Last night, he led his troops to clear out a group of bandits on the road. He didn't sleep a wink all night. He took a nap in the carriage during the day, but when he woke up, his hair was askew.
Qin Chu quickly tied up his hair and stuck the hair crown in.
It turns out that even someone with no talent can do something pretty well with practice. The reason he hadn't mastered it before was because someone was spoiling him.
Lifting the curtain and stepping out of the chariot, Qin Chu jumped directly onto the horse beside him.
He rode his horse slowly to the front of the group, and soon the fifth brother walked over side by side.
Nearly ten years have passed, and Lao Wu has grown a beard, looking like a bandit leader.
Qin Chu glanced at him and casually said, "You should shave your beard when you have time, otherwise your son won't recognize you when you get home."
The fifth brother laughed heartily: "That's right. Not to mention that the son can't recognize the father, the father can't recognize the son either. When we go back, I'm afraid I'll just walk into the neighbor's house."
Qin Chu also curled the corners of his lips, but didn't say anything.
The two rode side by side for a while, and Lao Wu couldn't help but sigh when he looked at Qin Chu.
These brothers who initially followed Qin Chu have all aged considerably over the past ten years. Even the youngest has married and started a family in the local area.
Only Qin Chu remained unchanged, both in his identity and appearance.
When you're away on campaign, your comrades are like family. They were probably the people in the entire army who were closest to Qin Chu.
But it's still not quite there yet.
Because Qin Chu always had Qin Rui weighing on his mind.
Qin Chu didn't deliberately hide Qin Rui's identity from them, and they had already guessed it pretty accurately.
When Qin Chu returned from the palace carrying Qin Rui's body, everyone was shocked.
The period before setting off for the Northwest was the most agonizing.
They all knew how much Qin Chu valued Qin Rui; he treated him like a son when he was young and like a younger brother when he grew up. Qin Rui went to the palace and died mysteriously. Qin Chu also held military power. At that time, everyone guessed that Qin Chu would not be able to resist leading his troops into the palace.
But Qin and Chu did not.
He buried Qin Rui himself, and then led his troops out to war as usual.
Qin and Chu had no intention of taking action, but the imperial court was not necessarily without precautions.
They followed Qin Chu into battle with unwavering loyalty, but they were all prepared to be mistreated.
But no one expected that the imperial court would do this so well.
The army had no shortage of pay and provisions, and even the rewards for military merits were distributed in a timely manner. Several times, letters came from home saying that some money and food rewards had been distributed to their home.
This doesn't seem like a sign of wariness towards Qin and Chu; rather, it looks like someone is carefully trying to make amends and curry favor.
What happened when Qin Chu was summoned by the emperor is unknown and unpredictable.
However, the imperial city sends two letters every year, one in the dead of winter and the other in the height of summer, without fail.
Everyone assumed that Qin Chu and the one sitting on the dragon throne had a conflict, so the official who was delivering the letter hurriedly stuffed the letter into the soldier's hand. The soldier, with a long face, wandered around outside Qin Chu's tent, but dared not deliver it inside.
One time, Lao Wu happened to run into him and casually brought him in, and that's how the job ended up being his.
Qin Chu's attitude toward this letter was quite peculiar.
I didn't know who wrote the letter at first, but I accepted it anyway.
When she found out later, she told him directly that she didn't want to look at it and asked him to take it away.
The fifth son was completely baffled. How could the emperor's letter be returned unopened?
Seeing Qin Chu's swift refusal, he said, "If you really don't want to watch, then I'll boil the water for you."
Qin Chu did not answer at first.
As he turned to leave the tent, the man abruptly changed his mind: "Never mind, just put it down."
However, whether the letter was opened or not, the fifth brother didn't know.
A gentle breeze blew by, and Qin Chu's hair swayed slightly.
The fifth brother snapped out of his reverie and looked up to see a knot still tangled in Qin Chu's hair. Clearly, the person who tied his hair up didn't have the patience for such things and had just haphazardly tied it up.
The fifth brother was silent for a moment, then spoke again: "You, you can't even handle these things yourself, and when I asked someone to take care of you, you refused."
Qin Rui has been dead for five years.
At first, Qin Chu always forgot to eat, and his hair was a mess.
Before Qin Chu met Qin Rui, his hair was always tied up like this, and no one paid any attention to it.
But after seeing Qin Chu being carefully cared for by Qin Rui, and considering that Qin Chu is now a general, it would be a bit shabby for him to act like this.
