The Beiyong Army's iron hooves stepped into Andu County that day, and Feng Yun rose before dawn to busily pack up.
The whole residence was in chaos, packing up valuables, but she methodically sorted and packed dried fungi, vegetables, meats, grains, and other such items, stacking them neatly.
"Shi'er Niang!"
Alou rushed into the backyard like a gust of wind, her breaths heavy with deep fear.
"The Beiyong Army is attacking the city! The Lord requests your immediate presence..."
Feng Yun tucked the dried radishes into the oiled paper package without turning her head. "What's the panic for? Whatever army it is, they'll need to eat."
—
Feng Yun was only seventeen that year, the eldest legitimate daughter of the Feng family from Xuzhou, born to Andu County Prefectural Governor Feng Jingteng and his first wife Lu Sanniang. While still in her mother's womb, an engagement had been arranged with Xiao San, the third son of the Lanling Xiao Family.
The wedding should have taken place last year...
But Xiao San, a legitimate heir of a centuries-old family and member of the Qi Dynasty Royal Family, bestowed with the title Prince of Jingling, was of high status and high expectations. Before the wedding, he volunteered to guard the Great Ancestor's tomb, and thus, the marriage was delayed.
"To betroth my child to an enemy commander, this father has a guilty conscience."
"With the troops at the gates, father... has no other strategy."
"The safety of all the city's inhabitants depends on my child."
"Shi'er Niang, you are my only hope."
As the large army bore down, the weakly defended Andu City was in grave danger. Feng Jingteng's tone became increasingly urgent and anxious with each sentence, his breath uneven. A Governor in complete disarray.
However, Feng Yun remained eerily calm.
Ever since her mother passed away and her stepmother entered the family, she had changed.
No longer the clever and quick-witted child of her younger years, she became dull, slow; seemingly obedient, or as her father saw it, dull-witted—his eldest legitimate daughter with nothing to offer but her beauty.
In haste, Feng Yun bathed and changed her clothes, without bidding farewell to Feng Jingteng.
She instructed Alou to pack the supplies stored in a small room into a donkey cart, filled to the brim. Then, she calmly picked up the short-tailed, peaked-eared little odd cat that was dozing on a low table and gently stroked it.
"Ao Zai, we're leaving."
"Ayun..." Feng Jingteng called out to stop her, raising his sleeve to wipe his eyes, his face showing a desperate expression, his voice choked and uneasy, "My child, don't blame your father for being cruel..."
Feng Yun turned to look at him intently, "Father, do you actually care?"
"..." Feng Jingteng was speechless.
Feng Yun smiled, "To push one's legitimate daughter born of the first wife into a pit of fire so that the daughter of the current wife can rightfully marry her sister's husband, thereby uniting the Feng and Xiao families, with power and beauty at one's fingertips... If I were father, I would at least set off a couple of strings of firecrackers to celebrate."
Boom! Suddenly, there was silence all around.
Feng Jingteng felt as if the sky had fallen, suddenly breathless, "Silly child, what are you talking about?"
Feng Yun slowly removed the veil from her head, lifting the obstruction from her eyes. Her dark, beautiful, cold, bright eyes mocked him openly and unobstructed.
"I don't want Xiao San anymore, give him to your and the Chen Family's daughter; consider it repayment for raising me. From now on, you and I, father and daughter, will owe nothing to each other, with all ties cut."
Feng Jingteng's face paled as he watched Feng Yun's resolute departure...
In that moment, his mind was foggy.
Shi'er Niang shouldn't be like this. She shouldn't be disrespectful, she shouldn't talk back, she shouldn't lose her temper, and she definitely shouldn't talk about severing ties.
"Full of demon spirit, half of a seductress's bones. A beauty bound to a short life."
These were the words the Fortune Teller wrote when Shi'er Niang was born.
Blessed with unmatched beauty since childhood, unrivaled in all eight counties of Xuzhou, she was the embodiment of her fortune—this was her destiny.
"Don't blame me; it's her destiny." Feng Jingteng thought.
—
The streets of Andu City were overshadowed by dark clouds.
As the enemy army was about to enter the city, cries and shouts from closed-off markets and alleys, along with the clopping of the army's horse hooves on the streets, amplified the people's fear to the extreme.
General Pei Jue of the Beiyong Army was a cold-blooded monster.
