When the wind of Yanmen Pass whipped grit against her face, Su Wangyan was squatting on the city wall, sharpening her dagger. The blade mirrored her pale face, and the scar across her brow bone was silvered by the moonlight—left behind three years ago during her very first assassination assignment.
"Ah-Wang." A familiar voice came from behind, carrying the desolate chill unique to the Northern Frontier. Gu Chengze was draped in a dark cloak, holding an oil-paper parcel. "The sugar cakes at the street corner just came out of the oven, your favorite osmanthus filling."
The dagger clattered into a crack between the bricks. Su Wangyan gazed at the new strands of white in his hair, recalling the Nether Pavilion master's secret order from three days ago: "Gu Chengze holds the command of thirty thousand troops. If he is not eliminated, the Nether Pavilion will never find a way to rise again." She lowered her eyelashes, masking the undercurrents in her eyes. "The General has been staying up late reading military manuals again."
Chapter 20