Zhang Yuehui was “rescued” by the physician and put on an act in front of Wanyan Jun, describing the scene of catching prey in the dungeon jar. He claimed the Bingzhu Division’s associates were actually the traitors that appeared within Guilaitang, and that he had fought them to the death in the dungeon, ultimately killing his opponent. In truth, they hadn’t actually caught any Bingzhu Division associates before—it was just spreading rumors to lure people into the trap.
However, as Wanyan Jun listened, his expression grew increasingly grim.
This explanation could all be made to fit, but it clearly had a huge gap from the results he wanted. After such a massive operation, with his own losses of troops and generals, they didn’t even have a single living captive, and that guard had a face he’d never even seen before.
Still talking about fishing for big catches?
What a joke!
Previously at Sifang Bridge ferry, it was also because Zhang Yuehui received false intelligence that they were thoroughly played by the Bingzhu Division. He increasingly felt that Zhang Yuehui was just an incompetent fraud who cheated money, but he wasn’t someone who showed his emotions readily. At this moment his face bore the dark clouds of an approaching storm, yet he still restrained himself from exploding, picking up the wine pot to pour wine for Zhang Yuehui.
If Wanyan Jun had lost his temper, that would have been better, but he said nothing and was instead courteous, which made Zhang Yuehui feel uneasy. He also paused, hurriedly bowing as he lifted his wine cup with both hands to receive the wine, but the spout passed over the cup—Wanyan Jun had no intention of pouring wine.
He seemingly casually poked Zhang Yuehui’s shirt front with the wine pot, putting on an air of giving guidance: “Boss Zhang, business is all about credibility.”
The spot he poked was exactly where Zhang Yuehui’s freshly bandaged wound was.
Zhang Yuehui endured the pain and put on a smile: “Yes, yes, yes, Lord Wanyan, it was my mistake, mistaking a small pawn for a big fish, but there were some gains—it can’t be said to be a wasted trip.”
Wanyan Jun also smiled, but his tone immediately turned cold: “What I want isn’t this low-grade intelligence. I’ll give you seven more days to catch living Bingzhu Division associates and deliver them to me, otherwise—”
Wanyan Jun pushed the wine pot forward again, the spout pressing against the fragile wound. With a slight tilt, wine flowed down his shirt front into the bandage, then poured into the wound… Zhang Yuehui’s face immediately turned deathly pale, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.
He didn’t make a sound, still maintaining a proper smile on his face.
“Alright, Lord Wanyan, seven days—I’ll definitely get this matter settled for you.”
Only then did Wanyan Jun release his grip, putting down the wine pot. Without a word, he strode away.
Zhang Yuehui finally relaxed all at once, clutching his wound as he slumped into the chair, showing an expression of pain: “Damn, that hurt like hell—”
Luo Ci, who was guarding outside, saw Wanyan Jun leave and hurriedly entered. Seeing this scene, he said anxiously: “Master, I’ll go call the physician.”
Zhang Yuehui raised his hand to stop him.
Luo Ci halted his movements, tactfully closing the door and waiting to the side for Zhang Yuehui to speak.
“Where did they go?” Zhang Yuehui asked.
Zhang Yuehui had barely managed to cover up tonight’s incident—it could be said that from spirit to flesh, he had never been in such a sorry state. But he temporarily had no mind to deal with the ultimatum Wanyan Jun had given him. What he cared about was where Xie Queshan had taken Nanyi.
“The tracking butterfly flew to an estate in the western part of the city—that’s the same estate we investigated before, where the Xie family said the Qin family’s eldest daughter-in-law was sent after suddenly contracting a malignant disease.”
Before handing Nanyi over to Xie Queshan, Zhang Yuehui had left Guilaitang’s specially made powder on her. The medicinal powder was imperceptible to humans, but its scent could be sensed by a special type of butterfly. Following the butterfly’s trail, one could track a person’s location.
After recovering for quite a while, Zhang Yuehui finally looked up at Luo Ci with a melancholy expression: “How long have you followed me?”
Luo Ci was stunned, already understanding what Zhang Yuehui was going to say. He quickly knelt down: “Master, it’s all this servant’s fault for failing to recognize that this was Master’s old acquaintance. Please punish this servant, Master.”
