When Jing Wuwei suddenly heard the name “Fu Liujing,” he was clearly stunned. After comprehending the intent behind this question, he shook his head. “I don’t know.”
The blade tip turned on the floor, puncturing a hole. Changling said coldly, “Oh? It seems you’ve decided not to live today after all.”
“If I wanted to deceive Second Young Master, couldn’t I just randomly give a name and escape today’s calamity?” Jing Wuwei’s gaze swept casually over Ye Qi. “Given Second Young Master’s relationship with Fu Liujing back then—inseparable day and night, sleeping foot to foot—if he could deceive even you, how could he let me see through his true identity? I believe that apart from the Emperor, no one under heaven can answer this question.”
When Ye Qi heard the four words “sleeping foot to foot,” his face tightened with displeasure. But Changling was completely oblivious. She only thought of the conversation she’d overheard on the rooftop that night. The discussion had indeed mentioned the mystery of Fu Liujing’s disappearance. If Jing Wuwei had known his identity early on, why would he have waited until recently to recruit a group of jianghu people to search for those elusive Wu Run folding fans?
“Fine. Since you can’t answer,” Changling narrowed her eyes slightly, “then don’t blame me…”
Jing Wuwei hastily raised his hand. “Wait! Didn’t Second Young Master say that as long as I answer truthfully, you would spare my life for three days… Are you going to force me to answer questions I can’t answer?”
Changling nodded matter-of-factly. “Naturally, not being able to answer is your problem. Could it be my problem?”
Seeing the slight curve at the corner of her mouth—Second Young Master always showed this signature smile before killing someone—before Jing Wuwei could speak, the blade had already swept toward his throat. Suddenly, the blade tip paused. Ye Qi placed his hand on Changling’s shoulder, but addressed Jing Wuwei. “All these years, General Jing has long harbored treacherous intentions, yet Shen Yao has never dared act rashly against you. Presumably, you hold some leverage in your hands?”
Half a foot already in the coffin, Jing Wuwei broke out in cold sweat. He had just been about to say this very thing, but who knew Second Master Yue’s blade gave him no chance to confess? Now hearing Ye Qi ask, he quickly said, “That’s… that’s right… The Emp—Shen Yao originally seized Eastern Xia by recruiting righteous men from across the realm under the Yue family’s name. All these years, betrayal has been his constant anxiety. Back then, to prevent him from crossing the river and destroying the bridge, I kept evidence that he colluded with Yan Kingdom to destroy the Yue family and poison Great Yan’s eldest imperial prince. As long as the Emperor harbors murderous intent toward me, my people will make this public… By then, never mind the military and court of Eastern Xia harboring resentment, Wei Xingyun in Western Xia and Mingyue Zhou in Great Yan won’t let him off lightly either… Second Young Master, what I hold in my hands… is probably exactly what you most want to obtain, isn’t it? As long as you… spare my life, I’m willing to offer this up and join forces with Second Young Master to bring down Shen Yao.”
This proposal was indeed tempting. At the root of it all, Shen Yao was the instigator of the Yue family’s disaster and precisely the greatest obstacle on this path of revenge. Though Changling’s face remained unmoved as ever, wavering arose in her heart. But she heard Ye Qi laugh. “General Jing truly is grass on the wall, swaying whichever way the wind blows. How can we ensure that after letting you go, you’ll obediently hand over the items rather than joining forces with Shen Yao to bring us down?”
Jing Wuwei said, “If Marquis He doesn’t trust me, you might as well detain me first. After Second Young Master goes to the place I mention and finds the items, it won’t be too late to return.”
“No!”
“Yes!”
The one who said “yes” was Ye Qi. He gave Changling a “listen to me” look, then turned to Jing Wuwei. “Actually, there’s no need for such trouble. You only need to tell us where the items are hidden, and we’ll naturally let you leave.”
Jing Wuwei said coldly, “How do I know that after telling you… you won’t find some other excuse to kill me?”
“General Jing, if my Second Young Master wanted to kill someone, you would have been dead on the first day she entered your general’s manor. If you didn’t still have a bit of use value, how could you have lived until now?” Ye Qi smiled. “You’re a clever man. How you act after leaving Yanling Mountain is your decision. If you’re confident you can kill us, by all means try boldly. But if you’re not confident… just speak one truth, and I, He Yu, can guarantee that I absolutely won’t let Yue Changling touch a single hair on your head.”
Jing Wuwei was now caught between a rock and a hard place—he had to agree whether he wanted to or not. Hearing these words, he gritted his teeth. “Fine. With Young Marquis’s word, I’ll take this gamble. The items you want, I’ve placed them all in the old residence of the Qian family in Anxi Town, Chuyang. This includes the old items brought out from the Yue family back then. When Second Young Master sees them, you’ll know whether they’re genuine or fake.”
