Chapter 36: Lü Bu's Past

  Lü Bu grew up in Puyang, Ji Province. Due to his natural strength, people of the same age did not dare to play with Lü Bu. There was only one little girl who was not afraid of Lü Bu, and the two often played together. Lü Bu would also frequently give her the spoils of his hunting trips. At that time, the adults in Puyang laughed and said that they were a match made in heaven. Lü Bu was still young at the time and did not understand what this meant, but he had once promised to marry this girl when he grew up. The girl's name was Diao Chan.

  Good times are always disrupted by some people, and in the tenth year of Lü Bu's life, the Xiongnu people invaded and plundered the Bingzhou province, and Jiuyuan was also within the range of the Xiongnu people's plundering, resulting in a tragic event.

  The originally peaceful and serene Jiuyuan, a paradise on earth, was ravaged by the Xiongnu people. The entire sky of Jiuyuan was filled with blood, and the usual joyful songs disappeared, leaving behind a desolate landscape.

  At that time, Diao Chan liked these small animals very much. Lü Bu ran into the deep mountains to catch a deer for her, and as a result, he narrowly escaped.

  When Lü Bu came out of the deep mountains with a small deer as big as a dog, he found that the entire Jiuyuan had become a purgatory. Houses were on fire, thick smoke was rising into the sky, and corpses were everywhere. The old, women, and children were all over the place, and the whole land seemed to have turned into a human purgatory. Lü Bu was stunned by what he saw before him, his eyes filled with incredulity.

  Lü Bu ran home frantically, and as he was running, he kept hoping that this was all just a dream, a nightmare filled with hell everywhere.

  When he returned home, Lü Bu saw the house emitting thick black smoke, and he was stunned, sitting on the ground, wanting to scream, but his throat couldn't make a sound.

  Lü Bu's mouth opened silently, wanting to say something, but not a sound came out. His eyes stared tightly at his home, and he stretched out his hand, wanting to grasp something, but was powerless to change all of this.

  Caw! The sky was filled with the cries of crows, the nine plains were ablaze with fire and corpses, a scene of utter devastation. As the sunset cast its glow on the earth, the fiery inferno illuminated Lü Bu's small and helpless face.

  The whole world seemed to have left only this ten-year-old child, silently pulling the corpses one by one and piling them together. There was no crying or wailing, only the cawing of ravens in the sky.

  For an entire night, a ten-year-old child repeated the same action. When dawn broke on the second day, in one place of Jiǔ Yuán, there were piles of corpses as high as small hills, and in front of the corpses stood only a single ten-year-old child.

  Lü Bu's eyes were silent as he stared at the mountain of corpses in front of him, his lips cracked, and with a torch in hand, he threw it onto the mountain of corpses.

  From then on, Bianzhou lost a paradise on earth, and lost a lively and powerful child. But Bianzhou gained a wolf-like child instead.

  Lü Bu stopped here, his eyes somewhat dazed as he stared in the direction of his hometown, muttering to himself as if calling out to his family members, while two lines of tears had already flowed down his cheeks.

  Qiu Shui looked at Lü Bu in front of him, filled with admiration. This was the real Lü Bu, this was the Flying General of Pingzhou. A ten-year-old boy had appeared on the grasslands to hunt and kill Xiongnu people, creating the current Lü Bu.

  A person without any famous teacher, actually grew up to be a world-class martial general, this talent, this effort. The whole room was silent, Autumn Water did not disturb the silence at this moment.

  ......................

  "Ah! Lü Bu realized his loss of composure and hastily wiped away the tears on his face with both hands, looking at Qiu Shui with some embarrassment: "Younger brother, I have lost my composure."

  "Autumn water shook his head and looked at Lü Bu seriously, saying: "No, where, now that things have come to this point, I only know the elder brother's character, I am not as good as the elder brother."

  Lü Bu was somewhat embarrassed by Qiu Shui's serious words, but still looked at Qiu Shui and said solemnly: "Younger brother, the girl I saw in Wang Yun's mansion today is really too similar, too similar!" When mentioning Diao Chan, Lü Bu seemed to recall something.

  After hearing the autumn water, I knew that Lü Bu said it was too much like what it meant. Xiangxiu, Lü Bu has been fantasizing about Diao Chan being Xiangxiu all along. In this world, there is only one place that can prove the existence of a paradise on earth, and apart from Lü Bu himself, there is another person who knows about the existence of that paradise.

  At that time, the Xiongnu people plundered the entire Jiuyuan, leaving only Lü Bu in his hometown, and there was no human trace within a hundred miles.

  At that time, most of the corpses were burned by the Huns and could not be identified. Lü Bu found a young charred corpse in Diao Chan's home and knew she would never play with him again.

  But today, in Wang Yun's mansion, Lü Bu actually saw a girl who looked like Diao Chan, and Lü Bu was stunned at that moment. When Wang Yun saw Lü Bu's expression, he secretly smiled to himself, thinking that his plan had succeeded, and at the time, Wang Yun thought that Lü Bu was enchanted by Diao Chan's beauty.

  Lü Bu suddenly thought of something and hastily said to Qiu Shui: "Younger brother, although Dong Zhuo has treated me well, but I deeply know that Dong Zhuo is wary of me and is always thinking of dividing the large army in my hands. Younger brother, no matter what, please help me protect Diao Chan." After Lü Bu finished speaking about Diao Chan, he hastily stood up and bowed deeply to Qiu Shui.

  "Brother, quickly get up, I will exhaust all my strength." Autumn Water saw that Lü Bu was actually giving such a big gift, and hurriedly helped him up.

