After crossing the Yellow River, there were still more than ten li before they reached Zhuo Commandery.
At the banks of the Yellow River, Shu Changyu reorganized the troops. Then, following the shortest route to Zhuo Commandery, he arranged their formation and ordered the army to advance at full speed.
The deputy general was still somewhat hesitant at his arrangement. “Lord Shu, what if the general doesn’t take this road?”
Shu Changyu did not even raise his eyes. “He will definitely take this road.”
For someone who could be tricked into coming all the way to Zhuo Commandery in a fit of hot-headedness, he clearly did not know what he was rushing about. If he was in a hurry, he would certainly do something like this—charge straight ahead and make a beeline for Zhuo Commandery.
Shu Changyu did not even need to think about it.
Seeing how confident he was, the deputy general put his mind at ease and rode his horse behind him.
Thus, they silently marched through the night until dawn was about to break.
“There are only two li left before we reach Zhuo Commandery. Why is there still not the slightest movement?” The deputy general’s heart began to pound.
Since the enemy had been able to lure General Jing into this place like catching a turtle in a jar, could it be that… they had also lured Shu Changyu to Zhuo Commandery, intending to kill both generals in one stroke?
Shu Changyu said nothing when he heard this.
Just then, he suddenly pulled on the reins and stopped his horse. The soldiers around him hurriedly stopped as well. The deputy general quickly raised a flag, signaling the men behind them to halt.
Then, taking advantage of the faint light that had just begun to spread across the sky, the deputy general saw why Shu Changyu had stopped.
Weapons—knives, spears, swords, and halberds—were scattered all over the ground. There were even a few corpses that had not yet been carried away. If one looked closely at the muddy earth, one could see traces of blood staining it.
A fierce battle had taken place here.
The deputy general stared blankly at the devastation on the ground, then looked up at Shu Changyu on the horse beside him.
The light was not very bright. In the dimness, it seemed as though… Shu Changyu’s eyes had turned red.
The next moment, Shu Changyu lashed his horse and galloped toward Zhuo Commandery.
“Wait… wait! Lord Shu!”
The deputy general hurriedly urged his horse after him, followed by the long line of soldiers.
It was one thing for the commander himself to charge into danger, but the problem was that General Jing’s life or death was clearly still unknown. Lord Shu had two or three tens of thousands fewer troops than General Jing. How could he rush off to attack the city so recklessly…
Just then, the gates of Zhuo Commandery appeared before them.
The gates of Zhuo Commandery were actually wide open, and the flag of Great Qi had already been raised above them. Xuanjia soldiers were resting by the entrance, while other soldiers were leading a long string of prisoners into the city.
The deputy general: “…?”
So… they had already conquered Zhuo Commandery?
While everyone was still staring blankly, Jing Mu had already ridden out of the city with a squad of men. A rope was tied to his horse, and someone bound to the other end was being dragged along behind it.
It was none other than Zhuo Renyue.
The two sides stopped across the long stretch of empty ground before the gates of Zhuo Commandery.
Shu Changyu stood there. Looking at his back, the deputy general could not tell what expression he was wearing.
Just then, he heard Shu Changyu calmly say, “Withdraw the troops. Return to Huzhou.”
The deputy general immediately acknowledged the order and directed the army to turn around. But when he looked back, he saw that Lord Shu had not withdrawn with them. Instead, he urged his horse forward toward Jing Mu.
No one on Jing Mu’s side moved.
After a night of fierce fighting, Shen Ziyu, who had followed Jing Mu in conquering the enemy army and capturing Zhuo Renyue, was standing behind Jing Mu. Seeing Shu Changyu riding over alone, he froze for a moment before saying to Jing Mu, “General, Lord Shu brought people to rescue us!”
Jing Mu barked, “Shut up!”
Then Shen Ziyu heard him mutter a curse under his breath.
“He hasn’t even recovered from his injuries, yet he’s running around everywhere!”
The next moment, General Jing rode out like an arrow released from a bow.
The two of them stopped face-to-face midway.
Jing Mu’s expression was cold as he stood before Shu Changyu. “Who told you the news?”
Then he gave a cold snort and continued, “Lord Shu certainly got the news quickly. However, those soldiers in Zhuo Commandery were never going to be massacred. The scout had been turned and sent back false information. Now Lord Shu can rest assured, and you don’t need to…”
The next moment, Shu Changyu took something from his sleeve and threw it directly at Jing Mu.
Jing Mu instinctively caught it, and the words in his mouth stopped.
The thing in his hand was warm and hard.
It was actually the hand warmer that Shu Changyu had returned to him two years ago.
“I used to think you were merely a fool. Now it seems you haven’t improved in the slightest.” Shu Changyu sat on his horse with a cold expression as he looked at him. “Three years ago, I left because I had no choice. The matter of you framing the former governor of Huzhou had been discovered by the Third Prince. I could only listen to my mother’s instructions and use the Shu family to eliminate Fan Yu’an and his son first. I was afraid you would obstruct me at the time and do something self-destructive, so I never told you. Who would have thought you, you fool, would obsess over it for three whole years and still treat me as though I were the person I was in my previous life?”
Jing Mu stared blankly at him.
“And now, after someone stirred you up, you took hearsay as truth, brought this few men, and ran straight into someone else’s territory. If I had never told you, would you have hated me until the day you died… What are you doing!”
The worry that had weighed on Shu Changyu’s heart all night finally eased.
When he had seen the devastation covering the ground earlier, he had thought Jing Mu was most likely in grave danger. He did not want to imagine the consequences and only wanted to personally go to Zhuo Commandery to see what had happened. Now, seeing Jing Mu completely unharmed, his heart had experienced the greatest sorrow followed by the greatest joy.
