When the personal guards approached the place where the smoke was rising in the forest, the wind and snow happened to intensify again.
The gray smoke was blown apart by the wind, scattering between the dead trees like a torn-up thread. The snow in the forest was deeper than on the road, reaching above their calves when they stepped into it. If someone had not deliberately cleared a small patch of ground, those dozen or so people probably would not even have been able to start a fire.
A group of people huddled around the fire.
There were elderly people, women, and two children.
Their clothes were worn and tattered, and their faces had turned bluish-white from the cold. When they saw the personal guards approaching, they instinctively shrank backward. Several of them were even trembling so badly that they could not speak.
The lead guard did not immediately approach. He stopped several steps away and placed the hot-water bags and ordinary dry rations in his hands on the snow.
“His Highness Prince Su is passing through this area and has ordered us to bring you some hot water and dry rations.”
At these words, the people around the fire clearly froze.
One of the women hugged her child, tears immediately welling in her eyes, but she did not dare reach for the supplies at once. She only asked cautiously, “R-Really? You’re really giving them to us?”
The guard looked at her hands.
Her hands were swollen from the cold, several cracks split her knuckles, her palms were rough, and her fingernails were packed with black mud. The child in her arms was curled inside a torn padded jacket, lips cracked and eyes unfocused, as though he had been so hungry that he could no longer distinguish what was happening before him.
People like this were most likely genuine refugees.
The guard’s heart sank slightly.
The contingency plan Doctor Su had written was extremely calm, but when he actually saw these people, it was difficult to regard them merely as “subjects who needed to be identified.”
He pushed the hot water forward.
“Drink slowly. Don’t gulp it down all at once. Take small sips to moisten your throat first.”
This was also something Doctor Su had said.
The woman hurriedly nodded and reached for the water bag, her fingers trembling so badly that she could barely hold it.
An elderly man stared at the dry rations for a long time, his Adam’s apple bobbing, but he did not rush forward to eat. Instead, he first pushed the dry rations toward the two children.
The guard saw this, and his suspicion of these people decreased further.
At that moment, a young man on the other side of the fire stood up.
He wore a tattered padded jacket, his face smeared with ash. His body appeared stooped, but his eyes were far too steady. Especially when the guard approached, his gaze did not first fall upon the hot water and dry rations. Instead, it swiftly swept over the guard’s knife at his waist, the number of people behind him, and the direction in which the procession had stopped.
The guard acted as though he had not noticed and simply asked, “Where are you from?”
The young man said quietly, “Qingshi Village.”
The guard’s heart stirred.
“How is Qingshi Village now?”
The man lowered his eyes.
“There was no food left in the village, and many people died. When we escaped, the village entrance was already in chaos. If you really are people sent by Prince Su, please, hurry and save them.”
He spoke urgently, and his tone sounded genuine.
But the more genuine it seemed, the more suspicious it was.
If he had truly just escaped from Qingshi Village, his first reaction should have been to ask for food, ask to survive, or beg to be taken away—not to hurriedly urge Prince Su to enter the village.
The guard crouched down as though he were fetching water, but his gaze swept over the man’s shoe soles.
The soles were stained with snowy mud, and mixed into the mud were dark pine needles and bits of gravel.
The main road from Qingshi Village to Hanchuan did not have this kind of terrain.
Only the old forest behind the hunters’ trail did.
The guard rose without changing expression.
“Are your hands frostbitten?”
The man froze.
The guard reached out. “Let me have a look. His Highness brought some frostbite medicine. If your injuries are serious, I can treat them first.”
The man instinctively pulled his hand into his sleeve.
The movement was small, but it was enough.
The guard smiled and suddenly reached out, locking his wrist.
The man’s expression changed drastically, and his other hand almost instinctively reached toward his waist.
The guard was already prepared. He kicked the back of the man’s knee and pinned him into the snow.
Several cries rang out from the snow at the same time. The woman and elderly man beside the fire were frightened into retreating with the children in their arms, but two other men who had appeared to be refugees moved simultaneously.
Short blades were drawn from beneath their tattered padded jackets, flashing with cold light.
