When Wen Yu heard these words, the vermillion brush in her hand making annotations paused slightly. After a brief moment, she said: “I am aware of this. Do not spread word of this matter for now. I must trouble the general to temporarily hold onto the military authority and keep the officers and soldiers of the Western Second Battalion stable.”

Seeing that Wen Yu appeared not particularly surprised, as if she had anticipated this matter all along, the panic in Fan Yuan’s heart diminished somewhat, though it added quite a bit of confusion. He spoke carefully: “Brother Xiao, he…”

Wen Yu interrupted him: “I will explain to everyone later.”

Although Fan Yuan was old friends with Chen Wei, these days he had truly come to regard Xiao Li as a brother. For the other party to be doing well one moment, then suddenly relinquish his military post and leave without saying goodbye—he couldn’t help but overthink it. Therefore, after receiving those words from Wen Yu, Fan Yuan did not let the matter rest. After struggling inwardly for a moment, disregarding whether it was presumptuous, he asked as if throwing caution to the wind: “Is it because Old Chen wanted to recruit him as a son-in-law?”

After asking, without waiting for Wen Yu’s answer, he slapped his forehead in extreme vexation and said regretfully: “It must be this! These days, many rumors have spread in the army, saying he doesn’t know how to appreciate favor. If he left because he was afraid Old Chen harbored resentment in his heart, then it’s my fault. I should have noticed earlier and spoken openly with him about it!” By this point, his emotions had become especially agitated, and he said to Wen Yu: “Wengzhu, please permit this humble general to pursue and bring back General Xiao to explain things clearly to him!”

Wen Yu said: “General Fan, do not overthink this. General Xiao’s intention to leave has nothing to do with Minister Chen.”

Her voice was somewhat hoarse, but her eyes were too calm, making Fan Yuan set down this concern. However, regarding the real reason for Xiao Li’s departure, Wen Yu clearly had no intention of continuing. As a subordinate, Fan Yuan couldn’t very well press further and could only say carefully: “Then at the grand ceremony two days from now, if General Xiao is absent, I’m afraid it will arouse suspicion…”

Xiao Li was now a renowned fierce general of Pingzhou. His departure at this time would inevitably trigger much speculation.

Wen Yu lowered her eyes in thought for a moment and said: “Send out another unit to clear out the remaining bandits in the surrounding areas. Publicly, we’ll say Xiao Li has gone into the mountains to suppress bandits.”

Fan Yuan understood this was to temporarily conceal Xiao Li’s departure. However, just yesterday he had specifically sent Tan Yi to intercept Xiao Li to tell him not to go into the mountains to suppress bandits recently. Now, turning around to use such a reason to deceive everyone, it naturally couldn’t be hidden from Tan Yi. But Tan Yi was one of his men, and many junior officers in the Western Second Battalion had also been brought up under him, so keeping the news under wraps for the time being was still achievable. He clasped his fists toward Wen Yu and said: “This humble general understands.”

After Fan Yuan withdrew, Wen Yu’s expression showed no particular abnormality. However, when her gaze returned to the half-annotated memorial on the desk, she could no longer read a single word.

The cutting words she had said to Xiao Li the previous night echoed sentence by sentence in her ears, making the spasms in her stomach even worse.

“I want troops, I want power. Do you have these?”

“I think General Xiao must have misunderstood something.”

“I carry this wood carving only because I greatly admire the four words ‘a fish leaping over the dragon gate’ that the general spoke of in the past, and not for any other reason. The general has overstepped bounds several times, truly making things difficult for this palace.”

“Has General Xiao also misunderstood this matter?”

Those words, sharp as thorns and insidiously poisonous, pierced into her own heart without missing a single one, causing an almost numb, dull pain.

Wen Yu supported herself on the desk. Her face remained cold, yet showed a pallor. She closed her eyes heavily.

From the moment she had begun speaking those words, she had never hoped again that Xiao Li would stay. He had lowered his head to such a degree, and she had trampled his remaining pride and dignity to dust.

The few mouthfuls of porridge she had eaten earlier churned amid the stomach spasms, making her feel waves of nausea. Wen Yu tightly covered her abdomen with her other hand, cold sweat also falling from the corners of her forehead. Her entire person could almost no longer sit steadily on the wooden couch. As her sleeve brushed across the desk, it knocked a pile of bamboo scrolls to the floor.

