Chapter 1107: Things like bullying a woman
Mu Liuyue had dreamed of seeing Long Feiye again, the man of her fantasies since youth. She looked at him up high and momentarily forgot about her own circumstances. She dearly hoped time could stop at this moment and leave just the two of them here.
This wasn’t just a wild wish, but the most preposterous idea!
Gu Qishao quickly walked over and said, “I looked all over and didn’t find that old thing Mu Yuanbo, but with her here, he’ll definitely come out!” There wasn’t a single trace of a smile on his face. Besides severity, there was only sternness. His long, bewitching eyes were sinister as if the entire world owed him a debt.
Long Feiye didn’t spare Mu Liuyue a glance as he said, “Hang her over the palace gates and whip her!”
His words shattered the vestiges of Mu Liuyue’s beautiful dream.
“Your Highness!” she cried, but there was no time to beg him for mercy before he left.
It wasn’t that Long Feiye didn’t cherish the fairer sex, but that Mu Liuyue was worth less than a stinking stone in his eyes. His jade of fragrant pastures was only Han Yunxi herself. As for Gu Qishao, he didn’t even know the concept of treating girls gently. Hauling Mu Liuyue up by the collar, he started to drag her away.
By the time Long Feiye returned to the entrance, it was all empty except for Gu Beiyue himself.
“Where is everyone?” Long Feiye asked.
The Li Clan elders and remaining adherents didn’t just provoke him, but the world’s people. How could they be easily forgiven?
“They’re all under custody on the side. Your Highness, we need to borrow these Li Clan members to give an explanation to the world,” Gu Beiyue said.
Actually, from what he understood of Bai Yanqing, the only reason the man had dared to free them from the matrix formation was because he didn’t fear them at all and had escaped far away. He had to do all he could while His Highness still held onto hope and his last shred of sanity.
How could Gu Beiyue not be panicking? Angry? Or lost?
But there had to be someone to force others to calm down. After all, if they lost their heads here and Long Feiye started on a killing spree, Bai Yanqing’s heart’s desire would come true. Long Feiye had taken less than an hour to kill all of the guards at the west gates. The other gate guards and the ones stationed at the palace had long fled for their lives without surrendering. Those guards weren’t Li Clan members, just recrited soldiers. Many of them had been enlisted by Long Tianmo’s hands. Why did they chose to run instead of surrendering?
Probably because Long Feiye’s massacre had scared them into thinking they might be victims too! That was a bad sign. If someone used Long Feiye’s massacre against them and spread news of it far and wide, then the people’s hearts they won along the way would be lost. Only by gaining people’s hearts could one quell the chaos in different regions quickly. Only that would minimize the lost of lives and damage. No matter how angry or out of control Long Feiye became he couldn’t turn into a second Mu Yuanbo! He couldn’t wantonly slaughter innocents and butcher human lives!
The Li Clan deserved death, but they couldn’t be all killed here! They had to hand the Li Clan over to the citizens of the city and have them return injury for insult! Once that was done, the citizens would naturally follow Long Feiye, making it an excellent chance for Tianan’s other regions, nobles and civilians alike, to surrender.
The highest level of military tactics involved conquering people and armies without a single battle!
Seeing Long Feiye’s stormy face, Gu Beiyue was ready for a thrashing, but the man didn’t question why he didn’t kill the elders.
“Very good,” Long Feiye said coldly.
Very good? What did that mean?
Gu Beiyue didn’t understand and was about to ask when a person suddenly careened over the palace gates above. Looking up, he saw Mu Liuyue tied up in vines, dangling in mid-air. Gu Qishao flew down from the building with a long whip in his hand. Smiling coldly, he said, “Where do I whip first? The face?”
Mu Liuyue shrieked at his words. “Ahh..ahhhh…ahhhHHHH!” Her voice was as strident as a sharpened weapon flying through the air.
She’s already so scared before she’s getting whipped? For a daughter of a general, she’s losing face utterly for the Li Clan’s Mu family!
“Father…father, save me! Save me! Father…”
“Father, where are you? Hurry and help me! Father! You can’t just abandon daughter, ah!”
And now Mu Liuyue was calling for her father before Long Feiye’s group even started making threats.
“Your Highness, please spare me! What my father did has nothing to do with me. I didn’t know a thing! I can’t stand judge for his actions.”
“Your Highness, Liuyue has admired you since young–”
“Gu Qishao, what are you waiting for?” Long Feiye interrupted, finally losing his patience.
Whsssh!
Gu Qishao’s whip flew into the air and lashed against Mu Liuyue’s cheek, splitting the skin open vertically.
“Ahhh!” Mu Liuyue sobbed. It was unclear whether she was crying from fear or pain.
