Fei Li had some days of peace, only seeing Lu Qinyi in passing. Although he was a prisoner, his treatment truly wasn’t poor. He had books, blank paper and ink to entertain himself with. His room was always warmed, the food he was provided with was excellent. He could wander around the courtyard whenever he liked, he was even permitted to have a wooden sword to train with, albeit under close supervision. Even the clothes he was provided with couldn’t be faulted, always of quality material and elegant design. Fei Li couldn’t say he wasn’t kept comfortable so he admittedly found a small sense of enjoyment in the peace.
But that peace and quiet was rudely shattered by noisy voices at his door and a loud knock. Before he could even respond, the door was opened. Yang Xun entered first, looking over his shoulder as he walked in. “What are you knocking on his door for? This is your house.”
“It might be my house but it’s not my room. It’s polite to knock.” Lu Qinyi’s voice sounded from outside the room before he followed Yang Xun in, nodding in acknowledgement to Fei Li.
“You never knock on my door before walking in!” Yang Xun complained, shooting Fei Li the usual cold look but he oddly seemed more at ease than before Fei Li had been exposed.
“What do I need to be polite to you for? You’re my subordinate,” Lu Qinyi responded in good nature, quickly adding a “And my friend” to defuse the rising temper of Yang Xun. Yang Xun rolled his eyes at that but was successfully placated.
Zhao Mei followed behind the two, clicking her tongue quietly at their antics. Her gaze then fell on Fei Li. “So you’ve truly recovered then General Fei? To suffer such an injury and have recovered completely with no signs of impairment, you truly have good luck General.”
Fei Li responded with a vague “Mm” but Yang Xun grumbled “He’s truly too hard to kill.” This was met with Lu Qinyi slapping him up the backside of the head.
“It’s also not polite to talk about the killing of someone in front of that person. It’s true General Fei is quite impressive however,” with that, he pulled a folded piece of paper from his robes, holding it out to Fei Li with two fingers. “A letter your men wrote you.”
“To say such words of praise about your enemy, in front of him no less, you’re truly without shame General.” Zhao Mei commented with scorn.
“If I have to hear one more word of praise about General Fei I swear I’ll…” Yang Xun began to mutter with discontent only to freeze up at Lu Qinyi’s narrowed gaze on him.
“You’ll what? You two truly have no respect for your general! I should have both your pays deducted.” Lu Qinyi complained.
Fei Li had long since stopped minding their bickering, reading through the letter he had received. He was shocked Lu Qinyi had even permitted him to receive a letter, providing him with information from the outside.
The letter was from Xi Ming. Although Xi Ming held no position, he was often at Fei Li’s side and helped with various tasks so this wasn’t too unexpected. He updated that the troops were faring well and continuing to abide by the orders he had given previously with some adjustments to handle the winter. He assured they hadn’t let their hold on the border slip in his absence and that they were currently working to get him free. There were no explicit details as Xi Ming was well aware this letter would be seen by the Southern army long before Fei Li, if Fei Li saw it at all. There was nothing particularly useful about this letter and Fei Li actually thought it was rather useless, nothing more than to comfort and reassure Fei Li, thus he tossed it aside. It was truly in line with Xi Ming’s temperament to do such a pointless thing, he should know his general didn’t need comforting.
The trio were still bickering about with each other.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Sure enough, Fei Li was provoked, throwing the book he had set aside at Yang Xun, forcing him to dodge. Fei Li felt it was a shame he didn’t have a cup handy, even though all his cups were wood to prevent him from using broken porcelain or stone as a weapon, it still would have been enough to have hit Yang Xun’s face with.
Lu Qinyi broke into laughter, even as he had to restrain Yang Xun, who definitely would have started brawling with Fei Li if he hadn’t been held back.
Zhao Mei shook her head slightly, arms crossed over her chest. “Yang Xun, you should know better than to pick fights with those stronger than you. He may be caged but a tiger is still a tiger.”
“As if you’re any better Zhao Mei. You’d take the chance to fight him too if you could, don’t you still hold a grudge from when he broke your precious formation you spent months coming up with in just a single night? We lost that battle because that formation broke, remember?”
Zhao Mei instantly stiffened, her gaze frighteningly cold.
Lu Qinyi quickly stepped in to mediate, hitting the back of Yang Xun’s head again before saying to Zhao Mei gently, “Calm down Mei Mei, there’s no use fighting about it. It wasn’t your fault we lost, Yang Xun knows that, the soldiers know that. Your formation was brilliant, it can’t be helped that General Fei was able to break it.”
The glare Zhao Mei turned on him was enough to make Lu Qinyi take a step back. “It’s Zhao Mei. Don’t call me Mei Mei in front of others.”
Lu Qinyi’s eyes widened slightly with panic. Zhao Mei was truly ticked off. He hurriedly said “Yes, of course.”
With that, Zhao Mei turned and left the room.
Lu Qinyi slowly exhaled before turning back to Yang Xun.
“What is wrong with you? What did you piss her off for? You know that’s a sore spot for her, she lost one of her best from Division Six that night.” He spoke quietly, looking at the door Zhao Mei had just left from.
Yang Xun immediately looked regretful, he knew Zhao Mei better than most. He was all too aware that slip of the tongue would have dire consequences. “I just wanted to knock her down a bit. I didn’t mean anything.” He shifted uneasily, looking at Lu Qinyi uncertainly. None of the aggressive and self assurance he normally had was left. “I made a mistake… Zhao Mei surely won’t talk to me after this.”
