QIN MIAOYU WAS GOGURYEON born and bred—and that wasn't her original name.
In Goguryeo, everyone from the king to the aristocracy was familiar with the culture of the Central Plains. Qin Miaoyu had been adopted at a young age and taught various martial arts, as well as the art of seducing men. At the age of twelve, she'd been given a mission: travel to the Central Plains thousands of miles away, disguise herself as a local, and bury herself until she received her next task.
Since the Qin-Han dynasties, Goguryeo had been a vassal of the powerful Central Plains. Some Goguryeons had even received honorary official titles from several generations of emperors. However, as Goguryeo gradually became stronger and the fires of war raged in the Central Plains, the friction between the two nations increased. Goguryeo was no longer content to remain a vassal.
It was under these circumstances that Qin Miaoyu and Su Xing were sent to Liugong City as spies. Qin Miaoyu knew they were only two of many Goguryeon spies lurking in the Central Plains. Perhaps they'd go undiscovered their entire lives, or perhaps at some point they'd die.
Though Liugong City was a small, remote settlement, it was linked with various cities in the Western Regions such as Khotan and Qiemo in the west. It was bordered by the Khaganate in the north, and its roads spilled into the interior regions of the Central Plains in the east. Its position was therefore both delicate and unique, and it was for this reason Goguryeo had chosen it rather than such flourishing locales as Luoyang or Yuhang in the heart of the Central Plains.
She'd spent her first four years in the Central Plains familiarizing herself with life here. The family she lived with had a matriarch with the surname Qin, who believed Qin Miaoyu's carefully crafted backstory and adored her like a blood niece. They also had a son of an age with Qin Miaoyu whom she referred to as a cousin. This son was a man of upright character who treated Miaoyu with the utmost care; the aunt had at one point thought to arrange a marriage between them. But Qin Miaoyu had refused time and again. She knew in her heart she'd never be afforded the chance to marry and have children like an ordinary woman.
One day, Yuchi Jinwu, who was at the time merely the nephew of the Khotanese king, arrived in Liugong City. Su Xing instructed Qin Miaoyu to seduce and marry Yuchi Jinwu and accompany him back to Khotan. He believed Yang Jian, then still the Duke of Sui, held immense influence and would inevitably seize power and become emperor in the future. If a new dynasty was established under this man, his dedication to progress would surely create friction with neighboring nations. Khotan was a small country in the Western Regions, but its location held strategic importance. It would very likely become a significant pawn in the game between great powers.
Qin Miaoyu had no way to refuse. She was alone in Liugong City, and both the level of her martial arts and her ranking among spies were well below Su Xing's. She followed his orders and created various opportunities to encounter Yuchi Jinwu, who was bewitched by her beauty and immediately offered to take her as his concubine. But her aunt's family strongly opposed the proposal; they believed Yuchi Jinwu was a poor match for her. Her cousin drove him away from their door when he came to propose a marriage. But Qin Miaoyu insisted, and eventually, they had no choice but to believe she was vain and longed for shallow splendor on the arm of a rich man. They allowed her to be married.
She'd not returned to Liugong City since, and never again saw the benevolent Lady Qin and the family who'd treated her so well. After all, Yuchi Jinwu was the nephew of the king of Khotan, a prince and noble. Qin Miaoyu's life in Khotan was far finer than her life in Liugong City and held no shortage of luxuries and delicacies. But she still thought often of the Qin family, far away in Liugong City.
Even so, she knew she could not return. She never gave up her secret martial arts training, though her skills were still inferior—she would be considered a third-rate martial artist in the Central Plains at most. But this was a world where the strong were king, and this meager training was her only path to breaking free of her bindings.
Yuchi Jinwu was already wed to a legitimate wife in Khotan, along with several other lovely concubines. But Qin Miaoyu was both beautiful and talented, so he favored her above all. She lived like this for several years, up until he was appointed envoy by the king of Khotan and entrusted with escorting the tribute to the Central Plains. A few gentle words from Qin Miaoyu were all it took for him to agree to bring his beloved concubine along. He never imagined this trip would be the last he ever took.
