When they parted, Qu Fongning’s eyes rims had gone all red, his arms wrapped tight around his neck, and his shoulders rose and fell.

Yujien nudged against his sweat soaked forehead, his breathing a little thicker, and his voice even gentler, “Ningning, your heart is beating so fast.”

Qu Fongning held fast to his heart, quibbling, “It’s hot.”

The corner of Yujien’s lips shifted, answering, “Mn, stifling indeed.” And he pulled him towards himself, sealing a second kiss with him.

Qu Fongning had previously held the airs too hard, and was embarrassed to respond too passionately. He affectedly opened his mouth to allow his breaths to come in. He heard the rumble of his throat, a wave of heat assaulted his lower navel, and he tried to curl his calves to conceal it.

“Did you miss me?” Yujien asked above his lips.

Qu Fongning bit his lips, refusing to answer. Yujien brought him on onto the stone horse, letting him prop against the horseback to erect his ass and back to himself.

Qu Fongning writhed a bit in panic, but Yujien already caught him, reassuring him, “The lord’s here, no one dares to watch you.”

And he proceeded to relieve his shorts, entering him from the back. It was probably because they haven’t done it for a long time, it took some work for the entry. And when the entire root burrowed in, Qu Fongning felt his knees give away, and his hands shuddering lightly on the horseback.

Yujien couldn’t be more familiar with his body. “Comfy?” he asked in a low voice.

He was very comfortable, but he didn’t like to say it. Yujien waited until he responded and then started thrusting slow to fast. Beneath the moon, the two’s breathing came more and more heavy, and the watery acoustics of intercourse turned from dry to wet.

Yujien’s one arm held tight around his waist, keeping him in the position for the deepest penetration. When he heard the watery sound, he seemed to have laughed, and breathed by his ear, “When you are cross, you are also dry here.”

“Dry or not, how would I know? Right and back, you are the only one who comes in,” thought Qu Fongning. So he responded, “Can’t I?”

“Why can’t you? Our Ningning is the best, he’s got the ability to mount the sky,” Yujien said in an undertone.

Qu Fongning listened to the praise with some satisfaction, but thinking the only purpose of this ability is to serve him and he wasn’t getting anything out of it, he shut his mouth again.

But the present situation was not up to him, who was soon fucked to crying out loud. His lower body was hard and tall, hanging in midair with no point of force, and very much thirsting for comfort.

Just as the thought turned around, Yujien’s scalding, rough palm clasped him, stroking him, and he cummed together with him.

And so, he finally let him off gently, kissed his back, and sat down on the ground against the stone horse. His frame was huge, even when sitting, the top of his head nearly leveled with the horse’s body.

Qu Fongning stayed on his stomach on the horseback, his four limbs splayed apart weakly, and his breathing took a long time to appease.

His wrist wore a string of wolf fangs bracelet he bought during the day. It made little noises. As it drooped down, dangling, Yujien raised his right arm and held his hand.

They sat like that for a while, holding hands. The moonlight rendered everything very soft and tender. And certain unspoken matters seemed no longer needed to be said.

“Going to sleep?” said Yujien.

Qu Fongning had his chin on the stone horse, rocked it left and right, and held out his hand to touch his stubbles.

Yujien caught his hand. “Da-ge hit you earlier. Still mad about it?” he asked.

“Not anymore now,” said Qu Fongning. He laid his cheeks flat, adding, “A while ago, I couldn’t sleep at all at night. Whenever I shut my eyes, I seemed to see you asking me if I had anything to say. You beat me so hard, I couldn’t even straighten my waist, couldn’t move on my stomach, and was burning sick with fever. And you didn’t come to see me.” As he spoke, the words grew with a twang.

Yujien took his hand to his lips for a kiss. “Ningning, if I’d really hardened my heart, you would’ve snapped in under ten poles. I’d especially enjoined them before the execution. What they broke was only the flesh on the surface, and didn’t hurt a single bit of your muscles and bones.”

Qu Fongning was finally taken aback. “You… weren’t really beating me?” he exclaimed, propping up.

“Really beating you, you won’t take a single hit.” Yujien seemed to be a little amused.

“But… You didn’t come to see me,” said Qu Fongning, not giving up.

“I came twice, both times you were sleeping. Your stomach pressing on a bamboo pillow, an unstringed bow in your hand, and the thumb ring spotted with white marks. Bang it many times?” said Yujien.

Qu Fongning found him having gleaned his secret, cried “Aiya,” and buried his face into the stone. Then he muttered in a buzzing whisper, “Couldn’t crack it.”

Yujien touched his concealed cheek. “I watched you for a long time that night.”

Qu Fongning ducked a bit. “I was also stealing glimpses of you,” he said in a tiny voice.

