Emperor Jingren was looking around when suddenly a strip of cloth covered his eyes. The empress tied the cloth at the back of his head and whispered, “This scene will be too bloody. Your Majesty had better not watch.”

Then Emperor Jingren felt emptiness behind him as the empress flew off somewhere, leaving him alone on horseback.

Once he had recovered from the surprise, Emperor Jingren was rather irate about having his eyes blindfolded. Though he had never killed anyone on a battlefield, before he had inherited the throne, palace power struggles had been cutthroat. Emperor Jingren wasn’t a hothouse flower. This painstaking protection from the empress upset him.

He was an emperor, but he was also a man. Though he wasn’t as strong or as skilled as the empress, at least he wouldn’t hold her back, and he certainly didn’t want anyone to treat him like a coward.

Emperor Jingren untied the cloth and witnessed the most incredible sight he had ever beheld.

The empress was all but floating in midair, the sword in her hand gleaming with cold light. Dozens of black-clothed men kept charging at Emperor Jingren, while the empress wielded her sword with one hand and in her other hand held countless stones, which she threw at the assassins. Her aim was precise. Each stone hit a vital spot, and each hit was successful. The men in black couldn’t even get close to Emperor Jingren.

And he wasn’t using the sword to kill the attackers but purely to block the droplets of blood flying from the assassins, like the red leaves the other day. There was a bloody mist hovering in the air, yet not a drop of blood reached Emperor Jingren’s bright yellow robe.

Emperor Jingren was stunned.

In an instant, seventy-eighty people were all taken down by stones, and the empress came back through the bloody mist to her horse, returned the sword to its scabbard, and said to Emperor Jingren, “I thought that I would be able to finish the battle before Your Majesty untied the blindfold. Oh, well. It’s been too long since I was in a real fight. My skills aren’t what they used to be.”

He resisted asking the empress just how good she had been before, or how Marshal Xiao had ever brought himself to send her to the palace to be married when she had such skills, or any unsuitable question like that. Pulling a long face, he said, “We are no fragile hothouse flower. We do not require you to be so cautious. Had we missed seeing such an exquisite display of your skills, that would have been something to regret.”

The empress stared at him for a moment, then laughed very quietly in Emperor Jingren’s ear. “For some reason, Your Majesty’s answers are always beyond expectation but entirely within reason.”

“Of course it’s all within reason. What do you mean, beyond expectation?” Emperor Jingren turned his head to shoot the empress a glare. “Are there any survivors?”

The empress’s expression stiffened. Awkwardly, she said, “Well… You know, Your Majesty, my skills aren’t for show. They’re for killing the enemy in battle. Using all my strength, it’s hard to leave survivors. I’ll go check.”

Emperor Jingren sighed and grabbed the empress’s hand, not letting her get off the horse. His grip was unexpectedly strong. “You are much too important to be asked to perform a task like rifling through corpses. We sent up a flare just now. Soon the imperial guard will arrive. They’ll do it.”

The empress smiled again, still that same “beyond expectation but entirely within reason” smile.

The two of them looked at each other, leaning closer and closer together. The empress couldn’t help drawing her arms tight around Emperor Jingren’s waist. Her lips were just about to touch Emperor Jingren’s pale pink lips—

Then a woman’s scream came from the forest.

Emperor Jingren and the empress froze.

 A woman dressed in the uniform of a eunuch scrambled out of the pile of corpses and reached Emperor Jingren and the empress. She kept screaming at the sight of the corpses, but she still recognized who was in front of her. “Y-Your Majesty!”

The empress was dressed as a guard. Naturally Su Huailing didn’t recognize her.

“Your Majesty!” Su Huailing was about to kneel upon seeing Emperor Jingren, but just then one of the bodies moved, hurling a throwing knife toward the empress. But because the attacker was injured, his aim was off, and the knife flew at Emperor Jingren!

Su Huailing saw that knife at once and threw herself in front of Emperor Jingren without a thought.

But the empress kicked Su Huailing aside and simultaneously flicked her wrist. A stone blocked the knife. The empress’s wrist moved again, and a second stone struck the center of the assassin’s brow precisely, piercing his skull. This assassin, likely the sole survivor, was now also as dead as could be.

It looked as if Su Huailing must have been seriously injured by the empress’s kick, but instead she got to her feet, completely unharmed. Her lovely eyes, full of gratitude, gazed upon the guard who had saved her life.

Emperor Jingren glanced at Su Huailing. For some reason, the always calm empress seemed a little nervous.

