Someone kicked open the half-closed doors of the Meeting Immortals Wine House.

Ruyi looked up to see a group of men in black robes. They were solidly built with stable lower stances—trained fighters. After kicking the door open, they surged in and stood there, surveying the first floor’s main hall, but didn’t speak.

They didn’t look like good people.

“What’s that commotion?” He Tinglan heard the noise and walked from the back courtyard to the front hall.

Ruyi stepped forward to block her view, smiling: “I arranged to meet someone here for business. You all should stay away for now.”

Ah, that’s what it was. She nodded and went back to the rear courtyard to inform the others.

“Who is Hua Fuman?” The leader had a scar across his eye and spoke in a rough, coarse voice.

Ruyi turned around, puzzled: “I am. What’s wrong?”

The black-robed men exchanged glances, then immediately rushed toward her. Their movements were clean and efficient, their force fierce and powerful. If it had really been Fuman here, she would have been pinned down and taken away in an instant.

Ruyi moved gracefully like a wisp of silk, slipping out from under their hands and retreating. Her sleeves flew as she raised her arms, her eyes containing anger: “You attack without even explaining what this is about?”

The confident black-robed men froze, looking down at their own hands in secret alarm.

What terrifying movement techniques! Wasn’t it said that Hua Fuman knew no martial arts?

“Go,” Daoba shouted once, and the rest immediately followed him in retreat, showing excellent training and discipline.

Ruyi felt this wasn’t good.

She called over Fuman and quietly asked her: “Have you offended anyone recently?”

Fuman blinked in confusion: “Who, who could I offend? I, I’m either at the wine house, or investigating cases.”

Nodding thoughtfully, Ruyi said, “From now on, whenever you go out, make sure you’re with Yanning and Qingyi. Don’t be alone. Understand?”

Although she didn’t know what had happened, Fuman still nodded obediently: “Alright.”

As night deepened and everyone went back to rest, the Supreme Lord looked at Liu Ruyi, who was still pondering something by the counter, and said curiously: “Why do you care about the life and death of mortals? It has nothing to do with you.”

Giving him a blank look, Ruyi didn’t answer. She put away the account book and lifted her skirt to go upstairs.

The Supreme Lord muttered a few words and also walked toward his room, thinking as he walked that surely this world couldn’t be one where good people don’t get good rewards.

—But it really could be.

From that day forward, accidents began occurring frequently around Fuman. First, a flower pot from upstairs fell inexplicably toward her. Fortunately, she had walked a step slower, and the heavy ceramic pot crashed into pieces right at her toes. Then, while passing a pork shop, the shopkeeper who was cutting meat properly suddenly loosened his grip, and the cleaver flew straight toward her neck. If Qingyi hadn’t been quick to pull her aside, she would have lost her life.

Zhao Yanning realized something was wrong: “Stop investigating the Duke An’s manor case for now.”

They were just one step away from the end. How could Fuman accept this? She gestured excitedly: If these aren’t all coincidences, doesn’t that prove Grand Preceptor Liu has a guilty conscience even more? If we give up now, not only will we be unable to account to Duke An’s manor, but Grand Preceptor Liu won’t easily let us go either.

Some time ago, a concubine’s daughter from Duke An’s manor was found dead in the corner by the wall of her courtyard. The Ministry of Justice searched the scene and determined it was an accidental death from falling while climbing the wall. But Duke An didn’t accept this result. He insisted his daughter was murdered, and the killer was very likely Liu Yinuo, Grand Preceptor Liu’s legitimate son.

For this reason, Duke An paid handsomely to have several people from the Meeting Immortals Wine House gather evidence.

Based on the autopsy results and authenticated physical evidence, this case could be determined to be related to Liu Yinuo. Duke An also sent the evidence they had obtained to the imperial palace, requesting His Majesty to uphold justice.

But just a few days ago, His Majesty buried Duke An’s concubine daughter with county princess rites and rewarded Grand Preceptor Liu with a jade ruyi as consolation.

This muddled way of resolving things made Duke An so angry he took to his sickbed, and also made both Fuman and Yanning feel it was absurd. They had carefully reviewed everything and felt the problem lay in the timeline. If they could find witness testimony that Liu Yinuo wasn’t at the manor at the time, perhaps the result could be different.

But before they could find more evidence, there were already these series of accidents.

Zhao Yanning sighed: “You clearly said you would never trust the current emperor again.”

So what if they found the truth? Grand Preceptor Liu was the current emperor’s mentor. If he was determined to protect him, who could do anything to Grand Preceptor Liu?

Her fingers trembled slightly, Fuman’s breathing grew heavy, and her eyes suddenly became panicked.

As soon as Zhao Yanning saw this, he knew she was thinking of her deceased husband again. He couldn’t help but mentally slap himself, then quickly consoled: “The past cannot be pursued. You and I must both look forward. Now we’ve obtained all the evidence Duke An wanted. The rest isn’t something we can control. Why not let go and leave Lin’an to avoid trouble for a few days?”

Fuman looked up at him, her eyes slightly red.

Zhao Yanning’s heart ached. He lowered his eyes and said, “Don’t worry, with me here, I won’t let anything happen to you again.”

She opened her mouth, words rolling around in her throat several times, but she still swallowed them back. In the end, she only responded with a low “Mm.”

To avoid implicating others at the wine house, the two of them made quite a commotion when leaving. Zhao Yanning first caught Qingyi and scolded her thoroughly, then gave He Tinglan a complete dressing down. Finally, in front of Ruyi, he stepped out the door, still muttering that he hoped to find a better employer in the neighboring city.

He Tinglan and Qingyi looked baffled and were quite angry. Ruyi leaned against the door, appearing calm and untroubled: “Zhao Yanning, come here for a moment.”

He stood before the shopkeeper with a forced expression, lifting his chin: “What?”

Reaching out to pat the dust off his lapel, Ruyi curved her lips: “Useless. Now get lost.”

Calling him back just to say this? This time, Zhao Yanning was truly angry. He glared at her fiercely, grabbed Fuman, and got in the carriage.

They weren’t short of money now. They spent twenty taels at an escort agency to hire over ten escorts, just to safely leave Lin’an.

However, as soon as the carriage reached the more desolate outskirts, sounds of fighting arose around them.

Zhao Yanning’s face turned ashen. He covered Fuman with a straw mat and took his blade down from the carriage.

Over thirty black-robed men had come. Originally, their movements seemed somewhat restrained, as if they were being cautious about something and ready to retreat at any time. But unexpectedly, Zhao Yanning had come down from the carriage himself.

Daoba’s eyes lit up. He flew over and grabbed him, pressing a long blade horizontally against his neck and roaring: “Hua Fuman, tell your people to stop.”

Fuman was startled. She staggered as she pushed aside the straw mat and lifted the carriage curtain, then her face suddenly became snow white.

It was this scene again.

In the mountain forest, the wind sounded like weeping. Dozens of thugs stood in the distance holding someone hostage, glaring at her fiercely: “Hand over everything you found in Fengwei Valley, or I’ll kill him!”

—Within three days, take all the evidence the Ministry of Justice currently has, wrap it in burlap sacks, and throw it in the river outside Chaotian Gate, or I’ll kill him.

—You’re Shen Qiyuan’s confidant. What can’t you do? It seems you don’t care about your husband’s life.

—Then come collect his corpse.

Reddish-brown blood soaked into the soil. Her beloved slowly fell before her. No matter how she cried or explained, Xiuhe’s body still gradually grew cold in the wind.

Fuman reached up and held her head.