"Don't be nervous, Major General. I'm just passing on a message. The Lu family can lend a helping hand to you. For example, food and wages." The spy spoke politely. He took off his disguise, revealing a young and even childish face.

"Go away. I'll pretend I haven't seen you." Gu Junwen slowed down her moves and took a few steps back. She didn't want to cause trouble. "Everyone serves his own master. I won't call anyone. Go away."

"The Lu family is so arrogant." Footsteps were heard, and Chu Yun's low voice abruptly interrupted the conversation between the two, cold and without a trace of warmth.

Gu Junwen turned around and saw Chu Yun walking out of the darkness with his hands behind his back, and Chu Yiru was a phantom behind him.

"He who trespassed into the Ministry of Justice and attempted to assassinate an important official of the imperial court shall be executed on the spot." Chu Yun raised his lips and spoke each word clearly. As soon as he finished speaking, a flash of white light appeared, and Chu raised his knife and slashed, and the spy fell to the ground and died.

Dark red spread on the ground, crawling into every crack in the wooden floor, wetting the floor. The bloody smell filled the air, proving that everything was not Gu Junwen's fantasy.

Chu Yun calmly adjusted his sleeves, not caring about the color under his feet. He calmly stepped over the spy's body and walked towards Gu Junwen on the blood.

"General, there is no need to panic. The assassin has been killed. What did you want to say just now?" Chu Yun stared straight into Gu Junwen's eyes. His amber eyes were calm without a trace of emotion.

"He is not..."

"Major General!" Chu Yun raised his voice and smiled gently, "This is my first lesson for you: in this world, only those who are ruthless and cruel are qualified to be merciful."

The spy's body was dragged away by Chu Yi, and the blood was wiped clean. Gu Junwen still stood there quietly, not speaking for a long time.

She kept forcing herself to digest the cruel rules of survival in Kyoto, but she couldn't do it. She only saw blood everywhere.

The next day, when Chu Yun came to Gu's house as promised and sat beside Gu Junwen to explain the essence of calligraphy to her, Gu Junwen bit the tip of the pen absentmindedly and accidentally drew a black mark on the paper.

Chu Yun's deep, magnetic voice and the clean scent of pine and bamboo on his body made her want to stay away. She could always smell the faint smell of blood that would not go away.

"Young General." Chu Yun, wearing a water-blue robe, looked up from the book, with a gentle arc in the corners of his eyes, "Calligraphy requires concentration and calmness. Young General Gu is absent-minded today. Why don't you accompany me for a walk in the courtyard?"

"All is up to the regent." Gu Junwen put down her pen. She also felt that something was wrong with her today. She should be a salted fish who doesn't care about anything. She should distinguish this place from the real world. But the blood splashed on her face, it was hot.

In the courtyard, the forsythia is in full bloom. Stubborn yellow buds are vying to emerge from the branches to welcome the spring.

"General Gu, is there such a beautiful scenery in the northern frontier?" Chu Yun plucked a branch of winter jasmine, put it in his hand and sniffed it. When he was silent, he looked like a god who walked out of a painting, noble and unattainable.

"Of course there are. At this time of year, if you are lucky, you can even find a few wintersweets." Gu Junwen absentmindedly picked up the stone under his feet and answered honestly according to the original owner's memory. The north is too cold, and she rarely went out in the three years she traveled through time.

"Don't laugh at me sleeping drunk on the battlefield. How many men have ever returned from battles in history? General Gu became famous at a young age. He must have loved the scenery of the battlefield with snow at the gate and horns ringing in the sky."

"I can't say I like it. No one likes war. I am actually looking forward to the day when I can retire and return to the countryside." Gu Junwen leaned against a tree, carefully watching the fish swimming in the water.

"Young General Gu, you must be joking. The general does not like the battlefield." Chu Yun's voice overlapped with the voice in his memory, and Gu Junwen was in a trance for a moment.

Memories are picked up from the corners of time and dusted off.

"Dad, are you kidding? Generals don't like fighting, and soldiers don't like battlefields. This is not right." The original owner sat on a white warhorse, led by his father, admiring the scenery along the way.

The desert was filled with smoke, and the mountains and rivers were vast. General Gu Yebei, whom he had never met, turned around and smiled.

"Awen, you have to remember that war is always a means, not an end. Ending war with war will bring peace to all borders. If Beiying no longer covets our northern border, I want to retire with your mother. We can live a peaceful life together as a family."

"Okay." The young Gu Junwen answered in a naive and babyish voice.

"Awen is so good." The man in the memory led the war horse and disappeared in the wind and frost.

"Young General Gu, what are you reading?" When his memory returned to reality, Gu Junwen ran into Chu Yun's gaze which was calm without any ripples.

"I'm reciting the poem my father gave me: Once a hero draws his sword, the people will suffer another ten years of disaster." Gu Junwen smiled, "My father wanted a peaceful and prosperous world with peace in all four regions and tranquility in the rivers and seas. It's a pity that he can't see it."

"General Gu would be willing to die on the battlefield." For some reason, Chu Yun suddenly thought of that person, that naive person.

"Chu Yun, what do you think would be great if one day there was no more exploitation or oppression in this world, and everyone lived equally?" In his memory, that person held his hand, stood on the top of the mountain, looking down upon the world and pointing fingers in all directions.

"What is exploitation? How can everyone be equal?" Chu Yun looked up at the man, feeling confused.

"Anyway, it's just that everyone can live a good life. Everyone has clothes to wear, food to eat, and lives with respect and dignity." That person looked serious. It was clearly an ideal world, but that person was the only one who took it seriously.

Then he failed, and even the trace of him was wiped out.

"Naive." Gu Junwen was reading with great interest using his mind-reading skills, when suddenly Chu Yun's thoughts were interrupted. He flicked his sleeves and left without even saying goodbye.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!