In the brightly lit main tent, a visibly unsettled Bai Rongling was brought inside.

After Fu Xuanmiao took control of the Zhenchuan Army, Bai Rongling’s conditions during his house arrest had improved considerably — but he remained under house arrest all the same, only with the party holding him changed.

Bai Rongling knelt uneasily on the spread carpet in a formal bow. Since no one told him to rise, he could only remain kneeling — or rather, he preferred to remain kneeling. Kneeling gave him a sense of security; at least he didn’t have to worry about his trembling legs making him stumble face-first into the ground.

The main tent was utterly silent. All Bai Rongling could hear was his own terrified heartbeat.

Hunching his shoulders as he knelt there, his uneasy gaze rose and quietly swept over Fu Xuanmiao, seated in the armchair to the left, and Shen Zhuxi, seated in the main position at the far end.

Both of them wore different expressions — yet without fail, both were looking directly at him.

Bai Rongling hurriedly dropped his gaze.

“Bai Rongling —”

Fu Xuanmiao’s cold, level voice made Bai Rongling flinch, and he answered quickly:

“This commoner is present!”

“Give a full and truthful account of what took place on the day you and the Princess encountered one another in Shouzhou.”

“Ah?” Bai Rongling was taken aback.

What… what game was this?

He, Fu Xuanmiao, knew better than anyone what had happened that day!

“The Princess has questions about what occurred that day, and suspects that the collapse of the cliff cannot be separated from my involvement. Since my words alone are insufficient to dispel the Princess’s doubts, let you, as the one who was there, tell the Princess yourself,” Fu Xuanmiao said. “…What exactly happened on that day.”

In an instant, Bai Rongling understood everything.

Fu Xuanmiao was using him as a sacrificial offering, pushing him directly into Princess of Yue’s line of fire.

“I…”

He hesitated, but after only that one word, he stopped.

Because of Fu Xuanmiao’s gaze — utterly still and without expression, yet chilling to the bone.

Bai Rongling had no doubt that what Fu Xuanmiao’s eyes looked upon at this moment was not just one man, but the entire Bai Family standing behind him — and the lives of those several hundred souls.

He instinctively pulled his gaze away from Fu Xuanmiao, only to run straight into Shen Zhuxi’s eyes at the head of the room.

She looked at him without wavering, her eyes holding puzzlement, expectation, and supplication. She hoped that he, as her family, would tell her the real truth.

But could he?

Bai Rongling’s searching gaze swept back to Fu Xuanmiao once more, finding no refuge.

His expression had not changed. That face, capable of looking utterly unmoved even if a mountain collapsed before him, emanated a silent, oppressive force throughout the still tent.

When gods quarrel, the fish in the pond below suffer.

He had no choice at all…

In that moment, utterly powerless, Bai Rongling felt a sudden sting at the tip of his nose, and an impulse to weep rose within him.

He had once been a carefree son of a wealthy family. Though he had not seen all the hardships the world had to offer, he had faced more than a few impossible dilemmas. But never before — he had never once imagined — that there would come a day when a choice like this awaited him.

On one side, the lives of over four hundred members of the Bai Family, who were his blood. On the other, a cousin who had known him only briefly yet had been unfailingly generous and kind to him.

He never should have found those earrings. He never should have gone charging off to Xiangzhou, driven by the desire to prove himself. He had ruined everything. They were all right about him — he was a man who could not get things done, only make them worse. It was only right that his father was disappointed in him. It was only right that his grandfather looked down on him. He never should have left Yangzhou!

He should have stayed in Yangzhou and been an idle young lord, good for nothing but cockfighting and dog racing. At least… at least he would not be trapped in this impossible situation today.

In the beginning, he had only wanted to bring back the missing Princess of Yue and earn his father’s and grandfather’s approval. Later, he had only wanted to prevent Shen Zhuxi and Li Wu from returning to Yangzhou and presenting his grandfather with a fait accompli — to preserve one more option for the Bai Family. After that, everything had slipped beyond his control.

He had been held as collateral in Xiangzhou, then hauled out of Xiangzhou without being given a say. Fu Xuanmiao had forced him to serve as bait; Li Wu had seen the danger, yet walked into the trap to save him anyway.

Li Wu had saved him, and he had been unable to save Li Wu.

