After dinner, Zi-ning followed the Du family back to their manor after bidding farewell to the Yus. General Du's accommodation was much more extensive than the mayor's, as befitting his status a general of the first rank, but its décor and furnishings were austere and lacking of the sort of showy embellishments that were favoured by officials in the capital.

She was shown to a quiet guest room located in the west quarter, located a considerable distance from the rooms belonging to the members of the family. After passing through the manor's main hall, they had to wind down a long corridor until they came to a small garden with a gourd-shaped lotus pond. The west quarter—meant for guests—was situated past that garden.

"Apologies, Miss, but we were not aware that you would be coming, hence the guest room has only been hastily prepared. If there is anything else you require, please do not hesitate to let the servants know and I shall have it seen to as soon I can," the housekeeper, a skinny woman who introduced herself as Madam Bo, said, pushing open the creaky doors to the room. Although her words were polite, there was a certain imperiousness to her tone that suggested that she did not care much for this sudden arrival to the general's manor.

She walked into the room, brushing away a few fragile silver threads of cobweb that fell upon her head. When she looked up, she saw the fine strands glistening off the corners of the door frame. Judging from the cobwebs and the layer of dust that lined the surfaces, this room had been in disuse for quite a long while.

Seeing the slight frown upon her forehead, Madam Bo said, "Like I said, we did not have time to make better preparations. As it is already late in the night, we shall have to trouble Miss Han to make do with the accommodations for now. The servants will clean the room some more in the morning. If there is nothing else, then I shall leave you to settle in." Bobbing her head in a half-hearted manner, the housekeeper quickly retreated, disappearing back towards the main compound.

Zi-ning did not mind the woman's dismissive attitude. After all, she had seen far worse in the capital. Setting down her belongings, she headed towards the window, opening it to allow the night breeze to help clear the mustiness within the room. As the latticed panels swung outwards, the panel on the left struck something hard.

"Oww!"

Surprised by the sudden cry, Zi-ning poked her head out of the window, peering towards the source of the voice.

"Did you have to push open the windows with so much force?" Zhenghuan complained. He was lying on the grass outside, massaging his nose bridge.

Zi-ning stared at him incredulously. "It wouldn't matter how much force I used if you hadn't been lurking outside like some sort of creep!" she scolded. "Besides, aren't you supposed to be one of the best exponents in the kingdom? Must be a lie, if a little window panel can knock you off your feet." Rolling her eyes, she retreated back into the room, ignoring the interloper.

Zhenghuan entered the room moments later, still looking grouchy. Without waiting for an invitation, he sat himself down at the table and poured himself some water.

"Should you be barging into my room at this hour?" Zi-ning remarked. "If your mother finds out, she will be most displeased."

"I'm only here to check to see if you're settling in okay," he replied. Swiping an index finger against the wooden surface of the table, Zhenghuan said, "Why is this room so dusty?" He looked around. "What is this? This room is even worse than what the servants have. Who brought you here?" he demanded, sounding genuinely offended at the provisions.

"Your housekeeper," Zi-ning replied honestly. "Although I'm sure Madam Bo would not do anything if it hasn't already been approved by the mistress of the house."

"I'll have the move you to a better room immediately," he said. He got up to leave, but Zi-ning reached out and grabbed him by the sleeve.

"Don't," she said, "this is perfectly fine. I like it here by the lotus pond. It's far more peaceful. Besides, I won't be here for that long."

Zhenghuan sat back down. "Right, I forgot that the general said your brother should be back in camp within the week. I suppose you'll leave soon after you get to meet him."

His lips were pursed together in a sour manner that made Zi-ning burst out in a little laugh. Why was he behaving like some petulant child who had just been robbed of sweets? It was almost unimaginable that the sulking boy sitting in her room right now was the terrifying Shadow Lord that everyone was afraid of.

"I won't have much reason to stay after meeting him," Zi-ning replied. Her main reason for being here was to save her brother from an impending death. No matter what she had to do, she was determined to drag her brother away from Nanmen, so that he would not need to participate in the battle that eventually led to him losing his life.

Nanmen was a trap, and she would not let him walk straight into it.

She still remembered Meiyan's taunting words in the prison cell, before they sent her to the gallows.

"Let me let you in on a little secret. Your mother's illness and your brother's accident? Those weren't by chance. And now you can join your pathetic family in hell."

Lady Min and Meiyan must have had a hand in what happened to her brother, and it bothered her that she still did not know what it was. Regardless, her brother's presence at Nanmen was the key to his demise.

"Zi-ning." Zhenghuan waved a hand in front of her eyes. "Zi-ning, are you listening to me? What are you thinking about?" He still sounded grumpy, but there was also a hint of concern laced in his voice.

She snapped out of her daze. "Excuse me?"

Zhenghuan scowled. "Never mind. I'll forgive you because it's been a long day," he grumbled. "Your brother's name is Han Yongxing, am I right? I've already told the camp commander to notify me once he's returned. We'll grant him leave to come to Anyang, but he can only be released for three days because the battalion is headed on a training mission at the next full moon and he needs to be there to lead his team."

A training mission at the next full moon?

She quickly calculated the number of days it had been since she left the capital for Zhuiya. Slightly over a month had passed, which meant that—

Her eyes widened with alarm.

