Kai Yin raised his head, feeling strangely melancholic. The camp was full of soldiers all huddled over the map that outlined their position. They took shifts resting and Kai Yin, as he was Fifth Prince, was doing nothing the whole day.

Wei Jiang returned from his spot as observer, changing roles, and ran to Kai Yin's side.

"It has stopped snowing, it ceased early dawn. Are you cold?"

"You're the sixth person to ask me that question," Kai Yin said. He felt strangely numb, but with his triple lined robe and armor on him he was able to withstand part of the cold. He was simply numb, but in his heart.

"I expect in a few days we will advance as per the Crown Prince's orders, my lord," Wei Jiang said.

"I hope we can hurry. I'm restless."

"About the engagement?"

"No, I'll refuse that," Kai Yin said. It was Shui Lian. "I'm scared of leaving behind that person."

"There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm sure Lady Ran will give her—him, I meant, the utmost care until your return, my lord."

"I hope so." Kai Yin turned and going back to camp, smiled broadly and waved for everyone to gather. He was the face of the south side soldier, he had no time to be depressed. "Our messenger from the west side has relayed there is a small fight that broke out. It was quickly suppressed, and we can either hope they cease the land to us or we shall press on."

"Long live the Jia Dynasty!" Soldiers cried out.

"Leave it to the brothers, they always return victorious!"

"We have no qualms about your choice."

Kai Yin smiled but suddenly his face felt strange. It seemed as though the smile was forced as he thought about Shui Lian and his village.

Here they would kill more people, fathers and husbands.

"—Kai Yin?" Wei Jiang rarely called his name, and he immediately changed it. "I meant Prince Kai Yin, shall you sit down at the encampment?"

"Sure, thank you, Wei Jiang."

As the two men made their way to the post Kai Yin looked down at the ground he was stepping in, the thinnest sheet of ice cracking under his weight. Most of the snow had been shoveled by the men and now it formed a path just for him and his tent.

This is what it meant to be Prince, after all. Unlike Shui Lian he would never experience the sadness of death, only the glory of killing. Similarly, everything including his future was paved for him. His engagement, even, how could he explain it to Shui Lian?

Maybe Kai Yin didn't have to explain, he hoped, maybe he'll hear about it, and surely then they'll no longer meet...

***

Lady Ran ran over with shuffling, quiet steps to the room at the end of the corridor. She closed the door behind Shui Lian and her.

"Lady Ran, I wanted to ask for a thicker blanket. Also, can the bath water be warmer next time?" Shui Lian asked.

"You have no time to dilly dally here!" Lady Ran grabbed Shui Lian and began to strip him. "Take a bath right now, I'll have it boiling hot for you!"

Shui Lian stood there and suddenly felt sick.

Someone else was visiting him? No, no way.

He didn't want this.

The urge to vomit that happened when general or advisors came when he was young resurged. He thought he'd be able to overcome it somehow—if only. He grabbed a female robe that Ai or Miao left and ran out of his room silently, Lady Ran raising her head from cleaning the table.

"Shui Lian!"

It would be too expected to go to Ai or Miao's room so he turned the opposite direction and ran into the room of the younger girls who he barely knew.

"Shui Lian?" the younger girl muttered, standing at her table. Yu Deng. Like her name symbolized, she was like the light from the jade. Pretty, but far too young. Maybe sixteen only.

"Please let me in," Shui Lian said to the younger girl, and when they heard Lady Ran's shout Yu Deng immediately pushed him into her room.

"Are you hiding from Lady Ran?" Shui Lian was stunned, his whole excuse not even needed. "Kai—no, Fifth Prince is away at war and another man is visiting me."

"Heavens, who?" Yu Deng whispered.

Yu Deng pushed Shui Lian to her veranda and closed her door when the knock came.

"Yu Deng, why were you so fast to close your door?"

Yu Deng held her throat before rasping out, "I don't have customers, anyways. I want to die." That, accompanied with a scoff, did the trick.

Shui Lian heard these lines in awe. It was like looking at himself, just three months ago.

He thought he was the only one who ever wanted to die but Yu Deng was also brought against her will. She was with the Cruel Prince once before he got tired of her.

"Ask who it is," Shui Lian asked Yu Deng before kneeling behind the veranda door.

