Volume 1, Chapter 4: Revoking General Linglong's Command!

After Xiao Aoyu left, the two of them waited there.

“By the way, I seem to have come back and not seen Lin Che. Has he left?” Xiao Boqing suddenly asked, realizing that he had not seen Lin Che since returning.

Xiao Chen gave a contemptuous laugh. “He left. He left like a stray dog with its tail between its legs.”

Xiao Boqing smiled in satisfaction. “Good. I was worried he might cling on and refuse to go.”

“He wouldn’t dare,” Xiao Chen said.

Xiao Boqing also shook his head and said no more. Lin Che was utterly irrelevant to them.

About two hours later, Xiao Aoyu finally returned from outside.

“Yu’er, how did it go?” Xiao Boqing had long grown impatient and hurried to ask, full of hope.

After stepping inside, Xiao Aoyu wore a dark, ugly expression, as though she had swallowed a fly. It stood in stark contrast to the pride she had carried when she left.

She had gone to the imperial palace, yet she had not even made it through the gates. She had sent the guards to report her several times, but no one had come out.

She had waited in the cold wind for a full two hours, nearly catching a chill.

“You are the distinguished general Linglong, and they treated you like this?” Xiao Boqing could not make sense of it at all and felt it was unjust.

“Sister, you used to be able to see His Majesty very easily. What changed now?” Xiao Chen asked. Then a thought struck him, and he said cautiously, “Could it be that something happened to the emperor?”

“Nonsense, you cannot speak carelessly about such things!” Xiao Boqing was terrified.

Still, he also felt that something was wrong.

“Chamberlain Cao has arrived!”

Just as the few of them were puzzled, a voice shattered their thoughts.

Chamberlain Cao?

“Chamberlain Cao has actually come in person. Yu’er, it must be because you went to the palace to request an audience. Afterward, His Majesty learned of it and specially sent Chamberlain Cao here!” Xiao Boqing immediately rose to his feet.

He had said so all along: how could his daughter, a general of such standing, be turned away at the palace gates?

General Linglong’s importance to the court was beyond question!

Xiao Aoyu hurried outside as well, her heart equally stirred.

By the time the group stepped out, Cao Shiqi had already reached the gate of the courtyard.

“Chamberlain Cao!” Xiao Boqing rushed forward to greet him, his face all obsequious smiles.

Cao Shiqi did not even glance at him. Instead, he produced a decree. “Xiao Aoyu, kneel to receive the imperial command!”

The few of them froze. None had expected Cao Shiqi to have come to proclaim a decree.

Could it be that the emperor intended to bestow another promotion?

Yes, it had to be that!

Their daughter had already been granted several honors recently.

It seemed the emperor truly valued them!

“Your servant, Xiao Aoyu, receives the decree.” Xiao Aoyu thought so too. She knelt on the ground, a trace of pride flashing in her eyes.

Cao Shiqi said, “By the Mandate of Heaven and by imperial command, from this moment forth, Xiao Aoyu’s military authority as general is to be fully revoked. All rewards and honors are to be reduced by half. The office of General Linglong is hereby removed. Respect this!”

Boom...

Xiao Boqing and the others felt as though their heads had exploded.

Removed from office?

Xiao Aoyu had not expected the decree to strip her of her position!

She had even intended to speak with Cao Shiqi about her father’s matter, to ask what exactly had happened and demand a satisfactory explanation.

Who would have thought that she herself would be stripped of office as well?

And her rewards were to be cut in half?

Her mind was a chaos of confusion; even her body seemed to go numb.

She could not understand why this had happened.

“Xiao Aoyu, receive the decree!” Cao Shiqi looked at the woman with no trace of pity in his eyes.

One reaps what one sows.

She had clearly been given a bright future, yet she had repaid kindness with betrayal.

This outcome was already far too lenient for her.

Xiao Aoyu shuddered all over and hurriedly said, “Your servant accepts... accepts the decree. I thank Your Majesty. Ten thousand years to the emperor!”

Cao Shiqi handed her the edict, sneered coldly, and turned to leave without another word.

Everything that was happening now was precisely what the Xiao family had deserved.

Without Lin Che, the honors Xiao Aoyu received would at most have amounted to this much.

In fact, without Lin Che, she would have found it difficult even to escape conscription, let alone go to war, and even more impossible to receive any reward at all.

Xiao Aoyu held the decree in both hands, both trembling. Just as she saw Chamberlain Cao about to leave, she finally summoned up her courage and called out, “Chamberlain Cao... wait a moment!”

Cao Shiqi looked back and asked, “Miss Xiao, is there anything else?”

From General Linglong to Miss Xiao in a single step—the enormous reversal made Xiao Aoyu feel as though she had fallen into the abyss. She could not accept it!

“Chamberlain Cao, may I ask one thing?” Xiao Aoyu said unwillingly. “What mistake have I made to warrant such punishment from His Majesty?”

Cao Shiqi said calmly, “At times, a person ought to learn contentment.”

He felt no pity for the Xiao family.

Because he knew exactly how much the prince had done for them.

He still remembered when Xiao Aoyu first went to the battlefield. Fearing that her strategic skill was still shallow and that she would be in danger, Lin Che secretly sent over a dozen letters in a few short days, requesting that His Majesty assign the great strategist Han Zong as her deputy commander.

But who was Han Zong? How could the emperor possibly allow him to serve beneath a mere deputy general? It was simply making a mountain out of a molehill.

So Lin Che kept writing to him, and in the end even penned three blood-written memorials in earnest supplication.

Those blood-stained words still struck him as horrifying whenever he recalled them.

Only because of that did the emperor issue an order to Han Zong, compelling him to humble himself under Xiao Aoyu’s command.

On that occasion, Lin Che lost so much blood that he lay in bed for three days before recovering.

Such devotion was enough to move heaven and earth.

Yet at the time, the Xiao family had still complained that he was frail and sickly, and aside from one maid, no one attended him.

Cao Shiqi stepped into the carriage, leaving Xiao Aoyu standing there with a blank mind, as though she had become a fool.

She could not at all understand what those words meant.

Thud...

Xiao Boqing suddenly collapsed to the ground, his face ghastly pale, as though he were dead. He simply could not understand where the Xiao family had gone wrong.

But one thing he did understand.

After a long while, he finally murmured, “My Xiao family... is finished...”

Even the servants did not dare speak.

For the Xiao family to have risen to such prominence and become one of the most distinguished noble houses in Chang'an, it had chiefly been because of Xiao Boqing and Xiao Aoyu.

Xiao Boqing held the post of Jingle Commander, overseeing the peace and order of the three auxiliary districts, while Xiao Aoyu wielded military power and had been ennobled as General Linglong.

Originally, the Xiao family’s future had seemed immeasurable.

Who could have imagined that today both would be stripped of office?

Anyone could foresee that before long, the Xiao family would fall into complete decline.

“What exactly happened... and what did Chamberlain Cao mean by those final words?” Xiao Chen was terrified as well.

Something must have happened in all this!