The night was dark as ink, the cold moon curved like a hook. Li Ying gazed from a distance at the vermilion wooden gate of Cui Xun’s residence. She didn’t want to enter, but she had promised Sheng Yunting, and she couldn’t break her word.

Li Ying pursed her lips. Her transparent figure passed through the tightly closed main gate and entered.

She walked past the crabapple tree in the courtyard. The baby swallows in the nest on the tree seemed to sense her arrival, suddenly chirping loudly. Li Ying looked up at the swallow’s nest, a hint of gentleness flashing in her eyes. But she quickly lowered her gaze, her right hand hidden in her sleeve, tightly gripping the place of her broken fingernail on her left hand. The sharp pain cleared her mind considerably. She looked toward Cui Xun’s study, her eyes as cold as ice, and walked forward step by step.

In the study, Cui Xun, wearing a black crane-patterned cloak, was writing a memorial on white hemp paper. His illness had come on fiercely; after writing just a few characters, he paused to cover his sleeve and cough for a while. After coughing, he calmly picked up the sparrow-head brush again and continued writing. In the dim yellow light of the white porcelain oil lamp, the blue veins on his wrist as he held the brush were visible, and his figure, bent over the desk, was skeletal, exceptionally thin.

Li Ying quietly watched from outside the study. This man was so gaunt and frail, it was impossible to imagine that he had once been a member of the Tianwei Army, had once ridden iron-clad horses and galloped across battlefields. In the past, she would have sympathized with him, would have wondered what had happened to him six years ago. But her sincerity had been repaid with his ruthless deception, and she would no longer pity him.

Cui Xun suddenly stopped writing. He slightly raised his head, and upon seeing Li Ying standing outside the door, he first looked startled, then said coldly: “Why have you come again?”

Having been discovered, Li Ying no longer hid. She took a deep breath and walked into the study: “Cui Xun, you should know someone called Sheng Yunting, right?”

The sparrow-head brush in Cui Xun’s hand fell with a pat onto the white hemp paper, splashing ink. Though his expression remained undisturbed, the dropped brush betrayed the turbulence in his heart. He looked at Li Ying, saying word by word: “How… do you know about Sheng Yunting?”

“I met him,” Li Ying paused. “His soul.”

“Wasn’t his soul in the City of Wrongful Deaths?”

“There was an accident, and only today was he taken to the City of Wrongful Deaths.” Li Ying mocked: “Cui Xun, aren’t you curious about what accident? Or have you become so heartless that you’ve forgotten your old friend?”

Cui Xun’s fingers pressing on the white hemp paper began to slowly tighten. The paper gradually deformed under his hand, his fingertips turning slightly white. He seemed afraid to ask, not wanting to hear the answer, but finally, he asked Li Ying: “What exactly happened?”

Li Ying didn’t tell him immediately, instead asking a question that had lingered in her mind: “Cui Xun, you arrested Wang Ranxi not to investigate my case, but for Sheng Yunting, right?”

Cui Xun didn’t speak, which was as good as admitting it. Li Ying had guessed correctly. She didn’t know how to feel at that moment. To think she had believed that Cui Xun was wholeheartedly helping her investigate the case, even risking himself to arrest Wang Ranxi, only to find out that from the beginning, his arrest of Wang Ranxi had nothing to do with her.

She felt her heart grow colder, her hatred for this man deepening. She laughed coldly: “But seeing you so ill, I guess Wang Ranxi was burned to death before you could get the truth out of her, so that’s why you fell ill with anger?”

Cui Xun still said nothing, his face only growing paler. Li Ying couldn’t help but smile bitterly: “It seems I’ve guessed right again. What should I say? All that scheming for nothing?”

Faced with Li Ying’s sarcasm, Cui Xun finally spoke, his tone surprisingly carrying a hint of pleading: “Between us, I have wronged you. Whether you want to kill me or flay me, I submit to your will. But I beg you to tell me, what exactly happened to Yunting?”

At this moment, his expression was somewhat pitiful. Since Li Ying had met him, he had always been cold and arrogant. Even when being publicly humiliated by several people at the Lantern Festival, he had remained indifferent. Li Ying could never have imagined that he could be so humble.

No, this man might be as beautiful as jade, and he might pretend to be pitiful and lonely to gain sympathy, but his heart was more poisonous than a viper!

