Time was passing, but the expected variable didn’t occur.

No one burst in, no one interrupted this death trap. Everything seemed to be developing toward the worst direction.

Nanyi realized that Xie Queshan was going to die, and what he had instructed Zhang Yuehui to do might only be to protect Song Muchuan. He hadn’t left himself a way out.

But she couldn’t just watch him die.

A startling thought formed in Nanyi’s mind.

She had to kill Gusha before Xie Queshan made his move. As long as Gusha was killed by an assassin in full view of everyone, then Xie Queshan and Song Muchuan could be completely cleared.

But all she had at hand was that sleeve arrow.

The distance was somewhat far, and she wanted to aim at Gusha—but the sight kept wavering. Combined with nervousness and urgency, her hands trembled slightly, beyond her control.

She wasn’t sure if she could kill him.

If she couldn’t achieve victory in one strike, it would alert the enemy and lose everything, even burying Xie Queshan’s chance to act.

Did she have to take this action?

This time, she wasn’t part of Xie Queshan’s plan—only she could make the decision. In the past, when it only concerned her personal safety, she thought about doing her best and leaving the rest to fate—just go all out. But at this moment, her success or failure concerned Xie Queshan’s life and death… perhaps even a larger situation.

The pressure of having to succeed suddenly crashed down on her shoulders.

Suddenly, someone embraced her from behind, one hand supporting her arm while the other pressed a crossbow into her hand.

This was a Qi soldier’s crossbow. The arrows fired from crossbows were sharper with greater force.

“You have to use their weapons, or it’ll be easily discovered.” Teasing words came from behind her.

Nanyi was startled. Looking back, it was actually Zhang Yuehui. Zhang Yuehui seemed like he was here to play, his expression very relaxed.

His arrival made her heart race with fear for a moment, then inexplicably gave her some peace of mind.

She only nodded lightly at him, saying nothing more, turning back to focus on raising the crossbow.

Zhang Yuehui studied her in the night. Her features were familiar yet strange. When had she become such a decisive warrior?

Nanyi aimed at her target and pulled the trigger—whoosh—the arrow pierced the air toward Gusha—thud—the sound of metal piercing flesh.

Right through the throat, the arrow penetrated completely.

In an instant, the situation was reversed.

Gusha’s eyes widened. He still didn’t understand where exactly he had lost—he was clearly about to win. He wanted to curse furiously, but his throat couldn’t make a sound.

He fell down, dying with his eyes wide open.

The moment the arrow was shot, it also exposed Nanyi and Zhang Yuehui’s position.

Hearing the sound, Xie Queshan looked up at the rooftop in surprise, vaguely seeing two figures. At this moment, the ambush troops in the courtyard also reacted.

“There’s an assassin!”

Arrows rained down toward the rooftop.

“Run!”

Zhang Yuehui pulled Nanyi and jumped to the side.

Gusha’s death made everything chaotic. Xie Queshan, as the highest-ranking person present, quickly took control of the scene, turning passive into active.

“General Gusha has been assassinated. I’m taking over the Bureau of Shipping. Leave one team to guard the scene, everyone else, follow me!”

Before leaving, he grabbed Song Muchuan and roughly tied him to a pillar.

“Don’t do anything.” Taking advantage of being close, Xie Queshan warned Song Muchuan in a low voice.

Only after stepping back did he order the guards forward.

“Mr. Song is an important witness. Watch him carefully.”

After saying this, Xie Queshan led the people away.

Song Muchuan watched his retreating figure with complex emotions.

Zhang Yuehui and Nanyi leaped across rooftops, fleeing desperately under pursuit from Qi soldiers behind them, landing in a household’s courtyard and accidentally breaking a flowerpot.

The sound exploded in the courtyard, dogs barking everywhere.

Nanyi wanted to get up and run quickly, but noticed Zhang Yuehui’s movements were somewhat slow. Looking down, he had been hit by an arrow in his lower abdomen, frightening blood seeping through his fingers covering the wound.