In her past life, Yongxing had died a week after the full moon in the month of rooster. She had always assumed that he had suffered those injuries because of a border battle with enemies from the southern tribes, but it appeared that she had been wrong. It had been a training mission. What could possibly have gone wrong in a training mission?

"What is this training mission? Where will they be headed?" she asked, clutching hold of Zhenghuan's arm.

Zhenghuan glanced down at her whitened knuckles. "The northern edge of the Luya desert. It's less than a mile from Nanmen. What's the matter? Is something wrong?" he asked.

The Luya desert was a vast expanse of sand—effectively a wasteland—that did not belong to any kingdom. However, it was home to the nomadic southern tribes, led by their elusive leader, the Eagle Warrior.

"There's nothing to worry about. It's a pretty routine exercise, and we keep well within range of the border so that the men can retreat to Nanmen fairly quickly in case of any real trouble," Zhenghuan explained.

And yet something did happen.

"Is there any way we could call off this training mission?" she ventured. "Postpone it maybe?"

"Why? If there's no good reason to do so then it'll be difficult to convince the general to make a change. After all, we conduct these trainings once every month."

Zi-ning bit her lower lip. "I... I just have a feeling that something is going to go wrong." She threw her hands up into the air in frustration. "Look, I know how ridiculous this sounds. I'm sorry."

What else could she say? That she knew things were going to take a bad turn because she had been through this before? That this was the second time she was living this life, and that she had watched her own brother die before her very eyes once? If he knew, he would think she was out of her mind.

Zhenghuan was still watching her carefully, as if he were trying to find a way to get past the walls that guarded her deepest secret. Then, he sighed and took hold of her hand, patting it gently. "I'll speak to the general about this. It's very unlikely that he will agree, but I'll try. If the exercise is still to continue, then I'll send an extra scouting party out beforehand to make sure that there is nothing amiss at the training ground and keep a personal eye on the entire mission," he said.

"You will?" Zi-ning looked up, her gaze meeting his. "Why?"

He had no reason to trust her this much. No reason to agree to change military plans on the basis of a single unverified hunch. Even while she asked it of him, she had no expectations that he would agree.

The corners of his lips tipped upwards in a slight, almost resigned, smile. "I thought by now, you should know the reason why," he said, flicking her on the tip of her nose. Standing up, he sauntered over to the door. "Have an early night. I'll tell the housekeeper to make sure the room gets tidied up to an acceptable level tomorrow morning."

Zi-ning watched as Zhenghuan disappeared through the doorway, his steady footsteps retreating into the distance. The warmth of his hand over hers still lingered upon her skin.

She sighed.

She would be a fool if she didn't know how Zhenghuan felt towards her, and she had to admit that those feelings were not entirely unreciprocated—but she was also frightened. The scars that she had been dealt in her previous life by someone she had loved so much were still bleeding and raw, and she did not know if she was ready to accept someone new, even if that someone was entirely different from Ru-an.

Because what if he wasn't different? What if he turned out to be exactly the same at the end?

#

Hidden beneath the shadow of a willow tree on the far side of the lotus pond, a slim figure clenched her fists tightly beside her, entire body trembling with anger.

It had taken Enling long enough to come to terms with the fact that she would not be able to usurp Yu Zixi's place, given that the latter had a formal engagement with Zhenghuan, but she could not accept that there was yet another contender that she would have to vie with his affections. Who was Han Zi-ning and how dare she appear out of nowhere to command so much attention from Cousin Zhenghuan?

Zhenghuan hadn't even lifted a finger to help Zixi off the carriage earlier in the day, and yet he had specially gone over to assist Zi-ning. And the way he defended her at dinner! Thinking about how Zhenghuan had spoken up in defence of Zi-ning when she had called the latter out for bragging made tears of indignation well up in her eyes.

She was the one who had convinced her aunt to assign this particular room in the far-flung west quarter to Zi-ning, on the pretext that it might be inappropriate for the latter to be staying in accommodation meant for family members, in consideration for her reputation. She had then snuck here after everyone had retired for the night, meaning to gloat at the poor conditions that she knew Zi-ning would be subjected to. What she had not expected to see was Cousin Zhenghuan inside the room, much less him taking hold of that girl's hand.

Jealousy reared its ugly head inside her, bubbling up with relentless fury.

Even if Zhenghuan married Zixi, relegating Enling to the mere position of a concubine, she had been fairly confident of being able to outcompete Zixi in securing his affections, if only because Zhenghuan had never treated Zixi any differently from the way he treated her. In her mind, the only advantage that Zixi had over her was an outdated engagement agreement and nothing else. Even though Zixi's father was the mayor of the city, Anyang was merely an inconsequential border town that could fall to enemies at any moment, while her own family ran a highly successful textiles business back in Lianzhou, with filled coffers that could become a strong support for Zhenghuan's military efforts. Looks-wise, she also considered herself far prettier than Zixi, who did not seem to care very much for maintaining her outward appearance and insisted on spending hours in the sun horse riding or shooting arrows from time to time.

Han Zi-ning was different, because Cousin Zhenghuan's attitude towards her was not the same.

Enling narrowed her eyes at the silhouette she saw moving about in the room, through the translucent rice paper panes of the doors. Then, she spun on her heels and stormed back towards her own room, her mind already churning out various possibilities to get rid of this irksome girl.

Just you wait, Han Zi-ning. No one can steal Cousin Zhenghuan from me. No one.