Vol 9 Chapter 151 (2/2)

“…” I continued to remain silent. And just then, Li Dian continued to walk ahead for some reason. I thought that she had said her peace but then she came up to me and planted her weapon to the ground as she looked into my eyes combatively.

“One last thing.” She said seriously and slowly, “If you genuinely wish to defect, choose to defect to my lord.”

“…” I waited silently for a moment before I saluted her and replied slowly and just as seriously, “Even if I am surrendering, I would be surrendering to the Imperial Court of the Great Han! This is what my big brother would have wanted.”

…

Neither of us said anything after this. Li Dian merely snorted and turned around before continuing to lead us out of the encampment. Li Dian did not say anything at all nor did she react to what I said but I believe that what Xu Shu said has come into play here, that they do hope deep down that our defection is genuine.

Of course… Apart from Shen Pei, that is. She is not too anxious to break through the current stalemate status quo so she is more conservative and it is because of that conservative mindset that has led to much troubles during the course of this meeting.

“Wait for our news then. If we haven’t deployed by the 3rd day, then please continue to wait.” Li Dian said as she saluted us, “When the time comes, please make the right choice.”

Just then, the horses we came here on were brought to us.

“Understood.”

“Well then, see you in 3 days.”

We grabbed our reins, gave our greetings and saluted. Immediately, Li Dian relaxed and turned to return to the encampment and the gates shut with a loud clang. We would likely never return to this place.

“Hu…” Wen Yuan heaved a sigh of relief as we began our trip back home. Looks like she’s relaxed her strained nerves.

“Don’t be too happy too soon.” I said, “When we get to our gates, we still have to pa.s.s through customs. We have to go back in how we came out.”

As for me, I do not even have the mood to feel relieved and merely rode on in a blank state of mind.

“I think I lost 10 years of my life there.” Wen Yuan said.

“I think Lord Zhang Liao acted a little too much back then. You really caused a big commotion back there.”

“No, I stopped faking it halfway through and it became my true feelings.” Wen Yuan said as she shook her head and disagreed with Chen Gong.

“I too felt the same.” I nodded and agreed with Wen Yuan, “At some point, I even doubted if I was actually here to defect or if I was just playing the part.”

“Un un, that’s the highest level of acting.” Chen Gong nodded and smiled as she looked at me, “But I really didn’t expect that Lord Guan Yu would be able to respond with the right words so calmly. Though I must say that what you said at the very end really spooked me.”

“Hahaha… I don’t know why but I wanted to say that back then.” I said as I lightly chuckled. I was still so nervous though that my laughter did not really contain cheer and it merely sounded like laughter.

By the way, even though we are chatting, we made sure not to make any abnormal movements so that the people watching us from behind would not detect anything untoward.

“However, it feels like that Li Dian might have detected our true intentions.” Wen Yuan said. If she did not, she would not have said or acted like how she did at the very end.

“I don’t think so.” Chen Gong shrugged, “She said a lot of things, both supportive of us and not. If Shen Pei’s position is that she is certain that our defection is fake, then Li Dian’s position is that of uncertainty.”

“That does make sense…” I nodded. If it were before this, I would not have understood what meant but I do now.

At the end of the day, Li Dian wishes from the gottom of her heart that our defection is genuine. There is ample proof for that but there is always the nagging feeling that our defection is not genuine. And so, the questioning she subjected me to at the end was to try to dispel that feeling.

“But… 3 days later huh?” Wen Yuan said as she tucked her hands behind her head, “I wonder if they will come.”

“Yes, I wonder if they will come too.” Chen Gong still wore a smile as she echoed Wen Yuan’s thoughts. It feels like administrative officials get over such tense standoff situations easier than warrior generals. Wen Yuan and I simply cannot bring ourselves to smile yet.

But no matter what, all we can do is to tell Xu Shu of all we have discussed here and make all the necessary preparations.

Everything, will be decided 3 days later.

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