Chapter 28: All Warfare is Based on Deception

When Ji Kai and I returned back to the The Eighth Verse's universe with secrets that only we share, I found that no time had passed at all. We were back in Ji Kai's room at the Yi Residence in Hua City at dinnertime. But as we made our way back to the main hall for receiving guests, we found an unexpected visitor sauntering in with a cheery expression on his face.

"Yo, long time no see, Xiaoyu," Ruijie greeted me with an excited wave. "To be precise it's been a few hours for me and a couple of weeks for you." He sounded almost too happy, as if relishing our misfortune of not being able to leave this realm yet.

"Why are you back?" I asked flatly.

Ruijie looked from me to Ji Kai and back to me again before wiggling his brows with a teasing smile. "Why—Are you tossing me aside now that you have Kai by your side?"

I looked at him unimpressed. I was about to scold him for behaving childishly when Ji Kai took a step forward and inserted himself between us. "Get straight to the point, Ruijie."

Ruijie's smile slipped and he sighed dejectedly. Muttering something under his breath about how no one treats him with respect, he walked past us and headed towards Shuzhen who was sleeping at the table. Fu Wanxi was nowhere in sight.

"Yan Shuzhen, wake up. It's time for you to go home." Ruijie rapped his knuckles against the table. His loud voice caused Shuzhen to stir.

As she caught sight of Ruijie's sudden appearance, her eyes immediately shot wide opened. She leaped up from her seat and stood up with a stiffened spine. "You-you-you—you gave me a shock! What are you doing here?"

"That's what I should be asking you, Yan Shuzhen. What are you doing here without any permission?"

"Can't you let me stay on? I promise that I won't meddle with the plot. I've not made a mess so far," Shuzhen said in a wavering voice. She turned in Ji Kai's direction with pleading eyes. But Ji Kai casually glanced away at the exact moment that she looked over.

"Your father said that if you don't return now, he will sell off your house and send your godbrother to fetch you back to Beijing." Ruijie continued to smile gleefully, immune to Shuzhen's display of cuteness. "He's quite furious with you for breaking the rules of the Association."

Shuzhen paled. "Is he using Meng Qingshan to threaten me?"

"Believe it or not, at this moment as we speak he is already on the road to Shibao Ge. If you follow me out now, you can escape before he arrives. Otherwise, I can leave now and in a few hours return with him in tow. You can consider and give me your decision."

"Who is this godbrother that Shuzhen seems terrified of?" I whispered to Ji Kai as we stood by the side and watched on. She seemed to fear him more than any punishment that she may be dealt with for breaking the Association's code of conduct.

Dipping his head, Ji Kai whispered in my ear: "Mr. Yan's most distinguished disciple—and also his right-hand man. He is usually tasked to watch over Yan Shuzhen, but in recent years she's been trying to get rid of having him on her tail. He's actually a good person, though."

"But I'm not hindering them from doing their mission," whined Shuzhen as she swung her arms about in frustration, seeing that no one was standing by her side and persuading Ruijie to let her stay. "I don't want to leave yet."

"Alright then," Ruijie threw his hands up, symbolising his "defeat"; and with an indifferent shrug he turned around to leave. "I'll leave without you then. But the next person who comes in here to drag you out will be Meng-dage."

Holding up a fist to my lips, I hid my growing amusement from Shuzhen's view. But as she casted another pitiful glance in our direction, I dropped my smile immediately and displayed a stoic expression.

Beside me, Ji Kai shifted his weight from one feet to another before finally weighing in on the situation. "If your father wants you to go back, you should listen to him and not anger him unnecessarily. Don't be like how I had behaved previously."

My head listed to one side upon hearing his words and I gaze up at him with stirring hope. Was Ji Kai now wanting to assume the responsibility that his family had placed on him?

But the hope in Shuzhen's eyes faded as her ears listened to those cruel words that her crush uttered. Her lips quivered as she opened her mouth to say something. Ever since Ruijie appeared to chase her out of this book, not once did Ji Kai open his mouth to speak up for her. I chewed on my lower lip, feeling bad for her.

Her eyes suddenly flitted to stare at me. I gulped. Why did I feel like there was some hostility in her gaze?

"Why don't you return first and meet your father; and persuade him to agree to let you join us on our mission? I'm sure Ruijie here can come up with some excuse, saying that we need you here—and given your efforts to save lives in this book, surely Ruijie can allow that. Given how the mechanics of time work, you can just return back to this exact time," I suggested with an earnest tone and a friendly smile; but not forgetting to nod at Ruijie after.

After two bewildered blinks, he understood my hints and nodded along while chuckling. "Yes, yes. We'll go out now, tell your father that we need you to join the mission and get his permission, evade Meng Qingshan, and then zip right back into this book."

Finally agreeing to leave, Shuzhen turned around and headed towards the exit, dragging her feet. Seeing that his mission was accomplished, Ruijie bowed and retreated happily. As he passed by me smugly on his way out, he signalled for me to follow him.

