In the following period, the Qi family experienced one joy and one sorrow.

The joy was that the Prime Minister had finally awakened. Left Prime Minister Qi had weathered many storms throughout his life, thinking that now with his family’s prosperity at its peak, he could enjoy his twilight years in peace. Who could have expected that the imperial favor would suddenly transform into thunderous wrath, and all the tranquil harmony would become mere bubbles? Even this master of the Qi family, who had dominated Great Liang’s imperial court for decades, could not withstand it. After receiving the Son of Heaven’s stern lecture, he fell gravely ill. He had been bedridden for nearly a month, sometimes conscious and sometimes delirious. Now his mind was finally clear, though his body was far worse than before. It was as if half his life force had been drained away in a single day, and his entire spiritual essence had weakened considerably.

When he awoke and saw his second son, tears immediately filled his aged eyes. He reached out to grasp Qi Ying’s hand, sighing repeatedly with deep emotion: “It’s good that you’ve returned, good that you’ve returned…”

Qi Ying comforted his father and discussed the current situation with him, but the Prime Minister, having suffered such a great calamity, had already developed a weary heart. He seemed unwilling to concern himself with these disputes anymore. Even when listening to his second son speak, he remained somewhat detached throughout, and later told Qi Ying that everything was up to him to decide.

The sorrow was the passing of Old Madam Qi. Though this old lady was advanced in years, her death could hardly be considered dying of natural old age. Rather, she had been devastated by the sudden catastrophe that fell from heaven. After meeting with the Empress, she completely collapsed, lingering on her sickbed for less than a month before finally being unable to endure this ordeal and departing from the mortal world.

In her final days, she often spoke deliriously, mostly cursing her natal family for being cold-blooded, heartless, and ungrateful. Sometimes she would curse herself for being aged and muddled, for inviting wolves into the house. As she cursed, she would break into tears and vomit up all her medicine, leaving a roomful of physicians helpless. They said the old lady had contracted a heart ailment that was beyond the reach of medicine.

The Qi family had actually long seen that the old lady’s days were numbered, but when she passed away on the night of the ninth day of the third month, they still couldn’t help but grieve. The entire family wept sorrowfully at her bedside. Even Heaven seemed to feel something, for that night rain poured down in torrents. The sound of wind and rain made people’s hearts even more uneasy, as if it were an ominous portent, vaguely telling this family that more rolling misfortunes would follow one after another.

It was on such a dark and stormy night that Qi Ying found himself particularly missing Shen Xiling.

He still remembered that around this time last year, Jiankang City had also experienced a heavy rain. That was shortly after her coming-of-age ceremony. He had made her sad, and later she went to the southeastern villa to find Shen Cheng, who was going by the alias Yang Dong, for business matters. That day too had seen such torrential rain as tonight.

It was on that very day that they pledged their love to each other. She nestled tightly in his embrace, and he made a silent vow to cherish her for life.

This night was so similar to last year – the same heavy rain, the same dark night, the same burden pressing on his heart like a boulder. But the difference was… she was not by his side.

And he missed her terribly.

He had never known he could miss someone like this – miss her so much that his heart, usually as deep and calm as a still pond, became restless and melancholy, even more so than during the Northern Expedition.

He knew he shouldn’t be distracted thinking of her right now. He still had so many things to do. Moreover, with grandmother’s passing and the family needing to hold another funeral, both his mother and sister-in-law were in poor spirits. All affairs had to pass through his hands personally, with no one to share the burden. He simply had no leisure time.

But he couldn’t help himself.

He thought of her, over and over. The more lonely and heavy-hearted he became, the more he thought of her. And whenever he thought of her, the cracks in his heart would find brief relief, granting him moments of peace.

After being stripped of real power by the new emperor, he had lost his authority in the Privy Council. He also knew that the blade he had once held in his hands had now turned to become His Majesty’s weapon against the Qi family. However sharp he had once honed it, now it confined him just as tightly. He knew his main family was already under secret surveillance by the Privy Council. The people in this mansion were like caged birds, no longer able to come and go freely.

Yet he still very much wanted to return to Fenghe Courtyard once more.

To see her.

