Chun Tao tightly covered her mouth and burst into tears.

She gripped Wu Zhe’s shoulders tightly, a surge of blood rushing to her heart, her chest wracked with pain as if her heart was being torn apart. She wished she could slaughter all those who sought to harm the Bai family.

She closed her eyes, but tears still rushed out one after another. Her eyes hurt so much that she couldn’t open them. She wanted to cry out, but couldn’t make a sound. Her towering rage seemed about to break through the nine heavens, yet she was in such despair from the pain.

After half a cup of tea’s time, Chun Tao, her eyes red from crying, clutched tightly the bamboo scrolls that Wu Zhe had protected with his life, following the dispirited Bai Qingyan as they walked back.

The Duke’s Mansion’s azure tiles reflected red light against the white snow, presenting a scene of brilliant illumination in this silent darkness, yet it seemed so cold and desolate.

Chun Tao saw Bai Qingyan walking under the red-lit corridor, her steps unsteady and staggering… She wanted to reach out to support her, but couldn’t free her hands for fear of dropping the bamboo scrolls. Tears fell drop by drop: “Miss…”

Bai Qingyan returned to Qinghui Courtyard wearing her snow-white cloak stained with glaring red blood, her voice hoarse as she told Chun Tao to place the bamboo scrolls on the writing desk.

Chun Tao looked at Bai Qingyan, whose entire body was stiff and frozen to a blue-purple complexion, and said: “Miss, let this servant help you change out of these blood-stained clothes. Please warm yourself first!”

She waved her hand at Chun Tao through gritted teeth, staring fixedly at the bamboo scrolls illuminated by the flickering candlelight, instructing Chun Tao to wait outside and not to enter.

In the warm as spring upper room, the silver frost charcoal in the carved copper brazier made faint crackling sounds. Only then did she come to her senses, her entire being as if placed in an ice cellar, her whole body numb with cold.

Full of grief and indignation, she sat down at the writing desk, her bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at the bamboo scrolls. Her throat hurt so much she couldn’t speak a single word, and the bloody taste between her lips and teeth lingered for a long time.

The bamboo scrolls before her recorded the military situation of the Bai family men’s battle in Nan Jiang, even their circumstances before death. In her previous life, she had always hoped to get her hands on them to restore justice to the Bai family. But now that they were before her, she found herself somewhat afraid to look.

Some things, without receiving definite news, still held hope. Once seen, there would be nothing left to expect or anticipate… Bai Qingyan closed her eyes.

After a long while, she took a deep breath and picked up the bamboo scrolls to unfold them…

These five blood-stained bamboo scrolls appeared before her eyes, word by word.

Chun Tao stood guard outside the door with red eyes, watching the gradually whitening sky in the vast falling snow, hearing from time to time Bai Qingyan’s heart-wrenching sobs that she struggled with all her might to suppress. Her heart felt as if cut by knives.

Bai Qingyan gripped the bamboo scrolls tightly, her throat constricting until she could barely breathe.

She closed her eyes as tears flowed like springs, filled with grief and indignation. The rage in her chest almost burned her entire being to ashes. Seeing the small figurine on horseback wielding a sword that Chun Tao had placed prominently on the desk, she frantically swept all the writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones off the table.

When she had returned with severe injuries, if only she had been as diligent as before and practiced desperately, she could have gone to the battlefield with her grandfather and the others this time! Why did she truly treat herself as a sickly person just because others thought her physically weak, spending her days contentedly recuperating and being soft and weak?

What use was she staying in this Duke’s Mansion? What use was she at all?!

She clutched tightly at the clothes on her chest, biting through her gums until they bled, yet with all her strength, she still couldn’t stop herself from weeping bitterly for the heroic spirits of her Bai family…

Prince Xin!!!!!

In her previous life, she had thought Prince Xin was mediocre and cowardly, but still had some sense of propriety. Even when Prince Xin followed grandfather and the others to the battlefield, and all the Bai family men perished while Prince Xin returned barely alive, she never imagined it was he who trusted Liu Huanzhang and used the golden command arrow to force grandfather into reckless advance.

She wished she could take up her long sword at this very moment and dismember Prince Xin! She wanted to dig out the hearts of those demons and monsters who had harmed the hundreds of thousands of heroic spirits of her Bai family army and see if those hearts were black!

