When Li Mo walked into the armory, Meng Jianqing couldn’t help but secretly frown.

Li Mo’s appearance was too handsome and refined, already unlike that of a military child. And his movements also completely lacked the basic bearing constantly drilled at Jiangwu Hall – moving like wind, standing like pine, sitting like a bell. He stood there lazily, as if he couldn’t wait to lean against the weapon racks or sprawl across the long table.

But wait—

Li Mo raised his eyes and gazed blankly around the dim armory. His widened eyes carried an absent-minded air, yet within that air seemed to hide something indescribable.

What exactly was that something?

Meng Jianqing’s covert observation didn’t alert him. His body was in the armory, but his mind and spirit had long since wandered elsewhere.

This kind of dazed living elsewhere made this world seem like merely a backdrop for people like him. They ate, slept, chatted, and laughed like ordinary people, but their hearts were lost in some distant other world.

Meng Jianqing’s brow unconsciously furrowed tighter.

Was such a person his target?

Meng Jianqing suddenly walked out, causing Li Mo’s blank expression to change slightly due to surprise. He struggled to focus his mind to deal with this Senior Meng whose great reputation he had long heard.

They sat down at the long table. Meng Jianqing simply stated his purpose. Li Mo was stunned for quite a while before understanding his meaning – at this moment Meng Jianqing noticed that Li Mo’s reactions to people and events always seemed half a beat slow?

Li Mo waited another moment before saying “Oh,” then said slowly: “Senior Meng summoned me because – you suspect I am that person?”

Wasn’t this asking the obvious?

The vague irritation rising in his heart suddenly made Meng Jianqing alert.

Was Li Mo’s slow pace due to his personality, or was it a cultivated technique of using slowness to counter speed?

The gaze with which Meng Jianqing studied Li Mo unconsciously took on new content.

This second-year student, before him, was the second son of Qianhu Li of the Suzhou Guard. Since entering Jiangwu Hall, his other subjects had been mediocre, but his skill in mapmaking and creating sand tables had earned him an exceptional “A” even from the always critical Instructor Chang – this was the only “A” Instructor Chang had given in his course so far.

Instructor Chang often said that for a general, being familiar with all the mountains and rivers under heaven, all strategic locations, was like having a million elite troops in one’s chest. Those skilled in using geographical advantages could often achieve the effect of one against ten.

In Li Mo’s chest was stored an unprecedentedly complete and detailed imperial geographical map. Even with his eyes closed, he could travel to every corner under heaven – so said Instructor Chang.

Li Mo waited a long time without hearing Meng Jianqing’s next question, and couldn’t help raising his eyes in surprise to look at the other man.

His temperament was slow enough, but he hadn’t expected Senior Meng to be even less hurried than him.

Li Mo thought for a moment, rubbing his temples and frowning slightly: “Senior Meng, whatever doubts you have about me, why not raise them one by one and let me answer each in turn to resolve your confusion? These past few days I’ve been helping Instructor Chang make sand tables for exercises at night, sleeping too little, and my spirits aren’t good. Right now, I want to go back early and catch up on sleep. Please forgive me, Senior Meng.”

Li Mo’s file indeed mentioned this point: this person seemed very able to sleep, and always seemed to look like he hadn’t slept enough or well.

Meng Jianqing couldn’t help but secretly wonder – with Li Mo’s way of craving sleep, how could he lead troops into battle?

However, if he looked at his drowsiness from another angle, Meng Jianqing’s heart suddenly generated another thought.

He leaned back, smiling as he looked at Li Mo: “You don’t get enough sleep because you think about too many things in your heart and always sleep poorly, right? Perhaps each night you can only truly fall asleep for one hour – no wonder you always feel you haven’t slept enough.”

He could see the sudden shock in Li Mo’s heart, though it was still quite a while before Li Mo answered: “I do indeed have some difficulty falling asleep.”

Meng Jianqing stared at him and continued asking: “Then what do you think about before falling asleep?”

Li Mo hesitated, then decided to tell the truth – he didn’t think he could deceive Meng Jianqing’s eyes.

He said slowly: “I often silently memorize maps of certain places in my mind, letting myself seem to see with my own eyes the mountains and waters, grass and trees of those places. I imagine myself slowly floating down from the night sky onto the wilderness of those places. When I finally land in the wilderness and feel my entire body merging with the earth, I feel peaceful, and then I fall asleep.”

Meng Jianqing gazed at him thoughtfully.

When he did this, what exactly did he yearn for in the depths of his heart?

Was he trying to escape something? Escaping all people and affairs, leaving only himself to merge with the familiar mountains, rivers, grass, and trees? Only in the wilderness, without right and wrong, could he feel peace?

Meng Jianqing decided not to pursue this to the end for now, and changed the topic: “You grew up in Suzhou, so you must be very familiar with Suzhou’s local customs and culture?”

Li Mo nodded. But his mind was still thinking about the previous topic.

What was Meng Jianqing’s purpose in pressing him about what he thought before falling asleep? Was his answer good or bad?

The doubt in his heart grew heavier because he couldn’t get an answer immediately.

