Luo Jing stepped forward. Li Chi followed close behind. Both were entirely willing — but Zheng Gongru, across the way, was hardly willing.

“I’m not going!”

Zheng Gongru screamed from his horse: “I’m someone the Grand General needs to keep. I still have to help the Grand General break the Yanshan Camp. If they get me, they’ll kill me! If I die, who will help the Grand General attack those mountain strongholds?!”

Luo Lou dealt him another backhand slap. “You’re worth nothing here. Getting you in exchange for our Young General — that’s your honor.”

He reached out to seize Zheng Gongru by the collar. Zheng Gongru’s hands were bound, but not his legs. Seeing Luo Lou’s hand coming for him, he immediately shifted to the side and slipped from the horse, then turned and ran.

But there was nowhere to run in the position where he was standing.

He reached the mouth of the street and found it blocked — all the Youzhou soldiers who had just withdrawn were waiting here, packed solid.

The Youzhou soldiers behind him came down with several strokes of their riding crops. Zheng Gongru took a number of hard blows, and welts were cut open across his face. His own martial ability was actually quite considerable, but he had been keeping that hidden all along. When he saw another riding crop descending, he chose not to dodge it — took the blow full on the face — and bit down onto the crop.

He yanked downward with all his strength, intending to drag the rider off the horse, then mount the animal and make his escape.

The plan was clear. The reasoning was sound. The execution was decisive.

He took the crop full in the face, bit down on it. Then he pulled as hard as he could, only to find that the soldier on the horse had simply let go.

So Zheng Gongru sat down hard on the ground and blinked.

While he was still disoriented and scrambling to his feet, Luo Lou had already reached him. He grabbed Zheng Gongru by the back of the collar, then drove a kick into the backs of his knees. Zheng Gongru buckled and crashed to the ground with a thud.

Luo Lou didn’t know how skilled Zheng Gongru actually was, and took him for someone only thrashing around in a desperate panic. Especially after one kick had dropped him, he didn’t think Zheng Gongru had any further fight left.

But Zheng Gongru, still on the ground, twisted his body and rammed his head into Luo Lou’s chest. Luo Lou staggered backward. Zheng Gongru pressed the advantage, leaned forward, closed his mouth around the hilt of the straight blade hanging at Luo Lou’s waist.

The whole sequence was fluid — fast and effective.

However — he was alone against several hundred, and Luo Lou was not the only one capable of moving.

Zheng Gongru had knocked Luo Lou backward, but the soldiers behind him had already moved in. Two men grabbed Zheng Gongru by the hair and yanked him back down, pinning him to the ground and pounding him with fists and boots.

Across the way, Luo Jing and Li Chi had already begun walking toward them. Seeing Zheng Gongru still getting beaten, Luo Jing took a few steps back.

“A bit fast,” Luo Jing murmured.

Li Chi said: “You’re being traded for him, he’s getting beaten — by rights I ought to be beating you as well, to make things fair.”

Luo Jing said: “Go ahead then.”

Li Chi smiled, keeping pace with Luo Jing as he stepped backward. The move left the Youzhou soldiers across the way completely baffled.

Zheng Gongru was taking a severe beating, and in truth his head had already been large to start with; now that it was swelling, the head appeared larger still.

Luo Lou had been bitten by Chang Dingsu earlier, with Chang Dingsu now dead and no outlet for his fury. All of it had found a new target in Zheng Gongru.

He shoved his men aside, hauled Zheng Gongru upright, and then — holding the collar with his left hand — drew his right arm back and swung open-palmed at his face, over and over. For some reason, he seemed irresistibly drawn to striking that face in particular.

Probably because the target was simply so difficult to miss — some instinct taking over.

So Zheng Gongru’s already large face grew larger still.

“Hey!”

It was still Luo Jing who called across: “That’s enough — we’re waiting for the exchange here.”

Li Chi: “…”

Luo Lou stopped himself — and honestly, that had been genuinely satisfying for a moment, so satisfying he had briefly lost track of the exchange entirely.

But with that thought came the realization that something was very wrong with this picture. If, moments ago, the Young General had still been held with a hand at his throat, the man holding him now clearly had no grip on the Young General at all. With the Young General’s skill, he could have counterattacked and turned the tables at any point.

And yet he noticed that the Young General showed not the slightest inclination to do so — in fact, he seemed eagerly invested in having this exchange go through.

