After Exile, I Married the Amnesiac General [Rebirth] Chapter 76

Pei Zhen did not hide from General Chen the matter of going to Wuding Pass, using the same reason, that Yang Yuanyi had invited him to go along.

General Chen had originally hoped he would build a good relationship with Yang Yuanyi, so he naturally agreed. Moreover, with Wuding Pass in crisis, as the commander of a nearby small pass, even if he couldn’t provide much help, he couldn’t stand by idly.

Thus, he immediately assigned five hundred men for Pei Zhen to take. Worried that Pei Zhen’s rank was too low and that he might not be taken seriously there, he even specially promoted him to temporarily act as a commandant.

“Although it’s temporary, I’ve already recommended you upward. By the time you return from Wuding Pass, the formal appointment document should arrive just in time,” General Chen said reassuringly. Then, somewhat regretfully, he added, “If only you had truly captured that Hu Second Prince alive last time, forget commandant, you could have been a general.”

Pei Zhen brushed past the rest, only uneasy about one matter, and reminded, “As for Lü Quan and Jiang He, the interrogation must be expedited. No matter who comes asking for them, they must not be handed over.”

“I know, don’t worry,” General Chen said.

Pei Zhen nodded. Before riding off, he glanced back once more from afar.

Not seeing the familiar figure, he turned back with slight disappointment, only to meet Yang Yuanyi’s probing gaze.

Pei Zhen: “……”

“Let’s go.” His expression instantly went blank as he flicked the whip and rode ahead.

Yang Yuanyi: “Tsk tsk.” What’s wrong with letting me be a little curious?

He then urged his horse and quickly followed.

Watching the group depart in the distance, the dust gradually settling, Li Chanxiu finally stepped out from behind an old locust tree as thick as a person beside the camp, gazing from afar, his eyelashes trembling slightly.

General Chen turned and saw him, startled for a moment before smiling in understanding. “Came to see Pei Er off? Why didn’t you come out just now?”

Li Chanxiu pressed his lips into a faint smile and didn’t answer.

Pei Er had already misunderstood their relationship to that extent, if he came out to see him off, wouldn’t that deepen the misunderstanding?

But having known each other, and with the other now heading to Wuding Pass that could fall at any moment, not seeing him off didn’t feel right, so he had secretly done so like this.

Unaware of the situation, General Chen misunderstood and sighed, “That makes sense. Once you meet, parting sorrow grows, it would only make it harder to separate.”

But between a young couple, if you care about the other, it’s better to let them know, otherwise wouldn’t that care be in vain?

Well then, since he had already played matchmaker and officiated their marriage, he might as well see it through. When Pei Er returned, he would tell him about this.

Moreover, he had clearly seen it just now, before leaving, Pei Er had turned back to look, wasn’t it just to see if his wife had come to see him off? This young couple really… tsk tsk.

General Chen looked fully understanding, stroking his short beard, smiling meaningfully.

Li Chanxiu, however, was left looking baffled and confused.

***

After Pei Er left, Li Chanxiu no longer needed to find an excuse to move into the pharmacy, but he didn’t feel relieved. Instead, he grew even more tense, constantly paying attention to the latest military reports coming from Wuding Pass.

General Chen knew he was worried about Pei Er. When he came to ask, as long as it wasn’t confidential, he didn’t hide anything.

After going to the central command tent many times, Li Chanxiu quickly noticed something. People from the prefectural city had recently been coming one after another, demanding that General Chen hand over Lu Gonggong and Jiang He.

Especially once, when he had just arrived outside the tent, he heard the angry scolding and threats of several officials from the prefectural city inside. One of them, in particular, was so enraged that he openly berated General Chen.

Each time, General Chen smoothed things over, smiling and saying that Lu Gonggong had long since left Yongfeng and that he truly didn’t know where he was now. But this time, being pointed at and scolded, even someone as good at playing dumb as him couldn’t quite keep face.

Yet the ones who came were from the prefectural city. Though their ranks weren’t much higher than his, they all served under the commandery office, and any one of them could say a few words in front of Prefect Yan and easily control him, he simply couldn’t afford to offend them.

So afterward, General Chen simply claimed illness. Since Li Chanxiu often came to inquire about Pei Er’s news, he pretended to have the military physician examine him and had Li Chanxiu cooperate by saying he was seriously ill, avoiding seeing visitors.

After a day like this, those people from the prefectural city actually left.

