Chapter 205: A Dandy, Extremely Good-For-Nothing
Lin Qianzi had never received such harsh criticism in her life. When suddenly faced with this deluge of cold water, all she could do was stand there with a blank look as her brain tried to process all this information. But Bai Xiangxiu was done speaking her mind. She held out the child in her arms and said, “Here. Your son.”
“No! That isn’t my child! My child is well-behaved and sensible! My child often cries and makes gurgling noises! This isn’t him! He’s not!” She thrust her hands straight out, knocking Bai Xiangxiu’s hands away with surprising force. The violence of her action was so unexpected that the child’s body slipped out of Bai Xiangxiu’s hands. Fortunately, she was able to catch him again, or the poor child would’ve landed in the dirt yet again.
Commander Lu’s patience had run dry. “Lock them both up!” He then glanced at the child’s corpse in Bai Xiangxiu’s arms, “Give him a burial!”
One of the soldiers came up to Bai Xiangxiu to take the child’s body. She let out a long sigh and reluctantly handed him over. She didn’t look at Commander Lu after that either. She’d lost her chance to escape and had failed to save the child. She felt like the biggest idiot in the world. Worst of all, she was locked up in the same room as the female lead. She couldn’t even fall asleep because of the female lead’s incessant verbal abuse.
The female lead had a lot of pent up resentment towards Bai Xiangxiu. She would glare at Bai Xiangxiu from time to time like she wanted to peel off all of the latter’s skin. Bai Xiangxiu could only try her best to ignore her presence until Lin Qianzi was taken away for questioning the next morning.
Since Commander Lu was extremely curious about Bai Xiangxiu’s true ident.i.ty, it was no surprise that he wanted to question Lin Qianzi first. Lin Qianzi had never been the type of person to care about her country or a righteous cause. Her brain was filled with nothing but love and men. Weren’t all female leads typically like that? They had very broad hearts and would kindly accept the male lead or supporting male characters even if they were revealed to be spies from the enemy nation. Novels were typically written like that.
As such, her interrogation seemed to go on for a bit longer than usual. Lin Qianzi’s cheeks were both swollen by the time she came back. It looked like some torture had been applied to her. Bai Xiangxiu was taken away right after her return. I guess this is finally it. Sigh… I would’ve escaped successfully if it weren’t for that child.
However Bai Xiangxiu also knew very well that she’d still try to save the child if she found herself in the same situation again. It couldn’t be helped. She’d never be able to live with herself if she chose to escape instead. Moreover, she was now a mother too. Lin Qianzi’s child reminded her of her own son.
Bai Xiangxiu was on the verge of tears. Xiao Lin is going to lose his mother at such a young age. I wonder if he’ll still remember me when he grows up? However, she didn’t allow herself to break into tears. It’d be incredibly shameful to cry in the face of the enemy. So, she held her head high and entered the room. Commander Lu was already waiting inside the room with a frown on his face. Bai Xiangxiu had an incredibly bad impression of that man because he simply looked too similar to Duan Yunying. Despite all that, she wasn’t afraid of death at all. She made herself at home sitting on a chair and crossed her legs. She was actually somewhat nervous because she didn’t know how she was about to be put to death.
“You’re Long Heng’s concubine?” This is the incredibly strange woman that second brother disdains? From his letters, I remember that he actually changed his impression of her for the better before he died, and wrote that she’d be his woman after killing Long Heng. I never imagined that she’d have such a good-for-nothing image.
Commander Lu wasn’t the only one that was surprised. Long Heng had rushed through the night to come to her rescue after receiving news of her capture. He was incredibly shocked to see her like this. Yu Kuang and Long Heng had changed into enemy soldier uniforms and were standing outside the door. They were able to look inside from time to time. The woman that he was trying to save was inside, covered with wounds and blood. Despite all that, her gaze was firm and resolute. Doesn’t she have a phobia of blood? How is her will so strong during such a time?
