Chapter 67

This happened shortly after Princess Shaoyang was married off to the Xiongnu.

Not long into her marriage, the old Chanyu fell gravely ill and never recovered.

The young princess of Great Wei, still in the prime of her youth, ended up spending her days in the Chanyu’s tent brewing and serving medicine.

But while the old Chanyu lay sick, his sons were all young and vigorous.

It wasn’t long before Shaoyang attracted the attention of a wolf among them.

The cold of the northern lands meant locals didn’t have a daily bathing habit.

When they did bathe, it was usually in an open-air hot spring.

This proved a hardship for Princess Shaoyang.

She barely endured a few days before secretly summoning the maid she had brought from Great Wei.

Together, they filled three large barrels with snow from outside, melted it over the fire, and then used a large wine jar as a makeshift tub to bathe in warm water inside the tent.

Who would have thought…at that moment, the third prince, Xiu Tuhong, who had been away leading campaigns against Loulan, happened to return victorious.

He accidentally entered the newlywed Yanshi’s tent.

A burly general like him barged in, and his eyes fell immediately on the soft, delicate figure of his young stepmother.

Having endured months of frustration on the battlefield, the sight of such a dainty beauty ignited a wicked desire.

Without caring whether she was the old Chanyu’s beloved or a servant, he stepped forward and, with one iron-muscled arm, lifted Princess Shaoyang out of the wine-scented jar and threw her onto the felt mat, ready to do as beasts do.

Shaoyang was naturally timid, and Xiu Tuhong, unkempt and bearded after months away, looked like a wild black bear to her.

She gave a weak gasp and fainted on the spot.

Fortunately, her loyal maid risked her life to burst in and cry out, “Show respect to the Yanshi of the Xiongnu Chanyu!”

This was enough to halt the stepson’s brutish act.

Only then did Xiu Tuhong realize that his father’s new wife from Great Wei was, in fact, a princess.

Though he later offered a half-hearted apology, from then on, Xiu Tuhong, who had always been distant from the old Chanyu, began visiting the main camp frequently.

After shaving, his features were revealed to be quite striking, he supposedly had some Persian blood in him and yet his gaze toward Shaoyang always resembled a hungry wolf eyeing prey.

Each time she saw him, the princess would lower her blushing face in fright, unable to meet his gaze.

Later, conflict broke out among the Xiongnu princes.

Xiu Tuohong unwaveringly supported the youngest prince, Xiu Tulie, and launched a coup overnight.

He seized power even while the old Chanyu was still alive.

The youngest prince, full of ambition, sat on the Chanyu’s throne in the central tent and began distributing the spoils of war to his loyal followers.

To Princess Shaoyang, these tribesmen were terrifying…utterly ignorant of concepts like filial piety.

But in the eyes of the Xiongnu, this was natural.

Like wolves, once the old alpha weakened, the strongest would naturally rise to lead the pack.

In this world of survival of the fittest, Shaoyang was simply a lavish prize.

After claiming his father’s swords and concubines, Xiu Tuhong offered to trade a newly acquired piece of land for the young and beautiful stepmother.

By rights, Shaoyang should have belonged to the new Chanyu.

But Xiu Tulie had never been interested in the soft and timid princess.

Willing to play the generous ruler, he simply gifted her to his older brother.

Pitifully, Shaoyang went from feeding her sick husband medicine one moment to being dragged out by a rebellious stepson the next.

She screamed and wept, but no one dared help.

Even her loyal maid was kicked to the ground by Xiu Tuhong.

Inside his tent, her cries were in vain.

She was thrown onto the bed and ravished without mercy.

After that, she was taken to Xiu Tuhong’s territory.

With the language barrier and her maid no longer by her side, she was isolated.

Though the new maidservants assigned to her could speak some Han, they were rough Xiongnu women who tore meat off lamb legs with unwashed hands and dropped it into her bowl.

The princess’s eyes were constantly red from morning till night.

Xiu Tuhong’s behavior was brutish and cruel.

Yet toward this weeping, soft-hearted woman from the Central Plains, he showed not the slightest impatience.

Since possessing her, he ignored the women from his previous tents.

Poor Shaoyang, weak of health, was tormented every night and truly could not endure.

Later, a few envoys sent to Great Wei mysteriously disappeared, and with the Central Plain’s court in turmoil, the new Chanyu, Xiu Tulie, dispatched Xiu Tuhong,disguised as a merchant to gather intelligence.

If the situation was favorable, they intended to invade and seize twenty northern prefectures of Great Wei.

Unexpectedly, Princess Shaoyang had a moment of clarity.

Remembering her fourteenth brother’s words that there would always be a chance to return home if she held on, her broken spirit suddenly stirred.

She packed a bundle of dried meat and a jug of fresh water, then crawled into a wagon filled with furs.

She hid there, only sneaking out at night to relieve herself, waiting patiently for her chance to return south.

