Yun Chang POV

“What do you mean by that?” Cao Ren asked as she frowned. Shen Pei on the other hand had her eyebrows creased tighter than never before.

“My lords can just deploy your troops and wait outside the city. We will do as we suggested before. But after that, my lords need not do anything. We will fight to the last man inside the city and you may enter the city after that.”

“Ah, no, if you do that…” Cao Ren seemed to waver when she heard the last part.

Yes, if we do that, then there is no meaning to getting us to defect. For us, defecting is a way to abandon a path that leads nowhere and and join a path which leads to a bright future. For them, they will lose the opportunity to add more capable generals to their roster.

“Isn’t that what you were all after to begin with?” Wen Yuan sneered, “In the end, the only way to show our sincerity is to for us to die for you right? As long as we’re alive, we’ll be a problem for you right?”

“Wu…” Shen Pei seems to have lost the upper hand.

“Lord Shen Pei, I’m not trying to target you but we cannot sense a shred of sincerity from your words and actions.” I said as I walked over to her, “From how you’ve treated us thus far, we feel very disappointed.”

As I said so, I swept my gaze about at the troops around us, “If you want to just get rid of us, then you can try it now!”

As I yelled out, I stared forcefully at the troops and they were forced to back away. This included Shen Pei as well. And it seems like the strong facade she had been putting up crumbled away instantly as well.

“That’s…”

“Lord Guan Yu, we understand what you mean. That includes Lord Shen Pei as well.” Cao Ren said and got up before making her way over to me as she rubbed her shoulders.

“From what I understand, you require us to deploy our troops to the city and you will take care of the rest.” She said and then pointed at Chen Gong, “After that, you will open the gates for us right? Are you certain that you will be in charge of the north gates.”

Chen Gong nodded and replied firmly, “Of course I can.”

“Lord Li Dian, what do you think?” Cao Ren did not immediately reply in the affirmative. Instead, she looked at Li Dian who folded her arms across her chest as she looked down.

When she head Cao Ren call out to her, she looked up for a moment and looked down again, “Let me consider this again.”

Cao Ren’s eyebrows dropped slightly. Looks like Li Dian’s answer was not what she was expecting.

“We’ll leave it at that then.” Cao Ren did not ponder further and held her hops as she smiled kindly at us like she did in the beginning as she slowly said, “You can go back for now. If we sortie in 3 days’ time, then that means we are willing to trust you and everything will proceed as we have discussed. If we have not sortied by then, that would mean that we either feel that our capabilities are insufficient for a siege. You may bide your time and when our reinforcements arrive, we can proceed with the plan then.”

That is not very helpful for our cause. But that’s probably the best we can get for now.

“Alright, I understand.” I nodded.

“That’s settled then.” Cao Ren sighed as though she had just solved a very difficult predicament.

I saluted wordlessly and then turned back to the other 2 who got up as well. They looked calm, and neither seemed happy nor sad nor weird. Looks like the

y have completely recovered from the crisis we had earlier with Shen Pei.

“But I have to say that your choice is a wise one, Lord Guan Yu.” Cao Ren smiled, “When our main body advances southward, we can cover the entirety of the Tan stream and send our search parties for Lord Liu Bei. Perhaps he might have been saved by somebody living along the stream by then.”

Is she talking about big brother?

“Ah…” I uttered and paused for a moment as I was unsure how I ought to react to her raising this all of a sudden, “I’ll be counting on you when the time comes then.” I said as I saluted her.

“You count on us.” Cao Ren said but her smile seemed to diminish slightly, “But it doesn’t feel like you’re very happy about it.”

Eh? I felt lost when she said this and looked about as I stammered, “No, I was just… A little…”

She was right. As the little sister, I should be jumping for joy at hearing that someone would be willing to offer unlimited resources to help me search for my elder brother,

“Umm, Lord Cao Ren, please don’t raise that topic anymore…”

“Un?” Cao Ren uttered in surprise as she looked at Wen Yuan.

