It had been several days since Shangguan Yuen was rescued, and Qin Yunuan sent Ting Xue to take care of her specially. But she only heard that Shangguan Yuen had been in a coma, and she was awake only half an hour a day. Qin Yunuan had taken care of her before, but it was a pity that Shangguan Yuen had been in sound sleep all the time. She couldn’t even open her eyes, let alone speak. So they didn’t get a chance to talk with each other certainly.
When Qin Yunuan opened the curtain and entered Shangguan Yuen’s tent, Shangguan Yuen just straightened up weakly. She had been on the bed for a long time before, except for drinking some gruel when she was awake.
As soon as Qin Yunuan came in, she signaled Maner and Ting Xue to leave. She took over the warm bowl of gruel, blew on a tablespoon of it, and delivered it to Shangguan Yuen’s mouth. Shangguan Yuen lowered her head and took a sip, whose expression couldn’t be seen.
Qin Yunuan smiled and said, “How is it? Since you pretended to be in a coma these few days, you must be hungry.”
Shangguan Yuen paused, not daring to look at Qin Yunuan.
While Qin Yunuan just blew on another tablespoon of gruel for Shangguan Yuen, “How can I not know your trick? Besides, I’ve been treating you all the time personally, so I am so clear how you are recovering.”
Shangguan Yuen drooped her eyes suddenly and stopped eating the gruel, maybe because her words hit her sore spot. She burst into sobbing, her tears falling on the mattress. Qin Yunuan didn’t have the heart to see her crying like this, so she handed her a hanky and comforted her softly, “It’s okay. I won’t blame you then. It’s not easy for you all the way. I’m your sister, so since I’m here now, you don’t have to worry too much as you are at some other place.”
“Sister?” Shangguan Yuen seemed unfamiliar with this word.
Qin Yunuan was a little embarrassed, wondering if it was too sudden to her, “If you don’t like to call me sister, you can call me Mrs. Leng.”
“No. No.” Shangguan Yuen wiped her tears quickly, “It’s just that I never expect that I will have a sister in my lifetime.”
Seeing that Shangguan Yuen didn’t mean to continue having gruel, Qin Yunuan put the gruel bowl on the small end table aside, “Silly girl. When you were at Shangguan Family before, Shangguan Yee was your sister, wasn’t she?”
“But she never regarded me as her younger sister.” Shangguan Yuen was angry. She travelled such a long way to intercede for Shangguan Family this time, and finally, she gave her most precious and pure body. “I was a daughter of a concubine at home. My mother was not favored. When grandfather came to the Royal City from Yangzhou, we were not qualified to go out to meet him. In the private school, people only regarded my sister Shangguan Yee as the granddaughter of Shangguan Yi, the famous Confucian scholar of Qi. Outside my home, people just called me b*st*rd, just because my mother was my dad’s maid. But maids are also human beings. Must the daughter of a maid be insulted like this?”
“But you’re still here for Shangguan Family.” Qin Yunuan stroked Shangguan Yuen’s head with tenderness. This girl was kind, and she just felt unfair. Once upon a time, Qin Yunuan had the same idea as her. Must people suffer so much just because of their humble birth? Why? Why on earth? But then she realized that people couldn’t choose their birth, and birth could not determine status. Everything came to people through effort.
“You are a kind girl.” Qin Yunuan said, looking at Shangguan Yuen. “Would you like to tell me how the situation is in the Royal City?”
“Royal City?” Shangguan Yuen seemed to be trying very hard to recall everything in the Royal City. “I’m not quite clear. In short, one day a year ago, my father suddenly sent most of the female members of Shangguan Family out of the Royal City, and only some low maids and I were left. We were short of hands at that time, and I was in charge of serving my father. Every time I went into the study and saw him, he was frowning. It seemed that there was a lot of trouble. Once when my father and some other Masters were discussing matters, I happened to go in to serve tea, and I heard something about Prince Ning’s Mansion.”
“What’s that?”
“It seemed that Sima Ray wanted to punish Prince Ning’s Mansion as a warning to others so as to quell the opposition to him in the court. He laid a groundless accusation upon Prince Ning. At that time, some mediocre officials tried to be worldly-wise and make themselves safe, some treacherous officials were at Sima Ray’s side just like my father, and the rest were the spies Sima Ray arranged in the court. Prince Ning was isolated and helpless. In order to preserve his reputation, he broke his arm to prove his innocence, thus protecting the entire Prince Ning’s Mansion. My father and other officials thought that since Prince Ning had broken his arm, it would cause greater trouble if they continued pursuing it. So they had to end that finally.”
“My father broke an arm?” Qin Yunuan was a little stiff. She had always believed in Prince Ning, Leng Zhongxiao’s ability. Prince Ning had experienced so many wars, so he must have some way to protect Prince Ning’s Mansion in such troubled times. But she didn’t expect that he would have used such an extreme method.