Zhang Yuehui shook his head and sighed: “You’ve followed me for three years, and everything you did was at my decision. This matter is ultimately my fault, but you can’t stay in Li Du Mansion anymore…”
Firstly, he feared that when Xie Queshan came seeking revenge, his subordinates would be the first to suffer; secondly… for Zhang Yuehui, this mistake was enormous. The result was such that he had deeply hurt Nanyi. The decision was his, the punishment was carried out by Luo Ci—nobody was wrong, yet everybody was wrong. He hadn’t yet figured out how to face this error, so naturally couldn’t continue to rely heavily on his trusted aide.
“We’ve been master and servant for some time—I’ll entrust the southwestern properties to your management.”
After speaking, Zhang Yuehui got up and left. Luo Ci kowtowed toward his retreating figure.
Leaving the devastated Huachao Pavilion, the streets were empty. Walking until dawn was breaking, Zhang Yuehui finally stood outside the Xie family’s estate, but his steps became hesitant.
…
Nanyi only remembered frantically asking Xie Queshan where the jade bracelet was, but received no answer. The old acquaintance she had been searching for finally appeared, yet it was a reunion amid such a bloody incident. The enormous shock shattered her heart and spirit, and she could no longer hold on, falling unconscious again. When she woke up, Xie Queshan was no longer there.
He hadn’t appeared for two days—at least not when she was conscious.
He hadn’t answered a single one of her many questions, instead running away faster than anyone. Nanyi didn’t know where this was, didn’t know what Xie Queshan was keeping her here for, and didn’t know what Zhang Yuehui’s situation was. All she could do was lie in bed taking medicine, eating, and sleeping. The two old servants had probably received Xie Queshan’s instructions—forget about revealing any useful information, they wouldn’t even say an extra word to her.
Nanyi was confused to the point of wanting to go mad, but her body was terribly weak, giving her no opportunity for hysteria. She understood that the most important thing now was to heal her wounds and recover quickly, at least to get control of her body back into her own hands.
When wounds heal they itch all over the body. She didn’t dare scratch, so she had the old servants tie her hands before sleep, enduring the pain through tears and gritted teeth.
Coarse rope bound her wrists, painfully tight. Even the old servants couldn’t bear to see it, confirming several times, but she had already grown accustomed to it. Compared to the pain on her body, this bit of pain was nothing.
She thought that after sleeping, her wrists should have rope marks, but somehow during the night, someone had replaced the coarse rope binding her hands with soft satin cloth. Apart from some numbness in her hands, no new wounds appeared.
She thought it was the serving old servants who did it, but by the bedside she noticed a few strands of fox fur that had inadvertently fallen from a cloak.
—Someone had rushed through the night frost to look at her, then left again before she woke.
Nanyi realized that Xie Queshan was avoiding her, not discussing his own matters nor Zhang Yuehui’s affairs.
Fine, fine, fine—they all took her for a fool, didn’t they?
Nanyi vowed fiercely in her heart that if he wouldn’t talk to her, she absolutely wouldn’t say a word more to him either!
When she woke up, there seemed to be faint sounds of commotion from outside. The residence was usually very quiet most of the time, with the old servants even walking on tiptoe for fear of disturbing Nanyi. It was rare to hear such a big disturbance. Nanyi pricked up her ears to listen carefully—it seemed like many people were arguing. She first thought it was noise from the street outside, but it also seemed to be coming from the back courtyard.
“What’s happening?” Nanyi called out loudly.
An old servant came over at the sound, replying: “Madam need not worry, this old servant is already handling it.”
Then she closed the door behind her.
Nanyi angrily lay back down. Great, this was just going from one cage to another, slightly more comfortable one. She even felt that, apart from the difference in physical suffering, at least in prison she had persisted in not revealing anything about the Bingzhu Division—that was part of her free will. Here, she was more like a waste of a person with only a shell remaining.
—What exactly were these selfish and arrogant men scheming!
Nanyi wanted to scream frantically, but she also knew this would just be a waste of energy. She closed her eyes and stopped being curious about what was happening outside, since none of it had anything to do with her anyway.
But in reality, it was closely related to her.
…
The back door of the residence led to a narrow alley. The small door had originally been sealed shut, and hardly anyone walked there normally, yet now it was crowded with more than ten people.
Xie Queshan and Zhang Yuehui stood face to face, tension drawn like a bow, the atmosphere explosive.
Next to the Xie family’s outer residence was originally the back courtyard of a restaurant. The restaurant had no business and had been closed for a long time. Until the day before yesterday, the shop was suddenly bought by someone with deep pockets, completely renovated in just one day.