Li Ying’s hand, hidden in her sleeve again, violently pinched the broken fingernail spot. She shuddered with pain, her gaze becoming clear. She looked at Cui Xun, her tone very calm: “Since I promised Sheng Yunting, I won’t break my word. Six years ago, when the Tianwei Army was trapped, Sheng Yunting was ordered by General Guo to go to Chang’an for reinforcements. When he passed through Changle Post Station, he was tricked into the station by Commander Shen Que and Wang Ranxi, where he was hacked to death. Wang Ranxi, fearing his vengeful spirit would haunt her, used a soul-suppressing talisman to trap Sheng Yunting’s soul in his corpse for exactly six years, unable to escape.”

The white hemp paper in Cui Xun’s hand was now crumpled. His face was as pale as a ghost, his chest heaving irregularly, his breathing becoming increasingly rapid, as if he was trying hard to suppress the pain in his heart. Li Ying slowly continued: “Now Wang Ranxi is dead, and Sheng Yunting’s soul has finally escaped its bonds. After his soul was freed, the first thing he did was to mount his war horse, rushing as fast as a shooting star, galloping straight to Chang’an, just to report what his general had entrusted him with to Your Majesty, begging him to send troops to rescue the trapped fifty thousand men of the Tianwei Army.”

After Li Ying finished speaking, Cui Xun didn’t say a word. The study was deathly silent. Cui Xun’s expression hadn’t changed much from before, though his breathing had become more rapid. Li Ying felt strangely disappointed. She thought self-mockingly that it seemed Sheng Yunting had misjudged his friend. Whatever “good man of the Tianwei Army” Cui Xun might have been, his heart had become as hard as iron during his years as a cruel official. Even his friend’s tragic death didn’t deserve a sigh from him.

Disappointed, she wasn’t sure whether to continue conveying Sheng Yunting’s message to Cui Xun. What Sheng Yunting thought important, perhaps Cui Xun wouldn’t care about at all. But even if Cui Xun didn’t care, she had promised Sheng Yunting, so she would still tell him.

Li Ying opened her mouth, just about to continue, when she suddenly saw Cui Xun cough up a mouthful of fresh blood, which sprayed directly onto the white hemp paper.

Li Ying was stunned, unable to utter even half of the prepared words.

After a moment, she trembled: “Hey, you… Are you alright?”

Cui Xun’s collar and the back of his hand were covered in fresh blood. He looked dazedly at the blood-stained white hemp paper. In the middle of the paper was written the character “loyalty.” The fresh blood meandered to that character, staining “loyalty” a deep red.

Li Ying tentatively called his name again: “Cui Xun… Cui Xun?”

Cui Xun raised his head dazedly. There was still a trace of blood at the corner of his lips. The crimson of the blood and the paleness of his face formed a stark contrast, making the crimson seem like a withering red rose and the pallor like cold mountain snow. Several strands of black hair hung in disarray beside the red rose and white snow. Though this was in the mortal world, Li Ying suddenly felt for a moment that the scene before her seemed even more desolately beautiful and hopeless than the endless fields of red spider lilies on the Path of Life and Death.

After calling him several times, Cui Xun finally came to his senses. He tremblingly grabbed a silk handkerchief nearby, but his fingers trembled so much he could barely hold it. After several attempts, he finally managed to grasp the handkerchief and wipe the “loyalty” character stained with fresh blood. But the blood had already soaked through the paper, and no amount of wiping could remove it. Eventually, the paper tore. Cui Xun stared at the torn white hemp paper, dumbfounded.

He stared at the torn paper for a long time. Li Ying no longer dared to call out to him, but he finally spoke. When he did, Li Ying realized that his voice was trembling involuntarily. She had never seen Cui Xun like this, so flustered and at a loss.

Cui Xun asked her in a hoarse voice: “What else did Yunting say?”

Li Ying steadied her emotions: “He said… since Shen Que and Wang Ranxi killed him, it proves that the destruction of the Tianwei Army must involve injustice. He said you’re the only one left of the fifty thousand men of the Tianwei Army, and he wants you to clear their name.”

Clear their name…

Right the wrong…

“The officers of the Tianwei Army lost the city and land. Your Majesty ordered the confiscation of their property, forbidding the collection of their corpses, forbidding their burial.”

“Cao Fifth Brother’s mother has passed away.”

“She couldn’t bear the humiliation and hanged herself.”