“And Prince Fu.” Shangguan Yuen continued, “Although Prince Fu is Sima Ray’s younger brother, and everyone knows that he is a fool who married a fool, Sima Ray still asked Princess Fu into the Palace to serve the emperor on the grounds that the emperor was seriously ill and in need of care just in case. I think that was equivalent to house arrest.”
So Qin Yuzhao was placed under house arrest in the Royal Palace. Sima Ray knew how important Qin Yuzhao was to Sima Han, so he did that to threaten Sima Han.
“Since Sima Ray is leading the army outside, who is in charge in Royal City now?”
“Well, I don’t know about this.” Shangguan Yuen shook her head, “My father was falsely imprisoned at the time, and I was just anxious about how to save him. I knew that His Highness was in Luguan, so I rushed here then. In fact, I didn’t know much about the situation in the Royal City at that time. But who knows that Sima Ray is such a treacherous and cunning person! He’s back on his word! I’m afraid that my father has been dead in prison.”
Although Shangguan Yuen was emotional, she never shed a tear. While her determined eyes suddenly turned murky, “Even though I know that my father has done a lot of bad things, he is a traitor minister, and he treats me and my mother badly, he is my last support in the world. I don’t want my last family to die.”
“Don’t be afraid.” Qin Yunuan gently hugged Shangguan Yuen, “From now on, you have a sister. Have a rest, and I will come to see you later.”
Going out of Shangguan Yuen’s tent, Qin Yunuan felt uneasy all the time. She didn’t know whether Leng Changxi knew about Prince Ning’s breaking his arm, which would be undoubtedly a great blow to Leng Changxi.
The heated discussion in the tent of the deliberation gradually subsided. Everyone seemed to have reached a consensus to temporarily rest and reorganize the army at Luguan and arrange 15000 cavalries to pretend to round up Sima Ray and his soldiers. Once they found that it was just a bluff, they would immediately retreat to avoid casualties, and at the same time, it could attack the opponent’s military spirit.
Leng Changxi’s slender finger circled back and forth on the huge map, and then he circled Sui River with cinnabar which was not far from Luguan. It was said that Luguan was the key to entering Qi. Once they occupied Luguan, they could go straight ahead then. Sui River was the last barrier for them to march into the Royal City. From Luguan to Sui River, there were flat plains and floodplains, so it was no longer easy to hold but difficult to attack. But because of this, 400,000 soldiers of West Xia would have no cover then when entering the plains. Whether it would be a smooth way, or a treacherous way depended on how the generals of both sides planned the layout.
“They have Baili Ai, a master of disguise. Let’s ignore it, because even so, only a small number of people will be disguised.” Leng Changxi said as he crossed out Baili Ai’s name on the list, which displayed the comparison of the strength of the two armies, including the recruitment of troops and talents. “The second point is that they have Qiu Murong and his apprentices and students of the Moon Sect. But after Qiu Murong died, most of his students defected. It can also be ignored.” Leng Changxi then crossed some other names. Finally, the names left on their side were Qin Yunuan who was brilliant in medical skills, smart and sensitive, Tuoba Wuyu who was infinitely powerful, Mu Qingyu who was good at martial arts and Leng Wu and Heiying. While there was only one name left on the opponent’s side, which was enough to make Leng Changxi, who was sure to win, felt cold for a long time.
“General, I haven’t even heard of this person before. I don’t think it is worth mentioning. It is a waste of ink to write this person’s name.” Tuoba Wuyu saw that there was something wrong with him, so he tried to comfort him.
Mu Qingyu glanced at Tuoba Wuyu and said slowly, “Even a knife needs to be sharpened. Although Mr. Yu is famous, he has not been out for a long time. And he had bad morality, so he may not be able to bring the soldiers under control. General Leng, you don’t have to worry so much.”
Leng Changxi’s hand trembled, and the brush with cinnabar on it in his hand accidentally incarnadined the name on the list which made him somewhat restrained.
“Yu Haitang.” Leng Changxi said softly. Qin Yunuan, who came over from outside, just heard his soft voice.
Qin Yunuan suddenly opened the curtain almost subconsciously and said in a daze, “Yu Haitang?”
Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi glanced at each other quickly, which made Tuoba Wuyu anxious who was scared of nothing, “General, Madam, it’s just a tacky-hearing name. I can go directly into the Royal City of Qi with a swift horse to see how competent this person is on earth.”
“Yu Haitang, shouldn’t he be dead?” Qin Yunuan shook her head, “Impossible. Maybe Sima Ray is making a show of power. It was said in history books that Yu Haitang wanted to search for the secret of immortality and finally died on the top of Changbai Mountain. Even his body was brought back. Even if he was alive, he should be over 90 years old. How could it be possible for him to fight?”
“You also said that he tried to look for the secret of immortality. Maybe he found it and got a way to make himself immortal.” Heiying suddenly said coldly from the side, and then added, “There is also the statement of immortality in miraculous traps.”
