After thinking for a moment, Qin Huaiyuan knew that Qin Yining must have encountered Lian Shengjie at the military camp. He smiled and said: “He didn’t do anything excessive this time. However, since His Majesty is the surrendering party, our position is naturally lower than Great Zhou’s. If we don’t allow them to make demands, there’s no other way.”

“But with Father’s wisdom, you won’t let His Majesty suffer too much loss.” Qin Yining smiled.

“Indeed.” Qin Huaiyuan also smiled. “I heard your analysis just now. Perhaps this time going to Great Zhou, I might have more space to display my aspirations.”

“With Father’s talent and wisdom, these things aren’t difficult.”

“You certainly have confidence in me.”

“That’s natural.” Qin Yining said with certainty. “Father will definitely accomplish great things in Great Zhou.”

Watching this father and daughter chat, although Madame Sun couldn’t interject, the satisfaction in her heart was unprecedented. At this moment, she suddenly felt that she could be content with this life and no longer needed to harbor resentment or jealousy toward Cao Yuqing.

Cao Yuqing was indeed young and beautiful, but so what? No matter what, she was the one who bore Qin Huaiyuan a daughter, and she was the one Qin Huaiyuan acknowledged as his legitimate wife. Even if Cao Yuqing was devastatingly beautiful, she was still just a concubine.

These past days, whenever Madame Sun thought about Cao Yuqing serving as Qin Huaiyuan’s personal guard during the city defense, her heart felt like someone had placed a thousand-pound boulder on it, making it hard for her to breathe.

But now with the family of three reunited, those heart knots that couldn’t be untied had suddenly all loosened.

Over the next two days, many wealthy households in the capital city were busily preparing for departure.

The Qin family naturally had Second Master and Third Master leading Qin Yu and Qin Han in making arrangements.

Qin Yining privately met with Manager Zhong.

“…Master, rest assured. I’ve handled everything you arranged for me quite well. I carefully calculated those lands we secretly bought earlier. The fertile fields and paddy fields in the capital and surrounding areas combined account for more than sixty percent of all farmland in the vicinity. Adding the paddy fields and terraced fields we bought elsewhere, you’re now arguably the foremost major landowner in Great Yan Dynasty.”

Qin Yining nodded and said: “These lands aren’t registered under my name, right?”

“Rest assured, the people I arranged are all reliable. No matter how they investigate, they won’t trace it back to you.”

“That’s good. Before departing this time, arrange for all the disaster victims in Ning Garden to be settled on the various estates. Now that there’s no more fighting and this place has been incorporated into Great Zhou territory, they can support themselves and rebuild their homes.”

“Yes.” Manager Zhong said with full admiration. “They owe you their lives, and now you’re arranging work for them, solving their future worries. Their gratitude toward you will only increase.”

Qin Yining smiled and shook her head: “My original intention in doing this wasn’t to make people grateful—consider it an extra reward. But what about you? Have you really decided to go to Great Zhou?”

“That’s natural.” Manager Zhong said. “With Great Yan Dynasty’s fall, the existence of Zhaoyun Bureau is also history. From now on, we won’t need to lease prisoners for labor. Those prisoners should soon receive imperial amnesty. Our inns and restaurants will just be ordinary inns and restaurants from now on. I’m thinking that for business, greater commercial opportunities naturally lie in more prosperous cities.”

Seeing Manager Zhong’s spirited appearance, Qin Yining couldn’t help but laugh. “Actually, having you come along makes me feel more at ease. This way, you don’t need to rush to depart with me. I imagine people going from here to Great Zhou’s capital will be divided into several groups. Manager, you can stay here to make arrangements at ease. Once everything is properly organized, it won’t be too late to go to the capital. By then, when I’ve established a foothold in the capital, we can act as we did before.”

Manager Zhong nodded repeatedly. “I’ll follow Master’s wishes in everything.”

Qin Yining then discussed details carefully with Manager Zhong. Only after they had solutions for all the problems and contingencies they could think of did they each disperse.

By this time, Pang Xiao had already left with several guards.

The Great Zhou official accepting Yuchi Yan’s surrender document was the newly appointed Minister of Rites, Lian Shengjie.

After a simple ceremony, Yuchi Yan presented the surrender document.

Lian Shengjie proudly accepted the surrender document, then issued the Great Zhou Emperor’s decree of enfeoffment.

“…Former Yan Emperor Yuchi Yan is enfeoffed as Prince of Yan Prefecture. Prince of Yan Prefecture’s legitimate wife, Lady Li, is made Princess of Yan Prefecture. Granted a princely mansion in the capital…”

What followed was a string of rewards, though only verbal ones. Lian Shengjie claimed he had come in haste and couldn’t bring valuable items across the entirety of Great Zhou to Great Yan, so those rewards would naturally have to wait until Prince of Yan Prefecture entered the capital to be fulfilled.

Yuchi Yan accepted the decree with humiliation filling his heart. From being a sovereign ruler of a nation, he had become a mere prefectural prince.

His rank was even lower than Pang Xiao’s!

However, such was fate. With things having come to this pass, Yuchi Yan had no other choice but to listen to however the Great Zhou people arranged things.

After the surrender ceremony ended, Lian Shengjie issued another oral decree: all families going to the capital would depart in ten days, commanding everyone to prepare.

Pang Xiao, bringing only Huzi and dozens of elite Tiger Guards, had by now ridden hard across most of Great Zhou and quickly arrived outside the southern gate of the capital.

Huzi held Pang Xiao’s horse and said with a grin: “We’re finally back. These past few days of traveling day and night, the jolting has made my whole skeleton feel like it’s falling apart.”

A nearby Tiger Guard laughed: “You still haven’t trained enough. How come we don’t hear the Prince complaining of fatigue? All we’ve heard along the way is your grumbling.”

“I don’t believe you’re all made of iron!” Huzi laughed and cursed a couple of times, then suddenly craned his neck to look toward the south gate.

“My lord, I think I see Marquis Dingbei!”

Pang Xiao looked in the direction Huzi pointed and saw a tall, slender young man in snow-white fox fur sitting expressionlessly on a fire-red stallion, looking in their direction.

This young man was more beautiful than a woman, with long sword-like eyebrows, captivating peach blossom eyes, a high nose, and thin lips, as if he had walked out of a painting. If comparing the refinement of features alone, even Pang Xiao would fall slightly short, and even comparing Qin Yining to him would only result in a draw at best.

However, though he was clearly a beautiful man whose every frown and smile could move hearts, his personality was cold as ice and unsympathetic. That extraordinarily handsome face rarely showed any smile.

His nature was cold, he spoke little, and his decisive killing was merciless. His usual contact with Pang Xiao wasn’t frequent either.

But he was someone Pang Xiao had willingly sworn brotherhood with in the past.

Pang Xiao stood in place, slightly raising his eyebrows with a smile. “How come you’ve also returned to the capital?”

Ji Zeyu rode over and sat on his horse looking down at Pang Xiao from above, saying expressionlessly: “Summoned by imperial decree to report on duties. Did you get your revenge?”