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Chapter 134
He watched as Huo Wujiu stood up at the table, raised his hand and invited Lou Yue with a ‘Please’ gesture.
“It’s me,” he admitted, “I haven’t seen you, General Lou, for many years, but you still remember me.”
Lou Yue didn’t know what kind of expression to express at the moment.
He stood at the door, unable to move a step. His eyes were fixed on Huo Wujiu’s face, and after a while they slid down in disbelief to look at his legs.
Those legs were supporting him well. He stood there, tall and straight, like a tree facing the wind.
Huo Wujiu naturally knew what surprised him.
Nevertheless, he stood in the same without speaking, and leisurely looked at Lou Yue, waiting for him to speak first.
After a while, Lou Yue found his voice.
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“Your legs… Haven’t your legs been…?” His voice sounded a bit hoarse, accompanied by a tremor. There was absolutely no trace of the calm and aggressiveness he presented when he faced Pang Shao.
Huo Wujiu smiled faintly.
“As you can see.” Then, he lifted his legs unapologetically. He walked steadily in front of Lou Yue, raised his hand and invited him to the main seat, and then sat down opposite him.
Lou Yue then freed his eyes and scanned the private room.
The room wasn’t that spacious with several people standing around, all tall and upright young men. He couldn’t recognize these men, but he did know the one standing behind Huo Wujiu.
Wei Kai, the child adopted by his old friend, was one who would seek ways to return someone’s kindness.
Now, Lou Yue vaguely registered what was going on.
Tears flooded his eyes, and he hastily raised his hand to wipe them away: “I’ve been worried. I didn’t expect that you, this child, were so capable that you escaped Pang Shao’s eyes.”
Huo Wujiu smiled and raised his hand to let Wei Kai pour wine for Lou Yue.
Lou Yue tilted his neck and downed the wine in the cup cleanly.
It was only after he drank the cup of wine did his shock and astonishment finally calm down a bit. He couldn’t help but ask, “But how did you guys do it? After all, you’re in the Jingwang Manor, a that Pang Shao has been watching closely. Does it mean that…”
Speaking of this, he looked at Huo Wujiu in stupefaction, unable to utter the rest of his words.
Huo Wujiu naturally knew what he was implying.
He nodded: “It’s Jingwang.”
Wei Kai explained beside them, “General, you should also know that His Highness Jingwang has been at odds with the Emperor for a long time. Their actions this time not only humiliated General Huo, but also disgraced His Highness Jingwang. Without him, this subordinate would never have had the opportunity to enter the royal residence and find someone for an opportunity to cure my General’s legs.”
Lou Yue nodded at his words and muttered to himself, “See, I can’t possibly be mistaken about someone’s character…”
Speaking of this, he frowned in disbelief: “But, isn’t that Jingwang a cut sleeve?”
Before Huo Wujiu could respond, Wei Kai quickly explained, “That’s naturally fake.”
Lou Yue let out a long sigh of relief, picked up the wine cup on the table again, and drank his fill.
“The heavens have eyes.” He sighed.
Huo Wujiu lowered his head and let out a couple of chuckles.
“In that aspect, you can rest easy, General Lou,” he said.
Lou Yue nodded repeatedly.
However, Huo Wujiu’s tune took a turn.
“But…” He looked up at Lou Yue, his dark eyes sparkling quite deeply. “Although the Heavens have eyes, you should also know that in matters like these, Heaven’s will is useless. It’s all up to us mortals.”
He rested one hand on the table, leaned forward, and looked Lou Yue in the eye.
His stare rendered Lou Yue momentarily bereft of speech.
He understood what Huo Wujiu meant.
A moment later, he lowered his eyes and let out a long sigh.
“I knew it. You were waiting for me here today, not just to inform me of your safety,” he prompted, “Go ahead.”
“Even though I can leave now as it’s all too easy to escape back to Ye City, I have some worries, so I have to stay and can’t leave.” Huo Wujiu said. “However, I’m not staying here just to wait around for my doom.”
As he spoke, he raised his hand to pour Lou Yue wine and continued steadily, “This period should have given you enough time to see. You know better than me what is going on with Southern Jing. To me now, it just differs between raising an army from Ye City and tearing it down, or toppling it down on the spot in Southern Jing. I’m thinking, General Lou must have to make plans for the future.”
Upon reaching this point, he paused, raised his eyes to Lou Yue, and said, “I’ll say it straight. I have everything ready now. I just want to borrow the 50,000 troops under your command for a while, General Lou.”
After saying this, he propped his arms on the table casually and only looked at Lou Yue. Lou Yue didn’t make a sound, and the room fell into silence.
After a moment, Lou Yue spoke in a whisper.
“Wujiu, I owe you my life in the early years. I remember everything,” he said.
When he was in Yangguan, the snow blocked the mountains. His army was trapped in the mountains and could not escape. Seeing that their army provisions were dwindling, they could only live by killing war horses and eating the meat. Back then, Huo Wujiu was only ten years old, a young boy still growing. He took a team of light cavalry into the mountain and rescued them.
He owed this favor to Huo Wujiu; he knew this.
Still, Huo Wujiu shook his head.
“I don’t want to extort gratitude,” he said. “I just want to ask you. If Southern Jing is invaded, what are you going to do?”
Lou Yue fell silent and did not speak. Huo Wujiu continued, “The current Southern Jing isn’t worth dying for. Besides, Sister Lou is only 20 years old, right? Where do you want her to go?”
Lou Yue’s eyes reddened a bit.
Everything Huo Wujiu said hit the bull’s eye. Since his return in victory, he had been troubled every day, and spared no time to think about these things.
But…
A moment later, he mumbled, “But I can’t commit treason. Wujiu, you should know that.”
Huo Wujiu nodded.
“I know,” he rebutted, “But what if they do you wrong and want to hound you to death?”
Lou Yue was speechless.
He had considered such a thing when the Marquis of Dingbei was forced to rebel by the former Emperor a few years ago. Undoubtedly, what the former Emperor did to the Marquis of Dingbei was downright chilling, but although he and the Marquis of Dingbei were close friends, he was an outsider and certainly could not do something like leading the officers and soldiers under his command to revolt and commit treason, just for the sake of his personal loyalty to his brother.
So he restrained himself and convinced himself that it was just a personal grudge between the Marquis of Dingbei and the former Emperor. He did not join the battlefield and forced himself to look the other way. This was the greatest concession he made.
However, year after year, wars broke out and people’s livelihood declined. The Southern Jing court also rotted to the core year after year. Since Pang Shao had taken power, it had even worsened.