Faster than them were the black shadows that emerged from behind the forest.
Chi Banyue flipped down from behind a snow-covered tree. The thin blade hidden in her sleeve silently swept across, first severing one man’s wrist tendon, then kicking the short blade from another man’s hand.
Her movements were incredibly fast. When she landed, her cloak swept up a cloud of snow. There was still a smile on her face, but its coldness was enough to make one’s heart shiver.
“You did a decent job pretending to be refugees,” she said softly. “Don’t bother next time.”
The men were quickly subdued.
The genuine refugees huddled beside the fire, so frightened that they did not even dare cry.
The guard sheathed his knife and comforted them in a low voice.
“Don’t be afraid. You’re not with them. His Highness won’t hurt you.”
Only then did the woman seem to react. Hugging her child, she knelt in the snow, her voice trembling.
“My lord, we’re not… We’re just being forced to stay here by them. They said that if we didn’t do as they told us, they would throw the children into the snow…”
Chi Banyue looked at the men who had been restrained.
One of them still gritted his teeth and refused to speak.
Chi Banyue crouched down, smiling as she patted his face.
“I advise you to think carefully. If you refuse to speak, once you fall into the hands of His Highness Prince Su, it may not be any easier than falling into mine.”
The man’s face was bluish-white, but he still clenched his teeth.
Chi Banyue was not in a hurry.
She looked at the guards. “Search them.”
Before long, the guards found several northern sentry passage tokens, a bloodstained cloth pouch, and a short note wrapped in oil paper.
Chi Banyue opened the note. After reading it, her expression gradually turned cold.
There were only a few lines on the note.
—Lure Prince Su into the forest.
—Investigate the strange medicines and dry rations he carries.
—If he provides aid, record the form and appearance of the medicines.
—If he refuses aid, spread word that he stood by and watched people die.
Just as Xia Lanshi had said, it was bait.
Chi Banyue folded the note and let out a cold laugh.
“The Crown Prince wants to watch a show. Aren’t we putting on quite the performance for him?”
◆◇◆◇◆
By the time the note reached Xiao Yuan’s hands, the wind and snow had already begun darkening the sky.
After reading it, Xiao Yuan’s expression did not change much. He merely handed the paper to Xia Lanshi.
Wrapped in a thick cloak, Xia Lanshi sat inside the carriage and finished reading those few lines. He said quietly, “They don’t merely want Your Highness to reveal the source of your supplies. They also want to turn either choice you make—whether you save people or not—into a crime.”
Save them, and they investigate you.
Don’t save them, and they destroy your reputation.
It was not a particularly clever web, but it was vicious.
Because it did not need to kill with a single blow. It only needed to repeatedly force Xiao Yuan into situations where he had no choice but to choose, until he eventually revealed a weakness.
Chi Banyue had the several fake refugees restrained to one side and asked, “How should we deal with them?”
Xiao Yuan looked at the genuine refugees who had been rescued.
The woman was still holding her child and shrinking beside the fire, afraid to approach. The elderly man clutched the dry rations in his hands, his lips trembling, yet he still did not dare eat them, as though he were afraid that everything was only a fleeting dream.
They were indeed bait.
But the bait was made up of real people.
If Xiao Yuan had not saved them just now, these people would have been left in the wind and snow to wait for death.
Xiao Yuan said coldly, “Restrain the fake refugees and keep them alive. Take the genuine refugees with us.”
The guards acknowledged the order.
Xia Lanshi quietly reminded him, “Don’t give them too many supplies.”
“Mm.” Xiao Yuan said, “Ordinary grain, hot water, and dry cloth. If anyone is seriously injured, handle them separately.”
He paused and looked at one of the children, who was dazed and listless.
The child’s complexion was wrong. His lips were cracked and his eyes unfocused, as though he were both cold and hungry, and he also seemed to have a fever.
Using only ordinary grain and hot water might not be enough to keep him going.
Xiao Yuan fell silent for a moment.
Xia Lanshi noticed his hesitation.
“Your Highness.”
Xiao Yuan said, “Bring him back first. Treat him behind a screen.”
This was the compromise.