When Su Xing had put a blade through Yuchi Jinwu's chest, splattering her face with her husband's blood, her eyes had widened, and she'd cried out softly. Su Xing had growled impatiently, "Shut up! Are you trying to attract more people?! Go finish off the two maids!"
He left Qin Miaoyu and went to take care of the Khotanese guards.
These were the Khotanese king's royal guards—they weren't just anyone. But in the Central Plains, where talent abounded, they were powerless against a stronger foe. Qin Miaoyu realized then that, despite her years of arduous training, she could only defeat a few comparatively mediocre members of the convoy. Were she to challenge Su Xing, she'd be lucky to last longer than ten moves.
In the instant that fact became clear to her, she discarded the last scrap of guilt she felt toward Yuchi Jinwu, and her hunger for the jade was born.
Because he loved and valued her greatly, Yuchi Jinwu had told her a secret: they hadn't brought one Jade of Heaven Lake from Khotan, but two.
For anyone who hadn't seen the true Jade of Heaven Lake, they would never suspect the second stone was a fake. This stone was also a real piece of beautiful jade discovered in a mountain not far from the true jade at around the same time, but it lacked the matchless radiance the true stone possessed. The Khotanese king wished to present both jades to the emperor of Sui to express his sincerity. Just before the assassination, Yuchi Jinwu had told Qin Miaoyu where each of the two stones was hidden.
Thus Qin Miaoyu knew something Su Xing didn't; she boldly gave him the fake stone. She hid the real one and returned to the city with Su Xing before secretly heading back to the scene of the murders. There, she took the real jade from its hiding place then snuck back into the city to conceal herself.
Qin Miaoyu knew the legend of the Jade of Heaven Lake—it could purify the body, shaping the tendons and cleansing the marrow. The temptation to enhance her martial arts was too great; she couldn't help testing it. After several attempts, she discovered that if she exposed the Jade of Heaven Lake to the light of the full moon and channeled qi through her palm, she would receive a trickle of cleansing qi in response. Qin Miaoyu had discovered the jade's secret. She treated it like the most precious of treasures and practiced her internal cultivation day and night. When Qiao Xian and Zhangsun Bodhi followed the trail to her door and the assassin from the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai tried to take her life, Qin Miaoyu pretended to be harmless. She waited until Qiao Xian and her companion had defeated the assassin before slipping from their grasp and fleeing once more.
In truth, she'd also wanted to test her martial progress—and the results were astonishing. A few days prior she'd been a third-rate practitioner, yet now her internal cultivation had improved by leaps and bounds. The jade really was extraordinary. It was only a matter of time before she absorbed all the energy from within the stone and became a first-rate master.
But Qin Miaoyu was running out of time. Though she'd escaped from Qiao Xian and Zhangsun, she'd been seriously injured in the process. She had no choice but to go to ground in the city until she regained her strength. When Feng Xiao obtained the names of her three hiding places from Su Xing, Qin Miaoyu was in the middle of leaving the house through the back gate. The place was supposed to be top-secret, known only to Su Xing. She planned to take a risk and head to the city gates, disguised as a widow who wished to visit her parents. Then she would leave with a merchant convoy she'd contacted.
Qin Miaoyu had made up her mind: if this escape was successful, there was a boundless world waiting for her. No longer would she be a Goguryeon spy, nor anyone's thrall. She wanted to live proudly and openly, whether under the name Qin Miaoyu or another. She would live only for herself. With the jade in hand, even Su Xing couldn't order her around. Maybe she could even convince him to follow his own desires and leave too.
This grand plan fell to pieces the moment she spied a man standing beneath a tree not far from the back gates. He watched her, smiling.
He was extraordinarily beautiful.
Qin Miaoyu had seen all sorts, yet this was the first time she'd ever seen anyone so handsome. But the sight of him didn't stir up the butterflies of a young girl in love. This was an intuition only martial artists felt when confronting a strong foe—what washed over her was cold terror.
The Jade of Heaven Lake had not merely improved her cultivation, it had fine-tuned her sense of danger.
