Yingzi had originally wanted to remind Ziqing that it would be better to go explain the matter of Nangong Castle to Situ Haonan in person first.

But hearing Ziqing’s explanation, and seeing the hopeful anticipation written all over her face, he silently faded into the background, saying nothing more.

Yingzi certainly knew about the bond between the lord of Nangong Castle and Situ Haonan—but he also knew Jun Beiyue understood it far better than he did.

Besides, the lord of Nangong Castle had originally been the one to broker the alliance between Xiliang and the Xiongnu against the northern desert in the first place—that alone was infuriating enough.

And what’s more, Nangong Castle hadn’t shown Situ Haonan any consideration for his dignity or feelings—scheming from behind the scenes wasn’t enough; he’d also personally shown his face, sending the two young masters to the front while conducting his own assassination attempt from behind!

By any measure, reasonable or otherwise, the fault lay with the lord of Nangong Castle.

At the time, Yingzi had been present, so he knew the situation best. The lord of Nangong Castle had, after all, been an elder, the supreme master of the martial world—coming personally wasn’t enough; he’d brought a whole group of skilled fighters with him.

If that wasn’t a deliberate attempt to kill Her Highness, then what else could it have been?

What else could Her Highness have done besides use gunpowder?

Yingzi felt that Situ Haonan should be able to understand this. So he thought no further about it, waiting instead for the moment when Her Highness would meet Situ Haonan and explain everything to his face, at which point he’d step forward and confirm it himself.

As for Ziqing—she did feel a certain guilt, but truthfully, not very much.

Because this girl, who had always longed for family but had never truly experienced it, who didn’t really understand what family meant, wasn’t yet fully aware of the gravity of the situation. Right now she was still joyfully planning to give Situ Haonan a surprise.

Yelu Qianqian had already been waiting. The moment she saw Ziqing, she rushed over excitedly, grabbing her and pulling her along.

“Let’s go see my father the emperor—once we’ve seen him, we can leave! Now that Haonan has won the war, he’ll never look down on him again!”

“Haonan is our great hero of Xijing!”

“Ziqing, do you know—I heard from the ministers that Xijing used to be pushed around by Xiliang! There wasn’t open war, but we still had to agree to so, so many of their demands! A few days ago, my father the emperor apologized to me, and apologized on my brother’s behalf too, saying he shouldn’t have schemed against me, shouldn’t have let Wanyan Lie set his sights on me!”

…

Yelu Qianqian had apparently been cooped up alone in the palace for far too long, because the moment she saw Ziqing, she began chattering nonstop, telling her everything, holding nothing back.

Ziqing, who disliked chatter to begin with, was nearly at her wit’s end. “I already asked—your father’s at the morning court session, he’ll be here soon! Can you settle down for a bit?”

At these cold words, Yelu Qianqian sullenly clamped her mouth shut!

Even though she’d grown closer and closer to Han Ziqing, more and more like friends, Yelu Qianqian still felt a certain wariness toward this woman deep down.

In her heart, she sometimes felt Han Ziqing wasn’t quite a “woman” in the usual sense—she was fiercer than most men!

“Did you finish the medicine I gave you last time?” Yelu Qianqian slowed her speech, lowering her voice, suppressing her excitement about happy things to come.

“There are still a few pills left…”

Ziqing hesitated for a moment, then, also lowering her voice, added, “…the ones from Changle Palace…”

Before she’d even finished speaking, Yelu Qianqian immediately said, “That zither still hasn’t been found. Everything in the secret chamber was destroyed—not a trace left behind. Come, I’ll show you!”

This matter had always been Ziqing’s biggest source of unease, and of course she wanted to see for herself.

Soon, Yelu Qianqian secretly led Ziqing into the storeroom of Changle Palace. Just as Yelu Qianqian had said, everything had indeed been destroyed!

The secret chamber showed almost no trace of the jade artifacts—only three bare earthen walls remained, and every last bit of the medicinal herbs was gone too.

“I’ll have it tiled over with glazed bricks later, to make it look even more complete—destroy every last trace,” Yelu Qianqian said earnestly.

