Chapter 338: The Sunflower in the Water

Pu Mingsheng said discontentedly, "Why? Sha Dingzhou and Wu Bikui aren't my chieftains."

Wan Cailian mused, "The Great Ming loves nothing more than sowing discord and dividing the border tribes. I worry that this visit, deliberately sequenced in order, is also a trap set by Great Xia."

"Sha Dingzhou is cautious by nature, while Wu Bikui has a violent temper. When the Great Xia envoy arrives and adds fuel to the fire with embellished talk, who's to say those two won't develop suspicions toward you, my husband?"

"And what if they do? Do you think I fear them?" Pu Mingsheng slammed his ivory wine cup to the ground with a crack.

Wan Cailian hurried forward, soothing him with gentle words, then said, "My husband is a hero without equal — you ought to be the lord of Yunnan."

Pu Mingsheng's expression improved considerably.

Wan Cailian picked up the wine cup, set it on the table, and sat in Pu Mingsheng's lap: "But if the court comes to suppress us, better that Sha's and Wu's clansmen bleed first than our own people die in battle."

"Hmph! The Zhu Emperor can't even protect himself — he hasn't the ability to come suppress us. And if that dog Lin dares to come, I'll make sure he never returns!" Pu Mingsheng said, sweeping Wan Cailian up in his arms and heading toward the inner chamber.

"Oh! Put me down!" Wan Cailian squirmed and struggled, her face flushing a tender red that made Pu Mingsheng's breathing grow ever heavier. Wan Cailian said coquettishly, "Husband, that envoy, mm—"

In the following days, the envoy, following Qin Liangyu's instructions, also called upon Wu Bikui.

Wu Bikui was a hot-tempered man of short sight. The envoy flattered him endlessly, going along with whatever he said, and soon had Wu Bikui beaming with delight, with no further trouble.

As for Sha Dingzhou, he had long since received word and was filled with alarm and uncertainty.

He heard that the Great Xia envoy had been humiliated by Pu Mingsheng, while Wu Bikui had been drinking and laughing merrily with the envoy.

In his heart, he felt the two had already reached an agreement with Great Xia. That Pu Mingsheng had humiliated the envoy only seemed, to him, like a guilty man protesting too much.

If he did not respond soon, he reckoned it would not be long before he was wiped out by the combined forces of Pu and Wu.

Just as he was trembling with anxiety, a sudden pain shot through his calf — a serving girl had pressed on his old wound. Sha Dingzhou flew into a rage and kicked her in the face.

The girl's head struck the ground, blood immediately flowing. She knelt there, body curled into a ball, trembling violently, repeating over and over, "Please spare me, Your Excellency, please spare me, Your Excellency..."

"Your Excellency" was the Great Ming official title for the Duke of Qian. After Sha Dingzhou captured Kunming, he had adopted this form of address for himself.

Sha Dingzhou rose abruptly, grabbed the serving girl by the hair, and dragged her all the way out of the room, throwing her onto the open ground in the courtyard. The girl, terrified and in pain, let out a scream.

The Sha soldiers stationed nearby all looked over. Sha Dingzhou said flatly, "Don't waste the goods. Kill her once you've had your fun."

"Thank you, Your Excellency!" The Sha soldiers' faces lit up with joy as they whooped and hollered, lunging at the serving girl.

"Your Excellency! Your Excellency, spare me!" The girl was beside herself with terror, kowtowing and begging for mercy. The next second, hands seized her legs and her clothes were torn open. The girl let out a horrible scream.

Listening to the screams, Sha Dingzhou finally felt somewhat calmer. Just then, a subordinate reported, "Your Excellency, the Great Xia envoy has arrived."

"Quick, invite him in!" Sha Dingzhou leaped to his feet. "Arrange a banquet."

