◎He had a sense of familiarity◎

Luo Wanqing moved very quickly. In just an instant, she had leaped across the cliff and severed the rope.

Li Guiyu heard the sound of the rope breaking and knew pursuing her was no longer possible. He simply stared at Xie Heng, asking in confusion: “How are you here?”

As soon as these words left his mouth, Li Guiyu felt something was wrong.

Although he hadn’t been present, he had been receiving reports from his subordinates throughout. Now Zheng Pingsheng was dead, Li Zong had survived an assassination attempt, Zheng Bikui had escaped, and the Zheng family had scattered. At this very moment, Xie Heng had personally come to pursue Luo Wanqing?

Coming personally was one thing, but he had let Luo Wanqing go?!

Luo Wanqing was the murderer who assassinated Zheng Pingsheng. Unless Li Zong intended to completely break with the Zheng clan right now, Li Zong couldn’t protect her.

But if Li Zong intended direct settlement, there would be no need for assassination—he could simply use Luo Wanqing’s case to righteously imprison and execute Zheng Pingsheng.

Choosing assassination meant Li Zong had other calculations—he didn’t want to make a big scene. Perhaps he just wanted to kill the mastermind from back then to vent his anger, or perhaps he wanted to proceed gradually. In any case, Li Zong at least didn’t want to become completely hostile with the Zheng family at this time.

So why was Xie Heng here? For whom?

Countless thoughts flashed through Li Guiyu’s mind in an instant.

He thought of today’s overly grand wedding, that wedding dress prepared for a long time, the fight they had on the day of the imperial marriage decree, and even that night when Luo Wanqing first returned to Eastern Capital—behind the carriage’s light gauze curtains, Xie Heng’s eyes that carried a hint of provocation in their coldness…

Something was wrong.

Li Guiyu suddenly realized—no, Xie Heng was wrong.

His calculations hadn’t been mistaken. He had forced Luo Wanqing into desperate situations every time, yet every time she turned danger into safety.

From the palace banquet marriage proposal to beating the grievance drum, from the dungeon imperial marriage to now—

Every time, there was Xie Heng’s shadow.

“Why are you here?”

Li Guiyu suddenly realized something, his expression gradually losing control. He couldn’t help but step forward and grab Xie Heng’s collar, saying urgently: “She killed Zheng Pingsheng—His Majesty will kill her. Do you know the consequences of letting her go?!”

Hearing this, Xie Heng calmly looked up, only asking: “Are you losing composure because of this?”

Li Guiyu’s movements froze. He looked into the eyes of the person before him—eyes that seemed to see into his heart, words that pierced straight to the core: “Because she has someone else protecting her besides you?”

“What do I have to lose composure about?”

Hearing this, Li Guiyu forced out a difficult smile: “Someone helping her—I’d be happy about that. What do I need to lose composure about?”

“You’re afraid.”

Xie Heng spoke calmly, each word sharp as a blade: “You’re afraid she’ll fall in love with me.”

“Nonsense.” Li Guiyu mocked in rebuttal. “Do you think she could like you? She’s a physician.”

Li Guiyu leaned forward, seriously reminding: “I know her better than you do. She wouldn’t like an executioner who can flay people alive, betray friends, and treat human life as nothing.”

“So you know she won’t love you.”

Xie Heng’s expression remained unchanged, only continuing: “She’s a physician with a naturally kind disposition—how could she like people like you and me? And you, with a wolf’s heart, separated from her by family vengeance—you’re just repeatedly pressing her head down to drown her in water, then becoming her only straw. You think that way, she’ll actively reach out to grab you.”

This time, Li Guiyu finally fell silent. He studied Xie Heng, using ferocity to mask the emotions beneath the thin ice in his eyes. Xie Heng looked at him with pity, only saying: “This is the only way you can keep her now, so you won’t allow any other person to become her straw.”

“So…”

Li Guiyu finally understood. He slowly realized, smiling with bloodthirsty intent: “You want to become her straw?”

“No.” Xie Heng stared at him, saying calmly, “I want her to become the goddess of Luo River—needing no straw.”

Hearing this, Li Guiyu’s breathing became heavy. He looked at the wolfish ambition in the eyes of the person before him, completely undisguised. For some reason, he suddenly felt extremely familiar.

