Chapter 138: Examining Oneself Three Times Daily

When Wei Ba returned to the corridor, his legs were still somewhat numb, but having successfully made contact with Zhao Su, the heavy stone in his heart was finally lifted, and he felt quite relaxed. Just at that moment, he saw a troop of horsemen streaming one after another through the city gate, flying the banner of Xiahou Mao. He immediately became alert.

Xiahou Mao was right there in Meiwu, and the only people who could travel under his banner were those coming from Chang'an. Could the people from Chang'an mean that his father had already broken out of the Ziwu Valley, and Chang'an had received the news? That could not be right. If they had merely received the news, sending one or two riders to deliver a letter would suffice; there was no need for so many people to arrive all at once. Could it be that his father was attacking Chang'an? That was even more absurd. Although the only places in Chang'an capable of defense at present were the Weiyang Palace and the Jianzhang Palace, it was still unrealistic for his father's force of over ten thousand men to launch a direct assault on Chang'an. According to the plan, he should be seizing Tongguan right now.

Could it be... none of those things, and the Prime Minister had simply sent another Guo Mo specifically to plague him? The moment this thought popped into his head, Wei Ba's heart skipped a beat, but he immediately sneered at himself. I am no Mengda; even if Zhuge Liang wished to eliminate me and my father, they still needed us to hold Tongguan to buy time for his conquest of cities and territory. It was impossible for him to ruin me just yet.

During the time it took for Xiahou Huier to walk from the outer city gate to the inner city gate, ascend the steps, and stand before Wei Ba, his mind operated like a supercomputer running at full speed, analyzing countless possibilities in a split second. Unfortunately, all his calculations came to nothing. It was not until he recognized that the beardless young military officer standing before him looked somewhat familiar that he realized something might have gone wrong.

"Xiahou... Lady?" Wei Ba greeted her politely, stepping forward and bowing respectfully. "Did you hurry here to seek an audience with the General?"

Xiahou Huier wore a cold expression and did not answer Wei Ba. Instead, she first waved her hand. The twenty horsemen who had ridden with her swarmed forward, surrounding Wei Ba and Dun Wu, who was inseparable from him, in the center. Dun Wu's expression tightened, and his hand immediately went to the hilt of the blade at his waist. As scouts, men like them were constantly prepared to encounter opponents, making their vigilance extremely high, bordering on nervousness.

Wei Ba calmly waved a hand, signaling Dun Wu not to be tense. He smiled with poise. "It seems Lady Xiahou is not here to see the General, but to see me."

"You guessed correctly. Now, keep guessing why I ran all this way to see you?" Xiahou Huier stood a full five paces away from Wei Ba, with two horsemen acting as though facing a formidable enemy standing between them. She was well acquainted with Wei Ba's fighting habits and had taken sufficient precautions.

Wei Ba shook his head. "I truly cannot guess the Lady's thoughts."

Xiahou Huier sneered, "Wei Ba, do not think that what you have done is seamless. The only way to keep a secret is never to have done it at all. My rushing here is by no means a good thing for you."

"I am well aware of that. Lady Xiahou has never harbored any goodwill toward me." Wei Ba nodded calmly, spread his arms, and assumed a posture of submitting to capture. "I wonder if the Lady intends to hack me to pieces with a flurry of blades right now, or take me before the General to make things clear before letting me die?"

Xiahou Huier was stunned, and involuntarily asked in return, "What do you mean?"

Wei Ba let out a long sigh. "It appears the Lady does not wish to leave others with grounds for criticism. Since that is the case, let us go see the General after all." With that, he raised his foot and walked toward the main hall. When the horsemen looked to Xiahou Huier for instructions, Wei Ba had already pushed past them and walked out of the encirclement. Looking somewhat nervous, the horsemen turned their gaze to Xiahou Huier. Slightly annoyed yet not anxious, Xiahou Huier motioned for several horsemen to hurry after him while she herself stopped in her tracks. She beckoned to Xu Ran, who had followed behind, called him to her, and gave him a few instructions in a low voice. Xu Ran bowed to acknowledge the order and stepped back to make preparations, whereupon Xiahou Huier finally lifted her feet and entered the hall.

Inside the hall, Xiahou Mao was in a somewhat disheveled state. As he was holding a little beauty and indulging in wanton fondling, he suddenly saw the Princess's horsemen enter the hall. Mistaking them for the personal arrival of the Princess, he was so frightened that he scrambled about in a panic. The delicate and charming little beauty in his arms was pushed aside by him in the commotion, tumbling onto the floor like a rolling gourd. Her smooth and fair forehead struck the corner of the table, instantly causing blood to gush out—a truly startling sight.

Xiahou Mao had no time to attend to the little beauty. As he fumbled to tie his garments together, he asked nervously, "Where is the Princess?"

"Uncle, there is no Princess nor Chang'an; it is only I." Upon entering the hall and seeing Xiahou Mao's unkempt attire, along with the little beauty bleeding profusely nearby, Xiahou Huier instantly understood the situation, and could not help feeling both ashamed and exasperated. Born into a wealthy and noble family, her father Xiahou Shang was an unrestrained man himself, so such affairs were not uncommon to her; yet, she was still an unmarried young lady after all. Suddenly witnessing Xiahou Mao indulging in debauchery in broad daylight was still somewhat unacceptable to her. What disappointed her even more was that in the midst of such a major war, rather than going out of the city to share weal and woe with the soldiers, Xiahou Mao was engaging in such dissolute behavior here. It truly did not look like something a general ought to do.

For a split second, she felt a trace of doubt as to whether she was being somewhat foolish, and whether it was wise to pin the hopes of the Xiahou family on such a person.