Before long, Sha Dingzhou and the envoy took their seats as host and guest in the main hall of the Duke of Qian's mansion. Kunming was prosperous and well-fed, and Sha Dingzhou's banquet was far more lavish than Pu Mingsheng's — though from time to time, heart-rending screams of women drifted from behind the mansion, jarringly piercing.

During the banquet, Sha Dingzhou repeatedly probed for information about the previous two visits, but the envoys sent to the three chieftains were not the same group. The envoy who came to see Sha Dingzhou was named Xu Chen, and he knew nothing at all about Pu and Wu's situations — there was nothing to be learned from him.

The more this was the case, the more Sha Dingzhou became convinced that Great Xia had already reached an agreement with Pu and Wu to deal with him together. Growing ever more agitated, he steeled himself and said, "Honored Envoy, please convey to the King of Xia: the Great Ming has lost the Mandate of Heaven. Sha Dingzhou opposes only the Great Ming, not the King of Xia..."

"Sha Dingzhou is willing to help the King of Xia eliminate the two rebels Pu Mingsheng and Wu Bikui, asking only... asking only to follow the example of Lord Mu, guarding Yunnan for Great Xia forever!" Xu Chen was startled — General Qin had only sent him to sound out the situation; he never expected Sha Dingzhou to pledge his allegiance so readily.

Seeing Xu Chen hesitate, Sha Dingzhou whispered a few words to his men. One soon fetched an object and handed it to the envoy.

"This is the treasured heirloom of the Mu mansion — the sword of Mu Ying, Prince of Qianning. Please present it to the King of Xia."

Xu Chen looked closely. The sword was archaic in design, utterly devoid of ornamentation, with a hardwood scabbard wrapped in sharkskin, showing clear signs of wear and patina. Xu Chen accepted the sword, and Sha Dingzhou ordered another tray of gold to be brought forth.

"The honored envoy has traveled far and labored hard. A trifling sum for travel expenses — unworthy of your notice, but I hope you will kindly accept it." Sha Dingzhou said with the utmost courtesy.

After declining a few times, Xu Chen could only accept.

Originally, Xu Chen was to return after lunch, but Sha Dingzhou insisted he stay the night. Unable to refuse such warm hospitality, Xu Chen had no choice but to agree.

That evening, Sha Dingzhou sent a woman to his quarters. The woman began undressing the moment she entered the room, but her face was utterly numb and her movements stiff, devoid of any grace. Xu Chen hastily said, "Wait — who are you, miss?"

The woman said, "My name is Mu Ning. I beg the honored envoy to take pity on me." With that, she made to crawl into the envoy's bed.

Xu Chen was greatly startled and quickly dodged away, saying, "No, no — what is the meaning of this? I'm going to find Sha Dingzhou!"

Mu Ning said urgently, "Don't go! If you go, I'll lose my life!"

Xu Chen could only sit back down before the bed and console her gently: "What has happened? You bear the surname Mu — how did you end up here?"

Mu Ning then recounted the full story of how the Mu mansion had been breached. That night, everything had happened so suddenly — the women who immolated themselves in the ancestral hall were only a small portion; nearly all the rest had fallen into Sha Dingzhou's hands.

Most of those unlucky ones were tortured to death that very night.

A smaller portion were toyed with and killed in the following days.

Only a dozen or so, because of their striking looks, were kept by Sha Dingzhou as his harem and survived to this day. Mu Ning was one of them.

Having grown tired of her, Sha Dingzhou had sent her to serve his guests.

After hearing this, Xu Chen was filled with righteous fury — but he quickly calmed himself. He was here to gather intelligence, and Sha Dingzhou had expressed intent to defect. He must not let hot blood ruin a great matter.

So he thought for a moment, then loosened his hair bun, mussed his robes, and undid his belt.

Seeing this, Mu Ning resigned herself and lay down on the bed — but after waiting a long while, she only heard the door creak as the envoy went out.

