Liu Bei POV

Liu Qi however, silently looked at me, and then at Yi Ji and Chen Gong.

“Imperial Uncle?”

“Young Mistress?”

Chen Gong and Yi Ji did not know of our bet, and they could not have possibly have detected the faint bud of trust in Liu Qi’s eyes as she looked at them. But I do.

I looked at Liu Qi and saw that she still held onto her sabre, and seemed like she was fighting something inside her. I wonder if she is picturing herself being killed the moment she lets go of her sabre.

“I understand.” After about 30-40 seconds of silence, Liu Qi finally nodded and slowly let go of her sabre as she sat down.

Hai~ That’s the way.

“You both should sit down as well.” I said as I stretched out my hand and gestured to the other 2 and gave them both a bowl of water each.

“Is everything settled?” I asked as I sat down.

“Yes.” Yi Ji said as she nodded.

“We even caught their leader, who was just a hundred man general. I got Chen Dao to tie him up and leave his judgement for later.” Chen Gong continued somewhat tiredly.

“Alright, thanks for your hard work.” I nodded once more, and bent forward as I continued, “Speaking of which, what tactics did you employ? You actually solved this conundrum so quickly.”

“… I too am curious about this.” Liu Qi said from the side and shot me a gaze as she said so.

Her feelings seem to have not settled yet as she seemed to be putting on airs as she spoke. Her posture seemed a little rigid as well, as though she was intentionally putting on a show to appear like she was unperturbed by what had just happened.

When they heard this, the 2 of them looked at each other as they replied.

“It’s actually very simple.”

“Very simple indeed. All we needed to do was employ a switch-and-bait and they fell for it.”

“Eh? What does that mean?” I pressed Chen Gong to explain further when I saw that she didn’t continue as she would probably leave me to figure it out myself later when she loses interest.

“First of all, we can’t act first since the troops we have at hand are too few. Secondly, we don’t have proof of their intentions to mutiny so we can’t attack them unilaterally.” Chen Gong folded her arms as she said this, “So the plan this time was to have them act first and then deal with them when they did without them realising we were on to them.”

“Un un.” I understand now.

“So what we did was to have you both wait here while we left the camp for ch.o.r.es or to patrol. The idea was to create an illusion that you both were left alone in the camp.” This time, it was Yi Ji’s turn to explain, “And after the enemies were baited into attacking, we would encircle and defeat them.”

“So we were the bait then.” I smiled bitterly as I said so but Chen Gong unfolded her arms and shook her index finger at me immediately.

“How could we possibly do something as precarious as that? We didn’t place any guards in the camp so if they just charged over, they would have achieved their goal.” Chen Gong and Yi Ji got up as Chen Gong said so.

“Please come outside and have a look.”

Liu Qi and I looked at each other. Liu Qi seemed to have put aside her suspicions and stood up before I did, while I too put aside my questions and followed them outside the tent.

As we left the tent, the thick, pungent smell filled my noses. I looked around and saw that the corpses of enemy troops littered the outside of our tent. The only ones still alive and standing were Liu Qi’s personal troops.

When they saw Liu Qi come out, they hurriedly bowed and saluted while Liu Qi nodded in acknowledgement.

“It’s kind of weird how you don’t trust anyone yet you still created a personal army.” I said softly to Liu Qi who was waving to them.

Liu Qi’s expression did not waver as she whispered back, “My personal army is my own and all members have undergone thorough investigations which I personally oversee. Most of them are poor peasants and I have been generous with them so they are naturally grateful and loyal to me.”

“So what you’re saying is that you minimised the probability that they would betray you?”

“Yes.” Liu Qi nodded in agreement with my a.s.sessment. I must say I agree with her on this though. It’s her personal army after all so she has to ensure that they are loyal to her.

“Eh? Come to think of it, there doesn’t seem to be any signs of fighting in the immediate vicinity around the tent.” I just realised that there wasn’t even a drop of blood, much less a corpse, in the immediate area where we stood.

“Well of course.” Yi Ji said softly. “That was part of the strategy we employed after all. Please take a look at the top of the tent.”

Un? I raised my head and looked up and finally realised what it was all about.

“… This isn’t my tent.” Liu Qi beat me to it and delivered the answer.

What was on top of the tent was not the leader flag nor was Liu Qi’s name on it.

“I understand. So we were hidden in another tent while the enemies attacked the main tent.” I explained what was laid out clearly before me.

“Yes, the real main tent is over there.” Yi Ji pointed into the distance and I could see that about 6 to 7 rows of tents away, the leader flag was floating in the air.

“And this tent where Imperial Uncle and Lord Liu Qi were is the temporary tent where the patrols use in between s.h.i.+fts, which means that this is as far as you can get from the main tent.” Chen Gong finally smiled as she held her chin.