It must have hurt very much. Zhang Yuehui’s features were all scrunched together, but his voice still carried that inappropriately relaxed tone, even forcing out an ugly smile: “You go first, I have a way.”

Nanyi was anxious and glared at Zhang Yuehui: “You talk too much nonsense!”

She grabbed Zhang Yuehui’s arm and let him lean on her shoulder, supporting him as they walked forward.

Before they could leave the courtyard gate, the creaking sound of a door opening came from behind.

Both Zhang Yuehui and Nanyi froze, slowly turning back. The commotion outside had awakened the homeowner.

The homeowner looked at these two people in bewilderment.

Outside the neighborhood, torches were moving, and Qi troops were coming this way.

Voices carried over: “The Bingzhu Division assassins landed over there! Search that area!”

Zhang Yuehui’s face immediately became serious. With a flick of his thumb ring, a blade immediately sprang from the silver ring, saying in a voice only Nanyi could hear: “Don’t let him make a sound.”

But Nanyi was still hesitating—this was just an ordinary citizen after all.

Looking up, she discovered that curious heads were poking out from the doors and windows of several neighboring households. This situation was not good—so many people had seen them.

The homeowner suddenly looked away, pretending not to see the two, and shouted loudly: “Looking for assassins! Come quickly and help the soldiers find the Bingzhu Division assassins!”

But with his hands, he pointed toward the back door path for Nanyi and Zhang Yuehui.

Zhang Yuehui was still uneasy, but Nanyi directly dragged him toward the back door.

This shout was like a stone stirring up a thousand waves. The surrounding households all understood, tacitly lighting candles and coming out to create chaos, all shouting “find the assassins” together.

At first, there were only two or three people, but soon every household opened their doors.

Zhang Yuehui and Nanyi looked back once. Starlight lit up throughout the neighborhood, stretching into a giant dragon. Unarmed common people poured onto the streets, the human tide blocking the pursuing Qi soldiers.

Everyone knew that something had happened at the Bureau of Shipping tonight, involving the Bingzhu Division.

Everyone knew that those being hunted by Qi people must be righteous heroes worth protecting.

For the common people, the Bingzhu Division wasn’t such a concrete existence—everyone treated it as after-dinner stories. If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, no one would believe that in these turbulent times, there really were such people carrying heavy burdens forward.

And the people being protected—they were ignorant and powerless, always huddling together trembling, but they were also the city walls upon this land.

Nanyi and Zhang Yuehui walked with their backs to the crowd onto an increasingly dark path, limping forward step by step.

…

Huachao Pavilion.

Even after returning to his own territory, Zhang Yuehui didn’t disturb too many people, only having his trusted subordinates come in to treat the wound. Nanyi noticed he had inexplicably become particularly quiet. No more teasing, no more joking around, just frowning and groaning dully.

When the arrow was removed along with flesh and blood, it was horrifying to watch. Nanyi suddenly remembered that Zhang Yuehui used to be the type who couldn’t tolerate pain—even the tiniest cut would make him frown with distress. This arrow wound was quite deep, yet he wasn’t crying out to heaven and earth, seeming somewhat melancholy instead.

Watching Zhang Yuehui’s changes, she thought of the past, feeling it was distant yet seemingly within reach. Then inevitably she thought of Xie Queshan. This temporarily peaceful atmosphere made her anxious.

She wanted to ask Zhang Yuehui something, but was still cautious in front of outsiders.

After the bandaging was complete, Zhang Yuehui gave an instruction: “Take people to check outside the neighborhood and handle the aftermath. Some people saw my face—have them keep the secret.”

“Yes.”

Nanyi was alarmed: “You wouldn’t want to silence them, would you?”

Zhang Yuehui looked at Nanyi speechlessly: “Right, kill all these foolish people. Don’t know what they were joining in for—must think their lives are too comfortable.”

Nanyi heard the sarcasm in Zhang Yuehui’s words and relaxed her tone: “If not for those kind people helping us block them, how could we have escaped so smoothly?”

“Meddling in other people’s business.” Zhang Yuehui had no good mood.

