◎Your Humble Servant, Liu Xiniang◎

Hearing Luo Wanqing’s words, Qin Jue stared at her in bewilderment, as if he couldn’t understand.

“The assassins who entered the Supervision Department aim to kill you. Some assassins might stay here to kill you later, but the top-tier assassins won’t.”

Luo Wanqing analyzed: “Fengyu Pavilion has already lost thirty-two Mysterious-rank assassins, as well as Zhang Jiuran, one of their Left Envoys. If I’m not mistaken, that Zhao Yuyan—also known as Nine Frost—should be Fengyu Pavilion’s Right Envoy, who has never shown her face. Fengyu Pavilion can’t bear to lose her. If she stays in the underground palace to kill you, when the palace opens, whether as a death row prisoner or as Fengyu Pavilion’s assassin, the Supervision Department won’t spare her. They’ll certainly capture and interrogate her severely—she’ll surely die. So she should blend in with the crowd, pretend to take the test, then escape.”

She had fought with Silver Snake before. Silver Snake was only one step away from becoming a Heaven-rank assassin of Fengyu Pavilion, but Zhao Yuyan’s abilities far exceeded Silver Snake’s.

In Fengyu Pavilion, only two people could achieve Heaven rank alone: Zhang Jiuran and that other Right Envoy who had never shown her face.

Only someone of such caliber could kill the Supervision Department personnel sent to protect Qin Jue right under their noses.

“Your task now is to hide yourself well and stay alive. When I open the underground palace door, the Supervision Department people should come and find you.”

Luo Wanqing instructed, then stood up and walked out. Before leaving, she suddenly remembered: “There’s one more thing.”

Qin Jue looked up and heard Luo Wanqing say calmly, “Don’t mention what we discussed today to the Supervision Department.”

“Who exactly are you?” Qin Jue frowned.

Luo Wanqing only said, “I have no intention of harming anyone. But I’m saving you—surely you won’t repay kindness with enmity?”

Qin Jue said nothing. Luo Wanqing turned to look at him.

Qin Jue looked at the blade in her hand and suddenly remembered the first time he met Zhang Jiuran years ago. Zhang Jiuran had been reclining on a tree branch, holding a wine flask in her hand, a long blade hanging at her waist.

That day, heavy snow covered the mountains, and the bright moon hung high. She was draped in silver radiance, touched the ground with her toes, and landed before him. With her back to him, she raised her hand to grip her blade.

That silhouette was so similar to the person before him now, yet different.

His heartstrings trembled.

After a long while, he finally lowered his eyes and said softly: “Alright. What you and I discussed in the underground palace today, I won’t mention a single word to anyone.”

“You are the one she values. I trust her.” Luo Wanqing said no more. She turned and walked out, saying in a low voice: “May you not fail Zhang Jiuran.”

Hearing these words, Qin Jue kept his head down. After a long time, he closed his eyes and laughed mockingly: “It has always been she who treated me coldly. When have I ever failed her?”

Luo Wanqing walked out of the room, cleared her traces, circled to a distant spot, then leaped onto the rooftop. She looked up and headed toward the tallest building in the center.

As she walked, she pondered the information from the past.

Liu Xiniang… or rather, Zhang Jiuran—from the moment she saw that dagger and realized the truth, she had already embraced death.

When she went to report to Xie Heng, Zhang Jiuran stayed alone in the water prison. She must have thought about many things. Perhaps she cried against the wall in pain, or perhaps she didn’t.

After all, in her youth, she had already cried in despair too many times.

Later, when Luo Wanqing’s complaint failed and she returned from Xie Heng, there weren’t many traces on this woman. During that time, she should have simply sorted through all the causes and consequences, then calmly accepted the fact that she had reached a dead end.

She couldn’t turn back and had nowhere to go.

Should she seek revenge again?

That enemy had raised her with his own hands, taught her martial arts—he was her master, half a father to her.

He held her mother’s and brother’s lives in his hands. Her body was infected with the enemy’s parasitic worm. Not only did she lack the ability to kill him, but even if she could, the price would be too great.

Was hatred so important?

Her father had died five years ago. Her mother and brother were still living well—they already had new lives. Only Zhang Jiuran was trapped in the past. As long as she lived, everything would end.

She no longer dared to raise her blade. All the hatred and resentment in her life vanished in that moment. She only wanted to go to the northwest, to let dust return to dust, earth return to earth.

But at this time, she met her.

Someone so similar to Qin Jue.

So Zhang Jiuran’s kindness to her was both pity and repayment.

She hoped Luo Wanqing would live well all her life, fulfilling all her wishes, using everything she had to arrange her future path.

She feared Qin Jue would recognize her, so she didn’t let Qin Jue contact her.

