Framed

"Deputy General Zou!"

Yang Qing said to Zou Donghai, "In my judgment, we should seal off the drill ground. Until the person who spread these rumors is found, no one may take so much as a step outside!"

Zou Donghai said, "Sound reasoning! Pass down the order. Until the truth is established, no one may leave this place!"

The vast drill ground fell silent in an instant. The soldiers exchanged glances, none daring to speak.

Zou Donghai waved his whip again. "What's wrong? Weren't you all making quite a racket just now? Lost your nerve now?"

As he walked, he scrutinized the men before him. "If I find out who had the gall to spread rumors about the general, I will not let him off lightly!"

Every man his gaze fell upon shrank back, ducking his head and not daring to look at him.

Yang Qing stood to one side, surveying the distance without a word.

At last, someone buckled under Zou Donghai's pressure and spoke. "I... I heard it from the cook, Old Du."

His words immediately drew a chorus of agreement. "Yes, yes, that's right! Old Du's been muttering all sorts of strange things these past few days. Who knows what madness has gotten into him?"

"Old Du?"

Zou Donghai frowned. Of course he knew that name.

But that man... it shouldn't have been him...

His gaze sharpened. "What else?"

Then another man spoke. "I spend quite a bit of time around Old Du. He shouldn't have said anything like that. After all, if things really were as he claimed, someone like him would be the first who couldn't leave."

Zou Donghai nodded silently. That was true. Old Du was almost sixty, and citizens of Western Chu no longer had to serve in the army once they passed sixty. That rule had been established long ago.

If Old Du really had spread such claims, wouldn't he have dug a pit for himself as well?

Yet more and more men testified that those words had come from Old Du's own mouth.

Zou Donghai snapped, "Bring Old Du here! I will question him myself!"

Several soldiers left to carry out the order.

Before long, they brought an old man covered from head to toe in dust before Yang Qing and Zou Donghai.

"Old Du?"

Gripping his whip, Zou Donghai regarded the old man sternly.

"Y-yes, Deputy General Zou. That's me."

Old Du rubbed the corner of his clothing uneasily with one hand, his head lowered and his eyes unsure where to look.

Ever since arriving at Yan Pass, he had tended the fires in the kitchen. He had never been this close to the commanders of the garrison before, so the moment Zou Donghai questioned him, his body began trembling involuntarily.

"Were you the one who spoke that slanderous rubbish?"

Old Du trembled again. "I... I don't understand what you mean, Deputy General."

"Slandering the general, claiming that he is about to die and is dragging down the generals of Yan Pass..."

Old Du abruptly raised his head and glanced at Zou Donghai, then looked fearfully at Yang Qing and Wei Li. But the moment his gaze met Wei Li's, he quickly looked away.

"That... that wasn't slander. General Chen told me himself. I only repeated those words because I was angry at the time."

"How dare you! General Chen has commanded at Yan Pass for years. Do you think I don't know what sort of man he is?"

"Deputy General Zou, why get angry? Aren't we trying to establish the truth? Now that we know where the news came from, why not let him explain himself?"

The hand clutching Old Du's clothing trembled again, almost imperceptibly. He swallowed and spoke once more with considerable difficulty.

"That day, the general came to the kitchen alone. Everyone else happened to be out, and I was the only one there tending the fire."

"The general looked very ill. He told me himself that he didn't have much time left and would soon lay his bones to rest far from home. He couldn't bear to part with us old fellows. If we all stayed, he would at least feel there were still people around him."

At this point, Old Du raised his head and wiped away his tears. "When I heard that, I thought something smelled wrong. The illness had muddled the general's mind!"

As he listened to Old Du, Zou Donghai grew so furious that he raised his whip to strike him. Yang Qing stopped him. "The matter is not yet clear. You must not act rashly."

Zou Donghai said, "Are we supposed to let him slander the general?"

Old Du dropped to his knees with a thud. "Deputy General Zou, every word I've said is true. If even half a word is false, I am willing to face military punishment!"

Zou Donghai kicked him hard in his anger. "I will get to the bottom of this!"

With that, he turned and headed toward the command tent.

Yang Qing glanced at Old Du, then followed Zou Donghai to the command tent.

For Old Du to say such things at a time like this, he likely had powerful backing.

The command tent was unusually quiet. Only Yan Ming remained at Chen Lin's bedside.

When Yang Qing entered, he saw Chen Lin lying on the bed with his eyes tightly shut.

"How is General Chen's condition?"

Yan Ming shook his head. "It doesn't look good. The general has been unconscious for several days."

Yan Ming sighed. "It was my oversight. I thought the general would be fine after taking the Detoxification Pill, but I failed to consider his advanced age. His body couldn't withstand such potent medicinal effects. That was why he fell unconscious after taking it."

Yang Qing asked, "What will happen if the general never wakes?"

Yan Ming said nothing, merely glancing at Chen Lin.

Although he had not spoken the answer aloud, Yang Qing understood his meaning perfectly.

Looking at the unconscious Chen Lin, Yang Qing suddenly thought of something. "Deputy General Zou, bring Old Du here at once."

"Bring Old Du?"

Deputy General Zou turned and left, but soon returned, the anger still plain on his face. "Old Du is dead!"

Dead?

Yang Qing's brow twitched. "Where did you have him taken just now?"

"I still had some unanswered questions, so I ordered him taken to my tent. I intended to question him after checking on the general. Who would have thought..."

As he spoke, a flurry of footsteps sounded outside the command tent.

A moment later, Wei Li stormed in with his men. "Guards! Seize Deputy General Zou!"

"Wei Li, what are you trying to do?"

Zou Donghai wheeled around to face Wei Li.

"What am I trying to do? First, we should ask what you've done, Deputy General Zou!"

Wei Li waved a hand behind him, and two soldiers dragged in a man who was a mangled mass of blood and flesh.

Taking a closer look, Zou Donghai gasped in shock. "What have you done to my guard?"

"This man deliberately murdered Old Du, an important witness, and attempted to destroy the body to erase the evidence. We caught him."

"But this fellow refuses to name the mastermind behind him even at the cost of his life, so I had no choice but to bring him here and demand an explanation from you, Deputy General Zou."

"You... you're spitting blood to smear an innocent man!"