When he mentioned this, Suzhen remembered something. Earlier, when he had her extend her hand to him, it wasn’t just to smell the medicinal fragrance – there was another hidden purpose.

“Stay here forever”… these words made her shudder.

“If I can figure it out, will you really let me go?” She stared at him intensely.

Obviously, she didn’t think his words were credible. Quan Feitong clicked his tongue twice: “Won’t you try? Before I say ‘no,’ you at least have a chance to gamble.”

Suzhen gritted her teeth secretly. However, after thinking for a long while, she had no clue whatsoever. Had he really predicted correctly that she definitely couldn’t guess? She considered herself not stupid, yet she couldn’t think of it…

She lowered her head in bitter contemplation. Just as she was growing anxious, she heard Quan Feitong’s voice drift over indifferently: “I’ve already given you half a tea’s worth of time. Stop guessing. You can’t figure it out, and I can’t possibly have the patience to wait so long.”

Remembering how he had smiled earlier, saying she definitely couldn’t guess correctly, and now he had truly been proven right. She and Lian Yu had once joined forces and gained the upper hand before him, but ultimately couldn’t match him…

She bit her lower lip: “Please enlighten me further, Chancellor.”

Quan Feitong’s eyes narrowed slightly as he scrutinized her – not mockingly, nor coldly, but with extreme sharpness. Finally, after a moment, he said: “I gave you grapes to see how you would eat them. You picked out the good, large ones to eat first – this doesn’t match the behavior of such a maid. Your original life must have been quite good. I wouldn’t determine anything based on one breath alone, but several signs together are sufficient to explain things, no matter how much you resemble her in words and actions.”

“How could you notice all these details?”

After hearing this, Suzhen was stunned for a moment and couldn’t help smiling bitterly. What he said actually had nothing supernatural about it – it was just human nature, yet sharp as a blade. She had been raised in luxury since childhood but had overlooked all this.

“Because long ago, the order in which I ate grapes was exactly opposite to yours…”

Quan Feitong’s gaze flickered, becoming somewhat distant for an instant. Suzhen suddenly felt as if she had returned to the time before she took the imperial examinations, when they first met – he was the noble young master Wood Three, and she was just a small visitor to the capital. But she quickly remembered his indiscriminate killing in previous national cases…

“Big Brother Wood.” She suddenly called out.

Quan Feitong seemed somewhat surprised. After a long moment, he slowly smiled: “So it really is you.”

He suddenly stepped forward – with a “hiss,” he tore off the scar on her face. Suzhen cried out in pain, then simply wiped her sleeve across her face, removing all the makeup.

Quan Feitong’s brows were deeply furrowed as he looked at her for a long while: “So this is what you actually look like – still presentable.”

If Suzhen were drinking tea right now, she would definitely spray it at him. But she could do nothing, only hearing Quan Feitong say coldly afterward: “Let me think about how to deal with you. You really have quite some nerve.”

Suzhen thought she was truly dead now. The two guards received orders and leaped up from left and right to capture her.

Once again back in Quan Feitong’s room.

Just as they entered, before Quan Feitong could deal with her, a servant announced from outside that someone had come looking for him.

Quan Feitong made a sound of acknowledgment, indicating to let the visitor in.

As soon as the door opened, the newcomer said: “Did big brother tell Huang Tianba that I’m staying at an inn outside this manor? Just now he sent someone to find me, saying there were important matters to discuss, so Chao Huang immediately came over…”

The speaker suddenly realized something at this point and abruptly stopped, staring at Suzhen in the room with obvious great surprise.

Suzhen quickly lowered her head.

“Li Huaisu, is your unspeakable secret still considered secret now? Chao Huang, let me take you to find them first.”

Quan Feitong coolly dropped this line and left with Chao Huang.

Before leaving, Chao Huang glanced at her with somewhat sinister eyes.

“Watch the person in the room carefully.”

“Yes, Chancellor.”

Outside the door, Quan Feitong’s thin voice giving instructions to the guards drifted in, and Suzhen gnashed her teeth in hatred.

Though imprisoned, her hands and feet weren’t bound. Now like an ant in a hot pot, she wiped sweat while warning herself not to panic, carefully surveying the room’s situation. She discovered that Quan Feitong’s clothes were placed on the couch in front of the bed. Despite her many concerns about women’s disguises, she didn’t care about such things now. She removed her own clothes and changed into the man’s robes, then faced the mirror to let down her hair and re-style it in a man’s fashion.

She quickly calculated: She had agreed with Leng Xue that if she didn’t return within two days, he would secretly come in to find her, thinking she might have encountered some trouble here.

But two days hadn’t passed yet!

