Inside the commander's tent, the charcoal fire crackled and popped, its flickering light stretching Chu Hongying's figure into a long, motionless silhouette on the felt wall, like a frozen statue of a war god. The air was thick with the bitterness of medicinal herbs and an intangible tension, taut as a bowstring about to snap.
In the silence, only Shen Yuzhu's suppressed, low coughs could be heard.
Chu Hongying opened her palm. The corner of the bloodstained leather map fragment seemed particularly glaring under the firelight. Her fingertips traced the rough edge, her eagle-sharp gaze locked onto the man lying on the sickbed.
"Where did you get this secret passage information?" she asked, her voice not loud, but cold as the deepest winter ice in the Northern Frontier, each word carrying a biting chill.
Shen Yuzhu leaned against the pile of thick blankets on the reclining couch, the heavy fox fur robe almost swallowing his slender frame. His face was pale, nearly translucent, only his eyes, hazy with fever, held a flash of swift clarity when he looked up at her. The corner of his mouth lifted into a faint, almost invisible arc as he answered evasively, "General, why do you think that during the Battle of Snow Wolf Valley, the valiant Chu army, despite their bravery, was encircled and utterly annihilated... without even a proper escape route?"
Chu Hongying's knuckles whitened, the leather edge almost biting into her calloused palm. Snow Wolf Valley... those three words were a scar in her heart that had never healed.
"Because that only path of retreat," Shen Yuzhu coughed twice, his voice hoarse, his gaze profound as he looked into her eyes, "was a carefully laid trap for the prey from the very beginning. This map is the bait, and also... an epitaph."
As his words fell, Chu Hongying's mind suddenly echoed the words he had whispered with his bloodied breath that night in the medic's tent – "from behind" – overlapping chillingly with the cold "bait" now. Her heart clenched, breath catching as if gripped by an invisible hand.
The tent flap was swept aside abruptly as a figure in brocade robes entered, bringing with him a blast of icy wind, shattering the heavy standoff inside.
"Found something!" Gu Changfeng's voice held a trace of barely concealed excitement. He casually brushed snow from his shoulders, pinching a crumpled scroll between his fingers. "An urgent dispatch, just arrived from the capital – a wanted poster for a fugitive, codename 'Fox Eye'. Bounty: a thousand taels. Characteristics: expert at disguise and scheming, has a fox tail tattoo on left wrist or the back of the neck." He spoke deliberately, his gaze drifting seemingly casually over Shen Yuzhu's sleeve-covered wrist.
The temperature in the tent seemed to drop several degrees again.
Chu Hongying took the paper. It was coarse, the portrait blurred, but the pair of upturned, somewhat sinister fox eyes were rendered vividly. Her fingertips touched the cold paper surface, and her mind flashed to the dying, resentful, and unwilling look the fox-tailed tattooed assassin from last night had fixed on Shen Yuzhu.
"Fox Eye..." she murmured, raising her eyes, her gaze like a cold blade scraping once more across Shen Yuzhu's unnervingly calm face.
At that moment, Lu Wanning approached silently, holding a bowl of freshly decocted medicine. She presented a slender silver needle to Chu Hongying, its tip stained with a small amount of blackish-brown powder. "General," her voice was gentle yet clear and calm, "although the wolf poison and the bewildering powder have different origins, both contain a very rare 'Scarlet Flame Herb'. This herb only grows in the volcanic regions near the Northern Di royal court, but the refinement technique... is exquisite and skillful, bearing the mark of Jiangnan pharmaceutical schools."
The clues tangled like messy threads – shadows of three forces: the Northern Di, the capital, and the Jianghu – intertwined within the small commander's tent, thickening the mist.
"So," Gu Changfeng leaned lazily against a low table nearby, his eyes shifting between Chu Hongying and Shen Yuzhu, a playful, elusive smile on his lips, "this 'fox' hiding in our Northern Frontier army camp... is it a claw sent by the Di, a hawkhound from the capital, or... a stray fox from the Jianghu?" His tone was light, teasing, but each word was like a needle. Before the words settled, his gaze turned, landing on Lu Wanning, and he raised an eyebrow, half-serious, half-jesting, "But Physician's Assistant, you know so much, even such obscure pharmacology. You wouldn't someday detect poison even in the wine I drink, would you?"
Lu Wanning's expression didn't change, not even a ripple in her eyes. She only replied coldly, "Supervisor Gu worries too much. If I truly intended to poison you, you would already be unable to stand here making frivolous remarks."
Gu Changfeng was momentarily stung, but instead of getting angry, the interest in his eyes deepened. He laughed heartily and drained his cup of cold wine.
Chu Hongying remained silent, only slowly pushing the corner of the map fragment on the table towards Shen Yuzhu.
Shen Yuzhu looked down, quietly contemplating the piece of leather bearing countless secrets and bloodshed. After a long while, he sighed softly. "General, if you don't believe me, you can tie me up now, send me and this map post-haste to the capital, and claim the thousand-tael bounty." He lifted his eyes, revealing a profound calmness. "But if you... still wish to uncover the truth of Snow Wolf Valley, to find the real 'wolf' collaborating with the Wolfclaw Battalion within this army... Yuzhu is willing to be your vanguard, even if it means death."
