Chapter 96

In Kang City, inside the central command tent.

A scout hurried in from outside and dropped to one knee.

“My Lord, the rebels inside Kang City are still refusing to leave the city gates today!”

The man seated at the head of the tent wore black robes rather than armor. Tall and lean, he held a military text in his pale, slender fingers. His phoenix eyes remained calm and unmoved, as though he had expected this all along.

“Continue the siege,” he said. “Attack until the rebels cannot even fill the battlements with enough heads to defend the walls.”

The scout quickly acknowledged the order and withdrew.

Xie Zheng tossed aside the military text and called to a guard.

“Bring me my armor.”

Gongsun Yin, seated nearby, asked, “You’re going to challenge them personally?”

Xie Zheng replied, “The remnants in Kang City are no longer a threat. Only Sui Yuanqing remains a concern. The morale inside the city has already collapsed. If I challenge him now, I doubt he can refuse.”

Gongsun Yin naturally understood the implications.

The only capable commander left in Kang City was Sui Yuanqing.

Before leaving, Xie Zheng intended to eliminate him as well.

Issuing a challenge after two days of siege warfare was equivalent to placing Sui Yuanqing over a fire.

If he accepted, he would fall directly into Xie Zheng’s trap and could be removed on the battlefield.

If he refused, the already shattered morale within the city would sink even lower.

—

Below the walls of Kang City, the Yanzhou Army suddenly halted its fierce assault midway through the attack.

The soldiers defending the city barely had time to catch their breath before noticing a change in the enemy formation.

The black-ant-like ranks split apart, opening a narrow path wide enough for two riders abreast.

Amid the dust and yellow sand, a lone rider slowly advanced from the rear toward the front lines.

The qilin-shaped shoulder guards on his armor appeared both majestic and ferocious beneath the blazing sun.

A black cloak draped behind him over the horse’s back.

In one hand, he carried a black-shafted halberd decorated with a coiling golden dragon.

The sight of the black armor and black warhorse alone caused the defenders on the walls to shrink back in fear.

When they recognized the dragon-engraved weapon, panic spread even further.

“The Black-Gold Dragon Halberd!”

“It’s Marquis Wu’an!”

“Marquis Wu’an has come in person! Kang City won’t survive today!”

Ordinary generals would never dare wield a weapon bearing dragon motifs.

That Black-Gold Dragon Halberd had been specially forged by hundreds of craftsmen after Xie Zheng recaptured Jinzhou and avenged the humiliation of territory lost seventeen years earlier.

The emperor himself had commissioned it and bestowed it upon him.

When granting him the title Marquis Wu’an, the emperor had once declared:

“With such a marquis, Great Yin shall know peace.”

Among military commanders throughout the empire, nearly every ambitious general dreamed of surpassing Marquis Wu’an.

Yet his achievements stood like an insurmountable mountain.

Beneath the city walls, two rows of war drums were mounted atop siege wagons.

When the deep, thunderous drumbeats echoed across the battlefield, goosebumps erupted all over the defenders.

Some nearly dropped their weapons.

The hands of the archers trembled so violently that their arrows had no hope of finding their mark.

Amid the beating drums, the young general upon the horse raised his head and looked toward the city walls.

His phoenix eyes were cold and indifferent.

His face seemed carved from jade.

With one hand, he leveled the halberd at the city.

His arrogant voice rang across the battlefield:

“Where is Sui Yuanqing?”

“Come out and die!”

The messenger officer on the wall nearly stumbled over himself in his haste to deliver the report.

—

Kang City had only been under siege for a few days, yet the City Lord’s Manor was already shrouded in despair.

Everyone knew Marquis Wu’an was leading the siege.

Not only were the soldiers terrified—even the servants understood that the city’s fall was merely a matter of time.

Though they feared it, no one dared discuss the war.

Several servants had already been beaten to death for suggesting that Kang City would soon fall.

The messenger rushed back from the city gates, hurrying through courtyard after courtyard until he finally reached Sui Yuanqing.

Dropping to one knee, he reported with a trembling voice:

“Heir Apparent, Marquis Wu’an is challenging you at the city gates.”

“Come out and fight.”

Summer was approaching, and the sunlight was already harsh.

Half of the bamboo curtain by the study window had been raised.

The doorway was flooded with sunlight, but deeper inside the room, not a single ray penetrated, lending the study a gloomy atmosphere.

Sui Yuanqing sat barefoot on a mat with his hair loose around his shoulders.

Books, scrolls, brushes, and inkstones lay scattered across the low table before him.

After falling into Xie Zheng’s hands previously, he had endured considerable suffering.

Though his physical wounds had healed, he had grown noticeably thinner.