A moment later, Xu Chen returned and whispered happily, "I told Sha Dingzhou's lackeys you served well and that I wanted to take you with me. Sha Dingzhou agreed." "Really?" Mu Ning was overjoyed, tears suddenly streaming down her face. "I can leave?"

Xu Chen said, "Really. We leave at first light tomorrow. Once we reach Great Xia, you won't have the silks and delicacies of a duke's daughter, but no one will bully you anymore either. You can support yourself and live your own life."

Mu Ning hastily waved her hands: "I'm no longer a young lady. I want nothing. I can farm and weave on my own. I... I don't know how yet, but I can learn — I'll definitely learn! On the road back, I can learn to mend and wash clothes, cook, make beds... I'm willing to do anything." Xu Chen laughed: "You don't need to do anything. Is there anything you want to bring?"

Mu Ning shook her head desperately.

Xu Chen said, "Very well then. Let's sleep — tomorrow's road is still long."

Mu Ning had no desire to sleep at all, wouldn't even lie down. She was terrified that if she closed her eyes, when she opened them again Xu Chen would be gone.

Xu Chen urged her several times, but Mu Ning kept her eyes open the whole time, curled up in a corner of the bed.

Xu Chen's eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and he fell asleep on his own.

That night, a fast rider came from the direction of Fuxian Lake and entered Kunming city.

Sha Dingzhou was roused from his sleep and said irritably, "What is it?"

"Your Excellency, it's one of Pu Mingsheng's men."

All drowsiness vanished. Sha Dingzhou stood up and said, "Has he attacked?"

"No — it's a messenger. Pu Mingsheng sent a letter."

Sha Dingzhou was greatly puzzled. He took the letter and saw the signature was Wan Cailian, which made it even stranger. After reading it through, he broke out in a cold sweat and thought to himself: "I nearly fell for the Han people's trick."

But then he reconsidered, picked up the letter again, and examined it closely, musing: "Is this matter true or false? Could Old Thief Pu be deceiving me?" He looked it over carefully for a long while and saw that the handwriting on the letter was elegant and refined—clearly a woman's hand.

Practically every Yunnan chieftain could read and write Chinese, but almost none could write this well.

This letter must be Wan Cailian's own handwriting.

If Pu Mingsheng wanted to deceive him, why would he have his wife write it for him—an unnecessary extra step?

But even if the sowing-discord scheme were real, was throwing in his lot with the Xia King the right move? Should he ally with Pu and Wu to resist the Central Plains, or join forces with the Xia King—befriending the distant and attacking the near?

Sha Dingzhou pondered as he brought the letter to his nose and sniffed it. The paper carried the faintest scent of rouge, refreshing and pleasant.

Pu Mingsheng was short-sighted, yet he was blessed with no small share of luck with women. Wan Cailian's beauty was famed throughout all of southern Yunnan! Heh heh...

Sha Dingzhou said: "Where is the messenger?"

"He left right after delivering the letter," his subordinate said. "But the messenger left one more message for me to relay to Your Excellency."

"Speak quickly."

"The messenger warned Your Excellency not to forget the fate of Chief Huang of Siming Prefecture."

Sha Dingzhou's heart tightened, and every hair on his body stood on end.

Siming Prefecture lay within Guangxi's borders, right next to the frontier with Annam.

Its Huang chieftain had been arrogant and overbearing, repeatedly stirring up rebellion, trafficking Han commoners to Annam, and earning a terrible reputation. The Great Ming had banned it time and again to no avail, and when Great Xia entered Guangxi, he still refused to surrender.

So Great Xia sent men to slaughter the entire Huang clan.

It was a true extermination of the whole clan—they killed according to the genealogy records. More than thirteen hundred souls in the entire clan, roots and all, not one left alive.

This act terrified the remaining Guangxi chieftains into silence, and none dared harbor treacherous thoughts again.

And now, he, Sha Dingzhou, had truly raised troops in open rebellion. The evils the Huang clan of Siming Prefecture had committed, he, Sha Dingzhou, had committed—and evils the Huang clan had never committed, he had also committed.