General Chen immediately let out a breath of relief, pulling off the damp cloth from his forehead, and said to Li Chanxiu, who had been pretending to decoct medicine in the tent, “Finally got rid of them. Little Shen, you’ve worked hard these past two days. Go back and rest. Today’s report from Wuding Pass hasn’t arrived yet, I reckon it’ll be later. As soon as there’s news about Pei Er, I’ll have someone inform you.”

Li Chanxiu stood and smiled, nodding his thanks.

After leaving the central command tent, the smile in his eyes instantly vanished, and his brows lightly furrowed.

Would those people from the prefectural city really give up so easily? And those few were clearly close confidants of Prefect Yan, it seemed Lu Zhi’s earlier guess was correct, that Prefect Yan was very likely involved as well.

Even if not, the fact that he was so eager to send people to retrieve Lu Gonggong showed that the person behind Lu could command Prefect Yan, and that their background was not small. Otherwise, Prefect Yan wouldn’t be this concerned, this anxious.

Lost in thought, as he neared the pharmacy, he suddenly saw from afar over a hundred fast horses galloping toward the camp, raising clouds of dust.

At the front rode a man in a deep crimson official robe, with a golden belt at his waist, the attire of a commandery prefect.

Aside from two or three others similarly dressed, the hundred or so following behind him were all armed soldiers in full gear.

When they reached the camp entrance, they paid no heed to the guards and charged straight in. The middle-aged man at the front wore a displeased expression and headed directly toward the central command tent.

Prefect Yan?

Li Chanxiu quickly stepped aside and hid behind a tent. Only after the group had passed did he slowly lean out, then thought of something and frowned.

Prefect Yan had come personally, was it also for Lu Gonggong and Jiang He?

After thinking, he immediately turned to find Chen Qing’s younger follower, Erzi, and told him to go check the situation outside the central command tent.

“Be careful, don’t let them notice you,” he instructed.

Zhang Hu had gone to Wuding Pass with Pei Er, Zhang He and Chen Qing were both recovering from injuries, and at present the only person he could use was Erzi.

Small and nimble, Erzi was good at hiding and eavesdropping. Upon hearing this, he immediately said, “Miss Shen, don’t worry. I’ll make sure to catch every single word.”

With that, he quickly slipped away.

Li Chanxiu let out a soft breath, then returned to the pharmacy to wait.

***

Inside the central command tent, General Chen had just relaxed for a short while when he suddenly heard that the prefect had arrived, and was already outside his tent. He was so startled he nearly fell off the couch.

He hurriedly scrambled up to put on his armor, but then thought it over and felt something was wrong, he was supposed to be feigning illness. If he suddenly appeared completely fine, wouldn’t that be too fake? So he turned to lie back down again, but then reconsidered… also not right. With the prefect personally arriving, even if he were truly dying, as a mere frontier commander, he couldn’t just lie on the couch…

Thus, in his fluster, he fumbled about, trying both to dress properly and to pretend to be weak. He had only gotten halfway when the tent flap was suddenly thrown open.

Prefect Yan strode in, his expression stern, and said coldly, “Chen Gaojun, where are they?”

General Chen immediately had no time to finish dressing, and hurriedly knelt down to pay his respects.

When Prefect Yan saw him, he showed no mercy at all and immediately rebuked: “Chen Gaojun, you’ve got quite the nerve, how dare you arrest even the supervising eunuch sent by His Majesty! I’ve sent people several times to order you to release him, yet you either feigned ignorance or pretended not to hear. What, is your little Yongfeng garrison no longer under my Yongzhou jurisdiction? Next, are you planning to arrest me as well?”

A string of scolding questions, combined with official pressure, came crashing down, frightening General Chen so much that he didn’t even need to pretend to be ill, his face turned pale on its own.

Although he had long suspected that the prefect might also be involved, he never expected the other party to come personally to retrieve the man. He could not help but sigh inwardly: Pei Er, oh Pei Er, that reckless brat has really made things hard for me.

But the man had already been arrested, so now he could only grit his teeth and keep holding out. He hurriedly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and explained in a tense voice: “My lord, Lu Gonggong truly left several days ago. This subordinate has absolutely no knowledge…”

“That’s enough, stop playing tricks with me and hand him over at once!” Prefect Yan shouted sternly. “Don’t forget, if I want to strip you of your post, it’s only a matter of a single sentence.”

Behind him, a young man in a light green official robe glanced at General Chen once, his expression unchanged.

Kneeling on the ground, General Chen felt his hands and feet turn cold. Just as he was gritting his teeth, unsure how to continue holding out, suddenly a soldier rushed in from outside the tent to report, 

“General, urgent military news, Wuding Pass has been breached!”