Three months had passed, and Emperor Jingren had developed a problem remembering faces after hitting his head. He had absolutely no memory of this person being the lucky Su Huailing, the one who had knocked him over. Not recognizing her, he frowned and asked, “Was this woman trying to take the knife for us just now?”

The empress was no longer smiling. Calmly, she said, “Precisely.”

“Strange,” Emperor Jingren said dubiously, looking at Su Huailing. “We are astride this horse, and in order to hit us here, the knife had to fly up more than the height of a man. This woman does not appear proficient in the lightness skill. How was she planning on jumping high enough to take the knife?”

Su Huailing was taken aback.

“Anyway, with the…with our guard here, we have no need for a woman to take a knife for us.” Emperor Jingren was no longer looking at the knife; he gave the empress a smile full of trust.

The thread of unease in the empress’s heart relaxed. She smiled back at Emperor Jingren understandingly.

Unfortunately, there was an outsider present. Two men riding the same horse might be explained away as an expedient measure in the heat of the moment, but if they kept making eyes at each other, or even couldn’t help themselves and kissed, Emperor Jingren would never escape the rumors that he enjoyed the company of men.

So, with great restraint, Emperor Jingren turned around and said to Su Huailing, “You there. We will forgo for the moment to ask why you have snuck into the hunting grounds dressed as a eunuch. Soon the Imperial Guard will be here to question you. Now, we order you to inspect these seventy-eight people and see whether there are any survivors, and, if there are, to tie them up. Then we will not punish you for trespassing on the hunting grounds.”

Then he removed the rope meant for tying up game from the horse and tossed it at Su Huailing’s feet.

Su Huailing was speechless.

But speechless or not, she still had to get to work. This person was the emperor of Xia, the most powerful person in the land. No one would dare to disobey his orders.

So Su Huailing wiped the tears from her face and forced herself to climb to her feet. Shivering with dread, she went to turn over the bodies one by one to see if any were alive.

“The Imperial Guard are far behind. It will be safer to have someone check now,” Emperor Jingren explained. He didn’t seem to think there was anything inhumane about making a weak woman check corpses.

The empress was silent.

She really wanted to ask Emperor Jingren whether it was right for him to treat Su Huailing like this. After all, that woman was…

But while she opened her mouth, the empress couldn’t force out her question. She simply kept her arms around Emperor Jingren’s waist as the two of them sat astride the horse, looking on as a delicate woman struggled to inspect the corpses.

Just as Emperor Jingren had predicted, the Imperial Guard had been left far behind. Long after the flare had gone up, no one had arrived. Emperor Jingren was just getting impatient when an elderly and high-pitched voice said, “Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I’ve come late to the rescue, I’ll…huh?”

Eunuch Lian, who had used his lightness skill to dash through the forest, looked at the pile of corpses, and all the phrases he had prepared to take credit for someone else’s achievement withered on his tongue. There was nothing but bewilderment left in his eyes.

Here’s what was supposed to have happened: the imperial guard would fight for an hour before they were all killed in action. Emperor Jingren, alone, would be pursued on horseback. Then Su Huailing would put on Emperor Jingren’s clothes and selflessly lead the enemy away so Emperor Jingren could escape. Weren’t these assassins supposed to be extremely skilled fighters? Each one of them with the strength of a hundred men? Eunuch Lian had deliberately dawdled upon seeing the flare. Though he was a good fighter, he was still just one person. It would be safer for him to show up once the Imperial Guard had taken care of some of the assassins.

“Oh? Eunuch Lian?” The empress raised her eyebrows at Eunuch Lian, her expression unfathomable.

But Emperor Jingren looked pleased to see Eunuch Lian. “You’re just in time. This woman is too slow. Go help her check for survivors. If you find any, give them a restorative and tie them up. They just need not to die.”

“As Your Majesty commands,” stammered Eunuch Lian.

Cradling his bleeding heart, he trotted over to Su Huailing and started looking for survivors with her.

The emperor and empress were still sitting on horseback, watching them work as before and exchanging glances while no one was watching.

Emperor Jingren had been looked after so well by the empress that despite the battle he had experienced, there wasn’t a single speck of dirt on him. When he pulled a long face, he looked very stern. But the empress was a little entranced. She drew closer, wanting to… She didn’t know herself what she wanted to do, but she still wanted to get closer…

“Your Majesty!” Yan Xu finally arrived with the Imperial Guard. He knelt before Emperor Jingren and said, “I actually lost Your Majesty! I am at fault!”

The empress was thwarted.