Luo Lou had noticed something was off, but he didn’t dare ask.

He dragged the battered and swollen-faced Zheng Gongru forward. Walking, he asked Luo Jing: “Young General, are you all right.”

Luo Jing nodded. “Don’t waste time. I need to get back and see my father. Hurry up and bring him over.”

Luo Lou immediately quickened his pace, hauling Zheng Gongru until they stood in front of Li Chi and Luo Jing.

Luo Lou fixed Li Chi with a furious look: “Release him!”

Li Chi glanced at Luo Lou, then looked at Luo Jing, who was standing there with his hands clasped behind his back, and thought: are you actually blind? If your Young General wanted to go back himself, he could have ridden out of this city already. If he carried a horse instead of riding it he’d still have made Youzhou by now.

“You—”

Luo Jing looked down at Zheng Gongru, and couldn’t help curling the corner of his mouth. “You — how can anyone be this ugly?”

By this point Zheng Gongru knew he was likely in dire straits. He had stopped caring about any of it. He looked up at Luo Jing and spat a mouthful of blood straight at him.

Luo Jing’s reaction: turn his head to one side and let it miss.

In that moment Luo Lou thought to himself: the Young General dodged that. Why didn’t he do something when he was being held? Or just run, for that matter?

Luo Jing sighed, turned back to look at Li Chi and asked: “Am I allowed to hit him?”

Li Chi answered: “Go ahead.”

Luo Lou felt even more at a loss.

This was absolutely not how a normal hostage exchange was supposed to go.

Luo Jing looked at Zheng Gongru’s face, and the ugliness of it was enough to make him reluctant to use his own hands. So he said to Luo Lou: “You hit him for a bit.”

Luo Lou immediately drove a kick into Zheng Gongru, knocking him flat, then began stomping his face — one boot after another. Earlier it had been punches to the face; now it was feet to the face — for no particular reason other than that this was apparently where the attention went.

After another round, Luo Jing gestured for them to pull Zheng Gongru back up. Zheng Gongru had been beaten until he was coughing blood, and when they hauled him upright he was swaying and barely able to stand.

Luo Jing asked Zheng Gongru: “You were the one who talked Yu Chaozong into marching south? And after bringing about his defeat, you surrendered?”

Zheng Gongru’s eyes could barely open — just a narrow crack left, his eyelids swollen like purple eggplants. His mouth was full of blood; speaking was no longer possible.

He didn’t answer. Luo Jing didn’t want to deal with him further. This kind of person disgusted him. Even an enemy — if they fought face to face with everything they had and lost — Luo Jing had no contempt for that. But this two-faced schemer aroused nothing but revulsion.

He took Zheng Gongru by the arm: “Over you go.”

As Zheng Gongru was pulled stumbling past, the moment Luo Jing crossed paths with him, Luo Jing suddenly found himself unable to hold back any longer.

His arm snapped up and locked around Zheng Gongru’s throat. One leg swept Zheng Gongru’s ankles, and Zheng Gongru’s entire body seemed to float upward, his torso nearly parallel with the ground in midair.

In the same instant — as though reading Luo Jing’s mind — Li Chi’s two hands closed around both of Zheng Gongru’s ankles.

Luo Jing let out a roaring shout and stepped forward.

Li Chi planted both feet and drove downward with his full force — the stone flagstones beneath cracked and shattered, and his feet sank hard into the ground.

A dull, wet impact.

Luo Jing’s arm had wrenched Zheng Gongru’s head clean off.

Blood sprayed. Zheng Gongru’s body and head were severed.

Luo Jing raised his arm. Zheng Gongru’s head rolled to the ground. Luo Jing glanced down at it, then walked on.

“Let’s go.”

Four words, nothing more — and nothing else said to Li Chi.

Luo Lou’s mind was somewhat blank, but he had never dared disobey Luo Jing’s orders, nor dared ask questions. He fell into step behind Luo Jing and left.

Li Chi clasped his hands in a bow toward Luo Jing’s retreating back.

Luo Jing, as though he had felt it, let the corners of his mouth rise very slightly — more satisfied than any victory in battle had ever made him.

Li Chi looked down at Zheng Gongru’s remains and thought: so who was this person who had been trying to kill him all along?

Well, it didn’t matter much. Whoever he was.

