The sky had already darkened, and the ginger soup prepared in advance had already gone cold.

Yet Jiang Xuening still had not returned.

Yan Lin’s side sent someone to invite him to discuss the next course of action. Xie Wei simply lowered his eyelids, picked up a snow-white handkerchief to wipe away the bloodstains on his fingers, and said indifferently: “I’ll come shortly.”

He set down the handkerchief, had someone clean up the mess in the room, and instructed the back kitchen to keep the ginger soup warm before leaving the room.

The front hall for deliberations happened to pass by Jiang Xuening’s courtyard.

He actually encountered Shen Zhiyi along the way.

This former imperial princess no longer loved wearing her old palace attire. She wore only a deep red and white wide-sleeved immortal dress. Judging by her direction, she had just come from Jiang Xuening’s courtyard, but seemed not to have seen anyone. Her brows were lightly knitted, her expression not particularly relaxed.

She had a faint scar at the corner of her eye.

That was the injury left on her cheek when the Heavenly Teachings and Prince Pingnan’s faction attacked and broke through the capital over twenty years ago. Back when she was in the palace, she had always cared greatly about a woman’s beauty and charm, to the point where she brooded over this scar. Now, having experienced a thousand-mile marriage alliance, frontier wind and sand, and twists and turns as a puppet, she no longer cared about outward appearances. She hadn’t even applied any covering makeup, actually gaining a bit of frankness in facing reality.

Because with some things, turning a blind eye and glossing over peace was merely deceiving oneself like covering one’s ears while stealing a bell. What should be there wouldn’t change because of hypocritical pretense.

In the afternoon, she had seen Zhang Zhe. Her emotions had originally been churning. Though there were many people in this vast residence, she couldn’t think of anyone else she could talk to. So after sitting listlessly for over an hour, she still decided to go find Jiang Xuening.

Only unfortunately, she wasn’t there.

After turning around the corridor for just a few steps, Shen Zhiyi looked up and saw Xie Wei. At this moment, both their footsteps oddly stopped. Though the twilight rain around them had not yet ceased, the air suddenly filled with a stagnant atmosphere.

Some things need not be said to others—between them, it was crystal clear.

What armies to rescue the Emperor, what princess’s decree, what respectfully escorting Her Highness back to court…

All of it was false!

Shen Zhiyi had neither issued any decree nor said she wanted to return to court. Everything was merely a large hand behind the scenes manipulating the overall situation, using her as a puppet pushed onto the stage to find a suitable and proper reason for all the things they wanted to do, allowing everything to continue in an upright and dignified manner.

And the so-called noble princess…

Couldn’t even freely cross that city gate.

Shen Zhiyi felt several points of irony in her heart but ultimately didn’t show it, only asking first: “Ningning said she was going outside the city this afternoon to find Wei Liang. It’s so late now—hasn’t she returned yet?”

She had only recently seen Zhang Zhe.

Xie Wei stood with hands behind his back, didn’t answer, but instead asked: “When she should return, she’ll naturally return. At noon she already went to visit Your Highness. For Your Highness to come looking in the evening—do you want to tell her that Zhang Zhe came, to inform her to go see him?”

Having informants among the servants attending her, with her every move reported upward—for Shen Zhiyi, who grew up in the palace, this was truly commonplace, no longer anything unusual.

Only when she actually knew that Xie Wei had complete knowledge, she still couldn’t help feeling cold.

Even disgusted.

Her countenance cooled several degrees, but she said: “I merely have some words I want to say to her. Now that Master Xie holds power and has already taken most of the realm into his grasp, there’s truly no need to be so wary of me, this puppet about to be discarded. After all, the reason you still dare let her see me—isn’t it precisely because you’re certain I would never speak too much in front of her and make things difficult for her?”

Although Jiang Xuening had rushed to the frontier and rescued her, the Xinzhou and Huangzhou armies were truly and genuinely treasonous rebels. For a princess of the imperial clan to be saved by rebels—her position was already extremely awkward.

If it were only that, it would be one thing.

But the person she truly cared about had intimate connections with the mastermind behind the rebels, threads upon threads.

You Fangying had already passed away.

Shen Zhiyi also knew all this was for her sake. In her heart, even if there were ten thousand difficulties, even if the surface was far from reality, she would absolutely never reveal or complain even half a word to Jiang Xuening.

Only because she was her only friend—

She was unwilling to add any troubles for her or push matters toward an unsolvable abyss.

Regarding this, Xie Wei knew it clearly and didn’t deny it. He only gazed at Shen Zhiyi, his calm voice without fluctuation carrying a particularly ruthless flavor: “Since you know I’m wary, you shouldn’t always come looking for her.”

Where was this the Minister Xie from Fengchen Palace of days past?

Shen Zhiyi almost couldn’t believe he could say such words.

In an instant, anger surged.

She coldly demanded: “Is this your way of liking someone? Have you asked whether she knows, and whether she’s willing? Under heaven there has never been a wall without cracks, never a fire that can be wrapped in paper. She’s forthright and kind-hearted, naturally free in spirit, yet you’re hypocritical and cunning, calculating at every step, scheming everywhere, not letting her know anything! What do you take her for? A captive bird you’ve caged?!”

