淫欲的代价

Shang Wu\'s horse advanced slowly amongst the hyped soldiers. The general\'s armor was coated in dirt and dried blood and he had lost a lot of weight. The same could be said for the men that had gone missing along with him.

He Yuan observed Shang Wu for a while before turning around and entering the infirmary once more. The general looked really pale and could collapse at any second but must have insisted on riding his horse to increase the morale of his soldiers.

As He Yuan packaged the medicines lying around, Wu Hong and the other attendants were focused on cleaning the tent.

Hours later, He Yuan went to the secluded part of the camp to freshen up and then returned to his assigned tent completely tired.

As He Yuan settled in his sleeping bag, a call came from outside his tent. It was Shang Wu\'s deputy general.

"Second miss Cao, the general was shot by an arrow as we tried to escape from the enemy camp and we\'re just realizing it was coated with slow acting poison. The military physician has little knowledge of poison and the genius doctor is nowhere to be found.

-I know you said your knowledge of medicine is limited but at this point, anything is welcome. You work with the genius doctor in the same tent so maybe you\'ve been able to learn one or two things. Shang Wu has to live~" The man\'s voice broke at the end, he was Shang Wu\'s closest friend after all.

He had been distraught when the general went missing so he was glad when reinforcement came and the first thing he did was to take a squad of soldiers into the enemy camp. They\'d been successful after such a long time so it would be a shame for Shang Wu to die in his own camp.

He Yuan nodded and went inside to grab his medicine bag. The faster Shang Wu was healed, the faster he could leave this place.

The camp was running out of medicine ingredients and even the ones he had prepared before coming were almost used up so Jiang He had taken some soldiers with him to scour the forest for ingredients.

When he got to the general\'s tent, he noticed Shang Wu was lying face up. His eyes were closed tightly and his breathing was laboured. He Yuan quickly settled down and got to work.

When it was almost midnight, the general\'s condition was finally stabilized and the high ranked soldiers all let out a breath of relief.

He Yuan returned to his tent with slightly twitching fingers, something he\'d gotten used to over the past months of constantly treating the soldiers.

In three days, the general was able to walk about and he went straight to He Yuan\'s tent. When He Yuan came out, he bowed his head slightly. "Second miss Cao, I heard from my subordinates that you were responsible for treating me."

He laughed softly. "The life debt has doubled and I really don\'t know how to repay you."

He Yuan waved at him. "General Shang, it\'s fine. If I didn\'t help then we would lose this battle and that would be detrimental to the nation. Think of it as me helping the nation instead."

Shang Wu\'s eyes softened as he stared at He Yuan. "You\'re unmarried. If it isn\'t too much trouble I\'d like to-"

"If it was the military doctor that saved you, would you have proposed marriage to him?" He Yuan interrupted.

Shang Wu choked. "Well no bu-"

He Yuan sighed. "I know you\'re thankful, I accept your thanks, you don\'t have to offer yourself to me."

"I like you!" Shang Wu blurted out. "Right from the time at the capital. I had been planning to go over to the Cao family to propose a marriage before all this happened."

He Yuan lowered his head and massaged his forehead with a brow. He wasn\'t Cao Yuemei, so he couldn\'t decide her marriage. Even if he could, there was no way he would chose Yu Ming, Shang Wu or Jiang He.

After all, these men had orchestrated her gruesome death in the original storyline. He raised his head to find Jiang He and Cao Luomei standing a few feet away from them.

Jiang He was glaring daggers at Shang Wu and Cao Luomei was staring at all of them with a complicated gaze. Once she locked eyes with He Yuan, she looked away guiltily and walked away.

He Yuan frowned. What was up with her? Cao Luomei had been acting weird for the past two months and he couldn\'t figure out why.

"General Shang, we\'re in the middle of defending the frontier. I think you should focus on that." He Yuan said and walked back into his tent.

Shang Wu turned around and locked eyes with Jiang He, the both of them stared at each other fiercely before going their separate ways.

