Outside Zhongshan commandery city, troops assembled in formation after formation. Horse hooves clattered chaotically, soldiers shouted and called out, but the atmosphere was not tense—rather, it was noisy with laughter.

These were the border troops who had come to provide support, now organizing their formations. They were returning to the border commanderies.

Moving out ahead of the main army were the messenger scouts. They wore light armor and traveled swiftly, their clothing and equipment relatively simple.

The outermost group of scouts was dressed even more simply. If not for the Da Xia military identification plaques hanging at their waists, they would have been taken for ordinary people.

However, this was not strange. Scouts naturally wore various disguises for reconnaissance.

Xie Yanlai looked up and down at the man beside him.

The man was dressed the same as them, with a full circle of beard around his face. But whether because of those calm eyes or some other reason, his entire appearance seemed very discordant.

“If you have something to say, say it,” Deng Yi said flatly. “Don’t act like you’ve never seen me before.”

Xie Yanlai raised his eyebrows: “Even with a beard glued on, Lord Deng doesn’t look like a bandit.”

Deng Yi replied: “Whether one looks like a bandit is not determined by appearance, but by actions.” After speaking, he also examined Xie Yanlai.

“My actions are also like one,” Xie Yanlai said directly.

Deng Yi continued scrutinizing him: “But bandits don’t go to perish together with their targets. Bandits seek wealth and preserve their lives. What use is wealth without life?”

Xie Yanlai looked at him: “What do you mean?”

“General Xie also doesn’t seem like someone who would sacrifice his life for fame and profit,” Deng Yi asked. “So I can’t understand why you would go to perish together with Xiao Xun.”

Xie Yanlai laughed scornfully: “It was an assassination! What do you mean perish together!”

Deng Yi looked at him: “It was I who saved your life. Without me, you would have died long ago.”

Xie Yanlai muttered: “You said it was her who saved me.” He stepped in front of Deng Yi and said lazily, “This matter is very simple. The reason I did this is only because people like you are an eyesore.”

Deng Yi looked at him, seeming not quite to understand.

“People like you.” Xie Yanlai looked at him. “Self-righteous, high and mighty, thinking yourselves omnipotent, treating the people of the world as nothing. Your existence is a cancer on this world.”

Deng Yi nodded and said: “So for the sake of the people of the world, General Xie sacrificed himself to eliminate the cancer.” He smiled again. “But if you do this alone, you can only eliminate one. In this world—”

“Eliminate one at a time,” Xie Yanlai interrupted him. “I, Xie Yanlai, don’t ask for much. As long as I can do one thing I want to do, that’s enough.”

He then laughed coldly.

“These principles—people like you who are greedy and never satisfied simply won’t understand.”

Deng Yi was silent for a moment, then raised his eyes to look at him and said: “The Han commandery aristocratic families’ surrender to the court was Xie Yanfang’s doing, wasn’t it?”

Xie Yanlai’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he said nothing.

“If I now say that Xiao Xun’s troops and the officials I selected never massacred the people of Han commandery, no one will believe it,” Deng Yi said flatly. “Because the victor becomes king and the vanquished becomes bandit. Whatever the victor says becomes truth.”

He withdrew his gaze to look into the distance and smiled.

“What kind of person Xie Yanfang is, the world cannot see clearly, but you, as a member of the Xie family, see it very clearly.”

“You simply dare not tell Chu Zhao this truth, because this matter concerns the greater situation. When it comes to the greater situation, there is no consideration of good or evil, right or wrong.”

“With Xiao Xun dead, this matter ends. The people no longer have to suffer, Xie Yanfang no longer has to commit evil in the name of good, and Chu Zhao no longer has to bear the pain.”

“Actually, this doesn’t count as heroism on your part. You were inwardly furious, helpless, with no way forward, so with a surge of solitary courage you rushed over to kill Xiao Xun.”

Speaking to this point, he withdrew his gaze to look at Xie Yanlai again.

“General Xie, can you truly be satisfied with this result? Is this all you wanted?”

“Does killing one person by yourself truly solve the problem?”

Xie Yanlai stepped forward and grabbed him, saying word by word: “Stop spouting all this nonsense at me, putting on an act of seeing through everything. So what if you see through it all—you don’t do anything about it. Also, I’m not General Xie right now, and you’re not Grand Tutor Deng—”

Just then, horse hooves sounded as someone galloped over.

“A’Jiu.” Mu Mianhong looked at Xie Yanlai first. “Remember to take the vanguard position in a while.”

Then she looked at Deng Yi.

“Zhu Er, you make sure the supplies are properly tallied.”

She seemed not to have noticed the confrontation between the two men. With a slight smile, she waved the riding whip in her hand.

“In our stronghold, there are punishments for doing work poorly.”

After speaking, she urged her horse forward at a gallop.

Xie Yanlai glanced at Deng Yi, released his grip, and turned to leave.

“Hey.” Deng Yi called out to stop him again. “I came here to be a prisoner. What did you come here to do?”

Xie Yanlai turned to look at him: “To be a bandit.”

After speaking, he turned and strode away, the corners of his mouth curving up as he hummed.

Or rather, to be a bandit waiting for someone.

……

……

Standing on the commandery city walls, one could see the assembled troops dividing into units, forming into groups, then gradually departing into the distance.

Chu Zhao couldn’t help but stand slightly on tiptoe, wanting her line of sight to follow them farther.

Behind her, footsteps approached but stopped a few paces away, as if hesitating and not daring to come forward. But seeing that Chu Zhao never turned around and paid no attention to whoever came or went behind her, he finally took the initiative to speak.

“Liang Qiang, pays respects to the Empress.”