The handsome man smiled. "Qin-niangzi, your reputation precedes you. Today we finally meet, and you truly are as radiant as they say, not at all inferior to those famous beauties."
Qin Miaoyu calmed her fluttering heart and smiled. "May this one ask your esteemed name?"
"Miaoyu—clever speech. Your name is quite nice, but mine sounds better," the man said.
She had never met a man who talked to her in such a way. He was looking at her with appreciation, but it wasn't the appreciation of a great beauty. It was more like he was looking at a decently pretty flower.
"I'm called Feng Xiao," he said.
Qin Miaoyu's heart jolted, and not because she was sighing over the sound of his name. She knew this man.
"So it's the master of the Jiejian Bureau." Qin Miaoyu was incredibly sharp. Before Feng Xiao could say why he'd come, she straightened her robe and bowed. "I believe the gentleman has already met Su Xing. Was he the one who led you here?" she asked pleasantly. "I have the Jade of Heaven Lake, and I can reunite it with its rightful owner. In return, there is one thing I ask."
Feng Xiao stood with his hands clasped behind his back. "You're not qualified to discuss terms with me," he said leisurely.
Qin Miaoyu's smile was strained. "The gentleman misunderstands. Miaoyu's life is in your hands. How could I discuss terms? I merely wanted to inform you of this: that night, on the outskirts of the city, Yuchi Jinwu and the others were all killed by Su Xing. I only killed the two maids. If I hadn't done it, Su Xing would have. And if I hadn't taken the Jade of Heaven Lake, Su Xing would have sent it to Goguryeo long ago."
For the first time, Feng Xiao looked at her squarely. He studied her face. This woman was intelligent, he realized. She pleaded for neither her life nor her freedom. Instead, she stated what had happened that day, attempting to shift the blame and move him with reason. Presumably she'd already realized Feng Xiao couldn't be seduced and wouldn't let her off easily. She chose an unconventional gambit and attempted to blaze a new path.
"What does Goguryeo want with the stone?" Feng Xiao asked.
Qin Miaoyu didn't equivocate. Instantly she said, "I'm not clear on it myself, but Su Xing said the king suffers from a strange illness with no cure. Perhaps it is related."
Feng Xiao found her frankness deeply satisfying. Compared to Su Xing, this woman was indeed smarter and more canny. If not for her bad luck in being betrayed by her accomplice, she might have really managed to dissemble her way out of the city and become the fish that slipped into the great sea.
"Where's the stone?" asked Feng Xiao.
Qin Miaoyu untied the embroidered bag at her waist and took out a piece of jade, which she carefully handed to Feng Xiao.
The jade was the size of his palm, its body crystal-clear. At the center was a dash of blue-green, rippling slowly in the sunlight, as if alive. Before laying eyes on the real thing, Feng Xiao considered the jade he'd taken from Linlang Pavilion to be a rare and beautiful stone. But now he could immediately distinguish which was superior.
The object in front of him was the true Jade of Heaven Lake.
"Why is it so small?" he asked.
Qin Miaoyu glanced at him carefully. "I heard this object can enhance a person's martial arts, so I tried it." She could have attempted to hide it, but Feng Xiao would probably have guessed anyway. Her life was in his hands; it was better to be honest.
She didn't know that Feng Xiao was evaluating her intelligence. She saw how he made no move toward the jade and thought he was afraid she'd tampered with it somehow. Hastily, she said, "Feng-langjun, Miaoyu is completely at your mercy. I wouldn't dare try any tricks or schemes."
Feng Xiao's mouth twitched, but ultimately, he reached out and took the jade.
The instant it was in his hands, he felt a wave of bone-chilling cold. It was an indescribable feeling, like his entire body had been submerged in an icy river. Yet there was no discomfort. Instead, wisps of chill seeped through his limbs and bones and into his heart. His soul was bright and clear, as if touched by a divine hand.
But at that moment, Feng Xiao wasn't thinking how magical the jade was. He was thinking that, since he was going to hand it over anyway, anyone who could enjoy holding a stone that had been smeared with bean paste residue from a corpse's mouth was welcome to it. He was never going to touch it again, under pain of death.