When Zhang Jiuran told her to find Nine Frost, was it a deliberate arrangement, or was she truly just considering that Nine Frost was a master and her chances of success were greater?

People in Fengyu Pavilion would conceal each other’s jianghu identities. Did Zhang Jiuran know that Nine Frost was Fengyu Pavilion’s Right Envoy Zhao Yuyan?

Luo Wanqing was thinking when she heard the mechanical “clicking” sound of gears turning around her. The ground shook accordingly. Luo Wanqing knew this was the signal for the second test to begin. With several leaps, she reached the tallest cylindrical building. Just as she landed, she saw Zhao Yuyan standing at the door with three people.

The stone chamber door was slowly opening. Zhao Yuyan heard the sound and turned back. Seeing Luo Wanqing, she was somewhat surprised: “Ah, Qin Jue isn’t here?”

“He’s running around everywhere.” Luo Wanqing sighed. “I got separated from him.”

“Separated?” Zhao Yuyan smiled. “I’ll have people help you find him.”

With that, she waved her hand, and the three people beside her rushed into other corridors of the underground palace to search.

Luo Wanqing gripped her blade and stepped forward. Looking at Zhao Yuyan’s blood-stained hands, she said softly: “Aren’t you taking any weapons?”

“Weapons?” Zhao Yuyan glanced at the blade in Luo Wanqing’s hand and smiled. “Taking this scrap metal is boring.”

“Aren’t you a swordsman?” Luo Wanqing asked curiously.

Zhao Yuyan looked at her, smiling meaningfully: “Isn’t Zhang Jiuran also a Salt Syndicate helm master?”

Her calling “Zhang Jiuran” clearly showed she knew the person before her wasn’t the real Liu Xiniang.

Then…

“What arrangement did Zhang Jiuran make with you?”

Luo Wanqing asked directly.

Zhao Yuyan paused, then chuckled softly: “No wonder she had you carry out the mission. You’re clever. She asked me to protect you through the Supervision Department test and gave me an arm to eat.”

Hearing this, Luo Wanqing turned back in disbelief to look at the seemingly delicate and weak woman beside her, trembling as she spoke: “To eat?”

“Yes, I’ve wanted to eat her for so long.” Zhao Yuyan did not attempt to hide anything. She watched the stone chamber door slowly open, revealing the people standing inside, and said regretfully, “If I weren’t forbidden from eating people from my pavilion, I would have eaten her long ago. But now she’s volunteering, so I can’t be blamed. What a pity…” Zhao Yuyan pouted. “Now that she’s lost her internal energy, she won’t taste very good.”

With that, Zhao Yuyan stepped into the stone chamber. She beckoned to Luo Wanqing: “Come, come in. I’ll send you up.”

Luo Wanqing suppressed her urge to vomit and stepped into the room. Zhao Yuyan raised her hand and pressed a protrusion beside the stone chamber with a “snap.” The stone chamber door immediately dropped down.

Everyone looked at each other warily, examining their surroundings. Zhao Yuyan stopped pretending and turned to look at the people taking the second test.

Most of them were weaklings who had come here after being eliminated in the first test and having nowhere else to go. Others were those who wanted to compete for the position of Inspector.

She clasped her hands behind her back, her expression gentle: “You all heard the rules before entering this stone chamber, right? That room can hold many corpses,” Zhao Yuyan raised her hand to point at the side chamber, then pointed at the ground beneath their feet. “As long as this place is empty, the floor beneath our feet will rise. When it rises, we become Inspectors and can live.”

“Zhao Yuyan, what madness are you spouting?” a burly man shouted. “Is it your turn to speak here?”

“Oh my, your voice is so loud.”

Zhao Yuyan showed a timid expression, walked to the man, placed her hand on his shoulder, and said pitifully: “You scared me. I shouldn’t have said so much. I was wrong.”

The burly man looked at her coldly and raised his hand to push her away.

However, in that instant, Zhao Yuyan’s hand curved into a claw, gripping the burly man’s arm like an iron clamp, twisting and pulling. She tore the burly man’s arm clean off!

Blood sprayed out, startling everyone. The burly man howled in pain and lunged at her.

Zhao Yuyan tilted her head to look at the charging burly man, grabbed his severed arm, and smashed it hard against his head, saying softly: “I should have just torn it off directly.”

The moment her words fell, the burly man’s skull burst like a smashed watermelon, exploding instantly.

His entire body collapsed to the ground, his brain mixed with blood, flowing at Zhao Yuyan’s feet. Zhao Yuyan’s face was speckled with blood like plum blossoms, her whole body stained with blood. She raised her hand to lick the blood on it and frowned.

“Too weak. The blood isn’t sweet.”

