The person who entered was Yun Dong.

Long before the Grand Marshal Luo got into trouble, Yun Dong had been locked up. During this time, Ping Li had even gone to see him.

The Yun Dong he’d seen had disheveled hair and a wretched appearance, sitting in a dark corner in a daze, like a rat living in a sewage ditch.

He’d entertained thoughts of murder, but considering that his adoptive father’s matter hadn’t yet been concluded, he hadn’t acted.

Yet the Yun Dong now standing before him was in high spirits. Apart from being slightly thinner, there was no trace of wretchedness about him.

Ping Li’s face turned cold. He stood up and took the initiative to attack. “Fifth Brother, you actually defied our adoptive father’s orders and forced your way out. What audacity!”

Yun Dong said coldly, “Not as audacious as eldest brother.”

Ping Li froze. “What do you mean?”

He instinctively looked toward the Grand Marshal.

The Grand Marshal was also looking at him.

“Adoptive Father—” Ping Li called out as an ominous premonition arose within him.

“Ping Li, how have I treated you all these years?” the Grand Marshal asked.

Though the Grand Marshal’s tone was gentle, that ominous premonition only grew stronger.

Ping Li steadied his mind and lowered his head. “Adoptive Father has treated this son as if I were your own flesh and blood.”

“Do you still remember how you became my adopted son?”

Ping Li’s head bowed even lower. “I remember. That year, this son was only eight years old, a little beggar on the streets of the capital. One day, a kind person placed a meat bun in my bowl, and many other beggars rushed over to fight for it. To protect that meat bun, I fought desperately with them, biting down on one man’s arm and refusing to let go no matter what, directly tearing a chunk of flesh from his arm. I was also beaten half to death by them. That’s when adoptive father appeared and took me away…”

From then on, he’d followed at his adoptive father’s side, reading books and practicing martial arts, becoming the adopted son of the Jinlin Guard Commander whom everyone respected and feared. That period as a beggar was like a dream, gradually forgotten.

No—it had never actually been forgotten.

Over the years, even now, he would occasionally wake from nightmares. In them, he was still that fatherless, motherless little beggar who, no matter how hard he tried, couldn’t even protect a single meat bun.

After waking, his desire to climb upward would only grow stronger.

He never wanted to fall back to the lowest level to be slaughtered at will. Climb up, climb higher… climb high enough to grasp his own destiny and not be knocked to the ground by someone’s single word, smashed to pieces.

“So you do remember.” Staring at the bowing young man, the Grand Marshal’s tone carried some emotion, as if he too had fallen into reminiscence. “I still remember you were only this tall back then—”

Ping Li instinctively looked up.

The Grand Marshal gestured with his hand, his lips curved in a faint smile. “Just that small, looking like a skinny little rat. At the time, I was amazed that such a small child had that kind of ruthlessness, letting so many people punch and kick him but still biting down on the beggar who’d snatched your meat bun and refusing to let go. I thought, this child is good. If raised properly, he might become a fine helper for me…”

Ping Li listened with lowered eyes, complex emotions in their depths, his body growing increasingly tense.

The Grand Marshal’s voice sounded in his ears, sometimes near, sometimes far. “After bringing you back, I learned you were actually already eight years old, not the five or six I’d assumed. But you were even more clever than I’d thought. Though you’d never studied, you quickly learned to recognize many characters. Your talent in martial arts wasn’t outstanding, but you were extremely diligent. In the blink of an eye, three to five years passed, and gradually you could help me with tasks…”

Having raised one adopted son who was intelligent and diligent, who looked up to and relied on him with childlike devotion, he went on to raise a second, a third…

He’d raised them to adulthood, raised their ambitions and the disasters they would bring.

The smile at the Grand Marshal’s lips turned bitter as he stared directly at Ping Li. “Ping Li, have I ever treated you unfairly all these years?”

Ping Li suddenly dropped to his knees, his taut tone revealing a trace of panic. “For adoptive father to ask this leaves this son ashamed beyond measure.”

The Grand Marshal’s face suddenly turned cold as he shouted sternly, “You should indeed be ashamed!”

The ground was icy and bone-chilling. Ping Li clenched his fists tightly, veins bulging on the backs of his hands.

The ominous premonition became reality in this moment.

Of course he was unwilling to accept it.

“Adoptive Father, this son doesn’t understand your meaning. All these years, this son has been utterly loyal to you. I don’t know what incident has occurred to make you so furious—”

“Don’t know?” The Grand Marshal sneered and pointed at Yun Dong. “I thought upon seeing your fifth brother, you would understand.”

Ping Li looked at Yun Dong, doing his utmost to appear composed. “Wasn’t Fifth Brother locked up by you for plotting to harm Third Miss? For him to appear without your permission—this son feels Fifth Brother has been far too presumptuous.”

At this point, Yun Dong spoke. “Does eldest brother truly believe the person locked up was me?”

Ping Li froze.

He had been to the cell where Yun Dong was imprisoned, naturally going with the bearing of a victor.

That had clearly been Yun Dong.

Though Yun Dong hadn’t spoken to him at the time and was disheveled and filthy, he was confident he couldn’t have been mistaken.

They’d been brothers for so many years, after all.

“Is Fifth Brother perhaps joking with me? If the person locked up wasn’t you, who else could it have been?”

Yun Dong was not one for smiles, yet now the corners of his mouth curved slightly upward. “I don’t know who it was.”

He looked at Ping Li kneeling at the Grand Marshal’s feet, his eyes full of disgust, as he said word by word, “I went south.”

Ping Li’s expression changed dramatically as he stared fixedly at Yun Dong.

“A traveling merchant reported to Magistrate Liu Qing that a certain town resident was actually a guard from Prince Zhennan’s residence that was wiped out twelve years ago. After our people learned of this information, they immediately dispatched someone to rush the news to the capital by fast horse. But the person sent to deliver the message was intercepted and killed…”

Ping Li looked at Yun Dong, his expression inscrutable.

Yun Dong met his gaze, his expression cold. “The two people who intercepted and killed the messenger were being monitored by me. I captured those two and interrogated them. Eldest brother, guess what I learned?”

Ping Li didn’t speak. The veins bulging on his clenched fists only grew more prominent.

The cold seeping from his knees was nothing compared to the chill in his heart.

That was ice formed from a condensation of shock, chagrin, fear, unwillingness, and countless other emotions, freezing him until he couldn’t breathe, as if he’d fallen into an icy hell.

When had his adoptive father begun to suspect him? And how had he so imperceptibly dispatched Yun Dong south?

Looking at Ping Li kneeling on the ground, Yun Dong said coldly, “Eldest brother’s capabilities are impressive. The Jinling Prefecture area was originally under my control, yet you arranged your people in there long ago. Some even infiltrated to become my trusted subordinates. In terms of ability, this little brother is thoroughly inferior.”

Ping Li’s lips drew taut. “Adoptive Father, since you’ve grown suspicious of this son, why did you still send me to Jinsha County months ago to bring young master back?”

The Grand Marshal smiled. “Ping Li, you’re also considered an intelligent man. Can you really not figure it out?”

Ping Li looked up at the Grand Marshal, his face growing increasingly pale.

So his adoptive father had suspected him even then. That’s why, of the two assignments—Yun Dong went to suppress bandits along the route while he went to fetch Luo Chen back to the capital.

If he personally went to fetch him, he couldn’t allow anything to happen to Luo Chen.

What fine calculations his adoptive father had made!

The Grand Marshal looked at the young man kneeling before him and sighed. “What a pity that cleverness can be undone by cleverness. Men, take Ping Li down!”