Shen Lingzhen slept straight through until nightfall, only waking when Jianjia came to report that Young Master Meng had quietly arrived at the residence.

Huo Liuxing’s fever hadn’t fully subsided and he was sleeping too deeply—even with all this commotion he didn’t stir. Shen Lingzhen couldn’t bear to wake him, so she got down from the bed herself, performed simple ablutions, and ushered Meng Qufei inside, saying in a low voice: “Why has Young Master Meng come? Could your movements have been discovered by anyone?”

At this critical juncture, they truly needed to keep their tails between their legs.

Meng Qufei very cooperatively answered in a breathy voice: “I heard cousin nearly died, so I came to look in on him. Sister-in-law can rest assured about how I handle matters—I took the hidden routes, and those tailing me all think I’m still in Mingchao Hall listening to music.”

Shen Lingzhen couldn’t very well take issue with his inauspicious phrasing about dying or not dying, and quickly closed the door behind him: “My lord is still sleeping. Come in first.”

Meng Qufei followed her inside, circled around the screen, lifted a corner of the coverlet over Huo Liuxing, glanced at his terrible injuries, and shook his head with “tsk tsk” sounds: “Haven’t even had a child yet, and already this old waist is done for.”

Huo Liuxing woke at exactly the right moment. Opening his eyes to see that gloating face, his counterattack was quite swift: “Better than having a waist with nowhere to use it.”

Meng Qufei choked.

Since reaching adulthood, the Emperor had successively arranged several concubines for him—ostensibly rewards, actually for surveillance and control. He couldn’t possibly have children with these women, but simply went with the flow of lying drunk among beauties, putting on an act with them.

Of course, the Emperor also had no intention of letting him leave heirs. These concubines were all incapable of bearing children. His delay in taking a principal wife, presenting himself to the public as a dissolute playboy lingering among flowers, was also deliberately calculated to reassure the Emperor.

Meng Qufei turned to look at Shen Lingzhen: “Hey, sister-in-law, look—I kindly come to show concern for his life and death, and this is what he says to me?”

Shen Lingzhen’s face flushed from their banter. Saying she would fetch Huo Liuxing’s evening meal and medicine, she hastily turned and left.

Meng Qufei glanced at her, noticing not only was her face red, but her lips were somewhat swollen as well. Looking at the same area on Huo Liuxing, he let out an “aiyou” and cupped his hands: “I was ‘looking down on people with dog eyes’—you’re still vigorous in old age, with ambitions reaching to the heavens.”

Huo Liuxing unconsciously moved his lips.

Before sleeping, having finally been able to do this mutually agreeable thing, he had lingered too long with Shen Lingzhen. The traces on his mouth hadn’t completely faded yet, so naturally this old hand Meng Qufei saw through it at a glance.

Huo Liuxing glanced at him: “Don’t say this in front of her.”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. She’s thin-skinned, so I’ll shut up right now and pretend I saw nothing.”

Meng Qufei quickly stopped joking around.

When Shen Lingzhen entered the room, she heard him exclaim in surprise: “How could that be? Does that mean that person is also still alive?”

She set the porridge bowl and medicine bowl on the table, then heard Huo Liuxing behind her drawing in breath and saying slowly: “I received Divine Physician Luo’s treatment. If he was alone wandering the wilderness with this kind of injury, I’m afraid he still couldn’t have escaped death.”

Hearing this, Shen Lingzhen caught on. While bringing salt water for Huo Liuxing to rinse his mouth, she asked: “Are you talking about my life-saving benefactor?”

Meng Qufei nodded: “Sister-in-law, is cousin’s injury truly the same as that person’s?”

“Yes, I also find it strange.” Shen Lingzhen said in puzzlement, “How could there be such a coincidence in this world? Could using a curved-head axe to chop someone’s waist be Ya Lichong’s habitual technique, and my benefactor was also injured by him previously?”

This question stumped the two normally brilliant minds.

After rinsing his mouth, Huo Liuxing said: “It is indeed his habitual technique, but he couldn’t possibly have appeared in Bianjing at that time.”

It wouldn’t be surprising for such a Xiqiang person to slip into the border regions, but for this person to fight his way through checkpoints and infiltrate Bianjing without a sound—that would be far too dismissive of Daqi.

Meng Qufei muttered: “Moreover, martial exchanges don’t depend on just one side. When this axe strike landed, though cousin was hit, he also took evasive action to minimize damage. If it were someone else responding, they might not coincidentally achieve identical results.”

So according to common sense, if identical results could be achieved, not only would the attacker have to be Ya Lichong, but the victim would also have to be Huo Liuxing.

“Cousin, do you have some body-splitting technique you’ve hidden for years and haven’t told me about?”

Huo Liuxing shot him a glare sharp as a knife: “If I had one, would I still need to lie here talking to you?”

Shen Lingzhen sat by the bedside holding the porridge bowl: “Since you know you need to lie down, don’t show off and speak less fiercely.”

Just as Huo Liuxing opened his mouth to retort, she stuffed a spoonful of porridge in, choking back his words.

Meng Qufei clutched his belly laughing at his defeat: “Sister-in-law is right. Having finally crawled out of the coffin, you’d better behave yourself.”

Huo Liuxing swallowed a mouthful of porridge: “You’re just hoping I’ll lie back in it.”

“Hey, you know what,” Meng Qufei slapped his thigh, “when I first got the news last night, I really was thinking—if you died like this, it wouldn’t be so bad. I’d immediately find my old wet nurse and have her trick everyone into thinking you were actually the Meng family’s master. Then I could live carefree and happy.”