Xie Wei said: “What should she know?”

Shen Zhiyi laughed coldly: “Regarding the Heavenly Teachings, you first captured then released them, allowing them to wreak havoc on the world, to devastate living beings! Along the way, how many people have been displaced, suffered in the flames of war! Even if you want to rebel—this realm has always been at the mercy of those in power—but what wrong have the common people done? If you said your abilities were insufficient and you truly couldn’t prevent it, that would be one thing. But you deliberately have the capacity yet don’t act, intentionally indulging evil deeds, only to fulfill your personal desires! If you want to destroy the court and seize the realm, you could openly fight your way there, but you need not use such despicable means that treat human lives like grass!”

What deeds he had done, Xie Wei knew himself.

He was unmoved, and regarding the so-called lives and deaths of people under heaven, he was also indifferent, only saying: “So what?”

So what?

Along the way, devastation met the eye everywhere—merchants whose life’s work had been plundered, wives whose husbands had been killed, children without homes…

Voice after voice crying, voice after voice shouting!

Shen Zhiyi traveled with the army, unlike Jiang Xuening and Wei Liang who always lagged a few days behind. Everything she saw and heard entered her heart, often keeping her awake at night.

At this moment, looking at Xie Wei was like looking at a monster.

What kind of cold-blooded person could say such words?

She blinked, ultimately still calmed down, only saying with extreme clarity, word by word: “Jiang Xuening’s whole heart treats people with sincere devotion. She deserves everyone to forever treat her well, but you’re not worthy of her.”

Having said this, she flicked her sleeves and left.

Those three words “not worthy of her” were truly rather sharp.

Xie Ju’an lowered his eyelids, equally unwilling to speak more with her, only after walking a few steps out, too many things from the past surfaced—too many, too many—so much so that the malevolent energy originally lingering in his heart became increasingly heavy and difficult to suppress!

At this moment, his footsteps suddenly stopped.

He turned around, his voice seemingly mixed with cold malice, actually saying cruelly: “The weak are prey to the strong. The foolish masses of this world deserve only to be slaughtered! Princess Highness stands beneath a dangerous wall and should speak cautiously. Even if one day I kill everyone under heaven, I’d only blame them for willingly being fodder!”

Having said this, he didn’t look at Shen Zhiyi even once more, going directly toward the deliberation hall.

Shen Zhiyi watched this person’s back disappear among the layered corridor pillars, only feeling that beneath that calm shell hid a ferocity and madness about to lose control.

A gust of wind blew, and only then did she feel cold all over her body.

She gently opened her palm. The military tally pieced together from two fragments lay quietly in her palm. Looking at it for a long time, she actually felt a kind of absurd sorrow. Closing her eyes, bit by bit she forcefully clenched her fist, letting them press painfully into her flesh.

Jiang Xuening didn’t know how she had returned, dazed as if walking through a dream spanning two lifetimes. The shadows of surrounding flowers and trees overlapped as they passed, suddenly seeming to transform into those people she had seen and known across both lifetimes, making her head heavy and feet light, actually unable to distinguish where she was.

Until a hand suddenly grabbed her arm from the side.

Only then did she come to her senses.

The rain had already lessened. Yan Lin wasn’t holding an umbrella.

He wore a fitted outfit. Seeing her lost and dispirited appearance, he couldn’t help but furrow his handsome sword-like brows. Only a strange emotion was surging in his chest, preventing him from speaking immediately.

Jiang Xuening looked toward him.

His gradually maturing features were covered by the descending night, actually carrying an indescribable heaviness. He should have asked “where did you go,” but when the words came out they became: “Ningning, I had a nightmare last night.”

Jiang Xuening froze.

Yan Lin’s hand still gripped her arm, his deep black eyes gazing at her: “I’m a bit afraid. In that dream, I was so bad to you, so very bad…”

Dream…

If she had still been somewhat confused and dazed just moments before, at this moment she was shocked awake.

A kind of fear left over from her previous life almost instantly seized her heart.

The face of Yan Lin before her actually overlapped for a moment with his expression in her previous life when he gazed deeply at her in her bedchamber. Jiang Xuening’s heart trembled violently, and she almost couldn’t control her instinctive reaction—she broke free from his hand grasping hers and stepped back!

Watching this, Yan Lin felt his heart cut like a knife.

Before saying these words to Jiang Xuening, he had even been thinking—it was just a dream, just a dream.

But why was she truly so afraid?

The young man’s voice vaguely carried a bit of hoarse choking: “The dream you mentioned, the dream I had—they’re all real, aren’t they?”

He was still this lifetime’s Yan Lin.

When Jiang Xuening looked at him and realized this, she immediately knew her action just now had hurt him, but she had no way to control it.

Could such strange things exist in the world?

Or was it that after hearing what Zhang Zhe described today, she had developed an illusion where past and present lives converged, making it difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood?

No…

She shook her head, actually feeling a splitting headache, unwilling to stand here and say even half a sentence more with Yan Lin.

Only after she walked several steps away, that young man who had shed his old naivety still stood in place, as if abandoned.

