"H-h-ow is my brother? The ambush on the training mission—what happened?" Zi-ning asked, once she had managed to calm herself down.

"Yongxing is fine. Turns out that there wasn't an ambush after all. We suspect that someone had spread the false news with the intention of misleading us, so as to draw me into the mountain range. We did have a close encounter with a pack of wolves, but no harm came to anyone. Yongxing is back at the Nanmen camp now, so there's nothing for you to worry about," Zhenghuan replied. "Come, we should get you back to the city."

He kicked the side of his horse, bringing it back to a trot. Pulling on the reins, he turned them back in the direction of Anyang

"Why did you come out to the Harun dunes on your own?" he asked.

Zi-ning took a deep breath. Relief washed over her when she realised that it had been a false alarm, and that Yongxing was still alive and well. Why had she gone to the Harun dunes indeed? Her brows furrowed in a frown. "I overheard some men talking in town about my brother's contingent returning back to the Nanmen camp, having suffered severe casualties with many dead. One of them then advised me that it would be quicker to reach the Nanmen camp if I crossed the Harun dunes, which I later confirmed with a trader that I met near the city gates."

On hindsight, she had been far too hasty. Her worries and fears about history repeating itself, about her brother dying, had clouded her judgement. For that, she had almost paid the ultimate price.

"The bandits that attacked me—the said that someone had paid them to do it," she said.

"You're sure about that?"

Zi-ning nodded. "I offered to pay them to let me go, but they said that they had already been paid. Who would have done something like that..." If she was back in the capital, she would have suspected Lady Min and Meiyan, but this was Anyang. Was it possible that they had stretched their hands this far?

Zhenghuan's expression darkened. "I'll investigate," he replied. "Do you have any idea who it might have been?"

"No. I only just arrived in Anyang. I barely know anyone here. Unless..."

In her previous life, this thought would never have crossed her mind, because she had naively believed that everyone was good, that everyone was trying to help and support her. Now, she was acutely aware that even the most innocent of faces could hide a cruel heart.

"Who?" Zhenghuan demanded.

"I have no evidence of this," she caveated, "but the only person who has been openly hostile toward me ever since I arrived is... Enling." She turned to look at Zhenghuan with a scowl. "I wonder why."

He returned her accusation with a look of feigned surprise. "What do you mean? I never asked for her to place all that attention on me. You've seen how I treat her. She's nothing more than a little sister! And an annoying one at that." Behind his mask, his eyes narrowed. "If Enling is really behind this, then I'll have to have a word with Lady Du. She has already overstayed her welcome as it is."

"I have a question."

"Hmm?"

"Why is it that you always address the General as General, and Lady Du as Lady Du? Do you not call them Father and Mother?"

Zhenghuan's irises shifted uncomfortably. After a brief pause, he said, "The truth is that I'm actually only their adopted son. We are not related by blood."

"Really?" Zi-ning was truly surprised by this revelation. She had never heard anything to suggest that Zhenghuan might be adopted. From what she had observed, General Du and Lady Du seemed to treat Zhenghuan like he was their real son.

He hummed in acknowledgement, then he said, "Their real son was stillborn, so I became the substitute. They've treated me with nothing but kindness all this while. No one else in the family knows about this, including my younger sisters, so I'm going to have to ask you to keep it a secret."

"Of course," Zi-ning quickly agreed, astonished that he had even told her these things. Zhenghuan was not the elder General Du's... but then who's child could he be? An orphan? There was a tiny doubt sitting at the back of her mind, but it seemed inappropriate to continue probing into the matter. Changing the topic, she asked, "You said that someone tried to lure you to the mountains—have you found out anything further? And those wolves..."

She instinctively glanced back towards Zhenghuan to see if he had suffered any injuries. His robes looked clean, with no visible bloodstains or gashes anywhere.

"Why? Are you worried about me?" Zhenghuan teased, peering down at her with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

Zi-ning flushed bright red, immediately spinning back to face the front. Why did he have to be so annoying!

