In the Luo Estate, Luo Zhi Qiu's study.

The two sons of the Luo family and their father sat in discussion with Xie Yu. They haven't talked about Luo Wei's imminent trip to Yun Guan, but instead spoke about what's going to happen in Yi Zhou. For Luo Ze who was not especially skilled in politics, he could only sit aside and listen while Luo Zhi Qiu, Luo Wei, and Xie Yu discussed.

Xie Yu's opinion was that now that war has been declared, it's time to take a few steps back, “It might not be good to press people too hard,” Xie Yu said, “Prefect Chen Yu can't kill or chase off all the old officials in Yi Zhou. We've thrown a few punches, it's time to pat them on the back a little.”

Luo Wei shook his head, “I'm only afraid that if we slow down, the junior chancellor is going to keep ramping up.”

Xie Yu responded, “If we slow down and he ramps up, he'll only attract His Imperial Majesty's anger. His Imperial Majesty won't like someone who doesn't know where his priorities lie in a time of war.”

Luo Wei smiled, “The junior chancellor's biggest skill is watching people's reactions, he's always been very diligent in knowing where his priorities are at.”

Xie Yu said, “Then this is the best way forward. Prefect Chen will have some time to properly manage everything in Yi Zhou. Whoever needs to be pulled closer will get pulled closer, and those who should be ousted need to be ousted.”

Luo Wei nodded, “The most important thing for him right now is to find a way to take over everything in the salt trade.”

Xie Yu shrugged, “As hard as it seems, it's not impossible.”

Luo Wei grinned at Xie Yu, then said to Luo Zhi Qiu, “Father, can you send big brother Xie to go and help Prefect Chen? Big brother Xie's read enough books already, if he keeps just sitting there and reading, he's going to lose his mind!”

Xie Yu laughed as he chided Luo Wei, “You haven't been reading any less, or maybe you've already lost your mind?”

Luo Zhi Qiu opened his mouth, “And the two of you still have the energy to argue like this!” From Luo Zhi Qiu's point of view, Luo Wei and Xie Yu both were very complex in their thoughts, and were both used to keeping these thoughts to themselves. For people like them, it'd be hard to make them friends even if they were allies. It's because they're both too similar, and thus are naturally in opposition to one another. They were beyond lucky to not be mortal enemies with one another. Luo Zhi Qiu didn't think too much when he accepted Xie Yu as a disciple, but he thought he'd made a good move. The fact that Luo Wei could exist with Xie Yu as brothers has shown Luo Zhi Qiu that fate, as important as it was, was hard to see and harder to understand.

“Then father has agreed?” Luo Wei asked Luo Zhi Qiu.

Luo Zhi Qiu looked at Xie Yu, “Yu Er, do you agree?”

Xie Yu got up and replied, “If my master allows, then I, Xie Yu, shall head to Yi Zhou immediately.”

Luo Ze looked at Xie Yu, then looked at his father, “Will he be okay if he goes?”

Xie Yu wasn't angry at the fact that Luo Ze didn't seem to have any confidence in him, he knows that Luo Ze didn't mean anything bad by it, “Big brother, you can rest easy,” He said to Luo Ze, “I have plans.”

“Big brother,” Luo Wei smiled, “When you were Xie Yu's age, you've already seen blood on the battlefield, why are you worried about him?”

“Why are you smiling?” Luo Ze looked at Luo Wei, “Our eldest brother is in a war right now, do you think you're going there to play house with him?”

Luo Wei answered, “Do you think our eldest brother is going to let me, his youngest sibling who doesn't know any martial arts, onto the battlefield? If you're going to worry about me, big brother, you might as well spend that energy worrying about Xie Yu.”

Xie Yu raised his eyebrows, “Why does he need to worry about me?”

Luo Wei chuckled mischievously, “Xie Yu, you're a handsome young man, elegant and graceful, but still an eligible bachelor. If you're headed to Yi Zhou, better be careful not to break too many of those young ladies' hearts!”

Luo Ze started laughing right as Luo Wei spoke, and even Luo Zhi Qiu was shaking his head with a smile. Xie Yu's face went full red. With everything he knew about the machinations at court, Xie Yu was still fairly shy when it came to women, “Everyday it's nonsense coming out of that mouth of yours!” Xie Yu cursed at Luo Wei, and then, after a moment's thought that he can't let Luo Wei off the hook like this, he added, “You should be careful that you're not breaking anyone's hearts in Yun Guan!”

Luo Ze quickly jumped on Xie Yu's wagon and regarded Luo Wei, “Xiao Wei, you have to remember this, our father and I are not opposed to you bringing back a beautiful young wife from the border, but getting married right before a battle is a capital offense, don't make it hard for me!”

Luo Wei was bending over in laughter on the outside, but he thought to himself, who would want to marry me?

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES:
: ) hope you guys are having fun with these cuties. I love the interactions between the Luo brothers and Xie Yu, who's kind of like a friend and a brother at the same time. They get super cute like this!!

I also found a spoilers thread for this novel on NU!! Which was so surprising because I didn't know how many people would be reading this after it got deleted on wattpad. : ) Love you guys and sorry this novel is so abusive, lol… the chinese website that recommended it to me was like “this novel abuses your heart and abuses your body” and I fully agree!! But I want to take you guys down with me because I need more people to know abt it and cry about it with me, hehe.

It did make me come up with another idea because I saw lots of people being too scared to read due to the graphic content. Maybe when the novel gets too graphic in terms of the bad scenes, I can put up warnings and a brief summary chapter for people who don't want to read the descriptions… Let me know if you guys would like that or if it doesn't matter! ?