“I know,” said Yujien.

A quaking heat waved across his heart, Qu Fongning lifted his face, meeting the verdant eyes gleaming of starlight, and as if pulled by something, kissed away.

~

News passed especially fast in this city. By the second morning, everyone knew that the swaggering Captain Qu was back again.

This was also a hot, sunny day. The ones with a full set of black uniforms furtively relieved their belts and loosened their leather boots, and still couldn’t catch any cool. Qu Fongning wore a fluttering silk gown, with his arms all exposed out of the sleeves, which breezed without wind as he walked, looking very cool. And if there was a wind, the entire rob fluttered with a whoosh, looking especially pretty, almost ready to open an altar to conduct the prayers for winds and rains.

At this moment, General Yujien had also arrived. He called him over for a few words, patted his back, and took him away.

Captain Qu’s shoes were also unique; it was a pair of toes-revealing wooden slippers, bound by two, three strips of thin leather, and each finished with a short puppy tail flower knot. As it walked across the greenstone pavement, it rang clicks and clacks, sounding especially good too.

He seemed to want to hear this noise, and deliberately picked paved spots to walk, skipping and hopping on the stone blocks. Such unsightly militarism and appearance; if Staff Officer Bana was here, he would faint from a fit for sure.

As soon as they saw him, they were reminded that he had always been like this. On the first snowfalls in the winter, he would certainly be the first to go tramping across the training field. And no one else could tread on spots he hadn’t stepped on.

Because of these flippant behaviors, though he was full of battle merits, the others weren’t completely content with him. Even in the Li Ignis Division, only the Spring Sun Battalion, a team notorious for being a mess, was truly faithful to him — “No good for anything besides battle!”

Despite this, a massive pool of new soldiers still sharpened their heads to squeeze into his order. The reason was also very simple: he was really too wealthy.

The Ghost Army divided loot on military honors. Most of the Spring Sun Battalion started out as ruthless crater thugs, all with intrepid strength and valor of one worth ten. Though there were some complaints about Captain Qu’s person, there were none about his skills in combat and arms. Every battle culminated with boundless gold and silver, and silks and treasures brimming cars. With his superintendency over the Rolling Clouds iron vines, reselling, scalping, and falsifying the accounts, it was impossible to know how much he had accumulated. The Spring Sun Battalion soldiers always had brand new weapons and sturdy horses, wore and ate the best, and had the youngest women. No matter how hard they swore on the lips, by the time for autumn applications, none was ambiguous on applying to the Spring Sun Battalion.

Certainly, there were people who dismissed buying popularity with money, finding it laughable. General Yujien, such a valiant hero all his life, how could he allow him to foul his airs like this? So, since they’d heard he got a beating from disrupting order, they couldn’t resist toasting a cup to celebrate.

But looking at it now, did it improve at all? The eighty poles were really useless.

Yet, if one spent a little more effort in careful observation, they might find Captain Qu had changed by a bit. Before, he would be rather wanton before the general, and now, his air was a little more reserved. When he spoke, his head would nod, and nod again, unlike the previously slipshod Mns and Mns.

And as to whether Captain Qu noticed it himself, that was impossible to know. Anyway, henceforth, the Spring Sun Battalion behaved much more obediently, their thick aggression lessened, and their strength grew yet more.

But all such are afterwords, and shall not be discussed now.

Yujien’s tribesmen lived in the northeastern sixteen Bas of the city. At that moment, they were all assembled in a hall, waiting to salute their lord. Yujien took Qu Fongning to go with him. Far from the tribe’s gate, they could see people dressed in radiant garments with drinks in their hands, looking eagerly before the yurts. And Qu Fongning squatted down, refusing to go any further.

Yujien pulled his hand forward, dragging him sloping across the earth. “Be good, it’ll be done after a greeting. A couple of the elders heard you were coming and rushed overnight from beyond the Urni Rivers, hundreds of lis away. You have the heart to make them wait?”

“Not going! I ain’t going!” Qu Fongning cried with a long face.

Yujien walked with paces sweeping the wind, hauling him forward, and teasing him, “Why, the young wife is scared of seeing the in-laws?”

Qu Fongning squirmed hard, screaming, “I ain’t talking to the gaffers! Their mouths smell!”

Yujien laughed out loud. “Fine, you stand behind my back. If they talk to you, you hold your breath and ignore them.”

