[Slight TW for attempted suicide.

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Over the past two years in the Northwest, Zhongli Luo has accomplished feats both big and small, and currently had already been promoted to a sixth-level Officer Adept. [1] Following another overwhelming victory, Prince Ning prepared a celebration banquet to reward everyone.

Waiting until after everyone had been seated, Prince Ning raised his cup. “There's nothing good here in the Northwest, but this grape wine is acceptable. Come, this Prince will salute all of you grand officers with a cup.”

Upon seeing that, every promptly lifted their own and drank it all down.

After that, a flock of perfumed, makeupped, fair-looking female musicians entered in a single-file line, bringing with them every kind of instrument. Zhongli Luo is very much a commoner that doesn't get the point of music. Listening to the string and wind instruments for a time, she only felt somewhat drowsy. She carelessly looked about her surroundings until her gaze ultimately landed on the musicians. She wouldn't know how talented the girls were, but they really are pretty, especially the one playing the qin. Her charm blazes like the sun, yet her face has traces of distress. In her daydreaming state, Zhongli Luo feels that the qin's sound seems to carry a few notes of anguish.

Sensing Zhongli Luo's unrelenting gaze, the musician raised her eyes, seemingly thinking to give this playboy a glare. Yet, the moment she saw Zhongli Luo's face, her whole body went slack, and the slackened senses interrupted her work, making her hands jerk.

Hearing the tw.a.n.g, all the musicians stopped. The pretty one whose string had snapped knelt down with a thud. “This slave should die!”

The faces of those seated changed in a flash, the perfectly good celebration banquet surprisingly swept away by a musician. The highest-ranking Prince Ning hadn't yet opened his mouth, but it can be seen from the tight creasing of his brow that he's extremely angry.

The girl is only about sixteen. Watching this female musician trembling with fear as she knelt and waited for death, Zhongli Luo suddenly felt unable to bear it.

Looking on at the discreet soldier wanting to drag her away, Zhongli Luo quickly stood up and said, “Prince…”

The word Ning hadn't yet left her mouth when the Elevated General [2], Mu Qian, sitting at Prince Ning's left-hand started to speak breezily. “Ah, the qin's broken. There truly isn't anything good in the Northwest, if just a pluck broke it. If I gently touched that thing, the whole thing would snap into two chunks, wouldn't it?”

The musician startled, lifting up her head and looking at a loss, tears all over her face.

Mu Qian swept a glance at her, then said to Prince Ning, “Your Liege, this young lady is crying miserably because of her busted qin, a lot like a pear blossom in the rain. I pity her just looking at her. How about you give her a new qin?”

This joker. Listening to his big burst of nonsense, Prince Ning knew that his words inside and out were for nothing more than to protect the musician's life. His friends.h.i.+p with Mu Qian's father, the old General Mu, was deep, and he'd always partially looked at Mu Qian as his own son. If he's being so protective of the fairer gender, he may as well let him have this favor.

He gave Mu Qian a harsh look. “Since you're feeling so pitying, you can give her one.”

Saying that, Prince Ning then looked towards Zhongli Luo. “Do you have something to report, Officer Zhongli?”

Zhongli Luo quickly shook her head. “This subordinate does not…”

When Prince Ning was finished talking, Mu Qian left his seat and went to pull the musician up off the ground. “Come sit down next to me,” he said with a smile.

The girl followed him obediently, yet her beautiful eyes couldn't help but look at Zhongli Luo, her expression complex.

Following her gaze, Mu Qian's was invoked into a ruminating smile.

At this time, the sound of song and music once again reverberated throughout. Several women danced gracefully in beautiful red muslin clothes, making the sight more beautiful than anything else in the world.

Zhongli Luo is now thinking of the metallic cry of the qin's string snapping. That musician… gives her a weird feeling. She snuck a glance in the girl's direction only to inadvertently meet Mu Qian's line of sight, and she jumped, quickly lowering her head.

When the party was over, most everyone was drunk and spread out in the mud. Military discipline is ordinarily strict, so how could they not let loose and drink right then? Zhongli Luo knew herself to be a lightweight, and didn't dare to touch anymore after drinking two very small cups. Even so, her mind is still a little muddled.

She walked out the door and was met head-on with a gust of dusty, cold wind, making her entire person a bit more sober.

Just as she was going to go and get a good night's sleep, a kind of familiar voice came from behind her.

“Young Officer Zhongli.”

An Officer with the surname Zhongli would be her, the one and only. She thought it would be a comrade-in-arms who had fought at her side, but upon turning her head to look, the person in front of her was a smiling Mu Qian.