With that, she looked at the people around her who were full of terror, smiling gently: “Which of you has sweeter blood and flesh? I’ve been hungry for so long.”

No one dared to speak. Luo Wanqing looked at this woman before her who was lucid but frighteningly mad, and couldn’t help but grip her blade tightly.

Zhao Yuyan seemed to sense her fear and turned to smile at her reassuringly: “Don’t be afraid. I won’t tear you apart today.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhao Yuyan suddenly struck at someone nearby, tearing off a piece of their flesh and blood.

Everyone exchanged glances and decisively said: “Let’s all kill her first!”

With that, everyone rushed at her together. Zhao Yuyan heard this and laughed loudly: “Kill me? Come on!”

In an instant, the entire room became a hellish slaughter ground, with blood and flesh flying everywhere.

Luo Wanqing stood in the corner, closed her eyes, and let blood and flesh splash onto her body with nowhere to hide.

She had never seen such a scene of killing. This wasn’t a life-and-death duel at all—this was a carnival.

For Zhao Yuyan, such a scene seemed to excite her greatly. The death row prisoners weren’t all useless. When everyone joined forces, Zhao Yuyan sustained several wounds.

But these wounds only made her more excited. Pain seemed to be a kind of stimulation. She was abnormally excited, raising her hand in a claw-like shape to pierce into others’ bodies, actually beginning to tear off pieces of flesh bit by bit.

Luo Wanqing forced herself to calmly observe all this. A death row prisoner noticed her and seemed to remember something, suddenly charging over. He raised his blade to Luo Wanqing’s neck, holding her hostage as he said: “Zhao Yuyan, your accomplice is in my hands. Stop!”

Hearing this, Zhao Yuyan paused and turned back to look at the captured Luo Wanqing, incredulous: “You let a blade be held to your neck?”

“You stop, and we won’t touch you. This time, two people will be selected as Inspectors—you’re one of them. There’s no need to continue fighting.”

The person holding the blade to Luo Wanqing’s neck saw that Zhao Yuyan had indeed stopped, swallowed nervously, and suggested tremblingly: “How about it?”

Zhao Yuyan listened to him speak and laughed: “Sounds good.”

“You won’t survive.”

Luo Wanqing didn’t give Zhao Yuyan a chance to lie, saying calmly: “You know too much. She never planned to let you live.”

“Xiniang~” Zhao Yuyan heard this and drew out her tone, as if acting coquettishly: “If you don’t act, I’ll just kill you instead.”

These words stunned everyone. Zhao Yuyan curved her lips: “If you’re too useless, there’s no point in my sending you into the Supervision Department. I might as well send you to meet Zhang Jiuran first.”

“She’s dead?”

Hearing this, Luo Wanqing suddenly struck, grabbing the wrist of the person holding the blade to her neck, and reversing the blade toward his throat!

The man’s head was severed instantly. Zhao Yuyan became excited and resumed killing, working while saying excitedly: “Dead? I don’t know either. What’s your relationship with her anyway? Why would she be willing to let me eat her for you? Why did you enter Fengyu Pavilion yourself? Are you infected with a parasite?”

Luo Wanqing ignored her. She stood in place, numbly fending off all who rushed at her within the small space, cleanly and efficiently slitting their throats.

There was blood everywhere, and people. She calmly listened to Zhao Yuyan say, “You know, when I first met her, it was in a similar situation. Fengyu Pavilion locked us together—so many people, killing until dawn. She was just like you, standing in one place the whole time. I wanted to kill her, but I just couldn’t.”

Zhao Yuyan spoke while crushing someone’s head, sighing: “The Pavilion Master liked her; she was so strong, and she even deceived me, making me not want to eat her anymore.”

The last person was torn apart by Zhao Yuyan. She stood among the corpses, severed limbs, and pools of blood, turning to look at Luo Wanqing, saying gently: “I’m not happy at all.”

Luo Wanqing looked up at her. Zhao Yuyan stared at her, walked to Luo Wanqing, and pressed her fingernails against Luo Wanqing’s chest, saying softly: “Her internal energy is with you, isn’t it?”

Luo Wanqing looked at Zhao Yuyan’s fingertips pressed against her chest and asked softly: “How did she deceive you?”

“She said she would let me eat her, asked me to protect you to the Eastern Capital, and when we got to the Eastern Capital, she would come find me.” Zhao Yuyan’s voice was gentle. “But she ran away and made me chase her. When I caught up, she had no internal energy left. What’s the point of eating her without internal energy? She wouldn’t taste good at all.”

Luo Wanqing raised her head and only asked: “Where is she?”

