In the corner of a narrow alley stood a public outhouse. With so many passersby making use of it and no one to clean it regularly, the stench could be detected from a considerable distance.

A young officer shone his flashlight at the ground. “Captain Zheng, look — there’s blood here. Quite a lot of it.”

Zheng Yun pushed through the smell and stepped forward. The filthy floor of the outhouse was indeed covered in bloodstains, and there were splatter marks on the walls as well.

By the beam of the flashlight, Yan Qing frowned. “With this much blood loss, whoever this was almost certainly didn’t survive.”

She was suddenly struck by a chilling thought. Wen Yan had come here to use the facilities before encountering those men — could this blood belong to her?

But then she closed her fingers around the brooch in her hand. This brooch had fallen at the scene of the struggle. Wen Yan was a frail young woman. If she had suffered injuries this severe, she would never have been able to run so far, and yet there had been no trail of blood drops along the way.

This blood probably wasn’t Wen Yan’s.

If it wasn’t Wen Yan’s, then perhaps Wen Yan had stumbled into this disaster because she had witnessed something that was never meant to be seen — something like a murder.

That, however, was only Yan Qing’s speculation. What Wen Yan had truly encountered, only she and Murong knew.

Thinking of Murong, whose fate was still uncertain, Yan Qing sighed quietly.

Zheng Yun led his men through another careful examination of the scene. Beyond the vicious needle, they found nothing.

It was clear that the perpetrators had been trained. They killed and left no traces.

“Captain Zheng, it’s too dark to find anything useful right now. How about we seal off the scene and come back at first light tomorrow?”

Zheng Yun thought it over and nodded. Continuing to search blindly was indeed a waste of effort.

Once the military police sealed off the scene, Yan Qing asked Zheng Yun to take her to the hospital. Concerned, Zheng Yun accompanied her personally.

When they arrived, Murong was still in the emergency room. Jing Zhi stood at the door with her hands pressed over her face, weeping softly.

Dihuai and Fugang had offered her a few words of comfort, but she seemed unable to hear them. It was only when Yan Qing arrived that Jing Zhi ran to her, clutching her and sobbing so hard she could barely breathe.

“That’s enough now. No more crying — this is a hospital; we must keep quiet.” Yan Qing dabbed at the corners of her own eyes and gently patted Jing Zhi.

Although Murong and Jing Zhi were merely her maids, she had never truly regarded them as servants. Now that something had happened to Murong, her heart ached as though it had been cut.

“Miss, Murong will be all right, won’t she?” Jing Zhi lifted her tear-streaked face and looked up at her with pitiful eyes.

“Yes, she will.” Yan Qing took out her handkerchief and wiped the girl’s face. “Do you trust what I say?”

“I do.” Jing Zhi nodded vigorously. “Whatever you say, I believe.”

Yan Qing had always been the anchor of Jing Zhi’s world, and the girl harbored a reverence for her that came from somewhere deep in her soul.

As the two of them spoke, the door of the emergency room swung open. A doctor removed his mask and walked out. Seeing the corridor crowded with people, he blinked twice. “Who is the next of kin?”

Yan Qing stepped forward. “I am.”

“The patient’s injuries are serious. Fortunately, her life has been preserved, but she has not yet regained consciousness. She will need to be observed for some time.”

At the words her life has been preserved, Yan Qing and everyone else let out a long, collective breath of relief.

Murong might be a maid, but no one here thought lightly of her life.

“Thank you, Doctor.” Yan Qing glanced through the door of the emergency room and saw Murong lying on the hospital bed, her body wrapped in bandages, her eyes tightly shut.

“Oh yes — we found this in the patient’s hand.” The doctor placed a small, glittering object into Yan Qing’s palm. “When she was brought in for emergency treatment, one of the nurses noticed that her right hand had been clenched tightly the entire time. It took considerable effort to pry her fingers open.”

Yan Qing looked at the object in her hand. It was a badge. At its center was a gate of peculiar shape, its two upper corners carved with several skulls — an unsettling sight.

“This is a Xing Gang badge.” Zheng Yun identified it at a glance.

“Xing Gang?” Yan Qing recalled the men who had once pursued Long Yunxiao — they had been members of Xing Gang, and their leader went by the name Ximen, if she remembered correctly.

In Shun Cheng, Xing Gang was the only gang capable of rivaling the Long Yun Society. The two factions had been locked in fierce rivalry for years, and ever since Xing Gang’s new leader had taken the helm, the conflict between them had reached a fever pitch.

“It seems Murong deliberately pulled this badge free during the struggle, intending to tell us who attacked her.” Though they now knew the identity of the perpetrators, Zheng Yun’s brow remained furrowed.

The military police maintained a policy of non-interference with the various gangs of Shun Cheng. No matter how much blood was shed in their internal disputes, it was not the military police’s place to intervene.

Unless a gang filed a complaint with the military police — but no gang in the middle of a turf war would ever invite that kind of trouble on themselves.

The way Long Yunxiao carried himself around Shi Ting made it clear enough: these people were not afraid of the military police. They simply preferred to avoid unnecessary complications.

