The water source was not far ahead. After the two had exhausted themselves quarreling with such intensity, they both felt utterly worn out and stopped arguing. Li Rong descended the small slope first and reached the flat ground near the water source. A bit farther from the water was some grassy area. Li Rong was extremely tired and didn’t care whether it was clean or not—she simply sat down.

Pei Wenxuan came slowly. He had gathered some dry firewood in the forest and returned to the riverside. When he arrived at the river’s edge, he saw Li Rong sitting on the grass pile. She seemed exhausted, yet still insisted on sitting upright. The usually arrogant and domineering person was now quiet and still, her arms wrapped around her knees, her head lowered and buried in her knees without a sound. She looked rather pitiful.

Pei Wenxuan felt he must have been too accustomed to being ordered around by her. Looking at her like this, he actually felt somewhat unaccustomed to it. He set down the firewood, cleared out a patch of mud from the grass pile, then bent down to build a small pile and used a fire starter to light the fire.

After the firelight brightened, Li Rong lifted her eyes and looked toward the source of warmth.

She was tired and sleepy, but the grass contained moisture in the soil. If she lay down, her clothes would soon get wet. So she didn’t want to lie down, but enduring it like this was also uncomfortable.

She vaguely heard Pei Wenxuan return to the forest. After a while, he came back with a large bundle of items wrapped in his outer coat. Li Rong looked up and discovered that Pei Wenxuan seemed to have gathered a pile of dry leaves.

He piled the dry leaves thickly and covered them with his coat, then beckoned to Li Rong, “Come over and hold it down so the wind doesn’t blow the leaves away.”

After saying this, Pei Wenxuan turned around, rolled his pants up to his knees, tied a knot in his robe hem, and took the sword in his hand to go to the water’s edge.

Li Rong wasn’t someone who didn’t know what was good for her. She got up and went to the side of the coat, lying down. Immediately, she felt much more comfortable.

After lying there for a while, she heard the sound of water nearby and found herself unable to sleep. She turned over, lying on her stomach on the coat, propping up her upper body to look at Pei Wenxuan in the distance.

Pei Wenxuan stood in the river with his sword in hand, motionless.

His patience was excellent. Li Rong stared at him for a long time without seeing any part of him move except his eyes. It was exactly like his posture when hunting enemies in court.

Li Rong propped her chin up, gazing at the distant young man from afar, gradually seeing something worth appreciating.

If Pei Wenxuan didn’t speak, that face of his was truly unmatched in the capital—elegant with a mix of refined handsomeness, not overly soft, carrying an indescribable pride that wasn’t annoying. In the moonlight, dressed in white robes with a long sword, standing quietly in the flowing water, he truly seemed like an immortal descended to earth, reflecting the clear moonlight.

Pei Wenxuan wasn’t good in any way, but regarding this face, Li Rong really had nothing to say. Especially since he was still in his twenty-year-old appearance now, at the prime of his youth—much more pleasing to Li Rong than the old man he would later become.

Li Rong stared at Pei Wenxuan for a while, then saw him move with quick reflexes, bringing his sword down into the water with a “swish” and spearing a fish.

He tossed the fish onto the shore, then turned back to wait. After a while, he repeated the technique and speared another fish.

Having caught the fish, he crouched on the ground and quickly cleaned them by the river. After washing his hands, he skewered them on tree branches he had prepared earlier and carried them back to the fire.

He knew Li Rong wasn’t asleep. When he reached her side, he handed her the fish, saying impatiently, “Grill it yourself.”

Normally, Li Rong grilling fish herself wouldn’t be a problem, but she just couldn’t stand Pei Wenxuan’s tone of ordering her around. So she completely ignored him, saying lazily, “This palace doesn’t know how to grill fish.”

“Then don’t eat.”

“But this palace loves eating fish,” Li Rong said with a smile. “If you don’t grill it for me, I’ll just snatch the fish from you!”

Pei Wenxuan was speechless. He had no energy left to argue and didn’t want to quarrel with Li Rong anymore. He sat down, propped the fish up with stones, and placed them over the fire to roast.

Around them was the sound of water and the sizzling sound of the grilling fish. The two remained silent. After a long time, Li Rong spoke, “When did you come back?”

“A little over a month ago.”

Pei Wenxuan looked up at her. “And you?”

“Around the same time.”

After they finished speaking, there was another silence. After a moment, Li Rong couldn’t help but sigh, “I never expected you wouldn’t hide it from me.”

“What’s there to hide?”

Pei Wenxuan said indifferently, “You didn’t hide it from me either, did you?”

“I’m not the same as you.” Li Rong said lazily, “I’ve always been straightforward in my actions—why would I hide it from you? But you’re different.” As Li Rong spoke, she glared at him. “Petty man.”

Hearing the words “petty man,” Pei Wenxuan sneered, “You still have the nerve to call me petty? I don’t know who broke the alliance first and attacked me first?”

