Nanyi finally struggled awake from her nightmare-like stupor.

The moment she opened her eyes, she saw Madam Gantang’s concerned expression.

“How much wine were you fed? You’ve been drunk for a whole day before waking up.”

Madam Gantang quickly reached for a teacup and helped Nanyi drink a sip of hot tea.

Nanyi looked around in confusion. This was clearly Madam Gantang’s room, and she showed a trace of bewilderment.

“Master Song and Young General Ying Huai brought you back to Wangxue Valley. He said his place was being watched by the Qi people and was dangerous, and he was afraid he couldn’t take good care of you. After thinking it over, he asked me to help hide you in Wangxue Valley—what on earth happened?”

Nanyi was stunned: “How could it be them who brought me back?”

“Those two were also being mysterious, only saying your identity was extremely important and they had to ensure your safety. After learning you had returned, even Xie Xiaoliu came to check on you.”

Identity, Xie Xiaoliu… Nanyi seemed to understand something.

The Bingzhu Bureau thought they had rescued “Yan.” This was how Xie Queshan had sent her away.

She had thought that after drugging her unconscious, he would hand her over to Zhang Yuehui, but he had still paved a free and open road for her.

Tears immediately fell from Nanyi’s eyes.

“Second Sister… if Xie Chao’en were to die, would you shed tears for him?”

All she could think of now was him alone on that ship waiting to die, while she alone had returned to the human world. Life and death separation was the cruelest thing in this world. She had so much she wanted to pour out from her heart, but what came out was this incoherent question.

Madam Gantang was stunned. She vaguely sensed something in these words, but she dared not think deeply.

Her younger brother—how could he die? She had never even considered it.

She was still waiting for the future, for the day when Xie Chao’en would reform and turn toward righteousness.

Madam Gantang forced a smile on her face that she herself didn’t believe: “He’s so capable—how could he die?”

The despair in Nanyi’s heart was suddenly torn into a huge void.

How could he not die? He was just one person.

She wanted to scream like a madwoman. She wanted everyone to know what kind of person Xie Queshan was. She wanted everyone to help him, to save him. The words almost rushed to her lips, but she couldn’t say them.

She understood that the path beneath his feet had been built with too much blood and flesh. He couldn’t let down those who had died because of him.

It was like a prolonged plague—whoever touched him would become unfortunate, so he isolated himself from the crowd, refusing medicine, wanting to perish together with the plague.

So he was selfish, not even willing to risk fighting for possible success.

Nanyi felt she had already fallen ill. As he was dying, he was making the rest of her life into a disease. On the path leading away from him, she was gradually becoming terminally ill, deprived of the ability to act, deprived of the will to survive.

Nanyi wiped away her tears and said listlessly: “Second Sister, I want to be alone for a while.”

Madam Gantang sensed Nanyi’s abnormal state. She sighed, patted Nanyi’s shoulder, and got up to leave.

Just as she pushed open the door, Tang Rong walked in and bowed respectfully.

“Someone outside wants to see the young madam.”

——

An unremarkable convoy entered Li Du Mansion. Wanyan Jun faced them as if confronting a great enemy, personally welcoming them.

This was Wanyan Puruo’s messenger, bringing back important intelligence from Jinling.

The intelligence concerned who exactly was the long-hidden traitor within Li Du Mansion.

Moments after receiving the messenger, no one knew what they had discussed. Afterward, Wanyan Jun selected a team of men and personally went to the river to see Xie Queshan.

Xie Queshan was not surprised by Wanyan Jun’s arrival.

He had already run through this entire process in his mind. After being captured, he couldn’t die immediately—that would make Wanyan Jun vent his anger on his family and friends. He had to let Wanyan Jun slowly extract valuable information from him, leading Wanyan Jun to investigate in unimportant directions. Only when the overall situation was settled could he go to his death.

But what surprised Xie Queshan was that as soon as Wanyan Jun arrived, he welcomed him warmly and courteously.

“Young Master Queshan, you have suffered injustice.”

Xie Queshan couldn’t figure out what this approach meant for a moment.

“Today I received a letter from Princess Imperial, and only then did I know you were still in Li Du Mansion. Her Highness’s house arrest of you was truly forced by circumstances, a last resort. Fortunately, everything has now been clarified. The matter of you having treasonous intentions was completely groundless. We have offended you greatly before—please don’t take it to heart. I apologize to you on behalf of Her Highness.”

Though confused in his heart, Xie Queshan quickly put on an expression of relief: “It’s good that things are clear. It’s just that Her Highness has always suspected there was a traitor in Li Du Mansion…”

Wanyan Puruo couldn’t have found nothing and then sent word back to prove his innocence. If that were the case, Wanyan Jun wouldn’t believe it easily. Xie Queshan instinctively felt he had only told half the story.

“Exactly so. The traitor is someone else.”

“Who?”

Now Xie Queshan really had no idea. They hadn’t traced it to Song Muchuan, had they? Even the greatest immortal would be powerless to help then.

But Wanyan Jun didn’t answer, keeping it mysterious. After returning to the city, he took Xie Queshan directly to Huachao Pavilion.

The messenger had told Wanyan Jun: “The codename Yan is Zhang Yuehui.”