“Xing Gang has a wide reach,” Zheng Yun said. “It won’t be easy to locate those who took part in tonight’s attack.”

Yan Qing was well aware of the relationship between the gangs and the military police. If Shi Ting were in Shun Cheng, he might be able to intercede. But he had gone out of town at precisely the wrong moment.

“Miss Yan, I’ll head back to headquarters now and make arrangements. Even without Seventh Brother, the military police still carries some weight.”

Yan Qing was genuinely grateful. “Thank you for the trouble, Captain Zheng.”

Then another thought surfaced. “Wen Yan and Murong were attacked together. Why did these men only injure Murong and take Wen Yan away?”

She was convinced that these people had intended to kill Murong — they simply hadn’t expected her to hold on to her life with such tenacity.

“It was Wen Yan who had gone to use the facilities. If anyone witnessed the killing, it should have been her. Logically, she would have been the one they needed to silence.”

Zheng Yun nodded. “That’s true. There must be a reason they took Miss Wen instead.”

He glanced toward the emergency room. “Perhaps Murong can tell us — but who knows when she’ll wake up.”

“Do you think Murong might have struck a deal with them to protect Wen Yan’s life?”

“That’s possible.”

“If they’re after money, they wouldn’t kill Wen Yan outright. They might force her to provide her family’s contact information and use that to demand a ransom.”

“These gang members have never been known for keeping their word,” Zheng Yun said. “Even if they received the money, they’d still kill Miss Wen.”

This was exactly what Yan Qing feared. What worried her even more was whether a young woman like Wen Yan, now in the hands of a pack of ruthless criminals, could emerge from this unscathed.

So while waiting for these men to show up demanding money, they had to find her location as quickly as possible.

After Zheng Yun left, Yan Qing sat outside the emergency room and sank into thought.

Dihuai stood nearby, not daring to disturb her.

“Fugang, go back to the Yan Mansion and inform my father and uncle. They should be mentally prepared — if someone truly comes to demand a ransom tomorrow, I don’t want them caught off guard.”

“Yes, Sixth Miss.” Fugang bowed and departed.

Yan Qing turned to Dihuai. “Have Jing Zhi stay here to look after Murong. Come with me — we need to go out.”

“Miss, where are you going?” Jing Zhi asked anxiously.

Her greatest fear right now was that Yan Qing would run into trouble. What had happened to Murong had left her as skittish as a frightened bird.

“Dihuai will be with me. Nothing will happen.” Yan Qing offered a few reassuring words. “Take good care of Murong.”

Jing Zhi agreed through her tears.

Dihuai pushed Yan Qing’s wheelchair out of the hospital. A full moon hung in the sky, brilliant and radiant.

It was ten o’clock at night, but owing to the Lantern Festival, the streets were far from quiet. Many people were still strolling back from the lantern fair in small groups, chatting and laughing in the glow of their paper lanterns.

“Miss, where are we going?” Dihuai asked.

“To the Long Mansion.”

Dihuai was taken aback. “Miss wants to see Mr. Long?”

Yan Qing understood that the odds of Wen Yan surviving in the hands of those people were slim. She had to do everything she could to find her. Apart from the military police, the only person she could think of with connections to the gangs was Long Yunxiao.

Whether Long Yunxiao would help her or not, she had to try — for Wen Yan’s sake.

“Perhaps the one who knows Xing Gang best is not Xing Gang itself, but its deadliest rival. I have no connections within Xing Gang, so the only option is to approach Long Yunxiao.” Yan Qing sighed softly. “Whether he helps or not, I have to try. I can’t abandon Wen Yan.”

Dihuai said nothing more. Though he knew little about Long Yunxiao personally, the man’s name was well known throughout the city. He was a gang figure — and what kind of existence the gangs represented in Shun Cheng needed no explanation. Ordinary families kept well clear of any association with them.

Without further objection, Dihuai hurried to bring the car around.

By the time he returned, Yan Qing had already settled herself into the vehicle. Those around her knew she could now move without the wheelchair — they saw nothing surprising in it.

Dihuai understood perfectly well: the Sixth Miss no longer truly depended on the wheelchair. Her legs were simply slower than before and tired easily, which was why she continued to use it. And as she herself had once put it, the chair helped her see people more clearly — people like those waiting for a disabled woman to marry into the Shi Family and make a fool of herself.

The car arrived at the Long Mansion before long. Yan Qing had been afraid Long Yunxiao might not be home, but when she saw the lights glowing from within, she quietly exhaled with relief.

Two men in black stood guard at the entrance of the Long Mansion like a pair of door gods. When they saw the car approaching, they immediately turned, watching it with sharp vigilance.

After the previous assassination attempt, security around Long Yunxiao had been significantly tightened. He no longer went anywhere alone.

Once Dihuai brought the car to a stop, he walked briskly to the gate. The two guards fixed him with a piercing stare that could have bored holes through him.

“Would you please announce us? Our Sixth Miss wishes to see Mr. Long.”

—