Qin Yining brought Bingtang and Ji Yun as they hurried toward the front.

Bingtang said in a low voice, “Princess Consort, I think this family are honest people. It should be safe to stay here temporarily.”

“Mm, at least we don’t need to worry about them causing trouble from within.” Qin Yining said quietly, “It’s just that the situation outside is too chaotic. I’m worried problems will arise.”

Ji Yun said, “The prince has already ordered the Jinghu Guard and the four of them including Jingzhe to set up defenses, and Huzi has also gone to the streets to look around and check the situation. The Longxiang Army men are all by the prince’s side now, so we should be able to handle some unexpected situations.”

“That’s good, but the situation is still not optimistic. The common people don’t yet know that the prince is serving as disaster relief commissioner. Once they learn that the disaster relief commissioner didn’t bring relief grain with him, it won’t be as peaceful as it is now.”

Ji Yun nodded gravely upon hearing this, and Bingtang said helplessly in a low voice, “All crows under heaven are equally black. The common people are always the unluckiest.”

Qin Yining sighed.

Although Li Qitian had previously schemed against Pang Xiao, he hadn’t been so confused about major principles of right and wrong.

However, in this matter of the treasure, Li Qitian had become red-eyed with greed, doing everything with the treasure as his priority.

It was no wonder that treasure was so enormously valuable. She had heard Pang Xiao secretly mention that among those treasures, only a few chests contained silver—the rest were filled with gold, precious stones, and one chest of antique calligraphy and paintings worth a fortune. If all converted to silver, it would amount to more than seven million taels.

The annual military expenses for the Longxiang Army and Huben Army—feeding men and horses—was already an enormous sum, and that money would be enough to support both armies’ expenses for five years with some left over. It would be enough to solve Li Qitian’s urgent needs.

Truly, wealth moves people’s hearts. Before such a huge sum, Li Qitian had also lost his principles.

But it was also his fault for being so suspicious. If he hadn’t suspected Pang Xiao from the beginning and had let Pang Xiao handle everything freely, how could things have developed to this point?

When Qin Yining arrived at the office in the front courtyard, she only saw Pang Xiao and not Gong You.

“Where is Lord Gong?”

“Lord Gong took people out to patrol the city.” Pang Xiao pulled Qin Yining over and stuffed a rolled-up paper slip into her hands, indicating she should look at it.

Qin Yining unrolled the paper slip and read it carefully, then couldn’t help but look up with some surprise.

Although the content on the paper slip was simple, it contained an enormous amount of information.

This was Li Qitian’s secret imperial edict, informing them that the treasure had indeed been intercepted midway, and ordering Pang Xiao and Qin Yining to continue tracking the treasure’s whereabouts!

According to Li Qitian’s investigation, the robbers had transported the treasure to a place called Yang County under the old capital’s jurisdiction. It was confirmed that the treasure was somewhere near Yang County, but the specific location still depended on Pang Xiao.

Stormy waves arose in Qin Yining’s heart.

Because the location she had agreed upon with the Azure Sky Alliance and the silver-masked scouts was not Yang County!

Could Li Qitian’s investigation be wrong?

Impossible. No matter how incompetent Li Qitian was, regarding the whereabouts of such a large sum of money, he couldn’t possibly investigate incorrectly.

Then it meant that her subordinates who were arranged to intercept the treasure had made an error!

Was it a problem with the Azure Sky Alliance, or the silver-masked scouts?

Or had they joined forces to betray her and taken the treasure away to split it between themselves?

Seeing Qin Yining’s expression was poor, Pang Xiao quickly comforted her in a low voice, “It’s alright, don’t overthink it.”

Qin Yining stared at Pang Xiao in amazement and said quietly, “Which side do you think went wrong?”

Pang Xiao smiled and said, “Perhaps neither side has problems—maybe there were just some temporary changes that forced them to send the items elsewhere. You should trust them and not torment yourself with such wild thoughts.”

Qin Yining shook her head with a bitter smile, “Don’t comfort me. It can’t be like that. Previously, that person above had no preparation and was single-mindedly waiting for the treasure to return to the capital—how could he possibly make temporary moves? If it wasn’t that person above, others would be even less likely. This time the information was sealed, and we were all trapped in the mountains for more than half a month. Anyone who could possibly leak information was either killed or was that person’s confidant.”

How could Pang Xiao not understand this reasoning?

But seeing Qin Yining so distressed, he really didn’t want to add frost to snow.

Although Qin Yining herself had once said that the Azure Sky Alliance people couldn’t be fully trusted, and while the silver-masked scouts were loyal, there were too few of them—being weak in numbers made it difficult to act.

But when things truly moved toward the direction they least wanted to see, how could their hearts remain untroubled?

“Yi’er, don’t overthink it. You’ve already done well enough, better than many women could do. These matters are inherently uncontrollable—none of this can be blamed on you.”

Qin Yining rubbed her brow somewhat wearily and said quietly, “I know, but eight or nine times out of ten, this situation was caused by a traitor among my people. And the most embarrassing thing is I don’t even know which side the traitor is from. If it were your Jinghu Guard, they would never act like this.”

Pang Xiao pulled Qin Yining into his arms with heartache and said quietly, “That you could achieve this degree has already been an enormous help to me, truly. The Jinghu Guard are all under strict surveillance. Without you, wouldn’t we just have to watch helplessly as our opponents grow strong? I have no rebellious heart, but I also don’t want to sit and wait for death. Yi’er, you really have been an enormous help to me.”

Qin Yining sat in the chair with both hands around Pang Xiao’s lean waist, burying her face against his abdomen.

Sometimes she really felt very tired. But she knew that she and Pang Xiao were now bound together—they were one as husband and wife. If even one person became weary and retreated, all the pressure would transfer to the other.

With the current situation so tense, she absolutely couldn’t relax. She didn’t want to hide behind Pang Xiao and let him protect her—such a her would only be Pang Xiao’s burden.

She needed to have sufficient ability to walk side by side with him.

“I’m fine.” When she straightened up again, she was already able to smile composedly.

“The Emperor wants to investigate the treasure’s whereabouts in Yang County. We can’t avoid taking action either. We still need to find time to go there. And I also want to try contacting the silver-masked scouts and Azure Sky Alliance.”

Pang Xiao smiled and bent down to kiss her forehead, “You’re right. I’ll listen to you in everything. When I left, both Master Xie and Master Xu were very worried and wanted to follow. I was afraid there would be no backbone left in the capital, so I kept them all at home. They were uneasy, so I said I still had you by my side—you are my strategist. Looking at it now, my judgment was indeed correct.”

Qin Yining was made to smile brightly by these words, “You just know how to make me happy. What kind of strategist am I? I just have some small cleverness, that’s all.”

“Don’t belittle yourself. If ordinary women could have your small cleverness, never mind managing the inner quarters—they’d be more than capable of being empress.”

“Nonsense.” Qin Yining chided him with mock annoyance and lightly pinched Pang Xiao.

Seeing that Qin Yining’s mood had finally improved, Pang Xiao finally breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, “I’ll go out later to look at the situation in the city. After discussing with Lord Gong, starting tomorrow I’ll begin inspecting the surrounding counties, striving to make a trip to Yang County first. This way we can act without leaving traces and avoid arousing suspicion or alerting our quarry. Moreover, the people I arranged to report news from the capital should arrive here soon as well.”