The gloom in his features had only deepened.

Without even looking up, he said coldly,

“I’m not going.”

“Continue defending the gates.”

The messenger hesitated.

“Heir Apparent, morale among the soldiers has completely collapsed. If this continues, Kang City may fall without an assault.”

“You defeated Marquis Wu’an once on the Chongzhou battlefield. If you go out and fight, it may restore the soldiers’ confidence.”

Sui Yuanqing laughed coldly.

“If I go out, I’ll be walking straight into Xie Zheng’s trap.”

“He abandoned Chongzhou and came personally to Kang City because he’s eager to remove himself from the court’s political struggles.”

“As long as Chongzhou remains unconquered, he doesn’t dare enter Kang City.”

Seeing no point in arguing further, the messenger retreated.

Once the study was empty, Sui Yuanqing suddenly roared in rage.

He swept the books and scrolls from the table.

The inkstone crashed onto the floor, black ink splattering across the wooden boards.

Bracing himself against the table, veins bulged across the backs of his hands.

His pale jaw tightened from grinding his teeth.

For years, surpassing Xie Zheng had been his obsession.

After all, he had spent his entire life imitating Xie Zheng.

Studying what Xie Zheng studied.

Practicing what Xie Zheng practiced.

During their first clash on the Chongzhou battlefield, he had believed he won.

He had thought Xie Zheng had become his defeated opponent.

Only now did he realize how naïve he had been.

He even had a growing suspicion.

One day, he might die at Xie Zheng’s hands.

The feeling lingered over him like a dark cloud.

Each passing day left him more withdrawn.

For days he had locked himself inside the study.

He needed to think.

As long as he could identify Xie Zheng’s weakness and understand the true purpose behind this siege, he believed he could still find a way out.

Slowly, Sui Yuanqing closed his eyes.

Outside, hesitant footsteps approached.

When he opened his eyes again, the young woman standing at the doorway nearly dropped the tray of pastries she carried.

With trembling hands, she placed the beautifully arranged sweets before him.

“It’s me, Cousin.”

Raised in the inner chambers, the girl possessed a face no larger than a palm.

Her skin was delicate as jade.

Tears shimmered in her apricot-shaped eyes.

Timid and fragile, she resembled a pear blossom battered by rain.

Sui Yuanqing narrowed his eyes.

This beauty was entirely different from the wildcat he had encountered.

The wildcat had claws.

It scratched.

Bit.

Fought.

The girl before him resembled a flower trembling beneath dew-covered petals, waiting for someone to pluck it.

She was so delicate that it seemed others could do anything they wished to her.

Even if she resisted, she would likely do nothing more than cry silently with those watery eyes.

When Sui Yuanqing lifted a hand and grasped her chin, her entire body trembled.

Panicked, she quickly picked up a pastry and offered it to him.

“Mother said…”

“Mother said you’ve been exhausting yourself defending Kang City.”

“She had the kitchen prepare these pastries and asked me to bring them to you.”

Sui Yuanqing made no move to eat.

Looking at her beautiful face, he casually asked,

“Why are you trembling so much, Cousin?”

“What are you afraid of?”

She hurriedly shook her head.

Releasing her chin, Sui Yuanqing examined the pastry in his hand.

Then he smiled.

Instead of eating it, he held it to her lips.

“I don’t like sweets.”

“You eat it.”

The girl’s face instantly turned pale.

“I… I don’t like sweets either.”

Still holding the pastry, Sui Yuanqing lowered his gaze.

The smile remained on his lips, but his expression grew frighteningly dark.

“Why?”

he asked softly.

The girl’s composure finally shattered.

She burst into tears.

“Cousin, you need to run!”

“Father heard that Marquis Wu’an personally challenged you at the gates.”

“He’s afraid the Liu family will be exterminated after the city falls.”

“He ordered the kitchen to poison these pastries.”

“They planned to kill you and present your head at the gates as a surrender offering!”

Sui Yuanqing’s smile widened.

“I see.”

Then he stood.

Taking a sword from the weapon rack, he walked out.

—

With the Yanzhou Army besieging the city, most troops were stationed at the four gates.

Only a few hundred household guards remained in the City Lord’s Manor.

The girl assumed Sui Yuanqing intended to escape.

Shaken and weak-legged, she left the study, wondering how she could report back.

Then she heard screams from the front hall.

Terrified, she ran toward the sound.

Her silk shawl slipped from her arm, but she didn’t even notice.

The moment she entered the hall and saw the bodies strewn across the floor, she nearly fainted.

When she recognized her parents lying in pools of blood, she collapsed.

The grief and terror were so overwhelming she couldn’t even cry.

