Bai Mengmeng rushed toward Jun Beiyue in tears, meaning to throw herself into his arms, but she only grasped at empty air.

Jun Beiyue hadn’t stepped back — instead he’d turned aside to avoid her. Even a casual touch he didn’t like, let alone one as presumptuous as this.

His mother had died young, and if there was one woman he’d ever allowed himself to be close to, it was Han Ziqing — the only one, not merely one among others.

Bai Mengmeng’s arms closed on nothing, and a flash of hatred crossed her eyes. The deeper the love, the deeper the hate.

She had been reduced to this — her family destroyed, her heart broken — and still Jun Beiyue avoided her, still he wouldn’t offer her the smallest comfort!

How could this man be like this?

Wasn’t everything she’d done, done for his sake?

“Jun Beiyue, give me back my family, give them back to me!”

“It’s all — it’s all because of you that I have no family left. Jun Beiyue, you have to answer for this!”

……

Bai Mengmeng wouldn’t give up. Wailing in grief, she lunged at Jun Beiyue again. If not for the sake of General Bai Hu’s standing, this man would long since have run out of patience with her!

And even the deference he showed General Bai Hu had its limits.

This time, Jun Beiyue didn’t step aside. Instead he shoved her back hard, with such force that Bai Mengmeng crumpled to the ground.

“Give back? What exactly do I owe you?” Jun Beiyue demanded.

“It’s all because you didn’t trust me — your shadow guards wouldn’t let me go! If I had gotten there in time, if the two of you had shown even the slightest compassion, my whole family wouldn’t have died!”

“It’s all you! All because of you! Uuuh……”

Bai Mengmeng didn’t get up, just sat on the ground crying and shouting.

Jun Beiyue only sneered. “You had plenty of chances to tell me. But you didn’t — you chose to hide it until the very end. Why would you do that? What right do you have to expect my trust?”

“I… I…” Bai Mengmeng faltered, then burst into tears again. “I… uuuh… it was my idea to draw out the Empress of Dong Qin’s troops. Before you marched, you should at least have told me — but you never did!”

That was what she couldn’t let go of. She’d thought he would come for her. She’d thought he wouldn’t have led the army out himself so quickly. She’d planned for the two of them to slip through the hidden passage together and rescue her family from Yandang City — just the two of them, going to save her family.

He had no idea how long she’d waited, hoping for that day.

But he never came!

“Why would I owe you word of it? Bai Mengmeng, what do you even count for, in my Tiger Army?” Jun Beiyue’s anger flared.

“That plan was mine!” Bai Mengmeng shot back, righteous in her fury. She wasn’t usually one to clash with him so head-on, but in that moment, past caring, she pushed forward anyway.

“Are you saying that without you, I couldn’t have won this war?” Jun Beiyue demanded, incredulous. He truly hadn’t expected Bai Mengmeng to think that way.

Meeting the cold, proud darkness of his eyes, Bai Mengmeng’s nerve finally failed her. She faltered, stammering, “I… I…”

“Don’t forget,” Jun Beiyue said coldly, laying the truth bare, “you are a spy I captured.”

When had he ever relied on this woman to win a battle?

Her attempt to set the fire — he’d seen through it at a glance. Her schemes — seen through at a glance.

He was the one who’d exposed the spy with his own hands. Even if Bai Mengmeng hadn’t surrendered on her own, he’d had ways to make her reveal her channel of communication with the Empress of Dong Qin, ways to feed the Empress false intelligence through her all the same.

In fact, with his skill, he could have used her without ever exposing her at all.

Bai Mengmeng — what did she even amount to!

Whether in the contest between two nations or the rivalry between two factions, up to now there had been only one woman who had ever helped him win a battle — and in the future, there would only ever be one.

“Your surrender bought you nothing but your own life. This war was won through the blood and sweat of my Three Great Tiger Armies, from top to bottom. Bai Mengmeng, when a woman overestimates herself, it’s simply repulsive. You may go.” Jun Beiyue’s voice was cold, without the slightest courtesy.

The words struck Bai Mengmeng like a needle straight to the heart.

Deep down, she had always known her own worth — always known that Jun Beiyue would have won just the same without her.

Whether she had surrendered or not made no real difference to him. He wasn’t wrong — the greatest benefit her surrender had bought her was simply her own life.

But could she accept that?

She couldn’t.

She had hidden in the army for all those years, weighed her choice between the Empress of Dong Qin and Jun Beiyue for so long, and in the end chosen him — yet she’d gained nothing at all. She’d paid with the lives of her entire family, and still she was worth nothing to him!

She hated it!

She couldn’t accept it!

She knew her greatest bargaining chip was General Bai Hu.

This man and the Three Great Tiger Generals had a bond forged through years of battles fought side by side, through life and death.

This man’s heart was vast, but the space within it that truly mattered was small — and yet, however small, there would always be a place in it for the Tiger Army.

“I won’t leave. I’ll wait for my father to come. Today, let’s just have this out plainly!” Bai Mengmeng choked out. She knew Jun Beiyue would go to General Bai Hu next.

“It isn’t for you to decide what gets said plainly. Someone, take her out — until I give the order, no one is to visit her.” Jun Beiyue’s voice was cold, and the shadow guards moved in at once to seize her.

“No! I won’t — Foster Father is the only family I have left! Prince Yao, I beg you, let me speak to him myself!”

“Let go of me, I have the right to stay!”

……

Bai Mengmeng struggled fiercely, changing her tone in an instant. She had already been dragged to the entrance when, to her surprise, Jun Beiyue raised a hand, signaling the shadow guards to wait.

Her heart leapt with hope. She’d known all along — with this man, force wouldn’t work. It had to be a mix of pressure and softness; too much defiance was wrong, but so was too much weakness. She was just about to speak when, to her shock, Jun Beiyue’s voice came again, cold with warning: “If that girl Hongyi doesn’t wake up, I will personally bring you before the princess consort to beg forgiveness.”

With that, he clasped his hands behind his back and turned away. And in that instant, as the shadow guards continued dragging her out, Bai Mengmeng’s heart felt as if something had bitten clean through it — the pain so sharp she couldn’t get a word out.

All this time, it had been Hongyi who brought up Han Ziqing, deliberately needling her with it — this man himself had almost never spoken her name.

She never imagined that the first time he ever mentioned Han Ziqing in front of her, it would be as a warning like this!

And all for a maid — a mere servant!

Comparison bred despair. Bai Mengmeng was nearly mad with jealousy, longing to see Han Ziqing right now and demand — why? Why could she win Jun Beiyue’s favor so easily? In what way was she inferior to Han Ziqing?

She had given up so much — none of this was fair!

Bai Mengmeng ground her teeth, silently resolving that no matter what, no matter the cost, she would never let that woman have an easy time of it.

Bai Mengmeng was thrown into a tent and placed under house arrest, and at that very moment, General Bai Hu was already on his way to Jun Beiyue’s camp……