Chapter 116: Awakening to a World in Turmoil

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All around her was darkness, so complete that she could not even see her own hand before her face. Shen Qianmo felt her body grow weightless, like a scrap of paper drifting aimlessly through an endless void.

She felt herself moving farther and farther away from this world, yet an invisible force seemed to hold her back, making her unwilling to leave.

“Mo’er… Mo’er…”

It was this indistinct voice, perhaps, that kept calling to her, stubborn and persistent, echoing beside her ears.

The voice was so familiar, and yet so sorrowful—hoarse, lingering, plaintive as a sob and a lament. It stirred her thoughts and desires, yet filled her with unbearable heartache.

“A-Heng! A-Heng!”

Shen Qianmo murmured the name several times, then suddenly jolted awake.

When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a weathered, mottled wooden beam.

She was in a small, simply furnished wooden hut, lying on a narrow, hard bed. From time to time, cold wind forced its way through the gaps around the poorly fitted window, whistling mournfully.

The chill cleared much of the fog from Shen Qianmo’s mind.

She was covered by a coarse, ocher-yellow cotton quilt, its surface patched in several uneven places. She struggled to sit up, but her entire body ached as though every bone had come loose. Unable to move, she could only sink weakly back onto the bed.

At that moment, the door creaked open, and a middle-aged woman entered, dressed in a blue blouse patterned with white flowers. Seeing Shen Qianmo struggling to rise, she hurried over and cried out in delighted surprise, “Miss, you’re awake!”

Her clothes were plain, her features broad and kindly, and a dark blue headscarf was wrapped around her hair. She was clearly an ordinary village woman.

Shen Qianmo studied her for a moment and parted her lips, only to find her throat unbearably dry. For a while, she could not make a sound.

Seeing this, the villager quickly said, “Miss, you’ve been unconscious for more than half a month. Your throat must be parched. Don’t try to speak yet. I’ll fetch you some water to moisten it.”

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More than half a month? She had been unconscious for so long!

After painfully swallowing a few mouthfuls of water, Shen Qianmo found that her throat did indeed feel somewhat better.

“Madam, was it you who saved me?” The moment she spoke, she realized that her voice had become much hoarser. She frowned, recalling that after falling from the cliff, she seemed to have plunged into a great river. Perhaps she had inhaled water and injured her vocal cords.

The village woman set down the bowl and smiled at her kindly. “Miss, you truly are blessed with a hard life. When my husband found you by the stream at the entrance to the village, your whole body was nearly frozen stiff. The village doctor said there was no hope for you, but you simply refused to swallow your final breath. And look at you now—you really pulled through.”

The woman spoke with such animation, as though she had witnessed a miracle. She seemed even happier than Shen Qianmo herself that she had awakened.

“What should I call you, Madam? And where is this place?” Shen Qianmo coughed several times before asking in a low, hoarse voice.

“My husband’s family name is Gu. You may call me Sister-in-Law Gu. This is Twin Streams Village. Because it lies in such a remote place, outsiders rarely come here, so it is very peaceful. You can recuperate here without worry.”

Sister-in-Law Gu was telling the truth. Twin Streams Village was indeed a quiet, tranquil mountain settlement. It lay deep within the mountains along the border between Beidi and Dasheng. The entire village consisted of only twenty or thirty households. Its people worked at sunrise and rested at sunset, isolated from the outside world like inhabitants of a hidden paradise.

At first, Shen Qianmo had feared that, after narrowly surviving her fall from the cliff, she might somehow cross back to her former world. Fortunately, that had not happened. Though she sometimes missed the convenience and advanced technology of modern life, the people she loved—and those who loved her—were here. She did not want to leave.

What followed was a day after day of recuperation. Under Sister-in-Law Gu’s attentive care, together with Shen Qianmo’s own medical knowledge, she recovered with astonishing speed. After awakening, she rested for only half a month before she had essentially regained her strength and could walk freely, leaving the sole physician in Twin Streams Village staring at her in utter amazement.

Shen Qianmo, however, merely wore a faint, composed expression. After all, she had spent a long time studying the medical text Old Duan had left her, and Situ Gong had taught her along the way. Her attainments in medicine were now considerable.

The first thing she did after she was able to walk was ask Brother Gu to take her to the stream where he had found her.