He turned and ran back. Tang Pidi and the others had already guided Yu Chaozong and the remaining few hundred men away. Taking advantage of the window while the Youzhou forces had withdrawn and the Yuzhou Army had yet to come up, they ran at full speed back to the rear courtyard of Shen Clinic and descended into the underground chamber.

Once they were all inside, Tang Pidi waited at the door for Li Chi. From a distance, seeing that white-toothed masked figure running back toward him, Tang Pidi let out a breath of relief.

“Do you know who he was?”

Tang Pidi asked Li Chi.

Li Chi shook his head: “No idea.”

Tang Pidi said: “Why didn’t you ask while you had the chance?”

Li Chi said: “I was going to — but Luo Jing yanked his head off. Hard to ask questions after that.”

Tang Pidi blinked. “Yanked the whole head off?”

Li Chi said: “Hard to yank half a head.”

Tang Pidi thought about it. Fair enough.

He told Li Chi: “Go in and check on Yu Chaozong’s condition. I’ll head back to our side — the chamber is divided from our section. Once I’m back, I’ll tell everyone first so they don’t worry, and then I’ll break through the wall between the two sections.”

Li Chi acknowledged and said: “Be careful.”

Tang Pidi said: “Whatever’s out there will probably do its best to avoid running into me.”

Li Chi: “…”

Tang Pidi turned and left. Li Chi entered the chamber and lowered the door-seal behind him. The Yuzhou Army was still combing the city in every direction, and perhaps before long the Youzhou Army would also pour into Jizhou in full force — who knew what trouble might still be brewing.

Outside the city.

Luo Jing saw his father and quickly went down on one knee: “Greetings, Father.”

Luo Geng sat on horseback, eyes smiling as he looked at Luo Jing: “Not bad — just what I’d expect of my son.”

Luo Jing asked: “Father, why did you not enter Jizhou? And why let the Yuzhou Army go in first? This was the best opportunity to seize the city.”

He had returned in too much of a hurry to ask Luo Lou what had happened, wanting only to reach his father as quickly as possible. So he did not yet know that the Emperor had arrived.

Luo Geng gave a brief account of events. Luo Jing’s expression darkened.

After a moment, he said to Luo Geng: “Father, the Emperor’s words were somewhat vague. If he won’t confer the title of prince on you now — if you’re already going to be marching north to campaign against the Yanshan Camp and away from here — could the conferral not be delayed indefinitely? Time drags, and who knows what complications might arise.”

Luo Geng sighed: “In the current situation, we have too few options. Prince Wu’s forces are just outside the city, and there are the Emperor’s own imperial guards on top of that. And besides, with Liu Li executed and the Yuzhou Army brought to heel, our own forces are not sufficient…”

Luo Jing had originally been about to say they should force the Emperor to issue the edict immediately, but hearing Luo Geng’s words, he nodded. “Then we’ll endure it for now, and see who the Emperor sends to take over Jizhou. If he won’t grant Father the title of prince, we’ll simply take Jizhou back — then seize the entire northern frontier, and see what tricks that little Emperor has left to play.”

Luo Geng smiled: “That is how I see it as well. Who can hold Jizhou right now? The Emperor believes he’s finally won, that Jizhou has been returned to the court — but he has no one he can actually use…”

He smiled as he said: “Unless I’m wrong, the Emperor will have General Yu Weiyin hold Jizhou with the Yuzhou Army. He won’t send Yu Weiyin back to Yuzhou to serve as military governor — he’ll keep the Yuzhou Army in Jizhou so Yuzhou doesn’t get out of hand again. He doesn’t dare send the Yuzhou Army home; that promise to Yu Weiyin about making him military governor was just something to say in the moment.”

Luo Jing smiled as well: “The Emperor thinks leaving Yu Weiyin here will check Father’s influence — that the Yuzhou Army can stand against our Youzhou forces. He’s dreaming.”

Luo Geng nodded: “So for now we go along with him. If he grants me the title of prince, I’ll endure him a while longer. If he doesn’t—”

Luo Geng said: “If the Emperor won’t let you become the Youzhou prince’s heir, then, my son — I will make you crown prince instead.”

A gleam lit Luo Jing’s eyes.

It was the first time his father had stated his ambitions this plainly and openly.

Father and son looked at each other, and both began to laugh.