Chapter 7

Fu Nangui: “…”

Even I had no idea what I was babbling about.

All I could think of was how I would explain to my parents that I’d brought a man home.

But when we reached the gate, my parents were returning from the market. The moment they saw Fu Nangui, they hurried over and took his hands.

“Nangui! It really is you!”

“How long has it been? Did you come all this way just to visit us?”

“Come in, come in! You have to stay a few days this time!”

…

They talked without stopping.

Every word was familiar to me, but somehow I couldn’t understand a single sentence.

How…?

They knew each other?

Since when? Why hadn’t I known?

A scene suddenly flashed through my mind.

It was still this same old courtyard.

Fu Nangui, dressed in white, was practicing swordsmanship. My brother was painting beside him, while I lay sprawled on the wall, watching.

That unfamiliar memory filled me with sudden panic.

Had I forgotten something?

What frightened me even more was what I found while preparing a guest room for Fu Nangui: several bright pink outfits, flamboyant to the point of being outrageous.

I assumed Pei Feng had found himself a wife while I was away.

But Mother said they belonged to the miracle doctor who had come to cure my brother’s poison. He’d left them behind.

A miracle doctor who liked to wear pink.

A name immediately came to mind.

“Could he have been called… Qingyun?”

“How did you know?”

I froze as if struck by lightning.

The person who’d cured Pei Feng’s poison was Qingyun. He knew my brother had stayed in Pei County because of the poison, so of course he knew the man in the capital was an impostor.

And he was close to Fu Nangui.

If he knew…

How could Fu Nangui not know?

14

I thought again of the times I’d pretended to be ill, when Fu Nangui had held me and comforted me, telling me not to be afraid.

When I’d been in danger, he hadn’t hesitated to take a blade for me, risking his own life.

All of that… hadn’t been for my brother.

It had been for me—Pei Ning?

Everything was a mess. A complete mess.

Then who were all those portraits in his secret chamber?

Just thinking about it made my head ache as if it were about to split open. I could only keep hitting my head to ease the pain.

My parents were frightened.

“A-Ning, don’t think about it anymore! If you can’t remember, that’s all right. Don’t force yourself!”

At some point, Fu Nangui had come over.

He pulled me into his arms, holding me tight as if he wanted to keep me there forever.

“It’s all right now… I’m here.”

That line again.

But this time, when I heard it, a memory long buried suddenly came back to me.

It had happened one Winter Solstice.

I’d been bored, so I went up the mountain to hunt. I got lost and happened upon Fu Nangui lying in the snow, covered in wounds.

He’d been seriously injured when enemy spies infiltrated Great Zhou and attacked him. As he lay close to death, I found him.

The mountain path was long. I dragged him down, one step at a time.

At one point, Fu Nangui regained consciousness. His breathing was weak.

“Miss… go on without me.”

“Be quiet!”

He wouldn’t listen.

“If you take me with you… you won’t make it out either.”

“It’s fine. I’m here.”

I gritted my teeth.

“Save your strength and stay alive. Say one more word and I’ll gag you with a strip of cloth.”

I led him through the forest for two whole days.

At the most dangerous moment, we had to huddle close together in a cave.

Half-conscious, I only felt someone holding me. I think he even said something sappy about repaying me with his life.

I don’t know whose luck was better—mine or his.

In the end, neither of us died.

I took Fu Nangui home to recover.

He ended up staying for three months.

He and my brother, Pei Feng, hit it off as soon as they met and quickly became friends.

Most of the time, Fu Nangui practiced swordsmanship while Pei Feng painted.

And me…

I climbed the wall to admire Fu Nangui’s abs.

Unfortunately, Fu Nangui was stingy and rarely took his shirt off. He wasn’t as generous as the young instructor at the nearby martial arts school.

I lost interest and eventually stopped watching Fu Nangui, switching to the school instead.

The instructor blushed easily. Teasing him a little was enough to turn his face bright red.

I was perched on the wall, waiting for him to bathe in the courtyard so I could whistle at him, when someone below called my name.

“Pei Ning.”

I jumped, lost my footing, and fell.

The next moment, I landed in a warm embrace.

Fu Nangui’s chest was scorching hot. His heart pounded fiercely.

Maybe the fall had frightened me; my own heart was pounding, too. I snapped, “Why did you scare me like that?”

Fu Nangui frowned slightly.

“You’re a young woman. Why do you like peeking at other people?”

I immediately bristled.

Why was it that when a young man climbed a wall to sneak a look at the woman he liked, it was called romantic—but when I looked at a young man, it was wrong?

I huffed.

“Why can’t I? I like looking. If you won’t let me look at you, who else am I supposed to look at?”

I struggled to get down.

But Fu Nangui showed no intention of letting me go.

“I’ll let you.”

His words made no sense to me.