The stream lay at the entrance to Twin Streams Village. Its waters murmured over the stones, clear enough to see the bottom. Not far away, a waterfall plunged down like a silver chain. Beneath it lay a deep, emerald pool. Bathed in the glow of the setting sun, its surface glittered, while its depths disappeared into darkness.

“The people here call that pool Dragon Pool,” Brother Gu explained. “No one knows how deep it is. We only know that many people have drowned there, so ordinarily no one dares go near it. For you to escape alive after falling into Dragon Pool—truly, Heaven must have been watching over you. Your life was not meant to end.”

Brother Gu was a simple, honest, sturdy man. He made his living hunting and gathering firewood, and his broad shoulders and powerful build made him look formidable.

Shen Qianmo quietly raised her head and gazed at the white waterfall rushing down before her. She must have been swept from the cliff by that cascade, fallen into Dragon Pool, and then, under the force of the falling water, been flung toward the bank of the stream.

By that reckoning, she really did have an astonishingly tenacious life.

The corner of her mouth lifted, and she gave Brother Gu a faint smile.

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The thunderous roar of the waterfall brought back the scene of the day she had fallen from the cliff. As she plunged downward, she had seemed to hear Meng Yuanheng’s voice. That heart-rending cry still tore at her whenever she thought of it.

What was that difficult man doing now? Was he still battling He Liancheng, holding Jinyang Pass to the death? Or had he already driven back Beidi and returned triumphantly to court?

At the thought of him, Shen Qianmo’s heart softened.

More than a month had passed since her fall. Twin Streams Village was cut off from the world and news traveled poorly, so she had no way of knowing how the situation outside had changed since her disappearance. She had already asked Brother Gu and learned that Twin Streams Village lay at least eight hundred miles from Jinyang Pass. The journey was rugged and treacherous, requiring one to cross mountains and valleys. In her current condition, reaching it was simply impossible.

But being alive was enough.

As long as they lived, there would always be a day when they could meet again.

Brother Gu watched the woman standing silently in the afterglow of the sunset. She wore nothing more than the plainest coarse-cloth garments and had not a single piece of jade or jewelry on her, yet the calm, gentle dignity she exuded, along with the stillness and keenness in her eyes, increasingly convinced him that she was no ordinary woman.

What Shen Qianmo could never have imagined was that, during the time she spent recovering, the world beyond that isolated mountain village had undergone earth-shaking changes.

In the twelfth month of the ninth year of the Qing’an reign of Dasheng, Emperor Mingde died. According to his final edict, the third prince, Prince Xu Meng Tianxu, ascended the throne and adopted the reign title Heavenly Unity.

Upon taking the throne, the new emperor proclaimed a general amnesty throughout the realm and reduced taxes for three years. For a time, the people of Dasheng rejoiced, spreading the news from mouth to mouth.

At the same time, Prince Xuan’s Residence was once again thrust into the center of the empire’s attention.

At a single command from Meng Yuanheng, all the Meng Family troops stationed along the borders or engaged in battle with the neighboring powers of Beidi, Xiliang, and Nanzhan withdrew from the front lines. The Dasheng garrisons in various regions, as well as the armies of the enemy states, were left dumbfounded. Unable to believe what they were seeing, they speculated wildly that Prince Xuan Meng Yuanheng might have laid a trap.

Only after it was confirmed that the withdrawal was genuine—that the Meng Family troops had truly abandoned every battlefield and gathered in Jingzhou City north of Zhengyang Pass—did the rulers of Beidi, Xiliang, and Nanzhan rejoice. Almost in unspoken agreement, they began to stir restlessly, turning their weapons toward Dasheng, whose old emperor had just died and whose new sovereign had only just ascended the throne and had yet to settle securely upon it.

Meng Tianxu had finally obtained the throne he had dreamed of for so long, only to find himself facing such an awkward crisis before he had even warmed his seat. Naturally, he flew into a rage and thundered with fury. While proclaiming a general amnesty, he issued a separate decree against Prince Xuan’s Residence and had it announced throughout the realm.

Prince Xuan Meng Yuanheng had withdrawn the army without authorization, showing no regard for the stability of Dasheng or the lives of its people. He was to be stripped of his title, relieved of his military authority, and immediately escorted back to the capital to receive severe punishment.

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