But halfway through his lecture, he saw Jing Mu leap down from his horse and stride toward him.
“Get down.” Jing Mu looked up at him.
Shu Changyu frowned in confusion. “Why?”
“Get down first.” Jing Mu looked up at him.
Shu Changyu frowned, but he did not argue with him. He turned over and dismounted.
Unexpectedly, before his feet even touched the ground, his entire body fell into a warm, solid embrace.
Standing beside the horse, Jing Mu held him tightly and pulled him into his arms.
“Shu Changyu, how could you… How could you only tell me the truth now!”
He hugged Shu Changyu tightly, his entire body trembling. He lowered his head, pressing his face against Shu Changyu’s ear.
“You scared me to death. You fucking scared me to death!”
He gritted his teeth.
“You let me suffer like this for three years. I wanted to believe you, but I was afraid you really thought I was useless! It was easy for you to leave without a word. You weren’t even willing to tell me one more thing! Shu Changyu, you…”
The next moment, he suddenly raised his head and stared at Shu Changyu.
“What you just said… wasn’t a lie, was it?”
Shu Changyu said, “Yes. I was lying to you.”
The next moment, he saw Jing Mu’s eyes turn red as he grinned, revealing a row of bright white teeth, and smiled at him.
That foolish expression immediately overlapped with the Jing Mu from three years ago.
“You’re talking nonsense. I don’t believe you.”
The next moment, he lowered his head and moved to kiss Shu Changyu.
Shu Changyu still retained a little sense of reason. He raised a hand and covered Jing Mu’s mouth. Frowning, he scolded, “In front of the entire army, what are you doing!”
——
Aside from the soldiers left behind to guard Zhuo Commandery, the entire army returned to Huzhou Prefecture.
Now that Zhuo Renyue had been captured, the rebel army was suddenly left without a leader and scattered like loose sand. When the three northern prefectures learned that Zhuo Commandery had fallen, they all surrendered. The rebellion that had disturbed Great Qi for several months was thus pacified by Jing Mu with astonishing ease.
After Zhuo Renyue was brought back to Huzhou Prefecture, Shu Changyu handed him over to the governor of Huzhou. The governor was busy dealing with the aftermath of the war and settling the common people. Many laborers had died in Huzhou City, and it would probably take some time for the city to recover its strength.
Once the governor of Huzhou received Zhuo Renyue, he intended to execute him. He wanted to have Zhuo Renyue thrown into the streets of Huzhou so that the people could beat him to death.
But Shu Changyu gave the order to gag Zhuo Renyue, throw him into prison, and leave him there. There were still other matters that needed to be interrogated.
The governor of Huzhou had no choice but to obey.
And Shu Changyu now had something even more important to do.
After returning to Huzhou Prefecture, Jing Mu immediately pressed Shu Changyu back into the room, shut the door, locked it, and refused to let anyone enter.
“You’re probably going to make this known to everyone now!” Shu Changyu said.
Jing Mu did not care. He pushed him onto the bed, did not even bother about the heavy armor covering his own body, and simply rolled into Shu Changyu’s arms, holding him tightly.
“I’m not afraid.” Jing Mu grumbled. “No one needs to be afraid. Other than that old emperor who’s barely hanging onto his life, who would dare control me now?”
Hearing this, Shu Changyu could not suppress the upward curve of his lips. Smiling, he slapped Jing Mu’s head, which was still covered in heavy armor.
“Yes, you’re very impressive now. Three years ago, I was meddling unnecessarily. And today, I was meddling unnecessarily too.”
Jing Mu buried his face in the crook of his neck, his voice muffled.
“You weren’t meddling unnecessarily.”
“Hmm?”
“You were worried about me. You brought people to rescue me. I was so happy I could die.”
Shu Changyu could not help laughing softly. “Stop fooling around.”
Jing Mu rubbed his face against his neck, squinting his eyes and acting spoiled as he called Shu Changyu’s name again and again.
Shu Changyu answered him a couple of times, but the brat only kept calling his name, so he stopped responding and simply held him tightly in his arms through his armor.
“Are you trying to call my soul back?” Shu Changyu asked with a smile after a while.
“It feels so good.” Jing Mu sighed happily in his arms. “I still feel as though I’m dreaming.”
“I thought you didn’t love me. That you didn’t care about me at all,” Jing Mu said gloomily. “I thought three years ago you were only playing around with me, and once you had serious business to attend to, you didn’t want me anymore.”
Hearing this, Shu Changyu’s heart tightened. He said softly, “Never again.”
Jing Mu hummed in his arms.
“Then where did that little child come from?” Jing Mu asked again.
“Picked her up by the roadside on the way here,” Shu Changyu said. “She was probably abandoned by refugees fleeing the disaster. She was so tiny at the time, and even human traffickers didn’t want her. They probably couldn’t sell her, so they abandoned her.”
Jing Mu snorted. “I knew it.”
Shu Changyu laughed. “What would you have done if she really were a child I had from a brief affair?”
The next moment, Jing Mu bit down hard on his collarbone through his clothes.
Shu Changyu hissed. Lowering his head, he saw that the wolf cub had lifted his head from his arms and was staring at him intensely.
“Then you’d have to compensate me,” Jing Mu said. “You made me raise a child for nothing, so you’d have to give birth to one for me.”
Shu Changyu laughed helplessly. “Nonsense! How could I possibly give birth to a child?”
The next moment, Jing Mu grabbed his wrist.
“How would we know without trying?”
Author’s Note: Hehehe, the angst is finally over… Liu Gouhua crawls out while wearing a pot lid!
Now that the angst is over, we’re basically nearing the end! It’s time to let Mumu and the Chancellor live happily together~
If there’s anything you’d like to see in the extras, feel free to suggest it ahead of time so I can prepare, hehe.