The brothers discussed it and found a local girl to take care of Qin Chu. Fearing that Qin Chu would not agree, they said that the girl wanted to find a job to make a living.
However, Qin Chu sent the girl to the kitchen that very night, and the matter was dropped.
"I have hands and feet, what's there to take care of?" Qin Chu said.
The fifth brother remained silent for a while, then changed the subject: "A lot of the lads in the camp think you're going to do something big this time, they're really excited."
Qin Chu snorted: "You'll find out when we get back. It's just packing up and going home, nothing serious."
“We know you don’t have that intention, but you have to be careful not to let someone with ulterior motives take advantage of you,” said the fifth brother.
Qin Chu nodded: "Okay, you keep an eye on it."
The fifth brother responded and then rode his horse away.
That's it.
Qin Chu remained aloof and reluctant to engage in conversation, whether here or in the real world. His closest friends were like Lao Wu, who would leave after finishing their business.
Only Qin Rui was an oddball who was willing to stick to him.
Noticing that Qin Chu was a little down, Noah immediately exclaimed, "Sir, I told you, you're acting like you're plotting a rebellion."
Qin Chu didn't reply, but flicked his whip and trotted forward a little further.
After a while, just when Noah thought Qin Chu wouldn't pay attention to him, Qin Chu suddenly replied, "That's not wrong either."
That's right...
Where is it wrong?
Noah remembered that when Qin Chu left the palace, he left behind the words, "Wait for me to come and kill you."
Noah was still under repair at the time, but he remembered the scenes he had experienced very clearly.
Qin Chu wanted to kill the emperor.
Why? To avenge Qin Rui?
But they are one person.
Qin Chu is a very calm person.
Many people who have met him have joked that Qin Chu looks like the embodiment of rules.
Noah knew perfectly well that this was all an exaggeration.
Qin Chu, when he first entered military academy, was not like this at all; he practically had arrogance written all over his face.
Even after joining the military and becoming its top leader, Qin Chu wasn't without his share of emotions. Noah had seen him rubbing his temples and muttering curses under his breath after returning to his room from meetings on numerous occasions.
However, Noah also agreed with others' assessment of Qin Chu.
Because Qin Chu's emotional intensity is very low, all his emotions remain within a very shallow range. Noah once conducted a data comparison and found that, faced with the same event, Qin Chu's emotional response was only one-third that of a normal person.
Sometimes Noah felt that this level was not much different from artificial intelligence; the emotions he simulated were probably even higher than Qin Chu's.
However, after experiencing Qin Rui's situation, Noah realized with absolute clarity that Qin Chu was a living, breathing person. No matter how indifferent he was, he would not understand the things around him in a completely data-driven way like an artificial intelligence.
For example, now that Noah knows that Qin Rui and the emperor who killed him are the same person, he will only conclude that this person is dangerous and has even killed himself, and will not feel sad or angry because he thinks Qin Rui is dead.
But Qin Chuhui, even though he knows everything.
Moreover, Noah sensed complex emotions from Qin Chu in this matter, which he couldn't fully analyze.
"Sir, why did you kill him?"
Noah couldn't help but ask, "Actually, even if you don't intervene, he won't live for long after he's cut off his consciousness like this."
Qin Chu only replied with two words: "Agreed".
Noah didn't quite understand the significance of this agreement.
He pondered it all night and finally understood a little.
Qin Chu used this action to put an end to everything in this world.
The emperor killed Qin Rui, although Qin Rui only returned to his original body with his consciousness and memories.
Qin Chu killed the emperor, even though their mission would continue to the next world.
No one truly dies; Qin Chu simply wants to sever the emotions he has invested in this world with a single stroke.
but……
Noah thought of that strange person, and of the extremely obsessive emotion he had sensed when he and this mission target were "roommates".
Noah suddenly became uncertain: would Qin Chu's plan succeed?
The army quickly returned to the capital, and a few days later they arrived at the official road outside the city.
Noah sensed something was amiss. It was spring planting season, but the fields outside the city were deserted, with no farmers busily working in the fields.
The doors of every house were tightly shut, as if they were hiding from something.
When they arrived at the city gates, Noah's premonition finally came true.
Pale white silk hung on the towering city gate, fluttering and billowing in the breeze, emitting a faint whimper.
The city gates were wide open, and the once bustling and prosperous capital city was now desolate.
White silk ribbons were hung all over the city, and the bright red lanterns in front of the grand mansions had long been replaced with stark white paper lanterns.
It is a time of national mourning.
"General, this..."
Someone spoke up from behind.