Chapter 144 -
"What do you think you are doing, you filthy maid?!" Yueqing shouted, her voice ringing sharply through the warm, quiet tent.
Before Li Mei could even process the burning sting on her cheek, Yueqing lunged forward, her fuzzy mitten-covered hand shooting out and wrapping tightly around a handful of Li Mei’s long hair. With a fierce, unyielding yank, Yueqing dragged the staggering maid backward, forcing her to stumble completely away from Wenzhe’s desk!
"AH! Young Madam!" Li Mei shrieked, clutching uselessly at her scalp, tears spilling over her eyes in genuine pain and absolute horror. "Let go! Please!"
"How dare you come into the General’s tent in the dead of night and think you have the guts to touch him?!" Yueqing snapped, her eyes blazing with a terrifying, unbridled fury as she gave another sharp tug. "Have you forgotten your place?! You are a maid! He is the General! Know your boundaries before I yank every single hair out of your treacherous head!"
Li Mei gasped, trembling, completely stunned by the sheer violence of Yueqing’s sudden attack.
Sitting behind the desk, Wenzhe remained frozen, his jaw dropped slightly as he stared at his wife. Both Li Mei and Wenzhe were utterly shocked by the raw, explosive scene unfolding before them.
Wenzhe’s dark eyes narrowed as he focused entirely on Yueqing’s face, trying frantically to catch the usual inner dialogue that echoed in his mind whenever she caused chaos.
Silence.
For the first time since her arrival at the camp, her inner thoughts were completely blank to him. Not a single word, not a single rant, not even System Nine’s mechanical alerts were bleeding through.
A heavy, unsettling feeling settled in Wenzhe’s chest. Why can’t I hear her? Is she doing this purely for her ’villain points’... or is there a completely different reason she’s acting this wild?
"Yueqing, stop," Wenzhe finally barked, his deep voice cutting through the tension as he stood up from his heavy chair.
Yueqing didn’t let go immediately. She gave Li Mei’s hair one final, punishing shove forward, sending the maid crumpling onto her knees on the rug, weeping pitifully while clutching her head.
Yueqing stood tall in her fluffy white fur coat, her chest heaving, her eyes darting between Li Mei’s trembling frame and Wenzhe’s unreadable face.
The air in the tent felt suffocatingly thick. Yueqing had successfully stopped Li Mei from laying a finger on him but the silence in her mind only made Wenzhe’s intense, probing gaze fifty times more dangerous.
Wenzhe took a heavy step forward, his dark eyes shifting from his breathing wife down to the maid weeping on the floor.
"Li Mei," Wenzhe said, his voice flat, stern, and entirely devoid of warmth. "Your injury has clearly healed enough for you to wander through the camp at midnight. Leave. Go back to your quarters and rest."
Li Mei sobbed softly, lifting a pale, trembling hand toward him. "General... I only came to—"
"He said leave!" Yueqing barked, stepping directly between Li Mei and the desk.
Before Li Mei could scramble up and scurry away, Yueqing turned toward the entrance and raised her voice to a sharp, commanding pitch. "Guards! Tattle!"
The thick tent flap was pushed aside instantly, and a tall, heavy-armored night guard rushed in, bowing low. "Young Madam! General!"
"You," Yueqing pointed a fuzzy mitten straight at Li Mei, who froze on her knees. "Take this maid to the back of the camp where the servants are preparing the battle herbs and cooking tomorrow’s rations."
The guard blinked in surprise, looking hesitantly between the Young Madam and the General.
"Young Madam, please!" Li Mei gasped, her voice trembling in absolute shock. "I am still recovering! The back camp is freezing, and the work is—"
"If you have the strength to sneak out of your tent in the middle of the night to disturb the General," Yueqing interrupted, her voice dropping into a cold, ruthless sneer, "then you certainly have the strength to do the actual job you were sent here for! You are a maid, so go serve!"
Yueqing glared at the hesitant guard. "What are you waiting for?! Take her away before I report your incompetence!"
The guard straightened up immediately, terrified of the fluffy, angry storm in front of him. "Understood, Young Madam! Come with me!"
Without giving Li Mei another second to plead, the guard grabbed her by the arm and dragged her stumbling out into the freezing night air. Her pitiful cries were quickly cut short as the heavy tent flap fell shut.
Silence crashed back into the command tent.
Yueqing stood there, panting softly, her fluffy fur coat rustling as her shoulders slowly relaxed.
Wenzhe didn’t say a word. He stood beside his desk, his massive frame casting a long shadow across the room. His dark, sharp eyes were fixed entirely on Yueqing.
