Ying Wutu was kicked in the left chest, reopening his bandaged wound. Blood slowly seeped through the gauze, and he lay on the ground, unable to move.
“You brought this on yourself.” Jiang Shouzhu waved her hand, and the soldiers at the door came in. She ordered, “Take him to the prisoner camp.”
As Ying Wutu was dragged away by the soldiers, he coughed blood, staining his thin inner clothes.
Despite his disheveled state, he glared viciously at Jiang Shouzhu.
His heart was filled with hatred, and he vowed to kill this woman!
Jiang Shouzhu had no intention of giving him special treatment; he was a prisoner after all. She originally planned to keep him in a small tent, sorting supplies over the next two days, and play with him. But seeing how he loved to bite, she decided to temper his spirit.
After a long night, Ying Wutu was even more disheveled, while Jiang Shouzhu remained as calm as she was earlier in the evening. When not facing Ying Wutu, she maintained an unreadable demeanor.
It was just past midnight, the snow had stopped, and the victory celebration in the main tent continued.
The soldiers, who had fought for half a year, had worked hard. Jiang Shouzhu ordered them to drink as long as they wanted tonight.
However, Jiang Shouzhu had no interest in returning. She went back to her own tent.
Her tent was warm with a brazier, a high bed with soft pillows, and even tiger skins draped over the chairs.
She wasn’t sleepy, and any trace of intoxication was long gone.
The war was over, the six kingdoms unified, and once they returned to the capital, the emperor would reward them, bringing peace.
The women still drinking in the main tent discussed the rewards they wanted. But Jiang Shouzhu couldn’t think of anything she wanted.
Sitting in her chair, Jiang Shouzhu looked at the candlelight and drew the short sword again.
The short sword was a prized possession, previously belonging to Ying Wutu, now her trophy.
After polishing it for a while, she went out of the tent and called Deputy Yan, who was on guard duty. She ordered, “Keep an eye on the prisoner camp. Make sure nothing bad happens.”
Deputy Yan didn’t understand what “nothing bad” meant, scratching her head, but she left to caJiang Shouzhu returned to her tent and picked up her heavy sword, wiping it with a silk cloth.
She always slept little. On sleepless nights, she would either polish her sword by candlelight all night or practice with it until dawn.
As for the little rabbit, he needed to understand his situation and learn who he should be submissive to.
Biting at every turn was truly disobedient.
rry out the order.
——
The prisoner camp was made of connected iron cages, ten large cages in total, each holding three hundred people. Three sides were covered with cloth to block the wind, as it was the coldest part of winter, and they didn’t want the prisoners to freeze to death.
Jiang Shouzhu intended to keep them alive.
Ying Wutu was dragged by the arm to the entrance of the prisoner camp, leaving a trail in the snow.
That trail was also a trail of blood, as his chest wound was still bleeding.
“General Ying!”
The prisoners had thought that General Ying had died on the battlefield, but seeing him alive, they gathered around to see him.
The door of the iron cage opened, and Ying Wutu was roughly thrown inside. The door was locked again.
“General, were you beaten?”
The others gathered around, concerned.
“Cough… I’m fine…” Ying Wutu refused the help of those who wanted to bandage his wound. He gritted his teeth and got up, leaning against the cage bars, tearing off another piece of his sleeve to tighten around his chest wound, slowly stopping the bleeding.
The prisoner camp was drafty, much more primitive than the tent with a brazier and blankets. Ying Wutu shivered from the cold, as now both his sleeves were gone. He took a deep breath, trying to adjust to the pain in his chest, curling up and hugging his knees to conserve some warmth.
Now his body was cold and in pain, but the worst pain was in his heart.
He had just caused the death of the innocent Deputy Yao, and now seeing his former comrades, hearing their concern, made him feel even more guilty.
“General!”
“General, were you taken away and tortured?”
As the others expressed their concern, someone suddenly asked, “General, is your neck injured?”
“No, no… I’m fine. Everyone, sit down. No need to crowd around me.” Ying Wutu felt they were too close. Although they were concerned about his injuries, he usually wore thick armor that covered his neck. Now, he was in thin, torn clothes, almost exposing himself. He didn’t want his former comrades to discover his identity.