When Zhao Bai entered upon hearing the sound and saw this scene, she was startled and quickly stepped forward to support her: “Wengzhu, what’s wrong?”

Wen Yu lifted her eyelids. There was hardly any color left on her lips, though her face still forcibly maintained a measure of calm as she said: “It’s nothing. I may have caught a chill last night…”

Zhao Bai practiced martial arts and had a rudimentary understanding of pulse readings. She pressed Wen Yu’s wrist and only felt her pulse was extremely weak and floating. She immediately called out to the maids outside, ordering someone to fetch a physician.

Wen Yu, however, stopped her: “There’s no need to call a physician. I’ll be fine after resting for a moment. Later, I still have many important matters to hand over to Minister Chen and the others.”

Zhao Bai frowned: “But…”

“I know my own body. I’m just weary.”

Wen Yu’s entire person looked extremely weak, yet the words she spoke still brooked no argument. Zhao Bai could only give up and helped her to the soft couch in the inner room for resting.

After attending to Wen Yu as she lay down, Zhao Bai lowered layer upon layer of bed curtains for her. Before leaving, Zhao Bai turned back to glance once more. Through the curtains, she could only see Wen Yu lying on her side facing inward. Her facial expression couldn’t be seen clearly, but the slightly raised arc beneath the brocade quilt was truly alarmingly thin and frail.

The dilapidated mountains and rivers of Great Liang rested upon such lean and solitary shoulders.

Zhao Bai suddenly felt her eyes sting with tears.

—

After the rainstorm, the summer sun grew more vicious with each passing day. Beyond the city walls of Yizhou after the scorched earth policy, one could only see endless wastelands. Sparse weeds grew from the roadside and the fields where crops had been burned, kicked up by passing horse hooves into thick clouds of dust.

In the distance, a ragged crowd fled in panic, closely pursued by over a dozen armored soldiers on horseback who drove those people forward with jeering laughter. From time to time, they pressed close to the crowd, bright white blades drawn from horseback and cleaved down upon heads before the riders trampled over, scattering the crowd who screamed and fled for their lives. The accompanying cavalry then gave savage laughs as they rode out in pursuit with blades drawn, and after slaughtering several people, drove the scattered refugees back onto the main road again.

This was simply a slaughter like herding cattle and sheep.

Some refugees, driven to utter desperation with no more will to flee, knelt on the ground and continuously kowtowed to the soldiers thundering past on horses. Even when their foreheads were broken by the sharp gravel on the ground, they paid no heed, only pleaded through tears and snot: “Esteemed soldiers, we lowly ones won’t dare run again. We beg the esteemed soldiers to spare our lives…”

The captain on horseback sneered coldly: “There’s not enough grain on the road to feed you bandits! This lord’s military merits are still short by a few. Using you to fill the quota is perfect!”

The refugees wept bitterly: “Sir, we lowly ones are all law-abiding people from the nearby counties and towns. How are we bandits…”

The soldiers circling the refugees on horseback merely burst into jeering laughter upon hearing this.

The captain used the flat of his blade to pat the cheek of the refugee kneeling before his horse and asked with cruel laughter: “Since you are law-abiding people, why didn’t you follow the army in the relocation? This lord sees you are just a bunch of bandits!”

As his words fell, he had already raised his blade to slash at the refugee’s neck. There seemed to be a sound of something cutting through the air. Fresh blood splattered across the ground of the official road’s sandy surface, but it was not the refugee’s blood.

The captain on horseback had his back pierced through by a long arrow. His eyes began to grow unfocused, yet his hand still held the long blade aloft as he turned his head back with difficulty to look.

The sunlight was dazzling. On the distant earth slope, a tall man on horseback could be vaguely seen, wearing a bamboo hat, with a longbow in his arm and a weapon over half a zhang in length attached to the side of his saddle. The distance was too great to tell clearly whether it was a spear or a staff.

The captain’s throat gurgled with blood. His blade pointed toward that distant man, yet he could no longer utter a single word before toppling headfirst from his horse.

The refugees were all stunned by this sudden turn of events. The cavalrymen’s expressions also became stern. After recovering their senses, they roared and drew their blades, spurring their horses to charge toward that man, horse hooves kicking up great clouds of dust.

