Sister Zhen had no sons or daughters, no relatives. They changed her clothes, bought a coffin, asked villagers to keep vigil for three days, and after three days buried her in the Hu family ancestral cemetery—that was the end of it.

Xie Zhifei ordered Zhu Qing to give the undertaker a hundred taels of silver, instructing him to make Sister Zhen’s funeral arrangements splendid and grand.

After arranging everything properly, Xie Zhifei walked up to Yan Sanhe and Pei Xiao and spoke those thunderous three characters.

Yan Sanhe’s brows furrowed.

Just after they had discussed Wu Guanyue, Old Matriarch Ji’s inner demon became connected with him…

As Sister Zhen had said, this truly was a dog-shit fate!

Pei Xiao couldn’t wait to ask, “Yan Sanhe, what do we do now?”

Yan Sanhe was at a loss for words.

Yan Sanhe was at a loss for many reasons, but the most important one…

“I never dreamed the old matriarch’s inner demon would be connected with Wu Guanyue. Is this person dead or alive? If alive, which corner is he hiding in?”

Yan Sanhe tilted her head slightly back, her expression very helpless as she looked at Pei Xiao.

Pei Xiao didn’t understand her meaning and used his eyes to question Xie Zhifei.

Xie Zhifei’s expression was gloomy.

“After the Zheng family case occurred, the Jinyiwei and Great Qi Kingdom both searched for the whereabouts of Wu Guanyue and his son. To this day, they’ve found nothing. If even the Jinyiwei can’t find someone, with just us few…”

Immediately, Pei Xiao’s face collapsed terribly.

“Yan Sanhe, does this mean that if we can’t find Wu Guanyue, there’s no way to resolve my maternal grandmother’s inner demon?”

“The old matriarch’s inner demon is Heidan. Heidan was saved by her and Wu Guanyue together—it counts as a token of love. The two were childhood sweethearts, but due to differences in status and position, they had lifelong regrets…”

Yan Sanhe analyzed calmly.

“Currently it appears the old matriarch’s inner demon is indeed related to Wu Guanyue. If we can’t find him, we can’t find the person to light incense, and this inner demon cannot be resolved.”

“It’s over, completely over.”

Pei Xiao’s heart was filled with worry. “This is damn well a dead knot!”

“A dead knot can still be cut open with scissors—this is a dead end, a dead road.”

“Xie Fifty, can’t you say something comforting?”

Pei Xiao was nearly collapsing. “There is one other possibility.”

Pei Xiao asked, “What?”

Xie Zhifei said word by word, “Dead people cannot be found.”

“Dead?”

That meant all the suffering they’d endured on this journey, all the hardship they’d suffered, was for nothing?

That meant the Ji family’s misfortune wasn’t limited to confiscation and imprisonment—more would continue endlessly?

That meant maternal grandmother couldn’t enter the underworld, couldn’t reincarnate, could only forever be a lonely wandering ghost?

Pei Xiao stared blankly at Xie Zhifei as a thousand flavors rose in his heart.

He couldn’t suppress it anymore. He simply sat down on the ground, forehead against his knees, sobbing softly.

“What the hell is all this… wuwuwu!”

“Pei Mingting, are you a man or not?”

Pei Mingting looked up and glared at Yan Sanhe angrily. “What kind of savage words are those?”

“If you’re a man, stand up.”

Yan Sanhe sneered coldly. “Wu Guanyue is dead—doesn’t he have a son? If the son is gone, are there no grandsons or granddaughters?”

Pei Xiao sniffled and said in a muffled voice, “What if his line is extinct?”

“When that time comes, you can cry again.”

“Who said I was crying? I’m just feeling bad inside. Wait, you mean…”

Pei Xiao quickly scrambled up using hands and feet. “…there’s still hope?”

“If there’s no hope, we must find hope.”

Yan Sanhe turned around, her gaze looking toward Li Buyan, who had returned at some unknown time.

Li Buyan shook her head. “Miss, I asked every household—no useful leads.”

Yan Sanhe thought for a moment. “Buyan, Zhu Qing, Huang Qi.”