In comparison, the Han people the Huangs had killed and sold might not even amount to a fraction of Sha Dingzhou's count.

Would the Xia King truly let him go?

Even if he were let go, would he be allowed to remain as governor?

His subordinate said: "Your Excellency, what do we do?"

Sha Dingzhou pondered for a long time, then decided he would neither tear the mask off entirely nor press his warm face too close. He would maintain a neither-hot-nor-cold diplomatic initiative, and said: "Make no noise. Let everything proceed as usual."

The next morning, Xu Chen woke up. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw Mu Ning gazing at him anxiously.

Xu Chen rubbed his eyes and said: "Did you not sleep all night?"

Mu Ning said urgently yet cautiously: "Shouldn't we be leaving?"

Xu Chen got up, stretched, and said: "Very well. Let me take my leave of Sha Dingzhou."

"I'll wait for you in the room." Mu Ning did not want to leave Xu Chen's side, but she dared not go see Sha Dingzhou even less.

Xu Chen nodded, washed up, pushed open the door and went out. Before long he returned to the room and said: "Let's go."

Mu Ning was so happy she nearly cried out. She stayed close by Xu Chen's side, passing through one pavilion and corridor after another.

She had grown up in the Duke's manor since childhood. Every blade of grass and every tree here was intimately familiar to her. After this departure, she would never see them again for the rest of her life—yet her heart held no reluctance, only overflowing joy.

Soon she joined Xu Chen and the envoy delegation. Outside the ceremonial gate of the Mu residence, Sha Dingzhou came out to see them off, bidding farewell to Xu Chen as warmly as if they were old friends of many years. "I take my leave." Xu Chen clasped his hands in salute.

Just as Mu Ning took a step forward, Sha Dingzhou grabbed her hand and said with a smile: "She is my beloved concubine. Esteemed envoy, do not take what another man cherishes." Xu Chen's face filled with astonishment, and he hurriedly said: "Chieftain, last night you..."

Sha Dingzhou smiled a smile that did not reach his eyes and said: "Yesterday I drank too much. What I said and what I did, I can no longer recall clearly. I hope the esteemed envoy will not take it to heart."

"No!" Xu Chen said urgently.

"Hm?" Sha Dingzhou's expression gradually turned cold. The Sha soldiers around them slowly closed in, hands resting on their sword hilts.

Xu Chen dared not disregard General Qin's instructions, and even less dared to sabotage Great Xia's plan to suppress the rebellion.

He looked at Mu Ning with guilt. Mu Ning's face was deathly pale as she looked back at him, her lips trembling: "Esteemed envoy... safe travels."

With those words, tears streamed down her face.

Xu Chen looked around and saw the Sha soldiers drawing ever closer. He could only take a deep breath and say: "Farewell."

He led the delegation slowly out of the manor.

Sha Dingzhou released her hand and turned back into the manor. He did not care whether Mu Ning stayed or left. The woman was pretty enough, but every time they went to bed, she lay like a dead fish, utterly unresponsive. He had long since grown tired of her.

Still, she was after all a member of the Mu family. If he simply gave her away, who could guarantee that Pu and Wu would not start thinking things?

Mu Ning stood frozen in place, watching the delegation until the great gates closed and she could no longer see them. Only then did she turn woodenly and suddenly hurl herself at the stone steps. With a dull thud, blood splattered on the spot.

Sha Dingzhou heard the sound, turned to glance back, and paid it no mind at all, continuing on his way laughing and chatting with his subordinates.

Soon, the three envoy delegations returned from Yunnan. Their observations along the way were compiled into intelligence reports, sent to Guilin, and then transmitted by beacon signal to the General Staff Headquarters.

For days on end, the signal arms on the relay stations swung without cease. Even the common folk of Guangzhou could smell the faint scent of a coming storm.

