Chapter 1383: Standing Alone [1]

In the central courtyard garden of the King of Liang's Mansion.

The flowers that bloomed in autumn and the green leaves had long since fallen, leaving only the trunks and branches standing in the cold wind.

The ground was covered with a layer of white snow.

Except for the wooden corridors and the gray-white stone pavilions, the crystalline snowflakes reflected golden, silver, and white light under the sunlight.

A string of footprints extended from the back courtyard to the octagonal stone pavilion in the central garden.

In the stone pavilion, Duan Yu, dressed in a black python robe with a black cloak over his shoulders, sat quietly on a stone stool.

In front of him, a pot of hot tea was brewing.

Duan Yu sat in the due west position.

Besides the cup in front of him,

there was also a cup in the due north and due east positions.

Duan Yu picked up a wooden spoon and filled the two cups with steaming tea.

Then he filled his own cup.

The heat broke through the cold current, hitting his face and condensing into white frost on his eyebrows.

Blowing away the heat, Duan Yu took a sip of the hot tea.

Compared to when he was furious upon receiving the news of Cao Cao's death, Duan Yu appeared extremely calm at this moment.

It was just like an ordinary morning on an ordinary day.

Drinking the tea in the cup wasn't enough to dispel the cold in his body, so Duan Yu reached out to wrap his cloak tighter, then poured himself another cup of tea.

"You two... in the first half of your lives, you were friends in Luoyang, and in the second half, you fought for the world. From friends to enemies... in the end, one was angered to death, and the other was worn out to death..."

"I, well, it's not that I haven't thought about whether one day we would fight on the battlefield just like in history, and it's not that I haven't thought about one day you might turn against me, like in the Battle of Guandu."

"But who would have thought that you two would leave first."

Duan Yu continued to pick up the wooden spoon to pour himself another cup of hot tea and held it in his palms.

The wind and snow in the sky grew heavier, covering the entire Chang'an.

It also made the heat of the tea brewing in this octagonal pavilion seem even more lonely and striking.

Before he transmigrated, the Cao Cao that Duan Yu knew was the "Cao Ren-wife" who sacrificed his beloved general and eldest son for a woman in the Battle of Wancheng.

He was the treacherous hero who liked to kill in his dreams and shouted, "I would rather betray the world than let the world betray me."

He was the great lord Cao Mengde who conquered the world and swept across the north.

Similarly, before he transmigrated, the Yuan Shao that Duan Yu knew was the leader of the alliance of eighteen lords against Dong, the northern hegemon who possessed the four provinces of Hebei.

He was also the Yuan Alliance Leader who was indecisive, not good at making decisions, and repeatedly played a good hand of cards into a mess.

But these were not what Duan Yu saw after he transmigrated.

Because at this time, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were still young.

Cao Cao's greatest ambition was to become a General of the West, to open up territory for the Great Han, and he was still full of passion, serving the country.

At this time, Yuan Shao was still a concubine-born son of the Yuan family, with a bleak future, a concubine-born son of no importance in the Yuan clan.

Yuan Shao might have thought about proving himself through hard work, but a concubine-born son was a concubine-born son.

Yuan Ji was ranked among the Nine Ministers, Yuan Shu was the Tiger-Brave Commander, while Yuan Shao, using all his strength, could only become a Magistrate of Puyang, as if he were being exiled.

To fight for an opportunity for himself, Yuan Shao resigned from the position of Magistrate of Puyang and returned to Luoyang.

He made friends and cultivated a reputation, but he was never even one-ten-thousandth of Yuan Ji and Yuan Shu, and could only remain idle at home.

The phrase "distinction between legitimate and concubine-born" seemed to have branded Yuan Shao's life.

If not for the changes in the world, perhaps no matter how hard he tried, it would all be in vain.

Yuan Shao's trip to Liangzhou at the time seemed like a good choice, but in reality, it was just a gamble for his future.

In this regard, Yuan Shao's situation and encounters were not even as good as Cao Cao's. ===== CHAPTER 1385 =====