But before he could ask them to disperse, his worst fear came true.
“General, what happened to your neck? Why is there a lump?”
Someone noticed.
Despite it being late at night, the torches in the Jiang army camp were always lit.
“No… you saw wrong. I’m just cold. Please, move away.” Ying Wutu couldn’t imagine what would happen if his identity was exposed under these circumstances.
He feared it would be unmanageable.
“Something’s wrong!” shouted Deputy Yan, who had always been dissatisfied with General Ying in the army. She felt she was stronger and more capable than General Ying, and thus never respected his leadership, even though he had strategic and tactical skills. When she heard someone questioning, she rushed up and yanked off the cloth around General Ying’s neck…
Even the cold wind seemed to freeze.
Ying Wutu, already injured and having taken many beatings tonight, had been kicked in his wound by Jiang Shouzhu earlier. The bleeding had stopped, but he had no strength to speak, let alone resist as the cloth around his neck was torn away.
“General Ying, you’re… a man!”
The prisoner camp erupted into chaos, even prisoners in the adjacent cage tore through the divider to look.
“I… I’m not…” Ying Wutu curled up in the corner of the cage, his head lowered, knees pressed to his chest, shrinking into himself. He didn’t dare to admit it, but now he couldn’t deny it.
Everyone had seen it.
“Sisters! We’ve been deceived! He’s a man!”
“No wonder he never bathed with us. I thought he was just aloof, but he’s a fraud!”
“No wonder we couldn’t defeat the Jiang army. What man can lead troops into battle?”
“If not for him, would we be stuck in this prisoner camp, starving and freezing?”
“If it weren’t for him, we should be the ones celebrating with victory wine now!”
“He deceived the emperor! He deceived us!”
The crowd punched and kicked Ying Wutu, venting their frustration over their defeat on him, as if without Ying Wutu, they wouldn’t have lost the battle.
The prisoners’ wrists were shackled with iron chains, and they used the chains to beat Ying Wutu, causing his head to bleed.
Ying Wutu didn’t dodge. He had no strength left to avoid the blows. He let the punches and kicks land on him without resistance or flinching.
He had given up.
Since he was exposed, he might as well be beaten to death by his own people.
Dying at the hands of his comrades was better than dying at the hands of that wicked woman. It was a way to atone for the defeat.
But he was truly unwilling. He really wanted to kill that wicked woman.
Unfortunately, there was no chance. His wound, which had just been bandaged, had reopened, and he would likely die soon.
The weather was so cold tonight.
Among those beating him, Deputy Yan was the most aggressive, even trying to tear Ying Wutu’s clothes.
“No…” Ying Wutu hadn’t resisted at all, but when he felt his clothes being pulled, he opened his eyes and begged with his last breath.
He could be beaten to death by his own people, but he didn’t want to be humiliated.
Even if no one saw him as one of their own.
At that moment, Deputy Yan, standing outside the prisoner camp, let out a long “Ohhh.”
She finally understood.
Earlier, when General Jiang instructed her to ensure nothing “bad” happened, she had been pondering what that meant, so she kept a close watch on the prisoner camp.
Until she discovered the shocking secret that the enemy general was actually a man, she was watching the commotion when she noticed that the beating was about to escalate to something worse!
That couldn’t happen!
Deputy Yan used her military baton to strike the iron cage, loudly shouting, “Stop! Everyone, get down on your knees with your hands on your heads!”
The prisoners, scared of toughness but bullying the weak, all scattered and squatted down, no one dared to get close to Ying Wutu.
At this moment, Ying Wutu lay curled up in the corner of the iron cage, his clothes and hair in disarray. His head had been hit several times, blood streaming down his face, his exposed arms covered in bruises, and his body under the torn clothes full of wounds.
There was a pool of blood in the snow, some from his wounds, some from his vomiting.
Seeing that he was more out of breath than in, Deputy Yan called for someone to keep an eye on the prisoners and ran to the general’s tent.
“General! The enemy general was nearly beaten to death, and almost… General, do you want to take a look?”
