When Xie Queshan came out of the government office, he saw a young woman by the stone lions outside, pacing back and forth with furrowed brows.

Hearing approaching footsteps, Nanyi looked up, then ran to Xie Queshan with a face full of worry, carefully observing his expression.

“You already know everything?”

Xie Queshan nodded.

Seeing his calm demeanor, Nanyi felt all the more sad. The calmer he appeared, the more emotions he was swallowing alone.

But any words of comfort she might say would seem pale and powerless.

“Then let’s go home.”

“Alright.”

Xie Queshan took her hand naturally and they walked along the streets and alleys.

They remained silent the entire way.

Nanyi was racking her brains trying to find topics to make the journey lighter, when Xie Queshan suddenly spoke.

“It’s already been twelve years.”

Nanyi was startled: “What twelve years?”

“The time I’ve known Teacher.”

Spanning his entire growing years.

Nanyi remembered that Little Six Xie had mentioned to her once that when Xie Queshan was fleeing with his mother from Lanzhou to Li Du Mansion, they had received help from Shen Zhizhong, and only then did he join his ranks.

“How did Minister Shen help you back then?”

Xie Queshan recalled the past: “After I killed that nest of bandits who wanted to assault my mother, we hastily fled to a nearby city. The city was capturing wandering bandits, and when the soldiers saw me covered in blood, they arrested me without question, planning to execute me along with those real criminals.”

Nanyi grew nervous listening: “What did you do?”

“What could I do? Kowtow and cry injustice. But there were too many wrongly accused people—truth mixed with lies—and the noble magistrates didn’t want to spend much time investigating. It happened that Teacher was leading troops through the area that day. He glanced at me casually and said—’This boy doesn’t look like he’s acting. Bring him over so I can question him.'”

“Minister Shen had such good judgment!” Nanyi exclaimed.

Xie Queshan smiled: “His eyes were sharp indeed, and he acted decisively. With just a few words he cleared up my case, immediately scolding the county magistrate for negligence, and even gave me a reward for meritorious service in suppressing bandits, giving me enough money to bring Mother home respectably.”

“But at that time, Mother and I had been wandering for half a year. I harbored resentment and didn’t really want to go home. But Mother was eager to return, and I couldn’t find any suitable excuse.”

“So you went to rely on Minister Shen?”

“Of course I wanted to. Back then Teacher seemed like a divine being descended from heaven in my eyes, radiating the brilliance of a sage. In my excitement I ran to tell him I wanted to follow him, but Teacher refused me at the time. He knew I was a junior of the Xie family and only said to go home first, that future matters could be discussed later. If he hadn’t refused me, this thought might not have been so strong—I was just thinking of trying my luck. But once he refused me, I became defiant, feeling he was prejudiced against me, thinking I was a worthless bastard son from a noble family and looked down on me. So I stubbornly followed him all the way to the military camp.”

“You really were stubborn from childhood—so Minister Shen gave in to you?”

“Teacher said, ‘If you can withstand three of my moves, I’ll take you in.’ I was delighted—three moves, how simple! I had single-handedly taken down an entire bandit nest. This old man just had a good tongue; his martial arts were probably nothing special—”

The triumphant youth performed a flashy opening stance, then Shen Zhizhong flipped him to the ground with a casual backhand.

The youth didn’t even see clearly how he had struck before falling face-first like a dog eating dirt.

“After that, I obediently went home. Only when I was confident I could withstand Teacher’s three moves did I seek him out again. Much later, Teacher told me why he wouldn’t take me the first time—he said the military camp wasn’t a place to escape to, but a place to serve the country.”

Nanyi suddenly understood somewhat why Xie Queshan accepted his teacher’s death so calmly.

Their understanding of death shared the same lineage. On this journey of holding candles through the night, how fragile life was. They first accepted this fragility, prepared themselves to lose themselves and their companions at any time, only then could they make themselves strong.

Xie Queshan rubbed his nose, somehow feeling very sour. He looked up toward the distance—in the humid overcast sky, even the sunset was silent.

He muttered to himself: “Such an amazing old man… never praised me once.”

Hearing these dream-like words, Nanyi nearly couldn’t hold back her tears. She sniffled hard, unwilling to add to his sadness at this moment.

They just kept walking like this. The road home seemed very long, these streets both prosperous and desolate. Through fragments of words, she passed through his youthful years, glimpsing the beliefs that had once supported him. A word from Teacher, a plan with no certainties and no turning back, and he had thrown himself into it without hesitation. Then gradually, he too had become faith itself.

Perhaps this was the inheritance between teacher and student.

After walking for a long time, Nanyi came back to her senses in a daze, realizing they were almost at Wangxue Manor, but Xie Queshan still hadn’t let go of her hand.

“We’re almost home.”

“Mm.” He seemed lost in thought and didn’t realize what Nanyi was saying.

