His voice was cold and tense.
"Didn't you want him dead?"
He took a step forward, and she took a step back.
"You said that Liu Qi must die."
Before long, she was cornered against the wall.
He gritted his teeth: "He's dead now, aren't you satisfied?"
Su Wanwan stared at him with wide eyes in terror, her voice trembling with panic: "What do you want?"
Liu Qi gave a cold laugh.
What does he want?
Wasn't she always calm, composed, strategic, aloof, and someone to be admired from afar?
Why do you look like a frightened little rabbit now, so easy to bully?
With that thought in mind, he had already made his move, his slender fingers, calloused from the touch, pinching her chin.
What do I want?
"What, are you afraid I'll kill you, or afraid I'll kill your son?"
Su Wanwan's pupils contracted sharply.
He knew that Yan Ge'er was in Datong?!
She grabbed his sleeve in a panic, "No!"
"You want money and an official position? I can promise you anything!"
"Don't hurt my son!"
Liu Qi pursed her lips.
She has changed.
She transformed into a weak and pitiful little woman.
It no longer has that strong outer shell.
He curled his lip in a mocking smile, "You'd be happy to have me?"
Su Wanwan froze, and after a few moments, she said, "You're not that kind of person."
Liu Qi's dark eyes slowly swept over him. "Do you know who I am?"
Su Wanwan suppressed her racing heart and looked into his eyes: "I can feel it."
Liu Qi placed his hands on the wall next to her and stared straight at her.
Their eyes met.
Su Wanwan's heart skipped a beat as she looked into his dark, deep pupils.
It's like I understood something, but it's also like I didn't understand anything at all.
After a moment of silence, Liu Qi lazily let go and turned to fetch water from the yard.
After calming herself down for a while, Su Wanwan walked to his side and asked, "What's your name now?"
"It's not important," Liu Qi replied lazily.
"Then how can I find you in the future?" Su Wanwan mustered up her courage and asked again.
Liu Qi poured the water from the bucket into the water vat, then came to fetch more water, without even glancing at her.
"Don't look for me anymore."
Su Wanwan clenched her hands, hesitant to speak.
What he said actually makes a lot of sense.
As a notorious and monstrous villain, he has publicly declared himself dead and is now living in seclusion in this dilapidated courtyard.
It's obvious that he doesn't want people to know about his past or disturb his peaceful life.
Why should she send someone to find him, thus exposing his identity?
He saved her today, asking for nothing in return.
That's the greatest kindness we can show her.
Finally, she simply whispered, "Okay."
Liu Qi seemed not to hear her words, and as if he had inexhaustible energy, he filled many buckets with water and poured them on the ground in the yard.
Water seeped through the cracks in the floor tiles, leaving only a thin layer of dampness.
...
The mobile force dispatched by Lu Xingjian did not arrive near Datong until the next day.
The walls of Datong were sturdy, and the Tatar cavalry could not breach the city in a single day.
Seeing the pursuers approaching, they did not linger in battle and quickly retreated.
Because the flags were burned, Shi Yuan had some difficulty mobilizing the soldiers in the forts outside Datong City, but he was still very efficient in mobilizing the soldiers inside Datong City.
As night fell, Da Jinong Bals, the right wing of the Northern Yuan, was unable to escape the city and was captured alive.
Without hesitation, Shi Yuan destroyed the workshop where the Prince of Dai's privately manufactured weapons, killed the person in charge of their horse trading business, and seized and burned most of the Prince of Dai's property.
The Prince of Dai was so angry that he stomped his feet.
When Lu Xingjian led his troops to the capital, the Prince of Dai made a scathing complaint, accusing Shi Yuan's son Shi Long of being licentious and dissolute, Shi Yuan of beating members of the imperial clan, and of repeatedly losing battles due to poor command. He also accused the Tatars of besieging Datong, causing countless deaths and injuries among civilians and soldiers.
Lu Xingjian personally made this trip and deeply realized that each border town only cared about its own problems and ignored the shortcomings of others.
Neither the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu nor the commander-in-chief of Datong met his requirements.
The fact that these royal family members are causing trouble in Datong makes things even more difficult.
He ordered the Censorate, the Directorate of Ceremonial, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard to jointly investigate the case of the fight between the Prince of Dai and the General of Datong, intending to reshuffle the power structure of Datong.
Su Wanwan was found by her guards in the middle of the night and returned to Lu Xingjian's side immediately.
They stayed in Datong for more than half a month and captured a lot of Tatar spies.
Some of them even contacted Ma'ang and Ma Ji specifically to inform the Tatars. Lu Xingjian encountered many problems on his journey from the capital to Xuanfu, mainly because Ma Ji bribed some of the entourage to find out the emperor's whereabouts during his incognito travels.
Some have even claimed that Maggie's son is still being raised by the Tatars.
With irrefutable evidence, the Ma family cannot escape the charge of treason and collusion with the enemy this time.
When Lu Xingjian returned to the capital with Su Wanwan and Yan Ge'er, it was already September.
"What a pity we didn't capture Dayan Khan alive this time!" Lu Xingjian sighed.
"By letting Balss go back to the mountains, aren't you just letting the father and son fight each other to the death?" Su Wanwan asked.
Lu Xingjian shook his head: "Bars is too inexperienced and no match for Dayan Khan."
"We need to think of another way. Next year, we must pin down the main force of the Tatars and annihilate them in one fell swoop, restoring ten years of peace to the Nine Border Regions!"
There's only so much labor available on the grasslands.
If most of them are wiped out this time, the next large-scale invasion of the border will have to wait until the next generation of people on the grasslands grow up.
These days, Ma Ang is living a very comfortable and carefree life in the capital, acting as if he were the emperor's brother-in-law.
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