It was an exquisitely embroidered scented pouch, woven with a design depicting mountains, rivers, the sun, and the moon.
Golden thread embroidered clouds stretching across a thousand miles, while silver thread depicted rivers and mountains spanning ten thousand miles. Red agate beads hung from the bottom. At a glance, anyone could tell it was an expensive item.
Mo Xi stared at the pouch for a long time, a storm of fury surging within him. Slowly, he forced out a few words.
“Who gave that to you?”
“…”
Perhaps Gu Mang sensed the flames of anger in his eyes. He tucked the pouch back against his chest, holding it close to his heart, and answered with two words of his own.
“It’s mine.”
His?
What an absurdity. He had fallen so far that there wasn’t even a single shell coin in his jar, yet he could somehow afford a brocade pouch like this?
Mo Xi was practically ready to laugh from sheer anger.
“Where did you get the money?”
“I traded for it.”
“…With whom?”
But Gu Mang merely repeated, “I traded for it.”
Mo Xi suddenly flared up. “What did you trade with? What do you even have? You—”
He abruptly stopped.
Gu Mang was living in a brothel. What kind of people could he meet here? What could he possibly trade in exchange for this pouch?
The answer was obvious, yet Mo Xi had been stupid enough to keep pressing him for an explanation.
It felt as though sandpaper were scraping across his heart, leaving it aching and raw. Mo Xi closed his eyes, trying to calm himself, but his handsome, fair face could not conceal even the smallest detail of his clenched-jaw fury.
In the end, he seemed to give up trying to hold himself back. He abruptly opened his eyes, his voice dangerously hoarse.
“What use do you have for something like this?!”
Gu Mang seemed not to know what use such a pouch might have, either. He simply clutched it tightly and stared at Mo Xi in silence.
“Because it’s pretty?”
“Because it’s expensive?”
“There has to be a reason for doing something so ridiculous.”
Perhaps he truly could not stand being interrogated like a criminal by Officer Mo any longer. At last, Gu Mang spoke slowly again.
“Someone gave it to me…”
“Didn’t you just say you traded for it? Even now, you’re still going to lie to me?”
“Someone…” For a moment, Gu Mang seemed about to continue. But something stopped him. He bit his lower lip, then ultimately chose silence.
That silence was the final straw that shattered Mo Xi’s remaining self-control.
He advanced on Gu Mang step by step, his gaze like a sharp knife prying open a clamshell. Suddenly, his expression turned vicious.
“Go on.”
He stared directly into Gu Mang’s eyes.
Perhaps he was simply too furious, or perhaps the light in the room was too dim. Mo Xi failed to notice the unusual change in Gu Mang’s pupils.
“Why have you stopped talking? Is there anything left in this world that you can’t bring yourself to say?” Mo Xi’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he spoke, each word ground out through clenched teeth. “Speak! I’ve heard every absurd excuse imaginable. You—”
Suddenly, Gu Mang said bluntly, “There’s someone who treats me well.”
It was like being struck squarely on the head with a heavy club.
This time, Mo Xi was the one left speechless. His throat felt unbearably dry.
Someone treated him well?
Ridiculous… Who would treat a traitor well?
Then Mo Xi remembered: Of course. Wasn’t this book written by Gu Mang himself? Even if Gu Mang didn’t want his life in the book to be entirely bleak, it was perfectly consistent with his own cowardly, survival-at-all-costs nature to arrange for someone to come to his rescue.
But… but…
His anger made his vision swim with darkness. He kept turning that thought over in his mind, yet after a long while, he could not bring himself to think it through any further.
At this moment, both the setting guide and Li Junlei seemed to have joined their own original creator, the damn author, in a conspiracy to infuriate him to death. All of them had fallen silent at once.
Not a single person would tell him who this supposedly kindhearted benefactor was.
—Who the hell could it be? Someone who could give him a scented pouch but not money? Didn’t Gu Mang want shell coins? Then why didn’t that person give him some?!
Mo Xi suddenly felt like laughing.
Out of all the ways this story could violate character consistency, this so-called “kindhearted person” was by far the most inexplicable! Lord Xihe had once been the person Gu Mang trusted most in the entire Chonghua Kingdom. Who else could possibly have treated Gu Mang better than he had?
He alone had indulged Gu Mang’s reckless antics and shared both fortune and misfortune with him.
He alone had never harbored doubts about Gu Mang. They had been friends who would entrust their lives to each other.
Even after Gu Mang had betrayed the country, Mo Xi, as his rival, had been in the perfect position to call for his execution. If Gu Mang were killed, the position of the empire’s foremost general would belong to Mo Xi.
Yet he had stood alone against almost the entire court, risking everything to defend Gu Mang’s innocence.
Yes, he had once worked desperately to catch up with Gu Mang, surpass him, and do everything better than him.
Lord Xihe had countless shortcuts he could have taken. Yet he had been so stubborn, so clumsy, so conservative, so principled. He had cared too much about their friendship, so he had yielded to Gu Mang at every turn and trusted him without reservation.
That was why, when he learned of Gu Mang’s betrayal, he had spent several sleepless nights tossing and turning. Eventually, he had been forced to rely on calming medicinal decoctions prepared by a spiritual healer just to get some rest. After that, whenever he heard someone speak ill of Gu Mang, it felt as though his insides were being burned and his stomach twisted into knots.
The old aristocratic families had repeatedly hinted, sometimes subtly and sometimes not, that now that Gu Mang was gone, the battlefield and the empire would belong to Lord Xihe alone.
Congratulations! Congratulations!
Mo Xi had never understood what there was to celebrate.
He had only wanted his brother to have been framed, to have been forced into it, to have some hidden reason for what he had done.
All he wanted was for the two of them to have one more chance in their lives to sit together and share a pot of wine, just as they had in the past.
