After bidding farewell to Zhou Ziqin, Huang Zixia and Li Shubai returned to the inn.

The night was deep, and they were preparing to return to their respective rooms, only standing in the courtyard to chat briefly.

“Going forward, how do you plan to continue the investigation?”

“Among the several leads we’ve identified, that servant Tang Zhuniang is already dead. After the suicide case occurred, when we wanted to find her, she immediately died – there must certainly be something suspicious there. Tomorrow we should send someone to Hanzhou immediately to seek out people familiar with her, to see if we can find anything in the traces of her daily life that might reveal why the murderer killed her.”

Li Shubai nodded and said: “The people who previously worked in the Governor’s mansion are all still around, but show no abnormalities – it seems no one benefited from your family’s murder case. The source of the poison and the poisoner – investigating these will certainly require expanding our scope, and won’t be easy.”

Huang Zixia nodded, raising her head to gaze at the ink-blue night sky. The crescent moon hung high, the Milky Way drooped low, and the stars glittered like pearls.

This deep night in Chengdu Prefecture was exactly like the night when she first fled.

The day her family died, she was falsely accused of being the murderer and fled Chengdu Prefecture in panic. At that time, the light of the stars and moon in the vast sky was dim, and she couldn’t see the path ahead. She could only head north, hoping to grasp a faint chance in the capital to seek justice for her family and herself.

But, at that time, her heart was buried in despair. Deep in her heart, she didn’t truly believe she could find someone willing to help her, and she had once wandered lost on the dark mountain paths, thinking her life would be buried in darkness from then on.

Who would have thought that now, with the help of the person beside her, she could return to Chengdu again to pursue the truth?

Her gaze turned to Li Shubai, watching his silent profile. His slightly lowered eyelashes covered his eyes, and his lightly pressed lips always traced cold lines, but only Huang Zixia knew what unknown things were hidden beneath his icy exterior.

Otherwise, after he had dragged her out from under the carriage seat in such a mess, why would he, who could have driven her away without mercy, be willing to accept her exchange and bring her to Shu Prefecture to seek the truth?

He seemed to sense her gaze, his eyes turning slightly to look in her direction.

Their gazes met perfectly.

Huang Zixia saw his deep, unfathomable gaze, and felt that gaze strike straight into the deepest part of her chest, making the heart in her chest beat incredibly fast.

“Get some rest early, tomorrow our search area might be quite large, you should mind your rest and meals,” Li Shubai gently instructed her.

“Mm, Your Highness as well,” she nodded.

Just as the two were about to return to their respective rooms, suddenly there came a bang-bang sound from outside – someone was frantically pounding on the outer gate, at this late hour almost startling awake half the street.

The inn’s servant boy was sleeping fully clothed behind the counter, right in the sweetest part of his dream drooling, when he was interrupted by the person outside. He picked up an oil lamp intending to go out and curse. But when the lamplight shone outside, he immediately couldn’t make a sound, only awkwardly smiled and asked: “Guest, are you staying at the inn?”

That person’s voice was hoarse as he anxiously said: “My friend is injured, quickly give us a room!”

Huang Zixia found the voice familiar and hurried outside. Li Shubai accompanied her out, saying: “Why would Zhang Xingying bring someone to stay here in the middle of the night?”

They saw in the front hall a single lamp like a bean, shining on Zhang Xingying who had just entered. He was tightly holding someone in tattered clothes, his face anxious and bruised with blood.

His build was very tall, and with such a frightening appearance, no wonder the servant didn’t dare stop him, only carefully advised: “Sir, your friend looks seriously injured, I think you should go find a medical clinic.”

“Medical clinic… where is there a medical clinic?” he asked.

Before the servant could answer, Li Shubai had already called out softly: “Jing Yu.”

The injured person leaning on Zhang Xingying, suddenly hearing his voice, immediately trembled all over. The head that had been hanging on his chest raised with difficulty as he called softly: “Your High-“

“Yes, he’s Wang Kui, you recognized him?” Huang Zixia, who had already walked to his side, immediately interrupted his words.

In the dim lamplight, Jing Yu was deathly pale and barely breathing, but his eyes were firmly fixed on Li Shubai, emitting a kind of bright light. However, he immediately knew it wasn’t appropriate to reveal Li Shubai’s identity here, so he didn’t speak further.

Li Shubai had Zhang Xingying help Jing Yu to his room first. The servant looked at these two blood-covered people with a worried face but didn’t dare speak.

Huang Zixia said “I’ll go find a doctor” and borrowed a worn lantern from the servant before hurrying out.

She knew Chengdu Prefecture inside and out, and quickly found a medical clinic at the street corner, pounding on the door.

Doctor Zhai inside was most kindhearted, never refusing to make house calls even in the middle of the night. When he saw Huang Zixia say someone was seriously injured, he quickly packed his medicine box and went out with her.

By the time they reached the inn, Jing Yu was already lying down, his blood-stained tattered clothes discarded, covered with a blanket, and barely conscious.

