By the time things had progressed to this point, Gui Yuanshu already felt himself to be a bystander. Not that the matter had little to do with him — it would be more accurate to say it had nothing to do with him at all.

He appeared to be drifting in thought, yet in the short time available, he had gone over everything once more.

His final conclusion was this: setting aside everyone else and speaking only of Yun Xiazhao — if she had wished it, Gui Yuanshu and the others would have died many times over by now.

A person has only one life. The difference between dying once and dying many times over was simply… that the latter sounded considerably more humiliating.

“How did you manage it?”

Old Sun asked Gui Yuanshu.

Gui Yuanshu said, “Manage what?”

Old Sun said, “You just went and peeked at her bathing, and somehow she got stronger? Did being seen unlock some divine power dormant in her body?”

Gui Yuanshu said, “You really should cut back on those story books — especially the ones full of supernatural beings and miraculous phenomena.”

Old Sun sighed. “She knows who you are, and she knows who I am — but we don’t know who she is.”

While the two of them spoke, Yun Xiazhao was looking at Pei Bancheng with a smile — a smile that raised every hair on his body.

Two maidservants brought a chair and placed it behind Yun Xiazhao, who settled into it while continuing to talk. “No wonder every person aspires to be a victor. The feeling of victory is genuinely pleasant. No wonder victors always feel the need to say something — if I didn’t say something in this moment, it would feel like something was missing.”

She asked Pei Bancheng, “After working as a spy for so long, has doing it from one side no longer satisfied you? Is that why you decided to work two sides? Three sides?”

The corners of Pei Bancheng’s mouth twitched, but he said nothing.

“Feeling lost, aren’t you?”

Yun Xiazhao laughed — all the manner of a young girl, for she was indeed not very old.

“But I won’t tell you. Which means you will suffer. I can only warn you: you know what becomes of traitors. The methods you once used to punish them — I will use them all on you now.”

She turned to look at Gui Yuanshu. “Do you see? He is trying to provoke me right now. Remember this: when someone who has already been defeated tries to provoke you, if you let yourself be angered, you give them satisfaction. That is the only way a person who has lost everything can feel any sense of triumph.”

Gui Yuanshu stood there stunned. Is she lecturing me?

I was the Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review. This is literally my profession. You think I’d be provoked by a prisoner’s tricks?

I am now the Supreme Commander of the Intelligence Forces. This is still my profession. And you’re lecturing me on it?

On what possible grounds?

Yun Xiazhao said to him with great seriousness, “He has lost everything — utterly and completely defeated. Provoking the winner is the only thing left to him that could bring any comfort. And to be provoked by this as a winner is deeply irrational.”

Then she turned back to Pei Bancheng. “But you truly have provoked me.”

Yun Xiazhao rose. She signaled to a maidservant to move the chair back a short distance, and she stepped back a few paces before sitting again.

She said, “First pin the four limbs. Then gouge out the eyes. Be careful — not too much blood. I dislike it.”

And so her people moved in and pressed Pei Bancheng down to the ground. Four held down his four limbs. Two more came forward carrying long iron spikes and hammers, and amid a rhythmic hammering, drove the spikes through Pei Bancheng’s hands and feet into the ground.

Before the spikes were driven in, thick towels were laid over each of Pei Bancheng’s four limbs and doused with oil.

By the time all the spikes had been driven in, Pei Bancheng’s cries had already grown hoarse.

Then — someone produced a fire stick and set the towels alight. What had been poured on them was indeed oil, and the towels caught flame quickly. The sharp, acrid smell of scorching began to fill the air.

But in this way — indeed — very little blood flowed out.

Once the spikes had been driven through and the man was pinned immobile, the one holding the dagger stepped forward to gouge out Pei Bancheng’s eyes. But through the extremity of pain, Pei Bancheng suddenly came back to himself.

“You are not a court agent — you are definitely not a court agent!” Pei Bancheng screamed. “You want to dispose of me here so the court’s people won’t find out. Even though you mobilized a military force… you are…”

He had not finished speaking when a maidservant strode over and drove a kick into his mouth, sending his words straight back down his throat.

At that moment, a palanquin entered from the front. Everyone present immediately bowed the instant they saw it.

Yun Xiazhao appeared genuinely startled. She quickly rose and went to receive it.

From inside the palanquin, a woman’s voice, cold and clear, said, “Why must doing a simple task be made so complicated? Finish cleaning this up quickly. Zhaoer — come with me to the back courtyard.”

With that, the several burly men carrying the palanquin went straight toward the back courtyard. Yun Xiazhao stuck out her tongue and, head bowed, followed after.

Old Sun bumped Gui Yuanshu with his shoulder. “That little woman of yours looks like a sheltered girl who’s never known the world — but she has quite the ruthless streak.”

Gui Yuanshu said, “What I fear now is that… you and I are about to…”

Old Sun said, “Pfft pfft pfft — that’s bad luck, take it back, take it back. Bad omens don’t come true but good ones do. You take that back right now. May the gods and spirits of all four directions not take heed — this man was talking nonsense. Let only the wicked among us die; spare the virtuous. May misfortune befall others and not us, the innocent bystanders.”