Qu Fongning saw that he had nowhere to run, puffed up his face and said no more. When he was small, he was always most afraid of the New Years. As father wasn’t usually home, no one could control him at home, so he spent his days unbridled and free. Only in the month of New Years, father would sit in residence every day, and he couldn’t skip school nor make trouble. Truly miserable! From the First to the Fifteenth, it was really hell on earth. Not only did he need to study books and characters every day, many despicable oldies would come to their estate, bringing along many despicably younglings, coming to pair verses, or draw paintings, or wax poetry, and all swinging their heads with an important air. Father especially enjoyed these matters, keeps lauding so and so “clever and gifted, destined for greatness” and such. As for him, he also received no few compliments, but most were words like “the little master is as bright as a pearl, how adorable!” Father would shake his head with a wry smile every time, and sign, “All looks and no substance!” He understood these words, and knew that in his father’s eyes, he was probably just a bad mandarin. Because of this, as soon as he saw the gathering of Yujien’s tribesmen, he immediately recalled this unpleasant past. At once, a pang of anguish tumbled in his heart, and he was unwilling to put in a single step.

Fortunately, today Yujien was much more indulgent to him than his father. Finding his aggrieved refusal, he teased him once and forced no more. He changed himself into the ceremonial gown and entered the great wolfskin ger with his tribesmen.

Qu Fongning hid alone inside an indigo blossom round yurt. As he saw Yujien’s splendid attire, he suddenly felt abashed. This gown had a scarlet base, with collars crossing to the left, silken trims, horseshoe sleeves, violet-grey belt with a deep blue base, the dress so smooth and supple, and the fabric magnificently brilliant and embroidered with a golden-toothed sun. This ceremonial gown had been very large and wide and didn’t show the shape. But Yujien’s strapping figure, long legs and broad chest, all fitted perfectly into shoulders, sleeves, waistline, and bottoms. As he sat between the circle of old men, he carried the mature composure and fortitude of the thirty-year-old male. As he laughed, the surrounding crowd all laughed with him, their absolute idolization obvious to sight.

He rushed back the yurt flaps, listening to the relentless pounding of his heart. He hurried to recite the theorems of Sky Mesh, quieting his heart and breathing, and thought, “If Uncle Hwei learns that I’m using his intricate kungfu this way, would he chop me with a single hand?”

~

In the afternoon, Yujien finally came to get him, taking him to tour a couple of old yurts beyond the eastern walls. As he mentioned this is where he lived when he was small, he pointed to an object. “This is the wooden blade I used when I was young.” Qu Fongning felt incredulous, turning the wooden blade back-and-forth to look, exclaiming, “Really a wooden blade.” Yujien recounted his father died young and his mother brought him up alone. Qu Fongning took a deep breath, stuttering, “You also have a mom… mother?” Yujien raised his hand and flicked his forehead, laughing, “What kind of monstrous demon are you taking me for?” He cuddled him, sitting on an old tiger skin carpet, telling him things from his youth. He told him when he was six, he caught an injured female dzeren and happened upon several Urni tribe hunters, and narrowly prevailed after a desperate dispute. Yet unknowingly, just as he returned to the city, the Urni tribe had sent in troops with claims, accusing him of robbing another’s prey, and demanded he lower his head to apologize. His mother handled matters in the tribe and put the word down then and there, “My son is proud of nature, he would never covet other people’s things.” And she questioned them sharply on the whereabouts of the dzeren’s fatal wound. The Urni tribesmen fell speechless and angrily withdrew their troops. After a few days, he went to the Urni tribe’s territory alone…

“You… killed them all?” Qu Fongning clutched the sleeve, nervous.

Yujien smiled and caught his hand. An ineffable meaning surfaced in his eyes.

“No. I went to apologize.”

At the time, the Urni tribe was the chief tribe of the eastern steppes, having influence two hundred li west of the Urni River. The little six-year-old Yujien conducted full body kowtows all the way from the foot of the Urni mountain, offering the full dzeren, and the Urni tribe finally accepted his apology.

Qu Fongning voiced his injustice, “They were the ones being unreasonable, why did you lower your head to admit wrongs?”

Yujien displayed a profound smile. “They were strong and us weak. What’s the big deal of me lowering my head once?” He was the son of Yarrdu’s city lord, and this bow of his head was no small matter. Henceforth, the Urni tribe conducted business with Chienye and gradually became intimate. In ten years, Chienye joined forces with them, campaigning south of the Urni River and east of the Mei Waters, stomping out countless large and small tribes, and finally perched its absolute dominance over the steppes — “And never bow to anyone ever again.”

As Qu Fongning listened to the end, hot blood surged through his body, and he nearly shouted, “This is what a real man ought to do!”

Yujien held his hand, leading him to see several old things in a blackwood box, and took out a five-zhang long golden bone staff from a stack of faded clothes. Qu Fongning took it over, curious, and instantly toppled. “So heavy!” he cried.