Mu Qian comes from an influential family and is a third-level General, while she's nothing more than an insignificant sixth-level Officer. In ordinary circ.u.mstances, they would never have contact.

This man… is a bit eccentric. He's obviously about twenty-five years old, but if you ask everyone else, he's a child who has no business being here, and yet he's also an aging bachelor living the single life. His looks could be said to be elegant, but unfortunately, there's a scar a little over a cun long going from the outer corner of his left eye. It's not at all ugly, but on his elegant and fair face, it gives him a bit more of an evil aura for no reason.

Zhongli Luo saluted him. “General Mu.”

Mu Qian raised his brows at her, still smiling. “Officer Zhongli has unusual talent, brave and strategic. Prince Ning often commends you right in front of me.”

Zhongli Luo hurriedly proclaims modesty. “I wouldn't dare. Every general is using their forces to the utmost and position their army like G.o.ds would.”

Mu Qian waved her off. “Don't be so modest, Officer Zhongli. My own lousy conduct is something everyone knows well.”

Mu Qian diminis.h.i.+ng himself is something Zhongli Luo can't exactly go along with. When she was about to keep talking official jargon, Mu Qian twisted his head around and said to somewhere behind him, “Come over!”

Zhongli Luo set her gaze past him. A woman walked timidly closer from from the darkness, then gave her a full salutation. Zhongli Luo recognized her; is that not the musician that had snapped her string?

Mu Qian continued, “That was a good party. I saw you two making eyes at eachother. A gentleman helps others get their wishes, and though I'm no gentleman, I also can't stand to see a pretty lady be sad.”

Seeing that Mu Qian had misunderstood, Zhongli Luo rushed to speak. “General Mu, this subordinate had no intentions like that.”

Hearing that, the girl seemed to be somewhat wronged, her eyes going red around the edges. She asked Zhongli Luo, “Does Officer not like how Biling looks?”

How the musician called Biling looks with her eyes full of tears really does incite a lot of pity.

Mu Qian shot Biling an indifferent look. “Officer Zhongli shouldn't turn her down, so as not to disappoint this lady's sentimental heart.”

Zhongli Luo absolutely does not need a woman to come and gratuitously add to her suffocation, but the look on Mu Qian's face told her that she couldn't decline this.

Thinking it over, she lied through clenched teeth. “Actually, this subordinate's heart already belongs to someone.”

“Oh?” Mu Qian was somewhat taken aback.

Zhongli Luo gulped. “Yes… this subordinate's… fiancee belongs to his own sentimental heart, and she's been waiting for be to return to my hometown all this time, sending letters month after month. Everyone here knows of it. How could I break such a nice girl's heart by teasing another woman?”

Biling responded with, “Biling only asks to stay at Officer's side. A slave or a maid would be okay.”

Only getting a maidservant would never be considered teasing.

Zhongli Luo knits her brow. “You're a good-looking lady. My fiancee has a short temper and definitely would not allow it.”

She doesn't know why, as this is obviously all fabricated, but when she spoke of a short-tempered person who wouldn't allow it, an inexplicable and very lovable image of Rong Jiahui's angry pout flashed before her eyes.

Hearing all the rubbish she spouted, Mu Qian impatiently said, “What kind of shrew is your fiancee, not allowing this or that? With that kind of att.i.tude, if it was me, I probably would have called it off a long time ago.”

“It's all because I'm happy with her,” Zhongli Luo says, “and see her as important as life itself that she acts like this.”

Mu Qian seems to recall something upon hearing that, staring blankly for a long while before his expression gradually sinks down. He hadn't thought that Zhongli Luo, a lad who hadn't even hit eighteen yet, would still be so affectionate. The reasons he saved Biling before was, in one aspect, that he had some small amount of pity for her, and in the other aspect, he was somewhat thinking of roping in this highly ambitious Zhongli Luo. The time before, Zhongli Luo was wanting to plead for leniency for Biling and then caught him sneaking a glance in their direction, so he thought this youth was having the stirrings of love. He wanted to do him a low-cost favor and rushed the beauty over to him, only for his efforts to be squandered by some lioness of a fiancee? He didn't really get the outcome he wanted right now.

He humphs coldly and doesn't say a word, picking up his foot with the intention to leave. Biling should have followed him, but she only dismally spoke to Zhongli Luo, “Is Officer's truly so heartless? Then Biling can only die.”

The last word hadn't yet finished being said when she pulled the hairpin off her head and tried to end herself. Zhongli Luo quickly grabbed her hand, resulting in Biling grabbing her sleeve and having zero intention to let go.

