The next day, when they rose, the rain was still falling without cease. Guo Ying frowned and said, “This damned place – not three days of clear weather, not three li of level ground!”

From a distance, suddenly came a muffled rumbling sound. Guo Ying and Meng Jianqing looked at each other, both feeling that something terrible had happened. This sound seemed like—

Indeed, the news that came confirmed it: a section of the cliff ahead had been softened by rainwater and collapsed in a landslide. The entire post road below the cliff was completely buried, making passage impossible for both men and horses. It was estimated that without one or two days, there was no way to clear that road.

Colonel Mao was extremely angry. Marshal Mu was still waiting for him to complete his military business in Guiyang and return immediately to report back – if he were delayed here for a day or two and missed his schedule, even if Marshal Mu didn’t have his head cut off, he would still receive eighty military lashes and be dismissed from office for investigation.

But the cliff was steep with no passable roads on all sides.

Both Guo Ying and Meng Jianqing were pressed for time. Meng Jianqing examined the stone cliff to the left front that had not yet collapsed, thinking aloud: “This section of cliff must be relatively solid. It should be possible to climb over it, shouldn’t it?”

Guo Ying shook his head: “Don’t take that risk. The rock quality here is different from elsewhere, mostly quite brittle. Besides, even if we could climb over, General Mao can’t get across, so it still wouldn’t work.”

Ai Ai stood behind them with her arms crossed, watching with a half-smile as they pondered desperately.

Guo Ying smiled and said, “Ai Ai, you’re smiling like that – you must have a good solution waiting for us to beg you for it?”

Ai Ai tossed her head and said, “I’m just a little girl who tends fires – what good solution could I have that would be worth your begging?”

Guo Ying walked over to discuss with her in a low voice. Ai Ai alternated between keeping a straight face and shaking her head in ignorance, then haggling and arguing endlessly with him. Meng Jianqing stood to the side watching them, a slight smile unconsciously appearing at the corner of his mouth.

He now understood why the thorny Ai Ai would be so familiar with Guo Ying.

After a long while, Guo Ying walked back and said, “Ai Ai knows a small path that can bypass this place. In this weather, it would take about two hours to walk before we could return to the post road. She’s agreed to guide us. Will you go?”

Meng Jianqing looked at the rain-misted mountains: “Good. The path that Miss Ai Ai shows you, Senior Guo, surely won’t be wrong. I’ll go!”

Guo Ying was momentarily stunned, then shook his head with a smile: “This isn’t the Military Academy – don’t joke carelessly about a young lady’s reputation.”

Ai Ai searched out all three sets of oiled cloth raincoats in the relay station. Ma Yicheng was extremely reluctant but could think of no alternative. Colonel Mao got one set, Ai Ai took one for herself, and for the remaining set, Meng Jianqing tactfully asked Guo Ying to wear it, while he only wrapped an oiled cloth around his shoulders. Together with Colonel Mao’s several personal guards, they followed behind and climbed up the mountain ridge opposite the relay station.

Ai Ai darted through the mountain forest like a young deer. Before long, Meng Jianqing, walking behind, could no longer see her figure. Rainwater continuously flowed down his face. Meng Jianqing wiped it away while stepping over yet another gully.

In the dense forest, Ai Ai’s scream suddenly rang out, immediately followed by Guo Ying shouting: “Ai Ai! Ai Ai!”

Meng Jianqing was startled, gathered his qi, and rushed forward.

Guo Ying was lying at the edge of a cliff, looking down, his face pale.

Meng Jianqing’s gaze fell on the small path above the cliff. In the grass along the path were traces where Ai Ai had slipped and slid. Below the cliff, clouds and mist spread thick, with no way to tell the depth.

Colonel Mao scratched his scalp in frustration: “What should we do? What should we do?”

Guo Ying immediately answered: “I’ll go down to find her.”

Fortunately, there were plenty of vines in the mountains. Guo Ying and Meng Jianqing quickly cut down a pile of long vines, connected them, and tied them securely to two large trees. Guo Ying grasped the long vine and slowly slid down the cliff. In just moments, the clouds and mist had swallowed his figure.

Colonel Mao’s four personal guards also caught up and gathered around Colonel Mao, quietly awaiting news. In the continuous drizzle, Meng Jianqing and those four guards were so soaked they could wring water from their clothes. The mountain forest was completely silent. In such weather, even the birds refused to come out.

After a long time, from deep in the cliff came a faint cry that was immediately swallowed up.