That man showed not the slightest bit of panic. Unhurriedly, he nocked three more arrows on his bowstring. The conical arrowheads glinted with cold light in the scorching sun. His fingers released, and those three arrows, accompanied by the sound of cutting through air, once again pierced through armor and shot three cavalrymen from their horses.

But even though his archery skills were exceptional, the dozen or so remaining cavalry had already surrounded him. No matter how one looked at it, he had no chance of victory.

The refugees trapped on the road below didn’t know who started running first, but they all seized this opening to flee in panic, paying no heed whatsoever to the battle situation behind them.

After those three arrows, the cavalrymen had already charged to the top of the slope and swung their blades to hack at the man. The man’s toe flicked upward, and the weapon hanging at the side of his saddle fell into his hand. Surprisingly, it was neither a spear nor a staff, but a miao dao over half a zhang long.

He didn’t even unsheathe the blade. Using only the scabbard to lightly parry, he evaded the attacks of several cavalrymen. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he swept horizontally. The scabbard seemed to carry the force of a thousand jun, instantly sweeping several cavalrymen from their horses.

Taking advantage of this opening, a cavalryman on the left roared and bent low, swinging his blade to slash at the man’s horse’s legs. The long blade in the man’s hand finally left its sheath, bringing up an almost white arc under the scorching sun as it slashed down toward that cavalryman.

Scorching hot blood splattered everywhere. That head rolled from the low slope all the way to the bottom.

The cavalrymen finally realized they had encountered a formidable opponent. No longer caring about avenging their comrades, they hastily spurred their horses to flee.

The man lightly tugged the reins and pursued, still unhurried and leisurely. When the long blade he threw pierced the last cavalryman from his horse, he rode over and raised his hand to retrieve his blade, shaking off the blood on it.

The cavalryman, in too much pain to flee any further, collapsed on the ground, his forehead covered in cold sweat. He swallowed with difficulty and tried to negotiate with the man: “Good man, we were blind and failed to recognize Mount Tai. Please spare my life, good man…”

The man asked lightly: “Why kill these refugees?”

The cavalryman hastily said: “We were also following orders from above. If these refugees don’t follow the order to relocate to Jincheng, most will become bandits. Killing them is… is to prevent banditry…”

The man’s long eyes narrowed slightly as he interrupted him: “You’re one of Pei Song’s men?”

Hearing the unusual tone in the man’s voice, the cavalryman thought the other party also feared Pei Song’s reputation and quickly said: “That’s right. I work under Captain Han in Commander Pei’s forces. Good man, with your martial skills, I can recommend you…”

Before he could finish speaking, the other party had already raised his blade and struck, directly ending his life.

Xiao Li coldly wiped the blood from his blade on the cavalryman’s clothes, returned the miao dao to its sheath, and continued riding forward.

He hadn’t traveled far when urgent calls came from behind: “Benefactor, wait! Benefactor, wait!”

Xiao Li lightly tugged the reins and turned back to see a dirt-covered man running toward him at full speed. The man stopped only when he was close to the horse, a tattered cloth bundle slung over his shoulder. He bowed to Xiao Li and said: “Thank you for your life-saving grace, benefactor! This humble student is Zhang Huai. I originally intended to go to Pingzhou to seek service under Hanyang Wengzhu, but unexpectedly encountered Pei’s forces looting villages all along the way, forcing local people to relocate to Jincheng. Those who fled were treated as bandits. Fortunately, I picked up my life thanks to the benefactor’s rescue. This humble student is infinitely grateful. May I ask the benefactor’s esteemed name? This humble student will surely repay this great kindness in the future!”

Xiao Li briefly glanced at the man and said, “It was merely a small effort, not worth mentioning,” then prepared to ride on. But the man called out to stop him again.

Facing the not particularly amiable gaze cast from beneath Xiao Li’s bamboo hat, the man was clearly also somewhat afraid, but still spoke out: “Forgive this humble student’s presumptuousness, but on this journey toward Pingzhou, this humble student has heard nothing but praise for Hanyang Wengzhu, the descendant of Prince Chang Lian. The refugees traveling with me are also all seeking to make a living in Pingzhou. This humble student observes that the benefactor possesses such abilities, yet has not remained in Pingzhou to serve. Could it be that the rumors about Pingzhou are false?”

Xiao Li was silent for a moment before withdrawing his gaze, leaving only one sentence: “Pingzhou is a good place to go. You can rest assured and go seek your future there.”