Chapter 90: Who Is Conan?

Cai Mao wanted to say more, but Liu Biao, whose head was splitting from being kept awake half the night, had truly grown impatient. He sent Lady Cai herself to take charge and drive her elder brother out.

“Little sister, you heard all of this too. You must whisper in our lord’s ear when you get the chance. Liu Bei is no harmless man. Since he has come to our Jing Province, he must have some design!”

By this hour Lady Cai was also half asleep and still did not know much about Liu Bei. Besides, Cai Mao had already stirred Liu Biao into a frenzy, so there was no chance of her getting a good night’s sleep either. She had little patience left for her brother.

“What is Liu Bei, anyway? Why don’t you get rid of Liu Qi first? If Liu Qi keeps winning his trust like this, then even without Liu Bei, we siblings will never end well!”

After saying that, Lady Cai gave her brother a sour glance, as if to say he could work it out himself, then swayed away with her ample front and back casting ripples as she left Cai Mao’s sight.

“Short-sighted! All day long, nothing but that petty business between the sheets!”

Only after his sister had gone far enough did Cai Mao dare mutter a curse under his breath. Then he shook his head and returned to his own residence.

Cai Mao actually harbored no selfish ambitions at all, not the slightest desire to replace them himself. Jing Province would still belong to the Liu family; only the master would change to his eldest nephew. Wouldn’t that make everything easier to discuss?

That night, the news that Guan Yu had arrived in Wu Commandery slowly spread through Xiangyang. As for Liu Bei, still on the road, he had not yet been granted the chance to learn of it. At Cai Mao’s direction, many people came to know the matter, though Liu Qi, Jian Yong, Sun Qian, and the others were not among them.

Waiting was never pleasant. Guan Yu’s days under Cao Cao had not been easy either, but at least he had something to do every day: either marching or fighting.

But here in Wu Commandery, aside from a small courtyard and a ravishing maid within it, nothing concerned Guan Yu at all.

A day or two could be endured, but who could stand it for long? Guan Yu, after all, was a truly extraordinary man, over eight feet tall and brimming with vitality.

And so, on one moonless, windless night, from Guan Yu’s little courtyard came a steady, yet somewhat heart-rending cry, along with heavy breathing, all mixed with the creaking of a rather unsteady bed.

In the neighboring yard, two men exchanged glances by the wall, grinned with oily amusement, then headed off toward Zhang Hong’s residence.

Liu Bei’s news would not reach him so quickly. Even if it did, Sun Ce had a hundred ways to keep Guan Yu from hearing it. One of the main reasons Guan Yu had chosen to remain here was Liu Xie.

Liu Xie naturally understood that. So every four or five days, he would have a maid invite Guan Yu to his temporary palace to drink tea, admire the flowers, and discuss the battle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao that had just taken place.

After all, what Liu Xie had known of that battle before had come only from the histories of his former life, where there were scarcely any details. And if those histories had been written by some man’s bitter detractors, their credibility would be even more doubtful.

From Guan Yu, Liu Xie could not only learn the course of the battle and the true caliber of Cao Cao and his ministers and generals, but also how warfare in this age was truly conducted.

Although since arriving in this era he had gradually been changing his circumstances step by step and, for the most part, had been going with the wind at his back, when it came to war, Liu Xie knew he had always been speaking from books.

The battlefield was something he would sooner or later have to face. The more he learned before that day came, the better.

As for Guan Yu, he would usually come only once for every two invitations from Liu Xie. Clearly he did this to avoid arousing Sun Ce’s unnecessary suspicions, and in the end it was for Liu Xie’s sake as well.

That day, the two of them once again sampled some wine in Liu Xie’s temporary palace. After drinking a few cups, Guan Yu rose to take his leave.

He was a man of principle. In a place he did not know well, he would never allow himself to get drunk.

“Over these last two days, General Vice Commander, you have seemed considerably more spirited. I imagine you have found yourself some beauty?”

For someone as experienced as Liu Xie, changes in Guan Yu in certain respects could not possibly escape him.

“Not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning!”

After tossing out those words, Guan Yu, his face faintly flushed, hurried away.

Once Guan Yu had gone, Liu Xie strolled alone to the garden at one corner of the temporary palace. Before a stretch of blazing red flowers in full bloom, he murmured to himself, “So Sun Ce has been using beauty to ensnare him. What a pity for that woman...”

Outwardly, Liu Xie had kept Guan Yu in Wu Commandery simply to cooperate with Sun Ce, giving him plenty of time to try to win Guan Yu over.

But in his own heart, Liu Xie did not think quite that way.

After standing there a little longer, Liu Xie’s gaze fell on the rockery beside the flowers, a fake mountain taller than a man.

“Enough with the amateur detective nonsense. Come out.”

It sounded as though Liu Xie were talking to the air. Yet after he spoke, the back of the rockery remained silent, only a gust of wind whispering through.

“I remember when I came here for a walk yesterday, there was a poisonous snake coiled on that rockery, the legendary seven-step death snake. If it bit you, you’d only be able to stand there. Once you had gone more than seven steps, your behind would start oozing pus, your mouth and tongue...”

“Aah! Poisonous snake! Poisonous snake!”

Before Liu Xie had even finished his most frightening line, a shriek like a slaughtered pig rang out from behind the rockery. Immediately after, a figure flew out, and it was none other than Qiao Feng.

“Oh? So you’ve been here. If you really had been bitten by a poisonous snake, you would have gone more than seven steps by now. It seems the histories were wrong after all!”

Looking at the gasping Qiao Feng, Liu Xie said with a smile that was not quite a smile.

Once Qiao Feng had caught her breath, she rose, glanced at the delighted Liu Xie, and immediately understood that this so-called poisonous snake had probably been fooling her. She returned to the place where she had hidden before and discovered that what she had panicked over and mistaken for a snake was only a broken branch left upon the rockery.

Fuming, Qiao Feng grabbed the branch and hurled it far away. Afterward, her chest trembled for a long time, and whether from anger or exhaustion, she could not tell.

“Your Majesty, who exactly was this Conan you mentioned just now?”

After thinking for a while, Qiao Feng asked this of Liu Xie, clearly trying to divert attention from the fact that he had caught her spying.

But obviously, her clumsy acting could not fool Liu Xie.

“Conan? He is a man as clever as I am, apart from his build. I shall explain it to you in detail after a few more days, but for now, shouldn’t you be the one explaining yourself to me?”