“I destroyed her meridians and broke her bones. If the Pavilion Master hadn’t protected her, I would have wanted to tear her apart bit by bit.” Zhao Yuyan stepped forward, Luo Wanqing stepped back, and Zhao Yuyan looked regretful. “But she had no feeling. She couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t smell, and couldn’t feel pain. She just sat at the entrance of Huguo Temple, waiting to die. The day before yesterday, when Qin Jue went to Huguo Temple, he walked right past her, but he couldn’t recognize her anymore.”

With her meridians completely severed and her appearance destroyed, she was covered in filth and collapsed at the entrance of Huguo Temple, no different from any beggar.

Luo Wanqing had retreated as far as she could. Zhao Yuyan smiled: “He even gave her two copper coins. It was hilarious. It’s been several days now—if no one takes care of her, she should be dead by now, right?”

Luo Wanqing controlled her desire to tremble and her impulse to kill the person in front of her. She turned her head away and said hoarsely: “Throw the people into the side chamber. Let’s go up.”

Zhao Yuyan said nothing. She looked down at her fingertips pressed against Luo Wanqing’s chest, seeming to restrain herself with great effort. She swallowed and said, “The Pavilion Master said to help you, said you were useful.”

Luo Wanqing looked up. Zhao Yuyan smiled, her eyes full of desire: “Zhang Jiuran’s internal energy is with you, isn’t it?”

“You want to eat me?”

Luo Wanqing looked at Zhao Yuyan, understanding her meaning.

Zhao Yuyan licked her lips: “Just one bite. Is that okay?”

Hearing this, Luo Wanqing laughed.

She raised her hand to lift her hair, fragrance spreading in the air. She lowered her head, exposing her slender, pale neck.

Zhao Yuyan’s gaze was completely drawn to the blood vessels on her neck. Her eyes showed fanaticism as she heard Luo Wanqing call her: “Come here.”

Zhao Yuyan eagerly reached out to embrace her, completely failing to notice that she had exposed her soft abdomen. But in that instant, Luo Wanqing suddenly swung her blade!

Zhao Yuyan reacted extremely quickly. Her expression turned stern as she grabbed the steel blade.

However, for some reason, the moment she grasped the blade, her true qi seemed to disappear instantly, flowing out like water.

Without true qi protecting her body, her hands were no different from an ordinary person’s. The blade cut through her palm, slicing her hand in half. At the same time, Luo Wanqing’s other hand curved into a claw, mimicking her earlier move, and plunged into her abdomen.

Zhao Yuyan looked at Luo Wanqing in disbelief: “When did you… poison me…”

“From the beginning.”

Luo Wanqing calmly dug through her internal organs and grasped her heart.

“I put poison in the well water from the moment I came in.”

During the four hours of the day, most people need to drink water.

She wasn’t targeting any specific person—she was targeting everyone, putting sleeping drugs in the well water.

“I never drank water.”

Zhao Yuyan still couldn’t understand. Luo Wanqing chuckled softly: “You touched their blood.”

Not to mention, she had also drunk their blood—just touching it, given the number of people she had torn apart, was enough for the toxins to seep through her skin.

She had taken the antidote before entering. Her hair fragrance was the catalyst—as long as the sleeping drug entered the body, and one smelled her hair fragrance, it was enough to trigger the drug’s effect.

Hearing this, Zhao Yuyan suddenly understood.

Luo Wanqing stared at her intently and said hoarsely, “Your death is too easy.”

Zhao Yuyan chuckled softly. Her eyes suddenly turned sharp as she lunged at Luo Wanqing!

In that instant, Luo Wanqing’s internal energy surged into Zhao Yuyan’s meridians throughout her body, devastating everything in its path, bursting her meridians inch by inch and crushing her bones joint by joint!

Zhao Yuyan screamed. Luo Wanqing crushed her heart with one squeeze.

Blood splattered onto Luo Wanqing. Zhao Yuyan’s entire body went limp, her lips and teeth right at Luo Wanqing’s neck.

Even in death, she still wanted that one bite.

Luo Wanqing threw her aside and took a deep breath. She searched Zhao Yuyan’s body for a while and took out all the keys from her.

She had indeed entered the underground palace early without coordinating with the Supervision Department.

She had over a hundred keys on her. After Luo Wanqing got them, she began throwing corpses into the side chamber.

With each bit she threw, the ground rose a little.

She frantically threw corpses, her mind filled with Zhao Yuyan’s words.

“She just sits at the entrance of Huguo Temple waiting to die…”

“It’s been several days now—if no one takes care of her, she should be dead by now, right?”

Huguo Temple.

Why Huguo Temple?

Because Zhang Jiuran had promised her, she would deliver that dagger to her.

For this one thing, she didn’t go to the northwest. She escaped from the exile convoy, rescued her family, and then traveled thousands of miles back!

