Huo Wujiu, who was sitting in front of the table, stood up. He raised his hand and made a "please" gesture to Lou Yue.
"It's me," he said. "It's been so many years, but General Lou still remembers me."
Lou Yue did not know how to react.
He stood at the door, motionless. His eyes were fixed on Huo Wujiu's face. After a moment, he looked down in disbelief at Huo Wujiu's legs.
His legs were supporting him perfectly. He stood there, tall and straight, like a tree facing the wind.
Huo Wujiu knew what he was surprised about.
However, he stood there without saying a word. He looked at Lou Yue calmly, waiting for him to speak first.
After a moment, Lou Yue found his voice.
"Your legs … Aren't your legs already …?" His voice was a little hoarse and trembling. He did not sound as calm and aggressive as when he was facing off against Pang Shao.
Huo Wujiu smiled faintly.
"It's as you see." Then, he lifted his leg without hesitation and walked steadily in front of Lou Yue. He raised his hand and invited him to the seat of honor, then sat down opposite him.
Only then did Lou Yue free up his eyes and look around the private room.
The space in the room was not big, and there were a few people standing around. They were all tall and straight young men. He did not recognize these people, but he recognized the person standing behind Huo Wujiu.
Wei Kai, the child adopted by his old friend. He was a very grateful person.
This time, Lou Yue vaguely knew what was going on.
Tears welled up in his eyes. He quickly wiped them away. "I was worried. I didn't expect you to be so capable. You actually escaped Pang Shao's eyes."
Huo Wujiu smiled and gestured for Wei Kai to pour Lou Yue some wine.
Lou Yue tilted his head back and drank all the wine in the cup.
After drinking a glass of wine, he finally calmed down a little. He couldn't help but ask, "But, how did you do it? After all, you're in Prince Jing's Estate. That's a place Pang Shao keeps a close eye on. Could it be … "
Speaking up to this point, he looked at Huo Wujiu in surprise, unable to continue the rest of his words.
Huo Wujiu knew what he meant.
He nodded. "It was Prince Jing."
Wei Kai explained, "General, you should know that Prince Jing and the emperor have been at odds for a long time. They weren't just humiliating General Huo, they were humiliating King Jing as well. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have had the chance to enter the estate and find someone to cure your legs. "
Lou Yue nodded and muttered to himself, "I knew it. I didn't misjudge him …"
At this point, he frowned and asked in confusion, "But isn't Prince Jing a homosexual?"
Before Huo Wujiu could say anything, Wei Kai quickly explained, "Of course it's fake."
Lou Yue let out a long sigh of relief. He picked up the wine cup on the table and drank to his heart's content.
"The heavens do have eyes," he sighed.
Huo Wujiu lowered his head and chuckled a few times.
"If that's the case, General Lou, you can rest assured," he said.
Lou Yue nodded repeatedly.
However, Huo Wujiu changed the topic.
"But …" He raised his head and looked at Lou Yue. His dark eyes were extremely deep. "Even though the heavens do have eyes, you should know that in this kind of situation, the heavens' words are useless. It all depends on the person."
He pressed one hand on the table and leaned forward slightly as he looked at Lou Yue.
Lou Yue looked at him and didn't know what to say.
He knew what Huo Wujiu meant.
After a while, he lowered his eyes and let out a long sigh.
"I knew it. You didn't wait for me here just to tell me that you're safe," he said. "Tell me."
"Even though I can leave now and it won't be difficult for me to escape back to Ye City, there are some things that I'm worried about that keep me here. I can't leave," Huo Wujiu said. "But, I didn't stay here to wait for death."
As he spoke, he poured Lou Yue a cup of wine and said slowly, "You should have seen the situation in Nanjing during this period of time. You should know better than me what kind of situation Nanjing is in. Right now, to me, it's just a matter of attacking from Ye City or attacking from Nanjing. I'm sure that General Lou has to make plans for his future. "
Speaking up to this point, he paused, raised his eyes to look at Lou Yue, and said, "I'll be frank. Right now, everything is ready. I just want to borrow General Lou's fifty thousand soldiers. "
After saying this, he casually propped his arm on the table and looked at Lou Yue. Lou Yue didn't say anything for a while. The room sank into silence.