Jiang Shouzhu paused her sword-polishing, the news arriving faster than she expected. She continued polishing without looking up, saying, “Call the military doctor to save him.”
Deputy Yan asked, “Where should he be placed?”
The enemy general couldn’t be placed in their tent, especially since he was a man. She was unsure what to do, and from the general’s expression, it seemed the general had always known the enemy general was a man.
“Bring him here.”
The prisoner camp had settled, with only prisoners squatting or Ying Wutu, nearly beaten to death, lying on the ground.
Ying Wutu was dragged out of the prisoner camp by the military doctor. Checking his breath, they found he was still alive despite the severe beating. They quickly bandaged his bleeding wound and brought him to the general’s tent.
Jiang Shouzhu was vigorously polishing her sword, fully awake now, waiting for Ying Wutu to wake up.
The military doctor had given Ying Wutu three bowls of medicine. After half an hour, he woke up.
The doctor and Deputy Yan left the tent.
Only the two of them remained.
Jiang Shouzhu continued polishing her sword, the bright candlelight illuminating her face. Without looking, she knew the person lying on the ground had woken up.
“What happened? You keep saying you want to kill me, but you nearly got beaten to death instead. Who beat you?”
Ying Wutu lay on the stretcher, the wooden board pressing painfully against his back. It wasn’t the board causing pain but his injuries. He refused to answer her.
Jiang Shouzhu continued talking to herself, “You wanted revenge for your soldiers, but when they found out your identity, they only wanted to kill you. Don’t you hate them?”
Ying Wutu finally spoke, his voice weak. Every word made the wound in his chest hurt more. “I deceived them. You shouldn’t have saved me. You should have let them beat me to death.”
“Really? But if I hadn’t stopped them, they wouldn’t have just beaten you to death,” Jiang Shouzhu stopped polishing her sword. She was doing it absentmindedly anyway. She preferred to toy with the little rabbit. She squatted in front of him, looking at his battered face.
She was somewhat annoyed, almost breaking his face.
Ying Wutu stopped speaking, his emotions more complicated now. Earlier, it was guilt, but now, on top of that guilt, there were other feelings. However, no matter what, he wouldn’t beg for mercy from the enemy.
The enemy had just killed Lieutenant Yao!
“Silent again.” Jiang Shouzhu stood up, not wanting to observe his battered face so closely. It seemed a pity. Looking down at Ying Wutu, she said with a smile, “To be honest, keeping them alive is to use them as leverage against you. If they had beaten you to death, I would have buried them all alive. Do you know how much food it takes to bring these people back to the capital over three thousand miles? So, do you want to be beaten to death by them or save them?”
Ying Wutu opened his eyes again, though even his eyes were swollen.
“Don’t kill them.”
“But they treated you like that just now, and you still want to save them?”
“Yes.” Ying Wutu, though weak, spoke this word with some strength.
“Such a kind little saint. But you are my trophy. They injured my possession and saw your Adam’s apple, so I decided to kill everyone who laid hands on you tonight.”
“No…” Ying Wutu shakily reached out, grabbing her pant leg, his hand trembling. He pleaded, “Don’t kill them… I deceived them. They have every right to hate me… It’s my incompetence that caused their defeat…”
Jiang Shouzhu looked down at the hand clutching her pant leg, noticing that his little finger was broken. She didn’t kick him again but didn’t immediately agree either.
“Why should I agree to you for nothing? But you’re in this state now, so I can’t ask you to do much. How about this: give me a smile, and I’ll consider letting go of what they did to you tonight.”
Ying Wutu thought of her broken promises and the still-warm body of Lieutenant Yao, but he had no choice. He never had the initiative.
So, he endured the pain in his body and the humiliation in his heart, opened his swollen eyes, and forced a smile with his broken lips.
“Not enough,” Jiang Shouzhu shook her head, evaluating.
Ying Wutu’s heart ached even more. He forced another smile, this time so wide that blood flowed from his broken lips.
This smile was humble and ingratiating.
He had always been proud, but now he was begging for mercy.
This time, she was satisfied.