Luo Wanqing’s heart raced wildly. She couldn’t care about anything else, couldn’t think of anything else.

She only knew: faster, faster still. Every moment she could save might be a moment to save Zhang Jiuran.

The instant she threw all the corpses in, the mechanism above rotated and opened. She stood on the stone slab covered in blood, rising bit by bit to the surface.

As soon as she reached the surface, she found herself standing in the courtyard of the estate. Zhuque and Xuanshan were leading people standing in place. Seeing Luo Wanqing, Xuanshan looked, and the Supervision Department people immediately went down to the underground prison.

Zhuque approached and looked at Luo Wanqing, who was covered in blood, asking only: “Miss, do you have the keys?”

Luo Wanqing reached into her robes and threw the hundred keys on the ground.

Zhuque glanced at them and smiled, cupping his hands: “Congratulations to our Supervision Department for gaining another Inspector. Now, please come with me to pay respects to…”

“I want to go out.”

Luo Wanqing interrupted him. Zhuque was stunned. Luo Wanqing clenched her fists, looked up at Zhuque, and said hoarsely: “I have urgent matters to attend to. May I deal with what comes next after I finish my business?”

“This…”

Zhuque hesitated. Before he could speak, a cold, indifferent voice came from a distant pavilion.

“Prepare a horse. Let her go.”

Luo Wanqing couldn’t tell if the voice was real or imagined, but knowing she had permission, she turned and stumbled out.

She rushed to the gate, mounted the horse, and rode frantically toward Huguo Temple.

Huguo Temple was the place she had visited most often in the Eastern Capital during her childhood.

She had made countless wishes there.

But never once had she been so devout.

She hoped that the person called Zhang Jiuran could survive.

She rode frantically to Huguo Temple.

In the deep night, Huguo Temple was sparsely populated. While searching for Zhang Jiuran’s traces, she came to the century-old tree according to their agreed-upon meeting place.

She immediately spotted traces of freshly dug earth. She quickly dug it out with her hands. After digging for a short while, she touched a hard box with a jar of wine placed beside it.

She paused, then took out the box. Upon opening it, the dagger Jiang Shaoyan had given her lay neatly inside, along with a letter.

Luo Wanqing opened the letter and, by moonlight, saw elegant and graceful handwriting.

“My dear sister Qing, may this letter find you well.

If you receive this letter, you must have successfully passed the Supervision Department examination. Unable to congratulate you in person, I can only leave a jar of wine in advance to celebrate.

This journey must have been extremely difficult. I wonder how you are now. Some matters I never made clear, but now I must speak.

My identity is Left Envoy of Fengyu Pavilion. From childhood, I received the Pavilion Master’s teachings and regarded him as my benefactor. The Pavilion Master promised to avenge me and attempted to assassinate Xie Heng several times unsuccessfully. To repay the Pavilion Master’s kindness, I did countless things against my conscience, harboring countless regrets in my life. The one I regret most—what I did is unforgivable even in death.

I originally planned one final assassination of Xie Heng, never to return alive, but I unexpectedly met you in prison.

The dagger in your hand is the very blade I pulled from my father’s abdomen. I searched bitterly for years, mistakenly believing it to be an Xie clan blade. Now, through your words, I know it’s a blade of Empress Wang’s clan.

My master Xiang Sizi comes from the Wang clan’s death warriors. I once saw him with a broken blade.

Thinking back now, the one who killed my father that year should be the one who later saved and raised me.

Taking my enemy as master, committing countless evils—I can no longer continue. How can I bear it?

Therefore, I’ve decided to leave, letting the past fade away and gaining new life.

Since you wish to borrow my identity, I’ll go with the flow. I originally planned to leave after rescuing your family, but was discovered by the Pavilion Master halfway through. After maneuvering, I could only tell him the truth.

The Pavilion Master doesn’t yet know I’ve developed rebellious thoughts, thinking only that I wish to leave Fengyu Pavilion. Considering our master-disciple bond, he agreed to settle the Luo family relatives and let me go.

If you successfully assassinate Xie Heng, you’ll have no further connection to Fengyu Pavilion.

If you fail to assassinate Xie Heng, it won’t implicate your family either.

If you don’t wish to assassinate Xie Heng, the person serving beside your family is named Qinglu—I trained her personally. I’ve already instructed her. You can find another opportunity to use the Supervision Department’s power to rescue the Luo family.

I’ve given you three paths, doing my utmost. I’m no saint and have my calculations. If you bear resentment, I accept it.

Grateful for your life-saving grace, I should now be heading to the northwest. With vast mountains and waters between us, if fate allows us to meet again, I present this dagger as promised. May you treasure yourself.