"Mingshen is looking into the matter. We suspect that it could be part of the Eagle Warrior's plans, because we also found some inscriptions belonging to the Xifeng tribe etched on the mountain walls. We've been warring with the southern tribes for a long time, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was their handiwork, because they heard that I've returned to the border. There's one more thing..." He sucked in a breath, hesitating for a moment. "We ran into Yuchi Ling-er in the mountains."

"Yuchi Ling-er? The girl from the tribes that Yongxing rescued?"

"She was the one who helped us with the wolves. According to her, her tribe has the ability to communicate with animals of the desert, so she was able to call the wolves away. Without her intervention, we may have suffered from serious casualties. Her claim is that she was harvesting herbs from the Devil's Peaks."

"You find her suspicious?"

"Don't you?"

Zi-ning frowned. With the stress of her brother's potential demise occupying her mind, she had almost clean forgotten about this character. For a girl to be moving about on her own within a treacherous mountain range was suspicious enough, what more coincidentally running into Yongxing's contingent at the same time as a wolf pack's attack. She had not had a good feeling about this girl ever since the first time she saw her back at the teahouse, and if Yuchi Ling-er was intentionally trying to get closer to Yongxing, then she was all the more wary of her.

There was no way she was going to let anyone else hurt her brother again, not in this lifetime.

#

Back at the Du manor, an oppressive aura hung thick in the air. Other than General Du, who had been returned to the Nanmen camp to look into the matter of the misleading message about the ambush on their soldiers, the rest of the family was gathered at the main parlour, because they had received some rather alarming news.

An hour ago, the chief housekeeper, Madam Bo, had rushed back from the market in a flurry. According to her, rumours had been spreading all over the town, claiming that the newly appointed princess, Han Zi-ning, had been captured by desert bandits over at the Harun dunes. The rumours were nothing short of appalling, with variations that included lurid stories of how the bandit chief wanted to make the princess his wife, or how the bandits would share her amongst themselves once they had brought her back to their hideout.

To make matters worse, Zi-ning was nowhere to be found, lending weight to all these whispers.

Lady Du, her two daughters, Enling, Zixi and Shengwu were all sitting in the parlour, with varied expressions on their faces. The mistress of the household was wringing the silk handkerchief in her hands, looking deathly worried. Zi-ning was a guest in their household, which meant that they had a duty to guard her safety while she was here. It was bad enough that she was a minister's daughter, but now she was also a princess of the third rank, so there would be plenty of answering for if the rumours turned out to be true.

Shengwu suddenly slammed his palm against the table, giving everyone a scare.

"Is there still no news of Zi-ning's whereabouts?" he demanded.

"Bai-daren, please calm down," Lady Du said, trying her best to appease the official. "We've already sent many of the Du family guards out to search for her. I'm sure there'll be news soon."

"And what of the rumours spreading around the city? Have you also dealt with those rumour mongers!"

"The mouths are theirs. How do you expect us to stop people from speaking the truth?" Enling sneered, a mocking smile toying on her lips.

Zixi shot the girl a warning glare. "Enling, this is not the time for such comments," she scolded. "Everyone is worried enough as it is."

Enling folded her arms across her chest, nonchalantly fiddling with her own handkerchief. Trust Yu Zixi to always act like an angel, pretending to be all noble, when she must secretly also be happy with Han Zi-ning's disappearance. The more she thought about it, the more delighted she was with her own plan. Although it hadn't been cheap to hire those bandits, those silver taels were very well spent, particularly if Han Zi-ning never returned. Even if she did somehow manage to escape, her reputation would long have been ruined. Cousin Zhenghuan could never marry a woman like that.

The more she thought about it, the more gleeful she became.

"Enling, why are you smiling like that?" Aiwei asked, leaning over and whispering into her ear.

"Because today is a very good day," she replied.

"Mistress, Mistress!" The housekeeper rushed into the parlour, one finger pointing in the direction of the main entrance. "She's back. Miss Han is back!"