He suddenly thought of someone—someone who used death to make him afraid and fearful, hanging over him like a sharp sword… no, piercing through his body, tormenting him day and night.

He restrained the impulse to kill the person before him, slowly calming down in his rapid breathing.

He stared at Xie Heng like a snake, sensing his extraordinary feelings, stating with certainty: “You covet her.”

Hearing this word, Xie Heng’s eyes showed faint amusement.

He didn’t respond, raising his hand to brush away Li Guiyu’s grip on his collar, turning to pick up his bow and leave.

The sound of horse hooves came from the nearby dense forest. Zitang led people charging urgently: “Your Highness! His Majesty summons you back.”

Li Guiyu ignored Zitang. He watched Xie Heng walk away seemingly without a care, staring at his back, unable to help calling out: “Do you think you can save her?”

Xie Heng paid no attention, stepping outside. Li Guiyu shouted a reminder: “Xie Heng, you are a lone minister! Your entire honor and disgrace rest with my imperial father. If you defy him for one woman, he will surely suspect you! Today is her dead end—no one can save her except me!”

Xie Heng didn’t respond. He walked into the forest, threw the great bow to Zhuque, who had been waiting, and mounted his horse.

“Whether I can protect her,” Xie Heng didn’t look back, directly raising his whip and spurring his horse, “depends on my ability.”

Hearing this, Li Guiyu’s eyes suddenly widened.

A baseless sense of familiarity suddenly spread, as if on that day at Flowing Wind Island when Cui Heng pushed him out of the arrow rain.

He couldn’t let him save Luo Wanqing.

He didn’t know why he would think of Cui Heng at this moment, yet he instinctively felt that today, like that day at Flowing Wind Island, if he let him save Luo Wanqing, something would fundamentally change between the three of them.

He couldn’t let Xie Heng become Luo Wanqing’s straw, couldn’t let Luo Wanqing have another way out.

She only had him.

Only Li Guiyu could be at Luo Wanqing’s side.

He couldn’t distinguish Xie Heng’s reasons, and he didn’t want to think too much. When Zitang led the horses charging to his front, he grabbed the spare horse Zitang brought, mounted it, and without half a moment’s hesitation, pursued Xie Heng down the mountain.

Both parties charged down the mountain one after the other. Seeing this, Qingya raised his hand and pointed to a tree behind him, smiling as he instructed Zhuque: “Zhuque, cut that tree three-quarters through.”

“Right away.”

Hearing this, Zhuque released his horse and leaped, raising his hand to strike the tree trunk with one blade, leaving only a bit of bark connected, then in a few bounds caught up to his horse.

As he leaped onto his horse, Li Guiyu’s group had just charged to the tree. The great tree couldn’t support itself and crashed to the ground with a thunderous sound. Li Guiyu didn’t pull the reins, turning his horse’s head and directly changing direction: “Change routes, follow me.”

The group detoured to a small path. Zhuque looked back and was quite pleased, seeking credit from Xie Heng: “Young Master, we’ve shaken them off.”

Xie Heng acknowledged with a sound, praising: “Not bad.”

The three hurried down the mountain. As soon as Xie Heng reached the courtyard, he instructed Zhuque: “Lead people to search the mountain for someone. When you find her, don’t report up—just return to the back mountain small courtyard.”

He didn’t say who, but both Zhuque and Qingya understood. Zhuque responded, pulling his horse and carrying his bow, then turned to gather people to find Luo Wanqing.

Xie Heng brought Qingya into the inner courtyard. Now, everyone was still trapped in the Supervision Department. Li Zong, fearing assassins on the road, simply stationed heavy troops in the Supervision Department, waiting for Xie Heng to return.

With no one else nearby, Qingya finally asked about the mountain incident, following Xie Heng with seriousness mixed in his smile: “What does Young Master plan to do next?”

“Save her.”