“Yun Chang has recently already… Given up thinking about this already…” Wen Yuan said with a sorrowful expression as she stole a few glances at me, “So if you can, please only inform us when you do have news of our lord.”

“Ah, I see. I’m really sorry for rubbing salt into your wounds.” Cao Ren said with an apologetic expression as she saluted me.

“No…” I replied softly and shook my head as Wen Yuan patted my shoulders.

Of course, only the 2 of us know that this is not a consoling pat but rather a congratulatory one on account of our successful ruse. But really, I was caught off-guard by those sudden words that I nearly let it slip that big brother was not dead. Looks like I am still a little too relaxed.

“We’ll be leaving then.” I said, feeling that it was best to leave before we stepped into any traps unwittingly again.

“I’ll see you out.” Li Dian said as she got up and made her way over, “We are still at war after all so it will not be safe for you to leave on your own.”

Un…

“Thank you.” Naturally, we could not turn her offer down.

In the corner of my eye, I could see Shen Pei sitting where she was. Be it her aura, expression or demeanor, she had reverted to how she was in the very beginning. Her hands were tucked into her sleeves, her eyebrows were creased in a ‘八’ shape and her aura was very weak. I really could not recognise her as the strong and forceful woman who nearly forced us to surrender our lives. And so, at th end, I would like to reinforce our position.

“Lord Shen Pei, did you know?” I said as I turned back, “When you have condemned someone as something you unilaterally believe in, then you can think of and use any reason to defend that position. So no matter what I say, you won’t believe me because you never intended to.”

It’s not time to unleash my finis.h.i.+ng move.

“May I ask how Lord Lu Xiang’s injury is?”

“Ah…” Lord Shen Pei’s jaw dropped at my question. She might have already guessed that I let off Lu Xiang intentionally but was unwilling to admit it.

Of course, I only just realised that I could use this to my advantage just moments ago. Back then, I did not think of this when I spared her. I never expected that a selfish sentiment of mine could actually serve my purposes now so well. And now, it has become a gesture of goodwill in showing our sincerity to defect.

“Open a path!” Li Dian yelled as I came over. Even though they were Yuan Shao’s troops, they still opened a path for us. When I looked ahead, I saw that it was a straight path to the gates.

“Please.” Li Dian said as she raised her hand.

“Please.” I saluted and left the encampment, not forgetting to turn and salute twice as I did so.

Cao Ren and Shen Pei had very different expressions on but they both returned the gesture. I do not know what Shen Pei is thinking about but she seems to be frustrated. However, she did not express it nor has she thrown a tantrum nor has she ordered her troops to attack. Instead, she shot Cao Ren glances from time to time. Looks like she blames Cao Ren more than she blames us.

On our end, I can say that we have done all that we can. Just planting the notion of deploying their troops into their heads took a lot out of us. I believe that I have done my best but I still cannot reveal my satisfaction and joy, and merely looked calmly as I left the encampment.

As I looked about, I saw that many troops in the encampment were looking at us now. Most of them were Cao Cao’s troops. I wonder if it’s because I served under Cao Cao before but it feels like a lot of them look familiar to me. Of course, this could just be a misconception of mine.

“A good number of them know you.” Li Dian said when she detected my glance, “To be precise, they know you, Lord Guan Yu.”

“Me?”

“Yes, back in Guandu, Lord Guan Yu did accomplish a good amount of merit.” Li Dian said as she gave me a rare smile, “Compared to you, all I did was charge into the enemy at the very end. My accomplishments during the entirety of Guandu cannot even compare to yours.”

“You’re over-exaggerating it. Besides, it’s all in the past.”

“The past huh… Without the past, how could one be the warrior he or she is now?” Li Dian said and sighed as she looked up at the skies.

“Lord Li Dian is a worthy warrior already.” I said to which Li Dian frowned and chuckled self-deprecatingly.