“Ha,” hearing his words, Li Rong sat up straight and clapped her hands. “So Rongqing really did kill you after all? Well killed, wonderfully killed!”

Li Rong glanced at him sideways, celebrating, “People like you who break faith and forget kindness always meet bad ends.”

“You dare say that?!”

Hearing her words, Pei Wenxuan became thoroughly enraged. In his anger, he gripped the stick he was using to stir the fire, restraining his speech as he stared intently at Li Rong. “Li Rong, I can honestly say I’ve never wronged you. Although you and I often quarreled and occasionally clashed, all these years, I never betrayed you, did I? Because of the crown prince succession dispute, you actually had Su Rongqing attack me…”

“But weren’t you the same?” Li Rong said coldly. “For a mere crown prince position, you forgot the oath of our alliance. If you could kill me, shouldn’t I fight back?”

“Killing you was merely fulfilling the promise between us.”

Hearing this, Pei Wenxuan froze. He sensed something was wrong and quickly asked, “Who violated the oath first and attacked the other?”

Hearing Pei Wenxuan ask this, Li Rong also realized something. Her expression immediately changed. “Wasn’t it you who poisoned me first?”

Then she immediately described, “You came to find me first to warn me. When you came, you had a strange fragrance on you. Shortly after you left, I drank a bowl of medicine and was poisoned. Wasn’t it you who poisoned me?”

“No,” Pei Wenxuan’s face showed shock, then he immediately reacted and began comparing the events of their previous life with Li Rong, explaining, “I did indeed plant informants in the princess manor as a precaution. I had people poison you only after you sent people to kill me.”

“When did you die?”

Li Rong frowned. Pei Wenxuan thought for a moment. “After leaving the princess manor, on my way home, Su Rongqing led people to ambush and kill me.”

“They were indeed my people.”

Li Rong lowered her eyes. After the two were silent for a while, each sorting through their thoughts, Pei Wenxuan considered it, then summarized, “So, in the last life, you actually didn’t want to kill me. Someone made you think I killed you, so you struck back before dying to kill me. Is that it?”

“It should be so.”

Li Rong answered in a low voice. Pei Wenxuan quietly watched her. After composing himself for a moment, he laughed lowly. He wanted to say something but couldn’t get it out. He raised his hand and patted his own thigh, sighing, “Calculating too cleverly only to be fooled by one’s own cleverness. Li Rong, in the end, you still didn’t trust me.”

“And did you trust me?”

Li Rong looked up at him, her expression calm.

If she had trusted him, she wouldn’t have immediately identified him as the murderer in the first instance, and would even rather transfer power to Su Rongqing than kill him.

And he wouldn’t have planted informants in her manor early on, always prepared to strike back and kill her.

“You’re not wrong either,” Pei Wenxuan nodded. “Even real married couples rarely have complete trust, let alone us? But I’m very curious—how did you determine I was the murderer?”

“I died from Xiang Meiren’s poison.” Li Rong recalled her state before death. “When you came to see me, you had a strange fragrance on you. You almost never wore a sachet, but that day you did. Then you talked to me about the crown prince succession and even threatened that if I didn’t agree, you’d kill me. After you left, I drank medicine and died from poisoning.”

Pei Wenxuan listened to Li Rong describe the events before her death, his expression somber. Li Rong continued, “The evidence wasn’t truly sufficient, but you had motive, capability, and all the clues pointed to you…”

“So you decided it was me.”

Pei Wenxuan nodded in summary. Li Rong remained silent. Pei Wenxuan seemed to find it amusing, lowering his head to look at the fish, his eyes holding a hint of self-mockery.

Li Rong knew she was in the wrong and didn’t dare speak. After a while, she asked in a low voice, “Where did that fragrance on you come from?”

“If I tell you, I’m afraid you’ll be unhappy.” Pei Wenxuan’s eyes held some schadenfreude.

Li Rong thought for a moment and frowned. “Su Rongqing?”

“That’s right.”

Pei Wenxuan took the fish from the fire, looked it over from both sides, saw it was grilled well enough, and handed one to Li Rong. Li Rong took the fish in a daze and placed it over the fire to roast, listening as Pei Wenxuan said leisurely, “When I went there, Su Rongqing said you were very ill. Anyone entering from the outer chambers had to wear an herbal sachet, or you would cough when you saw people. I had someone examine the sachet’s ingredients and tested it—there was no poison, so I wore it. Besides, all your servants wore this sachet. Mine was just newer, so the fragrance was stronger.”

Li Rong froze in place. Seeing her stunned, Pei Wenxuan thought she wasn’t someone who would easily believe him and continued, “You can choose not to believe me—it doesn’t matter. Anyway, even if it wasn’t Su Rongqing, it wasn’t me. Just don’t blame me for it.”

Li Rong didn’t speak. She stared blankly at the fire as Pei Wenxuan turned the fish while glancing at her with a smile, seeming quite pleased.

Hearing him sound like someone watching drama unfold, Li Rong couldn’t help feeling somewhat dazed.

She believed Pei Wenxuan’s words.