Lu Qinyi ran his fingers through his hair, the locks that normally dangled around his face were caught in his fingers and dragged back from his face. He was silent as he thought. When he looked back at Yang Xun and saw the guilt and sadness reflecting in his eyes, he let out another sigh before letting his hand, and hair, drop back down. “Let me handle it. I’ll talk to her. In the meantime, find the best way to apologize to her.”
Yang Xun gave Lu Qinyi a small, relieved smile. “Thanks General Lu.”
Lu Qinyi simply nodded his head, lightly pushing the other toward the door. “Scram. I’ve got business with General Fei.”
The forgotten General Fei had remained silent, not intruding on these obviously private affairs even though he had some part in them. Yang Xun looked at him but he was too preoccupied with his other feelings to spare anything for Fei Li.
Fei Li felt that despite the bickering and disagreements, this trio truly had an unbreakable bond.
As Yang Xun left, Lu Qinyi looked apologetically toward Fei Li. “Sorry about that. There’s something I wanted to show you if you wouldn’t mind.” Fei Li raised an eyebrow questioningly but Lu Qinyi didn’t explain further so he got up from his seat and followed him.
Lu Qinyi was quiet after that dispute, leading the way through the hallways without a word. The soldiers they passed saluted and made way for the two of them. They were eventually met by two sets of heavy doors, one after another. There were guards stationed on both the outside and inside of each set of doors. Beyond that opened up to a small prison that had been formed from one of the buildings during renovation. Warm light poured in from a thin window that ran along the top of the opposing wall. It was too thin for anyone to squeeze through and lined with a crisscross of thin metal rods to prevent anything but light passing in and out. Both sides were lined with cells. The cells had raised beds and blankets for the cold, all the necessities provided for. To top it all off, the prison was shockingly clean. It was comfortable as far as prisons go.
One of the men in a nearby cell noticed the two almost immediately, sitting up from his slouched position with vigor. “General Fei!” He called out excitedly, rushing over to the bars that separated them.
Fei Li was beyond shocked. These were his soldiers. Prisoners of war weren’t a common practice, any remaining soldiers in an area that was conquered who couldn’t retreat were left at the mercy of the enemy. Normally, they would either die of their injuries or were killed at the hand of enemy soldiers as they swept the area. When they first started to trade skirmishes, he had received a letter from General Lu. General Lu proposed that any captured soldiers be treated mercifully, kept alive and imprisoned until the end of the war. At the end of the war, the winning side got to have their soldiers back, while the losing side would have their soldiers assimilated into the winner’s society. General Fei had completely disregarded this as it was a ludicrous agreement. It drained resources to keep the enemy soldiers alive and even after the war was won, enemy soldiers couldn’t just be assimilated since they had loyalty, pride, and capability, as such they posed the threat of rebellion. That’s why it became common practice to merely kill them, mercy being a quick death.
Hearing those words, the other soldiers perked up, similarly rushing to the bars, their faces alight with joy and hope at seeing their general. Some of them also happily called out “General Fei!” One of them even went as far as to say how he was beyond happy to see that the general was well and in good health.
Fei Li was frozen in place at being faced with these men he had written off as dead, whose lives he had disregarded under the weak and lousy justification of it being ‘the strategic decision’.
Lu Qinyi stood to the side and watched on without a word, his hands clasped behind his back.
“General, that really is you right? You’re okay? I heard you got ambushed! No one was sure if you were alright,” one of the soldiers said. Lu Qinyi recognized him to be the scout they more recently caught.
“It is. I am.” Fei Li forced out, returning to reality.
“Then… What are you doing here? Did we… Did we lose the war?” That newly found hope was already being suffocated, those smiles dampening as one of the soldiers asked this. They all shared the same thought; that’s right, why would their general be here if they hadn’t lost?
General Fei wasn’t sure how to tell them he had also been captured by the enemy. Luckily he didn’t have to as Lu Qinyi stepped in. “No one has won or lost yet. The North and South are in a truce for the winter to avoid unnecessary losses. General Fei is here to inspect how his soldiers are being kept.”
Fei Li held himself from showing an expression or reaction to this, seeming to only emotionlessly look over the prison. Seeing his unfazed appearance, the soldiers accepted this reasoning, livening up again.
“We should be going then.” Lu Qinyi prompted, half turning toward the door. Fei Li nodded but as he was leaving, he could hear the soldiers calling out and wishing him well. His heart sank in his chest and he felt a deep sense of unease.
As they were walking away, he couldn’t keep from asking, “You lied to them. Why?”
Lu Qinyi’s steps paused for half a beat as he walked. “I didn’t necessarily lie.”
“You didn’t tell the truth either.”
Lu Qinyi shrugged a shoulder, still looking straight ahead. “Why not? There isn’t any harm in letting them stay in high spirits. Why should they have to know their general is being held hostage?”
Fei Li had no response to this, falling silently into his own thoughts.
Author’s Notes:
Zhao Mei is mistaken, Fei Li is not a tiger, he’s a little chick. I will never be free of this imagery now, thanks to Bambootriangle’s comment.
I’ll continue to randomly upload chapters while ever I’m ahead on my reserves~
Fei Li addlepated over Lu Qinyi’s actions! Pfft! Enjoying the development of this story and side characters ❤️
I have learnt a new word today! Addlepated is such an epic word oml. Haha, Fei.Exe does not computer. I’m so glad you’re enjoying it!
Fei Li, learn to value the lives of your soldiers more, please.
And hopefully all of them will become friends in the future <3
He’s getting there. He’s been taught a lot of extreme things, in particular he was taught against having those kinds of morals.
They will! But far in the future.