Only then did Chu Zhao withdraw her gaze and look at Liang Qiang standing behind her, asking: “Has Young Master Liang come to ask this palace why you are not being allowed to return to the border commanderies?”

Liang Qiang had come as the commanding general of the border army reinforcements. Now that the war was over, the border troops had assembled and departed, but Liang Qiang alone had been kept behind.

Liang Qiang looked at Chu Zhao and lowered his eyes: “This guilty subject knows why.”

Chu Zhao changed the subject, gesturing to him: “Walk with this palace, Young Master Liang.” After speaking, she began walking along the city wall.

Xiao Man followed at a distance, neither too close nor too far.

Liang Qiang hesitated, then followed, looking at the figure a few steps ahead. His hanging hand couldn’t help but clench—no matter what, he had the opportunity to walk alongside her like this—

Chu Zhao said: “This palace never imagined there would be a day when I would patrol the walls of Zhongshan commandery city. Young Master Liang never imagined it either, did you?”

Liang Qiang replied: “To be honest, I never even imagined putting on military robes. Sometimes when I wake from dreams, I still think I’m in the capital, that I’m the carefree Young Master Liang.”

At the mention of the past, the young woman turned to look at him.

“Young Master Liang, though this palace previously had verbal disputes with your Liang family,” she said, “this palace did not have the ability to make your family fall into guilt.”

Liang Qiang nodded: “I know. The Liang clan’s conviction was due to court political struggles.”

Chu Zhao asked: “Then who exactly was it that instructed you to plot against Zhong Changrong?”

She asked so directly. Yes, now that she held the position of Empress, she didn’t need to be courteous with subjects. She had the right to ask directly. Liang Qiang was silent for a moment: “The person who initially helped my father and me enlist in the military was an old friend surnamed Cai.”

He recounted the events of that time to Chu Zhao.

“But not long after we enlisted, Lord Cai was transferred away from Yunzhong commandery.”

“No one has ever directly contacted me to give me orders, but I could sense that I was being arranged step by step.”

“I often only received instructions at the last moment. The ones who delivered messages to me were all ordinary soldiers around me, like with General Zhong this time.”

“I was required to constantly seek audiences with the General, to follow the General closely, and then I saw the General fall into an ambush, and then I was ordered to stand aside and wait—”

At this point, Chu Zhao looked at him, and he did not avoid her gaze.

“They had me wait for General Zhong to die, then had me go eliminate the Xi Liang soldiers, and then gain merit, and then—”

Chu Zhao took over his words: “And then you and your father, relying on your reputation, could take over the border army and replace General Zhong.”

Liang Qiang said: “Your Majesty guessed correctly.”

It wasn’t really a guess—after all, she had personally witnessed it in that lifetime. Chu Zhao withdrew her gaze and continued walking forward.

“Many of the soldiers who delivered orders to me died in battle, or else were transferred and disappeared. Each time it was a new face.” Liang Qiang followed her, adding this detail.

Chu Zhao acknowledged with a sound: “Very meticulous in their methods.” Then she asked, “Was Shipo City related to you?”

Liang Qiang was silent for a moment, then nodded: “It was I who let the Xi Liang soldiers in.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the young woman ahead suddenly whirled around, stirring up a sudden gust of wind.

Liang Qiang dropped to his knees with a thud: “Your Majesty, I was wrong.”

Chu Zhao looked at him: “Wrong? You were wrong—do you know how many people paid with their lives?”

“I know.” Liang Qiang straightened his kneeling posture, his voice hoarse. “I know, so I regret it. So I’m filled with remorse. So I know I cannot continue like this. So when they had me stand by and wait for General Zhong to die, I disobeyed the order and released the call for help signal early—I wanted to escape, I wanted to survive, I wanted to break free from all of this—”

He looked at Chu Zhao, his eyes pleading and grief-stricken.

“Miss A’Zhao, please save me.”

“I don’t want to become like this. I still want to be that Liang Qiang whom you once praised as brave.”

Praised as brave back then? A trace of self-mocking smile flashed through Chu Zhao’s eyes. Actually, that had been a misunderstanding—she had been praising the Liang Qiang of that lifetime. But now she already knew that Liang Qiang’s bravery in that lifetime was merely a conspiracy.

“I will bring you back to the capital on the pretext of rewarding you for the campaign against Xiao Xun,” Chu Zhao looked at him and said. “I hope that when that person contacts you again, you can return yourself to being that brave Young Master Liang.”

Liang Qiang bowed down: “Thank you, Your Majesty! I—”

He wanted to say more, but soldiers reported from not far away: “Empress, Lord Xie Zhongcheng has arrived.”

Chu Zhao smiled slightly: “He came quite quickly.” After speaking, she walked past Liang Qiang.

Liang Qiang kowtowed again from behind: “This general respectfully sends off Your Majesty.” Then he slowly rose, standing at the edge of the city wall watching the young woman walk down from the walls. Her steps were light and cheerful. Outside the city gate, a group of riders galloped toward her. The wind lifted the cloak of the young lord at their head, like flowing moonlight.

He felt no jealousy in his heart, nor did he dare hope that one day Chu Zhao would welcome him in such a manner. He only wanted to be able to stay by her side.

He knew that Chu Zhao did not trust him. Keeping him behind was also to draw out the person behind the scenes.

But it didn’t matter.

As long as he was useful.

Not only useful to the Empress, but also useful to that person behind the scenes. This way, he could continue to possess everything he already had, and perhaps even more and more.

He had said everything that should have been said earlier, but there was one thing he hadn’t mentioned: these merits of his were actually all obtained with the protection of other soldiers.

That brave Young Master Liang had never actually existed, so there was no going back.