With that, he slowly raised a hand and pulled open the collar of his fox fur robe, revealing his pale, slender neck. A vicious old scar sprawled there, and at its end, there was a blurred, seemingly deliberately burned or destroyed brand of a wolf's head!
"This is the true mark borne by the core assassins of the Wolfclaw Battalion," Shen Yuzhu's voice was calm and even. "As for that fox tail tattoo... it's merely a trick used by certain interested parties to cover their tracks."
Chu Hongying's heart shook violently! That fierce wolf head brand overlapped abruptly with a vague, bloody fragment from the depths of her memory! The ice of her suspicion was shattered by this sudden evidence, creating a clear, first crack.
The night deepened, the wind howled outside.
Chu Hongying dismissed the attendants. Once again, the large commander's tent held only her and Shen Yuzhu on the sickbed.
"Channel your energy, heal your wounds, suppress the cold poison within you," Chu Hongying walked to the bedside, her tone an unquestionable command. "No arguments. Your life is mine now. Until I figure this out, you are not allowed to die."
Shen Yuzhu obediently closed his eyes.
Chu Hongying sat cross-legged beside the bed, circulating the scorching true energy within her body, and slowly pressed her palms against Shen Yuzhu's icy back. Two utterly opposing forces collided at once—her blazing Yang against his bone-deep Yin.
The moment her energy entered, Chu Hongying felt a piercing Yin coldness rushing back along the channels, almost freezing her fingertips. Gritting her teeth, she pushed harder from her dantian, the scorching, surging energy forcibly rushing into the other's depleted and blocked meridians. The extreme forces of ice and fire clashed and merged violently within the narrow meridians. Chu Hongying could clearly "see" the state of his internal channels – multiple breaks, heavy blockages, like an ice river full of cracks. In this extreme cold, her vast, warm energy became the only source of light and heat.
Shen Yuzhu's closed eyelashes fluttered slightly. In that boundless darkness and cold, a strange yet incredibly powerful warm current forcefully poured in, dispelling the chill that had plagued him for years. The energy carried an unwavering determination and a searing vitality. A sense of peace, almost luxurious, slowly spread amidst the undeniable weakness.
Just as the healing reached a critical point, Zhao Dashan's hushed yet panicked shout came from outside the tent: "General! On the watchtower outside the main gate... someone stuck this there, don't know when!"
Chu Hongying forcibly suppressed her churning energy and slowly withdrew her power. What Zhao Dashan handed over was a complete wolf skin, pinned firmly with a sharp dagger. On the wolf skin, written in a dark red, seemingly still-wet liquid, were four ferocious, twisted characters:
"The fox is in the cage."
Inside the wolf skin was wrapped another item. Chu Hongying reached out and took it – it was an identity tablet carved from ebony. In the center of the tablet was carved a crystal-clear character that made her blood run cold: "Lu." The edges of the wooden tablet were stained with long-dried, blackened bloodstains.
The "Lu" tablet! This was the identity token worn only by the Lu family's personal guards in the Chu army years ago! It likely belonged to one of her deceased brothers!
Chu Hongying's pupils contracted sharply, her breath catching. Her fingers tightened convulsively, clutching the identity tablet. The hard wooden corner instantly pierced the skin of her palm. Warm blood droplets welled up, dripping onto the pure white wolf skin below, blooming into a stark, grotesque red.
In that instant, overwhelming agony and fury threatened to drown her. Over a decade of endurance, the hatred of her family's destruction, images of her brothers' possible gruesome deaths – it all stabbed into her heart like an ice awl. She almost wanted to scream, to tear apart the commander's tent, the entire snowy plain, but in the end, she could only crush all the rage and pain in the palm of her hand, letting the warm fresh blood mingle with the cold old stain.
Dead silence filled the tent. Only the four bloody characters on the wolf skin emitted a silent, intense threat.
Chu Hongying whirled around, her eyes like two burning flames, shooting towards the weak Shen Yuzhu on the bed. Her voice was hoarse from extreme anger and suppression, but carried an ironclad resolve:
"...Take me to the secret passage. Now. Immediately."
Shen Yuzhu slowly opened his eyes, gazing at the storm raging in her eyes. After a moment of silence, he nodded very lightly.
"Alright. But remember, General, once we step in there, it will be like entering a wolf's den or a tiger's lair. There will be... no turning back."
"My life," Chu Hongying gripped the identity tablet stained with both new and old blood, her gaze piercing through the thick tent flap towards the pitch-black, storm-ravaged distance, "lost its path of return on that day at Snow Wolf Valley."
The night was deep, the north wind whistled, carrying snowflakes. Two figures, one tall and stern, the other frail and unsteady, slipped quietly out of the lit commander's tent and were soon swallowed by the boundless darkness and snow.