Additionally, I have a younger brother named Zhang Yiran, courtesy name Yu’an, who was the Third-Place Scholar in the twelfth year of Changshun. If you achieve success, please look after him in the court halls in the future.

The road ahead is long. I hope you’ll take me as a warning. Please, Liu Xiniang, after achieving your great revenge, also live a complete life.

Sinner Zhang Jiuran bids farewell here.”

Luo Wanqing looked at this half-true, half-false letter, feeling something stuck in her throat, causing her pain.

Her eyes reddened, her hands trembled as she wanted to curse, but didn’t know where to begin.

Lying to her—even now, still lying to her.

What is “gaining new life”? At that time, she meant to go die, letting the past fade away, completely ending this life.

What “discovered by the Pavilion Master halfway through, considering master-disciple bond”…

She was discovered by Fengyu Pavilion, and Xiang Sizi wanted to use her family as hostages. She used her master-disciple relationship with Xiang Sizi to negotiate a way out for her.

Listening to Xiang Sizi and assassinating Xie Heng—regardless of success or failure, her family would be safe.

If she didn’t comply, she had also arranged an inside contact for her.

And she would accept Fengyu Pavilion’s punishment—broken bones and destroyed meridians, transforming from an ordinary person who had merely lost internal energy into a complete invalid.

In the end, she never asked her to help with revenge, never explained the circumstances, and still claimed she was going to the northwest, with vast mountains and waters between them, telling her to treasure herself.

Her only request was to look after her family, and…

“Please, Liu Xiniang, after achieving your great revenge, also live a complete life.”

Zhang Jiuran’s entire life was filled with despair and suffering. She didn’t resent heaven, didn’t envy others, and still wanted to pray at life’s end for another girl walking her old path to live a complete life.

Sinner Zhang Jiuran…

Luo Wanqing looked at the paper and shed tears.

She couldn’t keep this letter. Trembling, she placed the letter in the box containing the dagger, held the box and jar of wine, stumbled to her feet, and walked into the brightly lit main hall to burn the letter.

As the flames burned, she saw someone lying outside the main hall.

That person seemed to be a woman, dressed in rags, covered in mud.

Luo Wanqing was startled, then hurried over. The woman’s bones were all broken, lying limp on the ground. She frantically brushed away the hair covering the woman’s face, revealing a horrifically scarred visage.

Luo Wanqing stood frozen in place. Looking at that face, she opened her mouth but couldn’t make any sound.

A monk guarding the temple walked out from the main hall. He looked at Luo Wanqing questioningly: “Miss, do you know this person?”

Luo Wanqing couldn’t speak. She held Zhang Jiuran, tears streaming down, nodding continuously.

The monk sighed in relief: “This benefactor has been here for several days. When she came, she told us she was waiting for someone here, and when she died, we should just carry her away. We didn’t dare move her rashly, just gave her some medicine daily. It seems you’re the one she was waiting for—that’s wonderful.”

“Thank… thank you.”

Luo Wanqing slowly came to her senses and finally made a sound.

Then she realized she couldn’t bring Zhang Jiuran back to the Supervision Department now. Having just entered the Supervision Department, bringing Zhang Jiuran back unclearly would be dangerous for both of them.

She took a deep breath, calmed down, thanked the monk, asked about the nearest medical clinic, and then carried Zhang Jiuran and rushed to the clinic.

The clinic doctor was still seeing patients. Luo Wanqing carried her in and said urgently, “Doctor, I’ll leave my horse as collateral here. Please take care of this young lady first. I’ll come to redeem it tomorrow.”

“Miss…” The doctor was about to speak when Luo Wanqing’s bloody blade tip stuck into the table. She looked at the doctor calmly and only asked: “Is that acceptable?”

The doctor didn’t dare speak. Luo Wanqing glanced at Zhang Jiuran lying on the bed, pressed her lips together, then recited a string of medicinal ingredients, telling the doctor, “Give her these medicines first. I’ll come to see her tomorrow. I’m not a bad person, don’t worry. If anything happens, go to the Supervision Department,” Luo Wanqing pulled out her blade and walked toward the door, “find Liu Xiniang.”

With that, she carried her blade and walked back toward the Supervision Department.

Cold wind hit her face as she walked calmly on the broad streets of the Eastern Capital.

March was the season when peach blossoms first bloomed. She smelled the floral fragrance in the wind and walked step by step back to the Supervision Department, knocking on its main gate.

Each knock struck her own heart.

Previously, she had always thought she wanted to come to the Supervision Department for revenge, for power, to protect everyone.

For this, she would spare no cost, with no regrets even unto death.

However, on this night, when she held Zhang Jiuran, who had already lost all sensation, when she accepted that woman’s blessings and gifts, she suddenly realized.

