To Protect Her for a Lifetime
The commotion inside the post station had grown so loud that even Li Tianfu came hurrying toward it.
Soldiers in Xiliang garb were locked in a fierce fight with Liu Chentuo, and Li Zhijie — drenched head to toe in blood — was, of all things, shielding Bai Jingyan, an enemy of his own state, with his body.
“Stop! That's an order! Stop this instant! What do you think you're doing?”
Li Tianfu snatched the sword straight from the guard standing beside her and ran into the chaos.
At the sight of Princess Li Tianfu, the Xiliang soldiers froze mid-motion.
Li Tianfu turned to shield the wounded Liu Chentuo behind her. Seeing blood gushing relentlessly from his knee, she screamed in fury.
“Li Zhijie, have you lost your mind!”
Before Li Zhijie could answer, Liu Chentuo gripped Li Tianfu's shoulder and spoke in a low voice.
“Forgive me, Your Highness!”
The words had barely left his mouth when he shoved Li Tianfu and her sword aside. But before he could take even a few strides toward Bai Jingyan, the air split with a sharp whistle. His throat felt as though it were boiling. He opened his mouth — and no sound came out.
Li Zhijie whipped his head around in shock, staring at the Sun-Shooting Bow in Bai Jingyan's hands, its arrow already vanished.
Li Tianfu, knocked flat by the force of the push, stared with wide, rounded eyes — and then began to scream.
Liu Chentuo lowered his head. The wound itself was hidden from view, but blood was soaking through his clothes, staining them a deep crimson.
He raised a hand to press against the hole the arrow had punched through his throat. Scarlet blood welled up between his fingers, then poured down into his windpipe. He wrenched his mouth open, but he could not breathe. With a dazed, empty expression, he toppled backward.
“Liu Chentuo! Liu Chentuo!”
Li Tianfu shoved aside the maid who had moved to support her and ran to him like a woman possessed, throwing her arms around his body just as it neared the ground. Like someone out of her mind, she pressed her hand hard against his throat and shrieked.
“Liu Chentuo! A physician! Get a physician! Someone bring a physician, now!”
Tears had gathered in Liu Chentuo's bloodshot eyes. His gaze stayed fixed on Li Tianfu, who was weeping, too terrified and shaken to know what to do.
He had known, of course, that this was the day he would die here. But having come this far, what weighed on him most was Li Tianfu.
People said she was arrogant, difficult, and forever throwing her weight around. But Liu Chentuo knew her better than anyone. She was nothing more than a young girl who wanted the attention of the Emperor and the Empress — a girl with a kind heart and a fragile one at that.
Acting strong, posturing fierce — it was all a mask for how soft and helpless she truly was inside.
If Li Tianfu had not saved him back then, he would surely have been bullied to death by the eunuchs of the Xiliang palace.
He had lived his whole life for vengeance. Nothing lay ahead of him but revenge for his adopted father — and Li Tianfu had been the one existence he had never planned for. To him, she had been a single thread of light in an endless, pitch-black darkness.
He was not afraid to die. He was only afraid that his death would leave nothing behind for Li Tianfu but grief and pain.
With a hand slicked in blood, Liu Chentuo clutched Li Tianfu's fingers as hard as he could. His nose twitched faintly, and tears spilled down without pause. Toward her, he could only manage a strained smile; he no longer had the strength even to speak.
“It's all right! It's all right. I won't let you die. I won't leave you….”
Li Tianfu crushed him against her and screamed like a madwoman.
“Li Zhijie! Call a physician! Hurry! If this man dies, I will kill every single person here!”
Liu Chentuo parted his lips, and red blood flowed out of his mouth.
There was something he wanted to tell her. That if there was a next life, he wanted to stay by her side and protect her again. But in that next life, he did not want to live as a eunuch. He wanted to live as her man — to speak the words at last: that he wished to be her husband, and guard her for the rest of her days.
