Yan Xiaohan encountered that cold, iron-like gaze and felt a chill. Moments later, Fu Shen lowered his eyes, casually gathering his scattered long hair, and weakly extended a hand, signaling Yan Xiaohan to help him up: “Since you’re already here… please proceed.
Fu Shen: “Then he can rest assured.”
Yan Xiaohan said without courtesy: “I don’t think so. You’re still breathing, aren’t you?”
Fu Shen looked at him with an expression that said, “You’re being unreasonable again.”
“I still feel like none of this is real,” Yan Xiaohan asked, “Are you sure you haven’t left any backup plan or deliberately spread false information?”
Fu Shen countered: “Why would you think that?”
Yan Xiaohan: “Because you look smart. Looking at your face, you shouldn’t do something so foolish.”
“It’s true,” Fu Shen shook his head, “Overt attacks are easy to dodge, but hidden arrows are hard to guard against. You think I won’t fall for it, but maybe you’re giving me too much credit?”
Yan Xiaohan was surprised by his low self-assessment and was momentarily stunned.
The Jing Ning Marquis and the North Yan Cavalry had become an undefeated myth in many people’s minds, an image so deeply ingrained that even Yan Xiaohan had been misled.
But he was just an ordinary person, without supernatural abilities or iron skin, and his flesh and blood could not withstand a massive stone falling from the sky.
“On the way back to the capital, I chatted with people in a tea shop and heard a folk song spreading in the city: ‘When General Fu is in the North, the capital can rest easy’,” Fu Shen sighed. “It’s laughable. I’ve been in North Yan for seven or eight years, thinking I was making achievements, protecting the borders and people, so arrogant that I almost forgot my own name. In the end, I realized that I not only made the Tatars and Zhe people sleepless, but even that person was disturbed…”
Yan Xiaohan said: “Since you’ve figured it out, why don’t you simply hand over your military power and go home to retire and farm? Wouldn’t being a wealthy idle person be much better than fighting on the battlefield or scheming in the capital?”
