Gu Yun admitted that this was his error. If he could possess half the amount of calmness he had today, he would understand whether he should have collected these things and waited for the right time, pushing them out and rebelling already, or if he should have destroyed all that had gone by, buried them in the past and never let them see the light again.

Thousands of mistakes, he should not have hesitated where he should have been decisive.

Much like Emperor Yuan He, if the old man did not hesitate, there would never have existed a Gu Yun, perhaps the world could have had another kind of peace.

Gu Yun did not know what would happen in the future, nor did he know whether Chang Geng who had just entered the world could truly be able to stabilize the hearts of the military forces on all sides. However, he was currently in prison, it was useless to worry, he first had to relax and regain his strength.

Later, the mouse found that this man’s itchy hands were too annoying. He was troublesome, but it was also unable to escape, thus it promptly played dead and no longer paid attention to him.

The little Marquis that was hated by dogs and cats had to idly lean against the wall. He felt that the attitude of this mouse was similar to that of Chang Geng when he was young.

Gu Yun started to think of Chang Geng, then he could not help but sigh, complaining to the mouse: "I’d rather that he dislikes me for bothering him every day like in his childhood."

The mouse gave him a very round butt in response.

Gu Yun took a deep breath and forcefully kicked out this last bit of thought. Not picking and choosing, he pulled the moldy rug on the haystack, laid it on his body, and closed his eyes to rest.

Only with good spirits could one face a difficult future.

No one could bother this half-deaf in the prison. Gu Yun soon fell asleep; he had a dream amongst the cold musty smell.

Gu Yun dreamed he was lying on his back under a giant butcher knife, the heavy blade pressed on his chest, bit by bit cutting through the skin and flesh into his bones, breaking him alive in two halves, disconnecting his body from all his limbs. Only the wound across his chest ached incredibly. In his ears lingered the noises of crying, gunfire, and howling, combined with the intermittent sound of hu jia*, off-toned and vague, like a spider web…

*a type of musical instrument like a flute

He was split by the knife, but there was no blood in the wound. Instead, a signal arrow fell out and surged to the sky with an ear-piercing noise, exploding and shaking the nation.

Gu Yun woke up with a muffled groan. The old wound on his chest ached inexplicably. The piercing sound of the signal arrow in his dream continued to echo in his ears, forming into a strange type of tinnitus.