Chapter 154: A Woman Both Loved and Hated

The gang leader smiled ingratiatingly and asked, "Do you need us to follow and protect you?"

Kaiming opened her mouth, but suddenly her body stiffened as she felt a hard object press against her lower back. Kai Ming lowered his head, and a voice so soft it was barely audible slipped from his slightly parted lips: "If you give us away, your life is forfeit!"

Kaiming smiled knowingly, shook her head, and said, "There's no need. My bodyguard here is very... dedicated and responsible." She practically gnashed her teeth as she uttered the final few words.

The leader glanced briefly at Kai Ming. She hurriedly lowered her head even further to avoid his gaze.

Without the slightest suspicion, the leader bowed to Kaiming and led his men away.

Kai Ming let out a long breath, slowly raised his head to look at Kaiming, and smiled mischievously. "You know how to play along."

Kaiming gave a wry smile. "Now, you can take away that knife!"

"Knife?" she feigned surprise, withdrawing her left hand from where it had pressed against his lower back. Her hand was completely empty, with only her thumb held upright. She deliberately wagged that upright thumb at him and smiled, "Are you talking about this?"

For the first time, a flash of irritation appeared in Kaiming's eyes. "You... you little..."

"Call me a villain, call me a fox, but the fact is, you've been tricked!" She chuckled softly.

Kaiming's face darkened as he clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles cracked.

Kai Ming swiftly drew a dagger and pressed it against his throat, saying coldly, "Take a good look. This is the real thing! If you take one step forward..."

"What if I take a step forward?" Flames burned fiercely in Kaiming's dark eyes as he sneered and slowly stepped closer. "Will you kill me right here?"

Not expecting Kaiming to advance so suddenly, the sharp blade tip immediately sank into his flesh, opening a small, bloody wound. Kai Ming's pupils dilated abruptly, and he hissed through suppressed breath, "You're out of your mind!"

He hastily dropped the steel dagger, tore a strip of fabric from his own garment, and pressed it against the bleeding wound. Yet Kaiming stood as motionless as a dead man, letting him tend to the injury while staring at her in silence.

Chunhua and the other two hurried over. Seeing the scene before them, they asked anxiously, "What happened?"

"Nothing, the hostage acted up, we need to buy some time," Kai Ming said flusteredly. Chunhua looked at him with even more doubt.

Xiacao and Qiuju automatically took up guard duty. Chunhua fished some clean gauze out from her clothes—Kai Ming had no time to question why she carried such things with her—and snatched it to staunch the bleeding on Kaiming's neck first.

Kaiming looked at her. The flames burning in his eyes gradually subsided, finally returning to a clear, bright gaze. He sighed, caught her busy hand, and murmured, "You really are a person whom one can both love and hate."

Kai Ming froze. Raising his eyes to meet hers, he saw them clear and dark, like two limpid springs in the night, flowing quietly across the parched fields of her heart, making her tranquil, mirror-like heart tremble sharply at these words.

Chunhua seemed not to understand what Kaiming had said, squatting nearby and staring blankly at the two of them.

Kaiming casually took hold of her wrist, uncurled her stiff palm, and pressed a light kiss to her palm. Kai Ming felt as though he had been struck by lightning, nearly crying out in shock as he hurriedly yanked his hand back.

Chunhua was so terrified her soul nearly left her body. Her mouth hung open, her jaw nearly unhinging, and she pointed a finger at Kai Ming: "You..."

Kai Ming hurriedly defended himself, "I didn't!"

Chunhua pointed at Kaiming: "You two..."

Kai Ming interrupted anxiously, "Nothing happened!"

Chunhua's lips trembled. "You... you... how could you betray Brother Xuan?"

"Shut up!" Kai Ming abruptly stood up, swept a hand over Chunhua's head, and said sternly, "Let's move!"

"Kaiming..." Chunhua was still curious, but was driven back by a vicious glare from him.

"You take the strategist Nangong in custody!"

"Why should I?"

"I said take him, so take him!"

"..." Chunhua was left speechless.

Kai Ming glanced around, stepped forward quickly to pull a torch out of a wooden fence, and set fire to the straw, tent fabric, and everything else piled on the ground that could burn.

Blazing flames flared up, illuminating the astonished faces of Chunhua and the others.

"Why are you standing there like fools? Go set fires all around, scatter the horses, and then shout at the top of your lungs that the Central Palace has broken in, understood?" After giving these instructions, Kai Ming discarded the torch, and Xiacao and Qiuju quickly followed suit.

Before long, fires broke out all over the back of the camp, shouts echoed continuously, and everywhere voices cried, "The Central Palace has broken in! The Central Palace has broken in!"

Hearing the commotion from the front of the camp while still recovering from their shock, they were unprepared when several panicked warhorses bolted out from the rear, screaming as they trampled everywhere and kicked anyone in their path. The entire Nangong camp descended into absolute chaos.

General Quan was busy trying to quell the disorder with the various leaders, while Kai Ming, leading the trio of women and holding Kaiming hostage, had long since slipped out of the camp gates amidst the confusion, leaving only sharp-eyed soldiers shouting wildly behind them.

Once several horses galloped out onto the boundless, dark expanse of open land, Kai Ming finally let out a long sigh of relief and slowed the horses' pace. Chunhua and the others repeatedly wiped the sweat from their brows with their sleeves, exclaiming how perilous it had been.

Kaiming sat upright in the saddle, looking at her with a beaming smile. "The General employed a brilliant strategy indeed!"