She couldn’t get out, couldn’t get out…

No way forward through mountains and rivers…

She stood in the center of the room, staring at the desk and documents, jumping and stamping as she scratched her hair in thought. When her gaze fell on the writing materials, she paused slightly…

“Hey, what are you making noise about in there? If you keep making a racket, don’t blame us for being impolite.”

The guards heard the commotion and pushed the door open, shouting sternly. They saw the youth had made the Chancellor’s room a complete mess and was now sitting at the desk scribbling wildly, with papers scattered everywhere on the floor, writing things like “treacherous ministers and rebels” and “heaven’s punishment and earth’s destruction.”

Everyone was immediately furious. They snatched the brush from her hand, and someone slapped her face. Suzhen took the beating, tears coming out from the pain.

“What’s happening?”

Just as she was resisting, Quan Feitong walked in from outside, glanced at the guards, and asked in a deep voice.

The guards were about to report Suzhen’s troublemaking to him when Huang Tianba led a group of guards over, his face grave and quite ugly: “Chancellor, there’s trouble.”

His manner was quite urgent, and for the moment he didn’t notice that Suzhen had changed appearance or that the Huang manor’s maid had disappeared.

Quan Feitong tensed, his eyes like flowing frost: “What happened?”

“Chancellor, when you just took General Chao over, this humble official saw it was perfect timing and discussed important matters with the General and Minister Li. Later Miss Gu came out to admire flowers, and we planned to change locations to continue discussions, but unexpectedly assassins suddenly appeared, wanting to assassinate this humble official…”

Huang Tianba’s expression was fierce, but the corner of his mouth held a strange hint of displeasure.

Quan Feitong observed his expression and slowly said: “These assassins have been captured by you, and their identities aren’t simple, right?”

Huang Tianba immediately replied: “Your Excellency sees clearly – exactly so!”

Suzhen couldn’t care about the burning pain on her face now, thinking: What was the origin of these assassins, appearing at this critical moment to assassinate? Could it be Lian Yu and his group? But this clearly wasn’t Lian Yu’s style. If not Lian Yu, then who could it be – common people oppressed by officials? Attempting assassination in broad daylight like this – wasn’t this seeking death?

This sudden, inexplicable complication – whether beneficial or harmful was unknown – but when Quan Feitong led people over, because Suzhen had been troublesome, they brought her along too. The moment she encountered the assassins, Suzhen was still severely shocked.

In the garden, Li Zhaoting and Chao Huang stood to one side, while Gu Shuangcheng stood frowning several steps away. Beside her, a woman was being held by two guards with her arms twisted.

Needless to say, this was the assassin – a female assassin.

“Huang, you dog official, how dare you capture me! Do you know who I am? If you dare touch a single hair on my head, I’ll make your entire family die without burial places – no, your nine generations, even your nine generations’ neighbors must die! Release me immediately!” Though held captive, this woman continued cursing furiously, clear sweat beading on her smooth forehead, making her face even more radiant like summer flowers.

Suzhen recognized this person.

Indeed it wasn’t Lian Yu, much less common people.

It was that little ancestor, Lian Xin.

This girl had actually come, actually stirred into this muddy water!

Damn, was this because things weren’t chaotic enough? Now Quan Feitong wanted to kill even her brother – when the nest is overturned, no eggs remain intact. Wasn’t she here to die?

“Big brother, what do you think we should do with her?”

Chao Huang and Li Zhaoting stepped forward, with Chao Huang asking Quan Feitong. Li Zhaoting saw Suzhen and his expression obviously changed. Suzhen helplessly smiled at him.

Li Zhaoting’s gaze darkened, becoming several degrees colder.

Gu Shuangcheng was also shocked to see Suzhen. Over there, when Lian Xin saw her, her whole body trembled as she sneered: “Li Huaisu, I knew you weren’t any good. Now you’re indeed mixed up with them. I should have shot and killed you back then instead of being nice to you. Now… I feel sick just looking at you!”

Suzhen wasn’t one to be trifled with either. Hearing this, she quickly stepped forward and slapped her: “That’s for not using your brain, for always doing brainless things.”

Lian Xin was stunned, staring at her blankly. After a long moment, she screamed: “Li Huaisu, you neither-man-nor-woman thing, you’re disgusting, you bastard! I’ll definitely get revenge for this. If you have the guts, kill me now, otherwise I definitely won’t forgive you.”

Her eyes instantly became bloodshot. The originally fierce gaze fixed on Huang Tianba now turned sharply toward Suzhen, filled entirely with disgust and deep hatred.

Suzhen raised her hand to strike again but was quickly intercepted by someone stepping forward.

“Li Huaisu, enough! She’s still just a child!” Gu Shuangcheng said coldly.