Zhang Yuehui felt inexplicably annoyed. He had originally thought the subjects on this land were as foolish as their ruler, but they had ended up saving him. He felt he owed a very large debt.

This account of hatred suddenly couldn’t be calculated clearly.

Nanyi twisted her mouth, really wanting to curse him thoroughly for not knowing what’s good for him, but vaguely felt his words weren’t from the heart—he had always been a contrary person. At this moment she had a favor to ask, so ultimately she didn’t say much, only obsequiously handed over a cup of tea before asking about what she had been worried about: “Thank you very much for tonight… the things he instructed, did they all go smoothly?”

Zhang Yuehui gave Nanyi a resentful look. As expected, her heart was still entirely on Xie Queshan. But he didn’t want to show such jealous weakness, so his words came out somewhat barbed, his expression indescribably exaggerated.

“Told you not to run around randomly, or it would have gone more smoothly.”

“What do you mean?” Nanyi immediately became tense.

“He planned to die according to the plan, and Song Muchuan would be safely protected—” Zhang Yuehui sighed deeply, “This kid really has good fortune. Was already prepared to report to the King of Hell, but you forcibly fished him back.”

Zhang Yuehui knew Xie Queshan was going to die. With time pressing, he couldn’t stop him either. He could only first complete what the note indicated. Moreover, even if he had ample time, why would he go stop him?

He wished Xie Queshan would die.

But he still went to the Bureau of Shipping as if possessed. He hadn’t expected that Nanyi would somehow sneak in too, and recklessly want to kill Gusha. Really, each one crazier than the last, all requiring him to clean up their messes.

His martial arts weren’t high—he relied on carefully crafted hidden weapons all over his body. Dealing with one or two Qi soldiers and seizing a crossbow wasn’t a big problem.

He didn’t want her to lose. Fortunately, their first cooperation yielded good results. Although the beneficiary was Xie Queshan.

Having already survived the disaster, hearing Zhang Yuehui’s words still felt like being hammered hard in the chest, making her heart ache dully. If they had been just a bit off, wouldn’t they all have been finished?

She felt afraid for quite a while before continuing to ask: “The ‘fish that escaped the net’ he mentioned—what exactly does it mean?”

“The night of the mountain explosion, all of Gusha’s people died in the tunnels, but there was one survivor—I found him.”

Nanyi pondered for a moment and immediately frowned: “So, Gusha’s suspicions about the Yucheng Army were all manipulated by you?”

“This matter actually…”

Zhang Yuehui felt a bit guilty and wanted to make excuses for himself, but Nanyi wasn’t really concerned with these details anymore. She quickly grasped a thread of logic from the tangled mess and interrupted his sophistry.

“Xie Queshan guessed it too? He knew you had this leverage but never exposed it, wanting to use your hand to do something?”

“Only by letting Gusha seize on this point and make trouble could Wanyan Jun be brought down,” Zhang Yuehui knew he couldn’t fool Nanyi anymore and could only speak honestly. “If you had to choose an opponent between Gusha and Wanyan Jun, anyone would choose Gusha.”

Nanyi didn’t have time to scold Zhang Yuehui because Song Muchuan had planned the same thing. Everyone had their own schemes mixed into this game, but the result they achieved was the same.

But the variable was that no one had anticipated Gusha would be struck by a falling pie from heaven, obtaining a crucial piece of intelligence.

All plans were disrupted.

“But what does this ‘fish that escaped the net’ have to do with saving Song Muchuan?”

“The key to saving Song Muchuan actually wasn’t in Song Muchuan himself, nor in how to save him, but in—who exactly was suspecting him, who wanted to kill him. Solve that person, and this matter would become easy.”

“But even if Gusha is dead, the leads he uncovered won’t disappear. We can only hide for a while but can’t truly deceive heaven and cross the sea.”

“So, we need to fish Gusha’s opponent back up and have him overturn all of Gusha’s discoveries.”

Nanyi opened her mouth, somewhat uncertain: “Make the fish that escaped the net… turn traitor?”

Zhang Yuehui nodded. This was back to his familiar territory, and he showed a fox-like smile.

“Everything in this world has its price.”