After resting for a night, when Meng Ruji woke up in the morning, she felt something scratching at her wrist.

Looking down, she discovered that the flower bracelet from yesterday’s “wedding” was still on her hand. Now the petals had withered and fallen off, leaving only bare branches twisted into a circle around her wrist.

Meng Ruji raised her hand to pull off these dead branches, but she never expected that when she tried to break the dried branches, they would emit a strange glow…

It wouldn’t break?

Who cast magic on it?

Meng Ruji was somewhat dazed. She looked up at Mu Sui beside her and saw him standing next to her, arranging his clothes. On Mu Sui’s left wrist was the same circle of dead branches as Meng Ruji’s.

“You.” Meng Ruji called out. “Did you do something to my flower bracelet?”

Mu Sui arranged his sleeves, glancing sideways at Meng Ruji with an indifferent tone: “Isn’t this the wedding gift Madam gave to your husband? Naturally, it must be well preserved.”

The familiar sarcasm was still irritating. Meng Ruji smiled without warmth and confronted him: “Wedding gifts are worn during the wedding. Hurry up and take it off for me.”

“Can’t take it off.”

“Why?”

“Because magic has already been used.”

“Then undo it!”

“This magic cannot be undone.”

Meng Ruji’s face darkened. She also stood up, staring at Mu Sui: “What do you mean?”

Mu Sui’s expression remained calm: “Literal meaning. The wedding gift you gave me, I cast magic on it. Neither you nor I can take it off.”

Meng Ruji looked at Mu Sui, thinking for a moment: “You don’t do meaningless things. Give me a reason and I won’t bother arguing with you.”

Mu Sui raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. He looked at Meng Ruji and said in a low voice: “Zhuliu City has changed. We need to go to the surrounding villages, but the situation is uncertain. Tuzi and I can’t show ourselves directly.”

Meng Ruji guessed: “Need me to scout first?”

Mu Sui nodded: “This magic allows me to know your location and contact you. If something happens to you, I can also arrive immediately.”

Hearing this, Meng Ruji let out a scoff and patted the money pouch at her waist: “I have money. What could happen to me? Since you won’t agree to divorce, we’re grasshoppers on the same rope. Your position as Zhuliu City lord concerns my life-saving money. I accept this bracelet. It’s just…”

Meng Ruji raised her hand, pulled off some small thorns that were scratching her skin, then used the thorns to prick the back of Mu Sui’s hand.

It didn’t hurt, just tickled a bit. It was somewhat presumptuous, yet also… made Mu Sui think Meng Ruji was… somewhat…

Cute…

Inexplicably…

Mu Sui looked at Meng Ruji, and Meng Ruji also looked up at him: “When you cast the spell, couldn’t you help me remove the thorns? Don’t they prick your hand?”

He didn’t feel them pricking.

His wrist skin had long since become immune to harm from such light thorns, but now, with Meng Ruji’s reminder, he did feel that circle on his wrist beginning to itch.

Mu Sui raised his hand to grip the branches on his wrist, rubbing left and right. The skin between his wrist and palm immediately turned red from the friction, but all the small thorns on the branches were rubbed off.

Meng Ruji watched and drew in a sharp breath, then heard Mu Sui ask her: “Does Madam need your husband’s help?”

“No need, take care of yourself.” Meng Ruji began pulling thorns from the branches herself. With each one she pulled, Mu Sui watched and felt the skin on his hand that she had pricked earlier begin to itch.

Mu Sui turned away, straightened his already neat collar, and stepped forward to leave. But Meng Ruji called out to stop him: “Wait.” She turned to ask Mu Sui, “You used the money Miaomiao left me for the spell, didn’t you?”

Facing the questioning, Mu Sui remained composed: “Gift money is shared between husband and wife. I used it—so what?”

“Nothing.” Meng Ruji pursed her lips. “You can use it, but the money stays with me. It’s not that I don’t want to let you use it—I’m mainly afraid you’ll spend it recklessly.” She said this while examining his sleeves and belt for places where silver could be hidden. “You returned it, right?”

Very exasperating words. He shouldn’t have answered, but he still spread his arms, looked at Meng Ruji, and spoke: “Want to search me?”

