Legend of Fu Yao

The soldiers looked at each other in dismay. Meng Fuyao peered at the lower ranking military officers and said meaningfully, “Prince Lie is merciful, and this is known by the world. Otherwise, he would not have been able to conquer the capital in such a short time. Now that the tides have changed, he who understands the times is a wise man. It is up to you all follow this new emperor and find success or to stick to your futile struggle, die courageously here and let your old parents and young kids have no one to depend on… You can decide for yourself!”

She no longer looked at the crowd and turned to exit. Behind her, Minister Kui angrily spat out a mouthful of saliva with blood in it and yelled, “You shameless traitor!”

“You are right.” Meng Fuyao laughed. “The person I admire most is a traitor! Now that I finally am a traitor, I cannot be happier!”

Everyone stared at this individual with unique behavior in shock. Now, this person even dared to spout such blasphemous words – that he was ‘willing to be a traitor?’ Everyone cared about, and greatly valued, their reputation. But why was this fellow not afraid of the repercussions, the rumors, and for his terrible morals to be recorded in history?

Meng Fuyao only laughed, thinking about the famous turncoat officer, the Grand Preceptor, that he could finally rest in peace!

Minister Kui continued yelling and scolding, “As loyal retainers of the imperial court, how can they just surrender without fighting…”

Pang!

Meng Fuyao grabbed a stone and shoved it in his mouth, knocking off three of his teeth. She stepped forward and retorted fiercely, “You want to be your loyal retainer? Zhan Nancheng bestowed you with riches and beauty. All your life, you have been enjoying the benefits he had given you. So if you want to remain loyal to him, no one is stopping you. But what rights do you have to force these soldiers who never once benefitted from his rule, or rather, suffered under his rule, to die with you? Zhan Nancheng had always oppressed the good and to follow the new ruler would be to do the country good! Thirty years and the wheel of fortune has finally turned. You can follow your ruler down to hell, and we will enjoy our life under the rule of the new ruler! Just wait and see!”

On the city walls, the soldiers fell silent. Only the battle cries could be heard from afar. Everyone was secretly calculating and weighing Meng Fuyao’s words. Her words had hit the nail on the head, playing on their emotions. Not only that, her straightforward words filled with righteousness won the hearts of the soldiers. Indeed, as officials of the country, they should be loyal. But why should they die? Even if they died, what about their innocent families? Furthermore, Prince Lie was renown for his love and generosity for his people. To battle and die with someone like this…

The soldiers on the city walls let their guards down. Seeing this, the opposition took the opportunity and climbed up the city walls, and he immediately attacked the first soldier beside him. That soldier saw the blade, quickly avoided with a turn and ripped off a piece of white fabric before yelling, “We surrender!”

This single sentence broke the ice and was immediately followed by waves of cheers.

“We surrender!”

The weapons clanged against each other as soldiers threw them to the ground. Some waved the white flag in the air, others fled in disorder, but a majority of them rushed down to open the city gates.

Minister Kui closed his eyes, pained. ‘The unbeatable city was finally ruined in the hands of a villain. And the city guards that were always determined to protect the capital, honored to do so, actually abandoned their weapons after listening to a few words!’

But he did not understand that circumstances, honor, love, and loyalty were the four biggest factors to conquering a person.

Meng Fuyao ignored him and smiled as she went down the stairs with Zhangsun Wuji. The Black Dragon Army’s ferocious attacks gradually died down, and hundreds of soldiers worked together to open the doors. The gigantic dark brown door slowly opened as a glimmer of light shone in. A group of black horses galloped in, stirring up the dust beneath them.

They welcomed Meng Fuyao, who made it to the last step on the stairs.

The knights on the horses were filled with dirt and dust, but their backs still remained upright, like a pine tree, as their black robes fluttered in the air.

Zhan Beiye sat upright, welcoming Meng Fuyao. The horse galloped without a stop towards her and Meng Fuyao smiled as she stood at the last step, watching Zhan Beiye’s burning gaze, waiting for his signature laugh and wave as he would yell. “Fuyao, we finally met at the capital again!”

In the end… Zhan Beiye did not utter a word.

He waved his whip, spur his horse and dashed forward like an arrow. Without stopping, he passed by her and then, single-handedly grabbed her!

Before she could react, Meng Fuyao was already thrown onto the horse. Zhan Beiye held the reins with one hand and held onto Meng Fuyao’s waist with another as he swiftly passed by Zhangsun Wuji. The soldiers cheered as they galloped straight for the capital.

Zhangsun Wuji stood on the ground, unmoved. He smiled as he coughed a little, watching Meng Fuyao being taken away by Zhan Beiye at such speed. He quietly shook his head and said to Lord Yuan Bao, “Look, this is how a bandit is trained.”