Hearing that the Princess had not come, Xiahou Mao calmed down significantly. Catching the look of disappointment in Xiahou Huier's eyes, he felt both abashed and annoyed. Regardless of the circumstances, Xiahou Huier was his junior; now that she had not only stumbled upon his scandalous deeds but also displayed disdain toward him, he found it very difficult to accept.

Xiahou Mao sank his face and asked with displeasure, "Yuanrong, why are you not accompanying the Princess in Chang'an, and what brings you here?"

Noticing her own loss of composure, Xiahou Huier quickly reined in her thoughts, bowed, and said, "Uncle, I have come here to report a major matter to you. Wei Ba's surrender to our Great Wei is not sincere; it is a feigned surrender. His single-minded approach to Uncle is intended to do Uncle harm, and to do Guanzhong harm."

Though feeling tense inside, Wei Ba wore an indifferent expression on his face. He merely stared blankly at the floor before him, carrying a faint sense of loss, and paid no heed to the menacing horsemen glaring at him.

Xiahou Mao was greatly startled. Putting aside his grievance over Xiahou Huier's lack of etiquette, he asked urgently, "Where does this claim come from?"

Xiahou Huier cast a cold glance at Wei Ba. "Wei Ba, even at this point, do you still intend to make a stubborn last-ditch resistance? Why do you not quickly confess the truth? Perhaps your life can still be spared."

Xiahou Mao also shouted sternly, "Wei Ba, speak up at once! What is the meaning of all this?"

Wei Ba raised his head, looked at Xiahou Mao, who was dripping with cold sweat, and then at Xiahou Huier, whose face was as cold as frost. Suddenly, he burst out laughing, "This is truly a bizarre anomaly! Lady, you hurried all the way to Meiwu amidst dust and wind just to hear me confess? Lady, if you have evidence, then state it straightforwardly. Why bother beating around the bush and playing such tricks of luring the snake out of its hole?"

"So you also know you are a sinister venomous snake?"

"Whether I am a venomous snake is not important. The crucial thing is that in the Lady's heart, I am probably already a venomous snake."

Xiahou Huier sneered and was about to retort when Xiahou Mao interrupted her impatiently, "Yuanrong, whatever evidence you have, simply state it directly."

Xiahou Huier was left speechless. In matters like this, the best approach was naturally to force Wei Ba into confessing voluntarily. With the evidence held firmly in her own hands, keeping Wei Ba in the dark about where exactly he had slipped up was the only way to compel him to reveal even more flaws. If she spoke first, wouldn't she completely surrender the initiative? She cast repeated sideways glances at Xiahou Mao, but unfortunately, having just suffered a shock, Xiahou Mao still had his heart pounding and completely failed to grasp her meaning, urging her instead to speak quickly.

Left with no choice, Xiahou Huier recounted how she had gone to Wei Ba's residence to inquire about news, spotted flaws from Peng Xiaoyu, realized that Wei Ba intended to use Peng Xiaoyu as a cover and mask his true intention of fleeing at any moment by purchasing large quantities of household goods, deduced through these phenomena that Wei Ba's surrender was likely feigned, and confirmed through the interrogation of Peng Xiaoyu and others that it was indeed a feigned surrender, which prompted her to rush here to make the arrest.

Xiahou Mao was startled once again. Staring at Wei Ba, he took two steps backward in succession. "Wei Ba, you are too bold!" Waving his hand, he shouted loudly, "Men, seize Wei Ba!"

Several armored guards crowded forward and pinned Wei Ba down, while others in the hall subdued Dun Wu.

Having listened to Xiahou Huier's narration, Wei Ba instead felt a sense of relief. Even while being restrained, he did not show the slightest panic. Xiahou Huier's narrative sounded as though the evidence was conclusive and irrefutable, but he knew very well that Peng Xiaoyu and the others were entirely unaware of whether the surrender was feigned or not; genuine evidence could not possibly be extracted from their mouths. In other words, Xiahou Huier might have caught a whiff of something, but she possessed no concrete evidence whatsoever. She had rushed here merely to take precautions in advance, hoping to breach his defenses and extract further evidence for a final confirmation.

What he had feared most was that Zhuge Liang would deal with him the same way he dealt with Mengda, sending yet another Guo Mo to stage a feigned surrender in Chang'an. Although reason told him Zhuge Liang would not do such a thing, Zhuge Liang had already trapped him once; who could say whether he would strike while the iron was hot and cut the weeds at the root? The fact that Xiahou Huier had not mentioned this matter at all indicated that Zhuge Liang had not yet grown so desperate as to lose his reason, and the outcome he feared most had not occurred.

Since that was the case, what did he have to worry about? Xiahou Huier was clever, but she was not clever to that extreme. One must remember that the person who formulated this plan was the equally peerless Zhuge Liang, while the person executing it had lived two lifetimes, spending two hours every single day meticulously reviewing the plan, reflecting on his own words and actions, confirming that there were not a single slip, and being as cautious as one could possibly be.

The reason he was so confident and assured right now was largely due to his practice of sitting in meditation during the Hour of the Rat. Sitting in meditation during the Hour of the Rat had initially been a form of suffering for him, but after getting used to the suffering, it turned into quite a pleasant experience. In the dead of night, examining oneself on three counts—having persisted in reflecting on the life of his past existence ever since his rebirth—unquestionably transformed a mandatory activity into a habit, a habit of continuously cultivating the mind.

A person capable of persisting in physical exercise every day possesses a strong body; a person capable of persisting in self-reflection every day possesses a strong inner self.

Possessing a strong inner self, Wei Ba felt no fear whatsoever, even when facing a genius maiden like Xiahou Huier. As for Xiahou Mao, he posed no threat to him at all, but was merely a tool that could be utilized.

"Lady Xiahou, this stratagem of 'Borrowing the Road to Annihilate Guo' that you employed is truly magnificent."

(To be continued)