“Don’t tell me anything, I know nothing! I haven’t heard anything either!” Cheng Yuanzhi quickly covered his ears. “I originally brought you here to scold you, but the moment I turn around, you disappear. When General Shen asks about it, I know nothing!”

“Got it!” Lu Yuanpeng took off running, but who knew he was moving too fast and collided head-on with Bai Jinzhi.

“Ah…”

Lu Yuanpeng bent over clutching his chin. When he looked up and saw Bai Jinzhi covering her own head, he was about to speak when he saw Bai Jinzhi, ignoring her own painful forehead from being bumped, immediately cover her ears and step back: “I didn’t hear anything either! If you’re going, go quickly! I never ran into you!”

Lu Yuanpeng: “…”

Lu Yuanpeng couldn’t be bothered with his aching chin either. He gave Bai Jinzhi a thumbs up, and being too pained to speak, hurriedly ran back in the direction he came from.

Seeing Lu Yuanpeng disappear into the distance, Bai Jinzhi covered her forehead again, feeling that Lu Yuanpeng’s chin must be made of iron.

The Yan Nation soldiers weren’t unaware that they were being unreasonably argumentative here, but having gotten into an argument with Great Zhou over Yunjing, they ended up saying that the Bai Family Army had eagerly opened the city gates for their Yan army, rather than the Yan army begging the Bai Family Army to open the gates for them.

Just after Cheng Yuanzhi took Lu Yuanpeng away, the Yan Nation soldiers who had been arguing heatedly quickly calmed down, feeling deeply regretful. Remembering how the Great Zhou had previously given most of their war spoils to the Yan Nation, they were immediately filled with shame.

Moreover, this time, when the Great Zhou Emperor’s younger brother was captured alive, it was indeed because their Yan Nation had a general who betrayed the Great Zhou, causing General Bai to be captured.

Even so, when the two nations joined forces to attack the city, the Bai Family Army still divided their forces to open the east gate for them. They had seen the corpses of Bai Family Army soldiers under the east gate’s winch mechanism and were not unshaken by it. How could they say such words?

Soon, the soldier who had just argued with Lu Yuanpeng saw Lu Yuanpeng returning with an aggressive demeanor. He pressed his lips together and stepped forward to meet him. Before Lu Yuanpeng could strike or start cursing, the young Yan Nation general bowed deeply to Lu Yuanpeng: “I apologize, General! Just now, when words led to words, it was my fault. I was just preparing to come find you to apologize!”

What was this situation?

Lu Yuanpeng had come to fight, so what was this Yan army soldier doing with all this bowing and apologizing?

After apologizing, the young Yan Nation general continued: “Actually, everyone in Yan Nation knows that General Bai of the Bai Family Army was captured alive because our general betrayed Great Zhou. All of us in the Yan army feel very ashamed, after all… The Great Zhou has treated us, their ally Yan Nation, quite well! Just now I was… I was just…”

The young Yan Nation general couldn’t continue speaking, so he cupped his hands toward Lu Yuanpeng: “General, whether Yunjing ultimately belongs to Yan Nation or Great Zhou, that will be decided by Great Zhou’s His Majesty and our Yan Nation’s His Majesty above. We’re all subordinates below. Even if we argue until the sky falls here, our words don’t count!”

“I disagree with that statement. Yunjing was conquered by our Great Zhou, so it belongs to our Great Zhou! Previously, when His Majesty had us yield war spoils to you, we yielded! But we can’t always have our Great Zhou yielding to you every time! I’m telling you… Our Great Zhou will not yield to Yunjing, and that’s final!” When Lu Yuanpeng’s stubborn temper flared up, he wouldn’t accept such reasoning.

The Yan Nation’s young general, who had already apologized and spoken nicely, also became angry: “Whether to yield or not isn’t decided by a single Great Zhou junior general like you!”

“What I say counts! My grandfather is Great Zhou’s Grand Commandant Lu! I’ll go back right now and write to my grandfather – our Great Zhou swears to never yield Yunjing!” Lu Yuanpeng, who had originally come to fight, turned and left.

Sima Ping: “…”

Wasn’t he supposed to come fight? The fight didn’t happen… and Lu Yuanpeng ended up exposing himself.

Soon, the news that Lu Yuanpeng’s grandfather was Grand Commandant Lu spread throughout the Great Zhou military camp. There were even more outrageous rumors saying Lu Yuanpeng was Grand Commandant Lu’s illegitimate son. In short, it was complete chaos.

Xie Xun suppressed the matter of friction between the two nations’ soldiers, not letting it reach Xiao Rongyan, but Xiao Rongyan still caught wind of it.

After conquering Yunjing City, they would naturally need to hold a victory celebration feast. However, because of Bai Qingyu’s unconscious state, there had been no movement on the celebration feast until now. Xiao Rongyan felt this could be a good opportunity to organize the celebration feast.

He remembered Bai Qingyan’s instructions in her letter to play the role of the abandoned husband discarded by Bai Qingyan well.

So this time, he, the abandoned husband, would use this opportunity to make a clean break with “Great Zhou.”

“Master!” Yue Shi rushed into Xiao Rongyan’s temporary study, his voice carrying barely concealed joy. “The Bai family’s Fifth Young Master has awakened!”

With Physician Hong present, Xiao Rongyan hadn’t worried that Bai Qingyu wouldn’t wake up, but hearing this news still made him breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh, and that Eunuch Wei from the Bai family’s eldest miss has also arrived!” Yue Shi remembered that he had just seen Eunuch Wei being led by Bai Family Army soldiers on horseback into the Xiliang Imperial Palace.

Xiao Rongyan’s hand holding the brush paused, and ink immediately spread across the paper. Wei Zhong had arrived… A’Bao’s letter should have arrived too!

An indescribable joy filled his heart.

He happened to be writing a letter to Bai Qingyan, telling her about the entire course of this siege from beginning to end. The letter was nearly finished, and unexpectedly Bai Qingyan’s personal eunuch had arrived. Perfect – the letter could be delivered back to Bai Qingyan by Wei Zhong. For delivering letters… there was no one who made Xiao Rongyan feel more at ease than the mature, steady, and loyal-to-Bai-Qingyan Wei Zhong.

Wei Zhong had come to request an audience with Xiao Rongyan in his capacity as a chief eunuch beside the Great Zhou’s Emperor. When Xiao Rongyan heard his subordinates report this, he understood the implications. He picked up his mask and instructed: “Please have Eunuch Wei wait in the front hall for tea. This Prince will be there shortly.”

“Yes!”

Yue Shi looked at his master with an excited expression: “Master, the eldest miss sent Wei Zhong from her side. Why doesn’t Master meet privately? Perhaps the eldest miss has a private letter for Master.”

“Didn’t you hear? Wei Zhong is requesting an audience in his capacity as the personal eunuch beside Great Zhou’s Emperor…” Xiao Rongyan put on his mask properly, his voice carrying a light smile. “Perhaps he’s come to demand an explanation.”

Yue Shi thought about it and felt his master made sense. He remembered when the Bai family’s shadow guards came to deliver letters to his master previously, they had said that even if he couldn’t help Master and the eldest miss, he shouldn’t cause trouble for his master and the eldest miss, and should at least conceal his expressions well.

Following behind his master, he asked in a low voice: “Master, if we need to act later, should I argue with Eunuch Wei on Master’s behalf?”

“That won’t be necessary. That you’ve been able to hide your emotions well without showing them during this period already comforts me greatly.” After speaking with Yue Shi, Xiao Rongyan stood with his hands behind his back, stepped outside, and called to Yue Shi, who remained standing in place: “Let’s go!”