Tears streamed silently down her face.

Only after a long moment did a scream finally escape her throat.

“Father—!”

“Mother—!”

She looked at Sui Yuanqing standing amid the corpses.

Blood still dripped from his sword.

To her, he appeared no different from a demon.

“Why?”

“Why did you kill my parents?”

“With your skills, you could have escaped!”

“You only needed to leave the manor!”

Sui Yuanqing looked down coldly at the weeping girl.

His cousin was either extraordinarily naïve or simply foolish.

Or perhaps the Liu family understood that powerful families married daughters raised to become proper noble wives.

A beautiful concubine, however, only needed to be gentle, obedient, and simple-minded.

Perhaps that was why they had raised their daughter this way.

In a sense, she had always been a sacrificial piece for the family.

Pathetic, really.

Even now she wept so desperately for parents who had been perfectly willing to offer her away whenever convenient.

Squatting before her, he touched her face with bloodstained fingers.

Then he asked:

“They planned to offer my head in surrender.”

“Why shouldn’t I kill them?”

A bloody fingerprint stained her pale cheek.

She opened her mouth but found no words.

Her eyelashes fluttered as tears continued falling.

She was truly beautiful.

Most men would soften before such a woman.

Yet for some reason, Sui Yuanqing suddenly remembered Fan Changyu.

He remembered the cold, ruthless look in her eyes when she stabbed him.

In the past, he had liked women like Liu Wan’er.

Gentle.

Fragile.

Dependent.

Like vines that could only survive by clinging to a tree.

But after seeing too many of them, he could scarcely remember one from another.

The same personalities.

The same pitiful expressions.

Whether one left or another arrived made little difference.

The powerful competed only for whichever beauty was considered the most beautiful at the moment.

Yet beauty faded quickly.

Three or five years later, a new generation of young beauties would enter their sights.

Who remembered the celebrated beauty from a few years ago?

Courtesans were much the same.

When one grew old, another took her place.

After seeing countless identical beauties, it was the dangerous wildcat who remained unforgettable.

Sui Yuanqing withdrew his hand.

Looking at the girl collapsed on the floor, shaking with sobs, he said:

“You’re a good child.”

“You told me the truth.”

“I won’t kill you.”

Sheathing his sword, he walked toward the doorway.

Then he paused.

Without turning around, he said:

“From this day onward, you are no longer a daughter of the Liu family.”

“Disappear among the common people.”

“Live well.”

Liu Wan’er stared blankly at his departing figure.

Then she looked at her parents’ bodies.

At only seventeen years old, she had never experienced such a calamity.

Now her mind held nothing but fear and confusion.

She almost forgot that this man had just murdered her parents.

Instinctively, she scrambled to her feet and chased after him.

“Cousin…”

—

The midday sun blazed overhead.

Sui Yuanqing had remained shut inside his study for too long.

As he passed beneath an ornamental gate, he stopped and squinted at the blazing sun above.

The bright light briefly robbed the world of color.

Everything seemed to darken.

A smile tugged at his lips.

Lazy.

Resigned.

As though he had finally accepted his fate.

There was another way to live in this world.

To walk toward death and thereby find life.

—

The Yanzhou Army continued shouting challenges beneath the city walls, yet Sui Yuanqing never appeared.

Instead, a banner declaring refusal to engage was raised atop the battlements.

The soldiers below cursed even more fiercely.

The defenders on the walls looked increasingly miserable.

Compared to enduring this endless siege, many now wished the Yanzhou Army would simply capture Kang City outright.

After returning to camp, Gongsun Yin angrily fanned himself.

“Sui Yuanqing, that cowardly turtle!”

“He had the nerve to challenge you at One-Line Gorge!”

“Now he only knows how to hide with his tail tucked between his legs!”

“What a disgrace!”

Xie Zheng replied,

“The fact that he refused the challenge means he understands my purpose.”

“He knows I’m stalling here while waiting for Chongzhou to fall first.”

“But after today, the rebels inside Kang City have lost all morale.”

“If anyone begins harboring other intentions, internal conflict alone will trouble them for some time.”

“They won’t be launching attacks anytime soon.”

Gongsun Yin immediately relaxed.

“Fine, fine.”

“You’re heading to Chongzhou now, aren’t you?”

He clicked his tongue.

“You said three days.”

“It’s only been two and a half. Couldn’t wait any longer?”

Xie Zheng answered calmly,

“I have personal matters to attend to.”

“Sui Yuanqing knows I’m here and won’t act recklessly.”

“After I leave, find someone to impersonate me in the tent.”

Gongsun Yin looked suspicious.

“Going to see her is already personal business.”

“What other personal matter do you have?”