“Thank you.”

This was probably the third time Ziqing had said thank you—no elaborate explanation, just those two plain words.

And yet, spoken so plainly, they carried all the more weight and sincerity.

Yelu Qianqian couldn’t quite handle it, laughing and giving Ziqing a light shove. “What are you thanking me for! Let’s just consider this whole thing never happened—I’ll forget it soon enough anyway! Come on, let’s go!”

The two of them made their way out of Changle Palace together, and only then did Ziqing’s smile return.

“Once we leave Akbachu, we’ll have a long, hard journey ahead.”

“I’m not afraid!”

Fearing Ziqing wouldn’t believe her, Yelu Qianqian emphasized specially, “Really!”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you.”

“Hey, you look so pretty when you smile—why do you never like to smile?”

At Yelu Qianqian’s words, Ziqing’s smile stiffened slightly, unconsciously.

How to put it—someone who had gone over twenty years without really smiling, whose habits and temperament had settled into that shape, found it hard to change now.

Still, the one comforting thing was that even if she didn’t smile often, at least now she could smile whenever she genuinely felt like it—a real smile, from the heart.

Ziqing steered away from the topic, saying flatly instead, “Qianqian, you know the relationship between Situ Haonan and Situ Castle, don’t you.”

“I know.” Yelu Qianqian nodded. Being Situ Castle’s daughter-in-law wasn’t going to be easy—but no matter, she had no intention of actually marrying into that family anyway.

On this particular matter, Yelu Qianqian was deeply grateful to Situ Haonan, from the bottom of her heart.

For a man, marrying into a wife’s family was a deeply humiliating thing—and yet he was somehow able to do it with his head held high, in a way that earned everyone’s admiration, without a hint of scorn from anyone.

“I think he’s the truest kind of man there is! All those men who claim to love you so much while clinging to convention, to so-called morality, demanding you understand, demanding you forgive, demanding you endure in silence—those so-called filial sons, gentlemen, real men—they’re all utterly hypocritical! Once the peace conference is over, I’m going to tell my father: Haonan won’t marry into our family, and I won’t marry into the Situ family either. I’ll only marry Situ Haonan, plain and simple.”

Yelu Qianqian spoke with great pride. Seeing Ziqing smile, she immediately added, “I’ve heard Haonan and the lord of Nangong Castle were very close. Well, whoever it is—his father, his mother, his siblings, even his grandfather—as long as they’re good to Haonan and to me, I’ll be good to them. But if they’re not good to Haonan and me, then even if it’s his own ancestors, this princess won’t give them the time of day.”

Hearing this, Ziqing finally couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing, giving Yelu Qianqian a thumbs up. “Well said.”

This was probably the most sensible thing she’d ever heard Yelu Qianqian say!

“Hehe, learned it from you—pretty commanding, huh?” Yelu Qianqian said proudly.

Ziqing pressed her lips together, then said flatly, “Qianqian, about Nangong Castle…”

She paused, then continued, “I… killed the lord of Nangong Castle.”

At those words, Yelu Qianqian froze for a moment, then let out a shocked cry. “What did you say?!”

“I killed the lord of Nangong Castle…” Ziqing said, perfectly calm.

“You! You killed…” Yelu Qianqian’s face went pale with shock. “How could this happen! The lord of Nangong Castle adored Haonan! And Haonan treated him very well too, even better than his own father!”

“Back at the northern desert, it wasn’t only Nanny Qin who wanted to take you to Xiliang—Madam Situ and the lord of Nangong Castle were involved too,” Ziqing said flatly.

Back then, not even Jun Beiyue, who disliked wasting words, had bothered to explain much about this matter to Yelu Qianqian—and in Jun Beiyue’s presence, Yelu Qianqian had always grown timid, weighing every word carefully, let alone asking more questions.

And after returning to the palace, why would that old fox of a Xijing emperor bother explaining anything to his innocent daughter?

Hearing Ziqing say this, she was truly stunned. “Really?