The Despicable, Shameless Bastard

"Zichuan Xiu, this day next year will be your death anniversary!"

"Zichuan Xiu, today we'll settle all the grudges between us once and for all!"

"Zichuan Xiu, you never expected this day, did you? Hahaha! Heaven has eyes—it finally let me live to see this!"

Di Lin shouted fiercely toward the door, then turned back and glared at Zichuan Xiu, who was leisurely eating chocolate biscuits. In a low voice, he complained, "You really know how to slack off! My throat's sore from all that shouting. Your turn—why are you eating?"

Zichuan Xiu stuffed the last biscuit into his mouth and shouted indistinctly, "Di Lin, let's fight to the death!" Then he whispered, "After listening to those idiots talk nonsense in their meeting for half the day, how could I have the strength to act without eating something? How's Xiujia?"

"Zichuan Xiu, you lecherous, shameless dog! Today, I shall uphold justice and get rid of you!" Di Lin transmitted his voice directly into Zichuan Xiu's ear. "She's fine! But could you not ask about another man's wife the moment you meet him? And calling her 'Xiujia' so affectionately—you should start calling her 'Madam Di' or 'sister-in-law'! Otherwise, I'm going to get angry!"

"Hmph, I doubt you have the ability!" Zichuan Xiu transmitted back. "What a petty man. If that dice game hadn't been won by you back then, how could Lin Xiujia have married you?"

Di Lin transmitted back, "That only proves it was fate—Lin Xiujia was destined to be my wife. You all should have accepted your loss!"

Zichuan Xiu whispered, "Fate? My ass! Later, I cut open those dice and found they were filled with mercury and magnets. No wonder Sterling and I kept rolling ones and twos while you casually rolled triple sixes! Before the dice had even stopped rolling, you ran off like a fool to propose to Lin Xiujia—don't forget, she originally liked me!"

Di Lin whispered, "Give it a rest! Even if we'd competed fairly, you wouldn't have stood a chance. You weren't even sixteen by nominal age back then, and your nose was still running. Which eye of my wife's would have ever looked at you?"

The two exchanged a glance, and both their expressions changed.

"You despicable bastard!"

"You little brat who still smells of milk!"

"The very definition of shamelessness!"

"You lecherous—slut!"

"Go die—go to hell!"

"After you!"

"Yang Minghua is planning a rebellion!" Di Lin kicked a chair flying into the wall, where it crashed with a tremendous clatter.

"That's not news—I heard that line ten times a day in the Far East, then heard it another twenty times on my first day back." Zichuan Xiu hurriedly moved the chair he was sitting on aside, afraid Di Lin might kick him flying too. Then he'd have to sit on the table.

"You're third on Yang Minghua's kill list. Is that news?"

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Zichuan Xiu bellowed with great force, his voice shaking the entire Commanders' Office building as though a life-or-death battle were truly underway. Then he whispered, "Oh? Who else is on the kill list?"

Di Lin transmitted, "Ge Yingxing is first, Sterling is reluctantly second, and Commander-in-Chief Zichuan Canxing failed to make the top three, coming in fourth."

"Is Miss Ning all right?"

"Don't worry, she's fine. Yang Minghua plans to kill Commander-in-Chief Zichuan Canxing and then install her as a puppet ruler."

"Should we hurry and inform Lord Ge Yingxing? Perhaps he doesn't know yet..."

"How could he not know? What could possibly be hidden from that old fox? Don't underestimate him just because he looks sickly. Let me tell you, Yang Minghua has sent four groups, seventeen experts in total, to assassinate him!"

"What happened?"

"Nothing happened. Those seventeen strong, vigorous experts vanished from the world, as though they had never existed at all! Yet the next day, the sun still rose, and we could still see Ge Yingxing—half dead, looking as if he might stop breathing the next minute. Maybe after all of us are dead, that sickly ghost will still live another hundred years! He's too shrewd. The entire Far East is his territory; Yang Minghua's people simply can't get near him."

"But he's in the Imperial Capital now. Doesn't that give Yang Minghua a perfect opportunity..."

"Yang Minghua wouldn't even dare think of it. Ge Yingxing brought six thousand guards back with him, every one of them fiercely loyal and exceptionally brave. Unless Yang Minghua sends an army, he can't get within two kilometers of Ge Yingxing's residence!"

"And Sterling, who's second..."

"Sterling is the Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guard and rarely leaves the Commander-in-Chief's Mansion. Besides, Yang Minghua has no expert capable of killing Sterling silently—except me, of course! Tell him while you're at it that Imperial Guard Vice Banner Captains Yun He and Fang Ge among his subordinates have already been bought off by Yang Minghua."

Zichuan Xiu turned around and casually smashed an expensive vase, letting those outside know that the duel was still raging fiercely.

Di Lin looked at him in surprise. "Someone seems completely unconcerned about the danger. A certain insignificant reserve Deputy Commander, who isn't the Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guard, has no six-thousand-man elite guard protecting him, and unfortunately happens to be on the kill list—someone whose death nobody would care about. I advise you to move out of Miss Ning's home immediately. It's one thing if you end up dead in the street, but don't frighten Miss Ning. Then she'll have to go through the trouble of collecting your corpse."