They could not take out Su Muchen’s medicine and rehydration salts in front of everyone, but neither could they stand by and watch the child fail to survive.
They would treat him behind a screen, with as few people as possible knowing. To outsiders, they would simply say that the military physician was treating him.
Chi Banyue nodded. “I’ll do it.”
She dismounted and walked over to the woman, softening her voice.
“How long has the child had a fever?”
The woman stared blankly at her, as though she had not yet recovered from the shock.
Chi Banyue crouched down and shifted her cloak aside, revealing the medicine pouch at her waist.
“Don’t be afraid. I know a little medicine.”
If Su Muchen heard her say this, he would probably say coldly that she only knew how to follow the instruction manual and perform basic treatment.
But at this moment, it was enough to let a little hope return to the woman’s eyes.
“Y-Last night… he started burning… His father went to look for food, and he never came back…”
Her voice choked as she reached this point.
Chi Banyue did not ask any further questions. She felt the child’s forehead, then examined his lips and fingers.
Following the procedure Su Muchen had written, she assessed him step by step.
Fever.
Dehydration.
Hunger.
Possibly poor rewarming after hypothermia.
These were not the knife wounds and poison injuries she was accustomed to treating, yet they were even more frustrating.
Because this kind of suffering was not sharp and did not draw blood, yet it could slowly grind a person to death.
She had the guards erect a small windbreak, then took out a small amount of rehydration salts and mixed them into warm water. The original packaging had long since been removed. Now they were kept in an ordinary paper packet, looking like nothing more than a packet of salt-sugar powder.
The woman held the child and carefully fed him a few mouthfuls.
At first, the child swallowed with difficulty. Later, as though he had finally tasted the sweet and salty flavor, his lips moved slightly.
Tears immediately fell from the woman’s eyes.
Chi Banyue looked away.
She suddenly wanted to curse someone.
She wanted to curse the Crown Prince, the bandits, and all those who treated living people like chess pieces.
But curses could not save anyone.
So she merely said quietly, “Feed him slowly. Don’t rush. Doctor Su said that when someone has been hungry for too long or feverish for too long, you can’t rush it.”
The woman did not understand who Doctor Su was. She only firmly remembered those three words.
Because after the child drank that bowl of warm water, he finally stopped lying there with his eyes closed so lifelessly.
◆◇◆◇◆
The several fake refugees were quickly interrogated.
They were not Eastern Palace death warriors, nor were they actual members of the military. They were scouts from a bandit group near Qingshi Village.
These men had originally occupied Heisong Ridge west of the northern sentry post, making a living by robbing hunters and small merchant caravans. After the snow disaster, the official roads were cut off and merchant caravans stopped coming, so they began targeting the surrounding villages and towns.
Before Qingshi Village lost contact, the people from Heisong Ridge had already been appearing in the area.
As for the Crown Prince’s people, they had not appeared directly. They had merely sent grain, silver, and several secret orders through people from the Northern Frontier Transport Office, instructing them to cooperate in “delaying Prince Su.”
Delay.
When those two words were revealed, Xia Lanshi slowly closed his eyes.
“Your Highness, they don’t want to kill you on the road.”
Chi Banyue frowned. “Don’t?”
Xia Lanshi said, “At least, that isn’t their primary objective. If they wanted to kill you, this trap in the forest wouldn’t have used a few half-trained bandit scouts. They want to slow Your Highness down. They want to test Your Highness. They want Your Highness to expend time, manpower, and patience before reaching Qingshi Village.”
Xiao Yuan looked toward the north, hidden beneath the wind and snow.
“Qingshi Village is probably in an even worse state now.”
If the enemy merely wanted to kill him, their methods would have been much more direct.
But if their objective was to delay him, that meant something was happening inside Qingshi Village that required time to complete.
Perhaps the grain routes had been destroyed.
Perhaps the villagers had been coerced.
Or perhaps someone was waiting for Qingshi Village to descend into complete chaos, making it impossible to clean up, and then shifting all the blame onto the fact that he had arrived too late.
Xiao Yuan mounted his horse.
“We won’t stay here any longer. Take the genuine refugees with us and keep the fake refugees restrained in the rear. We must pass through the hunters’ trail before nightfall.”
