing on the back of Mo Xi's hand. "This shixiong of yours…if he's that important to you, I'd rather use forbidden techniques to bring him back! Mo-dage…I've done everything I can do. I only ask you to have more consideration for me in the future… Then I could… I could at least…"
She closed her eyes, fat teardrops falling like beads off a broken string.
Mo Xi's mind was like a bowstring strained to its limit. Gu Mang's treatment could not be delayed—he urgently needed to ask the Shennong Terrace elder if there was anything else they could try—but here Mengze was in such a state. Mo Xi had never known how to deal with women. He was anxious and miserable, at a loss for how to stop her from intervening in this matter.
He knew how painful it was to owe a favor he could never repay. He couldn't look upon Mengze without feeling guilt and selfreproach. Yet this guilt and blame could never be absolved—what Mengze wanted was something he'd long since given to the man on that bed. He couldn't possibly give it to her.
Because of this, he had never known what to say in front of her, or what to do, as if he were bound by invisible strings. There were many things he would do if Mengze asked that he would never do otherwise. Mo Xi found this lack of agency unbearable. He couldn't let Gu Mang, too, bear a debt of grace he could never repay.
At this moment, the healer who had been maintaining the stability of Gu Mang's mind coughed up a great mouthful of filthy blood. The magical light array in his hands flickered and failed.
"What happened?!" the Shennong Terrace elder exclaimed.
"H-his condition is too strange. Vicious intent suddenly burst across his mind. This disciple is unskilled and could not withstand it…"
At that instant, on the bed, Gu Mang's eyes snapped open, but not because he'd woken up. His eyes were darting side to side, his pupils eerily unfocused, his lips moving as if to lay a curse. Bloody tears streamed from his eyes, flowing along those edges that were slender as phoenix tails.
An inexperienced young healer cried, "What's going on?!"
"This is…the backlash from the black magic curse within his body…" Mengze murmured. She looked up at Mo Xi. "His mind is breaking down. Already I'm unsure whether I can save him. If the damage isn't brought under control, Mo-dage—he will die."
Mo Xi's face instantly paled.
Mengze took note of his panic. "If you want to preserve his life, let me help," she offered sadly. "After all… After all, in your heart, I'm…"
But before she could finish, a voice from outside cut her off. "Princess, why so pessimistic?"
That voice was slow and unhurried, carrying a note of innate scorn and arrogance. "That man on the bed is tough as nails. He won't die, and his mind won't break." These words echoed into the room. A man wearing wide-sleeved green robes with a golden pin through his hair sauntered into the room. "I'm here, aren't I?"
If these medicine cultivators, who admired skill with healing magic above all, were apprehensive over Princess Mengze's presence, then this new arrival's entrance left them ready to fall to their knees.
"Greetings to Medicine Master Jiang!"
Mengze was also stunned. "Medicine Master Jiang…"
Jiang Fuli's expression was indifferent, his eyes narrowed. This was his distinctive habit—his vision had never been good, probably because he spent too much time counting his money. Without his liuli eyepiece, those almond eyes were hazy, as if cloaked in misty Jiangnan rain.
Jiang Fuli brandished a golden cowrie note pinned between pale, slender fingertips. He turned to Mo Xi. "Was it you who sent the spiritual messenger beast to bring this to me?"
"Your wife said you left for the southern frontier…" replied Mo Xi.
"Yes. But I hadn't gotten far. Besides, when have I ever been unwilling to take money? I rushed back as soon as I saw this." Jiang Fuli flicked that dazzling golden note, glancing at Gu Mang on the bed. "But his condition is dreadful. I'm tripling your fee."
Mo Xi anxiously started, "My shixiong's life—"
"Both his life and his eyes are salvageable." Jiang Fuli paused, then walked forward and tapped Gu Mang on the forehead. "Hard to say if the same applies to his mind, but he won't be left with nothing. I'll have to heal him first to know for sure. Regardless, I will do my best."
Jiang Fuli was a heartless man with no moral convictions. The single principle underlying his actions was money, and making more of it. As long as he was paid handsomely, he would spare no effort.
Sitting at the edge of the bed, he pulled open Gu Mang's robes and examined the wounds on his body. He sighed. "You've spent so much time and only gotten this far? Rank amateurs."
The cultivators from Shennong Terrace could only stare in silence.
Jiang Fuli extended slender fingers and tapped Gu Mang's critical acupoints in a few rapid motions, staunching the flow of blood. He lifted a hand and said, "Bring it over."
He didn't name what he needed, assuming bystanders would intuit the line of his thoughts. The healer closest to him hastily handed him a medicine chest.
"Why would I want your little box? Gauze!" Jiang Fuli snapped.
Pinned by that almond-eyed stare, the cultivator shivered and frantically offered him the gauze he wanted.
Jiang Fuli wiped the blood from Gu Mang's most severe wounds. When he reached Gu Mang's arm, Jiang Fuli suddenly paused.
"What is it?" Mo Xi asked at once.
The medicine master frowned as he examined a spot on Gu Mang's arm. "This petal-shaped mark…"
"It isn't new, he's had it since he was young."
"Of course I can see it's not from a recent injury." Jiang Fuli's gaze remained on that mark. "It just looks familiar. Why do I feel I've seen one just like this, but on a different patient?" He hesitated and shook his head. "Possibly there were just similarities, and I've misremembered."
With that, he tossed the bloodied gauze aside and sat up to begin healing Gu Mang's wounds with magic.
The water clock by the table in the bedroom dripped. A hush fell over the room as Jiang Fuli sat at Gu Mang's bedside. Two slender fingers hovered at Gu Mang's wrist, monitoring his pulse while passing spiritual energy into his body.
Jiang Fuli's healing spells were distinct from Chonghua's standard treatments; the medicine cultivators around them could barely follow what he was doing. They merely watched as the wounds marring Gu Mang's flesh reknit at an astonishing rate, and the bruises on his face faded.
"Jiang Fuli, the cunning reverser of fate, lives up to his name," Mengze murmured. "The princess flatters me," Jiang Fuli calmly replied.
The Shennong Terrace elder edged closer. "Medicine Master Jiang, do you… Do you need anything? Can we lend a hand?"
"Oh yes, I do need something," said Jiang Fuli.
"Medicine Master Jiang, only say the word," the elder hastily replied. "We are at your command."
"I need your silence," Jiang Fuli answered.
He didn't get his wish. Moments later, a servant dashed in as if flames were licking at his heels, shouting at the top of his lungs: "Bad news, bad news!"
Mo Xi turned. "What is it this time?"
"Bad news!" the servant cried again. "My lord, Housekeeper Li can't stall them any longer. Eunuch Zhao is furious. He says if my lord refuses to respect the imperial edict and meet him, his people will charge in and escort you to the palace!"