Gu Juhan frowned, no longer concerned with pursuing the change in her form of address. He simply took the papers she handed him and quickly scanned them after unfolding them.

With this look, even Gu Juhan, who had weathered many storms over the years, couldn’t help but change color.

…These were account books.

The edges showed signs of being torn, clearly ripped from a complete ledger. What was recorded wasn’t ordinary business income and expenses, but… records of bribes received by court officials.

Each entry was clear and detailed. Though these were only two pages, the amounts already totaled nearly ten thousand, including many court nobles and collateral branches of the Zou family.

…Even members of the Gu family.

Gu Juting, Gu Jusheng…

Gu Juhan’s hands trembled slightly.

He looked at Shen Xiling. His expression had completely changed, extremely serious and somewhat fragmented.

He asked her: “…What is this?”

Shen Xiling looked at him very calmly. Though she was so frail and weak, she appeared remarkably composed, like a true master in control.

She answered quietly: “The General has already seen clearly. Why ask me again?”

Gu Juhan stared at her intently, unconsciously crumpling those two thin sheets of paper in his hands: “Xiling, what exactly are you trying to do?”

These records of bribery and corruption – if they were exposed, then…

In contrast to Gu Juhan, Shen Xiling’s expression appeared very calm. She even seemed to fall into some memories, looking entirely at ease.

While recalling some rather distant past events, she said lightly: “The General must know about my past. I started doing small business from about age twelve. Looking back now, it’s quite interesting.”

Gu Juhan was surprised she suddenly brought up these things and was somewhat stunned. He did know some of her past – reportedly she first started with textile manufacturing. The white cotton textile business that was now thriving throughout Jiangnan and Jiangbei originally began in her hands.

At this moment, her gaze was somewhat ethereal, as if remembering more and more things.

“At that time in Jiangzuo, business was very difficult because all trades were controlled by guilds, and behind the guilds were aristocratic families, leaving very narrow paths for others,” she narrated matter-of-factly. “I was very stubborn then. Though I could have relied on him and borrowed his power to accumulate wealth for myself, I insisted on depending on myself, never asking him for help no matter how difficult it was. Perhaps he was quite helpless about it too.”

Speaking of that person, her expression became increasingly tender, as if feeling somewhat comforted.

“People must always pay the price for their youthful ignorance, but the price I paid then was somewhat too heavy – it was a human life,” her tone became dejected. “It was a shopkeeper who worked with me. Because I didn’t understand how to be flexible, he was killed by guild people. His whole family lost their livelihood. I remember his child was only eight years old then, yet lost his father just like that.”

Her expression still carried the pain from that time, making one realize these old scars still remained in her heart. After a moment of silence, she became calm again, showing the strength of her current state of mind – she could control herself now.

“From then on I finally understood how dirty a thing power is. It can easily kill a person and easily destroy a family,” she paused, her expression melancholy, then gradually becoming clear again. “But it’s not entirely useless. At least I understood that when people are in the most dangerous and urgent situations, the only thing they can turn to for help is power.”

“I don’t have power, but I have things other than power that I can use to exchange for it,” she glanced at the two thin sheets of paper in Gu Juhan’s hands. “I can use money to buy power. When they take my money, naturally they must do things for me – as for his matter, if the General finds it difficult, I’ll go find the people on these account books instead.”

She spoke so lightly and composedly, but Gu Juhan knew this was coercion.

She was threatening him.

She knew that finding anyone else wouldn’t be as useful as finding him. He was Duke Yanguo of Great Wei, holder of the supreme pillar rank, whose words carried the most weight before His Majesty. She would never abandon him to find people on these account books to do things – wouldn’t that be going in the opposite direction? She deliberately showed him account books containing names from the Gu family to coerce him: if he didn’t help her, she would turn her blade on his family.

But this probably wasn’t everything. She knew his character – if sacrificing his family could save the country, he would certainly not hesitate to act righteously against his relatives. So she also showed him more names – if she presented these registers to Emperor Wei, what kind of upheaval would occur in Great Wei’s court? If she used these registers to incite factional strife in court, what would happen to Great Wei’s political situation?