That guilt then surged forth.

Jiang Xuening thought—they were ultimately not the same person.

Standing frozen for a long time, she finally turned her head and said to him: “It was just a dream. Once you wake up, it all scatters away. Don’t take it to heart.”

Yan Lin stood beneath the wall covered with withered yellow vines, watching her walk into the distance.

Her graceful and delicate figure was lit by lantern after lantern.

But falling into his eyes, entering his heart, only desolation remained.

By the time she reached Xie Wei’s courtyard, the rain had stopped.

There were truly too many things weighing on Jiang Xuening’s mind, so much so that she was unwilling to think about what Yan Lin’s words just now actually meant. Even arriving at the courtyard gate and hearing Dao Qin say Xie Wei was still waiting for her, she still carried an unresolvable emptiness.

She walked into the room.

On the table were actually placed exquisite bowls and plates, several dishes prepared, a pot of wine set out, two wine cups already filled. But the liquid inside no longer swayed—clearly they had been filled long ago and left for quite some time, so much so that the surface in the cups was smooth as a mirror.

A new qin was placed on the qin table.

The original mess in the room had already been cleaned up. Xie Wei sat at one end of the table. Seeing her walk in, his face showed not the slightest abnormality. He only picked up a cup of wine to hand to her, asking: “What did you chat about with Wei Liang that you came back so late?”

Jiang Xuening and Wei Liang had encountered rain and naturally finished early, only on the road back to the city, she had actually seen Zhang Zhe and chased after him, speaking for a long time before returning.

Only she didn’t want to tell Xie Wei.

Taking the wine cup he handed over, she lowered her eyelids, avoiding his direct gaze, smiling and saying: “I was kept by a farming family who talked for a very long time. I wasn’t paying attention and forgot the hour.”

Xie Wei sat at the table, quietly watching her.

Her state of mind was indeed more chaotic than usual. She didn’t even think about why Xie Wei had prepared a table of dishes and wine. Once the wine cup was handed to her and she finished speaking, she raised it to drink.

Xie Wei’s gaze fell on her fingers holding the cup.

However, just as the wine cup was about to touch her lips, he suddenly stood up abruptly, snatched it away with one hand, and directly threw it to the ground where it shattered with a “crack” into pieces!

At that moment, his countenance held an indescribable coldness.

Not knowing whether it was more anger or more hatred, he cursed her without mercy: “Jiang Xuening, are you an idiot?!”

The splattered wine had two drops fall on the silver chopsticks, dyeing them somewhat black.

Only Jiang Xuening didn’t see it.

She even looked up at him with several points of bewilderment, not reacting.

A rain had fallen in the afternoon and evening. She came back from outside, her crow-black hair ends stained with dampness. When Xie Wei’s hand reached over to grasp her shoulder, his palm was also completely cold.

Thus that anger burned even more fiercely.

He directly pulled her into the inner room, had someone prepare hot bathing water, and with a cold face stripped off all her clothes invaded by rain and cold air, throwing her entire person into the bathtub.

Jiang Xuening tumbled in sitting down, almost entirely submerged by the hot water. Her dampened hair immediately came loose, falling over her fair shoulders, draping across her rising and falling curves.

When her head emerged from the water, water droplets hung on her thick, long lashes.

She only felt this person had suddenly become unreasonable. Just as she was about to open her mouth to ask what was going on, Xie Ju’an had already pressed down on the back of her neck with one hand, his lips covering hers, tightly controlling her. That invasion carried several points of venting desire. Following his tongue exploring her mouth, he restrained her thoroughly.

He made Jiang Xuening drenched.

But the water droplets clinging to her body also soaked his originally neat outer robe. She whimpered, actually having an illusion of suffocating.

This time was clearly more intense than any previous time.

Yet Xie Wei’s eyes were calmer than any previous time.

He said: “I want you.”

Jiang Xuening looked at his obsessive, mad appearance. For some reason, she actually felt the heart beating in her chest being cut open by a knife, fresh blood flowing steadily from the wound, making her feel immense desolation, yet she couldn’t say a single word.

It was hard to imagine she would actually feel distressed for this person.

Xie Wei suddenly detested her eyes looking like this. He raised his hand to cover her eyes, then buried his head to kiss deeply the scarlet lips below, finally suppressing her, bit by bit slowly penetrating deeply.

An almost ultimate pleasure.

But what remained afterward was desolate emptiness that couldn’t be filled and fear, along with a kind of self-loathing.

She lay on her side beside him.

Xie Wei was quiet for a while before asking: “Shall we marry?”

Jiang Xuening didn’t answer.

She bit her lips tightly, one hand pressed against her heart clenched tight, forcefully suppressing something. Tears had already dampened the pillow—she feared that once she loosened her mouth, she would cry out loud.

Xie Wei waited for her for a long time.

But didn’t dare ask a second time.

Rising and putting on clothes, the room had toppled wine remaining, the window had clear moonlight spilling everywhere. What came to mind was actually what Lu Zhao had once jokingly said to him.

Xie Ju’an certainly wouldn’t always win, but would never lose.

But what if…

What if this time, no matter what, he wanted to win?