Chapter 141 Part 3

 

When Shi Duo and his men arrived, they only saw two shadows fighting closely. He wanted to shoot arrows, but he was afraid of hurting his master by mistake, and was extremely anxious. Suddenly he thought of Cui Daosi and hurriedly ordered someone to pass the message.

With a clang, when the two swords met again, Pei Xiaoyuan pushed his sword to Chengping’s sword with one hand, restraining him from swinging it. With a swift twist, the pressure snapped Chengping’s blade in two. When Pei Xiaoyuan’s attack slowed down, Chengping immediately threw away the broken sword and pulled out a dagger from his raised boot with his other hand.

A flash of cold light appeared, and with a hiss, he gritted his teeth, his eyes reddened, and he lunged forward, stabbing at Pei Xiaoyuan. Pei Xiaoyuan tried to dodge, but the dagger came too fast, almost pressed to the body as it moved. It tore a long gash across his side and arm, and in an instant, blood surged out like a spring.

Pei Xiaoyuan grunted low in pain, but didn’t falter. With a sharp twist, he grabbed Chengping’s dagger-wielding elbow and suddenly exerted force.

With a sickening crack, Chengping’s arm was brutally twisted, the bone breaking clean under the force. A muffled, strangled sound escaped him through gritted teeth as pain overwhelmed him, and the dagger clattered to the ground. Then, Pei Xiaoyuan knocked him down with an elbow, pressed his chest with a knee, and quickly turned the handle of the knife around, using the iron handle to hit his other arm heavily. The blow left both arms limp and useless. In one fluid motion, Pei Xiaoyuan twisted them back and pinned Chengping beneath him.

Chengping’s face was ghostly pale from the agony, his body trembling faintly.

Pei Xiaoyuan, too, was breathing heavily, chest heaving from the deadly struggle just now, and blood from his wounds was pouring out in steady streams.

“If you take one more step forward, I’ll kill him immediately!”

He said without turning his head, his voice was a little unstable, but the murderous aura was so strong that it made people shudder.

“If I die, it’s because I was not his match. None of you are to stop him from leaving.” Chengping spoke slowly, each word clear despite the tremble in his voice.

Shi Duo stared at his master lying on the ground, his face ashen. In a panic, he waved off the guards, then rushed forward, dropping to his knees behind Pei Xiaoyuan and kowtowing repeatedly, begging for mercy.

“When I was trapped in Dache City, you fought until here but then stopped. Why?” Pei Xiaoyuan asked after he caught his breath.

Chengping let out a light laugh.

“Pei Er…” He paused and said in a calm voice, “You don’t think I stopped because of your predicament, do you? My cavalry has traveled a long way. Although they are the toughest warriors, they are not made of steel after all. They also need to rest. This is a perfect place to rest, that’s all.”

Pei Xiaoyuan was silent for a moment. “Chengping, though I misjudged you in the beginning, at your core, you’ve always been a proud man. Whether it was ambition that drove you, a desire to defeat me, or vengeance against the court—you saw me as your most direct opponent. You wanted a fair fight, face to face. Not to strike when I was already down, not to kick me into the pit when I was trapped. Because such a victory is not what you want. You don’t have to deny this. After many years of friendship, I still know your heart.

“Whether you admit it or not, I am very grateful that you did not continue to put pressure on me during that period.”

Chengping lay in the bloodstained snow, turning his head toward the faint outlines of tents scattered across the barren plains beyond the city walls. After a pause, he slowly turned back, his voice stiff and cold: “It’s just a payback for the day you didn’t shoot me dead. We’re long since even. If you want to kill me, then do it, no need to say more.” He closed his eyes.

Pei Xiaoyuan looked at him for a moment, and suddenly said: “There are many injustices in the world, and my hatred is no less than yours. You always advised me to start a rebellion in the past. But you know me. Even if I really started a rebellion, you will not be able to get an inch of land that does not belong to you. So, are you acting like this now for revenge?

“Hatred is a double-edged sword. On the night I was trapped for two months and decided to follow my father’s example, I suddenly realized many things that I couldn’t understand before…”

He slowly let go of Chengping and sat down on the snow beside him.

“I don’t know if my father knew about the conspiracy and the real instigator before he left the pass, but at that moment, I believe that even if he knew, he would not look back. He knew what he should do and why he should do it.

“Because of the hatred in my heart, I hurt the person who should not be hurt. If my parents could see from the afterlife, I doubt they would wish for such things either. Chengping,” he turned to his old friend on the ground again.