…She was coercing him, using his family and even his country as stakes.

For a moment, Gu Juhan couldn’t even say what he was feeling.

Heartache? Of course. He was devoted to her. Even until today when she rushed headlong into the fire, he had foolishly hoped she could emerge from her obsession with that person, let go of past matters and look back at him. Now he finally knew how ridiculous his thoughts were – not only would she never love him, but she wouldn’t hesitate to drag him to hell for Qi Jingchen’s sake.

She was so heartless.

Besides heartache, he also felt confused. When she married him, she came with nothing. The foundation of her business was all in Jiangzuo. Though he knew Qi Jingchen had given her another sum of money for self-protection, it was absolutely insufficient for her to accumulate such wealth in just five years. Though her Yilou and Jinyu Hall had rich profits, it would be absolutely impossible for her alone to bribe so many court officials. Even if she could really manage it, he wouldn’t have heard not a whisper of it over all these years.

This could only explain one thing: someone was helping her.

It absolutely couldn’t be Qi Jingchen. He was far away in Jiangzuo, trapped by layers of deadly schemes in Great Liang’s court and barely able to protect himself. How could he possibly reach into Shangjing to help her?

Then who exactly was it?

Shen Xiling knew of Gu Juhan’s doubts, and she certainly wouldn’t tell him that the person helping her was her father.

Minister Shen had indeed died ten years ago, and the Shen family had indeed turned to dust long ago. But even when a centipede dies, it leaves behind infinite legacy – not just money, but connections.

Ten years ago, Minister Shen had entrusted former retainers and old servants to transfer two sums of money to Qi Ying. That old servant was originally surnamed Gong, named Gong Zhi. After entrusting Shen Xiling to Qi Ying, he left Jiangzuo and went north to live under an assumed name.

Minister Shen’s dying wish was for his wife and daughter to be safe. Though Shen Xiling was then taken under Qi Ying’s protection, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t become displaced again in the future. So after leaving Jiangzuo, Gong Zhi continued to secretly care about Shen Xiling’s situation, and found her again five years ago when the Qi family incident occurred and she married far into Jiangbei.

At that time, Shen Xiling was dispirited and couldn’t recover from past events for a long time. Gong Zhi’s arrival was like dawn breaking for her.

She learned this gentleman had been her father’s right-hand man and had been secretly looking after her all these years, naturally being moved by this. When Master Gong heard that Qi Ying not only hadn’t taken a penny of the money Minister Shen had given him, but had also sold his own private property to provide for Shen Xiling’s livelihood, he couldn’t help but be deeply moved, sighing at the time: “Minister Shen indeed didn’t misjudge. That Qi Jingchen is truly someone worth entrusting.”

From then on, Master Gong stayed by Shen Xiling’s side as an ordinary accountant, openly managing Yilou and Jinyu Hall for her while secretly transferring the commercial connections the Shen family had established to her.

Shen Xiling was originally a gentle person who sought no conflict with the world. Even after experiencing life-and-death disasters in childhood, her original nature hadn’t changed. But the catastrophe five years ago truly hurt her to the bone, especially because it involved Qi Ying, leaving wounds in her heart. She didn’t know how much effort she had spent secretly managing this invisible empire of hers, winning over countless merchants from north and south. Most of them didn’t even know who they were working for, only receiving benefits while separately following orders to bribe officials at all levels of the northern and southern courts, both depending on these powers for survival while turning them into their own fangs.

Wealth is always inferior to power.

However, when wealth expands to a certain degree, even power must bow its head.

Shen Xiling certainly wouldn’t tell Gu Juhan all these details. She only needed to get a result from him. At this moment, her expression was calm and settled, but in Gu Juhan’s eyes, it inevitably reminded him of Qi Jingchen.

…From when had she become so similar to him?

Even the expression she wore while sitting there negotiating and controlling everything was identical to his.

Equally certain, equally calm, equally unflinching.

