It had been raining heavily for several days. Finally, the rain stopped, though the sky remained overcast and gloomy, leaving people feeling unsettled. Still, the cessation of the downpour brought relief to those who had been stuck indoors and even to those who had to go out despite the rain.
But for some people, whether it rained or not was of no importance. Even if the capital were flooded, it wouldnât matter to them.
Crystal-clear droplets fell steadily from the eaves, splashing on the stone-paved road that had been washed clean by the rain, creating small bursts of water.
The windows under the eaves were tightly shut, and behind them was a private room in a tavern.
Inside the room, there were only a few dishes on the table but many wine jarsâfive small ones on the table and three large ones on the floor, all empty.
The person who had drunk so much was now sprawled on the table, snoring loudly. The dim light, a result of the tightly closed doors and windows, provided an ideal environment for sleeping.
After a while, footsteps came from the corridor outside. The footsteps stopped at the door, and a faint voice said, “Is this the place?”
Then, with a loud bang, the door of the private room was kicked open, and Guo Jian, dressed in a red robe, strode in leisurely.
Startled awake by the loud noise, Li Yu groggily lifted his head, his bloodshot eyes looking towards Guo Jian.
“Isn’t this Commander Li? Why are you here drinking alone?” Guo Jian strolled by the table, hands tucked in his sleeves. Finding the room stuffy, he opened the window.
A cool breeze rushed in, dispersing the stale air that had lingered in the room overnight.
Li Yu didn’t bother with pleasantries and directly said, “Get outâ”
His voice was hoarse from the strong liquor, making him sound like a wild beast trying to drive away an intruder.
Of course, Guo Jian wasn’t about to comply. He sat down in a chair opposite Li Yu, crossed his legs, and swayed them, his tone provoking, “I heard you found out?”
Both of them knew exactly what he was referring to.
But why was Li Yu drinking? Wasnât it to temporarily forget about this matter? Now that Guo Jian brought it up again, Li Yu couldnât help but clench his jaws tightly, his cheeks slightly puffed out with the effort.
Guo Jian suspected that if he had arrived a bit earlier, Li Yu might have been so drunk that he would have lunged at him and torn him apart.
But Guo Jian continued, persistently probing at the sore spot Li Yu didnât want to touch: “Guess how I found out?”
Without waiting for Li Yu to respond, Guo Jian answered his own question, “On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, I was thrown down from the second floor of a wine shop next to Zhiya Loft by two of your men. I thought I was going to die. But when I looked up, I saw her.”
Li Yu stared at Guo Jian as if trying to restrain himself.
But Guo Jian’s next words snapped his already taut nerves: “She was wearing a hat with a veil, and the hem of her dress, visible beneath it, was greenâŚâ
“Ugh!”
The sound of the chair scraping against the floor was sharp and grating. A wine jar on the table was knocked over, rolling off and shattering on the ground.
Li Yu stood up, reached across the table, and grabbed Guo Jian by the collar, lifting him out of the chair.
Although Guo Jian was now the commander of the Chiyao Army, he was still a scholar, lacking the physical strength to carry heavy loads or engage in physical combat. He could command the Chiyao Army, but when it came to fighting the commander of the Imperial Guards, he was definitely no match.
Yet even as he was being lifted, Guo Jian didn’t show a hint of fear. He lowered his voice and said to Li Yu, “I don’t care if she’s a man or a woman, or who she really is. As long as she’s still here, even if she’s a ghost, I can accept that.”
Li Yu’s eyes were red as he gritted his teeth and spat out four words: “You know nothing!”
How could he possibly accept Gu Fu becoming a ghost after her death? But Gu Fu wasnât dead. Gu Fu was a woman. The Gu Fu he had idolized and admired was a woman! She had been from the very beginning!
How could that be the same?
Unwilling to back down, Guo Jian shot back, “And you know nothing!”
As he uttered the last syllable, Guo Jian deliberately spat on Li Yu’s face. Enraged, Li Yu flung him away, sending him crashing to the ground. He then stepped over him, heading towards the door of the private room.
Guo Jian scrambled to his feet, using both hands and feet, and grabbed the back of Li Yu’s collar, using all his strength to pull him back just as he was about to step out. With a sudden motion, he slammed the door shut.
