The Suyan Desert at the end of the year was cold and barren. The wind scraped against the face like a serrated blade; in just a few days, it could polish a delicate beauty into a weathered crone.
Xiao Nanhui surreptitiously touched her own cheek, feeling that her skin was indeed a bit rougher than before. Then she looked at the face of the man before her, and a sense of indignation rose in her heart.
Su Wei’s face was clean and pristine. Because he rarely showed any expression, she couldn't find a single line upon it.
The "transmission of knowledge" had only just begun, yet she realized she was constantly distracted. She knew this was wrong, but she couldn't help her attention from drifting from his face to his body.
*Tsk, with this small frame, can he really withstand her training? And that waist—it’s far too thin...*
"General Xiao."
Hmm? Was he calling her?
"Why does General Xiao keep staring at me?"
Xiao Nanhui’s heart skipped a beat. She didn't even dare to look him in the eye, hurriedly adjusting her state of mind and stammering as she began to focus on the lesson.
After several attempts at testing his abilities, she finally confirmed: the Emperor was truly a novice in martial arts, possessing no foundation whatsoever.
Since ordinary weapons were too difficult for him to handle immediately, she decided to start with the most basic close-quarters grappling and seizing. This was a method for survival; unlike the usual sparring on a martial arts field where one stops at the point of contact, the moves she taught were all designed to be lethal in a single strike.
She first explained some basic theoretical knowledge, teaching him to recognize the most vulnerable and the most solid vital points on the human body. In martial arts, a hundred words were not worth a quarter-hour of practice. Once the explanations were finished, the next step was naturally demonstration and practical exercise. However, Ding Weixiang’s warnings seemed to have taken up residence in her skull, ringing out from time to time.
After some deliberation, she had Su Wei stand still and began to explain the key points of joint-locking techniques while pointing them out. Whenever she mentioned a joint, she would extend two fingers and lightly, quickly tap the corresponding spot on his body. She kept her strength to a minimum, fearing that a single slip-up would go too far.
Once they entered the heart of the subject, time flew by.
Seeing that it was nearly time for the midday meal, the surrounding wind grew stronger, making it almost impossible to keep one's eyes open. Even in the Gobi, where flying sand and rolling stones were common, this weather was somewhat unusual.
Xiao Nanhui wiped the sweat from her forehead. Looking down at the dampness on her hands, she felt that eighty percent of it had been squeezed out by sheer terror. In her heart, she cursed Ding Weixiang another hundred and eighty times.
She understood the principle that one cannot become fat with a single bite, and the wind was becoming unbearable. She decided to let the Emperor rest for a while, thinking they could avoid the brunt of the gale and continue in the afternoon.
However, at the thought of the upcoming practical exercises, Xiao Nanhui found herself in a dilemma again.
There was a gap between monarch and subject, and this "monarch" was a particularly fragile piece of jade.
She stole a glance at him.
Not far away, the Emperor sat quietly beneath a withered Populus euphratica tree. His cross-legged posture was perfectly standard, identical to how he had looked in the carriage. He seemed unaware of her internal struggle; his eyelids were lightly closed, his brow relaxed, and his expressionless face held a hint of the inscrutable. If not for the desolate and crude surroundings, she would have suspected she had stumbled upon a Buddha attaining Nirvana.
A figure enshrined on such an altar felt like a sacrilege to even touch, let alone throw around.
A gust of wind blew past, bringing his scent with it.
It was that strange fragrance of the sarira beads again.
She hadn't liked that smell before, always feeling it carried a chill that seeped into the bones.
But now, for some reason—perhaps because she had grown accustomed to it—she felt the scent had a unique effect of banishing ghostly auras and awakening the human soul, making one feel quite at ease.
But why did she feel this way? Could it be that previously...
A small fragment of a dream-like memory flashed before Xiao Nanhui’s eyes, but it slipped away before she could grasp it. In the next instant, her vision blurred as the man stood up and walked toward her.
She swallowed hard.
"Is Your Majesty feeling unwell? You must inform me immediately, I..."
"Not exactly." The Emperor stopped two or three paces in front of her, tilting his head slightly as he looked at her. "I am merely curious. How long did it take for General Xiao to master these skills?"
It was the standard opening for an awkward conversation.
Xiao Nanhui pulled herself together and tried her best to answer.
"I am honored by Your Majesty's regard. It has been roughly from the time I can remember until now."
The Emperor pondered for a moment, seemingly calculating the years. However, Xiao Nanhui did not think he would know her birth date. After all, even she didn't know it.
"You are good material for a colonel. My failure to notice your talent, leaving you to languish in the position of a mere corporal, was truly an oversight."
The awkward conversation was beginning to turn dangerous. The cold sweat she had just wiped away began to bead again.
"Your Majesty is compassionate toward my hard work, but I do not dare to be arrogant. I am but a soldier; even if I have some skill with weapons, I would never dare to presume upon the rank of General."
"If I say you are worthy, then you are worthy."
The Emperor dropped the sentence lightly, seemingly intending to end the conversation.