“I have no brothers. And though we were always different in temperament, I admired you—for being a man of backbone. That’s why, in my heart, I’ve always treated you like a younger brother. Hatred can live on forever, but tell me—did those unarmed, ordinary people ever wrong you? Using vengeance as an excuse to unleash what’s darkest inside you… that’s not the man you should be.

“I’ll give you one last chance. Will you withdraw your troops or not?”

Chengping slowly opened his eyes, tilted his face and looked at him.

“The woman I like—I could never have her. The woman who liked me—I let her down, and there’s no way to make it right now. The only friend I ever had has become my enemy. The only pleasure I have left in life is to fight and conquer the enemy, and now you don’t even allow me to do that…”

He struggled to lift his arm, the one with the broken bone, and pointed to his throat, “Go for it—right here. Just make it quick.”

Pei Xiaoyuan looked at him for a moment. In his bloodshot eyes, a flash of ruthless resolve passed. He picked up the dagger from the snow, raised his arm, and slashed it toward Chengping’s throat.

“Master Pei, please spare his life!” Shi Duo rushed forward desperately and kowtowed like pounding garlic.

“Master!”

At this moment, He Jin, who was ordered by him to look for Cui Daosi tonight, rushed over on horseback from a distance and shouted loudly.

“Master, this is bad! How could County Princess Lu be here. She’s going to set fire to the granary!”

As soon as He Jin finished speaking, almost at the same moment, from another direction, the people who were previously sent to look for Cui Daosi also came galloping on horseback.

“Great Khan! It’s bad! Right Prime Minister Cui has escaped! A woman who appeared out of nowhere climbed up the watchtower and is going to burn the granary!”

Pei Xiaoyuan was stunned and sprang up from the snow. Chengping also suddenly opened his eyes, dazed for a moment, then scrambled to his feet. With Shi Duo’s help, he mounted a horse and galloped toward the garrisoned town.

When the group arrived in front of the town granary, the air was thick with an acrid stench, and the ground was slick and wet with kerosene. Atop the watchtower near the granary stood a disheveled girl dressed as a boy, her hair loose and wild. In her hand she held a blazing torch. The flames lit up her pale yet strikingly beautiful face—it was none other than Princess Danyang, Lu Wenjun.

No enemy forces had breached the city, and with the defenders relaxed across various posts, the officials in charge of the granary had gone off to drink and sleep. The two remaining soldiers had been drugged by Lu Wenjun—she had slipped her own knockout powder into their wine. After knocking them out and stealing the keys, she opened the granary doors, drenched the area inside and outside with kerosene, and then climbed the nearby watchtower.

“County Princess!” Pei Xiaoyuan shouted at her from a distance.

“Come down! It’s dangerous!”

“Brother-in-law, please apologize to my sister princess on my behalf next time you see her. I must have made her worry again! And my mother, I left a letter for her. Please also tell her not to be sad. I am very happy today, truly!” She responded with a smile.

“Wenjun!” Chengping rushed over on horseback and called her.

“What do you want to do? Come down quickly!”

Lu Wenjun saw him from afar and her smile became even sweeter.

“You’re here? That night at Qingyue Tower—do you remember how you treated me? And the time you begged me, you said you’d had enough of your wild days, and wanted someone to restrain you for the rest of your life. I believed you. That was my mistake. The reason I didn’t kill you last time… was because I hadn’t yet seen you become a traitor. I still hadn’t given up on you. But this time, you really did betray the words you once said to me. I can’t stop you. I don’t have the chance or the power to kill you anymore. But I just can’t swallow this anger—”

By now, soldiers alerted by the disturbance had rushed over and were drawing their bows, preparing to shoot her down from the tower.

“Stop! Stop!”

Chengping’s eyes were bloodshot as he shouted hoarsely, “Whoever hurts her—I’ll kill him first!”

Shi Duo rushed forward and whipped the man who was about to shoot the arrow away.

“Wenjun, come down! Be obedient–”

“Ashina, don’t you want to lend them food and grass so that they can come and fight us?”

Lu Wenjun turned a deaf ear.

“Watch carefully!”

As soon as she finished speaking, she threw the torch in her hand towards the door of the granary without any hesitation. Then, she leaped off the watchtower, and her figure fell straight down from the sky like a bird with broken wings.

At this time, both Chengping and Pei Xiaoyuan were still several distance away from the watchtower.

Pei Xiaoyuan could only watch helplessly as she fell—utterly powerless to stop it.

As for Chengping, it was as if he was struck by thunder. In a voice torn from his chest, he screamed, “Wenjun!” Without a thought for his own injuries, he surged to his feet atop the horse and leapt forward with all his might. But it was futile—he crashed hard to the ground, falling short.