“The cost of protecting her won’t be small. Has Young Master considered this carefully?” Qingya quietly analyzed: “His Majesty originally just wanted to kill Zheng Pingsheng to vent his anger and use his death to probe the Zheng clan’s bottom line. Now that Director Liu has killed Zheng Pingsheng in this manner, the Zheng family will likely suspect His Majesty has genocidal intentions—their future rebellion would be justified. But the Zheng family members are still in the hall, the Zheng clan hasn’t rebelled yet, so there’s still room to maneuver. To prove his innocence, His Majesty will use Madam’s life to appease the Zheng clan.”

“I know.”

Xie Heng lifted his robe hem and stepped into the courtyard. Hearing Xie Heng’s unmoved response, Qingya couldn’t help but look again, continuing his analysis: “Even if His Majesty doesn’t kill her now, after the Zheng clan rebels and His Majesty quells the rebellion, if he doesn’t want the war to expand with all aristocratic families feeling threatened, he’ll have to kill Madam as the instigator who sparked the conflict, to appease the aristocratic families’ resentment. Madam was so impulsive today—no matter what, it’s a dead end.”

“Would there be a different result if I walked this path instead?”

Xie Heng asked calmly. Qingya was startled, then understood something.

Xie Heng stepped toward the brightly lit great hall, saying calmly, “Qingya, she just made my path into her path. This was originally our plan.”

“She never believed I could change the fate she saw. She just wanted to shake me off, separate herself from me completely, then say everything was her own doing—turning Luo Wanqing into the Xie Heng from her dreams.”

Xie Heng spoke, unconsciously clenching his fist. As he stepped into the great hall, in a voice only Qingya could hear, he whispered mockingly: “Dream on.”

Qingya turned to look at him, seeing Xie Heng’s cold face as he restrained his emotions and stepped forward, respectfully saying: “Greetings, Your Majesty.”

At this time, the hall was full, with all distinguished guests still present. Li Zong sat in the high position, seemingly not yet recovered from today’s assassination attempt, looking somewhat weary.

Yang Chun, beside him, was offering ginseng tea. Seeing Xie Heng return, Li Zong turned to look and immediately asked: “Did you catch her?”

“Your Majesty, she escaped.”

Xie Heng responded. Li Zong wasn’t surprised.

He glanced at several Zheng family members kneeling, tremblingly to the side, thought for a moment, then raised his hand and smashed down the soup bowl in his hand.

“Useless thing,” Li Zong performed his fury, “you can’t even catch one assassin—how do you expect me to explain to the Zheng family elders?!”

Hearing this, everyone secretly glanced at Li Zong, pondering the reason behind his words.

Today, Luo Wanqing’s shout of “by His Majesty’s command” still rang in their ears, and the tea offering apology was also Li Zong’s arrangement. Now, his attitude of having nothing to do with it, no one dared believe.

Li Zong saw the Zheng family members staying silent and turned to look at Wang Shenfeng sitting quietly nearby.

Wang Qingfeng sat beside Wang Shenfeng. After the Zheng Pingsheng incident, the distance between Wang Shenfeng and Wang Qingfeng had obviously shortened considerably. Wang Shenfeng felt Li Zong’s gaze, held his tea and smiled lightly: “Your Majesty?”

“Old Wang,” Li Zong sighed, “what does Old Wang think should be done about today’s matter?”

Hearing this, Wang Shenfeng was somewhat surprised: “Why does Your Majesty ask this of this minister?”

“This matter… truly gives me a headache.” Li Zong glanced at the Zheng family members who kept their necks stiff and trembled slightly. Most of the Zheng family had run away today, leaving only a collateral family in the outer courtyard. They had no idea what was happening, only hearing that Zheng Pingsheng died in the courtyard and Zheng Bikui charged out of the courtyard, telling all Zheng family members to run.

Now their lives and deaths were in Li Zong’s hands, but with Zheng Pingsheng dead and Zheng Bikui escaped, their lives might also be hard to preserve.

Now that the murderer had escaped under the Supervision Department’s layers of encirclement, these Zheng family members suspected even more that perhaps it was Li Zong’s intention.

