Epilogue
Gao Liying
There is something different about Shu. He is not the same boy who my family took in shortly after his clan’s tragedy.
He’s sharper now, more reserved. I miss how he was, but I suppose after our years of separation, some change is to be expected.
I rest my chin against my fist as my assistant Wu Hauiyi enters my room, dropping into a quick bow. “General,” she says holding up a small scroll. “You have a missive.”
I push to my feet, carefully striding across the neat space of the rooms that have been my home since I was stationed in Yanzhou. I recognize the familiar sharp lettering of my father’s handwriting the second I unroll it.
Father wants to know if Shu behaved suspiciously while he was here. He has always been obsessed with the Fourth Family, fearing that they would claw their way up and take his spot as the third most prominent family in Da Xian.
If not for my mother’s kindness we would not have taken in the Xiao cousins at all, but my father was away at a military campaign at the time. It was when he returned abruptly and forced us to cast out our neighbors in their time of need that I believe I lost Shu.
At least for the time being.
I step back to my desk, placing the letter into the fire and I watch the flames lick up against it, consuming the missive and my father’s ridiculous request. As though I would ever betray Shu to him or even turn against my first love for anything other than a national crisis.
I turn to Wu Hauiyi. “Have scouts assigned around Shu while he is at the Imperial City. Not to watch him, but to make sure that my father’s men do not get too close.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Hauiyi says before she turns and leaves. I rest my hands behind my back and release a sigh, my eyes flicking to the table in the center of the room where an elevated map depicts Da Xian.
Here I am, once again rushing to his aide. It’s a thankless task. I doubt he even knows how much I have done for him. Only Hauiyi has truly witnessed my silent devotion.
A part of me grows restless, I wish to rush out there and find him and declare how my love is unwavering just as it always has been. And yet I know that the timing isn’t right.
I ball my hand into a fist, pressing my fingernails against my palm. How long must I remain in the wings, supporting and guarding him before he takes notice?
“Eventually,” I say with a nod. “Eventually.”
No city was ever conquered in a night. A successful conquest must always take time to be properly strategized. And the heart is just like a battlefield.
I am patient though. Shu is mine, he always has been, and one of these days he will realize that the one who has always been there for him has been me. Not that Mu Fanqing.