A Lonesome Fragrance Waiting to be Appreciated 2

36

A passing hint of worry crossed Chu Beijie's eyes as he lowered his voice, "Are you not one of He Xia's men?"

"Of course not."

"Speak clearly!"

The enemy general decided to remain silent for a while. He thought a little, gritted his teeth as he submissively said, "I am in charge of defected troops and cannot complete my task anyway. I will be executed even if I return to my home country. Since it's like that, I might as well propose a deal with the Duke of Zhen-Bei. I'll tell Duke everything and can only beg you to spare my few remaining men alive."

Not good...

Chu Beijie already knew that he was on the wrong track to finding the enemy. His heart was a mess, but his expression was even calmer. His voice was cold, "Speak."

When the enemy general heard this, he immediately understand that his deal had been approved. He knew that he could take the Duke of Zhen-Bei's word for it and he immediately replied, "I am the general of Gui Le's Xiaoben Riding School, Zhao Wen. The King received a report saying that He Xia would be entering the Hengduan Ranges to abduct Bai Pingting. It was a rare chance, so the King ordered me to immediately hide and wait for them here so that we can ambush He Xia and bring Bai Pingting back."

"The King of Gui Le, He Su?" Chu Beijie frowned, "How did he know that He Xia would be in the Hengduan Ranges?"

As expected, Zhao Wen had more to say. "According to the report, Yun Chang's borders are closest to the Hengduan Ranges. They stationed a significant number of troops there, so how could one not possibly deduct that they are planning to return through the Hengduan Ranges?"

Chen Mu interrupted them, asking, "How many men do you have?"

"Nine hundred."

Chen Mu's expression was suspicious as he sneered, "With just nine hundred men, you dare to enter Dong Lin territory to pursue He Xia?"

"However, wouldn't Dong Lin's troops at the border detect us if we had too many men? My unit is Gui Le's best at sneaking in, so we were able to slip into Dong Lin without detection. How on earth did we not meet with He Xia but the Duke of Zhen-Bei's three thousand or so troops instead?"

Chen Mu could see that his words were honest and didn't seem to be lying. He asked a question in return, "Do you know how many men He Xia has?"

"Don't tell me it's more than one thousand?"

"A whole eight thousand."

Zhao Wen refused to believe him and shook his head. "Impossible, He Xia entered further into Dong Lin's territory than us. If he really has a troop of eight thousand men, then the Dong Lin army would definitely have been aware of him."

Chen Mu didn't have a moment of rest or time to think since seeing Chu Beijie on his way to the capital. Hearing Zhaowen's mentioning, he thought of his sudden transfer from the Dragon Tiger Barracks and felt his heart sink. He stole a look at Chu Beijie.

Chu Beijie's face was gloomy, his eyes both pained and sad.

The only remaining explanation was that the King of Dong Lin had plotted everything.

He had opened the entrance, letting the enemy abduct Bai Pingting – the woman Chu Beijie loved.

Chu Beijie refused to brood too much on this right now, as time was of the essence. He immediately asked the most important question, "As you have been waiting her for a long time, it seems that He Xia has still not gone this way, but we came from the direction where He Xia went. Where could He Xia and his men possible have gone, as this is the only path?"

Zhao Wen shook his head, "This is the only entry to the Hengduan Ranges and I can guarantee that He Xia did not come this way."

Chen Mu sighed, "The only explanation left is that He Xia changed his route."

Zhao Wen was upset by this. "If my King's report is without error, then the welcoming troops should only be placed at the end of the Hengduan mountains. If He Xia has changed his route, then he had either detected danger here or already knew that we were planning to ambush him."

"Having such knowledge is unusual. Like Gui Le, can't Yun Chang have spies?"

Chu Beijie's heart was as heavy as lead and considered why He Xia was so clever to change the route in advance. He unsheathed his sword silently, commanding, "Bury the dead and pack up, before resting three miles away from here. Let everyone have a good meal, and sleep well before setting out at noon."

Chen Mu was surprised, "We're not chasing any more?"

"And could we catch up?" Chu Beijie whispered a question instead, his heart sore. He secretly clenched harder on the reins, sending bursts of pain from his blisters. His voice was defeated, "We're already on the wrong track so even if we head back, it's already too late."

Even if his horse could run a thousand miles an hour, by the time he caught up, He Xia would already be in Yun Chang territory.

When that time came, He Xia's men would no longer be as simple as eight thousand.

Even if they were not yet in Yun Chang, it was three thousand against eight thousand. Unless one killed nine each, the chance of survival was very low.

Especially when they are in Yun Chang, the difference in their men was much greater three thousand versus several tens of thousands. What were the chances of breaking into the innermost core where He Xia and the upper ranks were? Even if his soldiers had two lifetimes and took down as many as they could, there was no chance of seeing that beautiful face before falling to his death.

Yet if he did not put up a fight, that qin sound would be forever lonely as she stayed imprisoned in another's place.

He wasn't satisfied.

How could he be?

"Duke...what does Duke plan to do then?" Chen Mu freed Zhao Wen and his remaining soldiers as promised. He turned back, looking at the suppressed heartache and resentment on Chu Beijie's face.

"I'm going to go to the border to build an army." The wind of dawn had arrived and Chu Beijie's gaze was directed at the faraway Yun Chang, the corners of his mouth lifting without the coldness of regret. "I am going to use every drop of Dong Lin's military power to fragment Yun Chang's territory until He Xia brings back Pingting with his own two hands."

The woman whose fate was tied to his, the woman who used her qin to block his sword.

Pingting, with just a smile, you make my heart ache with your beauty.

I beg you to return my gaze, and just smile once.

Just one smile.

I will exchange the greatest bloodshed in history and the future, with the whole nation's power, for your smile.

The winter was almost over, but the coldness did not leave.

There had been drastic changes to the four countries' situation. After receiving the outskirts captured by the Dong Lin army, the King of Bei Mo immediately withdrawn his alliance with Yun Chang.

He Xia's purpose had already been achieved. He safely withdrew his troop of over three hundred thousand soldiers without any further battles.

The peasants still thought that the Gods were still compassionate and did not know about the thrilling activities at the border that caused so many people to be heartbroken.

People had settled in. Although the situation had been rather unexpected, they calmed down nonetheless.

The Royal Residence of Dong Lin received the news of the enemy retreating and the restless crowd who were unable to eat or sleep were relieved at last. However, before a grand feast could begin, more unexpected news came in like a thunderbolt from the skies.

The Duke of Zhen-Bei, Chu Beijie, had already used his command flag and was currently commanding all of Dong Lin's troops to pressure Yun Chang's borders!

The laughter in the huge residence faded to silence as the officials looked at each other in bewilderment, not knowing what to say or think.