Compared to the leisurely ease when leaving the city, the journey back was filled with somber sorrow.

Xie Zhifei remained silent throughout.

This situation made Yan Sanhe sigh with emotion.

Though her eighteen years had been full of hardships, everyone she encountered, without exception, had been good people—with only one Madam Zhao who left much unsaid.

But Xie Zhifei was different.

Madam Zhao was his birth mother.

Xie Daozhi could be considered his father.

Zhao Yishi was even his close friend.

These three were all crucial people in his life, yet it was precisely these three who each stabbed Xie Zhifei in the heart.

One stab was enough to pierce to the bone.

Three stabs?

Silence was already the utmost control and restraint Xie Zhifei could muster.

Yan Sanhe offered no words of comfort or guidance.

Men had their own world. When stabbed in the back by a good brother, the only one who could provide comfort was another good brother.

Heaven heard Yan Sanhe’s thoughts. About a hundred li outside the capital, someone suddenly rushed out from the roadside, stretching out a hand to stop them.

It was none other than Young Master Pei.

After Young Master Pei finished examining Xie Fifty’s arms and legs, he went to check Li Buyan’s wounds. This person knew nothing of concealment—his heartache was written all over his face and in his words.

“How did you get hurt so badly?”

“Does it hurt?”

“Did you lose a lot of blood?”

“Did you use the wound medicine I gave you?”

Li Buyan watched him silently. The setting sun shone on his worried brow and eyes, making his face extraordinarily pleasant to look at.

At this moment, Xie Zhifei finally spoke his first words: “Did you save Zhu Qing or not?”

“My father said if we’d arrived half an hour later, even a hundred Reviving Soul Pills wouldn’t have brought him back.”

Pei Xiao shuddered at the memory of his father and half-brother working together to save Zhu Qing.

“Saved is saved, but his vital energy is severely damaged. It’ll take at least a year or two to recover. His left leg will likely be crippled—the tendons in his leg were injured.”

Li Buyan asked urgently: “Can he still walk?”

“My father said it depends on him. If he recovers well and practices, maybe he can.”

Pei Xiao grabbed Xie Zhifei’s arm and gave Yan Sanhe and Li Buyan a look. “Come with me.”

The four of them ducked into the dense forest beside the official road.

Before they could stand steady, Pei Xiao couldn’t wait to ask: “Yan Sanhe, answer me a few questions.”

Yan Sanhe knew what he wanted to ask: “Speak!”

Pei Xiao: “That day when you made me choose between Xie Fifty and Zhao Yishi, had you already…”

“Yes!”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Because if I had said so, probably no one would have believed me.”

“Why would he do such a thing?”

“That question… you should ask him yourself.”

“That he would try to kill you two, I could understand. But that he would try to kill Xie Fifty…”

Pei Xiao ground his back molars. “I refuse to believe it even unto death!”

“Whether you believe it or not, the facts are right there.”

Li Buyan ground her teeth in hatred. “I must have been blind to have developed good feelings for that kind of person. Ptui!”

These words made Pei Xiao’s heart a jumble of mixed feelings—he didn’t know whether there was more sadness or more relief.

“Young Master Pei!”

Li Buyan stepped forward, staring at him intently: “Say it! Between Third Master and that bird-person, who do you choose?”

“I…”

“What do you mean ‘I’? Give this old lady a straight answer!”

“You…”

Pei Xiao was pressed so hard steam was about to come out of his head.

Old lady, don’t you have eyes? This young master has been waiting here on the road—what more do you need to ask?

“Mingting.”

Xie Zhifei, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke: “I know why he wants to kill me.”

“Why?”

“First, because I left him. Second…”

Xie Zhifei took a deep breath: “Over these years, I’ve done many things for him.”

Leaving him meant betrayal.

Doing many things meant knowing many of his secrets.

“Most importantly, he thought that in order to make Xie Zhifei follow me and flee far away, I told Xie Zhifei the truth about who really killed Yan Xi.”