How could Li Zong not understand their thoughts? He tapped the table, explaining in front of everyone: “I had no idea today that Luo Wanqing would do such a thing. She told me she wanted to apologize to Old Zheng. I truly thought she wanted to live well with Heng’er. Poor Heng’er’s devoted heart toward her…”

Li Zong sighed, quite angrily saying: “She did such a thing! And after doing it, she wanted to frame me for it. My friendship with Pingsheng and you, growing up together since childhood, for no reason, how could I possibly treat Pingsheng as a traitor?! Look how frightened his family is…”

Li Zong raised his hand pointing at the Zheng family members. Being pointed at, this family trembled even more violently. Li Zong paused, somewhat embarrassed as he withdrew his hand: “My dear minister, what do you think I should do now?”

The Wang family was the premier aristocratic family—the Wang family’s attitude represented the attitude of all the great families in Eastern Capital.

Li Zong spoke of the Zheng family but stared at Wang Shenfeng. Wang Shenfeng certainly knew his meaning and said quite sincerely: “Your Majesty’s heart, this minister understands. Our childhood friendship—how could Your Majesty harbor killing intent toward Old Zheng? It must be this assassin, Luo Wanqing, borrowing Your Majesty’s name to cause chaos. Your Majesty must now strictly investigate this matter—first, have people seal Eastern Capital, search for Luo Wanqing’s whereabouts, issue wanted notices, and arrest her nationwide. Then, imprison all related personnel today, torture them severely, and confirm all participants. Especially Luo Wanqing’s subordinates—they can be convicted and sent to the Meridian Gate for execution. I hear this Luo Wanqing has some chivalrous spirit—perhaps she’ll come to rescue them. When she appears, execute her by slow slicing to appease the Zheng clan and comfort Old Zheng’s spirit in heaven.”

Hearing this, Xie Heng straightened up and looked coldly at Wang Shenfeng in the seat above.

Wang Shenfeng noticed Xie Heng’s gaze and smiled as he met it: “Does Director Xie find these words inappropriate?”

Li Zong heard this, turned to look, and saw Xie Heng looking at Wang Shenfeng, smiling as he said: “Does Master Wang think Luo Wanqing should pay with her life for killing Zheng Pingsheng today?”

“Shouldn’t she?”

Wang Shenfeng’s expression sharpened. Xie Heng chuckled lightly: “Then why shouldn’t Zheng Pingsheng have paid with his life for Luo Qushu?”

As soon as these words came out, everyone’s faces changed instantly. Wang Shenfeng’s expression remained unmoved as he looked at Xie Heng with interest: “Does Director Xie think Madam Xie acted correctly today?”

“She erred, but the crime doesn’t merit death.”

Xie Heng stared at Wang Shenfeng: “Setting aside whose hand caused today’s chaos, where the assassins who tried to kill His Majesty came from, whether you all harbor treasonous intentions—just considering the matter between Zheng Pingsheng and the Luo family, her blood debt paid with blood has cause.”

Xie Heng continued, looking around: “Zheng Pingsheng abused his authority to frame and kill innocent civilians—he should have received additional punishment. Now he can enjoy his old age in peace. Don’t you all find this unjust?”

“It seems Director Xie has harbored dissatisfaction about this case for a long time,” Wang Shenfeng heard this, picked up his tea bowl, and looked at Xie Heng with the gaze of looking at a junior. “Then why didn’t you speak up before? Or are you now just finding a high-sounding excuse to pursue your selfish interests?”

“Indeed, pursuing my selfish interests.” Xie Heng calmly admitted. Wang Shenfeng’s eyes showed amusement.

Xie Heng smiled: “Are only your aristocratic families allowed to have selfish interests in this world, while I cannot? Luo Wanqing sought justice from Yangzhou to the Eastern Capital. Now she has entered the game herself to assassinate Zheng Pingsheng. Though she erred, there was a cause. As her husband, I should naturally stake my life, since Master Zheng could offset merit with fault back then, then Your Majesty—”

Xie Heng turned to look at Li Zong in the high position, bowing: “Years ago, when Your Majesty was assassinated, this minister was severely wounded saving Your Majesty. Your Majesty then granted this minister a death-exemption medallion. In the past, this minister held this token only as a reminder to remember Your Majesty’s grace.”

“Heng…”

“But today—” Xie Heng’s tone suddenly became heavy, interrupting Li Zong’s pleasantries. He raised his head earnestly: “This minister is willing to use the death-exemption medallion to request Your Majesty spare my wife’s life!”