The restaurant hadn’t opened for business either. The first thing they did was knock on the door of the neighboring residence, saying they wanted to deliver things.
The delivery had quite a formation—uniformly dressed female servants carrying exquisite food trays, with small stoves cooking under each porcelain bowl to keep the food from getting cold, the fragrant aroma filling the air. Behind them followed several women dressed as medical officials, carrying medicine chests on their backs.
The guards inside naturally refused to open the door, so the restaurant people forced their way in, and the two groups nearly came to blows.
The guards hurried to notify Xie Queshan, thus leading to this confrontation between him and Zhang Yuehui.
Xie Queshan was so angry his teeth itched. He hadn’t even gone to trouble Zhang Yuehui yet, and he actually had the face to come looking for trouble himself.
“Young Master may have some misunderstanding about me. These gifts aren’t for you—” Zhang Yuehui cupped his hands courteously, “Let me reintroduce myself, I am Nanyi’s sweetheart.”
Xie Queshan finally couldn’t hold back. Too lazy to engage in false courtesies with such a shameless person, he directly threw a punch.
Zhang Yuehui was hit hard and staggered back a step, looking quite disheveled. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth but still smiled at Xie Queshan, asking provocatively: “I’d like to ask, in what capacity are you hitting me, Young Master?”
Xie Queshan hated being cornered most, and Zhang Yuehui’s every sentence hit his weak spots perfectly.
“I hit you because I wanted to—do I need a reason?”
Still not satisfied, Xie Queshan picked up a wooden plank he had removed—shoulder, abdomen, back, waist, back of the knee—striking his vital points with swift, precise, and ruthless hits.
Zhang Yuehui’s legs nearly gave out and he almost collapsed to his knees. People around him quickly supported him. With a bruised and swollen face, he clutched his stomach and leaned against the wall, grimacing in pain.
Xie Queshan said viciously: “Take your people and get lost.”
Zhang Yuehui also simply tore off his mask, replying without courtesy: “Xie Queshan, don’t act like you’re the only capable one in the world. What can you give her? This broken residence, a few servants, a few mediocre doctors, not even a decent cook, having to do everything sneakily—what good is any of that?”
Very well, Zhang Yuehui successfully left Xie Queshan speechless.
This damned power of money.
He Ping felt indignant for his master. He got anxious first, stepping forward to scold: “Boss Zhang, you’re quite capable—you injured the young madam like this, and now you’re here acting righteous and playing the good guy—”
“Open the door.” Xie Queshan squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth, interrupting He Ping’s words.
He Ping was stunned, looking at Xie Queshan in disbelief—he had just felt that those words seemed to deflate Zhang Yuehui’s arrogance somewhat, and his master was already giving in?
“This is her business, I can’t make the decision. Let her decide for herself whether to accept or not.”
After intense internal struggle, Xie Queshan still yielded.
He provided her with a healing environment that couldn’t be called terrible, but also couldn’t be called satisfactory. When it came to luxury and obtaining the finest medicinal materials and medicinal cuisine in the world, Guilaitang was still superior. Xie Queshan felt extremely frustrated, but also understood that Zhang Yuehui could indeed provide better conditions, which would be good for Nanyi’s recovery.
Furthermore, Zhang Yuehui sending these things to Nanyi was ultimately Nanyi’s business—it still depended on her own wishes.
Zhang Yuehui knew when to stop while ahead, obediently expressing his thanks.
The guards opened the door, and the female servants filed in.
Zhang Yuehui still stood outside the door, motionless.
Xie Queshan raised an eyebrow: “You’re not going in?”
He felt that Nanyi and Zhang Yuehui should meet face to face no matter what—this was something he couldn’t prevent even if he wanted to. Zhang Yuehui, this fraud, had definitely hidden many things from Nanyi. He was even somewhat looking forward to Zhang Yuehui getting thoroughly rejected by her, so he could triumphantly tell him to get lost.
But Zhang Yuehui touched his nose, looking somewhat guilty: “I’ll wait until she’s feeling better before seeing her. I’m afraid she’ll get too emotional, which wouldn’t be good for her health.”
After several seconds of silence, Xie Queshan said: “Waste.”
Zhang Yuehui immediately counterattacked: “You’re not much better.”
Two cowards whose only hard part was their mouths.