Su Rongqing was someone she had personally saved.

Years ago, when Prince Su rebelled, Su Rongqing’s older brother spoke up for Prince Su and was then falsely accused of colluding with him. The accusation claimed the Su family conspired with Prince Su in rebellion. Li Chuan had been furious at the time and, without a proper trial by the three judicial offices, directly imprisoned the entire Su clan—executing the men and exiling the women.

She disagreed with this and rushed to beg Li Chuan before the Su family’s disaster, taking ten strikes of the board. Combined with Pei Wenxuan’s maneuvering behind the scenes, she finally obtained a pardon for the Su family.

But though the death penalty could be waived, punishment couldn’t be escaped. Even if the Su family men could live, they would all be castrated. Others, unable to bear the humiliation, committed suicide in prison one after another. When she rushed over, among all the Su family men, only Su Rongqing remained—someone who “chose to live on shamefully.”

At that time, she told Su Rongqing that she would rescue him without expecting anything in return. She could give him silver, arrange work for him, and let him live well outside in the future.

At that time, she didn’t have particularly special feelings for Su Rongqing. She only felt somewhat grateful because he had once saved her and taken care of her, along with… vague, unclear tender feelings. She saved the Su family more out of consideration for Li Chuan’s and her own conscience.

The entire Su family was clean and noble. She couldn’t just watch them suffer such an unclear disaster.

But Su Rongqing was unwilling to leave at that time.

He knelt before her himself, respectfully begging, “This slave’s body is no longer whole. This world has no place for me. Only the princess manor can provide peace. I wish to serve at Your Highness’s side, to repay Your Highness’s life-saving grace with my life, even unto death.”

Since he said this, she kept him. The Su family had many enemies outside. Su Rongqing couldn’t enter officialdom for the rest of his life, and it would be difficult for him to find a position outside. She couldn’t bear to see Su Rongqing humiliated outside.

Because he had been castrated, keeping him in her manor was natural. Later they developed feelings, and though Pei Wenxuan noticed, he couldn’t say anything. Li Chuan and the court officials didn’t think much of it either, so Pei Wenxuan’s cuckolding wasn’t that obvious.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t considered Su Rongqing might take revenge. After all, it was Li Chuan who personally ordered the execution of all Su family men and exile of all their women. No one could possibly forget such a blood feud of family annihilation, let alone the former first young master. So for all those years, she never dared hand real power to him. She observed him, guarded against him, while trying to let him live better.

She couldn’t bring herself to truly kill him according to her conscience, nor could she truly feel at ease handing power over to him.

In the end, he still acted. He killed her first, then smoothly took over the power in her hands under the pretext of eliminating Pei Wenxuan. If she hadn’t guessed wrong, he wouldn’t leave with her advisors. Instead, he would use the banner of avenging her to rally people’s hearts, join forces with the Empress, and fight Pei Wenxuan’s remaining faction to the death to push Li Xin into position.

This way, he would be firmly bound to her people. Once he had real power, and given that Li Chuan had been cultivating immortality for years with his foundation in court long unstable, plus his body had long been failing recently, Su Rongqing might truly have a chance to personally kill Li Chuan.

She had anticipated this from the moment she took in Su Rongqing, but when it truly came, she couldn’t help feeling some regret.

If the Su family hadn’t suffered disaster, perhaps she and Su Rongqing wouldn’t have had such an ending.

Li Rong took a deep breath. Seeing Pei Wenxuan’s happy expression, she couldn’t help but say, “What are you so happy about?”

Pei Wenxuan grilled the fish, drawing out his words, “I said long ago that man couldn’t be kept, but you wouldn’t listen. Now look,” he said, his eyes crinkling with laughter as he looked over, “You’ve suffered a loss, haven’t you?”

“I suffered a loss, and you’re this happy?” Li Rong said coldly.

“That’s right.” Pei Wenxuan said cheerfully. “For our Princess Her Highness to suffer a loss is a once-in-a-millennium occurrence. To witness such a rare spectacle,” Pei Wenxuan raised one hand and placed it on his chest, “brings great comfort to my heart.”

“Lord Pei has thought wrongly about this,” Li Rong was angered into laughter by him, speaking without thinking. “At least this palace let him serve me for twenty-five years. Even if he killed me, I’m willing. You’re just a fish affected by the fire in the moat. What are you so proud of?”

“He killed you and you’re still willing?” Pei Wenxuan sneered coldly. Li Rong glanced at him sideways. “What, Lord Pei won’t allow it?”

“Is it my place to allow or not allow?” Pei Wenxuan laughed in anger. “The princess is of noble imperial blood and can do as she pleases. But let me remind the princess of something.”

Pei Wenxuan turned to look at the leaping flames, his voice cooling several degrees. “In the last life, if you wanted to entangle with him, that was a matter of being beaten with boards. But if you dare entangle with Su Rongqing now, at best you’ll be sent for a political marriage, and at worst, I’m afraid you won’t be able to keep your life.”