Meng Jianqing felt something was wrong. Had Guo Ying also encountered trouble? Should he turn back to Zhenning Station, or should he follow this barely discernible small path to rush toward the post road ahead, or—

But he suddenly gritted his teeth, threw off the oiled cloth wrapped around his shoulders, and walked to the cliff edge.

Guo Ying was down below the cliff. He absolutely could not stand by and watch.

He grasped the long vine and slowly slid down the cliff. What rose from the bottom of the cliff was nothing but heavy moisture, still heavy moisture.

Suddenly, his feet found space. What he had stepped on was a cave opening.

Meng Jianqing carefully slid down, trying to see clearly how large this cave opening was.

A wooden stick suddenly shot out from the cave, striking toward Meng Jianqing’s abdomen. With both hands gripping the long vine, he had no way to defend himself. The cave was also dark with no visible figures. By the time he heard the wind sound, it was too late to dodge, and his whole body was knocked flying. Fortunately, he still gripped the long vine tightly in his hands, swung in a large circle through the air, then swung back.

The wooden stick in the cave was poised and ready, aimed at the path of his return swing, striking out again at his waist.

Meng Jianqing contracted his body, brought his feet up to hook the long vine, and flipped upside down. His left hand still gripped the vine while his right hand had drawn his short blade.

The short blade swung out diagonally from bottom to top, deflecting the wooden stick, and Meng Jianqing swung away again.

Was Guo Ying’s disappearance due to an attack from within the cave?

No matter what, he couldn’t just flee back up the cliff – he had to investigate thoroughly.

After several rounds, Meng Jianqing could see clearly that the cave opening was large enough for him to squeeze through.

When he swung back to the cave opening once more, facing the wooden stick that was determined to knock him down to the bottom of the cliff, Meng Jianqing suddenly released the long vine. His body followed his blade’s movement, circling the wooden stick’s momentum, and he spun into the dark mountain cave.

The person in the cave, feeling the approaching blade qi, immediately abandoned the wooden stick and retreated into the deeper, darker recesses.

Meng Jianqing pursued relentlessly. He couldn’t give that person time to counterattack at leisure.

The mountain cave was unexpectedly neither narrow nor particularly long. After turning two bends, light could be seen filtering in.

A dark shadow quickly flashed out of the cave opening ahead.

Meng Jianqing rushed toward the cave opening.

But as he burst out of the cave opening, a rope net fell over his head. Caught off guard, Meng Jianqing tumbled onto the grass.

The rope net tightened, and a blade was placed at his neck.

In the white mist, Meng Jianqing took a moment before he could see clearly that the person holding the blade was Ai Ai!

Guo Ying stood to one side, looking at him with a complex expression.

After the initial shock, Meng Jianqing quickly steadied his mind and said, “Senior Guo, whatever the matter is, can’t we just have a good talk about it? Why must it be done this way?”

Guo Ying’s face carried a faint, bitter smile: “If you were in my position, you would also feel there was no other choice.”

He slowly walked over, gazed at Meng Jianqing for a long time, and said, “I’m very sorry. If you want to blame someone, blame Colonel Yang – why did he have to give that task to you?”

Meng Jianqing suddenly understood.

Colonel Yang, who supervised grain supplies, had given him an account book related to a major case of selling military grain illegally. His orders were to deliver it directly into the hands of Shen Guangli, Commander of the Imperial Guard.

Why would Guo Ying be involved? Guo Ying’s family was wealthy, and his future was limitless – he did not need to commit such crimes of embezzlement or even risk setting up a murder plot!

Meng Jianqing’s thoughts raced. Seeing Guo Ying reverse his blade handle to strike at his head, he realized the plan was to knock him unconscious, then untie the rope net and throw him off the cliff to create the illusion of an accidental fall. Meng Jianqing was trapped in the net, unable to wield his blade to resist, and Ai Ai’s blade was at his neck, ready to slice down at any moment.

As Guo Ying swung his blade, he couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. He didn’t want to do this, but he had no choice.

Before his sigh was finished, Guo Ying suddenly felt a chill in his lower abdomen, followed by intense stabbing pain.

Ai Ai screamed.

Guo Ying looked down in disbelief at the small knife embedded in his lower abdomen. The knife had penetrated extremely deep, leaving only the handle visible outside, its spinning momentum not yet stopped, still trembling slightly.

Ai Ai’s eyes left the blade she had placed at Meng Jianqing’s neck.

In just that moment, Meng Jianqing had rolled away. His right hand, trapped in the net, moved again, and a small knife shot out from his sleeve along the ground, piercing upward into Ai Ai’s heart.