While the two of them were talking, those cold-faced, expressionless men had already stepped forward and wound rope around the necks of everyone who had been brought in — Pei Bancheng included.

Before long, every last one of them had been strangled.

Pei Bancheng — once a great power in the shadow networks of Daxing City and a key figure within Shanhe Seal — was dead, strangled like the rest.

And so the whole thing took on an even more surreal, almost dreamlike quality.

Gui Yuanshu felt a sudden impulse to go over and check — to see whether those people were real, and whether they were truly dead.

After all the captives had been killed, columns of armored soldiers began to withdraw, and those skilled, formidable-looking guards retreated as well.

The courtyard was left with nothing but a ground full of corpses, and Gui Yuanshu and Old Sun, whom no one gave any attention to.

While the two of them stood in a daze, two figures came from the back courtyard carrying a corpse dressed in a eunuch’s robes, tossed it over among the other bodies, then departed quietly.

A moment later, Gui Yuanshu suddenly snapped to awareness, as if something had just struck him. He ran quickly to the pile of corpses.

Old Sun watched with a look of astonishment as Gui Yuanshu rifled through Pei Bancheng’s clothing, then ran over to check the eunuch’s body, then checked the others as well.

Old Sun watched until Gui Yuanshu returned empty-handed.

Old Sun said, “Didn’t find a single copper coin?”

Gui Yuanshu said, “You’re the money-obsessed one — why would I go rummaging through dead men’s pockets for coins? I was looking for the imperial edicts. Can’t you see what’s right in front of you? Pei Bancheng’s people, plus a eunuch — that means Pei Bancheng probably got his hands on the goods.”

Old Sun said, “Fair enough.”

Gui Yuanshu turned around and went back, searching through them one by one.

Old Sun said, “Imperial edicts are big and unwieldy — not small scraps of paper. How could you fail to find them?”

Gui Yuanshu said, “This time I’m looking for money.”

Old Sun: “…”

Before long, Gui Yuanshu came back with a considerable number of money pouches. He stuffed them all into his clothing, leaving his midsection visibly lumpy and round.

Old Sun said, “You just said our fate might be the same as theirs.”

Gui Yuanshu patted his belly. “In that case, I’d gladly die this way.”

Both of them were not merely at a loss — they were also, in a word, awkward. Because genuinely, no one was paying them any attention whatsoever.

But they were also certain they could not leave. The archers on the courtyard walls were still there and watching them with sharp, vigilant eyes. The people at the main gate were still there too, standing in neat formation like a solid wall.

Ignored, yet not permitted to leave. The situation could not have been stranger.

Old Sun sat down on the steps. “That girl looks like a blank sheet of paper, and yet acts with such ruthlessness. You’ll have your hands full in the future.”

Gui Yuanshu said, “What does that have to do with me? She’s simply toying with me from a position of victory — the same way she toyed with Pei Bancheng. That’s all.”

Just as he said this, Yun Xiazhao came back from the rear courtyard, hands clasped behind her back.

She was wearing her snow-white floor-length skirt, and paid not the slightest heed to the state of the courtyard. She sat down right next to Gui Yuanshu.

Quite close.

Gui Yuanshu instinctively shifted away. Having just witnessed this woman’s methods firsthand, and now looking again at that face — the most purely beautiful face in the world — he finally understood the meaning of the phrase “a serpent’s heart in an angel’s face.”

Yun Xiazhao saw him move away, and was still not bothered. She spoke in a particularly gentle tone. “Promise me you’ll treat me well, and I’ll tell you everything.”

Gui Yuanshu said, “Miss, have you had enough fun?”

Yun Xiazhao said, “You don’t believe me?”

Gui Yuanshu said, “Why should I believe you?”

Yun Xiazhao said, “Because when you were at Yun Su Tower, you didn’t touch me. Even though you were alone with me in a room, you didn’t lay a finger on me.”

Yun Xiazhao looked Gui Yuanshu in the eyes. “That was the first time I had ever seen a man so… untainted. When you looked at me, there was no desire in your eyes. You were different from every other man I had ever encountered.”

Gui Yuanshu said, “Just because of that?”

Yun Xiazhao said, “Just because of that — though that is only one of the reasons, not all of them.”

Gui Yuanshu said, “Then you may have misread the situation. It’s not that I had no desire — it’s that I’m not capable. I’ve been incapable since I was six years old. If you don’t want to kill us, then release us. Otherwise, just go ahead and do it.”

The corners of Old Sun’s mouth were twitching.

He thought: what a complete fool. If she actually wanted to kill you, would she be sitting right next to you like this?

At this distance, she might as well be handing her life over to you.

He thought about how he would never allow any child of his to grow up to be this dim-witted — then thought again, and supposed that even if he married a pig, a pig could not produce a child this stupid.

Then he thought of the woman in violet, and thought: forgive me, forgive me. You are of course not a pig.

And then a flicker of sadness passed through his eyes and was gone.

You are of course not a pig. You would of course never marry me either.

Yun Xiazhao rose to her feet and took Gui Yuanshu by the hand. “Come. I’ll take you to meet someone. Once you meet them, you’ll understand everything.”

Gui Yuanshu asked, “Who?”