Vol 8 Chapter 29 (1/2)

VOLUME 8 CHAPTER 29: DON’T TELL ME THIS IS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE DECISIVE BATTLE (2)

Liu Bei POV

“Liu Qi didn’t go?”

“No, just like you both.” Liu Qi said coldly as she sat down beside me. Chen Gong and I quickly s.h.i.+fted a little to give her some s.p.a.ce.

“Is uncle planning to join the battle tomorrow?” She asked after she sat down.

I could only be honest about it, “Yes, I feel that Administrator Huang Zu shouldn’t be left alone to defend Jiangxia. It won’t look good on us and will be difficult to justify as well if we were to retreat now.”

“What does Lord Liu Qi think?” Chen Gong asked just as I finished, hoping to for Liu Qi to deliver a sound scolding to me.

“Un… I happen to have something to say about this as well.” Liu Qi lowered her head and looked at me, “The official doc.u.ments for our retreat I mentioned earlier haven’t been sent over yet.”

“Eh?”

“How can that be? Didn’t you say back then that it would take only 2-3 days?”

Chen Gong and I were both very surprised but Liu Qi was still stern as ever. In her eyes, I could see a hint of anger and dissatisfaction.

“It seems like Cai Mao delayed the courier so the earliest that the doc.u.ments can reach here is tomorrow night.”

“No way! Tomorrow is when the tide is at its lowest so that’s when they will attack. Don’t even talk about tomorrow night, we’ll be decimated by noon.” Chen Gong exclaimed as she stamped her feet.

“So whether or not we wish to stay or not, we have to stay.” I said casually, as I was planning on staying in the first place.

“That’s what it means.” Liu Qi said as she looked at me and seemed to have guessed what I thought, and continued, “Not just that, we may have to defend Jiangxia to the death.”

“Must we defend to the death?” This made me surprised. Rather than defend Jiangxia to the death, I was hoping to be able to make it out of here alive along with everyone else.

“d.a.m.n it! That Cai Mao really wants to kill us all!” Chen Gong slammed her fist against the log we were sitting on as she said so.

“Unfortunately, it seems like she is about to succeed.” Liu Qi continued, “The command tallies are with Huang Zu so if we unilaterally retreat, we will be branded as deserters and will be sentenced to death anyway.”

“Hai… Why am I so unlucky?” Chen Gong complained, “I was hoping to ride on the coattails of Imperial Uncle but now I’m going to die here.”

“Sorry.” I smiled bitterly. It was my fault after all that we have ended up in such a predicament.

“Don’t apologise…”

Eh?

For some reason, she frowned and pouted as she looked away, “If dying here is my fate, then following Imperial Uncle into death isn’t too bad.”

Hahaha, is she praising me or criticising me? I’ll just take it that she’s praising me.

“In any case, we need to plan for the worst case scenario.” Liu Qi got up as she said so, “And hope that the heavens smile upon us tomorrow.”

She looked up at the sky, and I too raised my head. The night sky was deep and dark and devoid of stars, and sucked me in as though it were a black hole.

Tomorrow is the decisive battle.

No matter what, I have to do something.

—

The next day, I got up early. When I thought about how the decisive battle might take place today, I couldn’t sleep.

I wore my clothing, put on my plate and sheathed my twin swords on my back before I went to look for Chen Gong. When I went to find her, she was awake, and we went to find Liu Qi only to find that she was awake already.

It was obvious that Liu Qi didn’t have a good sleep. There were dark circles below her eyes which had tinges of red here there. She was probably too uptight and exhausted. She probably fine and if we could make it out alive, she would probably recover very quickly. Of course, this was probably the very problem that kept Liu Qi up all night.

“Are you alright?”

“… I’m still okay.”

I carefully asked Liu Qi, who was in a daze and only replied me after a while.

“Why don’t you just stay in the encampment and not go to the sh.o.r.e?”

“No.” She softly said, and then stepped out from her tent shakily. When I saw this, I hurriedly went up to help her.

“I’m the lord of those 2. How can a ruler convince the ma.s.ses if she isn’t even around when her subordinates are doing battle?”

Liu Qi said as she frowned and clenched her teeth as she stood up and stretched her back and chest. Her clothes hadn’t been washed for a few days now and the silver embroidered flowers were covered by earth and mud.

But despite all this, she still pressed on with the pride of a feudal lord.