But what responded to him was—

“Zhao Huai is right. He deserved to die.” Wen Panshi’s eyes were full of desolation, also reddening, yet he gritted his teeth and endured the pain in his heart. “Anyone who would harm the Young Master, no matter who, should meet this fate.”

Lin Feng was someone he had watched grow up, raised like half a son. How could he not be heartbroken?

Wen Xian’s face was full of anguish. His arm dropped powerlessly, the sword falling. He collapsed completely, kneeling before Wen Xian.

Crying out in anguish!

The people around were all silent.

The atmosphere was heavy.

Looking at the ground full of dead bodies, Ji Yunshu couldn’t help but redden her eyes as well.

The entire fallen courtyard was filled with the smell of blood…

Finally, Jingrong ordered that the Si and Wen families be sealed off. This matter must not be leaked. To the outside world, they would maintain a consistent statement—the Si and Wen families were imprisoned in the Imperial Manor yamen jail for suspected cloth smuggling.

All people related to this matter were also all imprisoned.

For a time, the entire jail was crammed with several dozen people.

Like dumplings being thrown in!

However, Zuo Yao, who served as the Imperial Manor county magistrate, was spared.

Not that they wanted to let him off, but because he was the chief official of the common people. If even he were imprisoned in the jail, it would inevitably lead to gossip among the people. If things went wrong, it would cause a huge uproar.

Naturally, it would spread to the capital!

Then, the matter of the Young Master and the former servants of the Duke of Yu’s manor would all spread.

Anchang Courtyard.

That girl Tang Si was currently teaching that fellow Zuo Yao a lesson.

Serving him with a whip!

How dare he bind her—not beating him to death was already letting him off easy.

However, Jingrong said to spare his life and temporarily keep him in the position of county magistrate. So, although Tang Si didn’t understand, she couldn’t refute it. But opportunities to seize and teach lessons must still be seized and taught many times over.

In the courtyard, sounds like a pig being slaughtered kept coming from Zuo Yao.

But inside the room, it was deathly quiet.

Jingrong stood before the open window on the left side inside the room, his dark eyes looking at that small puddle on the ground. Brushed by a gentle breeze, it lightly rippled.

After a long while—

“Speak.”

His tone was very light, revealing no emotion.

At this point, Ji Yunshu had no need to continue concealing anything.

She pulled out that jade pendant again and said, “This jade is one of the two tiger tallies in the Duke of Yu’s hands. As long as the two tiger tallies are brought together, they can mobilize the hundred thousand troops the Duke of Yu has hidden.”

“A hundred thousand?” Muruo on the side nearly had his eyeballs fall out, then suddenly understood. “No wonder that group feared neither heaven nor earth. So there are a hundred thousand troops backing them. But… a hundred thousand! Privately creating military camps and raising troops—exceeding five thousand must be reported to the court. How could a hundred thousand troops possibly be hidden?”

“Dispersing and scattering the troops!”

“Dispersing and scattering the troops?” Muruo pondered these four words, his mind racing at high speed. “You mean to say the hundred thousand soldiers are all scattered in various places, disguised as mountain bandits. That’s why Zhao Huai appeared here. That also means Gaoshan Stronghold is also one branch of the hundred thousand troops?”

Simply too insane!

Ji Yunshu nodded. “Those hundred thousand troops were prepared by the Duke of Yu for the Young Master. The purpose was that in case something happened to him, the Young Master would still have a hundred thousand troops in hand.”

“But you’re not the Young Master. You’re female. So this jade pendant?”

“Wei Yi.”

“What?” Muruo was again shocked into a cold sweat, his eyes widening. “Wei Yi… is the Young Master of the Duke of Yu’s manor?”

He abruptly stood up from his chair, knocking a pot of wine at his side to the ground.

Crash!

Shattered to pieces.

Now things were getting more and more confusing.

This was absolutely the most interesting and most shocking thing he had heard in his many years wandering outside.

And Jingrong, who had remained silent all along, suddenly coughed lightly, closing the window before him, slowly turning around to look at Ji Yunshu.

He was still so cold.

Cold to the extreme.

“How did you know about this?” he asked.

Ji Yunshu pressed her lips together. “Old General Li.”

“Old General Li?” His brow furrowed. “When you went outside the city to intercept Old General Li, what he told you was this matter? So you let him go.”

“Yes.” She said, “That batch of lanterns catching fire, the fire burning Tongren Hall—his purpose was not to kill His Majesty, but to frame you for it, to have you thrown in prison so you would no longer investigate the ‘Linjing Case.’ Because he was worried that when opening the tombs of the Duke of Yu’s manor personnel, it would be discovered… that the tomb of the Third Madam who died in difficult childbirth twenty years ago was empty, and it would also be discovered that the Young Master who died young was still alive.”

She said it all in one breath.

Jingrong’s face showed no ripples, continuing to ask, “Then what deal did you make? Why did you let him go?”

“He promised me that if I investigate this case and find it unrelated to His Majesty, he must, after finding the Young Master, take the other tiger tally and disband all hundred thousand troops. From then on, they must not endanger Great Lin.”

“This is what you’ve been unwilling to say all along?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ve known all along that Wei Yi is the Young Master of the Duke of Yu’s manor?”

“Yes!”

“If today’s events hadn’t happened, were you planning to keep hiding it?”

“Yes!”

“Then how did you know that jade pendant was a tiger tally? And how did you know… Wei Yi was the Young Master?”

“Fu Bo!” she said. “The person who secretly sent the Young Master away was him. The Third Madam died on the road leaving the capital. He gave the Young Master to the Wei family couple. During the time we stayed in Jinjiang, I discovered this secret.”

Jingrong looked at her coldly, seemingly not surprised at all.

After all, they had just experienced a bloody storm.

After a long while—

He uttered a sentence, “Then they even more cannot be kept.”

His tone was full of murderous intent.

“Why?” Ji Yunshu asked.

“The hundred thousand troops the Duke of Yu left behind weren’t simply to protect the Young Master. No matter what the final truth is, they won’t withdraw.”

“They won’t.”

“Won’t?” Jingrong smiled. “Even if it truly isn’t ‘consolidating power by eliminating threats,’ those with ambition are forever ones you cannot see.”

Jingrong’s eyes darkened as he again turned his back and walked to that closed window.

His gaze unfocused.

After a long while—

He didn’t say a word.

…

That night, Ji Yunshu couldn’t sleep at all, lying on the bed tossing and turning.

She didn’t know when she fell asleep either.

The instant she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in that fallen courtyard of the Si family. Around her were many, many people.

Many, many… dead people.

She stood in place, her feet constantly turning in circles. Suddenly, those corpses lying on the ground one by one opened their eyes wide looking at her. Fresh blood slowly flowed from their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears.

All around, like water flooding Jinshan Mountain, everywhere was full of fresh blood.

She retreated backward, her feet slipping violently on the blood, falling backward.

Her body was swallowed by blood!

Her face was full of terror. Her hands instinctively clenched into fists, but couldn’t grasp even half a lifeline.

In her ears, her own voice suddenly emerged.

“Stories of royal sons vying for succession have always proven true.”

She also seemed to hear what Kong Yu had said to her before his death.

“If one day A’Rong falls deeply into an endless struggle, I hope you can help him, let him turn back.”

The next Jing Yi!

The next Jing Yi!

The voice grew more and more distant, more and more blurred…

“Ah!”

She suddenly sat up from the bed.

Drenched in sweat!