Returning to Xiuyan Pavilion from Fuhe Hall, the fury in Jiang Xingjian’s chest smoldered, unable to dissipate for a long time. Song Wan’s attitude of resistance toward him was too obvious, making him extremely concerned.

“Xingjian?”

Lin Jiayue weakly got out of bed. After putting on her embroidered shoes, she sat beside him. Seeing Jiang Xingjian’s grave expression, she couldn’t help but speak cautiously: “Is something the matter?”

The deaths of Jiang Jing and Concubine Zhou had dealt her too great a shock. By now Lin Jiayue had finally restrained her flamboyant temperament, but she had gone from one extreme to another.

“Did I do something again to make you angry?”

Jiang Xingjian pinched the bridge of his nose, saying flatly that she hadn’t.

Lin Jiayue suddenly began to panic. She could feel his coldness. This distance made her unconsciously shiver all over, her heart feeling hollow. She didn’t dare press him, only able to murmur lowly, muttering the same things over and over.

Annoyed by her words, Jiang Xingjian told her about how Song Wan would rather injure her own hand than accept the authority to manage the marquis residence household.

“But… but it’s just an injured hand. It wouldn’t interfere with household management.”

Jiang Xingjian lowered his eyes, disappointed in his heart. He had no patience to discuss this further and asked about the firearms instead.

“The day after tomorrow I’ll take you to see the power of those firearms.”

After speaking, Lin Jiayue lowered her head, concealing the guilt in her eyes: “Shouldn’t… shouldn’t we inform Consort Jiang? She’s probably anxious to know the situation as well.”

That was now her only trump card. Having given birth to an imperial prince, Consort Jiang would certainly value such deadly weapons more than Jiang Xingjian.

Lin Jiayue kept her head down, clutching her skirt, not daring to speak.

“I’ll have someone send word to the palace.”

Lin Jiayue exhaled deeply, setting her heart at ease.

Three days later, early in the morning, she rose early to change clothes and wash. After tidying herself properly, Qian Bi handed her a light gauze veil hat. Lin Jiayue grasped the veil that hung to her waist, staring blankly for a long time before finally putting it on as if compromising.

The moment the carriage left the marquis residence, Lin Jiayue only felt her eyes burn hot, nearly crying out. She had entered the marquis residence barely a month ago, yet felt as if half a lifetime had passed.

The carriage curtain was gently lifted by the wind. Jiang Xingjian saw Lin Jiayue lean forward with a devout expression toward the window, carefully inhaling the scent from outside.

Seeing her like this, he suddenly softened a bit.

The man raised his hand to lift the curtain. Lin Jiayue could no longer hold back and called out “Brother Xingjian.”

“When we reach the barren mountain in a while, I’ll get off the carriage with you for a walk.”

Lin Jiayue pressed her lips together, only managing to say “thank you” after a long while.

Several pale, beardless men stood atop the barren mountain. They had thin frames and shrill voices. As soon as they saw the two arrive, they all came forward to bow. Lin Jiayue stood behind Jiang Xingjian, not daring to speak, afraid of doing something that might affect others or involve matters of life and death.

“It’s fine. No need to avoid suspicion before these eunuchs.”

Jiang Xingjian had someone unload a large chest from the carriage. Lin Jiayue opened the chest and carefully examined the contents alone.

The items were custom-made separately through different craftsmen she had found. Each piece had patterns on it—no one in this world could understand them except herself.

After thinking, Lin Jiayue quickly began assembling them.

Jiang Xingjian and the several eunuchs watched as she placed some unknown substances into bamboo segments, then wrapped them with some yellow paper. After busying herself for most of an hour, Lin Jiayue had created two enormously large and clumsy paper boxes.

She bit her lip and said with lowered head: “Without specialized equipment now, I can’t make anything more refined. I can only show Your Highness the prototype of these firearms.”

Anxiously wiping the sweat from her palms, Lin Jiayue had people carefully move the paper boxes to a distance, then stood to the side with a blank expression.

She didn’t know if these things would explode.

Before meeting Jiang Xingjian, the place where she lived was remote and bordered mountains. Wolf packs would occasionally appear in the village.