He was worried and incredibly proud of her at the same time. He’d planned to use his achievement in this war to implore the emperor to bestow upon Bai Xiangxiu the status of Princess Consort Li, but he’d never imagined that she’d follow him all the way here and write such an incredible letter as well.
The content of the letter was more than enough to help him break the chained horses formation. He could’ve stayed in the city to train the soldiers, but he just couldn’t help but worry about her. He’d immediately encountered Song Jiaoyue after leaving the city. He friend was being pursued by enemy soldiers, and Long Heng learned that she’d been captured after saving Song Jiaoyue. He’d immediately made the decision to infiltrate the enemy camp, but it was near daybreak by the time they were deep in the enemy lines.
When they finally found Commander Lu’s camp after changing into enemy uniforms, Lin Qianzi was coincidentally inside the camp saying bad things about Bai Xiangxiu. She mentioned something about Long Heng murdering Duan Yunying all because of Bai Xiangxiu.
Commander Lu gave Lin Qianzi a tight slap to her face while smiling coldly. “Do you really think that a prince would go to life and death just for a woman? You’re so shallow-minded. I really wonder why people used to call you a gifted woman.
Commander Lu squeezed her cheeks and finally gave her another vicious slap. “Yunying would never have needed to change his target if you’d been a good girl and married Long Heng. He would be able to give Long Heng a lethal strike during your consummation. He would never have needed to mutate the parasite into a strain to be implanted through ingestion instead of consummation. Do you know that the parasite loses more than half of its effectiveness in that form? Moreover, why would he lose control of that woman’s body if he hadn’t used up his vital energy to implant the parasite into your body previously?”
“What? Do you mean that everything he’d was all so that he could kill Long Heng? Then what about me? Everything he has said to me…”
“They were all just empty words to humor you. You’re such a gullible girl.”
“How can that be? How could this have happened? I’ve done so much for him. I even stopped Luo Yunzheng from beating him up and left Luo Yunzheng for him! And you tell me that his feelings were just a lie the whole time?!”
SLAP!
Commander Lu hated crying women the most. Lin Qianzi was thrown into the ground by the force of that slap. He gave her a warning with a cold voice, “Stop crying. You’d better tell me everything you know about her or I’ll send you to that place!”
Lin Qianzi told Commander Lu everything she knew about Bai Xiangxiu, even though she still was still overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions. Commander Lu was extremely satisfied with what he’d heard. He immediately had Bai Xiangxiu brought to him after sending Lin Qianzi away.
Long Heng and Yu Kuang both understood that Commander Lu had noticed an opportunity to use Bai Xiangxiu to break the impa.s.se. It was very likely that he planned on using Bai Xiangxiu to force Long Heng to open the city gates. Opening the city gates would be akin to opening the gates to the entire nation. If that were to happen, the city’s citizens wouldn’t be the only one that would suffer the consequences. Long Heng’s family in the capital would likely suffer the same fate as well.
No one would think that a man could possibly make such a huge sacrifice for just a woman under normal circ.u.mstances. After all, they were putting a woman against an entire nation here! However, Long Heng was hesitating. He genuinely didn’t know what his choice would be when push came to shove.
The two in the room had already begun to converse while Long Heng was still deep in his thoughts. “That’s correct. I’m Long Heng’s concubine. Con-cu-bine…” Bai Xiangxiu accentuated. She was trying to imply that it’d be wasted effort to use her to force Long Heng’s hand since she wasn’t Long Heng’s wife.
“You’re smart, but you don’t understand men at all.”
“Oh?”
“While he might not care whether you are alive or not, there’s always other ways to force him to make a choice.”
“Mhmm… Please continue. I’m listening.”
“I will tear off your clothes in public, layer by layer. If he still refuses to comply, I will have my subordinates show you some “love”. They will keep loving you one by one until he finally opens the city gates. Don’t you think that this is such a good idea?”