After a while, Lou Yue spoke in a low voice.
"Wujiu, I owe you a life in the past. I remember it all," he said.
Back then, when he was at Yang Pass, the snow had sealed the mountains. He and his soldiers were trapped in the mountains and couldn't move. They ran out of supplies and had to rely on killing warhorses to survive. At that time, Huo Wujiu was only ten years old. He was still a growing youth. He led a group of light cavalry into the mountains and rescued him.
He knew that he owed Huo Wujiu a favor.
But Huo Wujiu shook his head.
"I don't want to ask for repayment," he said calmly. "I only want to ask you, if Nanjing is defeated, what will you do?"
Lou Yue was silent and didn't say anything.
Huo Wujiu continued, "It's not worth dying for Nanjing. Besides, Sister Lou isn't even twenty years old, right? Where do you want her to go? "
Lou Yue's eyes reddened.
Huo Wujiu's words were reasonable. Ever since he returned victorious, every day had been uncomfortable. It wasn't that he hadn't thought about these things.
But …
After a moment, he said in a hoarse voice, "But I can't commit treason. Wujiu, you should know that."
Huo Wujiu nodded.
"I know," he said. "But what if they wronged you and wanted to kill you?"
Lou Yue was speechless.
He had thought about this since North Placating Marquis was forced to rebel by the late Emperor a few years ago. There was no doubt that what the late Emperor did to North Placating Marquis was extremely disappointing. But although he and North Placating Marquis were good friends, he was an outsider. He definitely couldn't lead his soldiers to rebel against the country just for his brother's loyalty.
So he endured it and only persuaded himself that it was just a personal grudge between North Placating Marquis and the late Emperor. The biggest concession he could make was that he didn't go to the battlefield and didn't care about this matter.
However, over the years, wars broke out everywhere and the people's lives withered. The Nanjing Imperial Court was rotten to the core year after year. Ever since Pang Shao came to power, it was even worse than before.
He was a military general and was destined to be loyal to the Emperor and serve the country. But the Emperor and the country caused the people to suffer and the people to become homeless. This had already shaken his original desire to serve the country.
But he was also the defender of this country. Protecting the peace of the Nanjing Imperial Court was his mission.
Moreover …
After a moment, he said slowly, "But they haven't done so yet."
Even he could feel the hesitation and wavering in his tone.
He looked at Huo Wujiu with a hint of uneasiness in his eyes.
Huo Wujiu looked at him silently for a moment. Then, the corners of his lips curled up and he smiled rather relaxedly.
"That's true," he said. "If that's the case, I have no reason to force you."
Lou Yue didn't expect Huo Wujiu to be so easy to talk to and let him off so easily.
He couldn't help but say, "But you …"
"There's always a way," Huo Wujiu said. "Today, General, just eat meat and drink wine. I'll accompany you until we're drunk. How about that?"
— —
Lou Yue was indeed drunk when he returned home that day.
Huo Wujiu's soldiers were very efficient and took care of everything in the restaurant. In addition, Lou Yue had gone to look for wine himself. The meeting between the two of them was well hidden and not a single word of it leaked out.
When Lou Yue returned home, he was full of disappointment.
"Good child … Tingzhang raised a good child!" he muttered, but his voice was choked with sobs. "But I've let him down, let Tingzhang down, and let his child down!"
Tingzhang was Huo Wujiu's father's courtesy name.
Lou Wanjun was instructing the maids to take care of him. She knew that her father couldn't hold his liquor well and couldn't even outdrink her. Today, he reeked of alcohol and was so drunk that he couldn't even walk properly.
She couldn't help but find it funny as she listened to her father's mutterings. She asked, "Who did you let down?"
Lou Yue shook his head and remained silent for a long time.
