Poisonous Goddess: I'm just lazing around in the mortal realm.

Seeing that the atmosphere between the father and daughter was a bit awkward, Thirteen quickly interrupted.

"Prime Minister Pei is worrying too much about you. After all, I only got to know you because I was the physician in the Third Prince's household, wasn't I?"

A smile tugged at the corner of her lips, and she quickly changed the subject.

"Since Prime Minister Pei intends to take me out, what about Sui Sui... can she be guaranteed safety alone in the villa?"

Pei Zhiheng gave his daughter a cold glance, then looked at the thirteenth disciple.

“I think the Crown Prince is quite sensible about this. If we put aside the Crown Prince’s situation, it’s probably better for her to stay in this courtyard by herself than to be by my side.”

Ever since he arrived in Philadelphia, he had a vague, ominous premonition that lingered in his mind, to the point that he always had a premonition.

The world is about to change in Philadelphia!

The three quickly dispersed.

After Pei Zhiheng had a maid replace Thirteen, the two returned together to General Weiyuan's residence.

three days later

An imperial edict arrived from the capital, ordering the Crown Prince and his entourage to attack a scattered Southern Barbarian army stationed on the border of Philadelphia at midnight the following day, using it as a point of attack.

"Snap"

Gu Changzhe casually tossed the imperial decree onto the table. His weathered face was etched with deep lines, but his long, gray hair was neatly tied up. Even though he was over fifty, his posture remained as upright as a pine tree.

The flickering candlelight made the fierceness in his eyes even more pronounced.

Pei Zhiheng slowly stood up, walked to the table, picked up the gleaming imperial edict, and looked at it.

"Why are you looking at it? My biggest regret is listening to you and getting into a fight with that brat over a girl. Now look what's happened, the Emperor hasn't even ordered me to lead the troops!"

Gu Changzhe was immediately enraged. He glared at his best friend and then raised his hand to snatch the imperial edict from his hand.

Pei Zhiheng quickly slapped his hand away and said...

"If anyone discovers that you have violated the imperial edict, your crime will be compounded! This isn't a bad thing for us. I don't know, but don't you?"

He glanced at Gu Hou and thought to himself that the old man was still as impatient as ever after all these years.

Gu Changzhe couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"I don't know? All I know is that the emperor sent a little brat who only knows how to talk about war on paper to fight against barbarians who have been fighting on horseback for decades. Can such a child accomplish anything?"

Pei Zhiheng quickly covered his mouth and gestured towards the door with his eyes.

Although they are currently in the study, outsiders are generally not allowed to approach them.

However, given the Crown Prince's cunning nature, it's possible that someone might be eavesdropping outside.

Gu Changzhe disgustedly slapped away the hand covering his mouth and nose, and lowered his voice.

“No child can get into this place. This study is full of my trusted confidants. If the emperor were to come here… they wouldn’t listen to him.”

His casual remark sent a chill down Pei Zhiheng's spine.

"Are you raising your own army?"

Pei Zhiheng couldn't help but frown. At such a tense moment, he hadn't expected that Marquis Gu would have such ulterior motives.

Gu Changzhe glanced at him, somewhat helplessly.

"These are all brothers who have risked their lives with me. How can you call them your own soldiers? The people of Nanyang belong to the Duan family, not the Gu family. I can tell the difference clearly."

Although he had a fiery temper, he always held the current emperor of Nanyang in the highest esteem.

After all, the reason he was able to retire gracefully back then and suddenly volunteer to guard the border was simply to ensure that the current emperor could secure his position and not have to care about the gossip of others.

At this point, Gu Changzhe broke off a segment of orange and casually tossed it into his mouth.

The sour orange made him shudder, and he slowly spoke.

"Others may not know this, but you do, don't you? If I really had other intentions, I might as well have kidnapped that brat when he arrived in Philadelphia, and used him to command the other lords!"

He deliberately raised an eyebrow at Pei Zhiheng.

Pei Zhiheng sighed deeply, then shook his head.

"After all these years, you still speak without restraint. If you had this kind of temperament, you would probably have been impeached and demoted long ago!"

He raised his hand, tore off a segment of orange, and popped it into his mouth. The excessive sourness made Pei Zhiheng instinctively spit it out.

"Pah! This stuff is so sour, why are you eating it? Don't you have a sense of taste?"

Pei Zhiheng tossed aside the half-chewed orange segment, not bothering to look at Gu Changzhe's intriguing expression, and quickly turned around to pour himself a cup of tea.

"What do you know?"

Gu Changzhe watched thoughtfully as Pei Zhiheng drank the tea in one gulp.

But the next second

The bitter tea caused Pei Zhiheng to spit it out again, disregarding his image.

"What is all this! Since your sister-in-law came to the capital, has no one been serving you?"

Pei Zhiheng glared at Gu Changzhe, who was waiting to mock him, and thought to himself that this old man was becoming increasingly unruly and lawless.

He took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the tea residue still remaining on the corner of his lips.

Gu Changzhe, however, walked forward on his own and drank the teacup that Gu Changzhe had not yet finished in one gulp.

"You—don't you have a sense of taste? I can't even drink this bitter tea!"

Pei Zhiheng couldn't help but sigh, only to see Gu Changzhe solemnly place the teacup face down on the table, and say calmly...

“During the battle with the late Crown Prince, he poisoned my wine. I haven’t been able to taste it for over twenty years.”

His words startled Pei Zhiheng, and his brows, which should have been slightly furrowed, tightened even more.

"You mean... that banquet at Hongmen where the late Crown Prince set up a trap to ambush His Majesty?"

"Yes, I drank that cup of poisoned wine for the Emperor. Although I had taken the antidote beforehand, the poison still ruined my sense of taste."

Gu Changzhe's calm demeanor made it seem as if he were talking about something utterly ordinary.

But this still made Pei Zhiheng clench his fists tightly. Back then, they had done everything in their power to ensure Duan Yuan ascended the throne, all so that Nanyang could fall into the hands of a wise ruler.

Instead of the cunning and scheming former crown prince

But now

Decades have passed in the blink of an eye. Does the emperor they protected back then still remember his promise?

Pei Zhiheng dared not think about it.

I don't want to think about it.

Seeing his friend lost in self-blame, Gu Changzhe quickly patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.

"What's so special about this? You can't really taste anything. I'm just a rough guy here in Philadelphia, I don't get to eat anything fancy. As long as I can fill my stomach and have the energy to train the soldiers, that's enough."

Pei Zhiheng saw through his feigned strength at a glance, but he also understood that so many years had passed that no one cared who had managed to rescue the Emperor from the former Crown Prince back then.

All the people in the world desire is a world free from war, famine, and natural disasters.

They wouldn't care about the victims on this road.

And he and Gu Changzhe

They are all people destined to walk this path blindly to the end.

"Instead of worrying about me here, you should worry about that brat. Judging from his personality... he might not be able to complete the task assigned by the Emperor."