To drive away wolf packs, the village’s formula for making firecrackers had been passed down through generations. That fortnight it should have been her family’s turn to take firecrackers to hang in the mountains, but since the household worked the fields daily, the task fell to her.

At that time she had just suddenly arrived in this godforsaken place where heaven wouldn’t answer and earth wouldn’t respond—how could she have the mind to care about firecrackers or wolf packs?

Too lazy to move, she hid everything in the cellar at home.

Later one day, hearing villagers say wolf packs had entered down the mountain and a young outsider was trapped, she was frightened into running down the mountain clutching the firecrackers she’d accumulated for so long.

Upon seeing Jiang Xingjian, she immediately bundled all the firecrackers together, lit them, and threw them over.

The village’s firecrackers didn’t have great destructive power, but they couldn’t withstand sheer quantity. That day when the entire bundle of firecrackers was thrown out, Lin Jiayue only felt an earth-shattering boom, as if the sky itself had been split open.

After a wave of black smoke rolled through, the wolf pack scattered completely, and Jiang Xingjian naturally was also knocked unconscious by the blast.

She cared for him for a long time. When Jiang Xingjian later woke and asked what she had used, she casually made up a story that she came from a reclusive clan in Huaxia, and what she had used was a peerless firearm she’d made that could withstand thousands of troops and had enormous destructive power.

She never expected Jiang Xingjian would believe her, just as she never expected Jiang Jing would lose his life over reading a few romance novels.

Lin Jiayue looked at the paper boxes in the distance and bit her lip.

These things were assembled from several firecracker workshops she’d found. Though just a giant firecracker with altered gunpowder ratios, she had added a few bamboo segments of flour to the paper box, and two barrels of tung oil to the other one.

Whether they would explode she didn’t know, but she could only gamble.

“It’s finished, just made somewhat crudely, and the time was rather rushed. If the effect is poor, I’ll improve it another day.”

Jiang Xingjian nodded. The eunuchs also watched with great interest until Lin Jiayue could no longer hold them back and said someone needed to ignite it with a fire arrow.

“Bring a bow.”

A eunuch brought a lit feathered arrow. Jiang Xingjian drew the bow and released the arrow in one fluid motion, hitting directly onto the paper box.

The paper box began burning but showed no change at all.

Lin Jiayue was about to make some excuses when everyone heard a tremendous boom as it exploded into a sky full of fiery rain. That fiery rain was the tung oil exploding in the air—landing everywhere without extinguishing, still burning vigorously. The tung oil splashed onto the other paper box, and before long it also exploded into sky-filling flames.

“Fire! Fire!”

A middle-aged eunuch shouted in a shrill voice. The barren mountain quickly caught fire.

Lin Jiayue watched the sky-high flames shoot up and suddenly laughed maniacally.

Only after a long while was the great fire extinguished by the fire brigade officials and soldiers who rushed over from nearby.

Looking at the burned and devastated barren mountain, the smile on Lin Jiayue’s face couldn’t be stopped.

“Congratulations to the marquis! Felicitations to the marquis! The marquis is truly the Thunder Duke reincarnated, a celestial descended to earth!”

In the distance, a eunuch came forward disheveled, continuously congratulating Jiang Xingjian. Even though everyone knew these things came from Lin Jiayue’s hands, not a single person praised her.

“If His Majesty learns this thing has such divine power, he will surely lavishly reward the marquis.”

“His Majesty?”

Lin Jiayue murmured in a low voice. Jiang Xingjian said: “How can such firearms remain in the hands of aristocratic families? Naturally they must be reported to His Majesty.”

Helping Lin Jiayue onto the carriage, he continued slowly: “With this, His Majesty should transfer me into the Shenshu Camp.”

Lin Jiayue stared blankly at Jiang Xingjian, not knowing for a moment how to speak.

This thing was originally her means of self-protection in the inner quarters. She had originally thought Consort Jiang would certainly claim it as her own, laying the foundation for the Fifth Prince to ascend the throne and seize power in the future. Thus as long as she held the formula, she could rest easy in the marquis residence’s inner quarters forever.

But now it actually involved the emperor…

If things truly went as Jiang Xingjian said and the emperor would transfer him to the Shenshu Camp, wouldn’t that mean she had to hand over her talisman of protection with both hands?