Duan Zhihong was stunned, lowering his head to think for a moment before saying, “Second Young Master said to break his teeth…”

Li Shimin nodded, “That’s right. Although we cannot force him to let go, we can break his teeth. This way, we can equally help elder brother escape from his predicament. Also, I’ve had contact with Meixue before. She’s gentle and timid, and even when wronged, she doesn’t dare to argue her case. For such a person to now wield a knife to kill someone—don’t you find it strange?”

“That’s true.” Saying this, Duan Zhihong’s expression suddenly changed, and he blurted out, “Could it be that Miss Wu deliberately killed Shen Moping? But didn’t Second Young Master say earlier that Miss Wu was unrelated to the assassins?”

“Previously, we indeed investigated very clearly. Whether looking at Meixue’s background or her daily conduct, she couldn’t possibly be an accomplice of the assassins. But now…” Li Shimin said with a complex expression, “I can no longer be certain.”

Duan Zhihong contemplated, “If Wu Meixue truly is an accomplice of the assassins, then her action of killing Shen Moping just now becomes understandable. Not only could it sabotage our plan, but it could also help Shen Moping escape, no longer needing to be strung up and tortured.” After a pause, he said, “Second Young Master, what should we do now? Should we go and arrest Wu Meixue?”

Li Shimin raised his hand, “Don’t startle the snake in the grass for now. Just have someone watch her. The most urgent matter is still to quickly find Shen Yunyi—she’s the most dangerous one.”

“This subordinate understands. This subordinate will go arrange it immediately.” Saying this, he remembered something and said, “Second Young Master, the eldest young master is now injured. Should this subordinate go report to the Governor to avoid keeping him waiting?”

Li Shimin thought for a moment, “I’ll go myself. You go check on elder brother’s injuries. I’ll come over immediately after seeing Father.”

Before leaving, he looked at Shen Moping’s corpse and, after a moment of silence, said, “Regardless of his countless wrongs in life, they have all dissipated into smoke now. Don’t let him be exposed in the wilderness—find a place to bury him.”

After Duan Zhihong agreed, he quickly walked toward Songtao Residence. At the same time, Yunyi and Jiang Caiping also made their way back to their own room. As soon as they entered, Jiang Caiping hurriedly closed the door and, stroking her chest that was still pounding relentlessly, said to herself, “That was truly terrifying just now—so scary! That Shen Moping was simply like a madman, biting the eldest young master regardless of everything. Even when Second Young Master took a knife to hack at his legs, he still wouldn’t let go.”

After pausing for a moment, she turned to Yunyi and said, “And sister, how did you have such courage to actually take a knife and kill him? I thought I was seeing things at the time!” After waiting a while without hearing Yunyi respond, she looked closely and saw drop after drop of transparent tears continuously falling from Yunyi’s eyes, dripping to the ground. She hurriedly said, “Sister, you… why are you crying? What’s wrong?”

Yunyi didn’t speak, only continued crying. She knew—she knew everything. Moping didn’t want to implicate her, so he deliberately did these things, forcing Li Jiancheng to kill him, single-mindedly seeking death! But Li Shimin was too calm, even terrifyingly calm. In that situation, he could actually still think of breaking Moping’s teeth to achieve the goal of making him let go.

If the guards had done as he said, Moping would still be alive, alive to endure endless torment. She didn’t want Moping to continue suffering such pain, so… she personally ended Moping’s life!

She knew that doing this would inevitably arouse Li Shimin’s suspicion, but to watch Moping continue suffering was absolutely something she couldn’t do.

When that steel knife pierced Moping’s body, her heart felt as if it had been sawed in half by someone. She and Moping were nominally master and servant, but actually like family. All these years, Moping had stayed by her side without leaving for even a moment. Even knowing that her assassination attempt on Li Yuan this time could cost her life at any moment, he had followed without hesitation, helping her hide, assisting her in stealing medicine. If not for Moping, she would have died long ago!

But the only thing she could do for Moping was to personally send him to death—to send the person closest to her, who would rather die than fail to protect her, to his death!

Jiang Caiping kept calling to Yunyi, but the latter remained silent throughout, and her tears flowed even more fiercely. Before one side was dry, the other side was already flowing all over her face, as if she wanted to shed all her tears.

Jiang Caiping held a handkerchief that seemed soaked with water and said in a panicked voice, “Sister, don’t scare me. What’s wrong? Please tell me—don’t… don’t just cry. Your crying… your crying makes me want to cry too.” By the end of her words, her eyes were indeed red and tears were falling.

Seeing her like this, Yunyi finally spoke, “Why are you crying when you’re perfectly fine?”

Jiang Caiping said while crying, “I don’t know either, but… seeing sister cry like this, my heart feels very uncomfortable, and I can’t help but want to cry. Sister, please don’t cry anymore, okay?”

Yunyi raised her hand to wipe away the tears from the corner of her eyes, choking as she said, “What a silly girl. Stop crying quickly.”

Jiang Caiping said, “Then sister shouldn’t cry either. If you have any unhappiness, tell me. No matter what happens, I’m by your side. I’ll always stay with you.”

Her words caused Yunyi’s heart to ache, and she said in a low voice, “Before, there was also someone who said he would definitely stay with me, but in the end… he left.”

Jiang Caiping shook her head urgently, “No, no, what I say definitely counts. No matter whether we’re still in the Governor’s mansion in the future, we’ll always be the best sisters.” As she spoke, she extended her finger, “If sister doesn’t believe me, let’s make a pinky promise. Whoever goes back on their word is a little dog!”

Yunyi took a deep breath, wiped away the tears on her face, and said hoarsely, “What a silly girl. How can someone so grown-up still make pinky promises? People would laugh if they saw.”

“They wouldn’t!” Saying this, Jiang Caiping took her hand and hooked their little fingers together, reciting the phrase she’d known since childhood, “Golden hook, silver hook—no changing for a hundred years!”

“There, now we’ve made a pinky promise. For a hundred years, we’ll be the very best sisters.” Saying this, she asked curiously, “Sister, you just said someone would stay with you but left first. Who was that person?”

Yunyi naturally wouldn’t tell her it was Shen Moping, so she casually said, “It was a sister from the same village before, very close to me. But she died of illness a few years ago. I suddenly remembered just now, and my heart felt very sad.”

Jiang Caiping nodded in understanding, gripping Yunyi’s hand tightly, “Don’t think about past things. In any case, I’ll be with sister from now on, and we’ll never be separated!” Saying this, she added, “By the way, sister still hasn’t said why you were crying. I’ve never seen sister cry so sadly before.”

Yunyi suppressed the grief in her heart and said, “It’s not sadness, it’s… it’s fear. After all, I just killed someone.”