The Hanchuan veteran’s expression changed.
“Your Highness, the mountain road will be difficult to travel after dark.”
“That’s why we cross it before dark.” Xiao Yuan’s voice was calm. “Have them speed up the carriage. Add more insulation for Xia Lanshi’s side. Everyone rotates every half hour. No one is allowed to freeze stiff.”
After saying that, he added, “Follow Doctor Su’s contingency plan.”
Those words had practically become another form of military order by now.
Everyone immediately got moving.
Hearing the commotion, Xia Lanshi lifted the carriage curtain, his gaze falling on Xiao Yuan.
“Your Highness intends to hurry?”
“Mm.”
“But Your Highness’s injuries…”
Xiao Yuan looked at him.
Xia Lanshi paused slightly, then suddenly smiled.
“Forget it. If I try to persuade Your Highness, you’ll probably say you know your own limits. If Doctor Su were here, he would probably scold you first, then write three pages of precautions for you.”
A faint smile appeared in Xiao Yuan’s eyes.
“So say less and save your strength.”
Xia Lanshi: “…”
Chi Banyue burst out laughing beside them.
“Xia Lanshi, His Highness is taking care of you now instead.”
Xia Lanshi sighed softly.
He felt that ever since Su Muchen had appeared, His Highness Prince Su had indeed learned far too quickly when it came to taking care of patients.
◆◇◆◇◆
Inside Guichen Studio, the door still did not open.
After Su Muchen finished organizing the second batch of contingency plans for Qingshi Village, it was already close to three in the morning.
He had originally intended to take another look at the door, but the moment he stood up, his vision suddenly went black for an instant.
When he caught himself against the counter, the edge of the wood struck his palm, making it ache.
Xiao appeared beside him almost immediately.
“Muchen!”
Su Muchen closed his eyes. Only after several seconds did his vision recover.
“I’m fine. Low blood sugar.”
Xiao’s expression was not very good.
“You only ate a few bites of rice ball tonight.”
Su Muchen instinctively wanted to argue, but before he could speak, he remembered how much he hated it when patients stubbornly insisted they were fine.
So he fell silent.
Xiao helped him sit down and brought over a cup of warm sugar water.
“Drink.”
Su Muchen stared at the cup and suddenly found the situation somewhat absurd.
In another world, he taught people how to prevent binge eating after starvation, how to administer fluids, and how to care for patients suffering from hypothermia. Yet here in the modern world, he had nearly passed out beside the counter because he had stayed up too late and failed to eat properly.
If Xiao Yuan found out about this…
At that thought, his movements stopped.
Seeing his expression, Xiao seemed to guess what he was thinking. A smile appeared on his face.
“I wonder what His Highness Prince Su would think if he knew that Doctor Su is extremely strict when taking care of patients, yet nearly fainted himself.”
Su Muchen glared at him.
“Don’t tell him!”
“Hmm, what should I do?” Xiao looked as though he was already eager to tell Xiao Yuan.
Su Muchen: “…”
He took the sugar water and drank a sip. The warm sweetness settled into his stomach, and only then did his cold fingertips slowly recover.
Xiao sat down across from him and stopped teasing him.
“You should sleep.”
“The door hasn’t opened.”
“It might not open at all tonight.”
Su Muchen’s fingers tightened around the cup.
Xiao softened his tone.
“If you stay up until dawn, that won’t make the door open any sooner. And if it opens tomorrow, what will you be able to do in this condition?”
Those words were effective.
Su Muchen raised his eyes.
Xiao continued, “You said it yourself. Saving people isn’t about forcing yourself to hold on through sheer willpower. You need to remain in a state where you can make judgments, take action, and write clear plans.”
Su Muchen remained silent for a long time.
Finally, he put down the cup.
“Three hours.”
Xiao raised an eyebrow.
“Sleep for three hours,” Su Muchen said. “Wake me after three hours.”
Xiao looked at him.
“Four.”
Su Muchen frowned.
“Three and a half.”
Xiao smiled.
“Four.”
