The Deserter Dreams of Escape
Liu Bei was a good person, but she was by no means a pushover. If anything, she was closer to a cunning woman who stripped fools of everything they owned. If there were no fools around, she would go find some. If someone was perfectly normal, she would turn them into a fool. She was practically a fool-manufacturing machine. Her charm lay in her ability to turn even a complete stranger into her personal fool in less than a few hours. She would take everything they had, whether they could spare it or not, and still send them off with a bright smile. She was the very definition of a seductive enchantress.
Looking at her like this, one might wonder if it was even appropriate to attach the word “good” to such a temptress. Yet, surprisingly, Liu Bei was universally acknowledged as a benevolent soul. She made sure the hungry did not starve. She protected the powerless from persecution. She helped good people and captured the wicked to reform them. She did it all. What kind of person would dare call Liu Bei evil?
Of course, Liu Bei herself had started as a dirt-poor orphan from the bottom of Nusang Village, so she had received “a little” help from others. Poor relief? She fed the starving with rice taken from rich fools. Protecting the weak? She simply ordered Zhang Fei to handle it. Reforming villains? Guan Yu went around offering local thugs a choice between decapitation or joining the volunteer army, so there wasn’t a single delinquent left in the back alleys of Nusang Village.
In reality, while Liu Bei sat at home weaving mats and humming work songs, her subordinates were the ones turning Nusang Village upside down in her name. But the poor got to eat until their bellies were full, the fools felt good about helping Liu Bei, the weak were protected and comfortable, Zhang Fei got to work hard, the villains were forcibly turned into decent people, and Guan Yu got to swing her blade to her heart’s content. Weren’t they all happy thanks to Liu Bei?
If not for her, the poor would have starved to death, and the rich would have been cursed by the people. The weak would have remained unprotected and miserable, Zhang Fei would have stayed idle, the villains would still be harming others in the back alleys, and Guan Yu would have grown bored with nothing to do. And it wasn’t as if Liu Bei had ever ordered anyone to do these things in her name. They had simply done it all for her. All she did was hold their hands tightly and smile while saying they had worked hard.
That was why Liu Bei could hold her head high. After all, the people of Nusang Village were now living a little more like human beings.
Such a Liu Bei had two things she was especially confident about. One was her appearance, and the other was her eye for people. There was no need to explain her looks. Even if she dressed plainly and walked down the street, men would steal glances at her, and women would be too busy pinching their boyfriends for staring. Could she seduce fools and turn decent men into fools with just clever words and gestures? Of course not. Her face had to back it up.
Her eye for talent had already been proven by numerous achievements. Who had recognized the ability of the wandering Guan Yu, who had fled Bingzhou after killing a corrupt official, and given her work? It was Liu Bei. (Though the only job Liu Bei could offer was delivering mats, so she had asked a merchant acquaintance to give her a security gig.) Who had seen that the youngest son of the butcher Zhang family was no ordinary person? Again, Liu Bei. And hadn’t she personally secured investments from the merchants Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang, as well as recruited the medium cavalry unit led by Fang Yeol?
Therefore, Liu Bei had never doubted herself. She had never doubted her ability to evaluate talent.
But recently, a worry had begun to plague her.
Recently, the newest fool to fall into Liu Bei’s hands—Fang Yeol—was acting strange.
It wasn’t that Liu Bei had overestimated Fang Yeol’s abilities. If anything, she might have underestimated him. Fang Yeol had become the leader of an entire group at a young age, barely an adult. Making a bunch of much older men follow him obediently was no easy feat. Even if they were from the same village, they were still strangers at the end of the day. The volunteer army was called a volunteer army, but in truth it was just a bunch of middle-aged men wandering around with nothing to do. Not just any middle-aged men, either—they were the kind who grumbled when hungry and scowled when cold. Yet they had shown no complaints so far?
So she had vaguely thought, He must be meticulous and smart. That had been a mistake.
He was skilled enough at strategy to deceive an enemy force of over ten thousand with only two hundred men. His martial prowess was considerable as well—he had lasted forty exchanges against Guan Yu in a spar. And although it had been due to carelessness, hadn’t he killed Jeong Wonji, the leader of the Youzhou Yellow Turbans?
In Liu Bei’s eyes, Fang Yeol was not simply a good talent. He was a once-in-a-generation genius.
Yet that once-in-a-generation genius, Fang Yeol, had been acting suspicious lately.
She had been certain she had made him hers, but looking at his recent behavior, he was acting exactly like someone about to leave. Whenever he spoke of heading to Jizhou, he couldn’t meet her eyes. When she talked about future plans, he looked utterly indifferent, like a man who saw no future for himself here.
That wasn’t all. She remembered the look on his face the moment he discovered the mountain of loot piled up in the main camp. He had tried to hide it, acting cautious, but when he realized most of it was his family’s wealth, he had been overjoyed. Of course, no one would dislike recovering their parents’ property, but to Liu Bei, he had looked happier about it than he had been about Jeong Wonji’s death—the man who had killed his parents.
It was as if he planned to start a whole new life with that money.
Was he planning to rush straight to Luoyang and buy himself a county magistrate position?
There was no solid evidence yet, but Liu Bei trusted her instincts, which had never betrayed her before.
Yes. Fang Yeol was definitely thinking of leaving.
And if he came up with any excuse to depart, it would surely be one she couldn’t argue against.
But why?
She had told him clearly. Among the three Colonels leading the suppression army, there was a man named Lu Zhi, who was her teacher. With that kind of connection, once Teacher Lu Zhi suppressed the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he would surely grant her a high official position. It would be a position far beyond what mere loot could buy. Perhaps even a Colonel position in Luoyang, or a provincial governor post?
Yet he was acting excessively attached to his family fortune, as if he intended to purchase an official rank with his own money. Even though Teacher Lu Zhi had not suddenly been dismissed, Fang Yeol was behaving as if their connection had already been severed and he needed to leave.
Even if Liu Bei had nothing, Fang Yeol had already become her man long ago. He had been prepared to endure hardship together with her.
Liu Bei had briefly wondered if she was mistaken, but recalling that moment, she immediately rejected the thought. Fang Yeol’s expression back then had been sincere. He had even said he wouldn’t mind if his head was smashed for her sake. She hadn’t expected his head to actually get cracked open by the shaft of the Serpent Spear right after, though.
Could that accident have shaken his resolve?
No. In Liu Bei’s opinion, Fang Yeol was not the kind of person who would change his mind over something like that. If he were that weak-willed, he wouldn’t have been able to skillfully command men much older than himself.
Then why?
What reason could there be for Fang Yeol to suddenly act like someone about to leave? She couldn’t understand why he was behaving as if his soul had been swapped with another person.
She didn’t know about anything else, but one thing was certain.
The way Fang Yeol was secretly grinning while looking at the loot right now meant he was planning to take his family fortune and run.
…I’m sorry, but I have my own methods.
Fang Yeol, I’m sorry. But I cannot let you go, so please forgive me. Once the rebellion is over and I obtain a high position, I will repay you several times over. So for now… please endure it.
Liu Bei’s eyes were filled with tears of joy as she clasped my hands and jumped up and down. Her bouncing breasts were more than enough to make any man’s heart flutter along with them, but after what she had just said, it felt like my balls had shriveled up. I felt nothing at all.
My plan had been to take the family fortune and leave once the suppression army from Luoyang completely pacified Youzhou and the roads became safe. What excuse would I use? I would sell the original owner’s parents one more time. In this era, wasn’t filial piety the most important thing? Even Yuan Shao had used it well, turning from an illegitimate child of the Yuan family into the favorite filial son of the Qingliu faction. Now that I had avenged them, who could stop me if I said I wanted to use the recovered wealth to give my parents and siblings a proper burial? Everyone would just suck their fingers and wave me off.
After leaving Liu Bei’s army, I would roughly rebury the bodies of the Fang family and rush straight to Luoyang. Or so I had thought…
Had I been too complacent?
Yes. I had let my guard down.
Honestly, after suffering this much, shouldn’t the hardship be over? Even though I knew exactly how Liu Bei had climbed from the bottom all the way to the emperor’s throne, I had been far too complacent. While others plundered the common people, Liu Bei gained fame by protecting them. Wasn’t she the one who became their savior by relieving the people? She was the person who had saved starving citizens like those in Zhuo Commandery and eventually became emperor.
That’s right. Liu Bei was not someone who would miss this opportunity. Since her teacher Lu Zhi was one of the Colonels, she didn’t even need to bribe anyone for a position. So what would she do with the loot she had gained? Fuck. I had been too careless right at the very last moment.
But what could I say? Fuck off! Is this my money? If I abandoned the starving people out of greed, I would become the world’s greatest bastard. Then, unless I was a powerful noble, any hope of an official career would vanish. I might keep the money, but in the turbulent times ahead, living as a wealthy man without any position would be meaningless. The people were already suffering enough, but the future would be even worse. In such an era, if a rich man had no power? He would probably have all his wealth stolen and die like a beggar.
But if I gave up the fortune like this and followed Liu Bei around? She had no idea that Lu Zhi would end up in prison, so she would scatter all the loot to the people. Yet I, knowing full well what would happen, would still follow her? Was I insane?
And if I said, “Your teacher is going to get kicked out and sent to a wise prison life,” of course she wouldn’t believe me. Or if I shouted, “We need to buy official positions with bribes, so stop right now!” would that bitch actually stop? Fuck… what the hell should I do?