“Lord Zhou!”

Pei Xiao returned a cold laugh. “The black-clothed assassins who attacked me in the Great Qi Kingdom forest—they were your men, weren’t they?”

“…”

Zhou Ye’s expression at this moment was like he’d been struck with a sledgehammer.

“Why did you try to assassinate me? What grudge, what grievance do I have with Lord Zhou? Unless…”

Pei Xiao’s gaze pressed forward a few inches, carrying ice-cold intent, smiling slowly.

“Is Lord Zhou afraid I’ll find Wu Guanyue and his son?”

“…”

“I’m very curious—Lord Zhou, a local magistrate, why do you keep a band of black-clothed assassins?”

“…”

“I’m even more curious—is Lord Zhou ultimately a person of Hua Kingdom or of Great Qi?”

As the last word fell, moonlight suddenly broke free from the dark clouds, shining into the courtyard.

In the courtyard, silence reigned like death.

In this world, there are two ways for friends to interact:

The first is to exchange your heart for my heart.

The second is to exchange your secrets for my secrets.

In this world, there are also two ways for enemies to interact.

The first is life-or-death struggle, never-ending until one dies.

The second is to turn swords into jade and silk—to make peace.

Pei Xiao exhaled lightly. “Lord Zhou, how to choose—weigh it yourself!”

Zhou Ye took out the handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped his fingers one by one.

After wiping the last finger, he said lightly, “What evidence does Master Pei have that the black-clothed men were dispatched by me?”

“Because…”

Pei Xiao raised his eyebrows. “You were one of the black-clothed men.”

“Has Master Pei tested my martial skills?”

Zhou Ye said “oh,” as if suddenly understanding. “It seems that black-clothed person who attacked me yesterday was sent by you, Master Pei.”

On an ordinary day, Pei Xiao would have slammed the table and cursed angrily: At this point, you’re still playing dumb with me?

But at this moment, he forcibly suppressed his anger, smiling slowly—a sinister smile.

“Without testing, how could we discover so many of Lord Zhou’s unknown secrets?”

Zhou Ye tossed away the handkerchief and slowly stood up.

With this movement, Li Buyan and the other two guarding outside became vigilant. They all turned around, staring unblinkingly at Zhou Ye.

Zhou Ye looked back at the three of them, suddenly shaking his head, shaking his head again, then sighing deeply.

“Since they’re secrets, they cannot be known by others…”

Not good!

Hearing this, Xie Zhifei’s face changed drastically. He quickly reached into his robes for the signal flare.

But though he was fast, Zhou Ye was faster—he kicked up, flipping the table.

That table seemed to have eyes, smashing straight down toward Xie Zhifei. Xie Zhifei was violently knocked to the ground, truly experiencing the pain of “boulders crushing the chest.”

The sudden change happened in an instant.

Li Buyan and the others guarding by the door, the moment Zhou Ye kicked out that leg, suddenly flew into action.

Li Buyan and Huang Qi headed straight for Zhou Ye.

Zhu Qing leaped and threw himself beside Xie Zhifei, kicking the table away with one foot.

“Master, how are you?”

Xie Zhifei felt his internal organs had all shifted position. While enduring the pain and reaching into his robes for the signal flare, his gaze lifted.

With just one glance, all his movements instantly stopped.

Among the scattered debris, Yan Sanhe and Zhou Ye stood one in front, one behind.

Zhou Ye had a dagger in his hand.

That gleaming dagger was pressed against Yan Sanhe’s throat.

After seeing the scene before him clearly, Xie Zhifei’s eyes instantly became like those of a crazed beast. Even more beastlike was Li Buyan.

Li Buyan was only one step away from them.

Damn it.

Just that tiny bit—she would have been able to get in front of Yan Sanhe before Zhou Ye could act.

Pei Xiao had stepped on a meat ball and slipped. Now he was struggling to get up from the ground.

Not yet steady on his feet, his face turned deathly pale.

What situation? Did my fall cause some great cosmic shift?

Pei Xiao’s lips trembled as he looked at Xie Zhifei: Brother, what do we do now?

Xie Zhifei gritted his teeth and shook his head: Don’t know.

Pei Xiao was nearly going mad with anxiety: Don’t give me “don’t know”—think of something!

Xie Zhifei’s eyes bulged: Damn bastard, think what think—first keep Yan Sanhe alive!

Zhou Ye looked at the several people before him with great interest, even arrogantly clicking his tongue. His gaze finally settled on Xie Zhifei.

He pressed the dagger lightly downward. Blood flowed down Yan Sanhe’s neck.

Xie Zhifei suddenly felt a pain in his heart. Without thinking, he threw the signal flare to the ground and raised both hands.

“Don’t hurt her! Everything is negotiable, everything!”

“What about you all?”

Zhou Ye’s gaze swept over Li Buyan and the others.

Li Buyan looked deeply at Yan Sanhe, then decisively threw the soft sword in her hand to the ground.

Zhu Qing and Huang Qi followed suit.

As the weapons fell to the ground, a group of black-clothed men wielding blades suddenly flooded into the courtyard, surrounding them.

The only difference from that day in the forest was that their faces had no black cloth masks—each face was clearly visible.

None of these faces were young—they were about thirty-something, not yet forty.

Zhou Ye shouted sternly, “Bind them all!”

“Yes!”

The black-clothed men had fought with this group before and knew who had good martial skills and who didn’t.

Li Buyan, Zhu Qing, and Huang Qi each got a bundle of rope—hands and feet bound tightly.

That wasn’t enough!

The black-clothed men then moved these three to the water vats, using hemp rope to bind them together with the vats.

Xie Zhifei and Pei Xiao were bound to armchairs.

The pear wood armchairs were heavy as death—forget carrying them while running, even standing up would be extremely difficult.

Once everyone was bound, Zhou Ye lowered his blade and pushed Yan Sanhe with his hand.

Yan Sanhe staggered several steps before standing steady.

No one came to bind her.

Zhou Ye lifted his robe and sat down in the armchair. With a light flick of his wrist, the dagger stabbed steadily into the crack between two blue stone bricks at Yan Sanhe’s feet.

“Miss Yan!”

Yan Sanhe turned around stiffly.

The black-clothed man handed the signal flare to Zhou Ye. Zhou Ye examined it repeatedly. “Please explain what this signal flare is used for?”

“Guess?”

Having reached this point, Yan Sanhe was actually calm instead.

After a thousand calculations, she just hadn’t calculated that Zhou Ye’s martial skills were superior to both Li Buyan and Zhu Qing. In that forest encounter, he hadn’t even used sixty percent of his strength.

“I guess…”

Zhou Ye narrowed his eyes. “Half a li away, monks from Guanyin Temple are lying in ambush!”

Yan Sanhe said, “It seems Lord Zhou is quite clever!”

Zhou Ye, praised, smiled.

Yan Sanhe suddenly discovered that when Zhou Ye’s plain, unremarkable face smiled, it had quite a masculine flavor—as if his entire face gained radiance.

“Then please explain to this clever person how to make those monks go back.”

“They won’t go back.”

“Oh?”

“The signal flare tells them to come immediately. If we don’t emerge in two hours, they’ll also come…”

Yan Sanhe pointed at Xie Zhifei and the others. “To collect our corpses.”

These words were tantamount to challenging Zhou Ye: If we die, you can’t escape either. Want to perish together? Come on!

Zhou Ye smiled faintly again. “Ah Qiang!”

“Yes!”

Ah Qiang walked step by step to Pei Xiao, slowly crouching down.

Pei Xiao’s face turned green with fear.

He, he, he—what did he want to do?