Yan Sanhe’s voice was very calm.

“So he speculated—would Xie Zhifei trace Xie Daozhi’s death back to him? Would he seek revenge at the right opportunity?

Members of the imperial family would rather wrong others than let others wrong them. They would rather wrongly kill a thousand than let one slip through. These three reasons are the real reasons why Zhao Yishi decided to kill.”

Young Master Pei’s expression could no longer be described as merely ugly.

“If you told Xie Fifty, that’s the same as telling me. Then why didn’t he try to…”

“Because you’re still useful to him.”

Yan Sanhe: “Because you stayed in the capital, still under his nose. But Xie Zhifei following me to flee far away would be like a wild horse breaking free of its reins.”

So.

If I had gone with them, he would have killed me too?

A chill crawled up Pei Xiao’s back. His body swayed and everything before his eyes blurred.

Tears were welling up.

When he heard about this from Ding Yi’s mouth, his heart refused to believe it no matter what. After settling matters in the capital, he hurried over in a panic, waiting on the road just to ask for the full story.

Everyone had many sides.

He was very clear that the side Huairen showed them wasn’t his entirety, but at least there had been some genuine brotherhood there.

Yet he never expected that this bit of brotherly affection was, in Huairen’s eyes, just a one-sided joke between him and Xie Fifty.

“Don’t cry, Young Master Pei.”

Li Buyan patted his shoulder. “Just consider it being bitten by a dog.”

It was better not to comfort him. Once comforted, Pei Xiao’s tears flowed even more fiercely, impossible to stop.

His reasons for not leaving the capital with Xie Fifty included his parents, but also the factor of Zhao Huairen.

With Xie Fifty gone, Huairen would only have him as a good brother left. In the future when Huairen suffered grievances, he could still talk to him about it. When he encountered matters, he could still discuss them with him.

Everyone said that sitting on the imperial throne meant being alone in the world.

He thought that with him there, at least Huairen wouldn’t truly live as one alone in the world.

“Mingting, you really don’t need to be sad.”

Yan Sanhe smiled coldly without a sound.

“You just need to think about what kind of person he is, whose blood flows in his veins, and you’ll understand why at such a young age he would scheme against the Zheng family.

You’ll also understand where his heartlessness in killing even Xie Zhifei comes from. If he had shown even a bit of mercy, he wouldn’t have survived to this day.”

The phrase “wouldn’t have survived to this day” not only enlightened Pei Xiao but also cleared Xie Zhifei’s spiritual platform.

The struggle for the throne was either your death or my survival. It was all about who was more ruthless.

Seeing their expressions ease slightly, Yan Sanhe continued: “Moreover, now is not the time to be sad. We need to think of countermeasures—what should our next step be?”

Hearing this, Pei Xiao quickly wiped away his tears.

“Yan Sanhe, I forgot to tell you something. Yesterday many people came to the estate. They all dreamed you were in danger. Their ancestors underground told them to come help you.”

Xie Zhifei was shocked. “Who all came?”

Pei Xiao: “Zhu Laoda, Ji Haidong, Han Xu, Xue Zhao, Master Huiru.”

“And me!”

Li Buyan stepped forward: “Just now in the carriage I took a nap and dreamed of my mother. My mother said Miss Yan was in danger and told me to help from the side.”

When she woke up, she found it strange—how did Mother know Yan Sanhe was in danger? Could she sense it from the other world?

“Yan Sanhe, all these people are ones you’ve helped.”

Pei Xiao nodded. “That’s what the old monk calls karma.”

“It’s not really karma, just that they owe me.”

Pei Xiao suddenly thought of how his uncle, before resolving his heart demon, promised to help Yan Sanhe with one matter. He immediately understood what “owe” meant.

Just then, Yan Sanhe suddenly sighed. “This way, I’ll have to change my plan.”

What?

She already had a plan?

Three gazes simultaneously turned to look at Yan Sanhe.