Tang Dynasty: Starting at Xuanwu Gate, this prince is better off not being one.

"It's just losing a duel! Victory and defeat are common occurrences in war."

Li Yu secretly smiled to himself, but on the surface, he pretended to comfort Cheng Chumo.

"How shameful!"

Cheng Chumo shook his head self-deprecatingly: "Tell me, if my brother loses to a kid four years younger than him, doesn't all the suffering he's endured over the years have been for nothing?"

"Bullshit! What's the point of winning or losing?"

Li Yu pointed northwest and asked Cheng Chumo, "Who do you think is more skilled, Xue Ju, the Hegemon-King of Western Qin, or the current King of Qin?"

Cheng Chumo was stunned for a moment, not understanding why Li Yu asked such a question. After thinking for a while, he said, "In terms of skill alone, Xue Ju is better..."

"Then let me ask you, who was the last one to go to see the King of Hell?"

"Naturally, it's Xue Ju too..."

"Isn't that enough?"

Li Yu sipped his tea and said, "Since Xue Ju was so skilled, even the King of Qin was no match for him, so why did he ultimately lose to the King of Qin?"

"That's because Xue Ju died on the way to conquer Chang'an..." Cheng Chumo curled his lips, looking incredibly audacious.

"Hey? You've got some nerve! If your dad heard you say that, he'd break your legs!"

"A discount is fine, it saves him from always saying I'm annoying him by hanging around in front of him. Anyway, there's always Chu Liang to inherit his worthless title..."

That's an absolutely despicable thing to say.

"You coward! You've lost all your manly spirit!"

Li Yu demanded angrily, "Does that mean that just because you, Cheng Chumo, were defeated once, your life is over?"

"Even a fool would fight back after being hit, but you just gave up like that. As your brother, I'm ashamed for you!"

Hearing Li Yu's sarcasm, Cheng Chumo said, feeling very aggrieved, "I... I can't beat him, what can I do to fight back?"

"Are you stupid!"

Li Yu looked around and, seeing no sign of Wenren An nearby, said, "What does Wenren An have besides his martial arts skills? He doesn't even know anything about military strategy!"

"So what?" Cheng Chumo still felt wronged.

"Didn't I tell you before? When the King of Qin conquered the world, there were countless people more skilled than him, but in the end, they all had their heads chopped off, didn't they?"

"And then there's Xiang Yu of Chu, whose strength could uproot mountains and whose courage was unmatched in his time. Yet, in the end, wasn't he still forced to commit suicide by Liu Bang?"

Li Yu's logical analysis left Cheng Chumo stunned, his eyes beginning to look bewildered.

Seeing Cheng Chumo's expression, Li Yu finally felt relieved.

That's exactly the kind of person he wanted, so he continued to analyze for Cheng Chumo: "Some people are highly skilled in martial arts, but they just can't beat someone who knows how to use troops. Why? Because their vision is only focused on their opponent and themselves, while a master strategist's vision is focused on controlling the overall situation. Such a person is also called a commander-in-chief."

"Like the King of Qin, Li Jing, and your father—all those commanders-in-chief—weren't they all experts in warfare? Did they just blindly charge forward in battle?"

After spouting off a bunch of grand principles, Li Yu felt his mouth was dry, so he took a sip of tea and revealed his ultimate goal: "Your most urgent task is to quickly learn military strategy so you can accumulate military merits on the battlefield. Don't whine to me here!"

"Study military strategy? But I can't understand military books, what should I do?" Cheng Chumo was a little anxious.

"Learn to read first! You're only fourteen at most, it's never too late to learn anything." Worried that Cheng Chumo might only have a fleeting enthusiasm, Li Yu added, "What Wenren An learned in two or three months, you can't learn in six months?"

"Learn! I'll go learn right now!"

"..."

After seeing Cheng Chumo off, Li Yu slumped wearily onto the stone table.

"Learn characters! Learn characters! Learn characters my ass! I can't even recognize all the characters I own!"

However, Li Yu was quite fortunate. Fortunately, he had learned most of the traditional Chinese characters in his previous life. Although there were some differences between the characters now and the traditional characters of later generations, they were still largely the same.

Unfortunately, I can only recognize the characters; when it comes to writing, I'm completely clueless...

.........

The sky grew darker and darker, just like Li Yu's consciousness, as if he were about to fall into darkness at any moment.

His vision grew increasingly blurry, and in the dim light, Li Yu seemed to see the oil lamp in the room light up, followed by the sound of the door closing.

He wanted to get up and walk back to the house, but his exhausted body didn't have the strength to get up at all.

While still debating whether to just fall asleep, the next moment, I felt something being draped over me.

Gradually, as his whole body began to warm up, an overwhelming drowsiness washed over Li Yu, and his vision gradually darkened...

In his dream, Li Yu seemed to see his whole family waving to him.

There is a father, a mother, and a younger sister who has just started middle school.

When was this again? It seems to be my first winter break when I started university...

.........

After searching around for her young master without success, Green Robe returned to the courtyard, where she happened to see Li Yu lying on the stone table.

They dared not disturb their young master's peaceful sleep.

So after lighting all the oil lamps in the room, Green Robe tiptoed to Li Yu's side and carefully draped the fur coat over her young master.

Seeing that his young master seemed to feel the warmth, he sat down with peace of mind and waited for Li Yu to wake up.

The dim light coming from the room illuminated Li Yu's face clearly, and seeing him sleeping so soundly filled Green Robe with immense joy.

Recalling her mother's surprised yet joyful expression when she saw her, Green Robe felt a warm current surge through her heart.

Even her father, who had never shed a tear, immediately had tears in his eyes when he saw her follow Steward Chen into the courtyard.

My younger brother has really grown up a lot! I guess in a few more years it will be time to find someone to arrange a marriage for him. I wonder if ten strings of cash will be enough.

No, no! Ten strings of cash should last them a long time! After all, my monthly salary is only two hundred coins.

The young master's reward is too generous! She believes that Li Yu is definitely the best person she has ever met.

So the thought that the young master must be without anyone to serve him filled her with immense worry. Therefore, after only three days at home, she hurriedly returned to the Prince's mansion with Steward Chen.

Sure enough, their young master was sleeping outside and no one was taking care of him. Poor thing!

Looking at his young master's face again, although he had lost some weight, he looked very pleasing.

To be able to serve such a handsome young man, I don't know what good fortune I have accumulated in my past life!

Green-clad secretly vowed that she would serve the young master for the rest of her life, and that no one could drive her away unless the young master abandoned her!

Staring at Li Yu's face for a long time, Green Robe felt her cheeks burning. So she looked away from Li Yu's face.

After the temperature finally dropped, she couldn't help but look over again.

"Huh!"

The woman in green was somewhat surprised.

This time, she actually saw a tear slowly slide down the young master's cheek, glistening in the lamplight...

.........