Never mind “when she sees them”—Changling couldn’t quite tell genuine from fake even now. But thinking that Anxi Town wasn’t far from here, and making a quick trip to verify wouldn’t be too difficult, she lowered her blade and said to Jing Wuwei, “We’re taking this ship. Take your people and get lost.”
Hearing this, Jing Wuwei was secretly shocked. He hadn’t expected that Second Young Master, who feared neither heaven nor earth, would actually listen to Young Marquis’s words and truly be willing to spare him. He hastily thanked them and led Zhu Yi and the others away in a rush. Upon exiting the cabin and seeing floating corpses of the troops he’d brought everywhere on the surrounding water’s surface, his feet trembled. Terrified that Second Master Yue might regret it if he delayed, he hurriedly scrambled onto a small boat and fled Yanling Village in complete disarray.
As soon as he left, Changling threw down her blade and asked, “Do you think what he said is true?”
Ye Qi circled around the cabin for a moment and discovered a cage on the cabinet containing a carrier pigeon. “Could be true, could be false.”
Changling: “…” She should have just killed Jing Wuwei with one blade earlier.
“But I’m more inclined to think… it’s true.” Ye Qi pulled out brush, ink, paper, and inkstone from the cabinet, drew over a stool, sat down, and began writing. “Anxi Town is only two or three days’ journey from Yanling Village. If he wanted to fool us, wouldn’t it be better to name somewhere farther? I imagine the shadow your Second Master Yue left in his heart is truly too great—for the moment, he doesn’t want to provoke your fury…”
Changling said, “You can’t really believe he’ll help us deal with Shen Yao, can you?”
“Once we announce Shen Yao’s betrayal of the Yue family to the world, how could Jing Wuwei escape unscathed? By then, even if you don’t act, people everywhere will act. After he leaves Yanling Village, regardless of what was said before, he’ll use everything he has to fight us to the death—this goes without saying. However…” Ye Qi traced out each character stroke by stroke. “He commands Eastern Xia’s heavy military forces. From another angle, if he can use our hands to eliminate Shen Yao, why wouldn’t he be happy to do so?”
Hearing him talk in circles, Changling was getting confused. “Is your tongue crooked? Can’t you speak plainly?”
“Jing Wuwei just mentioned that he holds both evidence of Shen Yao betraying the Yue family and evidence of Shen Yao poisoning Great Yan’s eldest imperial prince—these are clearly two separate things… If I were Jing Wuwei, I wouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket. I guess that what’s hidden in Anxi Town should be correspondence about Shen Yao colluding with Yan Kingdom and the like. When these fall into our hands, we’ll naturally use all our strength to deal with Shen Yao.” Ye Qi said, “Whether he can reap the fisherman’s profit is one thing, but at least he gains a bit more breathing room, right?”
“But aren’t you worried that once he returns to Jinling, he’ll tell Shen Yao about my return from the dead?” Changling’s heart still held unease. “It doesn’t matter if I can’t go back, but your He family…”
“Jing Wuwei cannot possibly leave Yanling Town alive.” Ye Qi said meaningfully, “Don’t you think today’s Jing Wuwei looks very much like a mantis?”
Having thought the Wu Run folding fan was within his grasp, yet entering with over a hundred troops and returning with only three and a half people—it couldn’t be called anything but pathetic.
The scene of Changling battling numerous experts was vivid in his mind. The mere thought that Second Young Master was still alive in this world made Jing Wuwei’s teeth chatter—whether from fright or anger was unclear. His mind was full of how to recruit top-tier experts after returning. Thinking of Changling returning to Jinling, he felt it would be more prudent to hide first and plot in secret.
When the small boat emerged from the forest, the water released from the dam had gradually receded. Jing Wuwei rolled up his trouser legs, using footwork skills abandoned for many years, rushing like the wind toward Yanling Town—he needed to return to the main force as quickly as possible before considering the next step. He had to leave this place before nightfall.
However, when he reached the town, he couldn’t find that lifeline he’d arranged in advance as expected.
Under the setting sun’s slanting rays, a tall and slender figure slowly entered his line of sight. Those surrounding him weren’t the Jing family’s troops, but the court’s Iron Armor Army.
“Prime Minister Fu…” Jing Wuwei’s gaze looked ahead blankly. “How did you also come to this place?”