But before the words could leave him, Liu Chentuo's pupils dimmed. The hand gripping Li Tianfu's fingers went slack.
“Liu Chentuo! Liu Chentuo!”
Li Tianfu screamed, her heart tearing apart.
“Don't leave me! Liu Chentuo… you said you'd stay by my side! Liu Chentuo! Get up! Open your eyes!”
Bai Jingyan stood behind Li Zhijie, watching Li Tianfu wail as though her whole world had collapsed. The woman's clothes were soaked in red. Only now did it occur to her that the bond between Li Tianfu and Liu Chentuo was no ordinary one.
And she thought she understood, too, why Liu Chentuo had been so desperate to kill her. This Liu Chentuo was the adopted son of Fang Pingguo.
When she had beheaded Fang Pingguo and toppled the state of Shu, the Emperor had issued a sacred edict ordering the extermination of his entire clan. But her grandfather had counseled the Emperor to spare Fang Pingguo's family — that there was no need to slaughter the innocent.
To think that decision from long ago would leave behind such a poisoned seed.
Li Zhijie worried that the Crown Prince of Jin might glimpse the Xiliang princess cradling a eunuch's corpse and weeping over it. Seeing such a sight could easily breed disgust in the Crown Prince. So before the man could enter, he ordered the guards to pull Liu Chentuo and Li Tianfu apart at once.
“Let go! Who dares lay hands on me! Save my Atuo! Li Zhijie, you've gone mad!”
Li Tianfu screamed, her whole body trembling — transformed into something like a rabid beast.
“I am the Princess of Xiliang! Lay a hand on me and I'll have your entire clans exterminated!”
“By sacred edict of the Empress Dowager, all matters touching on peace and marriage alliances fall under my authority. Her Majesty granted me the power to act at my own discretion!”
Li Zhijie's face was carved from ice as he watched the guards and maids Li Tianfu was frantically shoving away. He clenched his jaw.
“What are you waiting for — escort Her Highness the Princess to her chambers at once! Without my order, the Princess does not set one foot outside that room! Disobey, and you will pay for it with your heads!”
Li Tianfu thrashed and shrieked like something unhinged. Her voice — despair and raw wailing tangled together — called Liu Chentuo's name again and again, but in the end the burly guards dragged her away to the inner chamber.
The Crown Prince, Xiao Rongyan, and Bai Jinchi entered together, bringing the palace guards of the Crown Prince's residence and the Bai family's own retinue. Their eyes went from Liu Chentuo's corpse to Li Zhijie's grave wounds, and back again.
Xiao Rongyan had happened to be at the Crown Prince's residence, and word had reached him that the Emperor of Yan and his eldest son, Murong Li, were out boating on the lake. He had also learned that the Grand Eunuch Feng Yao, who shared the lake with them, had his own pleasure barge on hand — and so he had proposed they go along together.
But the moment he finished relaying this to the Crown Prince, a guard from the Bai manor had come running in bearing a gilded box.
Having heard that Bai Jingyan, Sun-Shooting Bow in hand, had gone to the post station to confront Li Zhijie and save her younger brother, Xiao Rongyan could not rest — and so he had come here together with the Crown Prince.
Only after confirming that Bai Jingyan was unharmed did Xiao Rongyan turn his deep, unreadable gaze back to Li Zhijie.
“Sister!”
The moment Bai Jinchi saw Bai Jingyan standing behind Li Zhijie, she drew her sword and leveled it at him, her eyes blazing with bloodshot fury.
“Li Zhijie! Where is my second uncle? Hand him over — now!”
She was not the only one demanding a person be handed over. The commoners outside the station were roaring themselves hoarse, insisting that Xiliang surrender the Bai second young master at once.
Bai Jingyan lowered the Sun-Shooting Bow, sank to her knees, and bowed deeply.
“Your Highness. Among the gift boxes Prince Yan sent to our manor today, there was a ring — one my second younger brother always wore when practicing archery — along with a letter. The letter commanded me to come to this post station alone!