Still, not a single thought reached his mind. The eerie silence in his head remained.
He slowly walked around his desk, stopping right in front of her.
"You dragged her by her hair, sent her to hard labor..." Wenzhe murmured softly, his deep voice carrying a dangerous edge as he reached out and gently tipped her chin up with his thumb. "And yet... you haven’t said a single word about why you came running back here in the middle of the night."
Yueqing blinked, her sharp glare faltering for a fraction of a second as her brain stalled.
[Why is he looking at me like that?! Is he using psychological warfare again?! First the walnut pastries, then the lap situation, and now this weird soft-voice tactic?!]
Outwardly, Yueqing immediately puffed her cheeks out, taking a giant step backward to put a very clear, very dramatic three feet of personal space between them.
"Don’t try to sweet-talk me, General Wenzhe!" Yueqing scoffed, folding her arms so tightly over her fluffy white fur coat that she looked like an angry snowball. "I only dragged that maid out because her dramatic weeping was giving me a headache! And as for your tent, keep it! It smells like old pine needles and cold iron anyway!"
[Focus, Yueqing, focus!] her inner voice reprimanded herself fiercely, her internal persona slapping its own face. [He is an annoying web novel lead who is going to get crushed by a giant rock tomorrow if he doesn’t change his route! I am doing this strictly for plot survival, NOT because I care about him!]
Wenzhe’s jaw tightened, his sharp eyes tracking her defensive step backward. Even as she spat insults at him, her frantic, screaming thoughts were laying out the entire enemy ambush inside his head.
"The northern route," Wenzhe spoke up suddenly, his voice dropping into a low, deliberate rumble as he watched her reaction closely. "The scouts recommended we march through the northern ridge watchtower tomorrow morning to gain the high ground."
Yueqing’s eyes widened, her posture instantly going stiff as a board.
[NO! YOU IDIOT! DO NOT GO TO THE NORTHERN RIDGE!] her mind roared so loudly inside his head that Wenzhe almost winced. [IT’S A TRAP! THE WATCHTOWER STAKES ARE LOOSENED! THE THIRD PRINCE’S MEN ARE GOING TO TRIGGER A ROCKSLIDE AND BURY YOUR ENTIRE FRONT LINE ALIVE!]
[System 009: Reminder: Host must find a plausible cover story. Blurting out ’I heard a traitor say it’ will result in immediate interrogation.]
[I KNOW, NINE! I’M THINKING!]
Yueqing cleared her throat loudly, forcing a terrible, completely fake laugh as she waved her fuzzy mitten dismissively in the air.
"The northern ridge? Ha! What a utterly terrible idea!" Yueqing proclaimed with over-the-top arrogance, strutting over to his heavy wooden desk and casually slamming her hand down on his strategic map. "Only a completely amateur commander would take the northern ridge in this weather! Anyone with half a brain knows the watchtowers up there are ancient! What if the heavy snow triggers a rockslide and buries you all?! You’d look so ridiculous!"
She raised her chin, sneering at him with as much haughty disdain as she could muster. "If you go that way and get crushed by a boulder, don’t expect me to weep at your funeral! I’ll just take your money and move to the capital!"
Wenzhe stared at her.
He looked at her proud, mocking expression, then down at her mitten resting right over the northern ridge on his map. He knew she was putting on a show, desperately trying to hide how she had gotten the information, all while aggressively denying that she cared whether he lived or died.
The corner of Wenzhe’s mouth twitched upward in a quiet, dangerous smirk.
"Is that so?" Wenzhe murmured, stepping toward her until he was standing directly across the desk. "You seem very certain about a rockslide, wife."
"It’s called basic logic!" Yueqing snapped back instantly, her heart hammering against her ribs as she held her ground. "I am simply pointing out your terrible tactical flaws so you don’t embarrass the family name! Don’t flatter yourself into thinking I care about your safety!"
[Yeah! Take that!] her inner voice cheered, her internal persona doing a petty victory dance inside her head. [I saved your life AND insulted your intelligence! Perfect score! Now change the route, you arrogant block of wood!]
Wenzhe leaned over the desk, his dark eyes locking onto hers with an intensity that made her breath hitch.
"Then I suppose I have no choice but to change the route," Wenzhe said softly, his voice heavy with an unreadable emotion. "Wouldn’t want to make my wife a wealthy widow just yet."
Yueqing’s cheeks flushed bright pink, but she quickly turned her head away with a sharp huff, refusing to let him see the tiny flicker of relief in her eyes. "Good! Now if you’re done being incompetent, I’m going back to my tent!"