Yu Deng finally opened her door to peer out.

"Lady Ran, who is it? It's not like you to make a commotion."

"It's the First Prince, he wanted to see Shui Lian but he ran away! Help me find him!" Lady Ran sounded exhaustive.

"Check Lady Ai and Lady Miao's rooms, they are his only friends," Yu Deng distracted her perfectly.

"I am checking!" she hollered back.

Girls filtered out into the hallways and their laughter was loud.

"He's loyal to the Fifth Prince!"

"I'll take on the Cruel Prince to protect their love!"

"Lady Ran, tell His Lord to go already!"

Shui Lian heard them and was in awe. They weren't laughing as in mocking him, but laughing at the Cruel Prince and in support of Shui Lian's choice to be loyal.

Why? He had assumed they would be jealous and slip poison in his food until now but these girls were comrades.

He felt foolish.

Of course Ai and Miao were friends with his so their generation that was turning twenty were all on his side. The newer girls who were young, the youngest was fourteen, were also like Yu Deng. Once they found out being a concubine was no different than a prostitute the glamor of Peony Palace vanished.

It's no palace, it was a place for men to have fun, away from their wives. Open to noblemen, the Majesty's advisors, and any high-ranking generals, only the lucky girls of the third floor remained "loyal" to their patrons.

Rumor was that Miao was once considered for the third floor because the Cruel Prince Jin Long had sent her presents, such as jasmines and orchids. He was infatuated with her—for three mouths. At the last moment he chose another courtesan, Miao's friend at that, to leave for the third floor. Miao was left to his generals and Jin Long didn't bat an eye.

Shui Lian would rather die than meet that Cruel Prince.

The clamor outside stopped and Yu Deng asked a girl standing outside what happened.

"Lady Ran is searching outside," she answered.

Yu Deng closed the door and waved for Shui Lian to come inside her room and close her veranda slide. She held his hand.

"It really is cold, I'm sorry I had you wait there," Yu Deng whispered, voice still child-like.

"Lady Ran is really insistent," Shui Lian muttered. "Your room is like mine. Bare."

"I've never had a visit, and it's been six months since I came here," Yu Deng brushed it away.

Shui Lian thought of the incense burner and vase Kai Yin gave before he left for war. He was wrong, his room wasn't bare in that sense—after all, he still had longing for those items that reminded him of Kai Yin.

"Why were you forced to come?" Shui Lian asked. "I was fifteen when I came too, I think."

"My sister and I grew up the same way." Yu Deng looked at her hands. "Yet while I mastered every part of being a docile wife, she was chosen in the end by a high-ranking noble man. To embarrass me, my mother gave me to the court to use as they wished. Considering I was young and not bad-looking I was sent to Peony Palace."

"Oh."

Shui Lian looked at her as she continued to speak, calm and collected.

"I would have preferred to be a maidservant. This place is—it's so cruel." She tilted her head up. "But I will not lose. I only tell Lady Ran to get out of classes and have the girls leave me alone."

"Maybe you should stop doing that."

Shui Lian was surprised he said that himself.

For years he had considered himself different in a cocky way, but young girls here had the same mindset. They believed they would just wilt here but truth was, they'll grow old, they'll become maidservants or the next Lady Ran.

They'll have to tough out and waste the many years of their prime unhappy and unloved.

"You should take your classes and befriend the others. Most of all, seduce a good man and make him take responsibility and buy your freedom," Shui Lian said as he sat down on her bed.

"That's a lie," Yu Deng said flatly.

"It's not. I've seen generals beg the Cruel Prince for permission to take away girls he didn't care for. Do you remember Lady Jia Li? That's how she left. Noblemen never marry prostitutes but you're young and hardly known. Tell him you are a virgin when he is already close to doing it and he'll marry you. You came from a well to do family, didn't you?"

"That's true." Yu Deng was of few words, and Shui Lian found himself talking too much.

"Thank you for hiding me. I'll hurry to Ai's room so Lady Ran won't punish you." Shui Lian smiled and left.

Yu Deng smiled, finally, she had been waiting. Her heart hadn't stopped beating loudly the moment Shui Lian entered her room.

It didn't matter if she could befriend the other girls—she only wanted to befriend Shui Lian.