Chapter 40 Dead End

Chapter 40: No Way Out

Zhu Shinian never wanted to look back either.

He simply felt he had let down Gu Zhen—felt that someone as powerless as he was never had the option of having it all, that nothing ever went the way he wished.

To take revenge on his brother’s murderer meant letting Gu Zhen down.

To join the Resistance also meant letting Gu Zhen down.

But he also knew that if he didn’t avenge his brother, he would never be able to forgive himself for the rest of his life.

And if he turned back now and stayed by Gu Zhen’s side, he would never be able to stand on equal footing with Gu Zhen, the way Jiang Huaiyan could.

Gu Zhen could give him a ring sparkling with dazzling brilliance, no less than the one from his engagement banquet with Jiang Huaiyan. He could be infinitely gentle with him in the bedroom, and perhaps even grant him a legally recognized status as his lover.

But in the end, Gu Zhen was still an aristocrat—like Ning Ye and Jiang Huaiyan—who could treat the lives of people like them as disposable resources.

When Gu Zhen wanted to be good to him, he would pluck the stars from the sky, risk his life to save him, and go against everyone for his sake.

But what if, someday, Gu Zhen stopped loving him? What if he no longer wanted to be good to him?

Zhu Shinian had liked Gu Zhen since he was fifteen.

But from the moment he turned fifteen, his wish to love Gu Zhen as an equal had never come true, not even for a single day.

The Empire could not offer him a place to belong, and Gu Zhen was not the one for him.

He couldn’t turn back anymore.

Besides, he wasn’t alone now.

If he turned back now, what would happen to the subordinates who had defected with him?

Even if Gu Zhen could protect him, would he really be willing to protect all these subordinates who had made a fool of Commander Gu?

It was enough that he had let down Gu Zhen alone.

After he left, even with the stain of misjudging people and spoiling his lover, Gu Zhen would still have a brilliant future ahead.

He had wronged Gu Zhen, but since things had come to this, he had no choice but to let him down.

“Mm-hmm.” Zhu Shinian looked ahead and nodded lightly. “We’ll go to the Resistance Zone.”

The higher they climbed into the mountains, the more desolate the road became. Broken rocks and branches littered the path, and sections of the guardrail were missing here and there.

Lin Zhiyu and Li Qianxu dared not let their guard down. They kept pushing the speed higher on the steep mountain road, hoping to put more distance between themselves and their pursuers.

Perhaps the military convoy had given up and wasn’t pursuing them. Just as Lin Zhiyu breathed a sigh of relief, the car ahead suddenly slammed on the brakes. Startled, she had no choice but to follow suit.

At the end of the road, there was no longer a winding uphill road. Instead, a section of the old roadbed had been deliberately blown up.

The mountain was exposed, rubble tumbled down, and the asphalt road ahead looked as if it had been snapped in half, revealing a jagged, ominous gap.

The road had been destroyed by explosives, and it must have happened not long ago.

The front car stopped less than three meters from the edge of the gap. The engine rumbled low, like a beast with its throat clamped.

Zhu Shinian had already gotten out of the car. The mountain air was damp and chilly, and wind blew up from the valley, carrying the smell of dust and gunpowder.

None of them were professional combat engineers. Even if they had seen engineers repair roads before, they didn’t have the right tools at hand, and there was no way they could restore the road now.

The gap was three meters across—impossible for two ordinary civilian off-road vehicles to cross.

The fighter jet circled above them but never opened fire, as if answering the group’s unspoken questions: “Why did the convoy stop chasing?” and “Why was the road destroyed?”

There was no need for the convoy to continue chasing—they had nowhere left to go.

The cut radio was forced back on. After a crackle of static, a different voice came through—one that Zhu Shinian recognized.

The three alphas in the backseat had already rolled down their windows and opened fire on the fighter jet with their guns. But unfortunately, such firepower was nothing more than a mosquito bite to a military jet.

“Zhu Shinian, it’s me.”

“Chen Yueming. You’ve improved a lot,” Zhu Shinian said, staring at the broken road ahead.

Blocking the escape route, cutting off the path forward, like catching a rat in a trap—this was exactly what Zhu Shinian had been best at when he used to hunt down wanted criminals.

If he had been in a better state of mind, he might have been able to gracefully accept his loss and even laugh about it.

But Zhu Shinian was never a particularly magnanimous person. He couldn’t help feeling bitter about how close he was to freedom.

The wind blew over the broken roadbed, sending rubble tumbling down with faint, grating sounds.

“I blew up the road,” Chen Yueming said, as if stating an objective fact. “You can’t go forward.”

“I know,” Zhu Shinian replied.

“You’ve got a flat tire. You won’t be able to drive much longer. We’ve also blocked the rear with our people.”

“I know that as well.”

Chen Yueming was silent for a moment.

“The Major General ordered me to bring you back.” He flew the fighter jet a little lower, scanning the ground through its optics. Through the scope, he could clearly see Zhu Shinian’s face. “The Major General asked me to tell you that if you go back with him, he will take care of everything.”

Zhu Shinian didn’t answer immediately.