The former pleasure house of endless song and dance had now become a fortress full of holes.

After receiving the intelligence, Wanyan Jun immediately sent people to arrest Zhang Yuehui. It was said that Zhang Yuehui had entered Huachao Pavilion last night and never came out.

Heaven knows how many mechanisms were in this tavern. The army spent a full hour attacking before they could break in.

Wanyan Jun cursed furiously: “This cunning merchant! I thought he was just profit-seeking, but he was hiding such malicious intentions! Thinking about it now, from the Lantern Festival night to the later rescue of Princess Lingfu, he was involved in everything. We’ve been deceived for so long!”

Xie Queshan didn’t respond. Huachao Pavilion had secret passages—Zhang Yuehui definitely wasn’t inside anymore.

But how could Zhang Yuehui possibly draw all the blame to himself for no reason? He abandoned the entire Return Hall and fled in panic. What exactly had happened?

A sense of foreboding suddenly rose in Xie Queshan’s heart. He hurriedly took leave from Wanyan Jun, claiming that after staying on the ship for many days, he was unwell and wanted to go home to rest.

Stepping through the gates of Wangxue Valley, he still held a trace of hope—perhaps he could see Nanyi. Song Muchuan had no better place to settle her and might have sent her back to Wangxue Valley.

He knew he had no face to see her, but his only thought after being safe was wanting to see her. This thought carried enormous unease—he didn’t believe such good fortune could fall on him without cost.

Rushing inside, he encountered his second sister’s surprised face.

“Chao’en? When did you return?”

“Where is Nanyi?”

“…She left.”

“Where did she go?”

Madam Gantang hesitated for a moment. She clearly saw surging emotions in Xie Queshan’s eyes. He could no longer hide them. In the instant when he finally regretted and wanted to reach out to grasp something, he expressed all the subtle, unspeakable feelings in his eyes.

“The master of the Return Hall came to seek her hand in marriage… She agreed and left with him this morning.”

Xie Queshan was stunned for a long while, finally nodding, but he could no longer walk. He slowly sat down on the courtyard steps, like the collapse of a mountain.

“Second Sister, this is very good.”

Time flowed backward on him. No matter how much past experience had settled, at this moment he was still like a helpless child.

He murmured: “This is also a kind of good ending, isn’t it?”

——

A carriage raced along mountain roads, followed by more than ten hidden guards.

Nanyi sat in the carriage, looking through a small window at the mountain scenery rapidly retreating. Spring was late, flowers were falling, and the greenery in the forest was so dense it was almost black, like a clear fog.

Yesterday Zhang Yuehui had come to see her at Wangxue Valley. He was very strange, soaked through, with a horse collapsed from exhaustion in the back courtyard. It seemed he had rushed back from far away and came to find her directly without time to settle in.

She rarely saw him in such a travel-worn state.

He came straight to the point: “I have a way to save Xie Queshan, but there are conditions.”

He transmitted false intelligence to Wanyan Jun, drawing all the warfare to himself. It would take three days for news from Li Du Mansion to reach Jinling, and another three days to bring back Wanyan Puruo’s new orders. These six extra days would be enough for Xie Queshan to turn the tables. As long as the Nirvana Plan succeeded, he wouldn’t need to continue as an undercover agent among the Qi people.

The price for these six days was Zhang Yuehui sacrificing his entire fortune, years of management and achieved glory turning to bubbles, embarking on a path of no return with the Qi people hunting him.

His condition was that she run away with him.

He was mad—a strategy of mutual destruction.

And Nanyi immediately agreed.

A life for a life—then let it be exchanged.

Even though Zhang Yuehui knew in advance that he would be hunted and had designed a foolproof route, once on the road, it was still nerve-wracking.

He planned to go to the Shu region, where the Qi people’s reach couldn’t extend. They would change their names, live modestly with small savings, enough to spend their lives peacefully.

Once they set out, they could never turn back. This time was different from any previous time—no room left, no backup plans.

Zhang Yuehui used an almost tragic method to cut off everyone’s retreat.

But he felt this game was exhilarating.

He had killed Wanyan Puruo’s messenger—sooner or later the truth would come out. His defeat was a foregone conclusion. What would the world say then? How would Xie Queshan view him? The master of the Return Hall pulled back from the cliff’s edge and turned the tide, imitating Jing Ke’s assassination of the Qin Emperor. Though he failed, he upheld righteousness.

He fled in disgrace yet became a hero who put down his butcher’s knife and achieved instant enlightenment.

He didn’t want that. It was too laughable.

He, Zhang Yuehui, would be a thorough villain—taking by force, being unreasonable. He wouldn’t fulfill anyone, and no one should try to fulfill him.

Horse hooves raised dust all over the sky, leaving Li Du Mansion at the fastest speed.

The swaying carriage made Nanyi feel dazed, as if it were all a great dream, and upon waking, she was still in the same place.

She had once set out alone to find Zhang Yuehui. Spending the rest of her life with him had once been her aspiration.

If she could forget everything that happened in between, forget that person, her life would be complete.

The mountain wind rushed into the carriage and instantly carried away a trace of tears on her face.

But Nanyi was happy—she had finally saved him after all.