The only thing he had been able to do was turn the dagger — the one that should have been driven into Li Wu’s back — and drive it into his own hand instead.

Even if that act had made no difference to Li Wu’s survival after he fell from the cliff, he had still gritted his teeth and driven that blade into himself. Whether it was self-satisfaction or foolish weakness, he did not regret turning that blade on himself. He had tried his hardest to make amends — yet his strength was so feeble, so utterly insignificant.

“I…”

Bai Rongling had barely opened his mouth before his voice broke.

“You need not be afraid. Simply tell us what happened.” A moment later, Fu Xuanmiao’s calm voice came from the left. “You are the Princess’s cousin — the family of the late Noble Consort Bai. If you have truly done something wrong, out of consideration for that blood tie, the Princess will find it in her heart to be lenient.”

Conspiring to harm a Prince Consort — even an unacknowledged Prince Consort — for the sake of giving the Princess an answer, he would surely forfeit his life.

The impossible choice laid out before him had finally revealed its true face in full —

Should he sacrifice himself, or sacrifice the lives of over four hundred members of the Bai Family?

Bai Rongling lowered his head. Great, scalding drops fell from his struggling, anguished eyes. His hands, hidden inside his sleeves, clutched the carpet beneath him in a death grip.

“It was I… I was the one who killed Li Wu…”

Shen Zhuxi’s eyes flew wide in disbelief, and she stared at him, struck speechless.

Bai Rongling could not bear to meet her gaze, and looked away in shame.

At this point, telling Shen Zhuxi the truth served no practical purpose. But concealing the truth could save the lives of several hundred members of the Bai Family.

If only his own life, Bai Rongling’s life, were the price — he would confess every last word of the truth without a second thought! But if he spoke the truth, would only his own life be forfeit?

By now, Bai Rongling had come to fully understand why his cousin had fled from Fu Xuanmiao’s side. This man was a devil in human skin. He was nothing like the radiant, unblemished foremost gentleman under heaven of reputation! The refined, proud exterior of the person before him concealed a devil’s heart. He inspired dread. He inspired terror. He inspired the desperate desire to flee.

Once, Bai Rongling himself had gone out of his way to try to push his cousin toward this man wearing a human face. Once, he had thought Li Wu was not fit to brush the dust from Fu Xuanmiao’s trouser leg.

What a fool he had been.

From the moment Fu Xuanmiao appeared at the Li Family estate in Xiangyang, his choices had vanished. He could only walk the path Fu Xuanmiao had laid out for him — like a puppet on strings — one wrong step leading to the next.

All he had ever wanted was his father’s and grandfather’s recognition. How had things come to this?

“It doesn’t matter that others think you have lost — what matters is whether you yourself believe it.”

His grandfather’s stern face and those carefully considered words suddenly surfaced in Bai Rongling’s mind, like a sudden gust of wind driving away the fog that had clouded his thoughts.

He had not yet lost!

“I did not want Your Highness to marry down to a village commoner — it would make Your Highness the laughingstock of the Great Yan, and bring shame upon our Bai Family… So after Your Highness and Li Wu departed Xiangzhou, I secretly followed, got ahead of them, arrived in Shouzhou first, set a trap, and used myself as bait to lure Li Wu into coming to the rescue.”

Bai Rongling raised his head. His eyes — startlingly bright — looked steadily at Shen Zhuxi, and in that moment, it seemed as though he had a thousand words he wanted to convey through them. Shen Zhuxi was so struck by the blazing intensity of his gaze that she could not help but pause.

“Li Wu took the bait as I had expected… He and the soldiers clearing the road came to the edge of the cliff, and after I was rescued, to ensure my plan would have no loose ends, I waited until his back was turned — then drove a dagger into his lower back and set off the explosives I had pre-planted beneath the cliff…”

“The cliff broke apart. Li Wu and the others fell into the abyss. I had bound a rope around myself beforehand, so I was able to climb out from the break… After that, I pretended to know nothing of what had happened, and went to the village shrine to meet up with Your Highness…”

No. That is wrong.

In that instant, Shen Zhuxi’s entire body trembled!

If Bai Rongling’s account were true, he would never have had the opportunity for a direct confrontation with Li Wu — yet there were wounds on the back of his hand from a sharp blade! She had treated that wound herself and seen it clearly; those were unmistakably the marks left by a dagger.