Before Cui Xun’s eyes seemed to appear a scroll densely filled with the names of the Tianwei Army’s family members, among which more and more names were crossed out in vermilion ink. He felt as if an invisible sharp blade had pierced his heart, every beat bringing pain close to suffocation. Because of the pain, his face grew increasingly paper-white, his hands tightly clenched into fists, his nails deeply embedded in his palms, leaving bloody marks. He asked Li Ying in a hoarse voice: “What else?”

“Also… he said, the road ahead is arduous, and the entire Tianwei Army… kneels in gratitude!”

“Kneels in gratitude?” Cui Xun repeated these words dazedly: “Kneels in gratitude… kneels in gratitude…”

His palms were already a bloody mess. No matter how deeply his nails dug into them, they were too numb to feel pain. When physical pain could no longer divert the pain in his heart, his shoulders began to tremble uncontrollably. He tightly clenched his jaw, but tears still emerged from his eye sockets one by one, sliding down his ghostly pale face.

Li Ying opened her eyes wide in disbelief. Cui Xun was crying?

This extremely cruel official, this cold-hearted, treacherous man, could also cry?

But Cui Xun was indeed crying.

When he cried, he gritted his teeth, making no sound, only large tears falling one by one from his pale cheeks, splattering onto the white hemp paper. On the paper, blood and tears intertwined, making it impossible to distinguish what was blood and what was tears.

Li Ying’s heart was suddenly filled with mixed emotions. So Cui Xun really could cry.

Her intense hatred for Cui Xun was diluted by the shock of the moment. Besides shock, she even felt a touch of compassion for Cui Xun, almost making her forget the revenge she had planned before coming.

While she was still stunned, Cui Xun slowly spoke: “Did Yunting tell you where his body is?”

Li Ying suddenly remembered the revenge she had plotted. She suppressed the compassion in her heart and slowly nodded.

“Where is it?”

Li Ying said, “I won’t tell you.”

Cui Xun looked at her in disbelief: “What did you say?”

“I said, I won’t tell you.”

Cui Xun was furious. Despite his illness and weakness from emotional agitation, he staggered to his feet and approached Li Ying step by step. Li Ying was frightened and retreated step by step until she was backed against the wall with nowhere to go.

Cui Xun glared at her: “Where is Yunting’s body?”

“I promised Sheng Yunting I would tell you, but not now.” Li Ying quickly recited the lines she had prepared: “You deceived me so terribly, I must make you pay a price. You promised before to investigate my case. Now I demand that you fulfill your promise. Once the real culprit is found, I will tell you where Sheng Yunting’s body is.”

Cui Xun was furious to the extreme. He suddenly grabbed Li Ying’s throat: “I ask you one last time, where is Yunting’s body?”

Li Ying was choked to the point of suffocation. She suddenly laughed: “I am already a ghost. Can you kill me again? How ridiculous!”

Cui Xun was stunned. He released Li Ying, his spirit lost. Li Ying covered her throat and coughed violently. She watched Cui Xun warily, but he suddenly laughed bitterly. He slowly knelt: “I beg you to tell me where Yunting’s body is.”

Li Ying was completely stunned. She stared at Cui Xun kneeling before her with his head lowered. Since she had known Cui Xun, she had never seen him kneel. This cruel official, though covered in infamy, had always kept his back straight, like a bamboo that would break but not bend. But at this moment, he was kneeling to beg her for the location of a corpse?

Li Ying was dumbfounded, unable to say a word.

Cui Xun pleaded in a low voice: “Please, tell me.”

Li Ying finally came to her senses. She remembered almost being caught by ghost officials in the netherworld, the cruel scene of the bo’er xiang devouring souls in the Nai River, the ferryman saying, “he’s not a good person.” She hardened her heart again: “Cui Xun, you’re not a good person. I won’t tell you. When you help me catch the real culprit, then I’ll tell you.”

Cui Xun lowered his head in despair. He knelt before Li Ying, his face covered in blood and tears, his palms a bloody mess, looking utterly wretched. For a long time, he didn’t respond to Li Ying. His life and fortune were tied to the Empress Dowager. In others’ eyes, he was just the Empress Dowager’s dog. If a dog bites its own master, how miserable would its fate be? One can imagine.

Li Ying knew this too. Just as she thought Cui Xun wouldn’t give up his life and fortune for the location of a grave, suddenly Cui Xun, his gaze vacant, softly said: “Fine, I agree.”