“Situ Haonan, did you hear me! You can’t do this! You can’t!”

“Situ Haonan, Ziqing already explained that matter — she didn’t mean for it to happen. It was either your grandfather’s life or hers. It’s not that she was in the wrong — it was Nangong Cheng who was in the wrong! What more does Situ Haonan need to explain before you’ll understand, before you’ll forgive her!”

“Situ Haonan, do you know how devastated I was when my brother died? But I didn’t hate anyone for it, because I knew my brother was wrong to begin with. Situ Haonan, please, don’t do this, I’m begging you!”

Yelu Qianqian knew full well she couldn’t break free, yet she struggled with all her might. She didn’t know exactly what Situ Haonan had lured Ziqing to Mingsha Mountain for, but she knew Ziqing had no one with her, and not even a scrap of gunpowder on her!

All of this, surely, had been carefully planned by Situ Haonan long in advance!

The Shadow Guard hadn’t come a moment too early or too late — it had come precisely at that fork in the road. That alone proved Situ Haonan had planned everything out long ago, simply waiting for the right moment to spring the trap on Ziqing!

Ziqing was in grave danger!

As Yelu Qianqian spoke, she began to cry. Her wrists were bound so tightly that the pain worsened with every struggle, but she felt none of it — she only felt her own helplessness!

Finally, she could no longer hold back and burst into loud sobs. “Waah… Haonan, please don’t do this, Haonan, it’s not too late to change your mind…”

“I’m begging you, Haonan, I’m begging you, all right? Consider it a debt I owe you — let’s go bring Ziqing back!”

“Haonan, you have your family, and I have mine, and we both have our grudges. But… but Han Ziqing has no family of her own — we’re the only family she has!”

By the time she finished speaking, Yelu Qianqian’s face was already streaked with tears, her voice choked with sobs. She stopped struggling, going limp in Situ Haonan’s arms, weeping, unable to stop the tears.

She stared in the direction Ziqing had vanished — endless yellow sand, the sky blotting out the sun, as if it were a road of no return that anyone who walked it would never come back from.

She didn’t know how long the silence lasted before she suddenly lowered her head and bit down viciously on Situ Haonan’s arm, biting with all the hatred she could muster, biting so deep that the veins on her forehead bulged.

Soon, bright red blood began trickling down from where Yelu Qianqian’s lips pressed against Situ Haonan’s arm. Yet even with the smell of blood filling her mouth, she kept biting with all her might, as if she wanted to bite clean through the arm that held her back!

Hatred!

Because of love.

Both romantic love and friendship stem from love, and so it is love that gives rise to hatred.

Because she loved him, and she loved Ziqing too — that was why the hatred ran so deep!

If this continued, Situ Haonan’s arm would eventually be crippled by her bite, and yet he remained utterly unmoved.

Yelu Qianqian refused to let go either — until, suddenly, “drip, drip” — she felt something falling onto her neck, drop by drop, ice-cold, and before long a large patch had gone damp and chilled!

Finally, she unconsciously loosened her bite and reached up to touch her neck. As she touched it, she turned to look back at Situ Haonan — and immediately gasped, her crying and tears stopping short!

He… he… he was crying!

No, he wasn’t sobbing — he was crying silently, without a sound, hot tears sliding endlessly down his cheeks and falling onto her face.

At the sight, Yelu Qianqian completely broke down, unable to help herself from hugging Situ Haonan tightly. This version of him terrified her!

Why couldn’t he move past it? Why couldn’t he forgive — forgive Ziqing, and forgive himself? Why did he have to make things so hard, so unbearably hard for himself!

“Don’t cry, Haonan, don’t cry!”

“Haonan, please don’t be like this, talk to me, tell me what’s going on, I can understand you.”

“Haonan, I know this is hard for you, I know you don’t want to blame Ziqing, Haonan, please don’t do this…”

Yelu Qianqian was terrified by the man before her, consumed by guilt and despair. Her small hands trembled as she wiped clumsily at his tears, not even sparing a thought for the fact that her own face was equally soaked in tears!

Situ Haonan took her hand and pressed a light kiss beneath it. After a moment of calm, he spoke quietly. “I truly don’t blame her. But I have to give Nangong Cheng an answer — that place is, in every real sense, my home. This is the only way I have. Qianqian, will you do me a favor?”

“Nangong Cheng’s people are waiting for Ziqing at Mingsha Mountain?” Yelu Qianqian finally understood.

Situ Haonan nodded.

“How many of them!” Yelu Qianqian’s voice turned sharp.

But Situ Haonan didn’t answer — he didn’t know himself. And so he had no way of predicting the outcome either, which was exactly why he was suffering so much.

No allies, no gunpowder, alone against them all — if Han Ziqing could still walk out of Mingsha Mountain alive, then Nangong Cheng would have nothing left to say. And if Nangong Cheng still refused to accept defeat, still caused trouble afterward, then he, Situ Haonan, would be the first to stand and shield Han Ziqing.

But if Ziqing… if Ziqing didn’t come back…

Situ Haonan didn’t dare think it, didn’t want to think it. From the bottom of his heart, he hoped, he truly hoped that woman would come back!

Yelu Qianqian didn’t know what else to say — she just kept shaking her head, over and over. She couldn’t even bear to imagine the scene of Ziqing surrounded by a group of Nangong Cheng’s experts. But this course of action Situ Haonan had taken was, after all, the only option left to him, however terrible.

Flesh on the palm, flesh on the back of the hand — both mattered. But in the end, neither of them was Situ Haonan; they couldn’t feel his anguish the way he did.

When Yelu Chenyi died, her father the Emperor had even comforted her over it — after all, that whole affair had been tangled up with far too many other things.

But the death of the Nangong Cheng patriarch — surely everyone in Nangong Cheng resented Situ Haonan, his own grandson, for it.

Situ Haonan had it far harder than she did!

“Qianqian, hold onto the West Liang military tally carefully, and bring it back to Akbachu! It belongs to you — no one is allowed to take it from you!” Situ Haonan said earnestly.

“Where are you going? Are you abandoning me?” Yelu Qianqian went pale with fright.

“Back to Nangong Cheng.” Situ Haonan said flatly.

“You… waah, I want to go too!” Yelu Qianqian panicked.

“Be good, wait for me properly in Akbachu… wait for me and Ziqing to come back together, all right? We… we will absolutely, definitely both come back!”

Situ Haonan thought to himself — if Han Ziqing didn’t make it back, he wouldn’t be coming back either.

With the supreme commander’s tally in hand and such illustrious military achievements to her name, no one in the West Liang court could give Yelu Qianqian any trouble now. He could finally set his mind at ease about her.

Yelu Qianqian kept shaking her head, but Situ Haonan pressed the West Liang flame tally firmly into her hands, closing her fingers around it. “Wait for me… and for Ziqing!”

As he spoke, he looked behind him and saw that General Dugu had already arrived. He wrenched his hand free from Yelu Qianqian’s grip. “Listen to me, girl! Behave, and I’ll come back!”

With that, he waved a brief greeting toward General Dugu in the distance, then spurred his horse and rode off into the distance…

Yelu Qianqian watched him go, tears sliding down her face without her realizing it. But she didn’t chase after him — she knew Situ Haonan had made up his mind completely, and that chasing him would do no good.

“Fine… fine…” she said, her voice thick with sobs, unable to speak clearly. “Fine! I’ll wait for you… wait for you and Ziqing, both of you had better come back safe, all of you have to come back… I’ll wait… it will all pass, I’ll wait!”