So Bai Rongling had indeed driven something toward Li Wu’s back — but the wound had appeared on his own hand. That could only mean that at the last moment, he had twisted the blade in a pretense of stabbing Li Wu, and had instead driven the point into himself.

Then why had Li Wu had his back turned to Bai Rongling? It must have been because someone else was present — someone requiring more vigilance than Bai Rongling.

That person was the true perpetrator.

And if Bai Rongling was compelled to lie here in this room, it could only be because the true perpetrator was present in this very room.

What he was saying now had to be a version of events that would not arouse the real perpetrator’s suspicion — the truth as seen through the real perpetrator’s eyes.

She understood everything now…

“One person commits the act, one person bears the consequence. I was blinded by greed and killed Zhenchuan Military Commissioner Li Wu. If Your Highness wishes to assign blame, assign it to me alone. All those in the Bai Family are unaware of this. Every wrongful act was done by my own hand, without anyone’s knowledge. I, the guilty one Bai Rongling, am willing to be cut into a thousand pieces to vent Your Highness’s rage, and ask only —”

Bai Rongling forced his eyes wide open and strained to see through the blur of tears.

“Only that Your Highness spare the Bai Family their lives…”

He had made every effort within his power. He had not surrendered until the very last moment.

Father…

Grandfather…

Rongling has not forgotten your teachings…

“Does the Princess still have any doubts?”

Fu Xuanmiao spoke.

He looked at Shen Zhuxi in the main seat with calm composure and said, “If the Princess is still not convinced, she may summon judicial officials from Shouzhou to conduct a formal interrogation. If what he has said is untrue, there must be accomplices — once they are arrested and questioned, everything will come to light.”

“If the Princess is concerned that this subject will interfere with the investigation, she may have this subject imprisoned until the truth is revealed, and then restore this subject’s freedom.”

Shen Zhuxi parted her lips, but nothing came out.

She knew. She knew she would find nothing.

He was willing to let her investigate because he was certain the outcome would be exactly as he intended.

He was willing to let her imprison him because he knew it would only become a joke.

It was like a butcher standing over a carp on the chopping block and saying, “Let me strike you once, and you strike me once — a fair and righteous contest between us.”

That was nothing but mockery from on high.

“There is no need…” Shen Zhuxi said, her voice hoarse.

“In that case — men.”

At Fu Xuanmiao’s command, Yan Hui walked into the tent from outside.

“Have Bai Rongling placed under guard and confined. Upon return to Jianzhou, hand him over to the Court of Judicial Review for processing.”

Yan Hui acknowledged the order, grabbed Bai Rongling from the ground, and pushed him toward the tent opening with his arms pinned behind his back.

Bai Rongling looked back at Shen Zhuxi one last time through tear-filled eyes, then was shoved out of the main tent.

After they left, the tent held only Shen Zhuxi and Fu Xuanmiao. The air was still and heavy, like the thick, sluggish pulp slowly churned in a papermaking house.

“Does the Princess now believe this subject?” Fu Xuanmiao spoke.

Candlelight flickered inside the tent. Fu Xuanmiao’s shadow at his feet looked up at her with a predatory stillness.

The gold hairpin Li Wu had crafted by hand lay in her palm, warmed by her own body heat. Shen Zhuxi gripped it tightly, drawing from it the courage Li Wu had left her. After a long time, she said in a hoarse voice:

“It was I who wrongly suspected you…”

Something dark and cloying in the air suddenly dissolved.

The oppression that had clung to her like a growth on the bone lifted from her shoulders. Fu Xuanmiao still looked at her, but his expression shifted by the faintest degree. A trace of a warm smile appeared in his face.

He said: “That is all that matters.”

Fu Xuanmiao rose from the armchair. Shen Zhuxi instinctively shrank back on reflex.

Her back met the cold surface of the chair. Shen Zhuxi had nowhere to retreat. She could only watch helplessly as Fu Xuanmiao knelt before her.

The foremost gentleman under heaven, whose name was celebrated throughout the land, took her hand and held it gently, then raised his eyes and looked at her without wavering.

“Xi’er… when will you remember?”

Fu Xuanmiao said slowly:

“Only I am the one you should ever trust.”