Meng Jianqing suddenly said, “I heard that every household in Suzhou burns ‘Nine-Four Incense.’ Do you know what ‘Nine-Four Incense’ means?”

Li Mo naturally knew. Zhang Shicheng’s childhood name was Zhang Nine-Four. The officials and people of Suzhou all understood this tacitly, but everyone was unwilling to lift this cover, pretending everyone was just worshipping gods and seeking Buddha’s blessing. He didn’t believe the Imperial Guard – especially Meng Jianqing – wouldn’t know about this.

What exactly was Meng Jianqing trying to do?

Li Mo pondered for a while before shaking his head: “I’m sorry, I haven’t heard of this matter. Perhaps because our family isn’t originally from Suzhou, we still don’t understand many of Suzhou’s local customs well and can only see some superficial things.”

Meng Jianqing smiled slightly.

Li Mo must have been prepared for this question long ago, which was why he could answer so flawlessly.

Only questions like the earlier one that Li Mo had never thought of and didn’t understand the purpose of could catch him off guard and make him reveal his true face.

Meng Jianqing brought up local Suzhou literati and celebrities one by one, asking Li Mo about his impressions of these people and his interactions with them over time – these famous people had all had more or less dealings with Suzhou Guard, so Li Mo had no reason to claim he had never met or contacted these people. He answered very slowly, seeming to think through each question three times in his mind before weaving a net that wrapped him tightly to give to Meng Jianqing.

Even so, Meng Jianqing still noticed that although Li Mo was pressed step by step and had to evaluate each person’s strengths and weaknesses, his words were so gentle and tactful, so considerate of everyone’s difficulties and the various weaknesses that mortals cannot escape. In reality, he said nothing bad about anyone.

If he wasn’t too worldly-wise, then his nature was just so gentle, so accustomed to understanding everyone’s weaknesses, making people feel a kind of paternal care and tolerance in his presence. He was completely different from Han Xiaotian. On the battlefield, Han Xiaotian’s subordinates might fight with all their strength because they feared his sharp pressure, while Li Mo’s subordinates would very likely fight to the death out of love for him.

Such a person might indeed have that quality of gathering scattered people around him like sand.

Yet he was so slow and gentle – what kind of force would it take to make him act, to throw himself into a tide aimed at destroying a world that didn’t seem to match his nature?

The sky gradually darkened.

Meng Jianqing finally said, “It’s getting late, you should go back too.”

Li Mo let out a soft sigh of relief.

No matter how slow a person was, being pressed step by step by Meng Jianqing like this would make them very nervous. Now he could finally leave.

But Meng Jianqing continued: “There’s one small question. Who is Qingsang?”

Once this name was spoken, it cast a spell that made Li Mo, who had just relaxed and was caught off guard, freeze there.

Meng Jianqing watched his face suddenly lose all color. After a long while, his complexion slowly returned. However, the stiffness of his entire body would need more time to recover.

Through his blankly widened eyes, Meng Jianqing saw that the name he had spoken was like a sharp blade inserted into his heart, causing him pain beyond feeling pain, even beyond breathing.

He naturally knew who Qingsang was. But that crying girl who had grown up day by day under his protection since childhood would never return. Qingsang. Zhang Qingsang. She shouldn’t have the surname Zhang. After Suzhou fell, the captured Zhang clan was degraded to commoner status – men became actors for generations, and women became courtesans for generations. He had always felt that was a very distant matter, until this day truly came. This time, he could no longer protect Qingsang.

Meng Jianqing asked again: “Who is Qingsang?”

But Li Mo couldn’t speak.

Meng Jianqing watched him for a long time, nodded, and said, “I understand. You may go.”

What he wanted to know was merely what this person, this name Qingsang, meant to Li Mo, what kind of weight she carried in his heart.

Now he had his answer.

Li Mo seemed to barely drag his body away from the armory.

Meng Jianqing studied his retreating figure.

Qingsang’s current name was Hongxue. Her coldness and beauty drove the entire city of Suzhou mad.

When Meng Jianqing secretly searched her residence, he had found a cloth doll under her pillow with Li Mo’s name and birth date written on it. The doll was made extremely exquisitely – one could imagine how much effort she had put into it. Yet every vital point on the doll’s body was densely covered with needle holes – in fact, when Meng Jianqing found this doll, there was still a broken needle remaining in its heart.

Meng Jianqing could imagine Qingsang, or rather Hongxue, stabbing needle after needle into the doll’s vital points, the bone-deep hatred in her heart.

She had once placed her greatest hopes in Li Mo, so after those hopes were shattered, she would hate him so deeply?

Did Li Mo’s heart also hate himself just as deeply, which was why he numbed himself like this?

Would such profound hatred also transfer to other people, other things?

Under all heaven, no land is not the king’s; within the realm’s borders, there are no subjects who are not the king’s.

In the current world, he could never again shelter Qingsang.

Unless he changed this world.

Would he do such a thing?

Meng Jianqing couldn’t be certain, but he also couldn’t deny this possibility.

Beneath his slow, calm, gentle exterior, Li Mo was more like an ocean that could raise shocking waves at any moment.

Compared to Han Xiaotian, was Li Mo more likely to be the person he was looking for?