What did it mean to be treated as a prisoner? Naturally, it meant wearing prison clothes and being bound in shackles.

According to the Great Zhou legal code, officials of the seventh rank and above in the civil or military service would be chained but not cangued. Thus, Cui Xun was spared the wooden collar, but the iron shackles on his hands and feet and prison clothes were unavoidable. The Cui residence was surrounded so tightly that not even a fly could get in, and the mute servant had also been driven away—after all, prisoners did not need servants.

But Lu Huai never expected that there was still one “person” who had not left the Cui residence.

He coldly regarded Cui Xun, who wore white hemp prison clothes with heavy chains on his hands and feet. How strange—this man had fallen so low, yet he disdained to utter a single word of plea. At this moment, he didn’t resemble a court favorite, but rather appeared like a noble scion of an aristocratic family—aloof and proud, like a crane standing in the world. Seeing this, Lu Huai sneered inwardly. What a petty man, always putting on airs.

He said irritably, “Cui Xun, the Empress Dowager has graciously allowed you to be confined here rather than in the Dali Temple prison, but don’t get cocky. You won’t be able to take half a step outside this residence, much less send messages asking for help.”

Despite his lengthy speech, Cui Xun acted as if he hadn’t heard a word. With his hands and feet in heavy chains, he couldn’t sit properly and could only cross his legs before the zitan wood table. His expression remained extremely cold, and he didn’t even bother to look at Lu Huai. Lu Huai felt foolish, but still emphasized, “The Empress Dowager said confining you in the Dali Temple would cost you your life. Let me tell you, I, Lu Huai, won’t do something as despicable as taking personal revenge under the guise of public duty. I will take your life fair and square!”

With that, he snorted and swept out of the room. After he left, the vermilion wooden doors of the Cui residence closed with a creak, and the sound of chains being locked could faintly be heard outside. Only when all human sounds had faded did Cui Xun finally raise his eyes slightly to look at Li Ying, whose eyes were already rimmed with red.

Li Ying had no idea why this had happened. Everything had been fine when he left in the morning—he had even promised to buy her sweet cakes from Fumantang. How had he returned as a serious criminal awaiting punishment? Why had things turned out this way?

She stared at the black iron shackles on Cui Xun’s bony wrists. The shackles were so heavy that his wrists rested on his knees. Perhaps noticing her stare, he tugged at his prison clothes, trying to hide the shackles, but how could they be hidden? Li Ying bit her lip as a tear dropped onto the zitan table. “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t modified the iron-framed bow, Jin Ni wouldn’t have seen it, and he wouldn’t have come up with this vicious scheme to harm you!”

More and more teardrops fell onto the zitan table. Cui Xun’s fingers twitched slightly. He suddenly felt a strong urge to wipe away her tears. She was such a good person—she shouldn’t be sad for him. But when he raised his hands, the clanking of the chains brought him instantly back to reality.

He pressed his lips together and tried to make his voice as gentle as possible. “It’s not your fault.”

“But if I hadn’t modified the iron-framed bow…”

“When one wishes to condemn someone, pretexts are never lacking. Without the bow, there would have been something else.”

The calmer his expression became, the more distressed Li Ying felt. She murmured, “Jin Ni had no grievance against you. Why would he harm you like this?” Suddenly, a thought struck her. “Is he acting under someone’s orders?”

Cui Xun nodded slightly. Li Ying continued, “Pei Guanyue? It’s Pei Guanyue, isn’t it?”

Cui Xun didn’t answer, but Li Ying already knew the truth. She felt an inexplicable anger. “Why won’t he leave you alone?”

“No,” Cui Xun said quietly. “It is I who will not leave him alone.”

Li Ying was momentarily stunned, but quickly understood. Although Cui Xun had never told her exactly what evil Pei Guanyue had done, from Sheng Yunting’s death to the things Cui Xun had revealed in extreme distress when Cui Songqing first came to the Cui residence, along with Pei Guanyue’s determination to see Cui Xun die in the Dali Temple, Li Ying could guess that Pei Guanyue must be connected to the injustice suffered by the Tianwei Army.

For three years, Cui Xun had relentlessly pursued the Tianwei Army case, and Pei Guanyue, to protect himself, would certainly want him dead. Between them lay a blood feud that could only end with death.

Now that Pei Guanyue’s wife Wang Ranxi had been silenced by him, his ally Shen Que had been exiled, and most of his associates had been dealt with, Pei Guanyue, like a cornered dog ready to jump over a wall, had instructed Jin Ni to frame Cui Xun.

If his treacherous plan succeeded, Cui Xun would certainly die.

Li Ying’s heart was filled with overwhelming fear. She said to Cui Xun, “You never surrendered to the Turks, and you would never kill Guo Qinwei. This is a frame-up! Cui Xun, you’ll be alright, won’t you?”

In truth, Cui Xun was no immortal—he was just a solitary traveler surrounded by hostility and covered in infamy. He didn’t know if he would be alright, but seeing Li Ying’s anxious expression, he nodded slightly and made a sound of affirmation.

How could Li Ying not understand? She felt lost and anxious, desperately thinking of solutions. “Why not ask Lu Huai to investigate in the Turkish territories? He seems straightforward enough. He would surely clear your name.”

Cui Xun looked at her and softly uttered four words: “The damage is irreversible.”

Setting aside the fact that Lu Huai was Lu Yumin’s nephew and would never agree to investigate in Turkish territories, the current Turkish Khagan, Sutai, had seized power by killing his brother, using Cui Xun as his instrument. If given a choice, he would certainly prefer Cui Xun dead rather than alive. Who knew if going to the Turks would only add more injustice to Cui Xun’s case? Moreover, Cui Xun had been trapped in Turkish territories for two years and in the Dali Temple prison for one year. In these three years, his infamy had spread to every corner of the world. With his reputation already destroyed, overturning the case would be extremely difficult.