"What? She is?" Lady Du sprung up to her feet, arching her neck. "How is she? Is she alone?"

Back so soon? Enling scowled. She had been hoping that Zi-ning would be gone for at least an entire day, then there would be absolutely no way for her to salvage her reputation. No matter, everyone in town should have heard of the scandal by now.

Before the housekeeper could answer, Zi-ning and Zhenghuan walked in through the doors.

"Zi-ning, are you alright? Where have you been?" Shengwu asked, immediately rushing forward. He would have placed his hands upon Zi-ning's shoulders, were it not for Zhenghuan casually sticking out his arm in front of her. "They say you were captured by bandits—is that true? It's not, is it?"

Zhenghuan ushered Zi-ning into an empty chair, taking a seat beside her.

"Shengwu-ge, I'm fine," Zi-ning replied. "I did meet some bandits, but the Shadow Lord chased them away before they could do anything."

What? Nothing happened to her? How can that be!

There had to be at least five or six bandits, so there was absolutely no way Han Zi-ning could have escaped all harm, even if Cousin Zhenghuan had rushed over. The woman had to be lying to cover up for what really happened.

"No one escapes from the desert bandits unscathed," Enling burst out. "They've ruined dozens of girls from the border villages. You're lying, aren't you?"

Zi-ning turned towards her with a frosty gaze that made Enling shudder unwittingly. Why was Han Zi-ning looking at her like that? Did she know something? She couldn't possibly. Even the bandits didn't know her true identity because she had kept herself cloaked and masked when dealing with them, so there was no way anyone could find out that she had been behind this.

"Why are you so confident that I'm lying? Or perhaps you had hoped that the bandits had taken advantage of me?" Zi-ning said calmly.

The calmer Zi-ning seemed, the more antsy Enling became.

"Of course Enling doesn't mean that," Lady Du intervened, gesturing to her niece to be quiet. "Thank goodness you are back safe and sound, else we would not know how to account to His Majesty!"

"I expect a full investigation to be launched into this matter," Shengwu announced. "His Majesty has only just conferred the title of Princess of the third rank upon Zi-ning, and already such a terrible incident has occurred. This is a direct affront to His Majesty and must be treated with the utmost seriousness. I want all those rumour mongers hauled in for questioning."

Enling trembled, her handkerchief slipping out of her hand and falling onto the floor. She scrambled to pick it up, knocking into the side table noisily in the process.

"What rumour mongers?" Zhenghuan asked.

"Apparently word has been spreading rampantly across town about Zi-ning's kidnap. Some of the rumours are... extremely unpleasant," Shengwu replied, looking worriedly in Zi-ning's direction. "Zi-ning, you don't have to worry about it. We'll have everything cleared up and clarified as soon as we can."

"Zhenghuan only just brought Zi-ning back, and nothing happened, so how did the people at the market learn of this so quickly?" Zixi asked. "Unless..."

"Unless this entire incident was planned by someone," Zhenghuan answered, cold fury in every word.

Lady Du sighed loudly, rubbing her temples. "How could something like this happen? A young girl's reputation is so critical. Even if they're baseless rumours, impressions would already have formed." She looked at Zi-ning with pity. "Poor child..."

"Who's going to believe that she's not tainted. She's clearly broken now," Enling muttered sullenly.

Shengwu pointed a finger at Enling. "What did you say? I dare you to say that again?"

"Fine! It's the truth so why not?" Enling yelled, red-faced with indignation. "Who's going to believe that a girl who's been involved with bandits is clean? She's used goods in everyone's eyes! She doesn't deserve to be a princess. No decent man will want to marry her now, so she might as well pack up and go to a nunnery!"

"Enling!" Lady Du and Zixi gasped, horrified by the outburst.

Zhenghuan's eyes flashed dangerously, leaving Enling unsettled. Why was Cousin Zhenghuan looking at her this way? As if he wanted to skewer her alive? But what he would say next left her even more horrified.

"I'll marry Zi-ning."