Chapter 358 Resentment
Shen Yuexi ran towards the central army in small steps. The soldier who came to report the news followed her, and the others followed behind them.
"Princess An, please be careful not to fall."
"It's okay. What did your sister quarrel with the other party about?"
"I don't know for sure. I just heard them exchange a few words, and then they started arguing," the sergeant complained. "Military Advisor Shen still lacks the aura of our king. If it were our king, he would have killed the envoy if he dared to yell at him like that. The military advisor didn't even bother calling out to the guards, and he got into a verbal fight with the other party."
Shen Yuexi was also puzzled. Why would her sister argue with an envoy? The sergeant's explanation was unclear, so she had to go to the scene to take a look.
She ran to the big tent in a hurry, thinking that the two women were arguing and there would be constant shouting and cursing inside, but no sound came out at all. At first glance, it seemed as if there was no one inside.
"Isn't there a quarrel going on inside?" she stopped and asked the guard at the door. "What's the quarrel about?"
She wanted to understand the situation first so she wouldn't be completely in the dark. The person who brought the news couldn't understand it, but the guards were outside the tent, so they should be able to hear it clearly.
The guards stood straight, smiled at her with respect, and shook their heads to indicate that they did not understand her questions.
Shen Yuexi thought to herself that she was also confused. When her sister commanded the battles, she would speak to the captains who knew the Great Yan language, and then they would command their thousand-man divisions. Most of the Western Rong soldiers didn't understand the Great Yan language, so asking them was useless.
She opened the curtain and entered the tent. She saw Chen Lan and Su Mo standing face to face, several feet apart, staring at each other like crickets fighting. Neither of them spoke, but she could tell at a glance that the atmosphere between them was tense, as if they had just finished a quarrel and were gathering steam.
She was surprised to find that the messenger sent by Xiao Beiheng was actually Su Mo. She had assumed that with the two armies at war, there was no chance they would ever meet again, but she hadn't expected to see each other here. No wonder the guards couldn't intervene; everyone knew about her relationship with Su Mo, and Chen Lan was naturally aware of it as well. Since she couldn't resort to swords and guns, she could only resort to words.
She shouted happily, "Sister-in-law."
Before she could take a step, Shen Lan said angrily: "Sister, don't shout nonsense, she is our enemy now, she is here on behalf of Xiao Beiheng."
Seeing that Shen Lan was unhappy, Shen Yuexi stopped and said, "Sister, what happened? What are you arguing about?"
Su Mo turned around and saw her entering the tent. She said, "Sister-in-law, look! This is your biological sister. I saved her before. What does she think of me?"
"Then I really should thank you," Chen Lan raised the prosthetic hand on her left arm, "It's all thanks to your vicious husband. Not only did I become a widow, but I also lost my left hand."
"Why, if it weren't for me, you would have died at that celebration party, and you still had the chance to act pretentiously in front of me."
"God knows what you were really thinking at that time. What were you doing when Xiao Beiheng imprisoned my sister? If Ji Yunyan hadn't saved her, my sister might have been dead."
"My husband has inherited the throne and is the Emperor of Great Yan. How dare you be so rude to me!"
"It's funny. You're attacking me now. Do you think I still care about your identity? I would still do the same even if Xiao Beiheng came."
Seeing that the two refused to give in, Shen Yuexi was suddenly at a loss and didn't know what to do.
Judging from the argument between the two, it seems that the cause was Chen Lan's disrespect to Su Mo, and Su Mo was very angry.
Chen Lan was her biological sister, and she remembered her sister as always being arrogant and domineering since she was little. Later, she married Xiao Kai, the Prince of Jing, and suffered repeated abuse from him, which softened her personality. When she rescued Chen Lan from Yongwei, she felt that she was a powerless and weak woman, always acting like a punching bag.
Now, Chen Lan seemed to have reverted to her old ways, speaking aggressively and looking at her with disdain. On the bright side, this meant that Chen Lan's behavior had returned to normal. But anyone else would have been furious to see her like that; she'd been scolded like that by Chen Lan many times as a child. Su Mo, who had always had a good temper, was now furious at Chen Lan, clearly because he'd gone too far.
Shen Yuexi decided to persuade Shen Lan first and said, "Sister, calm down first. We need to talk it over." Shen Lan glared at her and said, "Sister, are you going to betray me and help the enemy?"
Just one sentence left Shen Yuexi speechless.
Su Mo sneered beside him, "Oh, it seems like you scolded your sister a lot when you were little. No wonder the Duke of Zhenguo gave his sister-in-law to your eldest brother. With a sister as domineering as you..."
"Shut up," Chen Lan turned around and continued to talk to Su Mo, "I'm talking to my sister, what right do you have to do that?"
Seeing that Shen Lan was furious, Shen Yuexi had no choice but to turn to Su Mo: "Sister-in-law, I am very angry. For my sake, please stop arguing."
"She was the one who disrespected me first, why should I give in to her?" Su Mo started to rage, "She has no manners at all. If you don't know her, you'd think she came from some rural area, not to mention that I saved her before. Is this how she treats her benefactor?"
"Benefactor? Benefactor brings an army of hundreds of thousands to attack us?"
"This is a different time now, and besides, I'm not the one leading the army! Are you a dog that bites everyone you see?"
Seeing that the two of them were completely ignoring her and were getting more and more aggressive, Shen Yuexi felt that if this continued, they would definitely scratch each other's faces with their nails. She frowned and came up with an idea. She covered her lower abdomen with her hands, bent over and screamed.
This frightened the two people who were quarreling, and they ran towards her at the same time.
"What's wrong with my sister?" Chen Lan supported her arm and said, "Hurry up and sit down." Su Mo turned around to move a chair and complained, "It's all your fault. You yelled and scared my sister-in-law's child."