Yujien caught the back of his clothes with a smile and brought him back to his side. “This is what my mother used to brandish, cast entirely from pure gold, weighing seventy-fix jin. When she stomped this down, none in the city dared to speak. Got a beating from this, I couldn’t feel my body for half a month.” He touched the dragon at the top of the staff, nostalgia streamed in his eyes.

“You had beatings too?” Qu Fongning was again taken aback.

“Where don’t kids get beatings?” Yujien gave a tsk. He looked at the staff and seemed to have signed, “Used to be most scared of beatings, just wanted to grow up faster. Now I’m bigger and want another beating, but that’s impossible.”

Qu Fongning’s nose prickled, and tears nearly rushed off his sockets.

Yujien caressed a dated blood mark on the staff body, reminiscing, “My mother rarely ever smiled. Even at my grand wedding, she only tugged the corner of her lips before the dais. And that wasn’t because she was happy. It was only because my first wife was the Urni tribe chief’s daughter, and she should put on a smile.”

Qu Fongning had a lively nature; great cries and laughs were his regular courses. He couldn’t imagine such apathetic characters in the world, and couldn’t helping thinking: “It’s fortunate you aren’t like your mother.” And he said, “It can’t be.. the old lady never had a moment of joy in her entire life?”

He drew out Yujien’s memories, whose eyes darkened, and his voice gradually fell, “Yes. Only once.”

His gaze fell on the staff’s head, his heart off to some unknown place. He said slowly,” When I was sixteen, our tribe lost the contest for the Gadas pastures with the Ulun tribe, over half of the Imperial Legion died or was injured, and the entire tribe had to move to the east. Tens of thousands of tribesmen took their old and young, herded their cattle and sheep, routing to the central stronghold, Julantana. The gates of Julantana secured like steel, and as long as we entered the pass, even tens of thousands of men and horses could do nothing about it. The Ulun tribe knew the stakes and sent over tens of thousands of pursers, following close behind. Me and Ting’schi covered the back. We ate and slept on the horseback for days on end, without a moment’s peace. Little Ting’yu was just born, a tiny person but such a large cry! In the night’s dark in the great ger, watching the exhausted remaining soldiers and hearing the baby’s cries. Truly an indescribable feeling. It was the direst moments in Da-ge’s whole life.”

Qu Fongning dared not to speak and nodded lightly. “Then did we enter the pass?”

Yujien laughed, recovering some softness on his face. “Naturally, or else who would be here to cherish you now?” Then his expression turned somber. “We circled and defended for over a month and finally escorted the tribesmen to the walls of Julanata. Less than half had entered the pass and already came the drumming of iron hooves. The Ulun riders came again. Without hesitation, I immediately steered soldiers to battle. Ting’schi rushed his horse forth too. I shot an arrow before his horse and prevented his advance. I took A’chu from the wet nurse and threw him into his arms.”

This was the first time Qu Fongning ever heard him mention this name. His heart gave a stir, and he soon thought. “He gave his son to Little Ting’yu’s father. What does this mean? Where did A’chu’s mother go?”

Yujien seemed to have guessed his thoughts and opened his mouth. “She died from obstructed labor on giving birth to A’chu. At the time, I had no attachments or tethers. Yet as I spun the horse around, my hand was empty. My mother had taken away the order tally. She had always been taciturn, but she held high the order tally and roared, ‘Soldiers! Come with me to our last stand! Win, our names shall go down in history; Lose, we go down with our nation!’ With that said, she reared her horse’s hooves and charged into the Ulun army.”

All of Qu Fongning’s blood soared to boil and soon dropped ice cold. This battle had no chance for victory, his mom… went to her death.

“As I watched, going mad with distraught, I slapped my horse and gave chase. My mom saw through me and gave a sweep of the staff and smashed my ride’s eyes. She rode out half a li and suddenly whirled her head around and gave me a smile. She said softly, ‘Foolish child, no mother in the world would watch her son going to his death!’”

As Qu Fongning listened to here, he could hold it no more, his tears pitter-pattered down. He found his expression unchanged, and asked, hesitantly, “And… then?”

Yujien’s gaze shifted. “Then? I found this staff in the Ulun national treasury later and brought it back,” he said mildly. He solemnly returned the staff to its place and wiped his tears.

“You… must be very sad?” Qu Fongning sobbed in his enormous palm.

“Sad about what?” said Yujien. “My mother acted correctly, she couldn’t be any more right. She was a benevolent mother and a great hero, the only woman ever to enter Chienye’s hall of heroes in two hundred years.”

Qu Fongning said quietly in his heart: “What’s the use of a hall of heroes? Even if you build a hundred, or two hundred of them, your mother will never come back, never take care of you or cherish you ever again.”

But he dared not say these words, and only kept his face in his arms, rubbing his tears.

Yujien kissed his head, and his voice became gentle. “I’ll take you to see her grave.”