Meng Ruji let out a scoff: “If it weren’t you saying this, I’d suspect you were trying to take advantage of me.” She looked down and counted the money in the pouch. “The main amount is here. If you’ve hidden some private money, just keep it hidden. I’m not that petty.”

After speaking, in the distance, Tuzi, pulling a wooden cart, and Ye Chuan, who had found fruit, both returned.

Meng Ruji waved: “Let’s eat while walking on the road.”

Mu Sui watched Meng Ruji’s retreating figure, scratched the back of his hand, and stepped forward to follow.

The four set off again.

Following Mu Sui, they came to a village beside Zhuliu City. Though called a village, its scale was comparable to the town where Meng Ruji had worked when she first arrived at the Land of No Return.

At the village outskirts, Tuzi and Mu Sui, afraid of being recognized, had already put on hats and face coverings, blocking as much of their faces as possible.

To cooperate with them, Meng Ruji and Ye Chuan also quietly put on hats. But the closer they got to the village, the more they sensed something was wrong.

On the road leading to the village, there were few people and few carriages. The village ahead was also very quiet, almost as if uninhabited.

Walking to an appropriate distance, Meng Ruji proactively called for everyone to stop, then said to Mu Sui, “Ahead, we’ll scout first. You wait here. If anything happens, use your magic to contact me.”

Mu Sui nodded. He thought Meng Ruji was about to leave, but she turned and took two pieces of silver from her money pouch, placing them in Mu Sui’s hands: “I’ll leave you more private money. If you’re discovered, just run first.”

Mu Sui was startled. The moment Meng Ruji withdrew her hand, his fingertips tightened, grasping Meng Ruji’s hand.

This grip made Meng Ruji want to laugh: “Husband, there’s no need to be so affectionate. I also have the little green pills Miaomiao left with me. It’s foolproof. Rest assured.” She broke free from Mu Sui’s hand, patted his palm, then turned to leave with Ye Chuan.

Mu Sui watched Meng Ruji’s figure walk away. Beside him, Tuzi hesitated several times before finally saying: “City Lord, are you really… toward this bad woman…”

Mu Sui turned his head, glancing at Tuzi indifferently.

Tuzi was startled and immediately bowed in acknowledgment: “I overstepped! I shouldn’t have asked! City Lord, please don’t punish me!”

After apologizing for a while without hearing any sound, Tuzi secretly looked up and saw Mu Sui gazing in the direction Meng Ruji had left, answering: “She’s not bad.”

Tuzi: “Huh?”

Not angry about the overstepping, but angry about calling her a bad woman?

City Lord…

Tuzi’s heart tightened, tiger eyes welling with tears as she stared at Mu Sui, feeling distressed: “City Lord, you’re confused!”

Mu Sui looked at Tuzi with disgust again: “Stop saying meaningless things. Wipe your tears and follow me to look around.”

“Oh… but… aren’t we supposed to keep a low profile? What if someone runs into us and we’re exposed?”

“No need to worry about people.” Mu Sui held the two pieces of silver in his hand, with a formation of light spinning on the silver. “There’s no one here, but the atmosphere is wrong.”

Tuzi was startled, nodded, and immediately followed with a serious expression.

Meng Ruji and Ye Chuan walked on the village’s main street. It was clear this street normally had many merchants. But today it looked empty and desolate.

On both sides of the street, every household had tightly closed doors and windows. Only one decent-looking inn had its door slightly ajar. Meng Ruji knocked on the door and pushed it open directly.

Who knew this action would terrify the owner inside: “No money left! No money left! Masters, please don’t rob us anymore!”

“I’m not here to rob you.”

Meng Ruji spoke. The owner inside, seeing the visitor was a young woman with another simple-looking servant, breathed a sigh of relief: “What’s wrong with you two? How dare you still walk toward Zhuliu City? We’re all planning to find time to run away.”

Meng Ruji inquired: “Why? Is it because of the new city lord in Zhuliu City? Has he extorted your money to this extent? In just a few days?”

