QingYu: A Wuxia Tale (Going Through Reediting)

Afforded Choices

(Dayu's POV)

Captain Wang gave me a warning look before he walked out of the door. I just silently smile at his piercing stare.

Who does he think he is scaring? Me? There's only one thing that can scare me. And that is to lose Mei.

Nothing can scare me now. I am not afraid of anything now.

Because I will not lose anything or anyone anymore. I already lost them all.

My parents.

My Uncle Shu.

My lover.

Mei is the only person I can lose now. But Captain Jiang will keep him safe for me so...

I smiled at General Wang who gave me a wary look.

Oh he should he wary. Very wary. I am not here to give him some happy news of course.

I sat on the chair at the other end of the table. Watching General Wang as he sat on his chair at the head of the table.

"What do you want?" He asked in false bravado. I can see his nervousness and fear. I can practically smell them in the air.

He is scared. As he should be...

I am here to demand his life after all.

"I want you dead," I said bluntly to answer his direct question.

"Well, here I am. Kill me then," he bravely stated.

I shook my head, "No. If I kill you, you will die as a hero. I will not make a hero out of you. So you can choose for me, do you want to die as a traitor? Or as a martyr?"

General Wang was genuinely stunned at his choices.

"A traitor? What do you..."

"Simple, I will spread the truth about those raids to the capital and even recite it in front of the Emperor. I will name you as the instigator of everything. I will say that it was your idea..."

"Lies! It's General Zong..."

"He was your puppet. You put those ideas in his head. Weak minded that he was, he listened to the ideas of his more clever and more cunning second in command," I said as I stood up to slowly walk close to him.

"That is not true.."

I scoffed, "What is the truth? That you raided those villages because they harbor rebels? Is that the truth, General?" I laugh as I sat to the chair on his immediate right. Leaning my face closer to his so I can watch his reaction my next words.

"I will ruin the Wang name until everyone will curse you and your children and their children for the next three generations. You and your family will be branded as traitors to the crown. And we all know what they do to to traitors in the capital,"

They hanged traitors in the capital. Or stone them to death. Or boil them in hot oil.

Painful not to mention humiliating deaths.

"Who will believe you?! A small war architect in a province with a governor who is unfavored by the former Emperor?" General Wang will not surrender easily.

I shrugged, "Maybe they will not believe me. But they will surely symphathized to let's say, thirty women whom you abused during those raids,"

"T-thirty...how dare...lies!" General Wang stood up swiftly, toppling his chair backward with the force. "You will...you will..."