Liu Bei POV

“My lord, Lord Guan Ping has been busy with work the whole day and is exhausted so I let her sleep first.”

I can’t believe she managed to say ‘busy with work’ with a straight face. I don’t really interact much with Guan Ping but I know that she’s usually either practicing her martial arts or playing. There’s no way she’s exhausted with work.

“No problem, it’s been hard on Guan Ping.” I said and looked about before pointing one way, “Let her rest on the cus.h.i.+ons there.”

“Blood brother, I have some blankets here.”

“Ah, thank you elder brother.”

Liu Biao went into the annex when he finished.

When he pa.s.sed by Lady Cai, she tried to stop him. Liu Biao stopped for a moment, but he pulled Lady Cai’s arm from grasping him and continued walking towards the annex. Naturally Lady Cai was mad and her expression when she looked at Liao Hua and I after Liu Biao was in the annex grew more hideous by the second.

No matter what Liao Hua does, it’s enough so long as Liu Biao believes that I have no intentions of taking Jing state. Not only can I gain a place to stay and recuperate, I can continue to a.s.sist Liu Qi.

“Here, blood brother, a blanket.” While I was still in my thoughts, Liu Biao had returned with a blanket.

“Thank you, elder brother.” I said as I received the blanket with both hands and walked over to Guan Ping. Liao Hua initially wanted to do it, but I shook my head lightly and walked over to Guan Ping and lay down the blanket on her myself. After that, I layered the cus.h.i.+ons so that they could form a respectable makes.h.i.+ft pillow.

“Alright, let us continue then,” Liu Biao said with his palm out towards Liao Hua. His expression was a little more at ease but he was clearly still troubled. Lady Cai had a face that was saying ‘let’s see what you can say’ as she waited for what Liao Hua was about to say.

As for me, I didn’t dare to say too much, and just stared at Liao Hua silently.

Liao Hua lowered her head and bowed and tidied her clothing before she spoke up slowly, “The commotion I heard from before, the reason for it was basically the Lord Governor and your Lady suspecting my lord of having designs on Jing state, am I right?”

“Ah, I don’t suspect him of that. I trust my blood brother.”

“I don’t!”

“My lady…”

“Hmph!”

Lady Cai turned her face away from Liu Biao, whose face contorted once more as he looked at Liao Hua and bade her with his eyes to continue.

“What the Lord Governor said is logical, as is your suspicions. Leaving aside my lord’s intentions, how your suspicions arose, and what he said, your suspicions are logical.” Liao Hua said, and turned it around, “But at the same time, they do not make sense.”

“Oh? What do you mean by that?” Liu Biao was instantly hooked.

Liao Hua continued in a calm and soft voice, “I’m not a very learned person nor am I very skilled in martial arts. But my lord has many talented retainers by his side of whom I’m sure the Lord Governor has met. At the same time, we have 20-30,000 troops outside the city. If my lord truly wishes to take Jing state, all he has to do is find a pretext to station his troops within the city. In which case, why has he left all our troop outside?”

“That is…”

“That is the first reason,” Liao Hua said as she raised her hand with her index finger pointed up first and the middle finger rising up soon after, “Second, if my lord wishes to take Jing state, why did he leave Xiangyang and reinforce Jiangxia in the name of the Lord Governor? The journey to Jiangxia is by no means a short one. My lord could have easily seized the opportunity when Xiangyang reinforcements were sent to Jiangxia and take down Xiangyang before moving south to Jiangling and finally conspiring with the Sun clan to split Jiangxia between them.”

“Un…”

“That is the second reason,” Liao Hua said as her ring finger went up, “Third, in both battles during the military exercise, though we have achieved victory in both battles, this wasn’t right of us. I don’t know what the Lord Governor’s intentions were but there are rumours flying about in our camp that your side is jealous of us and is out to get us back for that.”

“No no no, no such thing at all, definitely not. How could I do such things to blood brother?” Liu Biao hurriedly shook his head, his mood was now nervous rather than depressed before.

“Of course, that is just a hypothesis of mine.” Liao Hua hurriedly retracted her words when she saw Liu Biao’s nervousness, “We understand what the Lord Governor thinks. You hoped to give your troops a chance to train, and to boost morale through a small victory, that’s all. It was us who were wrong in this military exercise and got too serious.”

“Ah… No, it’s fine. But what I want to say is that, I was not part of the military exercise at all so I can’t confirm all that you have just said…” Liu Biao said as he waved his hands in front of him and looked at Lady Cai. I couldn’t see his eyes from here, but she seemed to have been shocked by him and took a few steps back.

“In any case, as a lowly retainer, my wish is that my lord can cooperate with the Lord Governor. As retainers, we too hope that we can be of service to the Jing state people. However, unnecessary suspicions will only get in the way of this so I hope that the Lord Governor can think on behalf of the Jing state people.”

“Ah… Un un, I understand.” Liu Biao vigorously nodded as he replied and then looked at me.

“Blood brother, if elder brother has behaved inappropriately at all, please do forgive me.” Liu Biao bowed as he apologised. When I saw this, I hurriedly went forward and grasped his hands.

“Elder brother is too courteous. If you still believe in your blood brother, then your blood brother will help his elder brother.” I said as I looked at Lady Cai, whose eyebrows were knotted tightly and was so enraged she couldn’t even say a word. I was naturally overjoyed inside.

Liao Hua, it was the right decision to bring you here. Compared to Chen Gong’s barbed tongue, it’s clear that having someone more steady and reliable to calm the waves is much better. Step by step, word by word, convincing the other side.

… Eh? I don’t know if it’s me but I can’t see any hint of a smile on Liao Hua’s face… Something feels off.

“Well then blood brother, after you’ve had some time to rest, I’ll transfer command to you so that you can be in charge of Xiangyang’s military affairs.” Just as I was trying to read what Liao Hua was thinking about, Liu Biao spoke up.

Clearly, this was not desirable for me at all.

“Ah, no no no. Elder brother, this is not what I was looking for at all.” I hurriedly tried to refuse it but I could feel the pressure to accept his proposition rise as I said so.

“Don’t think too much about it, blood brother. I have been thinking about this for a while now.” Liu Biao said as he took several steps towards me and grasped my hand. As he looked at me with a kindly expression that was reminiscent of the first time we met, he said, “If the misunderstanding has been resolved, then I am naturally willing to hand over this responsibility to you.”