Ai Ai’s body trembled, but she still struggled to reach out toward Guo Ying.

Guo Ying grasped her hand.

The net woven from old vines was very sturdy, but Meng Jianqing’s Bai Zhe Dao, brought from the Military Academy, was extremely sharp. In moments, he had calmly cut through the vine net and freed himself.

He threw the vine net down into the deep valley, leaned back against the cliff, and stood with blade horizontal, looking at the two of them with indescribable feelings.

Both of them, struck by his blades, had their internal organs shattered and no chance of survival.

Meng Jianqing couldn’t help but say, “Senior Guo, I’m very sorry. I had no choice.”

If he hadn’t killed them, he would have died himself.

The smile on Guo Ying’s face seemed both agonized and relieved as he murmured, “There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

Meng Jianqing couldn’t help asking, “Why did you do this?”

Guo Ying didn’t answer, only looked toward Ai Ai: “Ai Ai, it’s I who have harmed you.”

Ai Ai’s eyes reddened, and she gripped his hand even tighter.

She wanted to say that she had never regretted it, never thought Guo Ying was harming her, but she no longer had the strength to speak.

She was originally a wild bramble growing in this deep mountain relay station, a delicate flower covered with thorns. What she saw daily were either rough soldiers like the barbarous mountains and wilderness, or arrogant generals and officers.

But Guo Ying was different from all of them. When he walked into the relay station, he was like sunlight penetrating heavy miasma – dazzling and brilliant, high above others. Yet when his two subordinates were injured by her, he apologized to her with great remorse. Ai Ai instinctively felt that Guo Ying wasn’t acting, and did not need to act for someone like her, a mere station master’s granddaughter.

Perhaps in that very moment, she had already given her heart completely and unreservedly. From then on, she saved even more thorns for all other people, smearing her pretty face with a layer of soot – until Guo Ying returned to the station on his journey back.

She also knew that someone of Guo Ying’s birth and family background would never allow her to enter their world. But she didn’t care about any of that. She only wanted to help Guo Ying with everything, to watch him remain forever so noble and brilliant.

Ai Ai’s gaze began to grow dim, but it never left Guo Ying’s face.

Guo Ying looked at her with countless emotions, as if he still had much to say. But in the end, he said nothing at all and suddenly mustered his last bit of strength, grasping Ai Ai’s hand as he leaped down into the deep valley.

Meng Jianqing watched their figures disappear into the valley’s mist. This wasn’t the ending he had wanted to see, but it was the only thing he could do. He could guess what kind of story existed between Guo Ying and Ai Ai. A girl secluded in deep mountains, suddenly encountering such an exceptionally outstanding young man who showed her special affection – how could she not throw her entire life into it like a moth to the flame? He only hoped that Guo Ying’s feelings for that thorny girl weren’t merely exploitation, or else he would feel that even though they were both dead, there would still be a thorn lodged in his heart, impossible to dislodge.

After a long silence, Meng Jianqing finally gathered his spirits and returned along the path to the cave opening.

He could only report to Colonel Mao that he couldn’t find any trace of Guo Ying and Ai Ai.

The long vine hung quietly at the cave opening.

When Meng Jianqing grasped the long vine, his heart suddenly turned cold.

He had never imagined that Guo Ying would set a trap to kill him. Last night, Guo Ying had wanted to make his move, but refrained only because he was too alert.

Although Colonel Mao hadn’t cut the long vine when he went down, was he truly trustworthy?

If Colonel Mao cut the vine while he was climbing up…

But if he didn’t rely on this vine, he might never be able to get up…

Meng Jianqing gripped the long vine, unable to decide for a moment.

Having waited long above the cliff with no signs of activity, they leaned over the cliff edge and shouted down.

Meng Jianqing’s gaze fell on a row of short pines growing diagonally in the rock crevices below the cave opening. Several thin branches had been broken off – he guessed this must have happened when Ai Ai slid down.

Taking such risks was all just to help Guo Ying eliminate him.

When Guo Ying had lain at the cliff edge shouting “Ai Ai,” that pale face and anxious expression weren’t pretense after all. Such risks were indeed matters of life and death. Had Guo Ying felt any regret in that moment?

While Meng Jianqing’s emotions were still unsettled, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

He firmly tied the lower end of the long vine to the two short pines.

Even if Colonel Mao cut the upper end of the long vine, this anchored vine would ensure he wouldn’t fall to the valley bottom.

Colonel Mao didn’t cut the long vine.

As soon as Meng Jianqing set foot on solid ground, he couldn’t help but let out a long breath.