Just as her body was about to hit the ground, a figure suddenly rushed out from the shadows beneath the watchtower. Without hesitation, the person threw themselves forward, arms outstretched, to catch Lu Wenjun.

Even though Lu Wenjun was petite, the impact of jumping from a height of a hundred feet could be imagined.

With a bang, she still fell to the ground, and the man was pinned under her, letting out an earth-shattering scream: “My legs!”

Almost at the same time, another figure on horseback galloped out from under the watchtower and chased after the torch that Lu Wenjun had just thrown out. However, the torch fell too fast, and even though he tried his best to catch up, his outstretched hand was still half an arm’s length away.

Seeing that the torch was about to fall to the ground and the fire spread out, which would burn several years of storage in the granary, the man suddenly swung the whip in his hand, and with a snap, it wrapped around the torch. Then he lifted the torch high and held it steadily in his hand.

The man who put out the fire was Yuwen Zhi. He caught the torch, turned his horse’s head, nodded to Pei Xiaoyuan, and then quickly left the granary with the torch, leaving it far behind.

The person who was pressed down was Cui Daosi.

All this happened in just a few moments.

Pei Xiaoyuan rushed to the watchtower and saw his uncle’s legs pinned under Lu Wenjun’s body. The older man’s face was ashen, twisted in pain so intense he couldn’t even cry out. He clutched Pei Xiaoyuan’s arm, his voice faint and breathless: “Hurry and check on County Princess!”

Lu Wenjun lay motionless, face down, her eyes tightly shut. Pei Xiaoyuan leaned in to check her breathing—thankfully, there was still the faintest hint of warmth. She had merely fallen unconscious.

He immediately shouted for someone to bring over a wood panel. Lifting her with utmost care, he placed her gently upon it, then ordered that she and his uncle both be carried away for medical treatment.

“Wenjun!” Chengping was almost unable to stand at this time, but he still gritted his teeth and was about to chase with a trembling voice. Suddenly, a scabbard came out and blocked in front of him.

“She no longer wishes to see a barbarian like you! Don’t come bothering her again!”

Yuwen Zhi raised an eyebrow and tossed out the words casually, then called to his attendants and rode off after Pei Xiaoyuan’s party.

“Another thing!” Yuwen Zhi rode a few steps and suddenly turned back.

“Ashina, listen well—this I say on behalf of the Princess. Even if Pei Erlang falls in battle, even if I fall, even if the court suffers defeat, it would only be temporary. The Princess will never give up, and she will never allow you to trample her people beneath your feet!!”

After he said that, he left Chengping behind and rode away on his horse.

More than a month later, on an early spring afternoon in Chang’an, although the wind was still a little chilly, in the air of the Imperial Garden, one could faintly smell the scent of the tender buds and leaves of the willow trees.

Xuyu was clutching a battle report she had just received in her hand, running as fast as she could, almost rushing into the main hall of Ziyun Palace.

The window was half open, and the bright afternoon spring sun was shining in from behind the window, illuminating a brocade couch set beside the window.

She saw the emperor leaning back on the couch, holding her little darling and gently shaking a rattle.

Her little darling was already four to five months old, and from some unknown day, he suddenly became interested in grabbing the emperor’s beard. At this moment, he giggled, stretched out his little fleshy hand, and grabbed the emperor’s beard tightly, with considerable force.

“Ouch! This is not good!”

Over the past year, the emperor’s hair and beard had become thinner and thinner, and every time the old palace eunuch combed his hair, he had to be very careful. Seeing this, he smiled and went up to the child, gently coaxing him to let go.

“Leave it, let him grab it if he likes, don’t scare my little grandson!” The emperor stopped him immediately.

Her little darling was probably the only person in the world who could do this to her grumpy father.

Xuyu stared at the scene and couldn’t help but stop beside the lattice door, holding her breath for fear of disturbing them.

The emperor teased the little baby for a while, then suddenly, slowly asked, “Is there any new news?”

“Yes. In the decisive battle of Guangming City, our army won a great victory.

“In addition, Ashina retreated before the war,” she added.

The emperor gently placed the child on the couch, letting him grab his finger, waving his tiny hands and kicking his little feet. His expression, however, did not show much joy.

“That brat from the Pei family—what about him? Always fighting and killing. Aside from losing a finger, he hasn’t lost anything else, has he?” the emperor asked again, eyes closed for a moment.

“He shouldn’t have.” Xuyu replied.

“Have you told him that you gave birth to a little son?” the emperor asked again, caressing the baby’s chubby face lovingly.

“No,” she replied.

The emperor’s hand paused slightly.

“I only discussed court affairs with him, and had no private correspondence.”

She looked toward the clear sky outside the window and spoke in a calm voice.

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