  Lü Bu looked at Qiu Shui, who had helped him up, and seemed to be worried. He thought for a moment, gritted his teeth and said: "Younger brother, if you can help me with this matter, I will show my respect to General Cao from now on." After saying that, he surprisingly knelt down on one knee.

  Qiu Shui saw this and quickly pulled Lü Bu back, using both arms to pull him up. Qiu Shui said helplessly: "Brother, Diao Chan is just a substitute for your feelings towards Xiao Qiao, is it worth making such a big sacrifice?"

  Lü Bu's face turned gloomy as he said, "I don't know why either, nor do I know if it's worth it. It's as if there's a voice in the darkness telling me that if I don't do this, I'll regret it for the rest of my life."

  After hearing Lü Bu's answer, Qiu Shui was also speechless. If this matter were to be told to Cao Cao or Liu Bei, they would laugh at the idea of lowering their heads and giving up their careers for a woman. But Lü Bu had encountered such a situation, being a sentimental person who wouldn't abandon those he cared about in his heart for some benefits. Otherwise, Lü Bu wouldn't have died defending Xiapi. If it were just Lü Bu alone, he would have led his soldiers to break out of the siege with ease. However, since his family was in Xiapi, Lü Bu couldn't bear to abandon them, so he ended up dying there.

  So Cao Cao and Liu Bei are heroes of a turbulent era, while Lü Bu is a hero. Heroes have emotions, heroes of a turbulent era do not have emotions.

  After a moment of contemplation, he looked at Lü Bu with a serious face and said: "Brother Fengxian, now we secretly sneak into Wang Yun's mansion, snatch Diao Chan away, only then can we make Wang Yun's plan go to waste."

  Lü Bu heard what Qiu Shui said and knew that this was the only way out, after all there was no other solution.

  After a brief moment, Qiū Shuǐ and Lǚ Bù changed into their night-traveling clothes. As they were about to leave, Qiū Shuǐ instructed Qiū Shùn to pretend that the two of them were still drinking in the mansion, so as not to arouse suspicion. In short, caution is better than regret.

  The bright moonlight poured down on the entire Luoyang, emitting a burst of fireflies. Two black-faced men quietly arrived at Wang Yun's mansion.

  Outside Wang Yun's mansion, the two men looked up at the high wall and jumped over it with ease, their extraordinary skills making the height no obstacle for them.

  At night, all the servants in Wang Yun's mansion had already rested, and the entire mansion was quiet.

  Behind a fake hill, two black-hooded figures were whispering secretly.

  "Brother, do you know which house Diao Chan is in?" Qiu Shui asked with her face covered, only revealing a pair of shiny black eyes staring at Lü Bu.

  Lü Bu heard the words of Qiu Shui, scratched his head awkwardly and said: "This..., when I came to attend the banquet in the main hall, I didn't observe..." Fortunately, Lü Bu's face was covered so he couldn't see the expression on it.

  Qiu Shui was stunned, no way, the mansion is so big, and two people don't know to come and kidnap directly, isn't this a robbery?

  Lü Bu saw Qiū Shuǐ speechless and hastily whispered: "Younger brother, can you help your older brother?"

  After a moment of contemplation, he looked around the mansion and whispered to Lü Bu: "Now that things have come to this point, we should first catch a servant and ask him questions. Otherwise, searching one by one would be like looking for a needle in the ocean. If we alarm the servants in the mansion, all our previous efforts will be wasted."

  Lü Bu heard Autumn Water's words and was overjoyed, saying: "Good, I'll go catch someone and ask them." After speaking, he quietly slipped away towards a house.

  And Qiū Shuǐ raised her head to look at the moonlight in the evening, and her eyes were filled with bloodshot, Qiū Shuǐ felt that after being illuminated by the moonlight, she had a feeling of relaxation all over her body, wanting to let out a loud roar, unfortunately it was not possible now.

  Qiu Shui understood that this was the reason for her being a zombie, and she quickly shook her head to suppress the turmoil in her heart.

  In a moment, a black shadow jumped out of the house and quietly came to Qiushui's side. He whispered in Qiushui's ear: "I've investigated, let's go quickly." After that, he hastily set off.

  Qiu Shui hastily pulled Lu Bu back and asked urgently, "Wait, what about the people inside?" Lu Bu heard this and wiped his neck with his palm, indicating that they had been taken care of.

  Qiu Shui let out a breath of relief after seeing Lü Bu's signal and hastily followed him.

  "How can there be no one? How is that possible?" Lü Bu's eyes were lifeless as he stared at the searched ancient boudoir, muttering to himself, yet there was indeed no one.

  Alas! Looking at Lü Bu in front of him, Qiu Shui slapped his forehead and sighed that this Lü Bu had indeed fallen into a demonic trap. Where was the war god Lü Bu who once dominated the world and regarded all heroes as nothing?

  Qiu Shui walked alone to a dresser in the house, picked up a wooden comb, put it on her nose and smelled it, a refreshing fragrance wafted into her nostrils. Then she went to Lü Bu's side, pulled him and said: "Let's go, I know where Diao Chan has gone, follow me."

  Lü Bu heard Qiu Shui's words and hastily asked: "Really? Is it really?"

  He asked repeatedly, but now Lu Bu has no general's demeanor of a commander-in-chief, and is completely like a helpless little boy.

  "Let's go, if we delay any longer, it will be daylight." After saying that, Qiu Shui and Lü Bu quietly pushed open the door, looked around cautiously, and seeing no one, they quietly slipped out of the house.