Chapter 154 The Final Decision

Wanwan said with unconcealed displeasure, "Exactly. If I were to actually grant your request, Sangye, it would be equivalent to sacrificing the destiny of my State of Ning to rescue the people of Sangjia Village! I am telling you, that is completely out of the question!" After saying this, Wanwan slowly squatted down, her eyes meeting Sangye's at eye level, and she ground out every single word through clenched teeth, "Sangye, I am different from Tang Wei. I am not as noble as she is. Every single person in your Sangjia Village has nothing to do with me, and whether they live or die is of no concern to me whatsoever. Do not expect me to risk the safety of the State of Ning to save the lives of a bunch of people from Sangjia Village. Even if you intend to work like a beast of burden for ten lifetimes, it will still be useless."

Watching the two of them clash like this, Tang Wei hurriedly stepped in to mediate, "Wanwan, alright now, don't get angry. Sangye was just speaking without thinking. If you won't agree, we can just think of other ways!"

"Tang Wei, don't try to persuade me. The mere thought that in her heart, the lives of the people in her Sangjia Village are more important than the safety of my State of Ning makes it impossible for me to calm down!" Wanwan said aggressively.

"Wanwan, Sangye didn't mean it like that at all. She is as narrow-minded as I am; how could she possibly have known that asking for your help would require such a huge price? You really can't blame this on her. Can't you be rational? In your heart, your country is the most important thing, but in her heart, Sangjia Village is equally the most important. You are just making an unreasonable fuss by acting this way! When she asked you for help, if you couldn't do it, you should have just explained the reasons to us, and none of us would have blamed you! If you don't speak up, truly none of us could have foreseen that. Why ruin everyone's feelings over this matter?" Tang Wei pulled on the grimacing Wanwan, shaking her forcefully in hopes that she would come to her senses. This matter truly could not be blamed on Sangye.

Wanwan shook off Tang Wei's hand, walked aside, pressed her hand to her head, and fell into silent, deep thought for a long while. After that, she let out a deep sigh and slowly said, "I'm sorry. Tang Wei, I was too impulsive. Whenever I think of the predicament currently facing my State of Ning, I can never find peace in my heart and always feel the urge to vent." Turning back to Sangye, she explained, "Sangye, my attitude just now wasn't good; please don't take it to heart. Although I cannot mobilize the military force of the State of Ning for the affairs of Sangjia Village, I will think of other ways together with Tang Wei. Get up first!"

Seeing Wanwan walk over and help Sangye up, Tang Wei's savior complex flared up again, and she had already made up her mind. No matter the outcome for Sangjia Village this time, she would still find a way to help Wanwan with the matters of the State of Ning. She thought to herself: This girl usually seems lively and cheerful, yet I never expected her heart to carry such bitterness. If I can help, I should help; to me, this is merely a flick of the finger.

Since she had made up her decision, Tang Wei naturally wanted to put Wanwan at ease immediately. She quickly walked over, took her hand, and said sincerely, "Wanwan, don't worry. I will do my best to help with the affairs of your State of Ning, so you don't need to worry too much! Although I wouldn't dare kill anyone, as long as I am there to guide them, you will soon be able to train a batch of top-tier experts! I'm not boasting, but as long as they practice according to the methods and moves I teach them, within five years, every single one of them will have martial arts skills on par with yours."

Hearing that Tang Wei was willing to help, Wanwan instantly grabbed her hands with tears of gratitude welling in her eyes and said excitedly, "Tang Wei, are you truly willing to help me? You aren't tricking me, are you? Can my State of Ning really train a batch of martial artists with my level of skill in less than five years? Does that mean our State of Ning will never have to live cautiously at the mercy of others again?"

"It's true. I'm not lying to you! But for now, let's resolve the matter of Sangjia Village first, alright?" Tang Wei earnestly comforted Wanwan. Her reaction was simply too abnormal, and watching it made one extremely nervous. She hoped Wanwan could quickly return to her former self.

"That's wonderful, that's wonderful! Our State of Ning is saved! Our State of Ning is saved!" Wanwan paced back and forth on the spot in excitement, chanting as she walked.

Tang Wei could no longer bear Wanwan's ecstatic appearance, so she smiled and reminded her from the side, "Wanwan, aren't you celebrating a bit too early? The matter of Sangjia Village hasn't been resolved yet, you know. Shouldn't we discuss the rescue plan for Sangjia Village right now?" Upon hearing Tang Wei's words, Sangye's eyes lit up as she began staring intently at her.

Reminded by Tang Wei, Wanwan finally remembered that there was still a difficult obstacle blocking the development of the State of Ning. If this problem wasn't solved, how could Tang Wei possibly agree to go to the State of Ning? Having figured this out, Wanwan slapped her forehead and laughed with self-mockery, "Just look at me, getting so happy I almost turned into a big fool, completely forgetting that we still have important matters waiting for us to resolve!"

"Then have you thought of a solution yet?" Tang Wei brought the conversation back to business. After taking a huge detour and getting into a pointless noisy argument, the few of them now had to start discussing the rescue plan for Sangjia Village all over again.

"I haven't thought of one yet, but I suppose we shouldn't rush into saving people, right? Panicking like this only makes it easier to make mistakes. Why don't we take it slow? First, let's go to Haizhou City to find the hidden forces of our State of Ning and have them help scout out the whereabouts of the people from Sangjia Village! Although those people cannot make any overt moves, having them secretly investigate should be no problem at all, right?" Wanwan said with absolute confidence.

"Won't going to Haizhou City delay the rescue?" Tang Wei asked worriedly. She feared that if the few of them waited until they gathered intelligence before going to save people, it might already be too late.

"We don't even have the slightest clue right now anyway, do we? Even if we want to save people, we don't even know where to go! That fellow surnamed Wei only mentioned the Gao family, but the Gao family is so huge, where are we supposed to find them? Even if those children have a general route, we can't just barge in blindly knowing nothing at all, can we?" Wanwan retorted.

"Please, I only said that as a thought, and you chattered away a whole mile a minute! You really something else. If you want to go to Haizhou City, then Haizhou City it is!" Tang Wei said with a beaming smile, looking at Wanwan.

Only then did Wanwan feel a bit embarrassed. She scratched her head and awkwardly explained, "I was just anxious! Don't mind it, please don't mind it!"

"I couldn't be bothered to argue with you. By the way, how long does it take to get to Haizhou City from here?" Tang Wei was feeling curious as well. Just the name Haizhou City made it sound like a grand place; surely it would be much more fun there than this little town! I wonder what kind of delicious local specialties they have? Thinking of good food, the matter of saving people was immediately tossed to the back of her mind.

Wanwan bent her fingers to roughly calculate and said, "If Guigui carries us while running at full speed, we should be able to arrive in a single night. However, tonight probably won't work because dawn is just a few hours away. I think we might as well take advantage of this time to travel a bit further, find an inn to rest for a day once dawn breaks, and set off tomorrow night after dark. How does that sound?"

"Wanwan, did you commit some unspeakable crime that makes you afraid of being caught? Why do you love traveling at night so much? Wouldn't it be better to travel during the day?" Tang Wei hated having her sleep schedule disrupted the most. Traveling by day and resting by night was so wonderful—was there any need to push themselves this hard? Although it didn't really matter whether she slept now or not, sleeping had always been her lifelong hobby. Whoever tried to rob her of her sleeping time would become her mortal enemy. Today's situation was already a reluctant compromise on her part; if there weren't important matters, of course it would be best to choose nighttime for activities!

"Tang Wei, there are fewer people at night, so we can travel faster!" Wanwan was usually so clever, but how could she be so oblivious today? She hadn't even picked up on Tang Wei's preference—or perhaps she had done it on purpose?

Tang Wei refused to yield and stated bluntly, "Wanwan, let's just find a place to rest for now, and tomorrow we can go into town to find a carriage for the journey. Arriving in Haizhou City a day or two later doesn't matter. Don't you guys have carrier birds for messaging? You can have your people start investigating the information first, and when we get there, we can spring right into action! Besides, Sangye is just an ordinary person; bouncing around like this for a whole night will be too much for her to handle. Didn't you see her legs trembling just now?" In truth, Tang Wei's primary reason was that she didn't want to perform sword flight in front of them; explaining that would be a real headache, so it was better to keep a low profile.

Even if Tang Wei mentioned Sangye now, Sangye didn't dare to chime in. She seemed to have been frightened by Wanwan earlier, and perhaps she had truly come to recognize her own status. Knowing that she had no right to speak here, she simply decided to treat herself as part of the background scenery. Sangye was already a woman of few words, and now she had practically been reduced to a mute. She hadn't uttered a single syllable since that moment, secretly resolving in her heart that unless they directly asked her a question, she would never say an extra word.

Tang Wei was somewhat different. In her heart, all people were equal, so she could treat Sangye as an ordinary friend, naturally taking her feelings into consideration in her daily actions.

Wanwan, however, was entirely different. She was a lofty princess, and in her eyes, Sangye wasn't even qualified to be her maid, let alone someone worthy of her attention. Normally, if she spoke to her at all, it was only for Tang Wei's sake that she didn't use harsh words. But now that Tang Wei was speaking up for Sangye, Wanwan had no need to displease Tang Wei, so she naturally went along with her wishes and said dismissively, "Have it your way then. A carriage it is! It'll make things easier for me too—you have no idea how troublesome it is to carry someone along!"

"Alright, I know, thank you for your hard work!" Tang Wei rolled her eyes at her and retorted briskly.

"Hehe! It's nothing at all! How about this, we can just lie down and rest right here for a bit. Since we won't find an inn at this hour anyway, we might as well wait until dawn breaks, head into town to buy a carriage, and hit the road directly. We can travel while resting in the carriage—how does that sound to you?" Wanwan suggested.

"I don't care!" Tang Wei finished speaking, imitated Wanwan by plopping down onto the ground, and then stretched out flat on the grass. She sighed and said, "Sigh! I miss my big, soft Serta mattress back home so much!"