Gu Qishao showed no mercy. He let her keep crying as he whipped her face again, leaving a horizontal slash over the first. Now she had a bloody “十” mark on her face that divided her face into four parts. It was less like a face and more like a mass of flesh and blood.
“Ahhh..ahhhhh.AHHHHHHH!” Mu Liuyue was shrieking with a gutteral screams, her cries disturbing the dsolate, lonely palace.
“What a racket!” Gu Qishao huffed, but before he could lash her a third time, she started to curse him.
“Gu Qishao, are you still a man? You’re beating a woman!”
“Are you a woman?” Gu Qishao shot back.
“You–you’re all bullies! If you have any guts, go find my father! What does it count for to torment a girl….sobsob…” Mu Liuyue bawled.
At this, Long Feiye finally looked up to meet Mu Liuyue’s eyes. He carefully looked at her face, causing her to abruptly quiet down. For years, she’d hope to earn a single glimpse for him, but now that he was looking, her face was already ruined. She anxiously turned away, afraid to meet his gaze. She already thought she was laughably pathetic. What could be worse than her despair right now?
“Gu Qishao, it’s true that you can’t bully girls,” Long Feiye said coldly.
Hearing this, Mu Liuyue’s head whipped back, a faint hint of hope rising in her chest. My words must have changed His Highness’s mind, right?
She just knew, His Highness still had a teeny bit of pity for her.
“Set her down,” Long Feiye said next.
Now Mu Liuyue saw not only hope, but a whole new spring! She was so happy she forgot about the pain from her face and prepared to speak to Long Feiye. But then Gu Qishao sliced through the vines.
In a flash, Mu Liuyue tumbled down from above while Long Feiye only stood and watched. Yes, this was what he meant! When Mu Liuyue saw his unmoving, cold self, she finally realized that he felt no pity at all. He truly wanted her dead!
Seconds before she hit the ground, a figure flashed out of the palace gates and caught her just in time. Who could this be, if not Mu Yuanbo? He’d just caught Mu Liuyue when Long Feiye flashed over as well. Mu Liuyue looked at him blankly, but he simply treated her as air. He grabbed Mu Yuanbo by the collar and shoved him backwards against the wall.
“Where’s Bai Yanqing?!” he demanded.
Gu Beiyue and Gu Qishao caught up as well to flank Mu Yuanbo on both sides. Meanwhile, Mu Liuyue knew she was out of chances despite wanting to fool herself. She knelt on the ground and stared at Long Feiye’s back, realizing in a pitiful moment that he neither pitied her nor wanted her dead, but simply disregardedd her from beginning to end. She was simply a chess piece he used to deal with her father.
“I’ll definitely tell you if you let Liuyue go!” Mu Yuanbo still treated his daughter as his treasure. He had been hiding in the shadows all this time, waiting for a chance. He thought he could hold out as long as he didn’t show himself. Then Long Feiye would agree to Head Elder’s terms and spare him and the Li Clan. In truth, Bai Yanqing had just left, so Long Feiye’s time was pressing. As long as Mu Yuanbo could sacrifice Mu Liuyue, Long Feiye would be forced to compromise. Sacrificing Liuyue could even save himself and the Li Clan.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t do it! The same way he couldn’t sacrifice Qingwu just to preserve the Li Clan’s Mu Family’s reputation. Between being a father and being a clan head, he chose the former.
“You don’t have the right to negotiate with this crown prince!” Long Feiye said. At this, Gu Qishao withdrew to Mu Liuyue’s side. Before he even moved, Mu Yuanbo knew what he was planning.
“Long Feiye!” Mu Yuanbo roared. “Are you still not satisfied after injuring a girl like this? If you’re a man, just target this old man!”
Long Feiye was extremely calm. “Mu Yuanbo, just how many women are in Tianan’s imperial city?”
Mu Yuanbo gave a start and didn’t speak.
“And how many elderly and children?” Long Feiye asked.
Mu Yuanbo hastened to explain. “Those people were all killed by Bai Yanqing! I was forced. I knew you and Han Yunxi would definitely come! As long as you did, Bai Yanqing would stop! Long Feiye, this old man wants to see a slaughter even less than you!”
Suddenly enraged, Long Feiye slapped him and snarled, “So you wanted Han Yunxi, a single woman, to shoulder this sacrifice for everything? That’s why your Li Clan’s Mu family could hurt Han Yunxi, is that right?”
Mu Yuanbo had never been slapped in his life and flared right back, “Long Feiye, I’m only a father! If you don’t spare Liuyue and Qingwu, I won’t tell you where Bai Yanqing is even if I die!”
But Long Feiye only slapped him again until Mu Yuanbo toppled back onto the ground.
“I’m only a husband,” he shot back. “Gu Qishao, go toss Mu Liuyue into the brothels!”