“General Jing, you defied the imperial decree and fled Jinling without authorization, then secretly mobilized border troops intending to pass through Yanling Town and strike at the heart—your treasonous intentions are crystal clear…” Fu Yangui smiled faintly, a very refined smile. “The Emperor specifically ordered me to come and suppress you. Your rebellious troops have all been subdued…”
Jing Wuwei suddenly drew his sword, saying gloomily, “It was clearly you… you said you were conveying the Emperor’s decree ordering me to act in secret, to capture He Yu… and now you change your story…”
“Where is the decree? General Jing, why not take it out and have a look?” Fu Yangui looked at his completely deflated expression. “In our Eastern Xia, can one mobilize troops with just empty words?”
Hearing this, many of the events that had occurred before connected into a single thread for Jing Wuwei—so Fu Yangui’s target this time wasn’t He Yu, but him.
“You think that by doing this, the Emperor can succeed in seizing all military power?” Jing Wuwei walked forward several steps with his sword. “After I die, someone will proclaim certain truths to the world on my behalf. At that time…”
Before he finished speaking, a “tss” sound of a blade breaking flesh was heard. A short arrow pierced into his chest. Fu Yangui withdrew the crossbow into his sleeve, saying indifferently, “General Jing opened the dam to flood the city, intending to resist the court’s army, and finally… died beneath a hail of arrows.”
Jing Wuwei felt chest pain and shortness of breath. Blood gushed from his wound. He was about to say some dying threats when he saw Fu Yangui walk forward, lean close, and whisper softly, “I know that after you die, the evidence in Jing Can’s hands will spread, and at that time the Emperor will be condemned by everyone… However, General Jing, how would you know that isn’t precisely what I wish?”
“You… you’re the one with wolfish ambitions, intending to rebel, a traitorous subject…” Jing Wuwei couldn’t make a sound anymore. He could only stare at the person before him through gritted teeth. “If I’d known… if I’d known when Second Young Master asked about Fu Liujing, I should have…”
Fu Yangui’s face flashed with a trace of panic upon hearing this. “What did you say?”
Jing Wuwei looked at his expression. In that lightning-flash instant, he revealed a certain earth-shattering realization. “Could it really be you… you’re actually… are… Fu…”
What he was, he didn’t get to say. The arrow shaft was pulled out in one motion. Jing Wuwei’s form stiffened and he fell into a pool of blood.
Not caring that his sleeve was stained with blood, Fu Yangui rushed forward several quick steps, listening intently to the surrounding movements. Only after confirming no one was hiding in the dark did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Seeing Jing Wuwei was dead, Zhu Yi, Guo Si, and You San were so frightened they immediately kowtowed and begged for mercy. Seeing Fu Yangui had no reaction, You San suddenly remembered something and crawled forward on his knees as if seeking credit. “Prime Minister, I, I know an earth-shattering secret. That young lady who has been lurking in the Jing manor, disguised as General Jing’s daughter, is actually the former Yue family’s Second Young Master Yue.”
Fu Yangui slowly turned back. “Is this true?”
You San nodded like a pecking chicken. Zhu Yi and Guo Si, seeing this, also echoed repeatedly, “All heard with our own ears. If Prime Minister Fu doesn’t believe, they’re still in Yanling Village. Just wait…”
Three “psh” sounds—three perfectly good necks split open. No one saw clearly how Fu Yangui made his move. They only saw him slowly turn back and ask indifferently, “Did anyone hear what they said?”
The crowd of soldiers behind him knelt in unison. “This subordinate heard nothing!”
Fu Yangui naturally looked toward the setting sun. “Very good.”
Changling found it somewhat hard to believe. “You mean… after Jing Wuwei leaves, the court’s troops will send people to kill him?”
Ye Qi dried the ink on the letter he’d written, rolled it into a strip, and tied it to the carrier pigeon’s leg. “Should be. Otherwise there’s no explaining how he could mobilize troops to reach Yanling Town so easily…”
Changling was momentarily speechless.
The jianghu was treacherous, the battlefield cruel, but neither compared to the unpredictable changes in court politics. Yet the most terrifying thing remained the human heart…
After a moment of silence, Changling asked, “At a time like this, what are you still writing letters for?”
“Usually pigeons on ships are kept for transmitting information at critical moments. Jing Wuwei’s pigeon… is either for the Jing family’s confidants or for Jing Can.” Ye Qi released the carrier pigeon. “I wrote only a few words in the letter…”
“What?”
Ye Qi said word by word, “‘The one who harmed me is Fu Yangui.'”
Changling let out an “Ah.” “Why do you need to inform Jing Can?”
“Speaking of this…” Ye Qi had now walked out of the cabin, looking at the gloomy sky. “Have you ever considered that the Fu Liujing you’re most concerned about… is actually Fu Yangui?”