Chapter 3
Seven and a half minutes later,
The sounds from the stream finally stopped.
But in the next instant, a terrified cry rang out from its bank.
“Y-you’re not the camp prostitute from this afternoon!”
“Who are you?”
Under the moonlight, Chen Wu stared at the woman before him in shock and terror.
Not only was she not Song Yun, the camp prostitute who had arranged to meet him that afternoon; she was not any of the camp prostitutes!
Those eyes, those features…
She looked rather like…
Like—!
A name struggled to escape his chest…
Trembling, Chen Wu asked,
“W-who exactly are you…?”
Exhausted by what he had done to her, Xu Zhaozhao finally managed to speak.
“Chen Wu. You dared lay hands on me. You. Are. Dead.”
Chen Wu froze. That familiar voice finally made him understand—
This woman really was the young general from the capital, Xu Zhaozhao!
But who could have imagined that the lofty General Xu was a woman?
And he, Chen Wu,
Had taken her virginity!
He was finished.
Truly finished!
His legs gave way, and he fell to his knees.
“G-General Xu!”
“It was my fault!”
“I mistook you for someone else! Let me kowtow to you. Please spare me! Please…”
He begged forgiveness as he knocked his head against the ground.
Blood streamed from his forehead.
Xu Zhaozhao’s cold eyes remained fixed on him as though he were a piece of rotten meat.
“What good is kowtowing? Get me the antidote to that powder…”
Chen Wu hurried toward the bank, trembling, to fetch it.
I stepped out from behind the tree at once and stopped him with a cold laugh.
“Officer Chen, believe me: that isn’t her antidote you’re fetching. It’s your own death warrant!”
Chen Wu looked up, saw my face, and charged at me. Furious, he seized my collar.
“Bitch! Tell me! Did you set me up?”
I laughed coldly.
“And if I did? What if I didn’t?”
“Isn’t the important thing that you’ve dishonored General Xu?”
Chen Wu was almost speechless with rage. “You!”
I took my time.
“Officer Chen, surely you don’t think she’ll spare you simply because you give her the antidote?”
I leaned toward his ear and murmured,
“Don’t forget whose protection she’s under. The Duke of Zhenguo’s…”
Chen Wu went still.
Indeed.
Xu Zhaozhao had arrived at the army camp carrying the Duke of Zhenguo’s token.
She had been made a commandant the moment she arrived.
Within three months, she had risen another three ranks.
Straight to the position of the army’s youngest general!
The aging Duke of Zhenguo had only one son and one daughter. He treasured them both.
Everyone had assumed she was the duke’s son.
But if Xu Zhaozhao was a woman disguised as a man, then she must be…
The Duke of Zhenguo’s daughter!
Chen Wu’s legs buckled, and he sank to the ground.
The Duke of Zhenguo. That vindictive old man who had once slaughtered all three hundred and eighty members of a political rival’s household in a single night, leaving not even a chicken alive…
Chen Wu looked at me, his face ashen.
“Th-then what am I supposed to do…?”
I looked at Xu Zhaozhao, lying helpless on the riverbank.
And laughed coldly.
“Kill her.”