So that’s what it was all about.

I only nodded slightly but I was quite shocked and impressed inside. Liu Qi and I wouldn’t have been able to think of this as we were before this and even if we did, it would have been difficult to execute without them.

“How about it?” I asked Liu Qi once more, who was silently looking at the scene before her.

After a long while, she nodded as well, “Yi Ji, Lord Chen Gong. Thank you both for your hard work.”

Yi Ji and Chen Gong lowered their heads and accepted Liu Qi’s thanks. I spied at Chen Gong from the side and saw that she still had a look of nonchalance on her face.

“Alright, let’s bury these dead troops today. We are now fewer in number so we should force ourselves on a fast march and get back to Xiangyang as soon as possible and explain what has happened.” Liu Qi said, and rolled up her sleeves when she finished before walking over to the nearest corpse.

“Un? Young mistress, you need not help with this.” Yi Ji walked up and tried to stop Liu Qi.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll help.” But Liu Qi held up her hand to stop Yi Ji and continued, “I’ve endured much since I was young. There’s no reason for me to be coddled here.”

When she finished, she hoisted up a corpse onto her back.

“Yi Ji, where should I put this?”

“… Please follow me, young mistress.” Yi Ji was somewhat surprised but she hurriedly went over and led Liu Qi.

“By the way, what does Yi Ji usually do in her free time?”

“Me? When I have time, I go around and see the fengshui of different places.”

“Ah, what a weird hobby you have.”

“Please don’t mind me.”

I felt warm inside as I looked at their backs and listened to their emotionless speech. I could feel that Liu Qi was abiding by our gamble and she would gradually open up to the people around her. Of course, that was after she got to know them.

Looks like things will get better for her.

“Imperial Uncle, what are you smiling about?”

“Un? Nothing. Nothing at all.” I shook my head. You can’t understand what Liu Qi was going through until you hear it from herself after all.

“By the way, what does Chen Gong like to do in your free time?”

“Me? I like to make traps or other contraptions when I have time.”

That’s so boring.

“Imperial Uncle, your opinion of how boring you think I am is written all over your face.”

“Eh?! Really!”

“I lied. It was just to trick you but I didn’t think that it was true.”

This Chen Gong! My heart did a somersault but all I did in the end was just smile bitterly. And I too rolled up my sleeves.

“Speaking of which, why did you seem a little unhappy just now?”

“Was it obvious?”

“Very.” I nodded.

Hai… Chen Gong sighed when she heard this. “If Imperial Uncle had told of this sooner, we could have taken care of them during the naval battle.”

Looks like Chen Gong was a little unhappy with us hiding it from them.

“I’m sorry. We were always in the midst of battle and so Liu Qi and I decided to keep it within the 2 of us so that we wouldn’t disrupt troop morale.” I gave her the surface reason and Chen Gong nodded as well.

“I understand, I had guessed it anyway.”

“Oh? From when?”

“In the very beginning when you went to look for Lord Liu Qi. When you came back, you immediately asked Chen Dao about the troop movements in the battle. Back then, I’d already caught on but I wasn’t sure so I didn’t bring it up.”

Ah, as expected of Chen Gong.

“But there were clearly other reasons right?”

Ah! As expected of Chen Gong! She could even reach this conclusion.

“Ah, to think that guess was actually on the mark.”

“So that was a guess too!?” I laughed stiffly. Now that I think about it, this entire conversation was perfectly led by her.

“Well… Liu Qi had some past experiences that made her distance herself from others and made it difficult for her to trust others so I wanted to use this opportunity to get her to open up.”

“I see. Imperial Uncle is really a busybody huh? What if Lord Liu Qi does end up getting cheated later on?” Chen Gong said mockingly when she heard what I said.

“I understand where you’re coming from myself. The world does indeed have many liars out there.” I paused for a moment when I said this before I continued, “But all in all, I feel that it’s better to trust others a little more.”

At the very least, she should trust the ones beside her. Otherwise, it would feel too cold, just like the future, I thought as I continued rolling up my sleeves.

“Is Imperial Uncle going to help as well?”

“Yes, I intended to do so from the very beginning.” I said and began walking out towards the corpses.

“Hm hm,” Chen Gong lightly laughed from behind, “I now understand why Zhou Cang changed.”

“Un? What’s up with Zhou Cang?” My ears become a little sensitive when Zhou Cang gets mentioned.

“No, nothing.” Chen Gong caught up to me as she said so, “By the way, what does my lord think of me with a ponytail?”

“Un? Un… It should look good on you.”

“That’s a lie right?”

“No, that’s the truth.”

“… That’s good then.”