Luo Ci was pinned to the wall, half his arm already soaked in blood, but because of Xie Queshan’s words, no one could make up their minds about what to do.

Even Luo Ci himself wouldn’t let anyone help him down, only sending someone quickly to Dajue Temple to request their master’s return.

Of course, now that the person had left and there were no eyes watching, Xie Queshan couldn’t possibly know who actually rescued him, but his purpose was to let the master clearly see his anger, so Luo Ci had to honestly remain pinned to the wall, bleeding while waiting for the master to make decisions.

The master had instructed beforehand that if nothing could be extracted from the Qin woman’s mouth, then they should invite Xie Queshan over to personally witness her being tortured here.

After he left, they would go tell Lord Wanyan that Homecoming Hall had captured a high-ranking Torch Bureau member, and that the Torch Bureau wanted to rescue this person. They should request troops to set an ambush and catch all the criminals in one net.

Zhang Yuehui was certain Xie Queshan would rescue this woman, so he had set what could be called a perfect trap for him.

But now Luo Ci felt that the relationship between Xie Queshan and her didn’t seem to be what they had determined. The current situation had exceeded what he could control…

Having his weakness seized, Xie Queshan showed no guilt at all, nor did he conceal his anger – there were only two possibilities: either this handle couldn’t reach his pain point at all… or he simply didn’t care about the person being manipulated.

Could it be that the master’s judgment was wrong? This woman wasn’t an important person at all?

Luo Ci turned his head with difficulty, looking through the small window at the woman in the interrogation room.

He had rarely seen such a woman. To say she was stubborn wouldn’t be entirely accurate – when the pain became acute, she would also beg for mercy without dignity, would cry loudly, would say incoherent things. But to say her will wasn’t strong wouldn’t be right either – she had never spoken a single useful piece of information, and even those two dry steamed buns each day, she would crawl on the ground without dignity and eat them bite by bite.

She seemed to always have a tenacious strength, unwilling to give up on her body. She had to eat something to maintain a bit of strength.

Luo Ci thought this was a strange person. When people were in extreme pain, they clearly couldn’t feel hunger, couldn’t swallow anything at all, and even if they ate something, they would vomit it out during interrogation.

He didn’t know what she was persisting for.

Was such a woman really the bridge to that secret?

…

The torturer lifted Nanyi down from the chair and threw her back into the cell. She didn’t move at all – her legs had already lost sensation. Everywhere on her body was burning with pain; even the slightest movement brought piercing agony.

Nanyi had the illusion that time was also unfair, varying from person to person.

When things quieted down, the pain magnified all her senses.

She could occasionally hear vague sounds of strings and woodwinds seeping through the thick wall cracks. She felt that those people’s time should pass quickly – between toasting and drinking, several hours would pass in the blink of an eye.

Above there were warm charcoal fires heating the rooms, delicious delicacies, women’s hands gentle as silk. Brocade clothes piled on bodies, maintaining dignity and respectability.

But time became incredibly long for her – there was no day or night, only chaotic endlessness.

Those people kept interrogating her: who are you, what is your relationship with Xie Queshan?

She wasn’t being stubborn – she truly couldn’t answer. She didn’t know what they had misunderstood. She even heard that they planned to use her as bait to lure Xie Queshan to rescue her.

Nanyi found it very amusing. They had clearly seen it – when Xie Queshan heard news that she wasn’t dead, he could hardly wait to come finish her off. She could only pin her slim hopes on the Yucheng Army. Ying Huai might notice she had been missing for several days and would probably pass the message to Song Muchuan. Song Muchuan would find a way to rescue her, right?

She still wanted to wait a bit longer, couldn’t collapse just like this.

…But it hurt too much.

She hoped she would quickly lose consciousness so she wouldn’t feel the pain anymore. But her consciousness stubbornly clung to her, sometimes clear, sometimes blurred.

Not knowing how much time had passed, she seemed to hear footsteps approaching, then pausing, then leaving again.

Zhang Yuehui only looked at the woman in the cell from a distance and didn’t approach.

Upon receiving the message, he had hurried back from Dajue Temple. Both people’s reactions were much harder than he had imagined.

No one had ever discovered any traces between these two people, but only Zhang Yuehui had guessed it.

Because when everyone else was seeing flowers through fog, only he was certain that Xie Queshan was an undercover agent – this was the unshakeable underlying logic of this situation.

Since he was undercover, Xie Queshan couldn’t possibly truly fight with Torch Bureau people, nor could he betray the Yucheng Army. The fact that he suffered such severe injuries could only mean it was voluntary. So what was worth him risking half his life to protect?

That woman who should have stayed in the Xie family, then mysteriously disappeared, then went to warn the Yucheng Army.

Between them, there must be some kind of cooperative relationship – perhaps even far beyond cooperation. That woman, since she could make Xie Queshan risk his life for her, her importance was self-evident.

However, until the parties involved admitted it, this was ultimately just his speculation. Since it was speculation, it could be wrong.