She wanted to come to the Supervision Department not for revenge, not for power.

She wanted to live this life well.

She wanted revenge, she wanted justice, to calm her resentment, then live well, completely, through this life.

She knocked again and again, knocking on the door of her destiny.

Soon, the gate opened. It was Zhuque who came to the door. Luo Wanqing looked at him seriously and bowed: “Greetings, Zhuque Envoy. I’ve returned.”

Zhuque seemed to have been instructed about something. Seeing her face that had been crying but was unusually calm, Zhuque didn’t dare ask much, even speaking with some caution: “Shall I take you to pay respects to the Director?”

Luo Wanqing said nothing. She nodded and followed behind Zhuque.

She walked through the winding corridors until reaching the deepest part of the Supervision Department, entering a small courtyard where she saw people coming and going with bright lights everywhere.

On the corridor above the main courtyard, a young man in plain white robes sat upright. His desk was piled with case files, surrounded by more files. He held a vermilion brush, reviewing files while Xuanshan, who had presided over the Supervision Department examination, stood beside him, reporting something.

He was extremely handsome, with long eyebrows extending to his temples, phoenix eyes with thin lips, skin nearly pale as paper, making his lips and hair color appear extraordinarily intense. Though his appearance was extremely striking, his overall temperament was very cold. When listening to others speak, he always maintained the same expression, showing no emotion. This quality of being distant from the world made his originally intense features appear bland, carrying the unique otherworldly ascetic feeling of Taoists, reminiscent of snow on high mountains and white cranes riding clouds.

Luo Wanqing had seen countless handsome young masters before, but none—not even Jiang Shaoyan—could compare to the person before her.

But who would imagine that such a peerlessly beautiful, refined gentleman wielded the sharpest blade in the realm—the Supervision Department.

Luo Wanqing didn’t dare look too long and lowered her eyes.

Zhuque waved at Luo Wanqing. She walked forward and knelt on one knee.

Zhuque stood to the side, respectfully saying: “Director, only one Inspector passed the examination this time.”

Hearing this, the young man above looked down at her.

He didn’t ask where she had gone or what she had done, just looked at her calmly for a long time. Someone handed down a token from above as he spoke coldly: “Having entered my Supervision Department’s door, you are my person, Xie Heng’s person. State your name.”

Luo Wanqing was about to speak when someone suddenly rushed in from outside, calling loudly: “Director, terrible news!”

This voice was too loud, startling the attendant handing her the token, making his hand shake.

The token fell to the ground. Luo Wanqing heard the messenger kneel on the ground, saying urgently: “News from Lingnan Province—the Luo family encountered a landslide during exile and the entire family perished!”

With these words, cold pressure instantly descended from above, and the entire place fell silent.

Luo Wanqing knelt on one knee on the ground, reached out with her blood-covered hand, and gripped the token on the ground.

The March spring breeze carried peach blossoms as it blew past. She raised a pair of eyes clear and sharp as blade edges, looked toward the young man above who was angry, and in the complete silence, spoke calmly: “Your humble servant, Liu Xiniang.”

When Luo Wanqing entered the Supervision Department, in the back courtyard of the Third Prince’s mansion, Li Guiyu was sitting in the corridor, carving a wooden sculpture.

Three months ago, when he had just returned to the Eastern Capital, he was enfeoffed as a prince and established his mansion. His Majesty, pitying his wandering outside, bestowed countless gold, silver, and precious objects on him, but he stored them all away.

His prince’s mansion was simple. The courtyards were filled with naturally growing ordinary plants. He seemed to still live as he had among the common people, wearing plain clothes, sitting in the corridor, head lowered as he carved a small fox. The fox was round-headed and round-brained, lifelike and extremely cute.

This was one of the skills he had learned during his years among the common people.

He had learned many things—like weaving moving grasshoppers, like arranging a girl’s hair bun, like drawing eyebrows, like cooking, even embroidery, riddles, shuttlecock kicking…

Things to please a girl—he had learned many.

Now, there weren’t many things he could do quietly alone. In his leisure time, he would always carve small items.

“Your Highness.” A guard who had traveled thousands of miles back from Lingnan Province was brought in and knelt to pay respects.

Li Guiyu carved the fox’s ears, saying softly: “If you’re not protecting her in Lingnan, what are you doing back here?”

“Your Highness,” the guard hesitated, “halfway through the exile, there was a landslide. The young miss… is gone.”

With these words, the carving knife suddenly sliced across his finger. Blood fell onto the wooden carving as the young man froze.

He felt somewhat pained, but didn’t know where the pain was.

He had prepared countless times. He thought it would be quite good if she died.