Just as her heart began to settle, he spoke again.
"Regarding the key points General Xiao just described, there is one part I do not understand."
Hmm?
Xiao Nanhui looked up.
She had thought the Emperor had no interest in martial arts at all. Was he actually this studious?
She had long heard that the children of the Imperial family were mostly diligent and hardworking; seeing him now, it seemed to be true.
She bowed and said, "This is my first time teaching, and there are many areas where I may have been inadequate. If Your Majesty has questions, please do not hesitate to ask me directly. If it is beyond my ability, I will find someone else..."
Before Xiao Nanhui could finish, the Emperor’s body suddenly lunged toward her.
His movements were light, carrying only a faint sound of wind. Coupled with the fact that she was focused on her reply, she hadn't noticed his intent at all. By the time she reacted, he was already very close.
"If I were to do this from behind..."
A low voice drifted past her ear, and a hand accurately gripped a vital point at her waist. Before he could even apply pressure, Xiao Nanhui’s body made an instinctive reaction.
In the blink of an eye, with the speed of a sudden storm, she raised her elbow, pivoted, locked his arm, and threw him.
The sequence of movements was fast, precise, and flawless. By the time she realized what was happening, the Emperor’s body was already irreversibly falling toward the ground.
Xiao Nanhui felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck her right between the eyes.
What had she done? She had thrown the Emperor!
Ding Weixiang, you harbinger of doom!
There was no time to think. she lunged toward the falling figure, only managing to slide her arm beneath him a moment before he hit the ground.
He wasn't as heavy as she had imagined. Her arm took the brunt of the impact against the sandy earth, but she managed to steady him.
"I... I deserve ten thousand deaths! I deserve ten thousand deaths, my life is not worth pitying..."
She was so busy repeating her pleas for forgiveness that she didn't notice the lack of response. When she finally looked up, she realized her current position was... highly inappropriate.
Both of her arms were wrapped behind Su Wei’s back, her entire body was pressed against his, and their faces were currently very close. It felt as though she were embracing him.
The man’s half-closed eyes were looking at her. The long lashes cast shadows over the corners of his narrow eyes, making his gaze lose its usual calm and stillness, replaced instead by something blurred and deep. The lines of his slightly upturned jaw were elegant, and following the collar that had opened during the struggle, she could see his slightly protruding Adam's apple, his clearly defined collarbones, and his smooth, slightly heaving chest...
Xiao Nanhui subconsciously swallowed. She suddenly realized: she was seeing far too much through that open collar.
*Xiao Nanhui, oh Xiao Nanhui, your audacity has barely vanished before your wandering eye takes over.*
Using both hands and feet, she practically scrambled backward off of him.
"I deserve ten thousand deaths."
A grand General of the realm, her voice was now as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
It wasn't her fault, it really wasn't.
She was only human; she truly could not bear the responsibility of training a "True Dragon."
A long time passed without any reaction from the "Dragon."
She opened one eye to steal a look.
The Emperor was still in the same position on the ground, watching her with composed interest.
"How long does General Xiao intend to leave me lying on the ground?"
Xiao Nanhui performed a kip-up and sprang to her feet. Like a veteran palace attendant, she fawned over him, carefully helping the Emperor up from the ground.
"Is Your Majesty injured? It was truly an unintentional mistake. I beg you to punish me for my improper conduct."
The Emperor calmly withdrew his arm from her grasp and shook out his sleeves.
"It is no matter."
With that, he walked toward the exit of the drill ground.
Was he done practicing?
She hurriedly followed.
"Is Your Majesty truly unharmed? Perhaps we should let Lord Lu take a look..."
As she spoke, Lu Songping appeared before them like a ghost.
Xiao Nanhui suspected that from the moment she had pushed the Emperor down, this man had been standing by, ready to draw his sword and hack her to death.
Lu Songping didn't look at the Emperor, however. He looked at her first, his expression once again that strange.
She didn't understand why, so she winked frantically at him, signaling for him to pay attention to the Emperor.
Only then did Lu Songping shift his gaze and bow. "What are Your Majesty's orders?"
The Emperor did not stop, walking toward the west.
"My outer robe is soiled. Have someone send a fresh garment to the small tent."
As expected, Imperial children could not handle praise. Just as she was about to commend his diligence, he couldn't even tolerate a bit of sand on his clothes. He really wasn't suited for martial arts.
In the moment Xiao Nanhui was distracted, the Emperor had vanished, and Lu Songping was nowhere to be seen, leaving her standing there alone. As the cold wind blew, her face truly did sting.
Was her teaching that bad? Why did she feel like she was being disliked?
Although the Emperor hadn't reprimanded her, she still felt a sense of loss.
In the end, she had failed in her duty. Every one of Ding Weixiang’s worries had been hit dead center. It was truly frustrating.
As she thought about it, her steps toward Mo Chunhua’s tent slowed to a halt.
It was all that bastard Xu Shu’s fault. Thanks to him, she had always been a bit heavy-handed during sparring. Although she had
