When she freed her hand to close the window, a gust of cold wind blew out the candle, plunging the room into darkness.

Qin Zheng felt a sudden chill, as if a pair of eyes were watching her from the shadows, causing goosebumps to rise on her skin.

With a click, she steadied herself and closed the window, then turned back to the room, summoning her courage to say, “Chu Chengji, I know it’s you.”

There was no response.

Qin Zheng stood still for a moment, straining her ears but hearing nothing, and her eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, making out the shapes of the furniture.

She exhaled softly, thinking she might have been mistaken.

Just as she took a step forward, a cold hand wrapped around her waist from behind, and a chin rested lightly on her shoulder without a word.

Startled, Qin Zheng’s voice was low and seething, “Chu Chengji!”

“Weren’t you asleep?” he replied calmly, though his voice carried an undertone of restraint.

Qin Zheng’s hair stood on end.

She pushed him away and stepped back, her voice firm, “Don’t even think about it. Three days is impossible!”

“I came back to apply medicine,” he said, picking her up effortlessly in the pitch-black room.

He carried her back to the bed and only then lit the lamp.

Qin Zheng sat at the edge of the bed, trying to maintain a composed face, but her guarded expression made her look like a cat with its fur bristled in anger.

Chu Chengji took out a beautifully patterned, glazed oval box from his pocket.

Qin Zheng had a bad feeling, and warily asked, “What… what medicine?”

“For the swelling.”

“…”

“Medicine will help it heal faster.”

“…”

Qin Zheng, not wanting to show weakness, tried to keep her composure. “I’ll do it myself.”

Chu Chengji originally intended to help, but considering that his help might not be very helpful, he let her go to the bathroom by herself.

When Qin Zheng returned from the bathroom, she saw him reading the travel notes she had been looking at earlier and asked, “Aren’t you leaving yet?”

Chu Chengji looked at her for a moment, put down the book, and pulled the bristling cat back into his arms.

Resting his chin on the top of her head, he said softly, “I was too much last night.”

Qin Zheng’s anger subsided a bit.

He kissed her temple, his voice tired, “I only slept for half an hour this morning. Stay with me for a while.”

Thinking of the women’s army regulations he had already sorted out, Qin Zheng’s anger diminished further.

This man often went several nights without sleep when he was busy.

Despite her anger, seeing the faint blue stubble on his chin, Qin Zheng felt genuine pity.

Back in Qingzhou, she was often overwhelmed with just the political affairs.

Chu Chengji had to handle both military and political affairs across various states, with twice the number of reports to review.

The weight on his shoulders was immense.

She didn’t respond verbally but nestled in his arms, not moving, and even wrapped her arms around his waist.

After lying together for a while, Chu Chengji asked, “Was it really that uncomfortable? You cried all night.”

Qin Zheng remained silent.

Chu Chengji lowered his eyes, his tone serious, “If it was really that bad, we can go back to how it was before.”

In such moments, he found it hard to control himself.

She had cried like that before, but last night he couldn’t distinguish if her tears were from pain or something else.

Seeing her swollen and angry today, he figured it must have been painful.

With that thought, Chu Chengji felt a wave of self-loathing.

Desire is indeed a bothersome thing.

With her eyes closed, Qin Zheng could still feel his gaze on her face.

Her hand, hidden beneath the quilt, was clenching the bedsheet so tightly it was almost tearing it apart.

Why did he have to ask her such a serious question?

“Don’t be afraid of me. It won’t happen again,” Chu Chengji murmured, his voice low as he caressed her cheek.

He enjoyed being close to her, but he didn’t know when the desire for intimacy turned into those filthy, worldly thoughts.

He had assumed she enjoyed it too, but now realizing those thoughts made her fear him, he decided to discard them.

Qin Zheng didn’t know his thoughts but sensed he might have misunderstood something.

Trying to suppress her embarrassment, she said, “It’s not that unbearable…”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

Qin Zheng felt like she was turning as red as a cooked prawn. “Some things are beyond my control.”

She felt it was embarrassing to cry, but just like tears flowing involuntarily when someone gets punched, it wasn’t something she could control.

Chu Chengji looked at her, his dark eyes deep and thoughtful, and softly responded, “Hmm,” while gently rubbing her back.

Qin Zheng felt she had explained enough and decided not to dwell on the issue.

Over the next fortnight, she busied herself with the recruitment of the women’s army and took on the task of resettling the refugees from Feng County.

Those who could weave were settled in Minzhou, with the government assisting in building houses and providing looms and land, allowing them to weave and farm for a living.

Those who couldn’t weave but wished to farm were also given houses and land by the government, although the number of such settlers was limited.

The remaining population needed to be relocated to other prefectures, where they were also provided with houses and land.

Skilled artisans were registered as craftsmen, given the option to work in shops for landowners or to create and sell handmade goods at markets.

Recompiling the household registers for the Feng County refugees took Qin Zheng and the officials nearly half a month.

During this period, Prince Huaiyang’s forces came to harass them several times.

However, the plague had been discovered too late in his army.

Despite quarantining the troops who had interacted with the refugees from Qingxi County, many soldiers still fell ill, including Prince Huaiyang’s heir.

Seeing his power wane, Prince Huaiyang was desperate.

He falsely claimed that doctors in Jianghuai had developed a cure for the plague, and that if they conquered Jianghuai, all the soldiers would be saved.

This lie reignited the morale of Prince Huaiyang’s army, which had been on the brink of despair, and their attacks on the city became fiercer than ever.

If not for Chu Chengji personally overseeing Minzhou, the city might have fallen.

Chu Chengji’s strategists were at their wits’ end, unable to find a solution to break the stalemate.

They resorted to reinforcing the city walls as a defensive measure.

Qin Zheng had reinforced the walls of Qingzhou before, so she was naturally put in charge of this project as well.

Looking at the construction plans for Minzhou’s walls, Qin Zheng felt a headache coming on.

“The city wall isn’t as flexible as building a house; just like constructing a house requires a solid foundation, the higher the city wall, the stronger the foundation needs to be.”

Qingzhou’s city wall could be reinforced and raised by half a zhang (about 1.5 meters) because the trenches at the bottom of the Qingzhou city wall were dug deep enough, providing sufficient support for the reinforced upper wall.

Although Minzhou’s city wall was built of solid stone, the trenches at the bottom to stabilize the wall were not deep enough.

Qin Zheng went to find Chu Chengji with the construction plans and explained the situation to him. “The city wall in Minzhou can be reinforced from the outside, but it cannot be raised any higher.”

After pondering for a moment, Chu Chengji replied, “Reinforce the outer wall first. I’ll have someone continue to come up with ideas.”

Reinforcing the city wall was just a conservative measure.

Qin Zheng nodded, picked up the construction plans, and left.