Mo Xi raised a hand and cut him off. “…When did I ever sleep with your niece?”
“You—you still refuse to admit it!” The older cousin flew into a rage, pointing at Mo Xi’s nose. “Good! Everyone says Lord Xihe is a righteous gentleman. But I say you’re nothing but a beast in human clothing! You sleep with her and then immediately turn around and deny knowing her, and now you even want to punish your woman’s uncle! You—you—you’re nothing but an ungrateful bastard!”
He was shouting himself hoarse, but the expressions of the people around him varied wildly. The guards who admired Mo Xi looked like they were about to explode with anger, while the other two men who had spread the rumors were trembling like leaves. Gu Mang was wearing a face covering, so it was impossible to see his expression, but judging from his posture, he seemed fairly calm.
As for Mo Xi himself, he sat in the chair inside the command tent, hands folded over his knees. He stared at the man for a while before saying, “Mengze has done me a great kindness. For her sake, I’ll continue to address you as Senior. Senior, I don’t know who told you such an absurd story, but I’ll tell you this now: Mengze is completely innocent. There has never been anything improper between us.”
“Bah! Who are you trying to fool? Stop standing there dressed so properly and pretending to be some upright gentleman!”
Mo Xi suppressed his anger. “Although Mengze and I were alone together in the central command tent, there was not the slightest improper behavior. If you don’t believe me, you can ask her yourself.”
“Who told you I was talking about the central command tent?” The older cousin raised his thick eyebrows, his expression full of contempt. “Would you actually dare to make advances on my niece in the central command tent? What a thug! I’m talking about noon! You were in your own tent—ugh, I’m embarrassed to even say it. You know perfectly well what you did to Mengze!”
Mo Xi: “…”
Gu Mang: “…”
Seeing Mo Xi’s expression change slightly and noticing that he had fallen silent, the older cousin became rather smug. He bared his teeth in a cold laugh. “I didn’t get it wrong, did I? Still going to argue?”
“Lord Xihe, while I was in the Chiling Camp, I’d already heard that the Northern Border Army maintains extremely strict military discipline and that you never let women distract you from your duties. But now I see that you’re merely someone who dares to do things but doesn’t dare to take responsibility for them! Alas, my foolish niece was blind. She could look down on everyone else, yet she chose someone like you, an unprincipled beast in human form, and you even defiled her…”
Relying on his age and status, the man’s words grew increasingly vicious. Mo Xi’s expression darkened. He pressed his lips together and said nothing, but Gu Mang was beginning to find it difficult to listen.
“Are you done yet?”
“What are you supposed to be?” The older cousin looked him over several times before rolling his eyes. “Oh, just a little guard. And you actually dare lecture a member of the royal clan? Ha! What a rare spectacle!”
With that, another string of unpleasant, mocking laughter came bubbling from his throat.
Before he had even finished laughing, Mo Xi said, “You’re right.”
“At noon, I did meet someone privately in my tent.”
Everyone was stunned!
Every pair of eyes immediately turned toward Mo Xi.
The older cousin froze for a moment before bursting into loud laughter. “Hahaha! See? See? I told you I wasn’t wrong! Little Fireball, there’s nothing wrong with being young and having feelings for someone. It’s not as though you’ve committed some grave violation of military discipline. As long as you—”
Mo Xi interrupted him.
“Officer.”
The guard looked as though his mind had completely stopped functioning. His emotions were extraordinarily complicated as he answered, “Here.”
“Record that I committed the offense of meeting someone privately, and submit it for Junshang’s punishment.”
“…Yes.”
Before Mo Xi had even finished speaking, he leaned back against the chair, his long, slender fingers interlaced. Then, word by word, he continued, “In addition, record these three men from the Chiling Camp for spreading rumors before the battle and submit that charge as well.”
“?!” The older cousin’s eyes widened. “Mo Xi, what—what do you mean by that? You’ve already admitted what you did, yet you’re still saying that we’re spreading rumors? You—you—you! What right do you have?!”
Mo Xi stood.
His cold, glass-bead-like eyes looked down at the man as he gazed at him with an icy calm.
“Because that person was not Princess Mengze.”
“!!!”
If Mo Xi admitting moments ago that he had been secretly meeting someone was already shocking, then the instant these words were spoken, the atmosphere throughout the entire command tent seemed to snap like a bowstring pulled too tight, suddenly shattering into pieces.
