After the system set its sights on the dragon throne, the princess started courting death every day.

At Shenshi (3-5 PM), orange-red light pressed down on the horizon, and a sliver of afterglow reddened half the sky. The city gates were about to close, and the yamen runners of Yintian Prefecture were dismissed, gathering in twos and threes to talk and laugh loudly. In the distance, a line of black horses galloped in.

Yang Chengyi stood under the eaves at the street corner and looked up. The boy riding at the front of the horse had a youthful face, but his cheeks were taut, giving the impression of a child pretending to be a mature adult.

To outsiders, it seemed like a child playing house, riding horses in the capital. But the fierce-looking soldiers following behind him were as intimidating as Mount Tai pressing down on him. Each soldier rode a sturdy horse with well-proportioned muscles. Compared to the docile horses used for playing and hunting, they seemed to carry a layer of ferocity, making them clearly extraordinary.

The group sped off quickly, and there was no time to take another look. All that could be done was watch their backs disappear into the distance. Yang Chengyi reached out and hooked his arm around the neck of his colleague beside him. Before he could ask who they were, he saw two more horses following behind, and the riders were still two young boys with youthful faces.

"The two riding behind look like General Qi's sons," Yang Chengyi muttered to himself, hooking his arm around his colleague.

Qi Cheng's youngest son, Qi Yuanshi, once beat up a spoiled brat in the street. The Five Cities Garrison caught him and handed him over to Yin Tianfu. The boy had just arrived in the afternoon, and Qi Cheng came to bail him out that very night.

A colleague nudged Yang Chengyi in the waist with his elbow and whispered a warning: "Yes, don't look around. You'll lose your head."

"Let's see if we can lose our heads?" Yang Chengyi didn't look at the face with disbelief, but he believed it in his heart. He wasn't just randomly picking a colleague; he knew that this colleague had some connections and often knew about important court affairs that ordinary people didn't.

His colleague cautiously looked around, then pulled the two of them together to a secluded corner, and asked mysteriously, "Do you know why this winter isn't cold?"

"I'm not a fortune teller, how would I know?"

"I know, I'm only telling you this secretly because we're good friends, so don't tell anyone else." His colleague smiled smugly, and his words were carried to Yang Chengyi's ears on the wind. Yang Chengyi was shocked and looked up at the troops that had already left the city gate. His eyes widened with disbelief and admiration.

At the tender age of thirteen, Fu Qingbai went to the border alone to deliver grain to his father!

The emperor entrusted a matter that was still unresolved in the court to a thirteen-year-old boy who had not yet come of age, without any consultation.

The lives of tens of millions on the border are in the hands of a thirteen-year-old boy.

Ridiculous! Absurd!

Once outside the city, the wind that rushes past you brings a sense of freedom, sharp and unrestrained.

"Brother! I'll go after them! You go back!!" Qi Yuanshi's voice cracked as he rode against the wind, the wind filling his throat as he opened his mouth.

Qi Yuanshen turned his head to look at him, struggling to lift his hand, which had been exposed for a long time and was stiff from gripping the reins. He rubbed his equally frozen mouth for a moment, and after it warmed up a little, he shivered and said, "Go back."

It was too cold; an ordinary scholar would have succumbed long ago. Qi Yuanshen had endured for so long without giving up, partly because he wanted to personally inquire about Fu Qing's innocence, and partly because he was worried about his younger brother chasing after Fu alone in the suburbs.

Qi Yuanshi: "I practice martial arts, so my physique is better than yours!"

Qi Yuanshen: "..."

Qi Yuanshen ignored him. Even if his body was made of iron, it wouldn't work. He was only thirteen, and he couldn't rest easy about it.

"elder brother!"

"—Hey! Qi Yuanshi! Are you crazy! What if I hadn't reined in my horse in time and crashed into you?!"

