Something stirred within Zu An. He quickly asked, “When will the meeting be held tomorrow?”

“It should be after the morning court finishes, I reckon. First, they’ll have a routine conversation about the nation’s military affairs, and their final topic will be you,” Sang Hong said with a deep sigh. No matter how resourceful he was, he was still at his wits’ end.

Zu An calculated some things, then said, “Respected uncle, please help me stall for some time. I might be able to rush back.”

Sang Hong was shocked. He replied, “It would take at least a few months to return to Cloudcenter Commandery if you were fast, and otherwise, it might even take half a year. How could you possibly return that easily?”

He had learned from their previous call that there was a shortcut tunnel in the Cloudcenter mines. But after the earthquake, the entire mine had already collapsed. Cloudcenter’s government had been focused on cleaning up the mines the entire time. It was only because the...