Chapter 101: Can You Leave? Can You Return to That World?

In her two lifetimes, Yun Chu couldn’t remember the last time she shared such a pure kiss with Li Yunli.

Excluding the chaotic days of her previous life, even after being reborn, the few times they had been intimate were more direct and physical. It was rare to kiss one another in such a serene and gentle moment, at an appropriate time and location.

Yun Chu’s thoughts briefly wandered, but she quickly called back her soul and bent down to respond to the kiss.

Having kissed less often, the Princess’s technique was rather lacking and more forceful.

In return, Li Yunli understood the charm of pure love.

They shared every breath and every ray of the sunset in front of the city after the war.

“Yun Chu,” during the brief pause between their kisses, Li Yunli’s breath fell softly in her ear, like murmured words, lingering with an unfulfilled longing. “I want to finish this war quickly.”

“Okay.”

Finish the war, and return home soon.

---

“The King of Changling has been captured, and the remaining forces can be defeated. Your Highness, if you return to the capital now, it will be a victorious return.”

At the hall, Sun Jing clasped his fists and earnestly tried to persuade her.

“But if Your Highness insists on heading west, to face the remnants of the Wurong and Wei forces, the outcome is uncertain. Your Highness may kill enemies, but it may not bring success!”

After the battlefield was cleaned, in Yizhou Prefecture, some of the generals, led by Sun Jing, voiced their objections to the Princess’s plan of advancing west to defeat the enemies.

The campaign against the King of Changling was framed as a purge of rebels, and now that the rebellion had been suppressed, they believed it was time to return to the capital.

Li Yunli said, “So, General Sun, are you trying to stop me from heading west because you’re worried I’ll fall into danger, or because you’re advising me not to seek fame and glory?”

“I dare not!”

Sun Jing lowered his head heavily.

“If we truly fight the Wurong, the situation is unknown, and we do not know when the war will end!”

He raised his head, his eyes full of unspoken words, but the meaning was clear—given Chu Kingdom’s current situation, with the court in turmoil, the Princess needed to return to the capital to stabilize matters.

What he implied was even clearer to Li Yunli: the emperor was young, and many were waiting for her, the Princess with military power, to make a stance. The court had already made space for her. If she were to retreat now, it would truly be a retreat.

But Li Yunli couldn’t bring herself to ignore the western border.

The Wurong had always been a constant threat, secretly disturbing the political situation of Chu, and the border’s people were suffering from oppression.

The war under the banner of eliminating the Zheng party was an opportunity to advance west. If she waited, she didn’t know when the next chance would come, nor whether she would still have it.

Now, standing in this situation, Li Yunli faced the most difficult decision.

The moon rose, silver light spilling down.

Li Yunli sat on the city wall, the plum wine beside her almost gone.

The tire tracks below the city wall still remained, and the scenes of the battle from a few days ago were still vivid.

In this era, every battle was fought with the lives of soldiers, but if the soldiers didn’t fight, it was the common people who would suffer.

“Your Highness has already made up your mind, why didn’t you express your stance in the hall today?”

Li Yunli heard the voice and turned around to see Yun Chu in plain clothing, climbing the stairs.

She raised her cup towards Yun Chu, inviting him to join her in a drink.

Yun Chu took half a cup of wine and drank with her for a while.

When the wine was finished, Li Yunli leaned back slightly, unexpectedly noticing the hand behind her back supporting her. She smiled. “You understand the battlefield of Chu better than I do.”

Yun Chu replied, “So, I understand Your Highness’s thoughts right now better. As a military commander, when heaven grants an opportunity, one must strike at the enemy. General Sun must understand this as well.”

“But compared to the safety of the common people, they are more worried about my safety,” Li Yunli said with a smile.

There were many princes of Jin in the army, and the late King Jin had been loved by the soldiers. As his only daughter still alive, Li Yunli was always under their care.

They may have respected the Princess who had grown up in the military, but at this critical moment, their primary concern was how to protect her.

The western frontier was uncertain—advancing might not bring success, but retreating would be a safer choice.

“What do you think, Your Highness?” Yun Chu asked.

“Let me tell you a story,” Li Yunli said, putting down her wine jug and turning to look at him.

Yun Chu was slightly stunned but nodded in agreement.

“A hawk mistakenly joined a flock of birds. After living with them for a long time, it fell in love with a lark. Just at that moment, the flock was electing a new king, but a group of vultures attacked the flock.”

Li Yunli’s eyes glimmered under the moonlight.

Yun Chu said softly, “Your Highness is asking whether the hawk should compete for the throne or fight the vultures to protect the flock?”

Li Yunli did not nod but paused for a moment, not shaking her head either. “The hawk mistakenly joined the flock. This is not her family, and she has no interest in the throne. But she has fallen in love with the lark and wants to protect her lover.”

Yun Chu raised his head slightly. The night was deep and dark, and the moon was full.

He said, “But if the vultures are allowed to invade, the flock cannot remain safe. Although the hawk mistakenly joined the flock, she has already made it her home.”

He understood.

If Li Yunli led the troops west, wiped out Zheng Siyuan and his followers, it would certainly eliminate a future threat and bring peace to the people. But if she lost her position in the court, upon her return to the capital, she would once again face the situation from her past life when they destroyed Wei.

In the past, the court had weakened her to stabilize imperial power, and she had been forced to play along, but she had been cornered and met a tragic end.

If the same thing happened again, wouldn’t it be the same as the last life?