Li Yu prepared to throw Guo Jian off a second time, and this time, he wasnât going to hold backâhe intended to send Guo Jian crashing to the ground, unable to get up.
But before he could act, Guo Jian lowered his voice and angrily demanded, “What right do you have to look down on her?!”
This blunt and piercing question directly exposed the reason behind Li Yuâs intense reaction upon learning Gu Fuâs true gender.
Li Yu looked down on women, yet the very person he had admired and looked up to as a man, Gu Fu, turned out to be a woman.
His belief system had collapsed. He couldnât accept it. He felt that seeing Gu Fu as a brother and a role model made him a fool.
But why should Gu Fuâs identity as a woman erase all that she had accomplished?
Li Yu paused slightly, giving Guo Jian the opportunity to continue speaking.
Having been thrown to the ground by Li Yu just moments ago, Guo Jian was now fired up, his tone turning sharp. As a civil official who wielded words as weapons, his tirade was especially cutting, each word a knife that drew blood: “Youâre the Empressâs nephew. You ran away from home to join the army in the northern frontier, and when you were found out, people praised you for being independent and having a promising future. But what about her? If her identity were exposed, do you know what would happen to her?”
“Not only would her reputation be completely ruined, but it would also implicate her sisters at home. The same actions, yet no one would say a good word about herâthey would only scorn and insult her, possibly driving her to death just to prevent her from shaming her family!”
“Then she shouldnât have done it!” Li Yu shouted back at Guo Jian, “Causing harm to herself and others was her own fault!â
Guo Jian shouted back, “Thatâs why, even though His Majesty allowed her to do as she pleased, he also had her father forge a false identity for her!”
Li Yu was stunned, but Guo Jian didnât press the advantage. Instead, he gradually lowered his voice: “Do you know what that means? It means that no matter how many military merits she earns, they belong to General Gu of the Northern Frontier Army and have nothing to do with the second young lady of the Gu family in the capital. Even if her identity as a woman is revealed, no one will associate her with the Gu family in the capital. She preserved the reputation of the Gu family and protected her sistersâ honor, but she abandoned her own roots. If one day she dies, do you think she would deliberately make sure thereâs nothing left of her body to hide her identity?”
Li Yuâs eyes trembled, and a dull pain spread in his chest.
But Guo Jian laughed, a particularly mocking laugh: “After all, leaving her body intact would be useless. It would only reveal that she was a woman. The Gu family wouldnât waste His Majestyâs arrangements and would leave her body to rot rather than bring it back to her homeland, ignoring the reputation of the other women in the family.”
“But you can, Young Master Li. Even if you die, your death will be better than hers. Yet despite all this, she is still more capable and stronger than you.”
“So what right do you have to look down on her? What qualifies you to look down on her?”
…
The sun broke through the thick clouds, casting faint light on the floor of the corridor on the second floor of the tavern.
The door of the private room opened, and Guo Jian stepped out. After closing the door behind him, he straightened his collar, which had been pulled askew by Li Yu. Only then did he look toward Gu Fu, who was standing against the wall in the sunlight.
Gu Fu was dressed in a pale white menâs outfit, holding the Miao knife that Gu Zhu had made for her, and wore a headband that exuded youthful energy.
Guo Jian silently bowed to Gu Fu, and Gu Fu nodded in return. She straightened up and headed for the stairs.
The usually lively tavern had been entirely reserved by Gu Fu today. Outside, a circle of Chiyao soldiers kept people at bay, ensuring no one could approach easily. This allowed Guo Jian to shout without reservation earlier, without any fear of being overheard.
After Guo Jian descended the stairs, he instructed his men to return to their duties. Reluctantly, he followed Gu Fu for a while, grumbling, “I say, General, if he can’t get over it, why not just let him stay stuck? Did you really need to call me to talk him out of it?”
Gu Fu replied, “You call that talking him out of it?”
Guo Jian chuckled, “Well, the result is the same, and I got some satisfaction out of it. Don’t worry, he’ll be too embarrassed to wallow in self-pity from now on.”
Gu Fu thought about it and said, “True.”
As they walked side by side, Gu Fu suddenly sensed a gaze directed at her. She turned to see Li Yu, still hungover, standing by the window, staring blankly at her.