During the Lunar New Year, Qi Yuanshen didn't want to talk and risk bad luck, so he impatiently scolded Qi Yuanshi and tried to walk around him by holding the reins.

Qi Yuanshi blocked his way, reaching into his arms to pull out a cloth bag. Qi Yuanshen immediately reached out to snatch it away, saying, "No..."

Before he could even finish a single word, the horse blocking his path suddenly bolted away like an arrow, with Qi Yuanshi on horseback laughing loudly: "Go back quickly! Otherwise, I'll throw this bag of silver away!"

A hearty laugh echoed across the wilderness, a high ponytail spread out in the cold wind, and the black horse carried Qi Yuanshi further and further away, his tall figure growing smaller and smaller.

In a daze, Qi Yuanshen seemed to see Qi Yuanshi at the age of six, riding on the back of a pony for the first time, his face full of excitement and wonder, but his hands tightly holding onto his neck and refusing to let go. His soft little face was pressed against his face, and he asked him, fearfully yet stubbornly, for the words, "My little brother is the most powerful general in the world."

A gust of cold wind swept over him, making Qi Yuanshen's eyes redden. He blinked his dry eyes, which hadn't been blinking for a long time, pulled his cloak tighter around him, buried his chin in the fur collar, and after a long while, murmured, "How did I grow up so much..."

"Young master, someone is chasing us from behind." A soldier urged his horse to his side.

Upon hearing this, Fu Qingbai looked back and saw a young man in blue robes riding a horse in the distance, carrying a bundle in his hand. His face looked somewhat familiar, but she couldn't recall his name.

We probably met at a banquet in Beijing.

We're already more than ten kilometers out of Beijing, and a little further ahead we'll be heading into the mountains; the orange-red hues on the horizon are fading.

Thinking of the pampered young masters in the capital who drink and make merry every day, each with delicate skin and tender flesh, unable to endure the slightest hardship, if he were allowed to follow him into the mountains, even ten more of these young masters would not be enough to satisfy the wild beasts in the forest once it got dark.

Fu Qingbai raised his right hand to signal a halt. Upon seeing this, the riders behind him spurred their horses and tightened their reins. After a series of shouts, the galloping horses slowly came to a stop and stood still, waiting for Qi Yuanshi to ride up to them.

“Young Master Fu, we heard that you are going to the border to deliver provisions to General Fu. Although we don’t know how you will accomplish something that even the old fogies in the court cannot do, my brother and I believe that you can do it. But when we think of the suffering of the soldiers at the border, my brother and I also want to make a contribution to the provisions for the border.”

As Qi Yuanshi spoke, he tossed the bundle in his hand into Fu Qingbai's arms: "This bundle contains my brother's and my private savings. It's not much, but it's absolutely clean, so use it without worry. My brother and I are incompetent; we can't go to the battlefield, and we don't have any good strategies. Besides giving money, we really can't help you much, so I hope Young Master Fu won't find it offensive. Of course, it's no use if you do find it offensive; it's yours now. If you don't want it, you can throw it away. Anyway, my brother and I don't want it."

Before Fu Qingbai could say anything, Qi Yuanshi had already pulled on the reins, turned the horse around, and returned to the capital along the same route.

“This…he…this person…” The soldier closest to Fu Qingbai scratched his head, wanting to say something, but after stammering for a while, he realized that he didn’t even know his name. Finally, he stammered, “This young man is too reckless. There are so many people at the border. What use does he think his little bit of private money can be? He’s just being ridiculous. Young master, I will go and return it to him right away.”

"No need." Fu Qingbai opened the bundle in his arms, inside which were bundles of silver notes neatly tied with thin rope and stacked. "Ten thousand taels of silver notes can do quite a lot. Let's continue on our way."

A cold wind swept across the wilderness, and the path, withered and yellow, remained as silent as ever, as if no one had ever stopped there.

"What does Fu Qingbai say?" Qi Yuanshen grabbed Qi Yuanshi, who had just arrived home, at the door.