Five bamboo scrolls, with just a few sparse words, yet they crushed her liver and intestines, burning her five organs!

She bit her teeth tightly, enduring the tearing and grinding pain, desperately clutching the bamboo scrolls. Her mind was filled with the tragic deaths of her grandfather, father, uncles, and brothers.

The bamboo scrolls recording the battle situation contained only fragments of words, yet they recorded how shocking and tragic the deaths of her Bai family sons were!

Her father was trapped in Feng City. When provisions were exhausted, to hold back the enemy forces and help the people of Feng City, he said to the remaining thousand soldiers defending the city: “Those with elderly parents as only sons, step back one step. Those unmarried without heirs, step back one step. The rest… who dare die for the people of our Great Jin, follow me out to battle against the enemy!”

The Bai family’s tenth son, ten-year-old Bai Qingdong, stepped forward with sword in hand, declaring he dared shed his blood and flesh to follow his uncle into battle, to fight to the death for the people of Great Jin, absolutely refusing to live in shame! The Bai family army was deeply moved by this ten-year-old child, and they all drew their swords, declaring they would rather die in battle than live in shame.

Her blood brother, Bai Qingyu, only seventeen years old, guarded the main camp with five thousand soldiers. When Prince Xin saw fifty thousand enemy troops attacking and fled with his tail between his legs, Bai Qingyu resolved to defend the line to the death and drank farewell wine with his soldiers: “Fellow soldiers, though we were not born at the same time, today we fight as comrades for the tens of thousands of people of our Great Jin, so we are all blood brothers. Drain this wine, everyone… see you in the next life!”

Her cousin Bai Qingqi defended the strategic Linggu Pass, facing eighty thousand combined troops from Western Liang and Nanyan with ten thousand soldiers. Before his desperate last stand, he had said: “Millions of people are behind us. Can the Bai family army retreat? Dare we retreat?!” The loyal and brave Bai family army shouted three times that they would not retreat.

Her third uncle, Bai Qiyu, when all the Bai family men had died in battle and he was forced to retreat to Tianmen Pass for a final stand with his back to the water, cried out: “Our army’s marshal and generals have all died in battle. We are the last line of defense for the people of Pingcheng in our Great Jin! This general is willing to lead the charge and execute the bandits who insult our Great Jin! Those who dare to die, follow me!”

Even before death, her Bai family men’s hearts were still filled with the people of Great Jin…

The loyal bones of the entire Bai family—why did Heaven force her Bai family men to such extremes?! Why force her Bai family men to such extremes!

With blood vengeance burning in her head, she held back her tears, her eyes like demons from hell, swearing to kill all the treacherous officials and dark spirits under heaven! But thinking of every word and sentence in the bamboo scrolls was like having her heart carved out and her bones hammered, wishing for death. She pounded the ground and wept bitterly, her mind in chaos, crying and stopping alternately, like one possessed.

Even though she had long known the fate of the Bai family men, without seeing with her own eyes what these bamboo scrolls recorded, she truly could not have imagined that her Bai family men died so tragically.

She held the bamboo scrolls in her arms, her hair disheveled and scattered, her blood-red eyes looking at the brightening sky outside the window. Her entire being seemed to be subjected to death by a thousand cuts, existing in a dazed and agonized state, wishing she could cut open her heart with a knife to stop the pain.

If she had not ordered Shen Qingzhu to rush to Nan Jiang, and they had not encountered Fang Yan of the Tiger Battalion being pursued by killers along the way, these five bamboo scrolls would probably never have seen the light of day, just like in her previous life.

Her Bai family would be just like in her previous life—clearly loyal, brave, and heroic, yet nailed to the pillar of shame as traitors to the Kingdom.

That surging, towering hatred, the dense and overwhelming pain, like ten thousand ants drilling into her heart and gnawing at her bones and flesh, made life worse than death. Her entire being was in desperate agony as if fried in oil and burned by fire.

When the pain reached its extreme, her whole body went numb as she held the bamboo scrolls, crying and laughing alternately…

Those whose courage and strategy threaten their master face danger; those whose achievements surpass all under heaven face execution!

Many heroes in the world die unjustly; treacherous officials and villains throw the world into chaos!

What wrong had her Bai family’s men committed?! This full house of loyal bones, this full house of hot blood… was thus entirely buried in Nan Jiang.