Yunyi’s expression darkened as she interrupted him, “Enough! Don’t say anymore!”

“What, too ashamed to listen further?” Li Xuanba said coldly, “But this is the truth—repaying kindness with enmity, worse than pigs and dogs!”

Yunyi struggled to suppress the irritation in her heart, “I’ll give you one last chance. Where exactly is Feng Li?”

Li Xuanba showed no fear, “Even if you ask me a hundred or thousand times, I won’t say a word. If you have the ability, kill me!”

“Then go die!” Yunyi coldly spat out these words, then gripped the dagger tightly and thrust it toward Li Xuanba’s chest. Once the blade pierced his heart, no matter how high Li Xuanba’s martial arts, he would surely die!

Just as the dagger tip was about to pierce Li Xuanba’s chest, Yunyi suddenly stopped her movement. The figures of Li Shimin and Caiping kept flashing before her eyes, making her hand holding the dagger tremble slightly. She tried several times to exert force, but could never bring herself to strike!

After a long while, she suddenly withdrew her hand. After snatching the jade pendant from Li Xuanba’s waist, she stood up with her back to him, “I’ll give you one more day. I’ll come back tomorrow. I hope by then you’ll have thought it through, otherwise I’ll chop off your fingers one by one!” After saying this, she found some worn clothing and connected them into long strips, binding Li Xuanba to a pillar. Then she found a copper lock and locked the door from the outside.

This village had been abandoned for a long time. People from nearby villages feared being contaminated by the bad luck of the dead, and with all the ghost stories that had spread so widely back then, they would never come here. Even if Li Xuanba shouted himself hoarse, no one would hear him.

After leaving the village, Yunyi went home and spoke with Wu Laosan for a while before returning to the Governor’s residence. The residence had apparently not yet discovered Li Xuanba’s disappearance, and everything was calm as usual.

When passing through the main gate, Yunyi said to the guards at the door, “Brothers, have you seen the Third Young Master return?”

The two guards looked at each other and shook their heads, “No, we haven’t. What’s wrong?”

Yunyi took out the jade pendant from her waist, “When I was returning just now, I happened to encounter the Third Young Master. He looked hurried, I don’t know where he was going. His waist jade pendant fell and he didn’t even notice. By the time I picked it up to return it to him, he had already disappeared.”

The guard took the jade pendant and looked at it, “This really is the Third Young Master’s jade pendant. But the Third Young Master indeed hasn’t returned. You can return it to him tomorrow.”

“That’s the only option.” Saying this, Yunyi pretended to be curious, “By the way, do you brothers know where the Third Young Master went? It’s so late and he still hasn’t returned.”

The guard laughed, “How would we know? We only know that the Third Young Master went out early this morning. Oh right, it was around the same time as you.”

Another guard said, “That’s right! Ever since he met that person called Ajin last time, the Third Young Master has been going out frequently.”

Yunyi’s heart stirred, as if casually saying, “Ajin? Is he the Third Young Master’s friend?”

The guard laughed, “How could the Third Young Master have such a shabby friend? He was dressed in rags all over, just like a beggar.”

The other guard said, “I smelled fish all over him. He’s probably either a fisherman or fish seller.”

Yunyi smiled, “Do you brothers know what business he had with the Third Young Master?”

The guard shook his head, “Not clear. Initially he wanted to see the Governor, but the Governor has been out these past few days, and he couldn’t explain what it was about, so we didn’t let him in. Later the Third Young Master came out, spoke a few words with him, then went with him.”

Yunyi firmly memorized the name “Ajin,” then asked a few more questions without leaving any traces. Seeing she couldn’t get any more information, she went inside.

The night passed without incident. The next day, Yunyi didn’t go to find Li Shimin, but went to Cailan Pavilion to see Lady Lin. Using the excuse that Wu Laosan was unwell and she wanted to care for him, she obtained permission to leave the residence.

After leaving the residence, Yunyi naturally didn’t go to the Wu household. She went straight out the city gates to the empty village where Li Xuanba was imprisoned. After taking out the key to unlock the door and enter, she was shocked to discover the room was completely empty. Only half a strip of cloth tied to the pillar lay on the ground, and the window that had clearly been closed last night was now wide open.

This was bad! Had Li Xuanba escaped through the window? But she had clearly tied him to the pillar—he couldn’t possibly have freed himself. Or had someone discovered Li Xuanba?

Just as she was puzzling over this, something struck her head hard, causing her brain to go blank with pain. Her entire body staggered forward, and before she could react, something heavy pressed down on her back. She heard Li Xuanba’s ice-cold voice in her ear, “Move again, and you’ll be the one who won’t see tomorrow’s sun!”

After the severe pain in the back of her head subsided slightly, Yunyi didn’t dare move recklessly and said in a concentrated voice, “How did you untie the ropes?”

Li Xuanba ignored her and only said, “Throw away the dagger. I know you’ve been hiding it in your sleeve. Hurry!”

Yunyi helplessly took the dagger from her sleeve. For some reason, her eyes kept staring at that half piece of torn cloth. Just as she was about to throw it away, her gaze suddenly sharpened. The dagger made a sound as it cut through the air. The person pressing down on her back quickly rolled to the side to avoid it. Yunyi took the opportunity to stand up, pointing the sharp dagger coldly at Li Xuanba, whose hands and feet were still firmly bound, “The Third Young Master is truly capable—I almost fell for your trick!”

Seeing that Yunyi had seen through him, Li Xuanba, with a large red swelling on his head, showed annoyance and spat out the blood from his mouth hatefully, “What a pity I still couldn’t deceive you.”

“If you had really untied the ropes, you would have already returned to the Governor’s residence. Why would you stay here? Moreover, if you had really freed yourself, why would you need to bite through that cloth strip with your mouth, even to the point of making your teeth bleed?” She realized Li Xuanba hadn’t actually freed himself from the ropes and was just bluffing because she saw the blood stains on that piece of cloth.

“It really was close, just a little bit!” As soon as Li Xuanba finished speaking, Yunyi said coldly, “Wrong. Even if I had really thrown away the dagger, so what? In your current state, could you really beat me?”

Li Xuanba struggled to stand up from the ground, “Won’t know unless I try.” Before Yunyi could speak, he continued, “You don’t need to waste any more words. If you want to kill me, kill me. Don’t think you can get a single word out of me.”

“I already know that the person who saved Feng Li is called Ajin.” At these words, Li Xuanba’s expression changed dramatically as he said in shock, “How… how do you know?”

Yunyi examined the exquisite dagger in her hand with a half-smile, “There are no walls in this world that don’t let wind through. No matter how much you scheme, you still can’t protect Feng Li’s life!”

Li Xuanba shook his head repeatedly, saying in panic, “Impossible! You couldn’t possibly know about Ajin. I’ve never told anyone.”

“After I kill you, I’ll go kill Feng Li. That way I won’t have to worry about my identity being exposed.” Yunyi’s words made Li Xuanba’s expression increasingly panicked. He struggled to calm himself and said, “So what if you really kill Feng Li? There’s still Elder Brother. You can’t possibly rush to Hedong to kill Elder Brother too, can you?”