Chapter 86: Qiao Feng's Doubts

Zhang Hong was a man who knew right from wrong. When he suggested that Sun Ce consider introducing his younger sister, Sun Shangxiang, to Guan Yu in order to bind that fierce warrior to their side, he had in fact thought the matter through carefully.

There was one major reason Zhang Hong did not mention: he was afraid of leaving Sun Ce with no easy way to save face. Sun Ce’s younger sister was not so simple a woman that she could be casually married off.

Sun Ce’s sister, Sun Shangxiang, was sixteen years old—an age when a young girl is in full bloom. By rights, given Sun Ce’s position in Jiangdong, arranging a proper match for his sister should not have posed any problem at all.

Yet for some reason since childhood she had never liked the usual feminine pursuits. Day after day, she followed Sun Ce to practice spear techniques, ride horses, and hunt.

By now, at sixteen, she had grown into a striking young woman, but she knew nothing at all of embroidery or domestic refinement, and spent her days amid blades and spears.

Even her maids had been taught quite a bit of boxing, staff work, and spearplay by her. In just a few short years, Sun Shangxiang’s reputation had spread throughout Wu Commandery and even across all Jiangdong.

Of course, being skilled in martial arts was no badge of honor in that age. The most immediate result was that, although Sun Shangxiang had reached marriageable age, not a single respectable family in Wu Commandery had come to propose.

At first Sun Ce had not cared. She was only sixteen—why hurry?

But last time, because he had lost the Qiao sisters to Liu Xie, he felt he had somewhat wronged his sworn brother Zhou Yu. So during one drinking session, he suddenly hit upon the idea of offering his own sister in marriage to Zhou Yu.

Sun Ce had originally expected Zhou Yu to accept with delight. After all, as her elder brother, he had confidence in Sun Shangxiang’s beauty and figure.

Yet to Sun Ce’s surprise, Zhou Yu, who had already been half-drunk, sobered instantly, refused the proposal in a confused rush of words, and then staggered all the way back to his residence.

And that was not the end of it. Less than a month later, Zhou Yu actually married the daughter of an official from Jiangdong and announced that she would be his lawful wife from then on.

Only then did Sun Ce realize that his sister might well become a problem no one would want to take off his hands.

Now, hearing Zhang Hong speak of Sun Shangxiang as though she could be sacrificed without hesitation merely to win over Guan Yu, Sun Ce was furious beyond words. Though he would never truly do such a thing, the thought had already sapped his spirit. He did not know what would become of his sister if, by the time she was twenty, no one had yet come to claim her hand.

Ah, best not to think of such things now. If the realm cannot be conquered, then all such matters are empty talk!

After fretting over it for so long, Sun Ce could only use such vague words to comfort himself.

That night, the moon was bright and the stars sparse, and crows flew south across a quiet Wu Commandery City.

Within the vast imperial residence, Liu Xie was, as usual, locked in passionate combat with Empress Fu. But tonight, Qiao Feng, who happened to be free of duty, did not go to sleep as she usually did. Instead, she sat at the desk in her room, holding paper and brush, sketching and pondering something.

On the paper were written the names Liu Xie, Sun Ce, Zhou Yu, Guan Yu, and the two wives of Liu Bei. Qiao Feng was making faces at those names, clearly imagining the tangled relationships among them.

His Majesty had come all the way from Xuchang to Wu Commandery, bringing Liu Bei’s two wives with him, yet once he arrived he did not sleep with them. That was highly suspicious!

Clearly, in Qiao Feng’s mind, that sort of intimacy was very important to Liu Xie. But to bring two women who seemed like burdens for nothing, and not even for that purpose—that did not seem like the Liu Xie she thought she knew.

Though he had never shown her any great strategic brilliance, she always had the sense that many things about him were shrouded in mystery.

For instance, that skill of his, and the hard muscles one could only discover once his clothes were off—how had a puppet youth confined in Cao Cao’s palace at Xuchang for years managed to build such a body?

The only thing that connected Liu Bei’s two wives to Liu Xie was Guan Yu, who had arrived that day.

Qiao Feng had already seen that Guan Yu and Liu Xie were on good terms, and had also heard that Guan Yu was a rare and formidable general. But according to the empress and the maids, Liu Xie seemed to be helping Sun Ce recruit Guan Yu.

Qiao Feng did not believe it.

“If he were really a puppet, he would never have dared kick Sun Ce off the martial stage!” That was a thought she had always held firmly.

In truth, when it came to the Qiao sisters, Liu Xie had always treated them as if they were the sweet, naive sort from later generations. Little did he know that Qiao Feng was anything but naive.

The thoughts in her head were things Liu Xie had never seriously considered. Whenever he was with her, the things he pondered were of a very different nature.

Sun Ce had not suspected Liu Xie because, from the information Zhang Hong had sent back, Liu Xie in Xuchang had all along been biding his time and waiting for an opportunity. Liu Xie had cleverly shifted the blame onto Cao Cao, thereby becoming Sun Ce’s ally without arousing suspicion.

And when he later arrived in Jiangdong and displayed those abilities of his, all that had come before made Sun Ce naturally less doubtful. What Sun Ce cared about was whether Liu Xie had troops in his hands. If you had no soldiers, you were merely a sick cat—nothing but a tool.

But Qiao Feng did not know any of the prior context. As an outsider, she could see Liu Xie’s oddities with complete clarity. Added to that was her nature as a woman who liked to think things through, and so her doubts about him only grew deeper and deeper.

Still, Qiao Feng was not in very good spirits today. Halfway through her musings, perhaps because she had reached that time of the month when she was not quite herself, she could not resist sleep and fell asleep with her head on the desk.

Several hours later.

"Huh? Why is my sister sleeping here? This is..."

To change the subject, after Liu Bei once again fled back from beneath Cao Ren’s iron hooves, he decided that he must break away from Yuan Shao as soon as possible.

He had a presentiment that in the near future Cao Cao would move against Yuan Shao with ruthless finality, and that in the course of that blow, he himself would surely be the one erased.

After Liu Xie left Xuchang, most of the civil and military officials who remained there were spared, except for those who had taken part in the secret imperial edict hidden within the belt.

Now, among all the men who had studied that edict, he was the only one left alive. Just from that alone, Cao Cao could not possibly let him go.

That day, Liu Bei brought rich gifts to Guo Tu’s residence. After smiling and flattering Guo Tu for a while, and seeing that the effect was good, he finally revealed his true purpose.