"Don't worry, I'm your number one supporter," a sly smile curled up one corner of his mouth. "This is the furthest I can go to help you out. I'll make sure Yan Shuzhen won't return to interfere."

"No, you don't have to do that." I pushed him hard out through the door, acting as if his meddling was unwarranted. But as he hopped over the threshold, he noticed that I looked rather abashed and burst into fits of laughter.

"No need to thank me," Ruijie winked before running off to hurry Shuzhen along.

Standing still by the entrance, my gaze lingered their departing figures. The world felt peaceful again. A world with only two people. But these two people still had many uncertainties to resolve regarding their future. Going back to Ji Kai's side, I sucked in a breath in preparation to broach the topic of our potential long-distance relationship.

"So, about us when we return back to the real world—we'll need to have a proper conversation about it." Ji Kai, having the same thoughts as me, rushed to speak first.

I nodded, feeling briefly enthralled our sense of telepathy and his sense of responsibility. "Maybe we can talk about it when we get back? We can arrange a place and time for a proper discussion about it." Sacrifices would have to be made if we were serious about it.

Ji Kai unclenched his jaws and nodded with an endearing smile.

***

Since that day when Ruijie whisked Shuzhen off to the real world, Ji Kai had been behaving somewhat strangely. For one, he was doubly diligent in carrying out his mission—from making plans and preparations with Sheng Yi to depart for Beiyue, to recapping the subsequent events in the book with me at length. It felt as if Ji Kai was busying himself so that the time in this world could pass faster, so that we can finally complete our mission for the Association and return back to the real world. But Ji Kai also seemed to be keeping a secret from me. Or rather, he had tried to tell me something in secret but we were always interrupted by others.

And it was also clear that Ji Kai was not the only one acting weird and keeping secrets from me.

Fu Wanxi was another one. She seemed to be avoiding me every time Ji Kai was present; and when she managed to catch me alone, she always seemed to be trying to tell me something but ultimately, she would swallow her words.

It made me think that perhaps the both of them were sharing the same secret that I was not privy to. My guess was that this secret was related to Fu Wanxi's real identity.

Throughout our journey from Da Jin Kingdom to Beiyue Kingdom, I had been wondering how this fake Fu Wanxi would act out the remainder of this story. She wouldn't sacrifice her health, her life just to hide her identity from us, would she?

In The Eighth Verse, when the envoy from Da Jin entered the city gates of Beiyue's capital, Fu Wanxi was rudely greeted with the sight of Wuchang Manor's disciples being chained and paraded around the capital. They had been arrested under the Emperor's orders. As Fu Wanxi tearfully watched her father and her family being executed for treason, she discovered that Wuchang Manor was destroyed and it was part of the Second Prince's plot to get rid of the Crown Prince's and the Third Prince's supporters.

Fu Wanxi then decided to take revenge on the Second Prince. In the process of defeating the antagonist of the novel, she was poisoned by him when Liu Mengjie delivered a dessert to her. Misunderstanding that Liu Mengjie and Gao Zhanpeng were helping the Second Prince, she felt betrayed. In turn, Fu Wanxi fed Liu Mengjie the same poison so as to force her to produce the antidote. However, Fu Wanxi did not calculate that Liu Mengjie was actually innocent and that the Second Prince was actually suspecting her as being a sympathiser of the Crown Prince. As such, he refused to give Liu Mengjie the antidote.

Sheng Yi ended up having to express his allegiance to the Second Prince and do his bidding to get the antidote. However, he was only given one dose of the antidote and was told that it was the last and only one remaining. Between saving Fu Wanxi and saving Liu Mengjie, he ultimately chose the latter while intending to end his life with Fu Wanxi.

Brokenhearted that her lover had picked his first love over her (also another one of her misunderstandings), Fu Wanxi left the capital for the desolate Wuchang Manor, which had been abandoned and covered in bloodshed. Sheng Yi felt guilty and grief-stricken that he could not save her; and searched high and low for her and for the antidote.

In his despair, Gao Zhanpeng appeared to remind him of his official mission. Having gathered ample evidence of the corruption, crimes and treason of the Second Prince and his cronies, Sheng Yi presented his findings to the Emperor. In a state of disappointment and fury, the Emperor punished his beloved son and his officials with a ferocity shocked the whole kingdom. The Second Prince was executed in public.

The Emperor was pleased with Sheng Yi for his loyalty and wanted to reward him handsomely. However, before the Emperor could do so, Sheng Yi had vanished from the capital and never made a reappearance ever since. Even the plans to support the Crown Prince as the next Emperor had to be carried out by Gao Zhanpeng.

What happened next in the plot was unknown as the draft manuscript in the Association's possession had missing pages. Some elders in the Association speculated that Lin Jiahe had intentionally ended the novel in this manner. However, others were adamant that there were missing pages that held the secret of the novel's ending. The latter even cited support for their view by making reference to how there were other missing pages throughout the book.

To determine the truth, the present mission was launched with the younger prominent members of the Association at the forefront of it.

***