At the same time, the Ministry of War requisitioned large numbers of civilian mules, horses, and supplies for transport to Guangxi. For a time, cargo ships crowded the Pearl River without end, and vast quantities of grain, medicine, and gunpowder converged on Nanning.

Qin Liangyu returned to Guilin and secretly conscripted five thousand wolf soldiers to garrison Nanning Prefecture, where they trained in coordination with the five thousand garrison troops already stationed there. Meanwhile, the General Staff ordered the First, Second, and Third Battalions of the Great Xia New Army—more than fifteen thousand men in total—to move into Nanning with heavy firepower. The Prince of Jingjiang, who had been captured earlier rather than killed, finally proved useful. Lin Qian issued a specific order to have the Prince of Jingjiang, Zhu Luhu, escorted back to Guilin for trial, with the Great Xia Times running follow-up coverage of the public trial.

The people of Guangxi hated the Prince of Jingjiang to the marrow of their bones. Holding a public trial now would help the common folk build trust in Great Xia, laying the groundwork of popular support for the subsequent recruitment of local militia and mobilization of the people.

Moreover, as military preparations grew ever more complete, the Great Xia Times also launched its propaganda offensive.

Many common folk naively believed that the Sha-Pu Rebellion was Yunnan's affair, with nothing to do with Guangdong and Guangxi.

Only after reading the newspapers did they learn that the recent rise in salt prices was all because the rebels had cut off the Yunnan-Guangxi salt road.

And with it, the copper, tin, tea, medicine, cloth, iron, and porcelain trades all fell into depression together as the trade routes were severed.

A few days later, Feng Menglong and his family were brought to Guangzhou.

Though this journey was voluntary on his part, it carried an undercurrent of coercion. As he set foot on the Guangzhou docks, feeling anxious and lost, a squad of personal guards came up to him. "The King wants to see you. Come at once." Without waiting for a word, they hustled Feng Menglong toward Lin Qian's residence.

Upon entering the residence, Lin Qian was holding a copy of *Stories to Caution the World*, reading it with appreciation.

Feng Menglong stepped forward, clasped his hands in salute. Lin Qian set down the book and looked him over.

The man before him was gaunt and thin, with sharply defined features, graying hair and beard, showing signs of age. He wore a round-collared scholar's robe—the very image of an old, impoverished xiucai, utterly unremarkable.

Lin Qian put down the book and pointed at its cover, saying: "In this edition of the Legend of the White Snake, you've made Lady White the protagonist and turned Fahai into the villain. Why did you make such changes?"

Feng Menglong was momentarily at a loss for words, unsure what King Xia meant—whether such changes were good or bad.

He subtly raised his eyes to steal a glance at King Xia's expression, only to find King Xia staring at him with piercing eyes, causing Feng Menglong's heart to panic as he hastily lowered his head. Lin Qian searched through the bookshelf nearby, picked up a copy of *Qingshi* (History of Love), opened the preface, and read aloud: "'If heaven and earth were without feeling, nothing would be born. If all things were without feeling, they could not give rise to one another in endless cycles.' You wrote this, didn't you? You're quite skilled at writing love stories?"

Feng Menglong's heart tightened, but he decided to throw caution to the wind and said: "To answer Your Highness, this humble one's 'feeling' by no means refers solely to romantic love between men and women, but rather the sincere true nature of all things under heaven—the love between father and son, the bond between brothers..."

Lin Qian interrupted: "In simple terms, you're opposing 'preserving heavenly principle and extinguishing human desire,' am I right?"

Feng Menglong said: "Your Highness sees clearly."

Lin Qian said: "I have a story I want you to write. Pour all your literary power, true feeling, and skill into it, and let me see what you're truly capable of. I'll give you one night."

"Yes." Feng Menglong knew he had no room to refuse.

"Come in." Lin Qian called out, and Xu Chen entered from outside the door. "Have him tell you this story."

