Ma Chao said, "Please, tell me. I'm all ears."
Bai Xiaowen asked, "When the young general was fighting Zhang Lu at Chang'an, did you know what I was doing?"
Ma Chao said, "You were fighting Cao Cao."
Bai Xiaowen nodded. "Cao Cao was far stronger than the Western Liang Army. He was a formidable opponent. So, General, while I was racking my brains over how to defeat Cao Cao and unite Henan, would I have had the energy to concern myself with affairs in the Three Dependencies?"
Ma Chao's expression shifted slightly, but he said nothing.
Bai Xiaowen continued, "At first, none of you in Western Liang suspected me. You believed Old General Ma's curse had been Zhang Lu's doing. That was why you brought the old general to Ye Capital for me to treat, wasn't it?"
Ma Chao nodded.
"Then why did the young general come to regard me as the murderer?" Bai Xiaowen pressed.
Ma Chao was quite frank. "Jian Yong, a strategist under Liu the Imperial Uncle, came to me and laid out all sorts of possibilities." He then recounted Jian Yong's words from that day without concealing anything.
Bai Xiaowen laughed. "No wonder, no wonder. I had long heard that Jian Yong was Liu Bei's foremost envoy and persuader. It seemed the rumors were true."
Ma Chao stared at Bai Xiaowen. "Jian Yong said my father would surely be in danger in Ye Capital. And in the end, events unfolded exactly as he predicted. How do you explain that?"
"Yes, Jian Yong's prediction came true, so naturally his words became highly convincing," Bai Xiaowen said with a smile. "But has the young general considered another possibility?"
"What?"
Bai Xiaowen enunciated every word. "Jian Yong was the mastermind behind the scenes!"
That short sentence was like a