Chapter 55 Unexplained Hostility

Dusk bled across the pale smoke rising from the charcoal kilns, and a crescent moon hung suspended over Mount Tianmeng, stretching the shadows of the two figures long upon the ground. Shen Jifeng walked back, stepping over a scatter of wood chips, turning over in her mind the extra expenses the mine would incur according to Wei Xiao’s suggestions.

"Preoccupied?"

"Just doing some math."

Barely a furlong away from the charcoal yard, straining their ears, they could still catch the voices of Uncle Ma and the others. Shen Jifeng suddenly came to a halt.

"Is this the way back to the mine? Didn't we take a wrong turn?"

Shen Jifeng's wide, innocent eyes, devoid of any pretense or guard, fell full into Wei Xiao's view. If her wandering in circles through the woods upon their first meeting could be explained away as the panic and disorientation of someone who had just taken a life, then the scene before him now proved to Wei Xiao with absolute certainty: Shen Jifeng was completely, hopelessly directionless!

"You don't remember the way?" Wei Xiao asked, though he knew the answer.

"Head east," he added, seeming to offer a kindly reminder.

Shen Jifeng glanced at the diverging paths ahead, reached out her index finger, and pointed randomly into the empty air. "This way?"

Miraculously, even a blind cat occasionally found a dead mouse.

"Mn." A low, gravelly voice resonated in the gathering night, carrying a trace of unperceived amusement.

Head held high, hands clasped behind her back, Shen Jifeng strode forward swaggeringly. That spirited, full-of-itself bearing made her look for all the world like a rooster inspecting its territory.

The rooster was in high spirits. She cast aside the deliberate aloofness and distance she had maintained, reverting to the dynamic of their earliest days together. "General Wei, keeping the miners inside is one thing, but surely there's no need to forbid anyone from bringing items in?"

Wei Xiao paused, turning his head to look at her. "Does the Princess know that back in southern Yunnan, the greatest danger was never an invading enemy, but rather spies who managed to slip into our camp? A single spark was enough to burn half our grain reserves to the ground."

Shen Jifeng grasped the point instantly. Cutting off the supply of goods sent into the mine effectively sealed off the route by which tools for wrongdoing could be smuggled in. Taking a step back, even if someone with malicious intent lingered at the mine, without tools, they could hardly turn the place upside down.

"Groups of ten, choose an honest and steady fellow as leader, and check each other before going down the mine every day," Shen Jifeng decided to put Wei Xiao's method into practice. "As for punishment, we can't simply copy the military's collective liability, but if anyone shields a rule-breaker, the entire squad loses twenty percent of their wages—under the weight of heavy profit, they'll keep a sharp eye on their companions themselves."

That was a pragmatic thought. Wei Xiao could not help curving his lips into a smile. "The Princess's method is much softer than military discipline."

"General Wei, Old Man San managed to sneak in despite being a lame drunkard. Shouldn't we add more men to the guards?"

Wei Xiao dearly wanted to say that apart from Dongyang, adding more of such superficial guards was entirely useless. But one does not strike a person in the face; he had to leave the Princess with ample dignity.

"Princess, an army is raised for a thousand days to be used in a single hour."

"Ah, but I've been feeding them all along, keeping them well-fed and well-watered."

Wei Xiao was at a loss for words. "Aside from feeding them, there is also the matter of drilling."

Shen Jifeng experienced a sudden flash of insight. Having played the role of a princess for so long, she had almost forgotten how her father used to drill his troops every single day. She finally understood where the problem lay: the mine guards lacked proper training.

"General Wei." Shen Jifeng smiled radiantly. "I have a somewhat presumptuous request. Could you dispatch a captain to help me drill my guards?"

"Of course, no problem. I still owe the Princess twelve days of labor, after all." Wei Xiao said this with a hint of teasing banter.

Shen Jifeng seized the opening like a traveler sliding down a slope, instantly pressing the advantage as if she had just scored a bargain. "Really? It's a deal then. Not only must you teach the guards how to form arrays, but you must also teach them how to inspect suspicious individuals and how to watch the woods surrounding the mine—all of this counts toward those twelve days of labor, and you are not allowed to renege."

Watching the cleverness flickering in her eyes like a little fox that had successfully stolen a piece of meat, Wei Xiao let out a low chuckle. "As the Princess wishes."

That very night, Shen Jifeng dispatched a letter to the Prince of Qi’s estate, requesting that thirty more guards be sent over.