Shen Lingzhen’s feeding motion paused as she listened in astonishment: “What does this mean?”

Just as Huo Liuxing was about to explain, Meng Qufei raised his palm in a stopping gesture: “Drink your porridge. I’ll explain to sister-in-law.”

Shen Lingzhen listened carefully to his words and only then learned that when Meng Qufei’s mother gave birth to him, she died in childbirth. After his birth, he relied entirely on a wet nurse for feeding. At that time, the Huo family wanted to substitute Huo Liuxing for Meng Qufei to face the danger, so they had this wet nurse carry Huo Liuxing to the capital, but halfway there they were discovered and intercepted.

This wet nurse, feeling guilty for not completing what the Huo family entrusted to her, returned Huo Liuxing and then left the Huo family, returning to the Hexi countryside.

What Meng Qufei was saying now was that if Huo Liuxing died, restoration would likely be mostly hopeless. But having struggled for so many years, without a complete bloody defeat, it would be impossible to just stop. So they might as well find the most crucial person with knowledge from back then and have her tell a lie, making the former dynasty loyalists lurking in Bianjing’s court mistakenly believe the two children had actually been successfully switched.

As long as the master was gone, naturally everyone wouldn’t need to risk their lives or make more sacrifices. Meng Qufei could also slip away like a cicada shedding its shell and become a truly incompetent wastrel.

Huo Liuxing curled his lips: “Your calculations are quite clever, but unfortunately I don’t want to die yet. If you’re tired of doing this, don’t borrow my momentum—go hang yourself and end it all.”

“That won’t do. I still want to live well, marry a wife and have children!”

Want to live well but also want to unload the burden from his shoulders? Huo Liuxing eyed him: “You think all the good things in the world can be yours alone?”

“If not for me, then for you?”

“You two, stop daydreaming!” Shen Lingzhen couldn’t stand listening to the two of them bicker like three-year-olds and admonished: “You rarely get to meet face-to-face. You should discuss serious matters. How can you waste time and energy on meaningless quarrels? My lord has suffered severe injuries now. Though he needn’t attend court every three days like ordinary ministers, he still can’t avoid the grand court assemblies twice a month. Will he be able to endure it then? You two need to think of solutions.”

The two people immersed in brief fantasies both let out sighs simultaneously.

Naturally Huo Liuxing had thought of solutions. He had people spread news that Ya Lichong was attacked and the assassin’s waist and abdomen were slashed, precisely to avoid the Emperor’s investigation.

Originally, upon receiving Ya Lichong’s report, the Emperor might have tested several suspects to confirm whether they were injured. But now that batch of important military generals at court had all received this news. Once the Emperor made a testing move, they would surely discover his intentions. Thus, innocent military generals would develop rifts with him due to the Emperor’s distrust.

Considering this, the naturally suspicious Emperor would conclude that this so-called assassin might not truly exist, but was more likely fabricated by Ya Lichong to sow discord between him and the court’s military generals.

In any case, Ya Lichong wasn’t actually injured, and this matter hadn’t produced too adverse an effect on relations between the two countries. The Emperor had no reason to chill his ministers’ hearts for an enemy nation’s general, so although he would officially respond to Ya Lichong saying he would carefully investigate and seek justice for him, privately he wouldn’t implement this matter.

But this didn’t mean Huo Liuxing’s crisis was completely resolved. If he himself exposed a flaw, the Emperor couldn’t possibly turn a blind eye and let it pass.

Meng Qufei said: “The court assembly is easy enough to handle. In seven days it will be the fifteenth of the eighth month—coincidentally the Mid-Autumn holiday. The next grand assembly will be on the first of the ninth month. Given cousin’s constitution, traveling with injuries should already pose no problem by then. What I’m worried about is that in a few days, His Majesty will summon a group of ministers into the palace regarding the Second Prince’s matter.”

Several days had passed since Zhao Rui was secretly detained by the Emperor. To root out his remaining associates, the Court of Judicial Review had been subjecting him to severe torture. Now dissenting voices were spreading through the court, finding it strange why the Second Prince had suddenly shut his doors and not seen anyone for many days, and why the Prince’s residence had also been so quiet these past days with no one seen entering or leaving.

This matter really shouldn’t be delayed further. Regardless of whether Zhao Rui confessed or not, whether he confessed truth or lies, in a few days there should be a conclusion.

And once a conclusion emerged, as a core figure in this case of collaborating with the enemy, Huo Liuxing would inevitably be summoned by the Emperor for questioning.

Meng Qufei said: “At that time, will you go or not?”

“This time I’m afraid there really is no choice,” Huo Liuxing sighed, saying with difficulty, “Second Brother driven to desperation will inevitably make everyone suffer. Even facing death he’ll drag a whole group down with him. The Xue family bears the brunt.”

“Oh, so you’re going to save your romantic rival?” Meng Qufei glanced at Shen Lingzhen with slight mockery.

Huo Liuxing’s face was full of righteousness: “I’m saving the loyal and good.”

Meng Qufei looked at Shen Lingzhen, whose eyes were full of worry, admiration, emotion, and gratitude, and laughed with great delight: “Sister-in-law, don’t listen to him praising himself so emptily. It’s simply that the Emperor summons and he must go. Look how pleased with himself he is, even trying to use this opportunity to win your heart.”

“Meng Qufei,” Unable to move his body, Huo Liuxing could only raise one finger and point at the door. “I’m asking you to leave my home immediately.”