A Kiss for My Sworn Enemy - Chapter 3

When Yun Yanzhi returned from camp, I was sprawled on a couch eating fruit.

I even smiled and waved as he came in. “Oh, you’re home, Husband!”

Yun Yanzhi’s face was blank.

He’d progressed from shock and resistance to no expression at all. Excellent. The boy could be taught.

“Physician, when will her memory return?” There was no telling whether he was pleased or angry.

The physician scratched her head. “Lovely weather we’re having today…”

Yun Yanzhi looked baffled.

“Oh, no, I mean… I suppose that depends on the young lady’s mood…”

Yun Yanzhi bent down in front of me and studied my eyes. I let him look. I even lifted a grape and gently pressed it against his lips.

He instinctively opened his mouth and took it. Then, realizing what he’d done, he straightened and backed away two steps. My sharp eyes caught the red creeping up his ears.

Well, well. The great general was quite an innocent.

“What are you d-doing?” He stumbled over the words before finally getting a whole sentence out.

“Giving you something nice to eat.” I sounded perfectly natural.

He looked anything but. You’d have thought he’d swallowed a fly rather than a sweet, delicious piece of fruit.

“No. You still owe me an explanation for that.” Yun Yanzhi paced back and forth beside my bed, reminding me of the ants I’d seen beneath the tree at the village entrance as a child.

“If you kissed someone… I said if. Why would you kiss him?” He stopped abruptly and fixed his eyes on me.

I thought it over, then ventured, “Maybe because he’s… he’s good-looking?”

Judging by his expression, that answer did not satisfy him.

“That’s all?” His brows drew tightly together. “How shallow.”

That was shallow?

I thought again. “Or maybe… he’s someone important to me?”

Yun Yanzhi paused.

Ah, yes. A sworn enemy.

That counted as someone important, didn’t it?

Important enough to spend every day thinking about how to stab each other.

Seeing how unhappy he looked, I sighed. “Oh, stop brooding.”

“Jin has lost one of its leading generals. Its army has been suffering defeat after defeat.” He looked at me and suddenly spoke very softly.

My heart gave a jolt.

The missing general was, of course, me.

A few months earlier, I’d led Jin’s forces against Yun Yanzhi’s army. Both commanders had thought of using the difficult terrain, and we’d met on a cliff. We exchanged several blows without either gaining the upper hand. Then the ground collapsed. We tumbled down the cliff and encountered a venomous snake for good measure.

It was a miracle I was still alive.

Without that kiss, some wild beast would probably have picked my corpse clean by now.

I sank into thought.

I’d joined the army because I hated this country to the core and had been powerless to change it. To solve the problem at its root, there was only one way: destroy the root of the country itself.

So I’d enlisted in Jin’s army and used my martial skills to climb to the rank of general.

When I saw the corrupt official of my past abandon his city and flee, I drove my sword through his heart in fury. When the general defending the city tried to save himself and leave its people behind, I cut off his escape and beheaded him in public.

I hadn’t expected Yun Yanzhi to get in my way.

We believed in different things.

Yun Yanzhi wanted to change the world too. He’d joined the army, and after becoming a general, he’d submitted remonstrances again and again, hoping to turn the tide single-handedly.

All I could do was shake my head.

Naive.

So naive.

Unless he rebelled, that emperor and those officials would never realize what was wrong. Of course, even if he rebelled, they probably still wouldn’t.

I still remembered when the strategist noticed my skills and considered promoting me. He investigated my background, then sat in his high seat and looked down at me with a hint of a smile.

“This makes you a traitor.”

There had been something pointed in his tone.

I merely bowed my head lower. “Everyone dearest to me died there. Either that country dies, or I do.”

He laughed. “One of you must die, is it? Very well. I’ll give you your chance.”

After that, I fought harder and rose through the ranks. But wealth and glory were never what I sought. I had only my goal.

I didn’t know how much truth there was in Yun Yanzhi’s claims. He was brave, certainly, but Jin’s generals were no fools either. When all was said and done, this side had only one Yun Yanzhi.

“Lin Jingqiu.” He suddenly looked at me with utter seriousness. “There’s still time to turn back.”

Still time? Still time for what?

My hands were covered in blood. When I looked back, there was only endless snow, burying the tracks by which I’d come.

It was too late.

I had long since lost the way back.

My father could not return from the dead. My master could not live to see his wish fulfilled.

Even if every step left a bloody footprint, I had to keep walking.

Even if there was no end in sight. Even if this road… led only to death.