Before noon had even arrived, Zhao Pu appeared at the mine with the guards. Catching sight of Shen Jifeng, he flashed a brilliant row of white teeth. "Sister."

At that moment, Wei Xiao dismounted from his horse, his inquiring gaze colliding directly with Zhao Pu's.

Zhao Pu reined in his smile, his tone cool. "Greetings, General Wei."

Wei Xiao frowned slightly; this hostility arrived rather inexplicably.

Seeing that it was Wei Xiao who had personally come, Shen Jifeng trotted over and ushered him into her office, only pausing as she passed Zhao Pu to murmur softly: the conditions at the mine aren't great, so rest at the Xijing villa for a night before returning to the capital.

Watching the two figures walking away together, Zhao Pu clenched his fists. Beside him, Li Leqi remained completely oblivious, adding fuel to the fire. "The Princess and the General look very well-matched."

Turning to meet Zhao Pu's icy glare, Li Leqi's words cut off abruptly, a profound shock jolting his heart. Weren't the two of them step-siblings? Could the young Prince actually harbor other feelings for the Princess?

All afternoon, Wei Xiao drilled the guards at the mine. Zhao Pu selected a shady spot and watched with cold detachment. Shen Jifeng came out to persuade him to leave twice, but seeing that he was stubbornly refusing to budge, she simply let him be.

Uneasy at heart, Li Leqi probed cautiously, "The young Prince seems somewhat displeased."

Shen Jifeng, however, took it in stride. "He's always like that. He'll be fine in a few days."

What Li Leqi did not know was that when Shen Jifeng had first acknowledged her true brother Shen Zhiyun, Zhao Pu had thrown a similar tantrum for quite some time, picking faults with Shen Zhiyun and deliberately vying for attention in front of Shen Jifeng, acting for all the world like a possessive three-year-old toddler.

Shen Jifeng understood that Zhao Pu was simply terrified that, having found her real brother, she would fly far away and leave him all alone in the Prince of Qi’s estate. Little did he know that from the moment she had impersonated the Princess, the two of them were grasshoppers tied to the same rope, forever inseparable.

Still, she could understand him bearing hostility toward her own brother; but as for Wei Xiao, which of his nerves had misfired this time?

Down in the mine, Zhao Pu stared at Wei Xiao's back, his gaze sharp as a blade.

Noticing Zhao Pu's scrutiny, Wei Xiao strode over to stand before him. "Wei has never offended the young Prince."

"General Wei, as a dignified commander of the Southern Defense Army, why stoop so low as to come to the Xijing silver mine to act as a drill instructor?"

Wei Xiao stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing out at the guards still drilling on the grounds. "I still owe the Princess twelve days of labor. Helping her train her guards is only my duty."

This was Zhao Pu's first time seeing Wei Xiao in person, but his reputation was thunderous: pacifying Southern Yue, recovering the Eight Min—such achievements rivaled capturing the wolf-fang banners of the northern steppes. The glories a military commander dreamed of for a lifetime were all his before the age of thirty.

Looking at the man himself, he stood tall and straight, blessed with a striking, handsome face. Because he consistently provided for the widows of his fallen soldiers, rumors swirled in the court that he had a soft spot for other men's wives, yet he had never offered a single word of defense, nor had he ever ceased his aid. Fairly judged, whether in appearance, character, or personal capability, Wei Xiao was a match of the highest caliber.

Yet—that would not do!

Generals die in a hundred battles, and valiant soldiers return only after a decade!

He was determined to protect Shen Jifeng safely and peacefully for the rest of her life; he would never allow her to take a military man as a husband.

His sister's future husband must be accomplished in both literature and appearance. His family background need not be illustrious; he could be chosen from among the newly minted imperial scholars. Ideally, he should be an orphan with neither father nor mother, so that she would never suffer the nagging tyranny of a mother-in-law, nor have to navigate the treacherous waters of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relations.

Since his sister loved doing business, she could continue running the Shen Family Firm forever. She could manage whatever she pleased in her husband's household, and no one would dare utter a word of criticism.

Wei Xiao, on the other hand, apart from being an orphan and possessing a passable face, failed to meet a single criterion.

Zhao Pu knew he could not easily out-stubborn Shen Jifeng. However, based on his observations, his sister had not yet developed romantic feelings for this general. Preventing disaster before it struck was always better than regretting it later.

Some sparks needed to be snuffed out the moment they appeared! Since he could do nothing to his sister, he would target Wei Xiao and force him to retreat of his own accord!