The next morning, Lin Qian came to the room to inspect the results.

Manuscript pages were scattered all over the floor, and Feng Menglong was staring out the window muttering to himself, occasionally laughing or sighing and weeping.

Meanwhile, Xu Chen sat in a daze, as if his very soul had been drained away.

Lin Qian walked to Feng Menglong's desk, picked up the final draft and read it—it was indeed a fine story. He then had his personal guards deliver it to the newspaper office, and said to Feng Menglong: "I have decided to appoint you as Editor-in-Chief of the Great Xia Times. From now on, devote yourself to your creative work."

Just as Lin Qian was about to leave, a sudden thud sounded behind him. He turned to see Xu Chen kneeling on the ground, saying: "I beg Your Majesty to let me join the army."

Geng Wu said: "Absurd! Do you think just anyone can join the Great Xia Army?"

Xu Chen's eyes were red, and his tone was resolute as he said: "I promised that girl I would bring her back. I must bring her back with my own hands! I beg Your Majesty to grant my wish."

Lin Qian said: "During this diplomatic mission, you endured humiliation and brought back intelligence—well done. Report to the Foreign Affairs Bureau and be assigned as a military attaché." "Thank you, Your Majesty, for granting my wish!" Xu Chen kowtowed deeply.

A day later, the Great Xia Times published a special edition, with the front-page headline reading: *The Sunflower of the Waters*.

The article was written from the personal experiences of the envoy Xu Chen, telling the story of a woman who went from innocent and carefree, to being seized by rebels, to stubbornly saving herself while holding onto hope, and finally, as hope shattered, sacrificing herself for the greater good.

The story differed slightly from Xu Chen's actual experiences, but its power to move readers to tears was more than equal to the truth.

In Erhai Lake in Yunnan, there grows a flower that lives in the mud beneath the water, blooms upon the surface, opens in the morning and closes at dusk—light and agile.

This flower only grows in clean water: when the water is clear it thrives, when the water is polluted it withers, preferring death to mingling with filth. Because of its purity and freedom, the locals call it the "sunflower of the waters."

At the end of the article, the author used the flower as a metaphor for people: one sunflower has fallen—where will the rest of the sunflowers go from here?

This article was written by none other than Feng Menglong, who excelled at writing about love and was especially skilled at portraying women.

The article noted it was adapted from real events, and deliberately blurred the woman's background in the writing, portraying her as utterly pure, like a girl next door. When she died, readers' hearts shattered along with hers.

The moment the article was published, the entire city was thrown into an uproar. The people's hearts blazed with towering fury against the Yunnan rebels, and everyone cried out for the culprits to be severely punished. In teahouses and taverns, the topic of conversation had become entirely the Shapu calamity.

On the fifteenth of September, the Great Xia Times published another new article, *Bringing Yunnan Home*. The title was gentle, but the writing was razor-sharp, compiling all the horrors the three envoy routes had witnessed along the way into a list of crimes printed in the paper—unmistakably a blood-and-iron declaration of war.

At the same time, the end of the article confirmed that Great Xia had officially dispatched troops against the Shapu rebels.

Even as the people were reading the newspaper, Qin Liangyu's vanguard had already crossed the provincial border, driving straight toward Fuzhou!

In a corner of Guangzhou city, inside a large traditional house, Zhu Yixun burst into the room excitedly, newspaper in hand.

"Grandfather, look! King Xia has finally sent troops!"

Zhu Yixun's face was flushed as he rushed to Zhu Xieyuan's side, placed the newspaper on the table, pointed at the passage confirming Great Xia's dispatch of troops, and read it out word by word.

After Zhu Xieyuan heard it, his heart was filled with mixed emotions. If it had been the Great Ming dispatching troops, he would have kowtowed to the north and praised Your Majesty's sagely wisdom.

But of all people, it was King Xia who had sent troops—how could it be King Xia?