Kai Ming scoffed, "It also relied on the strategist's cooperation."

"Indeed!" Kaiming said with unblushing arrogance. "With your desperate gamble of a strategy, if I had been a genuine hostage, your entire army would probably have been wiped out tonight."

Kai Ming laughed heartily and made a face at him. "Don't make yourself sound so grand, as if our escaping was entirely thanks to your merit."

"Shouldn't my share be counted?" Kaiming caught a glimpse of her making a face at him and couldn't help smiling.

Chunhua felt depressed hearing this and chimed in, "I say, how can a hostage be so shameless? We captured you, and yet you want us to credit you for it? What kind of logic is that?"

Kaiming smiled with pursed lips. "If I hadn't been willing to follow you, do the four of you really think you could have carried off me, the dignified strategist of Nangong?"

At these words, not only Kai Ming, but Chunhua and the trio couldn't help bursting into loud laughter. Such an arrogant person! To be a hostage and arrogant to this extent, Kaiming was truly the first of his kind.

Kai Ming held onto the saddle, laughing so hard he almost fell off his horse. "Kaiming, Kaiming, why are you still such an incorrigible wretch!"

Kaiming said unhurriedly, "Think about it. When we first encountered that squad of Nangong soldiers, I only needed to exchange a few glances and act a bit unusual, and I'm sure that leader would have figured out why. Weren't you in a dangerous situation then? Even if Kaiming had a knife pressed against my back at the time, could you really have stabbed me if I exposed you? And even if you had stabbed me, were you certain you could escape from the heavily guarded Nangong camp?"

As Kaiming spoke word by word, Kai Ming and the others gradually stopped laughing. Pondering his words, they realized it made a lot of sense.

Kaiming smiled triumphantly. "So you see, I actually helped you block the first danger."

Kai Ming couldn't help muttering, "So what?"

Ignoring her displeased tone, Kaiming continued his analytical lecture: "The second danger—after you set the fires and mounted the horses, on your way escaping toward the camp gates, if I had just lagged behind a little bit or split off down another path, I would have been separated from you. I saw that you were all in such a rush to flee at the time that you didn't have a second to spare for me. You were truly un profesionales at kidnapping." He shook his head repeatedly as he finished.

Upon hearing this, Chunhua and the others instantly turned pale. Recalling the scene at the time, it was indeed true—the three of them had been so anxious about fleeing for their lives that they hadn't paid any attention to whether Kaiming was by their side or not.

Kai Ming stubbornly retorted, "They might not have paid attention, but I kept a very close eye on you right by your side. Don't try to take all the credit."

Kaiming turned back to look at her with a gentle smile, the corners of his lips curving upward in a graceful arc. "Ah, actually a thought flashed through my mind at that moment: to just grab you like that, drag you to the ground, and then the one captured would be you, General."

Kai Ming was left speechless, unable to utter a word. If Kaiming had really done that, he truly would have had no countermeasure whatsoever, and would have walked right into captivity of his own accord.

Kaiming smiled mischievously. "After my analysis, do you all feel that tonight's greatest merit should belong to me?"

Chunhua wiped away sweat in lingering fear and stammered, "Yes, it should..." Kai Ming slapped her on the back of the head and scolded, "He's crazy, and you're joining in his madness too?"

Kaiming suddenly burst into loud laughter, his bold voice echoing throughout the wilderness. The trio of women looked rather uneasy at the man Kai Ming had just called crazy, thinking to themselves with an inner sigh what a waste of such a fine appearance.

Kaiming slowly stopped laughing, lowering his chin from its upward tilt and turning toward Kai Ming. Kai Ming watched him coldly, waiting for him to utter another startling remark.

True to form, his very first words startled her all over again: "The reason I came willingly was all for your sake."

Her heart skipped a beat, and a very ominous feeling slowly welled up inside her.

He was still smiling, though the smile looked somewhat desolate: "Thinking back, I was once willing to give up everything to elope with you, only to end in failure. Who would have thought that now, it would be you, Kaiming, holding a knife to force me to go with you..."

Chunhua let out a strange shriek and stared fixedly at Kai Ming: "You, you, you..."

Kai Ming furrowed his brows in utter annoyance. What on earth was Kaiming's motive, deliberately trying to blacken her reputation in front of her subordinates? "Stop with the 'you, you, you'! I've already told you, there's nothing between him and me!"

Chunhua opened her mouth, but instead let out a fake cry: "Brother Xuan is so pitiful! Kaiming, you're playing the game of apricot blossoms crossing the garden wall again!"

"Again?" Kaiming chuckled weirdly. "It seems it's just in your nature, General. You truly are a romantic figure."

"Shut up!" Kai Ming roared in exasperation, pointing a forceful finger at the gloating Kaiming, and then pointing at Chunhua. "You shut up too!"

Chunhua proved quite obedient and instantly clamped her mouth shut, though she muttered very grudgingly, "So greedy, such a fickle woman."

Kai Ming massaged his temples helplessly, having a gut feeling that abducting this Kaiming meant bringing home endless trouble.

Kaiming looked at her placidly, his eyes hidden in the darkness flashing brightly as they curved into crescent moons.

Successfully kidnapping Kaiming brought an immediate wave of jubilation to the Central Palace camp. Kaiming was somewhat famous among the Five Palaces, and capturing him meant the war was nearing its end.

Almost everyone saw the hope of victory, and the entire camp was filled with a joyful and celebratory mood.

Only Kai Ming knew how thorny an issue Kaiming truly was, and could only suffer in silence.