General, you should rest now; the lady is even more ruthless.

Cui Zhi stayed in that closed room for two hours.

At first he could stand, but in less than an hour his legs started to tremble.

So, not minding that the thatch was dirty, he sat down directly on the ground.

When he left the city, he only brought some valuables with him; he hadn't prepared any food, water, or anything else.

After a night of galloping on horseback, he was exhausted, thirsty, and hungry.

Cui Zhi leaned against the wall with his eyes closed when he suddenly heard a loud "boom".

The door opened.

Cui Zhi's spirits lifted.

The person who opened the door and came in was Shi Hui.

When he finally saw the person, Cui Zhi's face turned as black and green as if he had eaten an old, bitter melon.

"Shi Hui, what have you done? How dare you bring me to a place like this?"

He got up angrily to leave, but the door was closed again after Shi Hui came in.

Cui Zhi turned his head and found Shi Hui staring at him with an unfriendly expression.

"You, what do you mean?"

He felt a little guilty for a moment, after all, he was no longer the governor of Longcheng.

"What are you going to do?"

Shi Hui looked at him patiently: "Of course, we should talk to Lord Cui about our agreement."

"An agreement? Speaking of agreements, I should be asking you that. How did we make that agreement?"

It would have been better if he hadn't mentioned it, because once it was brought up, Cui Zhi was reminded of the events in Liyuan County.

“We agreed that Liyuan County would be under my jurisdiction, but you actually took advantage of my laxity and forcibly occupied Liyuan!”

Cui Zhi snorted coldly, his expression indignant.

Shi Hui chuckled lightly, "There's really no way to deny that."

……

They learned of Zhao Guang's occupation of Liyuan County early the next morning.

At first, Shi Hui was a little angry, not because the contract was broken, but because he felt that now was not the best time.

But Luo Xingyuan felt that doing so was just right.

“We didn’t attack Liyuan before, partly because of our agreement with Cui Zhi, but more so because we were afraid of being exposed to the court. Now that we have been exposed, and Cui Zhi has not kept his agreement with us, it is natural that we have a greater advantage if we occupy Liyuan.”

Luo Xingyuan analyzed the situation calmly.

"Although we need to allocate some troops to defend the city, we will also know immediately if General Zhenguo and his men enter Liyuan."

"We have decided that we will not surrender and will fight the General Zhenguo head-on, so the more preparations we make, the better."

"By occupying Riyuan, we can at least prevent the other side from coming to attack us without warning."

Shi Hui listened to his analysis and found it to be very reasonable.

"Then we'll accept Riyuan?"

Luo Xingyuan nodded: "There's no reason not to accept something that's been offered to you."

……

Shi Hui naturally wouldn't mention that; he looked at Cui Zhi and spoke.

"If we're talking about breaking promises, then Lord Cui is no less so, and it seems that Lord Cui broke the promise first."

"We agreed that the imperial court wouldn't send anyone until we truly grew stronger. But now we only have so few people, why has the imperial court sent the General of the State to annihilate us?"

Good news: We've reached the final boss.

Bad news: We're facing the final boss before we even leave the starting area.

Shi Hui pressed Cui Zhi relentlessly: "Lord Cui, you'd better give us an explanation."

Cui Zhi could only grit his teeth and answer him, "I don't know either. I just submitted a memorial requesting the court to allocate funds for disaster relief and to treat the plague. I don't know how, but the General Zhenguo came."

Cui Zhizhen was actually quite wronged in this matter. To this day, he still can't understand where the problem lies, why the court sent the powerful General Zhenguo when he just wanted some money.

But the other party clearly didn't believe he wouldn't know.

"Ha," Shi Hui sneered, "Do you think I'd believe you?"

"I don't believe that if you hadn't said something, the General of Zhenguo would have been in such a good mood that he would have traveled all the way to Longcheng."

"In my opinion, you must have already broken the contract and colluded with the imperial court," Shi Hui concluded.

Cui Zhi finally understood why he was being treated this way; it turned out that Shi Hui already considered him an enemy.

“I have no reason to go with the imperial court…” Cui Zhi wanted to explain, but then felt that now was not the time to talk about it.

“Alright, now is not the time for infighting. We should discuss how to deal with Shen Luo,” Cui Zhi said.

He asked Shi Hui, "How are your preparations going? There aren't many troops in Longcheng. If we prepare well, we still have a chance to defeat General Zhenguo."

"You don't need to worry about that," Shi Hui said coldly, directly refusing his offer.

"Lord Cui is an official appointed by the imperial court, while I am a rebel whom the court is about to suppress. How can I tell Lord Cui such military secrets?"

Cui Zhi was speechless: "You!"

He paused for a moment, then, recalling the other person's attitude from the beginning, he suddenly realized:

"Shi Hui, you never intended to surrender, did you? Back then, you only pretended to agree to cooperate with me, didn't you?"

"Hahahaha!" Shi Hui burst into laughter.

“Your Excellency, you are not too stupid, but your mistake was that you were too arrogant and realized it too late.”

He walked slowly forward, drawing a knife from behind him as he approached.

Cui Zhi was forced to take two steps back.

"What are you doing? Are you trying to rebel, Shi Hui!" Cui Zhi shouted in desperation.

Shi Hui burst out laughing as if he had heard a very funny joke.

“Am I going to rebel? Lord Cui, take a good look. The place you are in is the rebel army’s headquarters. What I, Shi Hui, am doing is rebellion.”

Cui Zhi never expected that he would actually dare to have such a fantastical idea.

He stared wide-eyed in disbelief: "Shi Hui, are you crazy? You dare to rebel with a rabble of only ten or twenty thousand men? Do you know that the General of the State is here? If you surrender to me now, you might still be able to save your life."

Cui Zhi no longer cared about seeking refuge; preserving his life was more important than anything else now.

The gleaming broadsword in Shi Hui's hand made him dizzy.

"Lord Cui, you don't need to worry about that. Let's settle another matter today."

Shi Hui breathed on the knife and then wiped the blade with his hand. It was a simple action, but it made Cui Zhi shudder.

"W-what account?" Cui Zhi asked.

Shi Hui didn't speak, but instead patted his empty left sleeve with the back of his knife.

Cui Zhi's breath hitched—

"Ahhhh!"

With Cui Zhi's screams, both of his arms fell to the ground one after the other.

Cui Zhi was in excruciating pain and fainted.

Shi Hui looked down at him, just as he had looked at him a year ago.

He threw the knife on the ground, wiped the blood off his hands, and instructed the gatekeeper: "Splash him awake, don't let him sleep."

……

A bucket of cold water was poured over him, and Cui Zhi woke up with a start.

The excruciating pain in his arms was almost unbearable.

The events of the past few days flashed before his eyes like a series of fleeting memories.

He was the one who planned it first.

He was the one who was strategizing and planning.

He should be the biggest winner in life.

Why did things develop this way?

Cui Zhi couldn't understand it.