There was too much suffering in the mortal world. Living on was just enduring hardship.

If she died, she would be clean and pure and could always stay by his side.

But she chose to live.

When she chose that dagger, even when she embraced and stabbed him, he had felt a moment of joy.

So he accepted it too. It was also good that she lived.

Even if they never met again, she was in another place, alone, living well.

She was in Lingnan, could continue practicing medicine, could eat the lychees she loved, could continue sleeping in each day, and go eat the pastries she enjoyed.

She could still happily and joyfully remain in this world.

When he died, he would have someone give her a cup of poisoned wine, and they could reunite together in the underworld.

How wonderful.

He had thought it through, accepted it, and made all preparations for her being alive, but she died.

Li Guiyu felt like laughing, yet felt his mouth corners inexplicably heavy. He couldn’t laugh. He lowered his head to wipe the blood from the fox’s face and asked calmly: “How was it confirmed?”

“These are the young miss’s belongings.”

The guard took out a blood-stained pouch.

Li Guiyu turned back, his gaze falling on that pouch.

He instantly remembered—she wasn’t skilled at embroidery. In her youth, the needlework assignments Yao Zelan gave her were all embroidered by him for her.

However, before she was imprisoned, she was secretly embroidering something every day.

He hadn’t paid attention then, but somehow, at this moment, that scene became extraordinarily clear.

So clear that he could remember perfectly her being pricked by the needle, making a pained “tss” sound, then looking up to see him standing by the window, quickly hiding the thing behind her back and looking at him nervously.

His heart felt as if it had been pricked by that needle, then by many needles, densely packed, stabbing into his soft heart, making him frown in pain.

He reached out to take the pouch. On it was a pair of mandarin ducks that looked like ducks, with small characters “Shaoyan” written in the corner.

These two characters were like sharp knives, cutting into his heart stroke by stroke.

He was pained to the point of irritation. He lowered his head to carefully tie the pouch to his waist, stood up, and said: “Kill him.”

Hearing this, the guard on the ground showed terror, grabbing Li Guiyu’s hem and saying urgently: “Your Highness! This subordinate deserves death, but begs Your Highness to spare this subordinate’s life! This subordinate will work hard in the future, this subordinate…”

“You already said you deserve death,” Li Guiyu said, standing in the corridor, saying flatly, “Why do you still want to live?”

With that, Li Guiyu turned back, looking seriously at the guard: “I told you to watch her carefully. I wanted her to live, but you let her die?”

“It was a landslide…”

“Then why are you alive?” Li Guiyu stared at him, raising his voice: “If you couldn’t prevent the landslide, she’s dead, what are you living for?!”

The guard was stunned. In that moment, he didn’t know who Li Guiyu was talking about.

Li Guiyu pulled back his hem, gripped the carving knife, and turned toward his room.

The carving knife cut into his palm, blood flowing all the way, but he didn’t notice.

He only felt pain—dense, overwhelming, nearly suffocating.

He didn’t know what was wrong, didn’t understand what was happening. After a long time, he finally said something that made him slightly calmer: “Place the princess consort’s memorial tablet in my room.”

With these words, he finally felt somewhat better. He suddenly remembered and stopped: “No, don’t prepare it. I’ll carve it myself.”

“Your Highness?!”

The steward following Li Guiyu looked up in shock, then quickly said: “Your Highness, if people see the memorial tablet…”

“Then kill everyone who sees it.”

Li Guiyu spoke calmly, turning back to look at the steward. The steward stared blankly at the frighteningly calm eyes of the person before him, hearing him say word by word: “The young miss said she wanted to see me day and night, lest the underworld be too cold and she couldn’t find where I was. If I don’t let her watch me daily, what if she can’t find me? She’s dead,” Li Guiyu tilted his head, saying softly, “she should return to my side.”

The steward couldn’t speak. He watched Li Guiyu turn and enter a room furnished identically to that Luo family’s young miss’s boudoir in Yangzhou, hearing him calmly order: “Find her body and bring it back. She was my person in life, and in death, she enters my tomb. Even if only a strand of hair remains, bring it all back to me.”

“My young miss,” Li Guiyu seemed still to be that guard waiting for the young miss to finish dressing years ago. He lifted his hem and knelt at the table in the outer room. In an instant, he lowered his eyebrows and eyes, restraining all his aura, like the gentlest young man from Jiangnan, saying softly: “Must always return to Shaoyan’s side.”

Author’s Note:

[Mini Theater]

Li Guiyu: “My young miss must always return to Shaoyan’s side.”

Xie Heng: “She can’t come back. She found a new target, is living quite well, don’t think about it.”

Li Guiyu: “Are you seeking death?”

Xie Heng: “Blah blah blah”