That’s why Cui Xun said the damage was irreversible.

Li Ying was always perceptive. After a moment’s thought, she understood the complexity of the situation. Her eyes filled with tears of frustration. “So we can only wait for death?”

Cui Xun gazed at her silently. He would rather die than involve her, but seeing her tears streaming down, he felt an inexplicable pain in his heart. He wondered, if he died, would she be even more devastated?

Cui Xun didn’t know.

So he opened his mouth to say something, but ultimately remained silent.

Yet Li Ying saw a glimmer of hope in his silence. She urged desperately, “You have a way, don’t you? You must have a solution, right?”

As she spoke, a tiny teardrop clung to the tip of her long eyelashes, like a shimmering pearl about to fall. Cui Xun, watching that precarious pearl, said involuntarily, “Perhaps… spending a month to retrieve General Guo’s head from the Turks…”

He suddenly paused. As he spoke those last four words, his eyes grew hot, and his knuckles turned white from clenching. The head of his former general, severed at the Battle of Luoyan Ridge by the Turks and paraded through their army, was his most unspeakable pain. Afterward, General Guo’s head had disappeared. When he became the Junior Minister of the Investigation Department, he sent people to search for it in Turkish territories, but unlike the Great Zhou, the journey was far, the language barrier was significant, Khagan Sutai was cunning and shrewd, and the spymaster Jin Ni provided assistance. The few spies he sent never returned, so to this day, the whereabouts of General Guo’s head remains unknown.

A soft “Cui Xun” from Li Ying brought him back to his senses. Looking into her liquid eyes, the pain in his heart gradually subsided. He steadied himself and continued, “Spending a month to retrieve General Guo’s head from the Turks is probably not within Pei Guanyue’s plan.”

“Why do you say that?”

“A month is too long. If I were Pei Guanyue, I would certainly hope to deliver a fatal blow, rather than give my enemy a month to turn the tables.”

“What do you mean?”

“Pei Guanyue’s plan must have encountered some unexpected changes. I suspect that going to the Turks to retrieve General Guo’s head was Jin Ni’s strategy—partly to buy himself time to survive, and partly to allow Pei Guanyue to tamper with evidence.”

Li Ying thought for a moment and understood. In this month, Pei Guanyue could manipulate evidence to solidify Cui Xun’s crimes, but at the same time, a month was also enough for Cui Xun to strike back and clear his name.

Crisis was also an opportunity.

Li Ying let out a long breath. Her furrowed brows finally relaxed a little, and her lips curved into a bitter smile. “Thank goodness we have a month.”

But then she murmured, “But you’re confined here, unable to send any messages out. How can you strike back…?”

Suddenly, something occurred to her. She looked up at Cui Xun. “Cui Xun, let me help you, please?”

Without waiting for his answer, she continued, “This is the third time I’m asking to help you. You refused me the first two times. If you refuse me again this time, I won’t care about you anymore, but you must also stop investigating my case. Let me remain a wandering ghost forever, and in the years to come, have nothing more to do with you.”

Though her voice was soft, her words were firm. She had never spoken to him so ruthlessly before, and Cui Xun was stunned. Li Ying suddenly smiled. “Cui Xun, I’m serious. Will you accept or refuse my help? The choice is yours.”

She was truly asking him earnestly. Cui Xun knew that although she appeared delicate, she was extremely stubborn at heart. She would indeed do as she said. And how could he bear to let her remain a wandering ghost forever? After a long moment, Cui Xun finally replied in a daze, “I… accept.”

Li Ying finally breathed a sigh of relief. Her tense nerves relaxed at this moment. She blinked, and the tiny teardrops clinging to her long eyelashes fell. She should have been happy, but somehow she felt more like crying. She bit her lip and untied the white gauze handkerchief from her wrist. The handkerchief was woven from silk, as soft as clouds. Li Ying had intended to use it to wipe away her tears, but instead, she pinched one corner of the handkerchief, hesitated, and then forcefully tore the white gauze into four pieces.

After tearing the handkerchief, she rose and walked to Cui Xun, kneeling before him. With her head lowered, she looked at his wrists resting on his knees, the black iron shackles particularly jarring. She pressed her lips together and took hold of one of his wrists.

Cui Xun seemed momentarily startled. With the sound of clanking chains, he instinctively tried to withdraw his wrist from her hand, but Li Ying said, “Don’t move.”

Though he was the feared, harsh official that everyone dreaded, when he heard these two words from her, he truly stopped moving. Li Ying held his wrist. Fortunately, Lu Huai hadn’t been too cruel to him, and his wrists were so thin that they were almost just bone and skin. The shackles weren’t locked too tightly and had some room to move. Li Ying pushed the shackles up slightly and saw that the skin on his wrist had been rubbed red.

Li Ying lowered her gaze, took a piece of the handkerchief, and carefully wrapped it around his wrist. She said, “Today’s emergency forced me to improvise with this.”

Cui Xun lowered his head, looking at the white handkerchief tied around his wrist. The handkerchief seemed to still carry her faint fragrance. He couldn’t help saying, “This… is quite nice.”

Li Ying smiled gently. She carefully wrapped the other piece of handkerchief around his other wrist. As she tied the knot, she suddenly said softly, “Cui Xun, from now on, you don’t have to fight alone anymore. I will be with you.”

She looked peaceful and beautiful as she lowered her eyes to tie the handkerchief. Cui Xun gazed steadily at her layered, wing-like eyelashes and quietly replied, “Mm.”