Xie Zheng replied,

“I had a weapon forged for her.”

After Fan Changyu’s battle against Shi Hu, Xie Zheng had heard from Xie Wu how badly she had struggled due to lacking a suitable weapon.

Almost from the moment they descended the mountain, he had ordered blacksmiths to begin forging one.

It was meant to be a surprise.

Instead, she had stubbornly enlisted and come to Chongzhou.

Judging by the timing, the weapon should be finished now.

He intended to retrieve it personally and deliver it to her.

Remembering his own previous embarrassment, Gongsun Yin immediately cut him off.

“All right, all right.”

“Just go already!”

At that moment, a guard entered carrying a rolled letter.

“My Lord, the sea eagle has returned with a message.”

Since the sea eagle had gone with Fan Changyu, any letter it carried was likely news from her.

Xie Zheng accepted the letter.

His eyes scanned it rapidly.

The previously gentle look on his face instantly darkened.

Without a word, he tossed the letter into the brazier used for burning sensitive documents.

“Prepare a horse.”

Gongsun Yin felt curiosity clawing at him like a cat.

“What happened?”

But Xie Zheng ignored him entirely and strode out of the tent.

A partially burned piece of the letter fluttered from the brazier.

Unable to resist, Gongsun Yin picked it up.

Most of the writing had been consumed by the flames.

Only the final line remained legible:

“Li Huai’an harbors improper intentions toward Madam.”

Gongsun Yin burst out laughing.

Unable to suppress his schadenfreude, he said:

“Xie Jiuheng, Xie Jiuheng…”

“Your retribution arrived awfully fast!”

—

Far away in Chongzhou, Fan Changyu had just finished running more than ten miles around the mountains with the troops during training.

The exhausted soldiers collapsed to the ground like overcooked noodles.

When someone spotted a river nearby, the sweat-soaked recruits immediately scrambled back to their feet and cheered about going for a wash.

The weather was growing hotter.

Fan Changyu had sweated plenty herself.

But as a woman, joining the men in the river was inconvenient.

So she simply stood beneath a tree and drank some water.

Previously, she had felt Grand Tutor Tao was drawing too much attention by directly securing her a company leader position.

But after discovering that only company leaders and above received private tents, she suddenly appreciated his foresight.

When she later thanked him, Grand Tutor Tao explained:

“If I made you a section leader, you’d only command nine men.”

“Take away Xie Wu, and you’d only have eight.”

“You could manage that with your eyes closed.”

“Once you know one plus one equals two, repeatedly relearning it is a waste of time.”

“That’s why I started you as a company leader.”

“You must learn to manage more and more people.”

“Today it’s dozens.”

“Later it’ll be hundreds.”

“Thousands.”

“Even tens of thousands.”

“The more people you command, the less possible it becomes to personally oversee each one.”

“You must learn to promote capable people who can serve you.”

That, naturally, involved something even more complicated:

Winning hearts.

Xie Zheng had once told her she wasn’t particularly good at that.

She was too straightforward.

Suddenly needing to navigate all these complexities was difficult.

Fortunately, ordinary soldiers on the battlefield cared most about survival.

Only after surviving did they concern themselves with advancement or wealth.

Compared to court politics, the hearts of soldiers were relatively simple.

Fan Changyu now resembled a child who had only recently learned to walk, stumbling her way down this new path.

Her sparring match with Centurion Guo had unexpectedly established her reputation.

At the very least, within those hundred men, no one dared look down on her anymore.

The squad leaders and section leaders under her command all treated her with respect.

Xie Wu had told her that among those men, some might one day become trusted confidants.

Or perhaps none would.

She needed to judge for herself who could be trusted, how they should be used, and what to do with those who couldn’t.

Now her days were filled with military drills.

Whenever she had free time, she studied military texts under Grand Tutor Tao.

At night, she either pondered passages she didn’t understand or wrestled with questions of leadership.

But perhaps she was simply too tired.

Most nights, she fell asleep within moments.

Even now, during this brief break, Fan Changyu found herself studying several soldiers who had not gone down to the river.

She was once again considering who might become a trusted subordinate.

Without warning, she suddenly sneezed.

Then sneezed again.

Standing beside her, Xie Wu immediately asked,

“Company Leader, have you caught a cold?”

Fan Changyu waved her hand.

“There’s an old saying.”

“One sneeze means someone misses you.”

“Two means someone’s talking about you.”

“Three means someone’s constantly thinking about you.”

“Maybe Ningniang misses me.”

The moment she finished speaking, she sneezed again.

Fan Changyu froze.

Xie Wu, remembering the letter he had asked Xie Qi to send, suddenly felt a pang of guilt.