Even just seeing her once would make his heart feel much better, and he wouldn’t feel as suffocated as he did at this moment.

He really needed to catch his breath.

He wanted to see her.

Old Madam Qi’s recent passing was naturally a major event for the Qi family. The various branch families had received the news in the previous few days, and that night, despite the rain, most of the clan members still came to bid farewell to the old lady.

The last time the main family had been this bustling was during New Year’s Eve. At that time, inside the vermillion gates, lanterns blazed like daylight, children and grandchildren laughed and played, and the family flourished. Who could have imagined that in just three months it would become such a desolate scene? It truly gave one a sense of past and present lives.

Everyone’s hearts were heavy with oppression. Even the children dared not laugh and play, instead keeping their heads down and following closely beside their elders in the sound of wind and rain, all being extremely cautious and careful.

The servants of the main family braved the heavy rain to accompany their masters in carrying Old Madam Qi’s coffin into the Qi ancestral hall. At the same time, the abbot of Dingshan Temple, who had been invited long ago, came to chant sutras and pray for the old lady’s blessing. Inside the ancestral hall, everything was solemn. The sound of chanting continued for half the night until the zi hour when everyone finally dispersed.

But Qi Ying remained there alone.

Truth be told, he had never been particularly close to his grandmother since childhood. It wasn’t that grandmother didn’t love him, but perhaps their fated connection was naturally shallow, and they could never truly be intimate. After he entered court service and became increasingly busy with official duties, he saw his grandmother even less frequently.

But tonight, with grandmother’s passing, he still felt deep grief in his heart. This oppression made him long for Shen Xiling even more intensely.

He knew he couldn’t go anywhere, that he could only remain in the main family. His clansmen were almost all on the verge of collapse. Tonight even the children had become cautious and careful. He knew he was their last hope, and he couldn’t not be here, or everything would fall into chaos.

But Heaven knows how much he wanted to see her. Throughout this entire night, there was even a voice in his heart constantly tempting him: “Go, just leave like this. Haven’t you long wanted to take her away with you? All things have their destined life and death cycles. You couldn’t save everyone anyway. Why not abandon everything and leave with her? At least that way you two would have a good ending…”

“Just fulfill yourself this once, can’t you?”

“Be selfish just once, can’t you?”

This voice was very faint at first, and he could still pretend not to hear it. But later it became increasingly insistent, even more impossible to ignore than the sound of rain outside the ancestral hall that night. He wavered terribly, to the point where he had to rely on the countless ancestral tablets of various heights enshrined in the ancestral hall to suppress such desires.

Those were all Qi family ancestors who had blazed trails through wilderness to establish foundations, struggling through hundreds of years to achieve such a family legacy. Now it was about to collapse – could he just stand by and do nothing?

Was he going to sever this bloodline and watch his relatives step into the abyss with his own eyes?

Qi Jingchen, is this what you want?

In that instant, Qi Ying’s eyes became vacant.

Empty and hollow, containing nothing.

He had never been an indecisive person and had always been resourceful and decisive. Especially in front of the Qi family members, he appeared even more composed and unhurried. But in this ancestral hall where no one else was around, his eyes became vacant. It seemed only when no one was watching could he reveal such bewilderment.

And… a touch of weakness.

Those solemn tablets suddenly seemed to transform into the faces of ancestors, each looking down at him from above with bright, piercing gazes. They also seemed to extend thousands of hands toward him, binding him tightly in place so he couldn’t break free even by an inch. At the same time, they sternly admonished him to share life and death with this family.

Their voices layered upon each other, almost deafeningly loud, completely drowning out that single weak voice in his heart so he could no longer hear it.

But still…

…he wanted to see her.

Extremely, desperately wanted to see her.

Just thinking of her, his vacant eyes suddenly gained brilliance, like suddenly seeing daylight in the boundless darkness. This made him realize very clearly at that moment: he must go see her, regardless of consequences, regardless of cost.

It wasn’t that he didn’t love the family that raised him, nor was he too cowardly to bear this tremendous weight. It was simply… he also had private desires.

He just very much wanted to be with her, that’s all.