The others need not be mentioned. Even Gu Mang widened his translucent blue eyes and stared at Mo Xi in astonishment.
Mo Xi walked up to the older cousin, reached out, and lifted his greasy, fleshy face. In a low voice, he said, “I’ve really tolerated you people for too long.”
“From the day Mengze saved me, for nearly ten years, you’ve fabricated stories day after day, spreading falsehood after falsehood. And today, you’ve brought it directly before me. Senior, I just want to ask you one thing—is this fun?”
“…”
“You spread rumors that Mengze and I have feelings for each other, that we have a private relationship. Do you think that if you say it enough times, I’ll actually marry her? Or do you think you understand me better than I understand myself?”
“All these years, I’ve respected Mengze and been grateful to her. I’ve said it countless times, both in public and in private, yet no one listens to me. You hear one thing and take it for the truth, speaking with absolute certainty that I’m preparing to marry her at any moment.”
Mo Xi paused.
“If Mengze really did marry into the Wangshu Residence, would that be good for her, or would it be good for you?”
The older cousin’s face gradually turned pale yellow, and his eyes darted away. “Lord Xihe, what are you talking about…?”
“I’m asking you.” Mo Xi’s voice was chilling. “You’ve been deliberately building momentum, even going so far as to slander your own niece’s reputation. You know perfectly well what your branch of the Murong clan is after. Why come and ask me?”
“You… you…” The older cousin’s thick, pig-intestine-like lips trembled for a long while as his eyes darted around. But because his conscience was guilty, he could not say anything more.
Mo Xi straightened up and wearily closed his eyes for a moment.
Just as he was preparing to end the conversation, the older cousin suddenly seemed to find another foothold. He raised his eyebrows and hurriedly shouted, “Mo Xi, you—you don’t need to make up all these other excuses! I say you’re just a cold-blooded, heartless bastard!”
“…”
“Mengze grew up with you. You were childhood sweethearts, innocent and close. Who doesn’t know that you originally had feelings for her?”
Mo Xi’s phoenix eyes widened.
Throughout this argument, he had been shocked, disgusted, angry, and exhausted. But bewilderment had never once crossed his face.
Yet this one sentence from the older cousin nearly stunned him speechless.
He was practically choking on the words when he finally asked, “…How exactly did I originally have feelings for her?”
The older cousin said, “If you didn’t originally have feelings for her, why would she have gone so far as to injure herself to save you during the Dongting water battle? Since she was willing to do that for you, it must have been because you treated her well too. Otherwise, who would go that far for someone else for no reason? Are you trying to say that Mengze was simply imagining things all by herself?!”
Mo Xi could never, simply to clear his own name, pin the judgment of “unrequited love” on Mengze.
Seeing him fall silent, the older cousin became even more animated.
“Now that her health has deteriorated and she’s getting older, you look down on her and are rushing to sever all ties with her. Everyone says Lord Xihe is a gentleman who values loyalty and affection. Turns out you’re not a gentleman at all—you’re a despicable, heartless, ungrateful bastard! A shameless wretch!”
He delivered those final eight words with dramatic emphasis, each one landing heavily.
The tent fell silent for a long while.
Then someone suddenly began clapping crisply.
“Bravo. You done yet, brother?”
The older cousin turned around and saw that it was the little guard beside Mo Xi who was applauding. He immediately became furious.
“You again? I already told you, you’re not worthy of speaking to me!”
Gu Mang smiled. “I wasn’t planning on talking to you either. I just wanted to ask whether you’ve gotten everything off your chest.”
Then he turned to the guard.
“Sorry to trouble you, brother, but take this Senior away. Find him a tent and lock him up. Keep a close watch on him. No offense, Senior, but you’re truly gifted with words. Your speeches are simply too brilliant. If you let him out to shout all this everywhere, there’s no need for us to fight this war anymore. We might as well just convict Lord Xihe outright.”
The guard was still completely immersed in the shock of “Lord Xihe actually did meet someone privately in his tent” and could not recover for quite some time. Eventually he stammered, “Huh? …Then, then Marshal Mo, what do you think…?”