But once they entered the Central Plains, Xiu Tuhong left the cargo behind and galloped ahead on horseback.

The wagonload of furs was then shipped further south.

Poor Shaoyang was discovered during a cargo check and nearly sold into human trafficking by merchants.

Desperate, she revealed her identity as the Eighth Princess of Great Wei, only to be met with mockery and disbelief.

Fortunately, Princess Qike happened to overhear her at the docks and, seeing her Xiongnu attire that matched the description of the princess married for peace, bought her on the spot.

If she turned out to be real, it would be a political favor for the Grand Tutor and help avoid further entanglement with the Xiongnu.

And so, by sheer luck, the Eighth Princess made her long and difficult return to the palace where she had been born and raised.

After Wei Lenghou interrogated the Eighth Princess about her bizarre ordeal, his brows knotted into a deep frown.

His lips pressed tight, his face darkened with displeasure.

Nie Qinglin, seeing how disheveled her eighth royal sister looked, felt a sharp pang in her heart.

But constrained by her male disguise, she couldn’t express too much affection.

Fortunately, Princess Yong’an had no such restraint.

Since the princess’s return was a sensitive national matter, it wasn’t publicized.

For now, she stayed in Princess Yong’an’s Fengchu Palace.

Shaoyang was shocked to discover the Emperor had a twin sister still alive.

When she saw Nie Qinglin dressed in women’s clothing, she was startled.

Although they had never met before, Qinglin’s gentle and refined appearance reminded her of her fourteenth brother.

At once, she felt comforted.

Within two days, she and Princess Yong’an had formed a close sisterly bond.

Unlike the lively and cunning Ge Yun’er, this Eighth Princess was quiet and gentle, very easy to get along with.

The two girls could sit quietly without awkwardness.

Even so, when Nie Qinglin snacked on cold fruits while reading, she would silently use silver tongs to remove the ice from the bowl and set a warm cup of floral tea beside her.

Nie Qinglin, usually the one caring for others, now found herself being tended to like a little sister.

It was a rare and unfamiliar experience but one that the Grand Tutor found increasingly intolerable.

Though Wei Lenghou never approved of using women as pawns for frontier peace, he had not expected Shaoyang to return so suddenly.

If the Xiongnu prince let the matter go and claimed that the princess had died of illness, all would be well.

But if he pursued it seriously, Shaoyang’s trail was easy to trace.

Her escape and return could give the Xiongnu a perfect excuse to start a war.

And Xiu Tuhong, ever eager for battle, would not miss such a chance.

One misunderstanding, and it could ignite a deadly war between the two nations.

Still, seeing how Nie Qinglin nearly burst into tears upon seeing her eighth sister, the Grand Tutor held his tongue and did not scold Shaoyang.

Unexpectedly, that troublemaker dragon pearl grew enthusiastic and invited the princess to stay at Fengchu Palace.

Since his return from the imperial prison, the Grand Tutor had rarely returned home and clearly spending his nights in Fengchu Palace.

But now that another princess had moved in, the nights of revelry for Marquis Dingguo had clearly come to an end.

All sympathy Wei Lenghou had felt for Shaoyang instantly vanished.

Narrow-minded by nature, he now wished he could toss her back into that fur cart and send her far away, back to the frigid northern lands.

Five days passed.

The two princesses were as close as glue, inseparable.

For the Grand Tutor, each day dragged like a year.

In the end, he could no longer bear it.

He sent a palanquin and had Nanny Shan escort Princess Yong’an to his study.

Once the doors were shut tightly, he not only quenched his long pent-up thirst on the soft couch, but even the gilded chair didn’t escape his passion.

It wasn’t until dragon pearl finally cried out twice in surrender, clinging to the Grand Tutor’s neck and softly begging for mercy, that he finally relented.

After the storm had passed, the Grand Tutor lay on the couch, holding the equally breathless dragon pearl in his arms, and suddenly said, “I want to send Princess Shaoyang out of the capital.”

Nie Qinglin’s body stiffened.

When she slowly lifted her head, her gaze had already returned to calm.

“Has Xiu Tuhong come looking for her?”

Wei Lenghou let out a small sigh of relief.

This was precisely the side of Nie Qinglin he admired.

She would never act like other women—short-sighted and unreasonable.

With just a brief mention, she immediately understood the deeper meaning, saving him a great deal of explanation.

Indeed, Xiu Tuhong had come looking and aggressively at that.

Right when Princess Qike arrived in the capital with Shaoyang, he had already tracked the fur cargo all the way to the south.

When he heard that the renowned Princess Qike had purchased the woman hidden in the furs, he personally beat the fur merchants so severely they died from internal bleeding.

After confirming that the princess was indeed in the capital, Xiu Tuhong did not enter the city.

Instead, he withdrew to the borderlands, gathered elite troops, and ordered his men to draft a letter to the Emperor of Great Wei. The message was clear:

Return the runaway wife or prepare for war.