Su Muchen: “…”
He suddenly understood how Xia Lanshi felt when he was forced to drink nutritional fluids.
In the end, he stood up with a cold expression.
“Four it is.”
Xiao watched him walk toward the rest room on the second floor.
Only after he heard the door close and the shop had fallen silent again did the smile on his face slowly fade.
He walked over to the old door.
The door remained silent.
Xiao raised his hand. His fingertips stopped above the door panel, but he did not actually touch it.
His sleeve slid down slightly, revealing a faint pattern along his wrist.
The pattern resembled a crack slowly spreading.
Xiao said quietly, “You heard it too, didn’t you?”
The door gave no response.
“Don’t make things too difficult for them.”
There was still no sound.
Xiao smiled, his voice very soft.
“I know. The door has never been sentimental.”
He pulled his sleeve back up, covering the faint pattern.
The light in the back room was dim.
He stood before the door for a long time, like someone guarding a road that he did not know when would appear again, his shadow stretching a long way behind him.
◆◇◆◇◆
Before nightfall, the procession finally crossed the most dangerous section of the hunters’ trail.
At the other end of the mountain road was an open snow-covered slope. Traveling another ten-odd li north would bring them to the outskirts of Qingshi Village.
But at the end of the snowy slope, the scouts discovered the first corpse.
It was a northern sentry soldier.
He was half-kneeling in the snow, his body already stiff, with an arrow embedded in his back. His armor had been searched, but his identity token was still there. In his hand, he tightly clutched a small piece of torn cloth.
Xiao Yuan dismounted and walked over to the corpse.
The wind and snow swept past, lifting one corner of the torn cloth.
The fabric was coarse, resembling ordinary cloth torn from a refugee’s clothing, but there was a trace of dark-colored oil stain along its edge.
The Hanchuan veteran glanced at it, and his expression changed.
“Your Highness, this isn’t ordinary refugee cloth. This kind of oil stain comes from the fire-oil barrels at the northern sentry post. If someone in Qingshi Village has gotten hold of this…”
He did not finish.
But everyone understood.
Fire oil, grain routes, the village losing contact, fake refugees, bandits.
These fragments finally began forming an outline in the wind and snow.
Qingshi Village had not simply been trapped.
Someone had used fire oil there.
They might have burned the granary.
They might have burned the sentry post.
Or they might be preparing to burn a crucial grain route, turning every trace into what would appear to be nothing more than “chaos following a snow disaster.”
After hearing the report from inside the carriage, Xia Lanshi’s expression also turned grave.
“Your Highness, we can’t enter the village directly.”
Xiao Yuan said, “I know.”
He looked into the distance.
The sky had darkened. Through the wind and snow, they could vaguely see the black silhouette of Qingshi Village in the distance.
There was no cooking smoke, nor any lamplight.
It was unnaturally quiet.
Even more unsettling than when they had first arrived at Hanchuan.
Xiao Yuan gave his orders.
“Conceal the camp here. Don’t light any visible fires. Send scouts in three directions to investigate the village and report every half hour. Chi Banyue, take people to investigate the dead soldier’s route here. Xia Lanshi stays in the carriage. He is not to get out.”
Xia Lanshi: “…”
Chi Banyue immediately looked at him and smiled brightly.
“Doctor Su isn’t here, but His Highness still knows how to keep an eye on you.”
Xia Lanshi coughed softly.
“I never said I was getting out.”
“Your eyes just did.”
Xia Lanshi: “…”
Xiao Yuan ignored them.
He stood at the edge of the snowy slope, looking toward Qingshi Village with a cold, solemn expression.
Inside his sleeve, the contingency plan written by Su Muchen was kept in the place closest to his body.
He remembered the final line on it very clearly.
—If contact cannot be established within three days, be sure to preserve the seeds of fire, grain, and the people’s morale.
Xiao Yuan closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, there was no hesitation left in them.
“We’re not entering the village tonight.”
He said,
“First, we’ll see who is waiting for us.”
The wind and snow pressed down upon the sky.
Qingshi Village lay silently in the darkness in the distance, like a beast with its eyes closed.
And this time, Xiao Yuan did not rush to step into its open jaws.