The three looked at her in unison.

“In a moment, have Hu Yong find a boat and row to the other shore. You three split up and gather information about Wu Guanyue’s past.”

Yan Sanhe continued, “He’s a treasonous rebel—it won’t be easy to investigate. Just use money freely. Money can make ghosts push millstones.”

“Yes!”

“What about us?” Xie Zhifei asked. “What do we do?”

Yan Sanhe glanced lightly at Pei Xiao. “I need you to help me sort through my thoughts again.”

“Yan Sanhe.”

Xie Zhifei hesitated for a moment. “Is there any point in doing this now?”

“Whether there’s a point or not, we do it first.”

Yan Sanhe’s gaze turned to Zhu Qing. “Everyone’s hungry. Ask the villagers to make some bowls of noodles. Put a poached egg in Master Pei’s noodles.”

“Why should I get a poached egg?”

Master Pei might have been hit hard, but he didn’t want special treatment.

Yan Sanhe said, “To supplement your brain.”

Was she calling him stupid?

“You…”

Master Pei erupted in fury.

Yan Sanhe acted as if she didn’t see it, pulling Li Buyan along and turning to leave.

Xie Zhifei looked at Master Pei’s expression of grinding teeth and the corners of his mouth curved silently.

Silly boy!

When she scolds and provokes you, she’s comforting you—you fool!

…

A bowl of noodles slurped down in moments.

Li Buyan and the other two set down their bowls and left without stopping, heading to the riverside to take a boat.

Yan Sanhe was the last to finish. She wiped her mouth with a handkerchief, carried a bamboo chair to sit under a tree’s shade, bent down to pick up a small twig, and wrote three characters on the ground—

Wu Guanyue.

Xie Zhifei leaned against the tree with folded arms, his deep black eyes first looking at the characters, then at the person writing them. After a long while, he finally spoke, “How do you need us to help you sort through things?”

“Third Master knows the affairs of Great Qi Kingdom inside and out. What about this person Wu Guanyue?”

“What do you want to know?”

Yan Sanhe paused, then looked up at him.

Just at that moment, sunlight filtered through layers of leaves, with one ray falling precisely on Third Master Xie’s face. In the light and shadow, those peach blossom eyes were lowered, his long lashes distinct root by root.

This appearance…

No wonder Sister Zhen was envious.

Yan Sanhe shifted her gaze away. “Everything.”

“Speaking of Wu Guanyue, one must mention the Great Qi Kingdom’s royal family.”

Xie Zhifei’s words paused.

“The Qi Kingdom is very small—just a few prefectures and counties. Precisely because it’s small, it can only depend on larger nations. Who becomes king depends on the great nation’s emperor’s intentions. When the great nation changes dynasties, Great Qi Kingdom also changes dynasties accordingly.”

Hearing this, Yan Sanhe’s brows furrowed lightly.

“Before the Chen Dynasty, there was the Li family. In the late years of the Li Dynasty, internal chaos arose frequently, and court power gradually fell into Chen clan hands.”

Xie Zhifei continued, “To replace the Li clan, the Chen clan launched a coup and established the Chen Dynasty.”

“Then…”

Yan Sanhe asked, “When the Chen clan replaced the Li clan, was it also when our Great Hua Kingdom replaced the previous dynasty?”

Xie Zhifei’s pupils suddenly contracted.

Yan Sanhe said, “You said it yourself—when the great nation changes dynasties, Great Qi Kingdom also changes dynasties accordingly.”

Xie Zhifei nodded with difficulty.

“Then what?”

“Conquering territory is easy, defending it is hard. After the Chen family secured their territory, they stopped striving for progress and began to indulge in pleasure. Combined with several consecutive years of floods, the common people had quite a few complaints.”

Xie Zhifei continued, “Wu Guanyue’s mother was a Princess Imperial, the legitimate younger sister of King Chen. She was matched by Chen family members and married into the Wu family.”

“What’s special about this Wu family?”

“Before the Li Dynasty, there was the Wu clan. The Wu clan’s ancestors were once emperors—their bloodline was extremely noble. But after dynastic change, they declined.”