Rumors had it that he was eight feet tall, formidable as a mountain, savage and heartless. Consuming raw flesh and blood was as normal to him as a meal, affixing his name to a door could ward off evil and ghosts, and merely mentioning his name could stop a child's cries.
King of Hell was just beyond the wall, and breaking the city was a matter of moments.
Death's shadow descended, and the screams seemed to sob.
"Listen—the battle drums of the Beiyong Army have started!"
"The city is about to fall!"
"The city is about to fall!"
"Governor Feng—surrendered!"
With a loud boom, the city gates swung open.
Alou, holding the letter of surrender aloft, drove out in a donkey cart.
The black wheels turned slowly forward, the donkey cart flanked on both sides by twenty meticulously made-up courtesans in colorful skirts, their eyes red as if marching to their deaths.
The howling wind, mixed with falling leaves, brought a scene of spring into the eyes of the Beiyong Army's soldiers...
It seemed like a moment and yet an eternity before the donkey cart finally stopped, surrounded by soldiers fierce as wolves and tigers.
Feng Yun's fingers slowly caressed the back fur of a small alligator.
Through a thin layer of gauzy silk, she felt the stark and icy gazes from all directions.
"Andu County Governor Feng Jingteng presents the beauty of the city, leading 3,000 soldiers and 35,248 citizens to beg for surrender from your honored army!"
No one responded.
The Beiyong Army, a dark mass, was dead silent.
Alou knelt on both knees, holding the letter of surrender above his head.
"Andu County Governor Feng Jingteng presents the beauty of the city, leading 3,000 soldiers and 35,248 citizens... to bow down and beg for surrender from General Pei of the Dajin Country!"
Feng Yun could hear the crying in Alou's voice.
If Pei Jue refused, the Beiyong Army would trample Andu City to dust.
Men and women, old and young inside the city would soon turn into heaps of nameless bones.
Alou's voice grew louder and more hoarse with each shout.
Not until the fifth cry did someone finally respond.
"Accept the surrender gifts."
The voice was indifferent, devoid of any humanity.
Pei Jue might not be considered human in people's hearts, but his spoken word still made some unable to hold back their tears. The lives of all the city's citizens were saved.
It was not that no one had ever offered beauty to beg for surrender before, but Pei Jue refused to accept.
Burning, looting, and slaughtering, that was Pei Jue. Eighty miles away in Wanning City, corpses were strewn everywhere, and the commander's entire family's bodies hung on the city walls—that was the real General Pei, a killer of many.
The soldiers peered curiously into the small donkey cart at the spoils of war, wondering what kind of incomparable beauty Feng Shi Er Niang must be to make the General break his rule.
Ladies from great clans, delicate and alluring, whom they could not even brush the hem of their clothes before, were now captives. This excited the Beiyong Army soldiers, who had fought through blood and fire, making their pores dilate and their blood boil.
"Form ranks and enter the city!"
"Yes!"
Drums thundered in that moment, and a thousand horses neighed.
Feng Yun lifted a corner of the carriage curtain, only to see the swift passing of cold armor and the Biyong Sword's daunting edge...
The figure of that person disappeared quickly into the overwhelming ranks of soldiers...
She couldn't see his face.
The donkey cart, carrying Feng Yun, moved leisurely in the opposite direction of the entering army, driving towards the Beiyong Army's camp amidst the roaring sounds.
"Is Shi'er Niang doing well?" Alou asked with concern.
Being abandoned was almost a constant in her life, so Feng Yun no longer felt anything was amiss. Clutching the solid pad of the small alligator's paw, she laughed lightly, "I am fine."
Alou, feeling chills, asked, "Why is Shi'er Niang laughing?"
Feng Yun rested her chin on the alligator's head, pursing her lips slightly.
In her short previous life, she had once been General Pei's favored concubine for three years.
Feng Yun's fate in that life had been quite harsh.
She had been betrothed to the Prince of Jingling of Nanqi, followed the Great General of Northern Jin, and even married the Emperor of the New Dynasty. Encountering unattainable flowers, falling for cultured scoundrels, and meeting wolves in sheep's clothing, truly fulfilling the Fortune Teller's words that "beauty leads to an ill fate"...
The moment she died miserably in the Qi Palace, she prayed to heaven that all the scoundrels who wronged her would meet only harpies in their next lives.
And so, three days before the Beiyong Army laid siege, Feng Yun came back...
Life restarted, spilt water could be retrieved, and she also wanted to get some fireworks to enjoy the celebration.