Before Mo Xi could answer, the older cousin shouted, “You bastard surnamed Mo! So what if you lock me up now? What are you going to do about it? If you have the guts, announce to all of Chonghua that you’ve found someone else! Don’t tell me our Murong branch has ulterior motives—let’s see what everyone else who has nothing to do with this thinks of you! I’m telling you, Fireball, you betrayed Mengze! You’ve ruined your own reputation! As for the person you’ve secretly gotten involved with, she is—”
He never got to finish.
Mo Xi abruptly reached out and seized him by the throat.
Mo Xi’s grip was extremely strong. Although he had no intention of actually hurting the man, in the midst of his fury, he still squeezed hard enough to stop the man’s throat for a moment, nearly making him pass out.
Mo Xi lifted him off the ground with one hand and stared at his steadily reddening face.
“…I suddenly remember.”
“Senior, your name is Murong Lie, isn’t it?”
Murong Lie was dangling in midair in his grip, his feet kicking wildly. His face had turned the color of pig liver as he rolled his eyes and glared at him.
“I’ve heard that when the former Wangshu once stubbornly refused to marry Lady Zhao, a hundred officials remonstrated against him. And the one whose words were the most vicious and vehement was a distant relative named Murong Lie.”
“—That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Ugh… ugh…!”
A cold light flashed in Mo Xi’s dark eyes. Clearly, his patience had reached its absolute limit.
He spoke each word distinctly.
“From the former Wangshu, all the way to me. Senior, you really have been worrying yourself over other people’s marriages for thirty years without a day’s break. But I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you. Mengze is like a younger sister to me. Even if all of Chonghua comes to regard me as the most shameless man alive, I will never marry her.”
Murong Lie was nearly being strangled to death. His eyes had rolled white, and he was gasping for breath. The two nobles from the Chiling Camp standing nearby were trembling so badly their legs nearly gave out.
Seeing that another squeeze might actually kill him, Mo Xi finally loosened his long fingers.
Murong Lie dropped to the ground like a lump of mud, clutching his bright-red neck and gasping desperately for air.
“Senior may have benefited from what happened to the former Wangshu in the past, but let me remind you of something today. The former Wangshu was the former Wangshu. I am me. What happened to him more than thirty years ago will not happen to me. Chonghua does not need another former Wangshu.”
Mo Xi paused.
“And it doesn’t need another Lady Zhao, either. So put your mind at ease.”
With that, he wearily waved his hand and ordered the guards to take Murong Lie and the other two men who had spread the rumors away together.
Once everyone had withdrawn, Mo Xi raised his hand and began setting up the wards around the tent again.
Gu Mang looked at him worriedly from the side.
“Mo Xi, although he was pushing you pretty hard, there were other ways to smooth things over. Why did you have to admit what happened in the tent at noon?”
Mo Xi glanced at him.
“I didn’t only admit it to him. I already told Mengze too.”
Gu Mang was startled. “Told her what?”
“That I already have someone I love.”
“…”
“I told her before as well, but she didn’t believe me. Recently, though, she probably noticed something, so she knows I wasn’t lying to her.” Mo Xi said, “You don’t need to overthink it. Sooner or later, this sort of thing can’t be kept secret. We’re attacking Daze City again tomorrow, and I still have some documents to review. Go get some rest.”
Gu Mang stared at his deep-set eyes, noticing the stubbornness in his expression. His heart was a tangled, bitter mess, and he could not help sighing.
“Ah… but why did you have to…?”
Mo Xi finished laying down the final layer of the ward and turned back.
“Because I wanted to.”
“…”
Gu Mang sighed. He said nothing more. He walked over, cupped Mo Xi’s head in his hands, and after a moment of silence, rested his forehead against his.
It was late into the night.
Yet Gu Mang was not sleepy.
Mo Xi was reading through military documents, while Gu Mang sat beside him eating snacks and reading the memoir he had written himself.
After a while, he suddenly closed the book.
“Mo Xi.”
Mo Xi lifted his head from the documents, picked up a silver spoon, and stirred the candle flame brighter.
“What is it?”
Gu Mang said, “I suddenly remembered something. I forgot to ask earlier. That former Wangshu and Lady Zhao that Murong Lie mentioned… what happened between them?”
Mo Xi’s eyelashes moved slightly.
“Lady Zhao was Murong Lian’s mother. Don’t you remember anything about her?”