She might just be a chess piece that Xie Queshan would use and then discard. His injury might have other hidden reasons.

Should he continue this gamble?

If he insisted on setting this trap, he would drag Wanyan Jun into the situation too. If things developed in the direction he envisioned, he would win big, but if Xie Queshan didn’t come, he would simultaneously offend both Xie Queshan and Wanyan Jun.

Adding to the previous Lantern Festival boat incident where he had severely cheated Gusha, Gusha couldn’t possibly have no resentment toward him.

Once this plan failed, he would offend three major figures among the Qi people’s upper ranks.

Most frightening was Xie Queshan. Homecoming Hall had already bared its claws to him, and for Xie Queshan to strike back was just a matter of moving his finger. No matter how much influence Zhang Yuehui had, he was ultimately just a merchant and couldn’t oppose the entire Qi army. At that point, the best scenario would be slinking away… the worst case, he couldn’t even save his life, and the entire Homecoming Hall enterprise would be swallowed by the Qi people.

This was precisely why Luo Ci couldn’t make the decision and had to request Zhang Yuehui’s return.

If it were an ordinary person, reaching this point, they should be so intimidated by Xie Queshan’s aura that they couldn’t breathe, obediently delivering the person to him and letting him dispose of her, pretending nothing had happened.

But Zhang Yuehui was precisely a natural-born gambler.

Zhang Yuehui frowned and with a slight effort pulled out the iron pliers stuck in Luo Ci’s shoulder. Blood splattered his face, and this elegant face now showed unusual madness.

Luo Ci groaned muffled and, disregarding his own wound, immediately knelt to apologize: “This subordinate was incompetent. Please punish me, Master.”

Zhang Yuehui wiped at the blood on his face, but couldn’t clean it off at all – instead smearing his face with blood. At this moment he actually laughed – intimidation?

Excellent.

Finally it had come to the moment of drawing blades. What kind of heart was hidden beneath that facade, and how much could that heart abandon? The bigger the gamble, the more he threw all considerations of gain and loss behind him, the more exciting he found it.

“Go invite Lord Wanyan here.”

“Master—” Luo Ci looked up in surprise. “This is too risky. The future is long, there will be better opportunities.”

“The future is long?” Zhang Yuehui seemed to hear a huge joke and burst into laughter, but his eyes were as deep as a pool of stagnant water. “There are too many things in this world that come too late.”

Xie Queshan was absolutely right. The Spring Shock incident had killed his family, and he held it in his heart. Though Xie Queshan wasn’t the main culprit, the affair had more or less started because of him – he should apologize for it.

Zhang Yuehui was a madman. After scheming for so many years, it wasn’t for those countless riches in his hands, but for the day when he could finally push all his chips onto the table.

Either he would destroy himself alone… or everyone would destroy together.

At least he would have had his fill – this world had nothing worth lingering over anyway.

Luo Ci wanted to say something more, but he was ultimately just a small pawn. Since the master had made his decision, there was no taking back the move.

After Luo Ci left, everything around suddenly quieted down.

Zhang Yuehui walked out of that solitary room and stood quietly in the intricate passageways, where all the bloody stench began to stir restlessly, as if dark clouds were about to crush the city.

He could sense his heart beating wildly, his blood boiling – this was a gambler who had staked everything waiting for the moment the game began.

At this moment he was hollow, having scooped out all his flesh and blood, so that even a gust of wind from nowhere could penetrate his empty body.

He felt like a kite, recklessly wanting to fly up to the White Jade Capital in the sky, even if behind that mirage was the entrance to hell, he would still charge through.

Then his gaze was drawn as if by a ghost to glance at the nearby cell – a woman lay quietly on the ground like a lifeless thing, her back occasionally rising and falling slightly, indicating she still had breath going in and out.

This scene suddenly brought his blood-boiling heart back from afar, and inexplicably, he actually had a sense of still being in the mortal world.

He had almost forgotten that the stakes were also just flesh and blood. This fragility pulled him back into the seven emotions and six desires.

He had always been somewhat curious about this person – what kind of person could make Xie Queshan lose his composure? He even inexplicably developed some idle curiosity about what she was called.

Though women’s names were never important anyway. Because above that name were their father’s clan, their husband’s family – several mountains blocking their original appearance. Even an intelligence merchant like him had never thought to inquire about her name. He only called her “the Qin woman” or “the Xie family’s widow,” and more often just “that woman.”

He walked a few steps closer, wanting to see her appearance clearly. Seeing that woman covered in blood and filth, curled up like a small beast, with black hair stuck with blood clots blocking her face, he actually felt pity.

He wasn’t a good person, but he rarely dealt harshly with women.

Seeing pitiful women, he would always think of Nanyi, think of his sister, and his heart would soften by three parts.

But at this moment, this pity was quickly strangled by him – his opponent was Xie Queshan after all.

Without becoming completely mad, how could there be results?

Zhang Yuehui stepped back, as if what lay there wasn’t a powerless woman, but Rakshasa’s box – once opened, there would be no turning back.