Running into something like this is really giving Zhongli Luo a headache. Following several bouts of fruitlessly trying to disentangle herself, she finally had no option but to bring Biling back. Seeing that she's brought a pretty girl home, most everyone is glad to see it; this guy, after so many instances of being prudish, is being improper at last.

Contrarily, Tan Jun can't help but pull her to the side and ask, “How come you brought a pretty girl back, eh? If your girlfriend knew, the vinegar jar'd get overturned. [3] That little lady's always thinking about you, how could you break her heart like this?”

“I don't have any intentions,” Zhongli Luo said helplessly. “It's just that it's too late in the night to make a young, pretty girl go home by herself. I'll have her leave tomorrow.”

Tan Jun is half-believing and half-skeptical, but still let out a sudden sigh of relief. He's seen the letters of various colors Zhongli Luo's received these years, and he's almost about to have feelings for this young woman he hasn't ever met. He really doesn't want the girl who's waiting day after day hoping for her boy to come back to have a day of heartbreak.

Zhongli Luo arranged a s.p.a.ce for Biling in her room and decided to have her stay the night for now. She'd get to her other plans tomorrow.

When she made to leave, Biling pulled at her again. She frowned and was about to say something when she saw Biling, tears swimming in her eyes, give her a full kowtow.

Zhongli Luo was stunned, rushed to help her up. “Miss Biling, what are you doing?”

Biling's eyes were red as she sobbed in spurts. “For me to meet you again, Young Master, is truly a great fortune. Biling begs you to save her!”

“You know me?”

Biling nodded. “It was at the Lantern Festival almost two years ago where Biling was fated to meet Young Master.”

Two years ago at the Lantern Festival?

Zhongli Luo then carefully scrutinized Biling's appearance, and did indeed recognize her. Biling's pleasant facial features, and those of the girl who had insisted upon giving her her jade pendant yet was driven away by Rong Jiahui, were one and the same.

Zhongli Luo remembers that she had once been a girl from a wealthy family, and even had a maid following at her side. Thinking of that, she can't help but ask, “How have you fallen to this state, Miss?”

Biling's nose ached with tears. “Biling was born to a family of rich merchants. We are wealthy, but that didn't help last summer. When I went out to sightsee, I just wanted to play a joke on my maid and secretly him, but someone I didn't know covered my mouth with a handkerchief and I lost consciousness. Then I was taken away, and brought here to be made into a songstress…”

Saying this, Biling seems to be ashamed, covering her face and sobbing.

Zhongli Luo inevitably sighs. The way of the world truly is fickle. Though merchants come in last of the four industries [4], this most unfortunate girl who was once a rich family's prized daughter had sunk to that of a lowly songstress truly can make one sigh in pity.

At this time, Biling kept intermittently sobbing. “Biling had lost all hope in this life, who could have known I would meet Young Master again? I only ask that you take me under your roof. I can wash clothes and cook meals, whether as a slave or a servant, I can do so. I absolutely don't want to go back to being a music-maker again.”

Hearing her woeful words, and after thinking a bit, Zhongli Luo asks her, “Would you like to go back to the capital?”

Biling stared, and after she realized the meaning behind Zhongli Luo's words, she repeatedly nodded in pure delight. She had just thought that, if she was going back, it would be because she was ashes.

At her nodding, Zhongli Luo continues on. “It just so happens that I plan on going back to the capital to visit my family in a few days. You can come with me.”

Biling nodded, then answering with her own question, “Young Master, is it because of General Mu's influence that you want to go back home and get married immediately.

Zhongli Luo choked. “No, I want to go for someone's birthday.”

“Your fiancee's?”

That round-faced girl who'd bared her fangs and waved her claws from that time ago had remained fresh in Biling's memory.

Zhongli Luo looked at Biling's suspicious face. She thought of what Rong Jiahui had said in front of Biling those years ago, and what she herself had said in front of Mu Qian half a s.h.i.+chen ago, and her head hurt. In this moment, she really can't shake her head, or nod…

The author says: This is, for the most part, only a very very very very tiny a.s.sist. I feel that if left by herself, enlightenment would dawn on her too slowly.

The translator says: Take responsibility, Luo'er.

[1] 昭武校尉 = “military officer whose military prowess is clearly shown”

[2] 雲麾將軍 = “general whose banner waves in the clouds”

[3] For those unaware, “drinking vinegar” is a euphemism for jealousy in China. So overturning the vinegar jar means all h.e.l.l's breaking loose.

[4] Four industries: knowledge, agriculture, labor, and business, ordered by how ‘respectable' they are. Merchants come in last, so they're the lease ‘respectable'.