When Li Yu realized Gu Fu was looking at him, he quickly ducked behind the window like a startled bird.
Gu Fu paused for a moment, then smiled and turned her gaze back, not looking back again.
…
The rumors about Mu Qingyao were quickly suppressed.
First, Mu Qingyao had a good reputation among the noblewomen of the capital, so there werenât many people willing to gossip about her. Second, there was an unreliable rumor circulating that all the women from the Gu family knew martial arts, and Mu Qingyao was just too shy to showcase her skills in publicâbecause of this, Gu Fu took the time to teach Mu Qingyao a few simple moves to use as a cover.
And third… the capital was suddenly rife with rumors, strange and sensational stories cropping up like wildfire, rivalling even the excitement around the upcoming selection of imperial consorts. In comparison, the slander about Mu Qingyao lost its momentum.
These wild tales were not only thrilling and shocking, but also deeply frightening.
The more sensational the rumors, the more people talked about themâand the more frightened they became.
Take Mu Qingyao, for example. Even though she knew from Gu Fu that all these rumors were spread by the Secret Cabinet, she was still so scared that she couldnât sleep at night and ended up running to the Feique Pavilion to sleep with Gu Fu.
Gu Fu didnât mind, but she found it a bit troublesome that Mu Qingyao kept running back and forth in the middle of the night. She asked, “Why don’t you just have one of your maids stay with you?”
Mu Qingyao calmly replied with a rather chilling question, “What if I wake up in the middle of the night, see the maidâs back turned to me, and then she turns around… and has no face?”
Gu Fu responded, “Aren’t you afraid that I might have no face?”
Mu Qingyao confidently said, “Not you. Youâre straight from the battlefield, full of righteous energy, and that wards off evil.”
Gu Fu thought, “…” Somehow, that whole ‘full of righteous energy’ thing sounds really familiar.
But despite Gu Fu’s reassurances and her repeated attempts to explain that these were just rumors, Mu Qingyao remained too scared to sleep on her own.
“The one who was stepping on rooftops at night and leaving money for wine in the shopsâthat was me. The so-called con artist who got thrown into the water likely knew how to swim and escaped by swimming away. The singing heard at night from the abandoned house in the south of the city? The Night Patrol reported it was a homeless beggar who crawled through a dog hole into the vacant house. As for the cargo ship that sank due to being overloaded, it turns out the ship was secretly carrying undeclared goods, a common trick among some of the capital’s elites to evade taxes. They just have to bribe the people at the West Market docks…”
“The magistrate from Qizhou who suddenly died at home before coming to the capital? That was the Emperor’s doing. The Secret Cabinetâs assassins tampered with the rooftop, which is why the doors and windows were locked from the inside. As for the old lady from Prince An’s residence… well, this one I really don’t know. She was clearly dead, so how did she suddenly come back to life? Iâll have to ask the princeâs heir about that.”
“You go ahead and ask. Let me know when you find out,” Mu Qingyao said, tucking herself in with a peaceful look.
Many young women like Mu Qingyao shared these night-time fears, but during the day, they would excitedly discuss these tales with others. However, their fear and excitement soon turned into terror within a few weeks.
This was because a “half-immortal” suddenly appeared in the city. Although he didnât have the ethereal beauty of the Imperial Preceptor, he was quite capable. He helped several families solve the strange occurrences in their homes and quickly gained a following.
Even the death of the magistrate from Qizhou was “solved” by this half-immortal. It was said that the magistrate had been harboring an evil spirit, and even after his death, the spirit continued to linger in the inn. To prove this, the half-immortal brought a demon-seeking lantern to the inn, and as soon as the lantern entered, its flame turned a menacing green, which terrified everyone present.
The half-immortal’s reputation spread throughout the capital, and one day, someone asked him whether the recent surge in strange events in the capital was a sign from the heavens.
At first, the half-immortal was reluctant to answer, but eventually, when pressed, he began to mutter a string of mystical words. Finally, he concluded that something had gone wrong in the underworld, leading to an excess of yin energy in the capital. The heavy rains from a few days ago were just a precursor to this imbalance.
The half-immortal went on to say that to prevent further strange occurrences and to ensure peace in the capital, it was necessary to restore the balance between yin and yang. And how could this be done?
By sacrificing unmarried women who were overly saturated with yin energy.
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