“What?”

“If you want to look at me, I’ll let you. But I’m a possessive man. Once you’ve looked at me, you’re not allowed to look at anyone else.”

At the time, I thought he was just a little possessive.

But it would’ve been a waste not to admire those abs.

He was more handsome than every man at the martial arts school next door.

Heh heh.

My brother had laughed at me once.

“You fool. He was proposing to you, and you just stood there grinning.”

Where had everything started to go wrong?

Right.

It was after Fu Nangui returned to the capital, before he recommended my brother for an official post.

A group of assassins attacked our home.

My brother was poisoned.

And because I took a blade for Fu Nangui, I hit my head on a cabinet and lost consciousness.

When I woke up…

I’d forgotten Fu Nangui.

After that, I went to the capital in my brother’s place.

Fu Nangui had once found an imperial physician to treat me.

There was a time when my condition improved. I thought I’d fully recovered, and Fu Nangui and I spent a whole month blissfully together, without a shred of shame.

But one day, when I woke up…

I’d forgotten him again.

That was a lingering effect of my old injury.

Unless it was completely cured, I would keep losing my memory from time to time.

Each time, I’d forget everything about him.

That was why Fu Nangui had summoned Qingyun.

No wonder my brother and parents had been perfectly content to let me wreak havoc alone in the capital.

Fu Nangui was there. He would take responsibility for every mess I made.

No wonder he’d deliberately let me bring people to his manor and spread the rumor that he favored men.

He’d never intended to marry.

He only wanted to use the opportunity to root out hidden dangers in the capital, then go to the border and search for the medicine Qingyun said could cure my memory loss.

The secret chamber covered in paintings…

Every portrait was of me.

I was the one Fu Nangui had always loved.

15

When I woke the next morning, my parents were gathered around the bed, so tense they hardly dared blink.

“A-Ning, how are you feeling?”

“I feel fine.”

Father pointed at himself.

“Who am I?”

“Father.”

Mother pointed at herself.

“And who am I?”

“Mother.”

I sighed helplessly.

“Mother, I’m starving!”

“We’ll get you something to eat right away!”

After my parents hurried out, I noticed a figure slipping quickly past the edge of the bed.

I threw off the blanket and ran to the door, just in time to see him standing in the courtyard.

“Hey!”

I called out.

The man paused and turned to look at me.

“My parents asked me who they were. Why didn’t you come and ask me?”

He looked at me for a long time, his gaze complicated, then murmured, “I didn’t dare.”

I leaned against the doorway and laughed.

“If I’d said I didn’t know you, were you really going to leave without a word?”

He shook his head.

“I planned to hurt myself a little, then lie on a road you were sure to pass so you could save me one more time.”

That was Fu Nangui, all right.

It sounded exactly like something he’d come up with.

But I thought it was far too foolish.

“Do you know the fastest way to make me remember you?”

He was taken aback, then shook his head.

I crooked a finger at him.

“Your Highness… will you show me your abs?”

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Epilogue

After two months of shamelessly staying in Pei County, Fu Nangui was finally sent back to the capital by me.

First, my brother had offended too many people. Without support, he wouldn’t be able to handle them.

Second, Fu Nangui had been away from the capital too long. Given the emperor’s suspicious nature, he was bound to grow wary.

“His Majesty already dislikes you. He used to think up all kinds of ways to make me impeach you and find fault with you. A ruler is like a tiger—best be careful.”

Fu Nangui was very obedient.

He immediately rode day and night back to the capital.

Not long afterward, a letter arrived from Pei Feng.

He said Fu Nangui had beaten up the young emperor.

I was so shocked my jaw nearly hit the floor.

When Fu Nangui returned, he acted as if it were nothing.

“Children should be disciplined when they enter their rebellious phase.”

No, wait…

All this time, I’d been terrified, worrying every day that I’d lose my head…

And the whole thing had only been a young emperor throwing a tantrum because he was going through a rebellious phase?

I couldn’t believe it.

“Are you sure he doesn’t hold a grudge?”

“Don’t worry. He’s found a new target for his rebellion.”

“Who?”

“His second uncle is traveling everywhere and living too carefree a life. The emperor thinks he’s enjoying himself too much and insists on summoning him back to the capital to serve as an official.”

…

Then he really did deserve the beating.

But…

When I saw Fu Nangui bringing bag after bag of belongings—almost half the prince’s manor—into my house, I panicked.

“Wait, you’re not going back?!”

Fu Nangui lifted me into his arms with one hand.

Beneath the peach tree, he smiled faintly and bent down to kiss my forehead.

“This is my betrothal gift.”

Before I could react, he carried me inside with long strides.

I cried out in alarm, “What are you doing now?!”

“I’ve been working hard at martial arts lately.”

“So?”

“I’m going to show you my abs.”

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