For two consecutive days, Yun Ye did nothing but diligently drink the medicine Sun Simiao had prepared, force himself to eat, and sleep when the time came. He felt he shouldn’t be coughing up blood anymore—how much blood did a person’s body have to withstand such repeated blood loss?

On the third day, he donned his armor and prepared to set out. The fierce soldiers of the Lingnan Navy and the subordinates of the Western Expedition Army all assembled before his gate awaiting orders. Before departing, he glanced at Liu Jinbao, who had just regained consciousness, comforted the other injured household guards, and then went before the spirit tablets of Old Jiang and Old Xia to offer a stick of incense. Only then did he mount Wang Cai and lead his troops toward Zhaoyang Palace!

Chang’an was now in complete chaos, with soldiers everywhere and galloping warhorses at every turn. Li Huairen had been besieged in Zhaoyang Palace with his forces for five days now. This man who had tried to survive in the cracks had finally reached the end of his rope. Old Jiang and Old Xia had died at the hands of his subordinates, and it was also he who had been ordered to guard the Yun residence. Now, Yun Ye very much wanted to personally put an end to this farce.

Three thousand men—this was Yun Ye’s strength. Three thousand death-sworn warriors who absolutely obeyed his commands were already a very significant force in Chang’an at this time. This time there was no dragon banner, only a massive character “Yun” commander’s flag snapping loudly in the wind.

The commander of the Lingnan Navy was Liu Renyuan, but everyone knew this was Yun Ye’s territory—a division of power tacitly approved by the Emperor. Three thousand warhorses trampled through the grass, raising clouds of dust as they charged toward Zhaoyang Palace.

Many people tried to stop them along the way, from Fang Xuanling to Li Jing, and finally Li Chengqian who hurried over—all hoping Yun Ye would disband his forces and return to the Yun residence to recuperate, awaiting the Emperor’s final judgment on these people.

Perhaps Li Tai was the one who understood Yun Ye best. He only said one thing: don’t destroy Zhaoyang Palace. Then he intended to go there together with Yun Ye.

Standing on the palace wall, Li Huairen watched Yun Ye’s great army silently and slowly advance. The front row of shield-bearers was backed by densely packed ox-horn crossbows. He laughed bitterly and roared at Yun Ye’s military formation: “You’ve come to kill me too! You’ve also come to kill me! You’re all clever people, and I’m the only fool suffering between you! If I hadn’t killed your household guards and injured your concubine, would you even have the thought of killing me?”

“Yun Ye, come out! If you have the guts, come kill me yourself! I’m the one who sent people to blow up the firearms workshop—come out!”

Yun Ye gently patted Wang Cai’s neck once, and Wang Cai obediently walked forward. Yun Ye didn’t say a word, only coldly watching Li Huairen, who had already gone mad on the palace wall.

“Since childhood you’ve been smarter than me, smarter than all of us. Cheng Chumo is dumber than me, but you always kept him tied to your belt. Even in Beiting, you personally took him with you and gave him all the achievements you didn’t need. I also requested to go to Beiting back then, but you refused! I’m also a valiant general—my military honors were also won with sword and spear! Why do you all have higher positions than me? Why are you all wealthier than me? My father is a prince! In what way am I inferior to others?”

Many people were besieging Zhaoyang Palace. The generals of the Imperial Guards and the Thousand Bull Guards were all there. They all slowly retreated, leaving sufficient space for Yun Ye’s subordinates to attack.

“My wife went to your house—do you know she came back crying? Xinyue gave her countless benefits, even sharing a portion of the Lingnan trade routes with her. Your kindness truly cannot be faulted, but damn it, why should I accept your pity?”

“I’m also an upright man! Why should I accept food given in contempt? I risked my life trying to win wealth and honor, so that one day I could also say openly and honestly to you, ‘Old Yun, let Xinyue talk to my wife about household matters—such trivial things aren’t worth discussing between us brothers.’ That’s right, that’s exactly what I was thinking!”

“I originally wanted to shoot your concubine to death with an ox-horn crossbow, but in the end I still couldn’t bring myself to do it! You’re a physician yourself—coughing up a bit of blood won’t kill anyone. In the northern desert, I was beaten with flails until I coughed up dozens of mouthfuls of blood and didn’t die. Is only your life precious under heaven?”

Watching Li Huairen jump around like a monkey on the city wall, Yun Ye opened his mouth and said: “Your wife and children are already on their way to the distant islands. When do you plan to die?”

“I don’t want your pity! I rebelled—my wife and children deserve to die! No need for you to play the saint! I’ll kill you!” Li Huairen suddenly took out his bow and arrows and drew back to shoot. The distance was too great; the arrows that flew over were already weak and powerless. Wu She easily deflected them with a sweep of his spear.

The furiously raging Li Huairen continued shooting arrow after arrow. His hands were already cut by the bowstring, bloody and dripping, but he seemed to have no feeling, still raging ceaselessly.

The palace gates opened. His subordinates filed out in formation, their weapons thrown aside, kneeling to surrender.

Li Huairen seemed to become even more furious. Brandishing his horizontal saber and shouting loudly, he jumped down from the palace wall. The palace wall here was very high, a full three zhang. Wearing dozens of jin of armor, his body was heavy. When he hit the ground, both legs broke cleanly, the white bones piercing through his war skirt and exposed just like that. He seemed to have no feeling, still cursing incessantly.