No wonder she was worried about this…

But if she advanced west now, the concerns of the generals might become a reality.

“Your Highness, I am not the lark,” Yun Chu’s fingers were cool as he grasped Li Yunli’s fingers and slowly spoke.

“Your Highness wants to protect me in the court of Chu, and I want to protect you in the western battlefield. The hawk is not afraid of the vast sky. No matter which path you choose, I am not afraid. I am willing to follow Your Highness to the west! I will fight alongside you!”

The empty wine cup fell steadily to the ground. Li Yunli looked at him.

She suddenly smiled lightly. “Of course, you must go to the western frontier. Don’t forget, you promised me you’d settle accounts with Zheng Siyuan.”

Her earlier anxiety seemed to be alleviated by this statement. The unease from earlier had disappeared, and she thought for a moment before saying with a sense of calm, “This battle must be fought. Afterward, we’ll take it one step at a time.”

The “one step at a time” seemed to hold a sense of finality in her decision.

Yun Chu quietly watched her.

“I understand Your Highness’s decision, but there is one thing I don’t understand.”

Li Yunli asked, “Hmm?”

Yun Chu gazed at her, as though reflecting on her words, trying to recall every detail. But he still couldn’t figure it out. “Why did the ‘hawk’ enter the flock by mistake?”

He followed every image in the story but was puzzled as to why, in Li Yunli’s story, she was the outsider, while he, the prince from Wei who came to Chu, was the lark in the flock.

His gaze settled quietly on Li Yunli’s face, with no clear intent of probing.

“Your Highness, where do you really come from?”

Li Yunli paused for just a moment, and then smiled at him.

It was a story that had never been told before due to various reasons or timing, but now, it seemed there was no need to hide it.

“This is another story. It’s a long one, and there is no ‘you’ in it. But everything in that world is closely related to me. Would you like to hear it?”

“No ‘you’?” Yun Chu tilted his head slightly.

“Yes, no ‘you’.”

Li Yunli smiled teasingly.

The person who had been troubled by the war seemed to have the time to amuse herself at his expense.

Yun Chu didn’t know how to react to her expression, but he felt that she seemed to be serious. After a moment of thought, he still couldn’t understand why the world in her story wouldn’t have him.

After all, they had known each other since childhood.

He tilted his head, thinking, “Could it be… before I met Your Highness? What is Your Highness’s background… What is the story?”

“My background doesn’t have much of a story, but my origins are something you don’t know.”

Li Yunli grabbed the wine jug from the ground and shook it, then handed it to Yun Chu with a bold gesture, ready to offer him some new understanding from a new century. “Tonight, there’s wine and stories. After drinking and hearing the story, you can decide if you’re ready to go west and declare war!”

She looked like she was slightly drunk, and Yun Chu hadn’t expected to hear a completely unexpected, entirely different story than anything he’d known.

“I come from a time that no one today can imagine.”

Her voice was light as she began the long story…

---

The moon had already set.

Yun Chu held the empty wine jug, silent, feeling a coldness deep inside.

“Let’s go.” Li Yunli managed to stand up after telling the story of the present world and her memories. She tried to pull him along, attempting to bring his thoughts back.

“Your Highness!”

Yun Chu suddenly grabbed her wrist, with enough strength to make even Li Yunli, who was half-drunk, wince.

“Let go,” she slapped his hand lightly.

Instead of releasing him, he gripped her hand tighter. His voice trembled as he spoke, clearly agitated: “Your Highness, we cannot send the war decree!”

The words shocked Li Yunli out of her stupor, and her voice turned cold instantly. “Why?”

“Your Highness, you should not…”

You should not be on the battlefield in this unstable era, facing death and destruction.

Even in the way she recounted it, there was a glimpse of prosperity and flourishing in the world she had grown up in.

No wonder she could forgive her past sins, and no wonder she could save herself again and again…

Her upbringing was too beautiful.

Li Yunli narrowed her eyes. “You’re not going to say that I’m not the Princess of Chu, and not from this world, are you?”

“Will Your Highness return?”

“What?”

Li Yunli didn’t hear him clearly.

Yun Chu dared not look at her again. His gaze dropped to his toes, his voice barely above a whisper: “Will Your Highness return… to that world?”

After all, this world was dangerous and harsh, compared to the world she had come from.

He loosened his grip on her hand, but couldn’t bear to let go.

He had been tangled in this thought.

Li Yunli grumbled, “How would I go back? Should I just jump off the city wall and die to try?”

“No!” Yun Chu quickly said, as though afraid she would truly do it. He looked up at her with wide, anxious eyes.

Bloodshot and filled with reluctance and struggle, Li Yunli’s heart tightened.

She had overlooked this, not realizing how cruel this story would be for him.

Li Yunli froze for a moment, then grasped his hand back, unable to relieve the tightness in her chest.

He hadn’t even doubted the truth of her story and had chosen to believe her.

“I won’t leave. I can’t, and I don’t want to leave.”

As if holding hands wasn’t enough, Li Yunli pulled him into a hug.

“Don’t worry. You’ve lived through two lifetimes, and so have I. Now, I am the Princess of Chu, Li Yunli. I won’t leave.”

Yun Chu felt his heart slowly begin to calm, but the rhythm was still restless.

“Even if I did leave, I would take you with me. That world may be nice, but without you in it, I won’t go.”

Li Yunli made her decision, her heart settling a bit.

Yun Chu shifted, bending down as if seeking to exist in her embrace, holding her tightly.