Lord Yuan Bao stroked his beard and thought, ‘If he doesn’t explode in silence, then, he might die in silence…’

And then he thought again,’ Perhaps it’s like this – once he explodes in silence, he’ll probably die in silence…’

Zhangsun Wuji carried Lord Yuan Bao and leaned back slightly, watching the whirlwind of dust and calmly commented, “We should appeal to people with virtue…”

The unlucky Meng Fuyao that was currently on the horse finally reacted after three kilometers and had an outburst of anger as she threw a punch over. “Zhan Beiye, you motherf*cker, are you still human? Let me down!”

That punch was very heavy, and Zhan Beiye gagged a little, but his hands did not let go. Meng Fuyao felt that it was a little weird and turned to take a closer look. His dark robe seemed a little darker as a circular patch slowly widened. She could vaguely smell the metallic blood stench…

Meng Fuyao gazed to the sky. ‘Why do I always unintentionally create problems like this…’

The entire city was in chaos. Zhan Beiye’s army was busy dealing with the duties of the defense team and issues with the weapon storage and food storage. Another group of soldiers followed Zhan Beiye to the palace. Zhan Beiye did not utter a word but held Meng Fuyao close. His robe covered her as the scent of a man laced with the stench of blood, and the smell of gunpowder entered her nostrils.

Meng Fuyao looked up and frowned slightly – she realized that the degree of blood stench that Zhan Beiye was giving off meant that he was probably heavily injured. At this moment, she had many different ways to escape from him but no matter which method she chose, she’d probably further injure him… unless she sealed his acupuncture points…

Meng Fuyao sighed. This was certainly not the time to seal his acupuncture points…

Zhan Beiye was no Zhangsun Wuji that would shamelessly make use of his own wounds to earn the pity of this cold-hearted yet somehow loving fellow. Zhan Beiye did not have any inkling of Meng Fuyao’s current thought process but merely felt happy that the beauty in his arms had stopped struggling. After a journey of galloping, the anger and frustration that he initially felt when he saw Zhangsun Wuji beside Meng Fuyao were now released. He smiled a little. ‘Ay, half a year of not seeing Meng Fuyao, she seems to be more gentle?’ Thinking to this point, he got worried. ‘Her gentleness, it couldn’t be that it was Zhangsun Wuji that fellow that taught her to be gentle?’

The horse jumped up, and the bodies of the two touched a little. Zhan Beiye could not help but stiffen a bit with Meng Fuyao in his arms as he felt her back gently touching his chest. Through the clothes, he could actually still feel that smooth, beautiful curve line of hers. The wind ran through her hair, and a strand of air got stuck on his slightly sweaty chin. He was unwilling to turn his head to get rid of the strand of hair, so instead, he gently bit down. It was only a single strand of hair, yet he could still taste her own unique scent – sweet.

He controlled the reins with one hand as he took the chance to peer over at her. From his position, he could only see the top of her head. He had accidentally tugged on her hair, and her hairstyle was now falling apart, revealing the whorl on the top of her hair. He secretly blew the loose strands of hair away and counted the whorls, ‘One, two, three… she actually has three hair whorls! No wonder she is so stubborn.’ And then, he noticed her dainty little ear lobes. They were like two pearls, and she actually had no ear holes. He immediately felt that in this entire world, ears with no ear holes were the prettiest. For two holes to be made in these beautiful ears, it would certainly be a waste.

As he thought to himself, he could not help but want to touch her. He wanted to know the feel of those pearls, or perhaps, he could move his hand down a little to her delicate shoulders. He felt that she seemed to have gotten thinner again after half a year of not seeing her. Though such delicate shoulders were indeed beautiful, it would be better if they were firmer—he would feel more at ease…

Zhan Beiye’s gaze brushed past her shoulders, and he snorted quietly… Since Zhangsun Wuji and Zongyue were there, why couldn’t they protect her? It seemed like she’d be better off with him. After all this was over, he would give her his everything without reserve.

He was elated at this thought, and his arms around her waist moved slightly upwards towards her shoulders.

His hands moved that ever slightly but left his lower abdomen open.

With a beautiful flip, Meng Fuyao landed steadily behind him. Meng Fuyao questioned him with a smile, “Zhan Beiye, are you a wolf? Be careful, or else I’ll chop off those claws of yours.”

Zhan Beiye frowned slightly and glanced at her. ‘Meng Fuyao, do you know what is an irresistible impulse?’

Naturally, Meng Fuyao seemed to not understand this. In her eyes, anything a man touched above her knees and below her neck without consent was considered perverted – including Zhangsun Wuji. However, she was never one to care about these nitty-gritty details and was genuinely happy to reunite with Zhan Beiye after such a long time. She could not help but rattle off and inform him of all the stuff that happened – from scheming to entering the imperial camp to how she step-by-step gained more and more power to cause the downfall of Zhan Nancheng. She even proudly announced what happened today. Of course, she removed the pain, despise, and injuries she had to suffer through and merely focused on the success she had gained. She did not seem to realize that Zhan Beiye’s was turning blacker and blacker by the moment, and at the end, he was almost as black as a pan’s bottom.