After Doctor Zhai took his pulse and examined him, he shook his head and said: “This young man has been injured for many days, his wounds mostly festering, yet he’s managed to hold on until today – this was already dangerous, but then today he was injured again. With new wounds on top of old ones, I’m afraid this won’t be easy to treat. For now, I can only prescribe some medicine. As for whether he can fully recover, we can only see if his underlying constitution is strong enough to survive this ordeal.”

Doctor Zhai helped Jing Yu remove his clothes, then sterilized his knife with strong alcohol over the fire, needing to first cut away the rotting flesh from his body.

Huang Zixia waited outside, hearing Jing Yu’s barely suppressed screams from inside. She couldn’t help but lean against the wall, biting her lip hard.

Those assassins, who exactly sent them? Someone who could mobilize people from the Ten Offices in the capital, who could use Princess Qile as a weapon, and who knew all of Li Shubai and her movements – who exactly could it be?

Before her eyes, first appeared the Emperor’s plump face with its gentle smile, then Wang Zongshi’s sinister snake-like gaze. However, there were others hidden behind the scenes – Queen Wang, Noble Consort Guo, Pang Jun, and the nearby Military Commissioner of Western Sichuan Fan Yingxi… Among all things in the world, human hearts were most unfathomable. Who knew which person, beneath a friendly exterior, concealed murderous intentions?

The door creaked softly – it was Zhang Xingying coming out too. He stood helplessly beside her, turning his head to look at her, wanting to speak but stopping himself.

So Huang Zixia said: “Yes, it’s me.”

“It is you…” he muttered softly, his tall frame standing before her, head drooping, indescribably dejected and pained.

Huang Zixia sighed and asked: “How did you run into Jing Yu?”

“I, I was originally planning to search around Shu looking to see if I could find Adi. Who knew yesterday after leaving Chengdu Prefecture, while walking along a mountain path, suddenly someone on horseback came charging from the mountain road? The path was narrow, and I couldn’t dodge in time – I was knocked down the cliff…”

Fortunately that section of cliff was a slope, and Zhang Xingying grabbed onto a small tree, barely managing to stop his fall.

At this point he looked around – he had almost reached the bottom of the cliff, so he climbed down to drink some water, sitting by the water to reset his dislocated arm.

Suddenly he heard a wild beast’s low growl. Zhang Xingying looked back at the water and saw a leopard pouncing fiercely toward him. His right arm had just been reset from dislocation, and knowing he had no strength to resist, he could only instinctively stand up to flee.

The leopard’s speed was lightning fast, and it was about to pounce on Zhang Xingying, its sharp fangs about to bite down viciously at his throat. Just as he was preparing to close his eyes and wait for death, suddenly a rock flew over from the side, knocking the leopard away.

Zhang Xingying secretly regretted, thinking if only the rock had been a bit bigger, the leopard’s brains would have surely splattered. When he turned back, he discovered the person who threw the rock was covered in blood, leaning against a large rock by the river, already severely injured. To be able to throw a rock to help him in such a condition was already his utmost effort.

Zhang Xingying quickly ran to his side, and together they used the large rock for support, holding stones and continuously throwing them at the leopard. That person’s strength was failing, but his aim was good, while Zhang Xingying though unable to use his right hand still had strength in his left, and there were plenty of stones on the riverbank – for a time the leopard was hit until it howled continuously.

That leopard had only dared attack humans because it was starving, and now seeing the two people working together, knew it definitely couldn’t get a bite, so after scratching its claws on the riverbank, it finally darted into the forest.

Zhang Xingying waited until the leopard had completely disappeared before turning back: “Brother, are you alright?”

But unexpectedly he asked: “Zhang Xingying… why are you here?”

He was immediately stunned: “You know me?”

“Of course… I’m Jing Yu from the Prince of Kui’s mansion.”

“Master Jing told me bits and pieces along the way… He said after His Highness met with danger, he broke through but got separated, taking an arrow wound. After finally escaping the forest, who knew the blood smell would attract wild beasts again…” Zhang Xingying looked worriedly inside, saying softly, “Being able to hold on until there was already remarkable, I hope he’ll be alright…”

Huang Zixia knew that although they had only spent this short day and half night together, having jointly resisted enemies and supported each other back, they had already become friends through adversity, their friendship naturally different now. Just like her and Li Shubai.

Zhang Xingying looked at her in the faint corridor light, awkwardly asking: “Then, Huang… Brother Yang, why are you here?”

“We were ambushed on the road, so we’re temporarily staying here to hide our tracks,” Huang Zixia explained briefly.

Inside, Jing Yu’s voice had grown softer. Huang Zixia hurried to fetch a basin of hot water, and seeing the doctor come out, carried it inside. Zhang Xingying took it from her, saying: “Let me.”

He sat by the bed wiping the blood from Jing Yu’s body, seeing his body criss-crossed all over with bandaged wounds. Holding the cloth, he found nowhere to start, only managing to wipe his face and neck, feeling extremely distressed.