“Good… very good…”
Mo Xi paused. His fury was so overwhelming that his eyes reddened, and for a moment he could not find anything more to say.
After a long time, he finally rasped, “Gu Mang, Gu Mang… you’ve certainly opened my eyes.”
Gu Mang said nothing more. He leaned against the wall and looked at Mo Xi’s face.
Mo Xi lifted his head, seemingly trying to force something back into his eyes. He tilted his face upward and held himself there for a while, suppressing whatever threatened to spill over. Then he abruptly covered his forehead with one hand and gave a bitter, mocking laugh.
“I truly don’t know what I’ve been so stubbornly holding on to all these years. I don’t even know why I came here to see you tonight…”
The more he thought about it, the more sorrowful and furious he became. By the end, his voice was trembling slightly. He suddenly punched the wall beside Gu Mang, scraping the skin off his knuckles until ugly streaks of blood appeared.
The candlelight swayed, its glow drifting back and forth between them. Mo Xi pinned Gu Mang against the wall, hatred etched across his face as though he were about to tear the man apart at any moment.
He gritted his teeth.
“Marshal Gu.”
“…”
“Marshal Gu, you really are blessed with an extraordinary amount of good fortune. Even after you’ve sunk this low, there are still people who treat you kindly.”
“I…”
“Gu Mang!”
Suddenly, Matron Qin’s voice rang out from somewhere in the distance, like a thunderclap.
“Master Zhou is here! Hurry up and change into clean clothes. Make sure you entertain him properly and help the young master relax!”
The shout abruptly dragged Mo Xi back to reality. He came to his senses almost instantly. Although his chest was still heaving violently, the uncontrolled jealousy and hatred in his eyes had been forcibly restrained, leaving only faint, dangerous sparks smoldering beneath the surface.
“Master Zhou?”
“…”
“The person who treats you well?”
Gu Mang seemed completely incapable of understanding the hatred and bitterness consuming Mo Xi. He continued looking at him with that unnaturally calm expression, then shook his head.
The setting guide finally spoke up.
[Master Zhou is the youngest son of the Zhou family. He’s considered one of the most vicious characters among the capital’s young aristocratic wastrels. He doesn’t have much talent, but his supply of malicious schemes is endless. He’s a complete bastard.]
Mo Xi looked at Gu Mang. Although Gu Mang’s expression had not changed, he was unconsciously rubbing a scar on his arm.
After a moment of silence, Mo Xi let out a bitter, almost self-tormenting laugh.
“So what? That person who treats you well doesn’t care what happens to you?”
“…”
Gu Mang silently put the scented pouch away and shook his head again.
Mo Xi froze for a moment.
“He really doesn’t care?”
Gu Mang nodded.
Mo Xi lowered his eyes slightly. His heavy breathing rose and fell beside Gu Mang’s ear. He closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, the ferocious beast that had been straining against its cage had disappeared. There was still a trace of moisture in those dark eyes, glimmering in the dimness like the morning star in the night sky.
“Is Master Zhou a regular customer?”
Gu Mang nodded again.
Mo Xi stared at him. His sharply defined, handsome features seemed shrouded in emotions that shifted unpredictably. But after a moment, he still spoke coldly.
“You’re exactly the same as you were before. You know how to charm all sorts of people.”
The darkness in his eyes deepened, heavy with memories that seemed ready to drag him under.
“Take care of yourself.”
With that, he suddenly straightened from where he had been leaning against the round table, put on his cloak, and headed for the door.
“Are you leaving?”
Mo Xi turned half his face toward him and replied coolly, “Yes. I won’t get in the way of your business.”
“But I—”
Mo Xi stopped.
“What?”
“I accepted your shell coins…”
Mo Xi paused.
“Consider it repayment for the friendship we once shared.”
Gu Mang’s brows drew together, his expression full of bewilderment.
“Friendship we once shared…”
Although Mo Xi thought Gu Mang’s behavior was strange, there was no time left. Once Master Zhou came upstairs, Mo Xi might not be able to leave even if he wanted to.
So he gave Gu Mang one last glance and turned to open the door.
But just then, Gu Mang suddenly asked him a question.
“May I know who you are?”
The hand that had already reached the doorframe abruptly stopped.
Mo Xi’s back stiffened. After a moment, he spun around.
“…What did you say?”
“…”
Gu Mang was bewildered by his reaction. After hesitating, he repeated himself.
“May I… know\… who you are?”
It was as though roaring torrents were crashing against one another in Mo Xi’s ears, while enormous boulders tumbled from a sheer cliff before his eyes.
He held his breath and stared fixedly at Gu Mang’s face. His dark brown pupils contracted sharply, light trembling deep within them.
“Gu Mang.” His insides had gone ice-cold, yet he still forced the words out through clenched teeth, his voice vicious with disbelief. “Are you fucking playing me?”
Gu Mang frowned.
“You’re a customer, and you paid me. Aren’t you the one playing me?”
Mo Xi’s features twisted. Yet as he stared at Gu Mang, all the strange things he had noticed during their conversation suddenly flashed through his mind. A storm of shock surged through him, leaving him too stunned to recover for a long moment.
But just then, the door behind them creaked open.
From the gap came a man’s lazy, drawling voice.
“Gu Mang, your Brother Zhou has come all this way to patronize you, and you can’t even be bothered to come out and kneel to welcome your customer?”
Mo Xi abruptly turned around.
In his ears, Li Junlei was practically screaming.
[SEVERE WARNING!!! SEVERE WARNING!!!]
Mo Xi knew that being discovered would constitute a serious violation of his character setting.
But it was already too late.
That little bastard surnamed Zhou was already swaying his way into the room as he spoke. His eyelids fluttered, and he lifted his sleepy gaze…