Zhu Yixun, paying no attention to his grandfather's expression, merely murmured: "Wonderful! Yunnan is saved!"

Zhu Xieyuan could not utter a single word, only a long sigh. He picked up the newspaper again and looked—on the back of the declaration, there was the latest progress on the public trial of the Prince of Jingjiang. Over three hundred commoners who had been oppressed by the Prince of Jingjiang had testified in court, and more than a dozen former county magistrates, three former prefects, and even the former Guangxi Provincial Administration Commissioner, Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, and Regional Military Commissioner had all given their confessions.

From the minor crime of breaking a servant's leg to the major crime of embezzling over a thousand mu of farmland, every evil deed had been dragged out and exposed to the bottom.

His list of crimes was so long that the newspaper could not even fit them all.

The variety of his methods for extorting wealth and the sheer number of his private torture techniques defied the limits of imagination.

The newspaper said that when the Prince of Jingjiang faced the witnesses' accusations, he at first denied everything and raged in the courtroom; a day later he fell silent; then he wept bitterly, kowtowed and begged for mercy; in recent days he had become completely numb, like a puppet on strings, going along with whatever happened.

Zhu Xieyuan's brow furrowed tighter and tighter, and in his pent-up distress, he broke into another fit of coughing.

Zhu Yixun patted his back to help him, while Zhu Xieyuan pointed at the trial report with trembling fingers: "Think back to the old days—when Zhu Wenzheng held Hongdu and with just over ten thousand men withstood Chen Youliang's six hundred thousand-strong army by land and water, what heroic spirit that was! How could his descendants have fallen so low!"

Zhu Yixun offered a few words of comfort.

Since Hongdu had come up, he casually remarked: "Grandson has heard that when the Xia army attacked Nanchang, it took them less than ten days in total—they didn't even use siege ladders. They just blasted down a few sections of the city wall, and the Ming army surrendered."

"Cough, cough, cough..." Zhu Xieyuan coughed uncontrollably again.

Zhu Yixun patted his back while saying: "Grandson knows Grandfather doesn't like hearing these words, but Grandson still must say them—the Xia replacing the Ming is the tide of the times. Why must Grandfather..."

"Cough... Silence!"

"Why must Grandfather stubbornly cling to the duty of a subject? Even a loyal general like General Qin turned from darkness to light, didn't she?"

"Silence! Silence!"

"Now Yunnan is in chaos, with Shapu and An Bangyan responding to each other from afar. The entire southwest is on the verge of collapse. King Xia is sending troops to the southwest now—not for the private interests of one family, but for the survival of Huaxia, for the people of the world! Even if Grandfather surrenders, no one in the world would say a single word against you!" "Cough, cough, cough..." Zhu Xieyuan coughed harder and harder, his face turning red, barely able to catch his breath.

Zhu Yixun poured him a cup of hot tea, but still continued: "Pacifying the chieftains and stabilizing the southwest—isn't that also the wish Grandfather has held for over ten years? Grandfather has fought campaigns across the land for this, exhausting every ounce of thought. Have you never asked yourself whether you do this for the Zhu family, or for the world?"

"Smack!" Zhu Xieyuan violently knocked the teacup to the ground and roared: "Silence! You wretch, kneel before me!"

Zhu Yixun knelt upon hearing this, but his mouth kept going: "If Grandfather is angry, strike me then—but the truth cannot be bent by blows. Even if Grandfather beats me to death, the truth remains the truth!"

"Fine! I'll—today—today—" Zhu Xieyuan, consumed by rage, looked around for a suitable weapon.

Just then, the doorman came to report: "Master, there are people outside the gate..."

Halfway through his sentence, the doorman saw Zhu Xieyuan holding a feather duster upside down and froze.

"What?" Zhu Xieyuan bellowed.

The doorman hurriedly said: "Visitors have arrived—it's King Xia and the Duke of Qian!"

Yahei

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