The owner sighed heavily: “Yes, just a few days… Every day, there are guards from Zhuliu City coming to rob our money… If we don’t give it, they beat us… Sigh, they never used to be like this. Now, for some reason, one by one, they’re fierce and terrifying… If I had known Zhuliu City would become like this after Qianshan Jun left, I should have moved immediately after Qianshan Jun departed…”

Listening to the owner’s rambling, Meng Ruji found it strange: “When Qianshan Jun was here, Zhuliu City established rules, and the soldiers below were all good. Why did they all change their nature when the city lord changed? Didn’t anyone oppose the new city lord?”

The owner shook his head: “I don’t know. I only occasionally see strange auras floating around them, but I don’t dare look too closely. We’re still better off being outside Zhuliu City. Now we don’t even know what the situation inside the city is like.”

Hearing this, Meng Ruji exchanged glances with Ye Chuan beside her: “Changed nature with strange auras—that sounds familiar to me.”

Ye Chuan also became serious and continued asking: “May I ask one more thing—have you seen the new city lord? What does he look like?”

The owner shook his head: “Never seen him, but… I seem to have heard his name…”

As the owner pondered, outside the inn, a breeze slowly blew in, mixed with a trace of black aura. Meng Ruji immediately sensed something was wrong acutely. She turned to look behind her…

On the other side, outside the village, no one could be seen across the fields. The farmland was still growing luxuriantly, showing that someone had been carefully tending it recently.

Mu Sui surveyed the area, the formation supported by the silver in his hand continuously emitting light. Suddenly, Mu Sui’s eyes moved as he looked toward the other end of the farmland. In the distance, a raggedly dressed man suddenly jumped out from the field: “City Lord!”

He shouted.

Tuzi, standing behind Mu Sui, was also startled: “Ah! Chensha!”

“Everyone, be quiet.” Mu Sui commanded, and both fell silent.

Chensha ran over frantically, very excitedly, kneeling on one knee and bowing: “This subordinate failed in his duties! Please punish me, City Lord!”

“Don’t say useless things.” Mu Sui said. “After Tuzi left Zhuliu City, what exactly happened in the city?”

Hearing Mu Sui’s voice, cold sweat had already broken out on Chensha’s body. After Mu Sui paid a thousand gold to leave the Land of No Return, Chensha hadn’t felt this kind of oppressive presence for a long time.

Chensha answered with difficulty: “That day… the City Lord ordered me to use one gold to sever the Marriage Tree’s connection to the outside world. When I was handling the matter, Tuzi…” Chensha glanced at Tuzi.

Tuzi immediately hung her head and knelt on the ground with a “thud”: “City Lord, I’ve known I was wrong for a long time.”

“Continue.”

“Yes… After Tuzi left, I… I saw your name appear on the Marriage Tree with another woman’s name. Although this one gold blocked some of your marriage connection, making the traces very faint, they were still there… This subordinate was extremely annoyed and regretful, so he tried his best to dig off the names on the tree, but just then…

“A person I had never seen, carrying a black aura around him, ambushed me and snatched away the Golden Staff… I fought with him but was completely outmatched, and nearly killed by him… I had no choice but to flee and have been lurking outside the city, waiting for the City Lord’s return, and now!”

Chensha raised his head, two streams of tears clearly showing the hardships he had endured during this time.

“I finally waited for you!”

But Mu Sui was not affected by the varied emotions in his eyes at all. His expression remained icy cold, and his voice carried even more killing intent: “What is the newcomer’s name?”

Chensha thought: “It seems… his name is Zhan Ye.”

Mu Sui was slightly startled, then narrowed his eyes: “Zhan Ye?”

“Bang!” A loud crash. Turning around, Meng Ruji suddenly saw Ye Chuan beside her, his figure like a fallen leaf, blown aside by strong wind and slammed hard into a table in the inn!

Meng Ruji’s hand instinctively reached into her money pouch, preparing to form an array with silver to fight the enemy. But in the next instant, her wrist was grasped by an extremely pale hand.

“Meng Ruji.”

At that moment, Meng Ruji heard a voice she would still hear in nightmares.

“Long time no see.”

Meng Ruji looked at the person before her, her clenched jaw almost making a “grinding” sound.

“Zhan Ye…”