Nanyi’s steps suddenly stopped. Xie Queshan continued forward two more steps before realizing she had stopped. He looked at her strangely, then followed her gaze.

Xie Jun and Lu Jinxiu had just gotten off their carriage returning home. They had gone together to Dajue Temple to burn incense and were returning home in the evening. However, just as they reached the front gate, they saw Xie Queshan and Nanyi’s hands clasped together.

The expressions on both their faces were as colorful as overturned paint buckets.

Nanyi panicked a bit and tried to withdraw her hand, but Xie Queshan gripped it firmly.

Xie Queshan greeted them naturally: “Father, Concubine.”

Xie Jun was so shocked he couldn’t speak properly: “You, you two, this, this…”

“You two indeed—” Lu Jinxiu pointed at them trembling and cried out in alarm.

“I had originally wanted to find a suitable opportunity to tell Father. Since there’s no need to hide it now—my relationship with Nanyi is exactly what Father sees. I will marry her.”

These words not only made Xie Jun tremble all over, but left Nanyi’s jaw dropping in shock.

She knew their relationship was complicated by family ethics and would be troublesome to handle. She thought this matter required long-term planning to slowly get the Xie family to accept it. She never expected Xie Queshan to confess directly.

“Preposterous! Too preposterous!” Xie Jun stepped forward to drag Xie Queshan inside, frantically calling for servants to close the main gate, afraid that passersby might see something.

Only after the mansion gate closed did he seem to breathe slightly easier.

“I’ll consider this a moment of confusion! What should be severed must be severed, what should be ended must be ended. Let’s pretend this never happened.”

This time Lu Jinxiu had Xie Jun on the same side as her and could finally vent her past grievances, pointing at Nanyi and cursing: “This woman is a seductress! She must be driven out!”

“Try touching her and see what happens.”

Lu Jinxiu shut her mouth and hid behind Xie Jun.

“This is precisely when the whole city is in turmoil, and now there’s this matter that defies human ethics. Xie Chao’en, do you not want your reputation at all?”

Though Xie Jun was scolding Xie Queshan, Nanyi’s face alternated between red and white, feeling utterly humiliated.

But Xie Queshan didn’t retreat at all.

“Father, outsiders don’t know, but don’t you understand what the marriage between Nanyi and Big Brother was really about? Moreover, she’s no longer a Xie family daughter-in-law. She and I don’t steal or rob, we’ve done nothing against heaven or reason. We love each other mutually—what’s the problem?”

“This is improper! What will people say about you?”

Xie Queshan smiled and asked back: “Do you see me caring?”

This one sentence left Xie Jun choking speechless. Yes, he had even served as a traitorous minister, pointed at by ten thousand fingers, unmoved by eight winds—spit and gossip couldn’t drown him at all.

He probably had never really known his son. They seemed not to have grown from the same root, adhering to completely different value systems.

What he held as sacred principles, his son discarded like worn shoes. At this moment, Xie Jun could no longer speak any powerful words, nor did he have rods to assert paternal authority. He was already old, while Xie Queshan was in his prime—in every dimension, he couldn’t refute him.

Xie Queshan said no more and left with Nanyi. Along the way, servants and maids all turned to stare, but he remained composed and natural.

Nanyi followed his steps closely. Though she had fantasized countless times about such a scene where they could openly declare their love, not like this—not exchanged through sharpness and conflict. His grip was too tight, tight like a declaration of war. Nanyi suddenly felt a bit sad.

Teacher’s death might mean his identity could never be cleared before the world. Even if everyone misunderstood Xie Queshan, within Wangxue Manor, she hoped more than anyone that his family would understand him and give him warmth.

She didn’t want to add fuel to the fire of their relationship at this moment.

“Xie Queshan, don’t be like this.”

“Nanyi, this is who I am.” He stopped walking but didn’t look at her.

“Things I need to accomplish, I’ll accomplish by any means necessary. People I want to hold onto, I won’t let go through sword mountains and seas of fire.”

“I can’t maintain dignity anymore.” His voice carried a trace of powerlessness.

He finally looked at her, his eyes lonely and desolate.

He had opened his defensive stance again.

He had to move forward invincibly, just like before. That bit of possible completeness was erased by him again, but this time was different—he pulled her down with him into the abyss. He didn’t let go.

Nanyi saw his face clearly. No intense emotions, no suppressed restraint—he just stood quietly under the lamplight like this, his palm still burning hot.

She reached out to caress his temple, his jawline. Setting aside those moments of shame, she belatedly tasted the weight of the words he had spoken before his father.

He was loving her openly. Even if this openness was shameful, base, blessed by no one.

So what—she was his last shield in this world.

Standing right there under the wind-blown corridor, she stood on tiptoe and kissed him.

Words bursting with heat, carrying intense love swept past her lips: “Then let’s do it together.”