His heart truly ached terribly, so much that he lost some composure, looking at her and sighing: “Xiling… how did you become like this?”

He still remembered when they first met, it was on a bustling street somewhere in Shangjing. At that time she was so clean, even willing to argue with people over a stranger beggar child, not hesitating to sacrifice herself to protect someone weaker than her. When she smiled at him, there wasn’t a trace of complexity in her eyes, only clarity, like the misty rain of Jiangzuo in March.

But now…

She was manipulating power tactics – even worse, she was driving and utilizing power to achieve her private desires.

…How had she become like this?

But when Shen Xiling heard his question, her expression became somewhat profound.

She smiled at him, but deeper sorrow appeared in her eyes.

“Wenruo,” she said, “you wouldn’t understand.”

Her voice was somewhat hollow, her gaze increasingly ethereal, her brow furrowing more deeply, as if remembering some past events that caused her unbearable pain.

“I once asked him whether I should change, whether I should become unscrupulous,” her voice was very low. “At that time he told me never to change. He said he would always protect me. He wanted me to always stay clean.”

Then she smiled faintly, beautiful and sad.

“He didn’t break his promise. He has always protected me, but… no one protected him.”

“I will always remember that day in court five years ago. Everyone was protected well by him, only he kept getting hurt… I couldn’t help him at all, could only watch helplessly as those people held a sharp sword over his neck.”

Her eyes moistened, looking at Gu Juhan with tears, her expression so broken.

She even laughed: “But do you know what made me most painful?”

Her tears slowly fell down her beautiful cheeks.

“It was discovering… that I was that sword.”

Clearly I loved him so much, so much that I didn’t want him to be hurt, yet in the end I became a blade in others’ hands, dragging him into a bottomless abyss.

I had never hated anyone so much – that lofty Great Liang Emperor, those demons and monsters from aristocratic families, those hawks and hounds in government offices… I hated them all, but I hated myself most.

I had hurt him so deeply.

From that day I swore to myself that if there was a next time, if he truly fell into danger again, I would definitely save him.

No matter what price I had to pay.

No matter what I had to exchange.

And no matter what I would eventually become.

I only wanted to save him.

She kept all these words deep in her heart without speaking them aloud, but the deep affection and determination in her eyes at that moment clearly told Gu Juhan exactly what lengths she could go to for that person.

…She would absolutely never turn back.

He truly didn’t know what to say to her, and by then she had already reached up to wipe the tears from her face, becoming calm again.

She supported herself on the chair’s armrest and shakily stood up, declining his offer to help steady her. After standing firm, she spoke to him again: “I give the General three days to consider. If I still cannot see him after three days, I will naturally find other ways to think of solutions. At that time, the General need not worry further.”

Hearing this, Gu Juhan’s emotions fluctuated violently, so much that his hands uncontrollably clenched until his palms bled.

He was both shocked and angry: “Three days? This is such a momentous matter. His Majesty has already made his decision. Even I couldn’t change this outcome in three days!”

Shen Xiling’s expression appeared somewhat cold. She supported herself on the table as she walked toward the door, slowly saying: “That is not a problem I need to consider. The General can weigh it himself.”

Her voice was very light and faint.

“Or the General could also kill me,” she turned back to look at Gu Juhan, her expression somewhat casual. “But even so, these account books would still remain safely in others’ hands. If His Majesty wants to entertain other thoughts, it wouldn’t need to be so troublesome.”

Hearing these words from her, Gu Juhan’s hands finally fell open dejectedly, blood continuously dripping from his fingertips, yet he seemed unaware.

He looked at this woman before him who was extremely frail yet also extremely beautiful – his only love in this lifetime. Yet having accompanied her for so long, he had never known she was such a cold-hearted person, even… so resolute.

He watched her nod farewell to him, then step by step walk out of the study.

That retreating figure appeared so delicate it seemed ready to collapse at any moment.

Yet also seemed… stronger than anyone else in this world.

Author’s Note: Let wounds become experience, let experience become composure, let composure become strength. Wenwen, charge! (There will definitely be another update!)