Lou Wanjun laughed a few times, twisted a handkerchief, and wiped his face clean.
Lou Yue suddenly spoke again.
"But he's a good child," he said as he looked at Lou Wanjun. "If I can entrust you to him, I'll be relieved."
Lou Wanjun was speechless for a moment.
However, she didn't take Lou Yue's words to heart. Ever since she became of marriageable age, her father had been more eager to get married than a girl in the boudoir. Every time he saw a man with regular features, some literacy, and no missing arms or legs, he would consider him as a son-in-law. Because his standards were lax, the results were usually fifty-fifty.
Over the past few years, the families he had betrothed to her were enough to form a vanguard army.
Lou Wanjun laughed and placed the handkerchief in the basin.
"He's so drunk that he's starting to go around looking for son-in-laws." As she spoke, she turned around and looked at the soldier who usually served by Lou Yue's side. She raised her eyebrows.
"You let the general drink too much outside again. Are you lacking in training?"
The soldier couldn't say anything. He shrunk his neck and smiled awkwardly.
— —
Huo Wujiu didn't get drunk that day.
He could smell the alcohol on his body and it wasn't suitable for him to go out. After he returned, he asked Wei Kai to go to the main house and see if Jiang Suizhou had time to come over.
It was already late at night. Not long after, Wei Kai arrived in Jiang Suizhou.
When he arrived, Huo Wujiu was sitting in front of the table, flipping through the books on the table in boredom.
Because he had been drinking, his mood was more or less exposed, and his impatience with the book was even greater than usual.
He sat in his wheelchair and slowly rocked back and forth, flipping through the book. When he heard the sound of the door opening, he pushed the book forward and raised his head to say, "Sir, please come in."
"You're here?"
Jiang Suizhou smelled the alcohol.
"Did you drink when you went to see Lou Yue today?" he asked as he sat down on the couch next to him.
Huo Wujiu nodded. He moved his wheelchair in the direction of Jiang Suizhou with one hand. Then, he felt that he was in the way. He propped himself up with one leg and forced the wheelchair to stop. He stood up and walked to Jiang Suizhou's side and sat down very naturally.
"I didn't drink much," he said. "The old man is getting old. His alcohol tolerance is worse than it was a few years ago. He only drank so little. I almost had to carry him back."
Although there was not much expression on his face, there was an inexplicable feeling of exultation. It was completely different from the unfathomable cold and solemn look he had when he met Pang Shao during the day.
Jiang Suizhou hurriedly asked, "So it's a success?"
Huo Wujiu shook his head.
"He's still stubborn," he said sternly. "No matter how we persuade him, he won't budge."
Jiang Suizhou was suddenly a little anxious.
Putting aside his other thoughts, he knew how important Lou Yue was to Huo Wujiu. In Huo Wujiu's plan, Lou Yue's troops were extremely important. It could be said that without Lou Yue's troops, his plan would not be able to succeed.
"Then what should we do?" He looked at Huo Wujiu's frown and became even more anxious.
However, Huo Wujiu looked at him for a moment and laughed.
His eyebrows relaxed, and with a joy that could not be ignored, he raised his hand and patted his back twice.
"Don't worry," he said. "Don't I have you? He's still stubborn now because he hasn't been forced into a dead end by Pang Shao. But you also know that there are signs now. It's only a matter of time. "
His expression suddenly changed. Jiang Suizhou immediately realized that Huo Wujiu was just teasing him.
… Very bad.
He was alarmed for a false alarm and somewhat disagreed. He reprimanded, "Are you trying to scare me?"
His voice was very soft. Even though he was frowning, he was not very fierce. The light reprimand made Huo Wujiu feel sweet. He only felt that the person in front of him was very likable and very cute even though he was frowning.
He crossed his arms and leaned back on the soft pillow behind him. He clearly looked like a powerful mountain king, but he looked like he was acting shamelessly.
"No," he said clearly, his eyes clear, and with a lazy smile, he looked at Jiang Suizhou and said.
"I drank too much."
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