Zichuan Xiu asked, "How strong is Yang Minghua's force?"

"Extremely strong! Lei Xun's one hundred seventy thousand Central Army troops are under his control. If a fight truly breaks out, he could wipe out Sterling's Imperial Guard in less than an hour!"

"What experts does he have?"

"The Central Army has always been the family's most elite force, and its ranks are filled with experts. Their commander, Lei Xun, is greedy, lecherous, and vain—every time you call him 'the number one expert,' his face immediately breaks into a smile—but his Wind Thunder Skill is genuinely formidable. His chief of staff, Luobo Minghai, has always kept himself hidden. Even now, I don't know what martial art he practices. And Yang Minghua himself is also a first-rate expert. His Ripple Internal Energy is terrifying..."

Zichuan Xiu rested his chin on his hand and thought for a while. Then he asked Di Lin with great seriousness, "Do you think I could tell Yang Minghua that we should forget our past grievances and be friends instead..."

"If Yang Minghua has such overwhelming strength, what is he waiting for?"

"If he openly rebels, he fears Ge Yingxing, Ming Hui, Fang Jin, and the other commanders stationed elsewhere with heavy forces. Once Ge Yingxing raises the banner of 'protect the ruler and suppress the rebels' and leads the million-strong Far East Army back, Yang Minghua won't be able to withstand them even with the Central Army supporting him." Di Lin swung his sword hard, sending out hissing sword energy.

"Then what does he plan to do now?" As Zichuan Xiu spoke, he smashed an antique folding screen.

"He has two steps. First, win over Fang Jin and Ming Hui. If either of them is bought off, the Black Flag Army and the Border Defense Army will restrain and entangle each other, leaving them unable to interfere with unrest in the Imperial Capital. Second, he sent me to the Far East Army to take over your position, hoping to split the Far East Army from within."

"Should I tell Lord Ge Yingxing your identity? The Far East is his territory. If you don't tell him, you won't be able to do anything over there—he'll block you at every turn." As he spoke, Zichuan Xiu smashed another antique flowerpot, producing a loud crash.

"Only Ge Yingxing can know. If word spreads any further, I'll be in great danger! Right now, I don't even know who I can trust."

During the three years they had been apart, the three friends who had shared life and death had each fought their own battle. One had fought bloodily on the battlefield, one had gone undercover and slept beside wolves, and one had fearlessly stood against Yang Minghua head-on. Now Di Lin was about to step onto the battlefield, while Zichuan Xiu and Sterling fought another kind of war in the peaceful, prosperous "battlefield" of the Imperial Capital—silent, yet even more perilous...

They looked at each other and saw deep concern in one another's eyes. Their hands clasped tightly, as though they could feel the warmth of each other's hot-blooded hearts and the deep affection between brothers. Their emotions surged, but they could not weep aloud. There was one sentence lodged in their hearts, left unspoken: Brother, take care of yourself.

The same brush with death, the same hot-blooded loyalty, all for a promise made long ago, a loyalty without regret, and a colossal figure that had departed but never faded—a figure that had once overshadowed the entire Imperial Capital: Zichuan Yuanxing.

Di Lin suddenly remembered. "Axu, you can't walk out looking completely unhurt—they'll become suspicious. Let me see..."

Di Lin launched into a flurry of punches and kicks, leaving Zichuan Xiu with some "dueling" marks.

Zichuan Xiu shouted, "Stop, stop, stop! Haven't you hit enough? Why do you look like you're enjoying this more and more?"

Di Lin said sorrowfully, "Do you know how painful it is for me to have no choice but to strike my own good brother? This pain in my heart is far worse than the pain in your flesh!"

Zichuan Xiu said, "You're smiling so happily. Why don't you let your flesh suffer instead, and I'll bear the condemnation of my conscience?"

Another savage beating followed...

Di Lin said, "It still needs some wounds and blood to look convincing..."

Zichuan Xiu said weakly, "I can't take it anymore. You might as well stab me for real!"

"Well, since things have come to this, I suppose I'll take it out..."

Zichuan Xiu stared wide-eyed as Di Lin pulled a makeup case and a bottle of colorant from his clothes.

"This is... this is..."

"Oh, this is paint used to make actors look wounded, and this is red ink to imitate blood. Rare stuff! I bought it during a business trip to Hollywood last time, and it cost me a lot of foreign currency!"

"That's not what I was asking. Since you had this stuff, why didn't you take it out earlier? You made me..."

Di Lin smiled sinisterly and leaned close to Zichuan Xiu's ear. "Answer A: 'Because I forgot just now!' Answer B: 'Actually, I did it on purpose.' Answer C: 'Because someone secretly kissed my wife during the darkness after the birthday candles were blown out.' Answer D: 'So I've been waiting a long time for this day!' Which answer do you choose to believe, my little Axu?" He gently kissed Zichuan Xiu's ear.

At last, the door opened. Red Guard Captain Di Lin emerged with his head held high, flicked a speck of dust from his immaculate uniform, and casually clapped his hands. Clearly, he had won the duel without breaking a sweat!

Zichuan Xiu lay in a pool of blood, covered in injuries and barely alive. With the last of his strength, he pointed and cursed, "Di Lin, you despicable, shameless bastard!"