Seeing that Ruoye succeeded, Xie Lian instantly relaxed his tense expression and fretful heart. He tossed Fangxin aside and heaved a long sigh, wiping away his sweat.
“Phew, that was close.”
Lang Qianqiu lay on the ground struggling to break free. He didn’t know how vicious that white silk band could be, and the more he struggled, the tighter it bound him. He cried angrily, “State Preceptor, what is this?! Let me go and fight me to the death!”
Xie Lian wiped sweat from his forehead and replied, “We already fought to the death. The thing that’s binding you is one of my spiritual devices. You already lost.”
Lang Qianqiu was incredulous. “How can this count? When I said ‘fight to the death,’ obviously I meant using a sword! If you’re a man, use a sword! Ambushing me with a white bandage? How despicable!”
He genuinely thought the sword was the best of all weapons and wasn’t thinking much about his words, but he sounded like a male heavenly official who was prejudiced against another male heavenly officials using white silk bands: he was insulting Xie Lian for not being a man. But Xie Lian didn’t care whether he acted like a man or not. He’d cross-dressed before, and he’d hung the words “I can’t get erect” on his lips. Nothing could get to him.
Xie Lian knelt down next to Lang Qianqiu. “You were simply unprepared. You never said I had to use a sword, so I used your loophole. Who are you gonna tell? Ambush is a battle tactic; cunning well used is called intelligent strategy. If your opponent had been anyone else, you would already be dead.”
Hua Cheng stood not far from the two and huffed a soundless laugh. But Lang Qianqiu was shocked to his core.
When this man was still the State Preceptor of Yong’an, he’d always taught him about being honorable and conscientious: press forward with indomitable will and make an all-out effort. He’d never thought there’d be a day he’d hear such words from the lips of his once-teacher. He was dumbfounded.
“State Preceptor, you’ve changed so much. You weren’t like this in the past.”
“I’ve always been this way, actually,” Xie Lian replied. “You just didn’t know. I remember telling you a long time ago not to venerate me as an incorruptible saintly figure, since I’m not who you think I am in your head. In the end, you’ve only disappointed yourself.”
Xie Lian rose to his feet. “Have a good, long think about it. And next time, don’t fall for your opponent’s tricks.”
Seeing that he was about to walk away, Lang Qianqiu immediately called out, “Stop!”
Xie Lian stopped.
Lang Qianqiu gritted his teeth and finally ground out the words, “You…owe me an explanation.”
“What kind of explanation are you looking for?” Xie Lian asked.
Lang Qianqiu’s voice quivered. “State Preceptor, my royal parents and I, did we not treat the remnants of the Xianle people well?”
“…”
That was indeed the truth.
Even after the Kingdom of Xianle fell, many of the surviving citizens never forgot their roots. After the Kingdom of Yong’an was established and began its rule, those people and their descendants continued to live on as the people of Xianle and often clashed with people of the new kingdom.
The first few generations of the Yong’an monarchy ruled with force and cruelly massacred many Xianle survivors when protests broke out. On the other side, there were underground alliances formed by the Xianle people to plot assassinations of the Yong’an nobility; they even succeeded a few times. This continued on, and the end result was a deep-seated hatred on both sides.
However, during Lang Qianqiu’s generation, the attitude toward these remnants of Xianle was one of gentleness, the complete opposite. Lang Qianqiu’s parents had wanted to unite the country of the old and the new, and against many Yong’an voices of dissent, the king granted a princely title—Prince An Le—to a descendant of Xianle royalty. The king even made him Lang Qianqiu’s playmate to demonstrate their sincerity. Lang Qianqiu himself had viewed Xianle well and never held prejudices from any past hatred.
“You…” Lang Qianqiu said, “After what you did, there were many who said there must’ve been Xianle forces behind the incident. Many advised me to use that as an opportunity to thoroughly wipe out the Xianle people.”
Hatred between Yong’an and Xianle ran too deep. Anything that happened to either side, they would deem the other the mastermind.