When I arrived, Li Zhijie told me that if I helped him broach the subject of a marriage between my fourth younger sister and himself at Her Majesty's birthday banquet tomorrow, he would return my second brother to us!”
Bai Jingyan bowed low again before the Crown Prince.
“Your Highness, I beg you to see justice done for the Bai family! Save my second younger brother!”
The color drained from Li Zhijie's face. How ruthless a honesty this woman wields!
Xiao Rongyan looked down at the woman kneeling on the floor with that unflinching expression, laughter glinting faintly in his eyes. The more candid Bai Jingyan was with the Crown Prince, the more he had no choice but to trust her.
And clearly, Bai Jingyan knew it well — knew, too, exactly what the Crown Prince wanted in return.
So long as the Crown Prince believed utterly in Bai Jingyan's loyalty, then no matter how grave a mistake she made, he would protect her to the fullest extent of his power.
It had all happened far too suddenly. Li Zhijie had no time left to weigh his options.
“Your Highness — that day at the Flower Banquet, I fell in love with the Gaoyi County Princess of Jin at first sight. When word reached me that the Emperor of Yan was pressing forward with a marriage between the ninth prince of Great Yan and the Gaoyi County Princess, I grew desperate — and that is when I resorted to such a cowardly scheme!”
“Cowardly or clever, I don't care! You threatened me with my second uncle — so return him! Or I'll kill you right here and now, march to Yunjing, and slaughter every last one of your family with my own hands!”
Bai Jinchi's rage boiled over; the veins stood out dark and thick across the back of her sword hand. Her voice was hoarse and unyielding.
Li Zhijie met the Crown Prince's frozen stare, and a sense of dread crept over him. He shut his eyes tightly for a moment — then suddenly clutched at the wound on his shoulder. Mimicking the very deference Bai Jingyan had shown the Crown Prince, he lowered his head as if he had no other choice.
“Your Highness, I beg you to judge wisely. All I had was this one ring — and even that was given to me by a dead servant of mine. It was that lowborn wretch who proposed the whole scheme. He claimed it would not only win me the Gaoyi County Princess, but also plant suspicion of the Zhenguo Commandery Princess in the hearts of the Emperor and Crown Prince of Jin. If this affair cost the Commandery Princess her command of the army, he said, Xiliang would finally have room to breathe. That was the countermeasure he offered me. But… never did I imagine the wretch would try to kill the Commandery Princess!”
Bai Jingyan's brow twitched, a murderous gleam sharpening in her eyes.
From the first moment she had laid eyes on Li Zhijie, she had known he was dangerously clever. But she had never imagined he possessed the audacity to wager everything on a single throw — to half-rewrite this scheme, blending truth with lies, without the slightest fear that the Crown Prince of Jin might hold him to account.
“Prince Yan. Do you truly believe this ends by dumping every crime and every blame onto a dead man? That ring was sent to my household by you. Hand over my second brother today — or pay for it with your life.”
A cold that pierced to the bone ran through Bai Jingyan's words.
This time it was the Crown Prince whose brow jumped. Bai Jingyan was a woman who did what she said she would. And yet he, the Crown Prince of Jin, absolutely could not allow the Prince of Xiliang to die on Jin soil.
“Zhenguo Commandery Princess. I trust you. But leave this matter to me — you and the Gaoyi County Princess are both too close to it to judge it with a level head.”
Bai Jingyan gripped the Sun-Shooting Bow tight and held her silence for a long moment before she finally spoke.
“Then I place my faith in Your Highness!”
Only then did the Crown Prince let out a breath of relief.
“However….”
Bai Jingyan turned her gaze on Li Zhijie.
“Prince Yan must swear before Heaven that my second brother's safety is guaranteed. Swear that if any harm comes to him, the Prince of Yan's entire family will die slow, agonizing deaths.”