“Not very clearly,” Gu Mang said. “Besides, I didn’t have much contact with her in the first place. She didn’t like talking much to people. When she was alive, she wasn’t particularly strict with the servants, but she was always very strict with Murong Lian. The thing you heard most often in the residence was her telling Murong Lian not to do this or that, insisting that everything be done according to her wishes.”
He paused, then smiled a little sheepishly.
“But she was pretty beautiful.”
Mo Xi said, “Lady Zhao really was exceptionally beautiful. She was once considered one of the most beautiful women in all of Chonghua. Back then, the former Junshang arranged for her to marry the former Wangshu—that is, Murong Lian’s father, Murong Xuan. Her talent and appearance were flawless, and her family background was well matched with that of the former Wangshu. But at the time, Murong Xuan had fallen in love with another woman of much lower status, so he refused to marry her no matter what. The whole situation became extremely ugly.”
Gu Mang scratched his head.
Although he did not remember these rumors, he could indeed piece together some of the past entanglement between Lady Zhao and Murong Xuan from other memories, so he was not particularly surprised.
He tentatively asked, “Then how did Murong Xuan eventually agree to marry her?”
“Pressure from the circumstances, I suppose, along with all sorts of other reasons.” Mo Xi shook his head. “It happened too long ago. There are all kinds of versions of the rumors. Why are you suddenly thinking about this?”
Gu Mang said, “Mm… Because I remember someone. She was also a servant in the Wangshu Residence. When I was little, she took very good care of me. I’ve always felt that she might have been the woman the former Wangshu once loved—”
Mo Xi said, “It wasn’t her.”
Gu Mang was surprised by his categorical denial.
“Why?”
“The woman the former Wangshu loved was an ordinary commoner from Lin’an, not a servant.”
Gu Mang stuffed another piece of mung bean cake into his mouth. His cheeks puffed out slightly, while his ink-black hair fell softly beside his face.
“Ah. Then if she wasn’t a servant, why couldn’t she marry the former Wangshu?”
“Because even if she wasn’t a servant, the difference in their status was still far too great. And that woman seemed to have been injured before, so she couldn’t clearly remember her own background. I don’t know the specifics either. I’ve only heard many different versions of the story. One rumor says that Lin’an belonged to Yue Juntian’s fief, and its people were all under Yue Juntian’s jurisdiction. But Yue Juntian had always been on bad terms with the former Wangshu. After learning that he had fallen in love with a woman from Lin’an, Yue Juntian encouraged his supporters to go before Junshang and accuse the woman of being a Liao spy, ultimately forcing her to leave the former Wangshu.”
Mo Xi set down the scroll. He had always disliked this sort of gossip. Whenever he heard other people discussing it, he found it unpleasant enough, and telling it himself only made his expression more awkward.
After a brief pause, he continued, “But there’s another, more widely circulated version. It says Yue Juntian never claimed that she was a Liao spy. Instead, he sent people to investigate her background, later discovering that she had once been a prostitute in a brothel. He reported this to Junshang, and naturally, a woman from Lin’an with such a background could never enter the Wangshu Residence and become Madam Murong.”
He rubbed the bridge of his brow in irritation.
“That’s more or less it. There are plenty of other versions, but I don’t remember them. Most of them involve Yue Juntian somehow, saying that he was the one who ruined that marriage. He believed the woman was one of the people under his jurisdiction and that her origins were unclear, and he didn’t want to take responsibility for her, so he kept opposing their marriage.”
Gu Mang watched him helplessly recounting gossip, looking both amusing and pitiful. He hurried around to his side, kneaded his shoulders a little, and leaned against his back to coax him.
“All right, all right. If you don’t remember, then you don’t have to tell me.”
“Sorry. If you’re interested, I can buy you a book of strange tales from a bookstall next time…”
Gu Mang hurriedly said, “No, no, no need.”
Have Mo Xi go buy a book of strange tales?
He might as well spare the poor little bookseller. The shopkeeper would probably think he had come to shut down the entire bookstall.
The two of them chatted until the night passed just like that.
Although rumors about Mengze had already begun circulating quietly through the army, the situation was urgent, and the Northern Border Army’s military discipline was much stricter than that of the other two camps. As a result, most of the gossip remained confined to the Chiling Camp and, for the time being, could not cause much trouble.
The next morning, as dawn broke, Chonghua launched its second assault on Daze City according to plan.