He reminded himself to stay calm. Once he had composed himself, he looked at Hu Xiaotian and said, "Why did you come to me? I don't know what I could possibly help you with."
Hu Xiaotian said, "Although you've been dismissed from your post, you still have plenty of friends and brothers in the Western Sichuan army. Investigating the situation would surely be much easier for you than for anyone else."
"Why should I help you?"
Hu Xiaotian laughed. "You wouldn't be helping me. You'd be helping yourself, as well as the soldiers and civilians of Western Sichuan. If Western Sichuan falls into the hands of Yang Haoran and the schemers behind him, its people are bound to suffer far more miserable lives."
Yan Hucheng said, "Don't you just want to seize Western Sichuan for yourself?"
Hu Xiaotian said, "Western Sichuan belongs to Great Kang in the first place. Under Great Kang's rule, its people would at least be treated as equals."
"Can you guarantee that the people of Western Sichuan will live in peace and comfort?"
Hu Xiaotian nodded and said emphatically, "I can!"
Zhou Mo sighed. "Should I go or not?" He had just received an invitation from Hu Xiaotian to meet at the Hundred Herbs Hall that evening.
A faint, wan smile appeared at the corners of Xiao Tianmu's lips. "Go. Why wouldn't you? I'll go with you!"
Zhou Mo froze for a moment. He had thought Xiao Tianmu would choose to avoid the meeting.
Xiao Tianmu said, "What must come will come. It's time we settled things between us."
Xiao Tianmu's arrival without an invitation was clearly not something Hu Xiaotian had anticipated. By comparison, Xiao Tianmu was a deeply calculating man whose intelligence bordered on the uncanny, and he was far harder to deal with