Chapter 255 Their Choice

After Lu Yan left, Su Hewan handed the wrung-out hot towel to Yu Qing, then poured another cup of warm water and pressed it into her hands.

“Qing Qing.”

Su Hewan sat on the edge of the bed, her voice gentle.

“Do you remember what you said last night on the hillside?”

Yu Qing held the warm cup, silent for a long moment.

When she finally looked up again, the usual carefree smile on her face was gone, replaced by an unprecedented seriousness and intensity.

“I remember.”

“So… what do you think?” Su Hewan asked.

Tilting her head in thought, Yu Qing answered resolutely,

“Wan Wan, the more I think about it, the more I want to stay.”

She turned her hand and gripped Su Hewan’s tightly.

Thinking back on everything they had endured—from palace maids destined to die buried alongside the royals, to being swept up in the bloody intrigues of the court—

Had there ever been a single day when they weren’t dancing on the edge of a knife?

“Wan Wan, in that gilded cage in the capital that devours people… what are we even considered?”

Yu Qing’s eyes began to redden, her voice trembling with lingering fear and exhaustion.

“You’re the canary in the East Depot Master’s hidden house; I’m just a maid serving the Commander of the Embroidered Guards.”

“On the surface, it looks like we’re backed by powerful men, living in glory, even daring to defy the Empress Dowager.”

“But in reality? We have no name, no status! Every step we take is over a bottomless abyss!”

She took a deep breath, tears stubbornly forming in her eyes.

“Wan Wan, I’m really scared.”

“I’m afraid that one day, I’ll wake up and an imperial edict—or an assassination—will wipe you or me out of this world!”

“In the ruthless games of their power, crushing us would be easier than crushing two ants!”

“We don’t even have the right to our own lives—we can only cling to them like bindweed, praying for their protection to survive!”

Yu Qing’s voice grew more impassioned as she spoke.

“But here, it’s different!”

“In these ten-thousand mountains, the emperor is far away, and the Empress Dowager’s schemes don’t reach us. No conspiracies!”

“Here, we can live with our own hands, with our own minds!”

“We don’t need to watch anyone’s expression anymore. We can live confidently, live with dignity!”

“Wan Wan, I’ve had enough of those days. I don’t want to live a life where even breathing is filled with fear!”

Su Hewan felt as if something had stung her chest hard.

She was deeply moved by the almost burning light in Yu Qing’s eyes.

But Su Hewan could see deeper than Yu Qing—clearer, sharper, and far more ruthless.

“I understand, Qing Qing. I understand your fear more than anyone else.”

Su Hewan reversed her grip, pulling Yu Qing into her arms, her eyes full of tenderness and helplessness.

“But we can’t think only of ourselves.”

She let out a sigh.

“That’s everything to them, Qing Qing.”

“The East Depot and the Embroidered Guards aren’t just cold names.”

“They are what Shen Jue cultivated over more than ten years, enduring humiliation and bearing the weight of it all!”

“They are what Lu Yan fought for alongside his brothers, bleeding and scarred, through blade and fire!”

Su Hewan sighed again.

“They are the power and armor they spent half a lifetime forging!”

“In this cannibalistic, chaotic world, without this armor, what could they use to face the tigers, leopards, and wolves in the court?”

“If we, for our own freedom and safety, forced them to abandon all of this just to stay with us in Southern Jiang…”

Su Hewan closed her eyes, concealing the trace of reluctance in her gaze.

“This… it’s too cruel, and too selfish for them.”

But Yu Qing shook her head sharply.

She looked straight at Su Hewan, her tone resolute, leaving no room for compromise.

“This isn’t selfishness, Wanwan. This is a choice.”

Every word from Yu Qing rang with weight.

“In life, everyone faces choices. They are no exception.”

“In this game of power, they have already reached the pinnacle, standing above thousands of others!”

She took a deep breath and spoke a line that felt earth-shattering.

“Now, it all comes down to what is truly most important in their hearts.”

“To continue pursuing their power…”

“Or to choose… these two weak points of ours!”

The morning wind swept through the hall, brushing against the mottled shadows of trees outside the bamboo building.

On the thin paper of the window outside the door, the long shadows of two figures were clearly reflected.

Evidently, every word of the two women’s heartfelt conversation had been heard by the two men outside!

In the emerald bamboo forest of Southern Frontier, the morning mist had yet to fully dissipate.

A refreshing coolness lingered in the air.

The two long figures vanished among the dappled bamboo shadows, standing a few steps apart, silently facing each other.

Lu Yan leaned wearily against a sturdy bamboo stalk.

Shen Jue stood quietly, hands clasped behind his back.

They were relentless adversaries in the court, two blades that could not coexist, yet in this remote ten-thousand-mountain range far from the capital’s whirlpool of power, they faced the same desperate dilemma.

“To give up everything and stay here… it’s not so easy,”

Lu Yan was the first to break the suffocating silence.

He lifted his head. The usually upright and unyielding Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard now had his eyes bloodshot with inner struggle.

“The forces in the capital are deeply entrenched, their spies are everywhere across the court.”

“If we take off this official uniform, lose the power we hold, what about the tens of thousands of brothers who have risked their lives following us?”

Lu Yan clenched the hilt of his embroidered spring knife tightly.

“The political enemies we’ve suppressed for years—if they strike back, who will bear that cost?”

His voice carried the weight of rational responsibility, but also a deep helplessness toward reality.

Shen Jue’s lips curved into a cold, mocking smile.

“Commander Lu, it’s rare to see you so lucid. Well said.”

“Without power, you and I here are nothing but fish stranded on the shore, at the mercy of anyone.”

Shen Jue’s gaze suddenly grew icy.

“Don’t even speak of protecting them. In this world that devours its own, without that intimidating status, it would be nearly impossible even to protect ourselves.”

“Rather than staying here as useless country bumpkins, unable to even safeguard those we love…”

“It’s better to return to the capital and clear every obstacle for them!”

Shen Jue snapped his folding fan shut.

They were both using the cold logic of reason and the harsh reality to completely dismiss the proposal to stay in Southern Frontier.

As if only by doing so could they prove themselves still the invincible power brokers of the Great Wei.

But only they knew in their hearts.

Beneath the layers of rigid, ironclad rationality,

Yu Qing’s vision of a life unshackled by power, and Su Hewan’s vision of uncalculated peace…

Were growing wildly in their hearts.

And just as reason and emotion tore at each other frantically,

A sudden, urgent flapping of wings pierced the stillness above the bamboo forest.