Shen Yuexi frowned and said, "My stomach suddenly hurts badly."
Neither Chen Lan nor Su Mo had ever given birth, and they had no idea what was happening. They were both panicked, helping Chen Yuexi sit down. Su Mo asked, "Is she about to give birth? Let's find a doctor." Chen Lan said, "If we need to find someone, we should find a midwife. How can a military doctor treat this?"
Seeing that the two had stopped arguing, Shen Yuexi was afraid that she had overacted and frightened them, so she looked up and smiled, "It's much better after sitting down. Maybe the baby is upset because you've been standing for too long. It's only been a few months, it's impossible to give birth."
"Oh, that's good. You scared me." Chen Lan straightened up.
Su Mo showed a look of sudden enlightenment: "Sister-in-law, you used that trick again."
The two looked up on either side of Shen Yuexi and met each other. Shen Lan remembered what Su Mo had said just now and suddenly became angry again. "What did you say about me just now? How dare you call me a dog?"
Su Mo stared at Chen Lan without giving in: "Humans understand etiquette and rules, but dogs are beasts and don't understand these things. They bark wildly when they see people."
"You... you're making me so angry. Don't think I won't dare to touch you just because Yue Xi is here."
"You think you can touch me?" Su Mo sneered. "This is the first time I've seen a commander of an army that is about to be defeated act so arrogantly."
"I just have to shout and the guards will come in and arrest you."
"Do you think I'm the kind of loser who gets scared to death by the sight of swords? Back then, the Northern Di assassin was only inches away from me, and I wasn't afraid. You can try it yourself!"
Shen Yuexi raised her head and sighed deeply. After only a few seconds of silence, the two of them started fighting again. Although she was there, the two of them should not get serious, but neither of them would stop.
Both of them were extremely angry. Could it be that they had resentment pent up in their hearts that they needed to vent?
Leading the Western Rong army to hold off an attack by a hundred thousand men must have been incredibly stressful for her. If she couldn't hold out, Xiao Zhuo's army would be in danger of being surrounded and cut off from the rear. And Qiang Lin's reckless attack from the start meant Shen Lan had to hold out for fifteen days with only seven thousand men. Perhaps this was the source of her rage.
But what happened to Su Mo? She was always cheerful and lively, so what happened to her?
A trace of gloom passed through her heart. Could it be that Xiao Beiheng had hit Su Mo again? Su Mo was full of grievances and had nowhere to vent them. When she came here, she was treated with disrespect by her sister Chen Lan. That's why she became like this?
Thinking of this, Shen Yuexi raised her hands and held them between them. Taking advantage of the moment of pause, she said to Su Mo, "Did he hit you again?"
Su Mo's face was originally full of anger, but when she heard Shen Yuexi's question, her face changed and she lowered her head and said, "No, he didn't." Shen Yuexi stood up, held Su Mo's hand and said gently, "Tell me the truth, did he hit you again?"
Chen Lan, who was standing behind him, also stopped talking and lowered her voice, "Did Xiao Beiheng hit her?"
"He's done it many times," Shen Yuexi turned around and said to Shen Lan, "He would slap her face until it was swollen. I saw it with my own eyes, and there might be more that I don't know about."
This sentence reminded Su Mo of the scene where she was beaten by Xiao Beiheng. She felt wronged and painful, and sobbed softly on Shen Yuexi's shoulder.
After Chen Lan married Xiao Kai, she was often abused by him and finally escaped from the sea of suffering. Now, hearing that Su Mo had suffered the same treatment, she was the one who could understand this pain firsthand, and she felt sympathy for Su Mo, and her anger towards her disappeared in an instant.
"I didn't expect that even you would suffer this." Chen Lan walked up to Su Mo, pulled up her sleeves, revealing the scars on her arms. Those were the marks left by Xiao Kai's whipping, leaving indelible marks on her skin.
Then she placed the metal prosthetic hand on Su Mo's back.
The three of them hugged each other, and the tent became quiet. Only Su Mo's soft sobs could be heard.
Shen Yuexi said: "Sister-in-law, I know you have been wronged. If you have something pent up in your heart, you will feel better if you cry."
Su Mo cried, "He didn't hit me, but it hurts me more than if he did. These past few days, I've been living like a year... I just want to come and talk to you. If I don't say it now, I feel like I won't be able to hold on any longer."
"Sister-in-law, no matter what your purpose is in coming here, don't go back." Shen Yuexi supported Su Mo's shoulders. "You also know what your brother did in the Anzhou hunting ground, and you also know what your mother did. They have all lost their minds."
Su Mo cried, "I know everything, but I don't know what to do. I don't know what I should do."
"Leave them," Shen Yuexi said, "Just like my sister, that man doesn't deserve you."
Chen Lan pulled out a silk handkerchief from her bosom and wiped Su Mo's tears: "If you are still with him, he will definitely become more violent. If he hits you today, he will do something even worse tomorrow."
"How can I leave?" Su Mo said, "He said that if you don't surrender, he will lead the army to attack here in person tomorrow morning. If I don't go back, he will definitely attack the mountain overnight."
Shen Yuexi said: "It's okay, I will find a way. I will take you, my sister, and all of us away from here."
After saying that, Shen Yuexi turned her head to look at the ray of moonlight filtering through the curtain at the door.
As she said, she was determined to take Su Mo, Chen Lan, and these 7,000 Xirong soldiers away from here. Holding on for 15 days was already an impossible task, and now she had to protect these people and successfully escape from Xiao Beiheng's army.
This was her promise to Hu Gubie, and also her promise to Shen Lan and Su Mo.
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