Peace Order

Chapter 1891: Chapter 11: A Chaotic World, Lengthy Passions

But Xue Shuangtao understood all this; as the two of them talked, she would answer the things Li Guanyi needed, and gradually, Li Guanyi’s gaze grew bright. Drinking and chatting at leisure, an hour passed, and seeing the sky outside grow dim, the Emperor Qin rose and said:

"Miss, I need to go to the Heavenly Strategy Mansion."

"Having seen the intelligence from Changfeng Building, we still need to further confirm our strategy."

Xue Shuangtao looked at him and said, "Is it going to be the final battle?"

Li Guanyi’s steps paused for a moment; he answered solemnly, "Yes, the final battle, the truly final battle, the last great war that will choke off all resistance when Taiping is established."

"This battle—these eight hundred years of the Red Emperor’s lineage, these three hundred years of chaos, all the storms and upheavals—Chen Country, Ying Country, Tuyuhun, Dangxiang, the Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Regions, the Eighteen Tribes of Grassland, so many kings, so many heroes, so much blood of innocent commoners, have all converged into me and Ying Country."

"This battle must be fought!"

"And it must be won!"

"The previous campaigns dragged on because all sides held each other in balance; but now, in this final battle, neither side has any worries left behind them, and instead, it will be much faster."

The Emperor Qin looked at the woman before him. He exhaled, stretched out his arms, and, as a king bearing the weight of Taiping under heaven, yet baring his own moods and feelings, drew that woman into his embrace, and said softly, "Before the world is at peace, I cannot be myself."

"Nor am I only myself."

Xue Shuangtao smiled lightly in his arms.

"I know. Coming all this way, if you could forget the sacrifices of those people, and at such a juncture only do what you yourself wish to do, then that would no longer be you."

She raised a hand, pressed it on the Emperor Qin, straightened his sleeves, and said:

"Then go."

"Go do what you ought to do, go do what the Emperor Qin must do."

"Go and win everything."

Xue Shuangtao looked at him. Li Guanyi nodded slightly, picked up the dark-golden, heavy broad sword placed beside him, and was about to walk out, when Xue Shuangtao clasped her hands together before her chest and suddenly said, "Guanyi."

"Hm?"

The Emperor Qin turned back and saw the woman standing there, graceful and poised.

Sunlight poured in through the window, spilling over her body. Xue Shuangtao suddenly smiled, then stretched out her hand and said, "Here!"

She opened her hand; in her palm lay a tiny golden bean.

In the sunlight, it reflected a brilliant light.

The Emperor Qin froze.

He suddenly remembered when he was fourteen, leaving Guan Yi City, riding his horse to roam the world, going to look for his aunt; passing by the Xue Family’s trading house, when he wrote to Old Mr. Xue and the Miss to report his safety, the Xue Family’s Shopkeeper had given him a piece of gold.

"The Miss wrote beforehand and said, if the young master comes to deliver a letter, he is to be given a golden bean."

"One each time."

This was nothing more than a simple meaning.

You must come see me often.

The Emperor Qin looked at that golden bean, his eyes softening.

He walked over, stretched out his palm, and took that golden bean. In that instant of trance, he was no longer the twenty-five-year-old Emperor Qin, vast in ambition, radiantly imposing and poised to swallow the world, nor that young, decisive Long Wind Tower Master who controlled Changfeng, the first intelligence network under heaven.

He was the boy from back in the Academy days, strolling along, exchanging hairpins with a girl.

He was that Gold Guard sitting in embarrassment in the confinement room, and the little Commandery Princess lying on the windowsill, tossing down golden beans to fish.

He was the Miss, she was the blue-robed Guest Elder.

He was that little Pharmacist waiting in the private school for the arithmetic problems.

She was that quiet Miss, resting her chin in her hand in tranquil silence.

And so, the youth from back then stretched out his hand and picked up that golden bean. Xue Shuangtao took a deep breath, then exhaled; when Li Guanyi’s palm closed around the golden bean, she loosened her grip.

Then her hand seized his wrist.

A woman who was only at the third layer could by no means move the contemporary Emperor Qin, who could rival the very top; thus she, like a butterfly, lightly drew near, clutched at Li Guanyi’s sleeve, and rose on tiptoe.

Xue Shuangtao’s lips pressed against Li Guanyi’s lips.

The golden bean fell to the ground.

It rang with a clear clang.

Just like the years of their youth.