“Take care of what?” he asked.

He could probably guess what Gu Zhen would say.

*Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you have to put yourself in danger alone?*

*If you had only asked me for help, I would have helped you. I know you’ve been wronged. Even if it’s difficult, I would find a way.*

*Zhu Shinian, why don’t you trust me?*

Zhu Shinian actually believed that if he genuinely asked Gu Zhen for help, Gu Zhen would find a way to cause Ning Ye to die in an accident.

But what difference was there between using one noble’s power to bring about the death of another noble and what Ning Ye had done to Zhu Cheng?

Besides, Gu Zhen had already done more than enough for him.

“Zhu Shinian, I can understand why you want to go to Tao Juan’s side. Actually, Nie Hang went too, but you both kept it from me,” Chen Yueming said.

“... I can understand why you kept it from me. I know you have your difficulties. But you now have to give me an explanation. Why did you commit murder in the Major General’s home? Why did you kill Ning Ye? Is it just because you hate aristocrats? If killing a noble was your initiation ticket to join Tao Juan, does that mean you would also kill the Major General, or even me?”

Zhu Shinian was taken aback. He didn’t understand the point of Chen Yueming’s question.

Even without talking about all this, time was ticking by, second by second. Zhu Shinian was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He didn't have to say anything to buy time.

"Ning Ye killed my brother. I must kill him," Zhu Shinian replied calmly.

"...No. It's not exactly a token of allegiance. Even if it were needed, I wouldn't kill you, nor Gu Zhen. I would choose someone deserving of death."

There is no shortage of such nobles.

Zhu Shinian calmly answered every question Chen Yueming asked. He had no reason to lie to Chen Yueming, nor to hide anything from him.

Chen Yueming froze for a moment. His breathing was clearly audible over the radio.

"Your... biological brother?"

"...No," Zhu Shinian said tiredly, "but we grew up together... no different from blood brothers."

For a moment, he felt dazed. No wonder he rarely dreamed of Zhu Cheng.

Sending dreams seemed to require a blood connection.

That was so painful, Zhu Shinian thought. Zhu Cheng's biological parents had long passed away. If he had anything left to say, he wouldn't even have anyone to send him a dream.

"...The Major General won't let you die," Chen Yueming said. "Zhu Shinian, come back with me. Can't we go back to how things were? I'll also put in a good word for your subordinates. Except for the ringleader, the rest can be explained as being tricked by him. Even the ringleader—at worst, I'll just transfer him to my father's command. The Fifteenth Sector is way out in the sticks, no one can touch them."

"The military pays you every month. You've always wanted to live a quiet life with your family. Do you really want to be on the battlefield, fighting bravely, and find that the bullet you fire hits me?"

"Or, to take the worst-case scenario, maybe you only see me as a good friend and don't care about making me an enemy. But what about the Major General? Do you want to kill him with your own hands?"

Chen Yueming grew more and more agitated, his voice cracking by the end.

He was someone who valued relationships. Zhu Shinian was silent for a while, then said very softly, "No."

But he also knew it was complete nonsense.

Even Chen Yueming, who seemed carefree and could get along with civilians from the Twenty-Sixth Sector like Zhu Shinian and Nie Hang, had a father who was the police commissioner of the Fifteenth Sector. He would never be sent to the front lines, let alone die at the hands of a civilian.

"Lieutenant Colonel Chen, didn't you just hear? The Colonel's brother was killed by people like you," Lin Zhiyu cut in flatly.

The sudden female voice was somewhat familiar. Chen Yueming could tell he'd met her before when he went to relay orders at A2 Squad.

"And you're still saying that we, soldiers guilty of treason, can be pardoned with a few light words from you. Don't you think an empire like this is unfair to everyone else?"

Chen Yueming was speechless.

Chen Yueming was neither very smart nor bad-hearted. He joined Gu Zhen's personal guard unit simply because his father sent him to curry favor with the Gu family, show loyalty, and align himself with them.

He never took the distinction between nobles and civilians seriously. After all, everyone has two eyes and one mouth, and they ate together, used the toilet together, and practiced horse stance together. Zhu Shinian and Nie Hang were great—their personalities were even better than his childhood playmates. On the first day of training, when he didn't know how to put on his combat uniform, it was Nie Hang and Zhu Shinian who helped him.

At first, Chen Yueming didn't understand.

Forget about civilians and nobles—weren't they friends? Wasn't Zhu Shinian living well now? Why would he believe the divisive rhetoric and provocation stirred up by those with ulterior motives?

Weren't they in love? Wasn't the military job good? When they celebrated his fourteenth birthday together at the Capital First Military Academy, Zhu Shinian's wish was to live a simple life with his family.

But now, he suddenly understood.

"...I'll go back with you," Zhu Shinian gave a bitter smile after a long silence. "Other than destroying everything together or going back with you, I have no other choice."

Over the radio in the cockpit, Chen Yueming clearly heard the sound of a pistol being racked.

"Colonel!"

"Brother!"

"But I must see you let all of them enter the resistance zone. Or else, what you bring back to Gu Zhen will just be my corpse."

Author's note: