Su Rong remained silent.
Dr. Zhang anxiously said, "Moreover, even if you held a knife or a sword now, how many could you actually kill?"
Su Rong felt the comment was without fault, nodding her head in agreement, "Fine, we won’t resort to violence."
She looked at Zhou Gu, "Listen to Dr. Zhang, anyone he says won’t fight, won’t be allowed on the battlefield today. DaWei’s city-attacking cannon is already destroyed. We’ll find another way to defend the City Gate. If not, we should retreat from Heiya Pass."
Zhou Gu nodded, stating how the people of the Evil Ghost Sect, adept at Mechanism Techniques, had been reinforcing the city walls, "Dawei doesn’t have their city-attacking cannon anymore, it won’t easily breach the city."
Su Rong was pleasantly surprised, "The Evil Ghost Sect is so formidable?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
"Yes, according to my cousin, they are very useful." Zhou Gu said: "You rest today, I will go to the City Gate later."
"I will come too." Su Rong said.
Zhou Gu looked at her.
Immediately, Su Rong stated, "I have to go. As long as I can stand, I have to cheer for our soldiers."
"Alright!" Zhou Gu didn’t persist since she was a princess.
Seeing their agreement and both resolving to avoid violence, Dr. Zhang was relieved. After giving a few more instructions, he turned and left.
Lan Zhi brought two bowls of medicine and handed one to each, Su Rong and Zhou Gu.
Su Rong took hers and drank it in one gulp. Looking at Zhou Gu pinching his nose, his face showing disgust, she felt sympathy. He had probably suffered more injuries and ingested more medicine in these few months in Nanchu than in his entire life. She signaled Lan Zhi, who quickly brought a plate of honey preserves.
Su Rong picked one and, after Zhou Gu finished drinking, shoved it in his mouth.
Zhou Gu was taken aback and then immediately asked her, "Did you wash your hands?"
Su Rong: "..."
Sorry, she hadn’t.
Zhou Gu looked at her and still ate the honey preserve anyway, "You’re not hungry, are you?" He took a piece of preserve and fed Su Rong. He then told Lan Zhi, "Have someone serve some food. Also, arrange for a carriage, we’ll head out to the City Gate later."
Lan Zhi softly agreed and immediately left.
Zhou Gu walked to the washstand by the window, wet a cloth, returned, and draped it over Su Rong’s face and hands, "I can’t carry the basin of clean water, so please bear with me."
Su Rong obediently nodded letting him clean her face and hands, she softly said, "Zhou Gu, life is great."
Zhou Gu paused, showing no sign of anger. "Yes, let’s be alive. You’re not allowed to make decisions for me in the future."
"Alright." Su Rong touched his face with her hand, "At that time, I didn’t think much. In hindsight, if I had died, your revenge wouldn’t have meant much. What if in a fit of anger, you decided not to take revenge, returned to Daliang and found someone new, forgetting about me? That would be a great loss for me."
Zhou Gu laughed, "If you had worried about this sooner, we wouldn’t be in this mess."
Withdrawing her hand, Su Rong solemnly said, "I will take this as a lesson and not repeat it."
Zhou Gu was satisfied, "These are your words."
Su Rong assured him, "My words."
Lan Zhi quickly brought the food. Zhou Gu reached out to feed Su Rong, but she stopped him, "You rest! I will do it myself."
Looking at his pale face, she was not completely incapacitated. If she was not even able to eat on her own, she certainly should not leave her room to go to the City Gate today.
Zhou Gu didn’t insist when she declined. Sitting by the bed, he watched her eat.
Su Rong was indeed hungry and quickly devoured the meal. Zhou Gu couldn’t help but tell her to slow down a few times, but she could see DaWei was probably about to attack the city, and she needed to hurry alongside Zhou Gu.
Sure enough, as soon as she finished eating and arranged everything, a messenger came with the news that DaWei had begun attacking.
Supported by Lan Zhi, and Zhou Gu assisted by a guard left by Cui Yanjin, they quickly boarded a carriage and headed for the City Gate.
Upon their arrival, they found DaWei’s attack fierce although Nanchu’s forces were decidedly calm. The newly fortified parts of the city wall sporadically unleashed arrows and hidden weapons. DaWei’s forces couldn’t even reach the wall.
Cui Xingzhi was commanding from the City Wall with Zhang Yun by his side. Ning Ze and Zhang Mao were in charge of rear supplies.
The people from the Evil Ghost Sect continuously fed arrows and hidden weapons into their mechanisms from behind the line. Apart from a few soldiers, many of the troops were held back in strategic reserve.
Though Su Rong had learned to solve Mechanism Techniques, this was the first time she had seen them utilized on a battlefield. She let out a smile, telling Zhou Gu, "It seems we are safe today."
Zhou Gu also smiled, "My younger cousin brought the entire Evil Ghost Sect crew. He said his grandfather gave him all these people to take care of and asked if we could keep him in Nanchu."
"Of course." Su Rong answered without hesitation, "With so many capable people, it would be foolish to let them go."
After saying this, she looked at Zhou Gu. Seeing that Nanchu now held the advantage and didn’t fear a siege from DaWei, she was in the mood to chat. "What about Cui Xingzhi? Will he stay?"
"He and my cousin were planning to surrender to you from the beginning." Zhou Gu briefly explained how his mother, upon finding he had a gloomy outlook in Nanchu, sought his grandfather, who decided to dispatch Cui Xingzhi to assist and eventually pledge loyalty to him, thus making a better future for the Cui Family.
Su Rong was surprised, "Your grandfather made such a decision, it’s quite..."
"Unexpected, isn’t it?" Zhou Gu looked at her, "Indeed, it was surprising, but not entirely so. The Qinghe Cui family has been declining for two generations in Daliang. If my cousins don’t improve their prospects, then they will fall. The Crown Prince is not very fond of deeply-rooted aristocratic families, tying their hands. Even my grandfather’s plan to leverage me to restore the Cui family’s prestige in Qinghe would probably be difficult to achieve. I couldn’t oppose the Crown Prince for my maternal grandfather, despite learning the principles of governing. My grandfather understands this but didn’t have a way out, so he had to take things one step at a time."
Su Rong realized, "So, compared to your grandfather, your maternal grandfather is more accepting of you being my royal consort in Nanchu?"
"Yes," Zhou Gu nodded. "After all, if you could accept Ye Xiang Residence, then you wouldn’t care if an aristocratic family was big or small, or if it handcuffed you. And my maternal grandfather probably also thought my being your royal consort would not disgrace me."
Su Rong chuckled, "That’s true. I don’t care. As long as they can be used by me, can benefit the people of Nanchu, and help the nation prosper and the military strengthen, I don’t mind."
What she cared about was when she could swallow DaWei and erase it from this world.
Zhou Gu sighed, "So my maternal grandfather was decisive in sending Xingzhi over. While it was to help me, it was also a gamble for the Cui family, hoping for a better future."
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