Chapter 82: Ten Thousand Miles (10)

“Third Brother!”
Li Kuo exclaimed immediately, striding forward to meet him.
“Third Brother!”
Li Kuo’s lips twitched slightly as he leaned forward, speaking in a trembling voice. Happiness came so suddenly that the young man feared it might be just a dream. He kept staring wide-eyed, afraid the person before him would vanish like a gust of wind.
In Li Kuo’s eyes, that young man must be Li Zigu. He saw Li Zigu shake his head before stepping forward and wrapping his arms around Li Kuo’s neck. “Young Seventh, it’s been so long—we see you’ve grown so tall. I remember when you first joined the army, you kept pestering me to teach you archery. Now you can surely draw a two-stone hard bow with ease, right?”
“Third Brother, all these years in the army, the people I missed the most were you all! How is Mother? Is she still well? And my sister-in-law? Xiao Liu said she just gave birth to a healthy baby boy for you. Is he handsome?”
He asked so many questions in a row, yet Li Zigu didn’t answer any of them.
“Third Brother?”
Li Kuo’s voice trembled as he instinctively frowned. The person before him was clearly his third brother—whose voice and clothing style could anyone else match? Yet something felt off, though he couldn’t pinpoint what.
Li Kuo examined his third brother carefully, from his hair bun to his toes, from his left palm to his right arm. He checked every part of Li Zigu’s body but still couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
Suddenly, the young man’s gaze shifted to Li Zigu’s cheeks, and his face turned pale with shock. Li Zigu’s cheeks were blurred and indistinct—there were no mouth, nose, or eyes, not even a clear outline of the bones.
“Third Brother, wh—how…?”
The young man instinctively stepped back, driven by his instinct to flee danger, and the person before him was clearly that danger.
“You’re not my third brother! Who are you?”
Li Kuo’s right hand tightened around the sword at his waist, ready to draw it at the slightest sign of threat.
“Who I am isn’t important. What matters is why you remembered me.”
The man shook his head lightly and sighed. “If I’m not mistaken, your aunt, Du Jingtian, and other people who are extremely important to you also appear before you.”
Realizing that the man who seemed to be his third brother had guessed everything he was thinking, Li Kuo’s face turned red as he argued, “What does that have to do with you? If you’re not my third brother, then why did you suddenly appear before me?”
He tried to speak clearly, trying to appear confident. But every time he finished speaking, his tone would drag, revealing his nervousness outright.

“Because you’re afraid to face it, afraid to take responsibility!”
The man’s voice suddenly turned harsh as he stepped toward Li Kuo. “The disastrous defeat at Talas—although you weren’t directly responsible, you’ve carried guilt ever since. You believe your shortcomings led to the Tang army’s failure. You think Gao Xianzhi’s decision not to send you to the front lines was the biggest mistake.”
“No, that’s not true. I’ve never blamed General Gao. As the commander-in-chief, he certainly had the right to arrange the troops. As for me, I only had a few thousand men under my command, not including those guarding Suiye City. I feel no guilt, none at all!”
For some reason, the man seemed able to see through his thoughts, uncovering all the secrets buried deep in his heart and exposing them to the moonlight. Who was he? If he wasn’t his third brother, then who was he? Why did he know him so well?
“You feel guilty, that’s why you try to make amends as much as possible. But you didn’t expect Gao Xianzhi to be so incompetent, so obsessed with women that he neglected reorganizing the scattered troops. Your efforts went to waste, which is why you’re so angry and why you think of us.”
“Ah!”
Li Kuo felt as if he’d been stripped bare and exposed in public. The young man couldn’t help but cry out, shrinking his neck and looking around, but no one seemed to notice him.
“First you thought of A Tian, then your aunt, and then me. If you can’t get over your guilt, next you’ll think of Captain Sun, Secretary Gao, and everyone else who’s ever taken care of you. You’re afraid, afraid to take responsibility on your own. Only cowards seek protection from others. To put it plainly, you’re still a child, a child who never grows up!”
The man’s voice was icy, devoid of any emotion. The young man felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him, making him shiver all over.
“You’re lying! I’m not a coward. I led my men to capture Suiye City and quell the chaos among the Turkic tribes. After receiving General Gao’s request for help, I rushed to Talas without delay—my men can testify to that. It’s not my fault; by the time I arrived, the battle was already over…”
Li Kuo’s voice grew weaker and weaker, until it was barely audible. But the man wasn’t done with him; he struck a spark in a pile of dry wood.
“Oh? So you say it doesn’t matter to you? Then why do you still think of me, your family?”
“Who said it doesn’t matter? I’m a soldier of the Tang Dynasty. Blood debts must be paid with blood! One day, I’ll make those Arabs pay the price!”

Li Kuo clenched his fists and swung them vigorously.
“That’s it.”
The man sighed and said, “Whether I’m your third brother or not, whether I can help you or not—none of that matters. What matters is how you view this matter, whether you have the courage to face it head-on!”
After a brief pause, the man suddenly smiled and said, “Young Seventh, do you still remember climbing that locust tree in our old house in Chongren Fang when you were eight? It’s funny—back then, just to show off, you climbed that tree several people tall to retrieve a kitesurf lost on a branch for your seventeenth sister. In the end, you got the kitesurf but fell and fainted for two days and two nights. Later, your uncle, despite the pain in his heart, punished you severely according to our family rules. You were too injured to get out of bed for over ten days.”
Li Kuo grew even more confused. Could this man really be his third brother? How could he know such secret things?
“Do you remember what question I asked you back then?”
Folds suddenly appeared on the man’s usually smooth cheeks, as if waiting for the boy’s answer.
“Yes, what was it?”
“Why do we fall?”
The man spread his hands and spoke slowly.
“What did you answer back then?”
“Because we have to, to learn to get up?”
Li Kuo’s voice trembled slightly. Vague memories from his childhood seemed to resurface, pounding against the shores of his memory.
“Young Seventh, you’ve never been a coward. I wasn’t wrong about you.”
The man nodded and spoke slowly.
“Third brother, is it really you? Really you! Don’t leave, don’t leave!”
At this point, Li Kuo was completely certain that the man before him was Li Zigu. He had never desired so much for his third brother to stay by his side as he did now. His third brother had joined the army early, had extensive experience, and was shrewd. With him by his side to offer advice, he would feel much more secure.
“Since you’ve found the answer, I no longer need to be here.”
Li Zigu shook his head and turned to leave without hesitation.