Wang Cai carried Yun Ye to his side. Li Huairen’s horizontal saber had already been thrown who knows where. Yun Ye dismounted and walked before him, crouching down to say: “If you have any more grievances, let them all out.”

Li Huairen’s blood-red eyes seemed to freeze for a moment. He reached out his blood-covered hands to grasp Yun Ye’s armor and said: “My legs are broken—it hurts so much! It hurts so much!”

Yun Ye’s tears streamed down like beads. Embracing his head, he said: “Bear it a little longer—it will stop hurting soon.”

“Alright, make it quick and accurate. There’s something I need to tell you—I really didn’t intend to kill Xiao Miao. I said I would go fetch Master Sun, but she didn’t believe me. Your household guards went mad and charged into the military formation themselves—I couldn’t stop them…”

Yun Ye raised his head to look at the pale sun in the sky. A triangular spike slid out from his sleeve. He hesitated for a long time but couldn’t bring himself to strike.

“You’re just this indecisive. Stabbing me like this, even turning me into a sieve won’t kill me. I’ll hold your hand—I have more experience with this.” Li Huairen smiled as he gripped Yun Ye’s hand and fiercely thrust it into his own ribs. Blood spurted out hissing. His head slumped and fell onto Yun Ye’s knee. Yun Ye released the triangular spike, and a piece of blue cloth appeared beside his hand. This was the piece of cloth he had torn off. Li Huairen had very much hoped Yun Ye would take it back, but while alive, he couldn’t bring himself to say those words.

Rebels were to be killed! Whether they surrendered or not, they had no way to survive. The people from the Thousand Bull Guards and Imperial Guards killed very smoothly. Previously, on this very piece of land, Qin Qiong and Duan Zhixuan had led the Xuanjia Army against Li Jiancheng’s Crown Prince’s Six Rates in battle here, ultimately achieving final victory with inferior numbers. The reason this land was overgrown with wild grass and appeared so fertile was that too many corpses were buried underground here. Plants are actually carnivorous things.

Yun Ye sat with his legs sprawled out, just like that on the ground. Li Huairen’s head pillowed on his thigh, just like a long time ago when a group of people, tired from playing, collapsed on the grass to rest…

The Emperor was always temperamental, and now he was equally furious. Yun Ye didn’t hear a single word of what he said. What did he mean that he had already given Li Zhi countless opportunities?

Attending court like a puppet, leaving court like a puppet, avoiding Zhangsun Chong when he saw him, passing Li Chengqian with bowed head. If Cheng Chumo hadn’t been leading him around, he would certainly have bumped into people or pillars.

Many people came to the house—from the imperial palace, from the court, from the inner palace, from the academy, and from some inexplicable places. In any case, there were many people, making the house seem very chaotic. Yun Ye didn’t care.

It wasn’t until one day when the much thinner Yun Shou appeared before Yun Ye that he suddenly realized it was already summer. He took a handkerchief to wipe the beads of sweat from his son’s forehead, embraced him and patted his back, smiling as he asked: “Have you grown accustomed to living by the North Sea?”

“It’s alright. Your son manages one thousand four hundred men—it’s considered the most powerful military force there. Once the horses from the military horse pasture ran away. Your son led men and chased them for over a hundred li before discovering it was several wild people stealing horses. Originally I was going to execute those wild people, but later seeing the miserable state of their tribe, your son couldn’t bring himself to do it. I paid my own money to buy some cattle and sheep to give to them. Now the people there all like me very much. If anything happens, they’ll tell me. When warhorses from the military horse pasture run off, they’ll also find them and send them back.”

“Father, your son has already grown accustomed to drinking butter tea. Actually, once you get used to it, the taste is quite good.”

Yun Shou removed his armor and did two chest-expansion exercises. He glanced at his father somewhat embarrassedly, then picked up the pastries on the table and stuffed them frantically into his mouth. Yun Ye poured water for Yun Shou while telling him to eat slowly. Seeing he was choking, he also patted his back for him.

Standing outside the door, Xinyue continuously wiped the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief, softly instructing the servants to all leave. She stood there with tears streaming down, watching the father and son talk.

The father and son spoke very happily for an entire afternoon, mainly with Yun Shou speaking and Yun Ye listening. No matter what Yun Shou said, it made Yun Ye laugh heartily. He could never hear enough—listening to him talk about being teased by veteran soldiers, listening to him talk about his anger when rectifying military discipline, also listening to him talk about the loneliness of herding sheep by the North Sea, and the stories of those ugly and crude shepherdesses.

At dinner time, Yun Ye looked up and asked Yun Shou: “Do you still plan to go to the North Sea? According to our father-son agreement, you still have one more year. If you feel you still need to go out, then go. No need to worry about your father. Father has just been in a bad mood recently. Now that you’re back, isn’t everything fine? Your elder brother will also return in a few days. If you want to leave, wait a few days—after you’ve paid respects to your sister-in-law, then go.”

“I’m not going. That place is so lonely it drives one mad. I’ve seen enough of blue skies, clear waters, and grasslands. Your son still prefers Chang’an. What your son misses most are the spare ribs Father makes—I dream about them!” After eating a large bowl of rice, Yun Shou contentedly put down his bowl and chopsticks and sighed.

“You want to eat spare ribs? Simple! I’ll make them tomorrow and let you eat your fill.”

“But tomorrow is the Grand Court Assembly—Father, you have to attend court!”

“Who cares about that? My son wanting to eat spare ribs is the important matter…”