“What?!” General Chen was instantly shocked. Not even waiting for Prefect Yan to tell him to rise, he scrambled to his feet, lifted the tent flap, and called the soldier in to question him.

Prefect Yan and the young man behind him also had their expressions change drastically upon hearing this.

***

Inside the pharmacy, Li Chanxiu did not learn of the situation from Erzi until it was almost dark.

“Miss Shen, you didn’t see it, the moment that Prefect heard Wuding Pass had been breached, he immediately stopped questioning our general and rushed out of the tent to mount his horse and leave. And guess what? When he got on, he could barely even step firmly into the stirrup. If you ask me, he’s not as steady as our General Chen,” Erzi described vividly.

But Li Chanxiu’s expression changed abruptly upon hearing this, and he immediately grabbed his arm and asked, “What did you say? Wuding Pass has been breached?”

Erzi wasn’t wearing armor on his arm and felt a sudden pain from the grip, inwardly surprised: Miss Shen looks delicate, but her grip is quite strong.

Then he stammered, “Y-yes, I heard it with my own ears. Even that Prefect was badly shaken and hurried to mount his horse to leave. Who knows whether he’s returning to the prefectural city or going to provide reinforcements. Come to think of it, if Wuding Pass has been breached, won’t we be in trouble soon as well? If this place…”

Before Erzi could finish speaking, Li Chanxiu had already stood up and hurried out.

At that moment, he hadn’t even thought about what he was going out to do or what he could do. The only thought in his mind was, Wuding Pass has been breached, so what about Pei Er? Is he still alive?

He had just walked out of the pharmacy when he nearly bumped into someone. He quickly stopped and looked up to see a young man in a light green official robe.

The man had a gentle appearance and a faint smile. Seeing that he had almost collided with him, he quickly raised his hand as if to steady him and said, “Careful.”

Li Chanxiu immediately stepped back, recognizing him as one of the officials who had accompanied Prefect Yan. He instinctively kept his distance, his face calm as he said, “Thank you.”

The man lowered his hand indifferently and, after examining him carefully, asked somewhat uncertainly, “You are… Shen Xiu, right?”

Li Chanxiu’s heart gave a slight start, but his expression did not change. Guardedly, he asked, “And you are…?”

After confirming his identity, the man seemed to relax and then smiled. “You’ve really grown up. Compared to when you were little, you’ve changed quite a lot. If I hadn’t asked General Chen beforehand, I almost wouldn’t have dared to recognize you just now.”

The more Li Chanxiu listened, the more alarmed he became. Could this person be… an acquaintance of Shen Xiu?

“You don’t remember me either, do you?” the man in front of him said with a smile upon seeing him frown. “I’m Gu Heng, your cousin.”

Li Chanxiu: “…”

His pupils shrank involuntarily. He fiercely pinched his fingertips to barely maintain his composure.

Cousin? Shen Xiu actually has a cousin? More precisely, she still has living relatives?

Back when his father’s former subordinates helped him change his identity and arrange everything, hadn’t they said that Shen Xiu’s family, including Shen Xiu herself, had all unfortunately passed away?

It was rare for Li Chanxiu to feel flustered over something unrelated to Pei Er, but he quickly calmed down again, this cousin clearly didn’t know what the real Shen Xiu looked like. The two had likely only met in childhood and hadn’t seen each other for many years.

Don’t panic. This can be concealed.

Thinking this, he pinched his fingertips again, trying to show the complex emotions a banished woman might have upon suddenly seeing a relative. His eyes reddened slightly as he spoke with apparent difficulty: “Cous… cousin?”

Seeing his pitiful expression, Gu Heng was momentarily stunned, a trace of pity flashing through his gaze. Just as he was about to say something more, suddenly…

Outside the camp, another soldier galloped in at full speed, shouting an urgent report along the way: “Report! General, reinforcements from Bingzhou have arrived! They’ve already reached Wuding Pass! Reinforcements from Bingzhou!”

“What?” Outside the camp, Prefect Yan, who had just mounted his horse and not yet gone far, abruptly pulled on the reins.

Outside the pharmacy, Li Chanxiu also froze for a moment. Then, disregarding everything else, he raised his hand to push aside the person in front of him and hurried toward the central command tent.

Halfway there, he suddenly thought that if Prefect Yan was still present, it would be inconvenient for him to show himself. He turned around and called out, “Erzi, please help me with something again.”

Gu Heng stood there in a daze, watching as the graceful, ethereal young woman before him hurried away with a young soldier.