Qi Ying quickly turned around and strode toward the main gate of the ancestral hall. In just those few steps, he thought of many things. He even seemed to see Shen Xiling’s eyes suddenly brightening with joy when she saw him, and seemed to hear her frowning as she complained about him not eating his meals on time. At the same time, his fingertips seemed to touch her fair, delicate skin, leaving behind a faint lingering fragrance in his memory…

So real, endlessly tempting him, drawing him to walk faster and faster, leaving all the tablets in the hall behind him!

He pushed open that door of the ancestral hall!

Outside the door, wind and rain raged in the dark night.

But his father stood silently outside the door, and behind his father were many, many uncles and brothers.

Some he knew quite well, some he had only met a few times, some he didn’t even recognize – there were over a hundred people in total.

They were all looking at him, standing in the pouring rain. His father, who had just recovered from serious illness, was already soaked through, but still led the clansmen standing there. Who knew how long they had been standing silently outside the ancestral hall like this.

Qi Ying’s brows furrowed. His mind was completely blank, as if a blinding white light had covered all his thoughts, making him unable to understand anything for the moment. In his confusion, he only saw that his father held a letter in his hand that was already soaked through.

It took him a very long time to recognize that it was the letter he had given to his elder brother on New Year’s Eve, in which he had candidly revealed everything he was planning at the time.

The white light in his mind became even more blinding, so much so that even someone as perceptive as Qi Ying couldn’t think clearly about why that letter was in his father’s hands.

After Qi Ning’s incident, Qi Yun was implicated and imprisoned. Knowing he could no longer protect the family as his younger brother had entrusted him to do, he handed over the letter Qi Ying had left with him to their father before being taken away by the Court of Judicial Review, asking their father to find a way to bring his second brother back south. Qi Zhang was extremely shocked and pained when he saw the letter. He had planned to go north personally to bring his second son back, but unfortunately fell ill later and couldn’t make the trip.

Fortunately, Yao Shi’s family letter eventually called the second son back, which was why the Prime Minister’s first words upon recovery when he saw Qi Ying were not anything else, but – “It’s good that you’ve returned.”

He had long known of his second son’s intention to leave.

At the same time, he also knew that the seeds of desire could not be planted, for they would take root and sprout.

Jingchen’s heart already contained the seed of departure. It would not easily wither and die, and now was the moment of the Qi family’s life and death crisis, when so many people’s lives hung by a thread. He could not allow his second son to leave.

Not even one step.

But what could he do? Jingchen had already grown up, while he himself was constantly aging and becoming increasingly powerless. He knew he couldn’t rely on his paternal authority to command and control him. All he could do was…

…plead with him.

Rain poured down in torrents, and the night was boundless.

Qi Zhang, together with countless clan elders who shared Qi family blood, slowly knelt down before his own son.

“Thud.”

Soft, almost inaudible in that night of pattering rain.

Yet like a thunderclap, it suddenly resounded in Qi Ying’s ears.

In that instant, he finally truly understood.

It turned out he was destined never to possess in this lifetime what his… heart yearned for.

Also on that very night – that night of pouring rain and bustling commotion.

A panicked, travel-worn servant came rolling and crawling into the main family compound, bringing news to Qing Zhu, who served at Second Young Master Qi’s side.

Qing Zhu, usually mature beyond his years, was greatly alarmed upon hearing the news, his face instantly turning pale. He immediately hurried to the ancestral hall to find his young master. Seeing the scene of the Prime Minister and clan elders kneeling all over the ground, he didn’t even have time to be surprised. He could only hurriedly lean close to his young master’s ear and quickly relay the message the servant had brought.

None of the other people present knew what Qing Zhu said to Qi Ying at that time. They could only vaguely see in the heavy rain that their Qi family’s last pillar of support seemed to have been struck by a devastating blow. His expression became desolate, and his eyelids slowly drooped.

Silent and soundless, as if entering meditation and becoming isolated from the world.

All the observers felt uneasy and apprehensive in their hearts. Then they saw him raise his eyes again after a moment. At that time, his eyes showed the full display of sharp, deadly intent. With his back to the boundless cold night rain, he truly seemed like…

…a demon from hell.

Author’s Note: It wasn’t until this night that he truly embarked on the path of the demon.