Cao Luomei walked back to her tent and sat on her makeshift bed. After the attack on the rear part of the camp months ago, she\'d had a hyper realistic dream.

She couldn\'t remember every part of the dream clearly but there were some parts she clearly remembered.

She remembered getting together with the first prince, the general and the genius doctor. She remembered setting up Cao Yuemei. Her original plan had been to set Cao Yuemei up with a random man and ruin her reputation.

The three men had offered to take care of it for her and she gladly accepted it. After they had ruined Cao Yuemei\'s reputation with the wastrel Ba He, general Shang had come up with the idea of making her marry Ba He.

They had all gone with it. Cao Luomei had been blinded by jealousy and the graceful figure of Cao Yuemei that she had encountered on the street in her past life so she didn\'t stop them.

When Cao Yuemei died a week later, she remembered the immense guilt she\'d felt in her dream but she also remembered brainwashing herself that Cao Yuemei deserved it, that it was Cao Yuemei\'s fault for not being strong enough.

After all, the things Ba He did to Cao Yuemei were things that she, Cao Luomei, had gone through in the whorehouse right from when she was ten years old.

When Jiang He had gone to drug the second son into becoming a fool, she remembered the feeling of amazement she\'d felt in her dream and she also remembered how the men had coaxed her, telling her it was all for her own good.

Again, she brainwashed herself. The second son was Wan Ruo\'s child so he also deserved to be punished. She\'d become increasingly unhappy from then on but she was constantly pampered by the three men so she learnt to hide her depressed feelings.

Cao Luomei stood up from her makeshift bed and paced around her tent. She was in an agitated state and this was because of how she ended up in her dream.

She\'d given birth to three children, all boys, and each man had picked a favourite. This didn\'t bother her when they were little but once they grew up, the problems started.

Each man wanted their own favourite to ascend the throne. The first prince, who was then the emperor, argued that it was his throne and he would hand it over to who he pleased but the general and doctor argued back that the three children belonged to three of them together so each should get a chance for the throne.

The argument soon blew out of proportions when time came to choose an heir and war broke out. The Eastern and Southern soldiers were all loyal to the emperor so they backed Yu Ming and his favoured child.

Although Shang Wu had retired and handed in his token, the Northern and Western soldiers were still more loyal to him and so him and his favoured child had their backing.

Jiang He had spent his younger years wandering about treating the sick, so many martial arts practitioners, merchants and even some lords from surrounding nations were grateful to him and gave him and his favoured child their backing.

The nation became a total mess and Cao Luomei had died the most gruesome death in the hands of her own children when she refused to pick a side.

Cao Luomei ran her hand over her face before walking out of the tent. Whether that was a dream of the life she\'d already lived or the future, she had no idea but she couldn\'t let that happen again!

Her legs carried her to the front of Cao Yuemei\'s tent and after hesitating for a short while, she hardened her resolve and called out.

He Yuan walked out of his tent and stared at Cao Luomei with raised brows. What did the girl want this time?

Cao Luomei stared at the Cao Yuemei before her. Her dream had started on the day Cao Yuemei had been framed by she and the three men so she couldn\'t accurately deduce the dream Cao Yuemei\'s character.

One thing she was sure of was that this Cao Yuemei before her, who was always so talkative when it came to reprimanding her and telling her to watch herself and avoid inappropriate contact with men, was much different from the quiet Cao Yuemei in her dream.

This Cao Yuemei was prim and proper, very decisive and so talented in medicine. She also had the admiration of thousand of soldiers.

Cao Luomei smiled. She wasn\'t even jealous. Maybe what she\'d dreamt of two months ago was only just a nightmare but when she looked into Cao Yuemei\'s eyes, she couldn\'t stop the guilt that settled deep in her heart.

Maybe it wasn\'t just a dream? Either way, she would never let it happen again!

Cao Luomei clenched her fists tightly at her sides and looked at He Yuan with slightly reddened eyes.

"Cao Yuemei. Let\'s be sisters... Okay?"