Stay

Shao Zhan did not speak. He just straightened a pair of chopsticks for Jiang Danhe and gestured for him to sit down and eat.

Jiang Danhe was really hungry. He rubbed at his water-filled stomach and walked over.

For the entire day, all he had was water and tea. He had not taken a single bite of solid food. It had been a long time since he had missed any meals. After reuniting with Xiaoguo, he had been abiding by her teachings and had never missed a single meal.

“Heh.” Shao Zhan looked at him eating and couldn’t help but laugh.

Jiang Danhe glared at him and he shut up.

When he spoke again, it was after Jiang Danhe put down his chopsticks.

“How was your day?”

“I thought you could guess.”

Jiang Danhe wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, then folded it and placed it aside. He glanced at the pretentious man and picked up a glass of water to drink. “Are you here to gloat?”

“Of course not.” As if.

Shao Zhan answered quickly, but the smile on his face made his words incredible.

“Hmph.”

Jiang Danhe put down his cup and snorted. “How boring. Don’t you have to go through the memorials today?”

He actually had the time to come out and gloat at him.

“I’m very busy. I’m just worried about someone’s arm.”

As he spoke, he took out an ointment and threw it to Jiang Danhe. “Take this and rest well. After all, I’ll have to rely on this arm to protect this country in the future.”

Jiang Danhe did not take his words to heart at all.

Seeing that he was silent, Shao Zhan thought for a moment and said again, “You should stay in the capital for the time being.”

He had brought this up to Jiang Danhe many times, but he feigned ignorance every time. This made it impossible for him to continue chatting. He decided to cut to the chase today. He simply didn’t want Jiang Danhe to leave.

“I think we’ve already talked about that.”

“You made that unilateral announcement. I didn’t agree to it.”

Shao Zhan waved his hand and denied Jiang Danhe’s words. In any case, he wasn’t completely wrong. He had never promised him that he could leave.

Jiang Danhe was so angry that he almost laughed. So he was starting to play word games with him now. He crossed his arms and looked at him. “It’s useless to say anything.”

“Do you think you can go back?”

“What do you mean?”

Shao Zhan stopped smiling. “Calm down. I don’t mean anything else.”

Jiang Danhe’s muscles tensed up and he started to frown. Looking at the other party’s confident look, his heart palpitated with unease.

“We both know that you’re not tempted by money and status, but can you give up your sword and army?”

Jiang Danhe fell silent. This was also a question he had been avoiding. At some point in time, removing his armor and returning to the fields had become his obsession. But after putting aside his obsession, he had never thought about what would happen next.

These past few years have been neither long nor short. During the intense training that he had been conducting everyday, his body and mind had gotten used to this kind of lifestyle. How could he bear to let go of the soldiers that he had personally selected and trained to fight on the battlefield?

Although he hated killing, habits were scary…

Seeing that he had stoked the burning embers, Shao Zhan took a step closer to him and said softly, “Your wife is doing well now and your son is of schooling age. There’s no point in you going back, so…”

At this point, Shao Zhan put his hand on Jiang Danhe’s shoulder and said in a bewitching voice, “Stay. You can’t bear to leave all these.”

“…” Jiang Danhe remained silent and only glanced at him.

Shao Zhan left after saying that. He knew that Jiang Danhe would not answer him right away. After all, he was just stating the facts and bringing up the things that he was deliberately avoiding.

Eunuch Su appeared instantly when he saw Shao Zhan. Just now, they were all following his orders to hide themselves so that the general would not see them. They only dared to show themselves when the emperor came out.

“Your Majesty, are we going back to the palace?”

“Let’s go back.”

Shao Zhan got into the carriage. With a wave of Eunuch Su’s hand, the carriage moved away silently.

Eunuch Su had always followed his principle of not prying into the affairs of the imperial court. At this moment, he was a little shaken. He was aware of the emperor’s repeated beguiling of the general.

One wanted to leave, and the other wanted him to stay. One had strong willpower, and the other had perseverance.

They were conflicting to begin with. He wondered who would compromise first.

As Eunuch Su thought about this, he couldn’t help but sigh softly. Coincidentally, the person in the carriage heard him.

“What are you sighing about?”

Eunuch Su was so frightened that he broke out in cold sweat. He shivered in the breeze. “Your Majesty, it’s nothing…”

“… Hmph.”

Before long, a cold snort sounded. Eunuch Su’s legs went weak and he almost fell to his knees.

Fortunately, nothing happened along the way and they successfully returned to the palace.

After helping the emperor to bed, Eunuch Su finally had time to massage his sore calves. He had spent his day standing and hiding for a long time. “It must have been hard on you, my dear legs.”

–

The next morning, Jiang Danhe sat up in bed, washed up, and changed into a set of clean clothes. He didn’t even have time to eat breakfast before going over to send Mr. Kong off.

As soon as he arrived at the mansion, he realized that there were only two carriages parked at the entrance. One of them had a carriage, so it was obvious that it was used for transportation. The other carriage only had a carriage plate, and there were only a few wooden boxes placed on it.

Jiang Danhe was a little puzzled. Didn’t he move many boxes yesterday? Why were there so few boxes left today?

“Alright, alright. Stop sending us off. Just visit us when you have time.”

Just as he was feeling puzzled, Mr. Kong’s voice came from the door, followed by a babble of noisy voices.

Jiang Danhe quickly walked to the door. As soon as he arrived, Mr. Kong’s family walked out.

“The general is here.”

Mr. Kong saw Jiang Danhe immediately and greeted him. However, Mrs. Kong stopped the latter enthusiastically and asked about his well-being. She was so enthusiastic that he almost didn’t know what to do.

After Mr. Kong pulled his wife away, Jiang Danhe took the opportunity to greet Kong Ni and his family.

After exchanging greetings, he saw that the elderly couple had already walked to the carriage.

“Father, Mother, you have to take good care of yourselves. We’ll visit you every month.”

Kong Ni was already forty years old, but even so, his eyes were turning red while looking at his parents, who were about to leave.

When the eyes of Kong Ni turned red, his wife and two children beside him started shedding tears of reluctance.

“Why are you crying!” Mr. Kong patted his son’s shoulder firmly. Then, he looked at everyone and said, “Your mother and I are leaving to enjoy our retirement. We’ve spent most of our lives working hard. It’s time for us to enjoy some leisure time.”

With that, he took out a folded piece of paper and said to Jiang Danhe, “General, my address is inside. There’s also something I wrote for your wife and son. Please pass it to them.”

Mr. Kong did not say anything else. There should be mutual understanding between them.

After Jiang Danhe accepted it, he nodded at him gratefully. “Thank you!”

Mr. Kong took his wife’s hand and looked at his family seriously. Finally, he patted Kong Ni’s shoulder twice. “I’ll leave this family to you.”

Mrs. Kong also looked at the younger generation reluctantly. Patting her two grandsons’ heads and touching her son’s mature face, a heartfelt smile appeared on her face.

Finally, she came to her daughter-in-law’s side and patted her shoulder meaningfully. She was thinking the same things as Mr. Kong. “I’ll leave this family to you.”

After bidding farewell reluctantly, the old couple was about to help each other into the carriage when a voice suddenly sounded.

“Please wait!”