Chapter 6

“If I could make Pei Yan understand that a lowborn woman like me could take his precious life, I would have no regrets about dying.”

The Empress was silent for a moment, then sighed softly.

“If it came to that, I would find it a great pity.”

“Two people asked me to summon you today. One was General Ji, newly returned to the capital. The other was Du Ruoshui, Minister of Works. I thought you might wish to meet General Ji first.”

Lady Wei led me away.

The palace paths wound this way and that. I followed slowly, still dazed.

Before my first visit to the palace, I’d thought I was walking into certain death.

Instead, it might be a way to live.

Soon we reached a set of duty rooms.

At the sight of the figure pacing outside, I scarcely dared blink.

I stood rooted to the spot. Only when he strode toward me did I dare believe he wasn’t an illusion.

Lady Wei withdrew with a smile.

He came up to me, bent down, and gently butted his forehead against mine like a bull.

Years ago, when our parents were still alive, we used to argue and butt heads like that. No one could pull us apart.

Eventually, our parents stopped trying. They let us keep at it through the pain until, every time, he could bear it no longer and surrendered with a grimace.

Now he had undergone his capping ceremony, and I my hairpin ceremony.

Butting heads again only knocked his cap and my hairpin askew.

If Mother could see us, she would surely grumble that her two children couldn’t muster a shred of composure or dignity between them.

But, Mother, this time I didn’t fight back.

I only stood there, looking at the man nudging my forehead, at his slanting scar and broad grin.

My eyes filled.

“Brother!”

So the General Ji everyone in the capital was talking about was my brother, Li Yue.

To keep our clansmen in Zhao Commandery from learning that he’d enlisted, he’d had a sudden idea while registering and slipped the official some silver.

“Ji Zhiyi. What do you think? Not a bad name, is it?”

“There was only one thing I knew I had to remember: a stubborn little sister in the capital, who loved arguing with me, was waiting for me to bring her home.”

With me, my brother was never solemn.

He boasted of rising step by step from a common soldier to a commandant.

Just as, when we were children, he’d found a long, straight branch by the river and kept waving it in front of me to show it off.

This time, I didn’t jump up and rap his forehead. I simply asked, “And then?”

He scratched his head.

“Then? I received a letter sent by our relatives at the Pei house.”

I paused.

My letter had made him desperately anxious.

The war had reached a fierce stalemate. When he heard that the commander wanted to lure the enemy out and needed someone to lead troops deep into their camp as bait, he volunteered.

Surrounded on every side, he led his men through the enemy lines and, in the process, took the enemy commander’s head.

An arrow shot from hiding in that battle had left the diagonal scar across the bridge of his nose.

“There was nothing obviously wrong with your letter. But since when have you ever spoken to me like that?”

“Li Shenbi wouldn’t let me see a single tear when we parted. If she wrote to say she missed home, she must have been terribly wronged in the capital.”

His Majesty valued military talent and kept my brother in the palace for three days as a mark of favor.

The kindhearted Empress kept me for three days too, so I could consult the Minister of Works about mechanisms.

Minister Du was over sixty, but still spry. He often visited workshops throughout the capital.

He had happened upon the mechanical horse I designed and was immensely excited. After studying it repeatedly without discovering how it worked, he asked the Empress to recruit its maker.

He talked with me for two days and insisted on appointing me the Ministry of Works’ first female section chief.

The Empress was currently conducting affairs of state on His Majesty’s behalf, and appointments of female officials were issued from the palace.

Minister Du hurried off to request her decree. My brother and I returned to the general’s residence bestowed on him by the Emperor.

Its gates were tall and broad, its rooms spacious.

We wandered freely through the grounds, marking out areas and planning a cuju pitch and a range for jiushe archery.

As we argued over them, my competitive streak returned. I told him I’d saved some silver too and had intended to buy a house to make a new home for us.

Only, the money and silver notes were still at the Pei residence.