The barracks where the wounded soldiers were located were already overcrowded. When Lin Mo arrived, the moon hung low over the high walls.
"The King of Shu has arrived!" a soldier shouted.
Pushing open the door, Guo Wenlong called out in an unusually hoarse voice, "Your Highness..."
The fireplace inside the room burned brightly, filling the room with a somber red glow.
The heat inside the room was suffocating. Guo Wenlong lay on a bed with curtains hanging around his neck, with the most skilled military doctor by his side. Two of Guo Wenlong's generals paced anxiously in front of the closed window.
As Lin Mo walked through the room, everyone stood up straight and bowed.
"No need for formalities!" Lin Mo said. "General Guo's health..."
"Your Highness, I have done my best..." The military doctor shook his head helplessly.
Lin Mo noticed that Guo Wenlong's feet were sticking out of the blanket, still wearing boots, and that the leather was stained with blood.
The armor lay on the ground, showing signs of abandonment and covered in brownish-red grime.
The room was filled with smoke, blood, and the smell of death.
"Your Highness..." Guo Wenlong called out again, his face as pale as snow. "May I come closer? This humble servant has something... to say to you!"
Lin Mo immediately went up and sat down beside Guo Wenlong's bed.
He only needed to glance down to know how serious the injury was.
"Is it that guy?" Lin Mo asked.
"Yes!" Guo Wenlong replied weakly.
Lin Mo subconsciously pulled back the blanket.
The military doctor had done everything he could to suture him, but the effect was still not obvious.
Tang Feng was a terrifying fellow; his short sword sliced Guo Wenlong open from his abdomen all the way to his chest.
The alcohol-soaked gauze used by the military doctor to bandage the wound was stained with blood, and the smell it emitted was horrifying.
Lin Mo's stomach churned. He loosened the blanket.
“It stinks,” Guo Wenlong said. “This is the stench of death, I can smell it. This time I may really have to sacrifice myself for the Great Xia!” His smile was as astonishing as his wounds, his teeth were covered in blood.
"All of you, step back!" Lin Mo said. "Let me speak with General Guo alone!"
After everyone left, only the two of them remained in the room.
"General Guo...it's me!" Lin Mo hesitated, then stopped.
"Your Highness, I know what you're trying to say!" Guo Wenlong said. "That 'Curtain-Rolling General,' that was a punishment for me, right?"
A tuft of dusty black hair fell down and obscured his eyes. He looked up and glared at Lin Mo.
"Haha, no need for that look. This is what I deserve." He laughed halfway through, when a sudden, sharp pain struck him, turning his laughter into a muffled groan. "I was foolish for a moment, actually listening to that scoundrel Li Hu, withdrawing the border guards and letting the Dos people run rampant..."
He murmured, breathing heavily in pain. "And Mo... Mo Yuanhang. I don't know how he is...! He was right, he deserves the title of General of Great Xia."
"That assassin, perhaps, was sent by heaven to punish me..." Guo Wenlong coughed up a mouthful of blood. "Wrong, I was wrong!!!"
"No one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes!" Lin Mo comforted him. "You saved my life!"
A hint of relief appeared on Guo Wenlong's face. "Your Highness," he said weakly, raising his hand despite being in extreme pain, "Could you bring me paper and pen? I have something... I need to draw it... Here you go!"
Lin Mo glanced at Guo Wenlong curiously, then did as he was told.
He found paper and pen and laid them out in front of Guo Wenlong's bed. The latter stretched out his hand and then painstakingly drew a crooked and very strange symbol on it.
"Your Highness, if that assassin comes to kill again, just take out this item and say to him: All people suffer, but the heart is unchanging. All people must die, but those who serve the Faceless God live forever!"
Lin Mo tried hard to remember these words. Having read too many novels and watched too many movies, he knew that these were probably some kind of code from Xuanhua Palace.
"Your Highness!" Guo Wenlong gripped Lin Mo's hand tightly, squeezing it forcefully. "Shu needs you, the people of Great Xia need you!" he said. "This humble servant knows that you will surely achieve great things."
Please promise me that you will treat the people kindly, and treat the people of Great Xia kindly!
"I will!" Lin Mo assured him. "I promise you!"
Guo Wenlong closed his eyes, seemingly relaxing slightly. "If possible, please help me find my child; it should be a girl. If there's still time, please take care of her...until she comes of age!"
"Make her...better than me." He winced in pain. "God have pity on me."
“I will, my brother,” Lin Mo said. “I definitely will.”
"Thank you, Your Highness!" Guo Wenlong nodded weakly, his face full of smiles. "Heavens, why is it so cold here?"
Lin Mo hurriedly called his men to add firewood, but Guo Wenlong sank weakly into the pile of pillows and fell into a deep sleep.
He had fallen into a coma and was unable to speak.
At this moment, Lin Mo felt as if a sharp knife was churning inside his stomach.
“At first, I really wanted you dead!” he thought. “You let the Doss into the pass, causing the deaths of so many people of Great Xia!”
After that, I stripped you of your military power, humiliated you, and made you some kind of "curtain-raising general."
They also made you and your subordinates dig toilets and planned to use you as cannon fodder in the war.
But... in the end, you died saving me!
With a sigh, Lin Mo walked out of the room. "Someone!" he called to his men. "After the war, find General Guo's daughter for me!"
The subordinate frowned immediately upon hearing this, "General Guo's wife and children..."
"What's wrong?" Lin Mo realized something might be wrong.
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