Once Third Master agreed, the others had no objections.

Pei Xiao was anxious and distressed, turning to Yan Sanhe: “You decide how we return to the capital, but whatever the case, it must be fast. Who knows what state things are in back in the capital right now!”

Yan Sanhe was just about to speak when suddenly something bright flashed before her eyes.

Li Buyan turned to look and his face went pale with shock. “This is bad—the estate is on fire.”

“On fire? How is that possible?”

Pei Xiao stood on tiptoe to look, and her expression instantly froze.

It really was on fire. In an instant, the firelight painted half the night sky red, illuminating the distant green mountains with perfect clarity.

Xie Zhifei frowned. “How could a fire start out of nowhere?”

This is bad!

Thinking of Zhou Ye’s final smile, Yan Sanhe’s heart sank straight down. “Come on, let’s go see.”

Pei Xiao reached out to stop her. “If we go look, we’ll waste more time. We…”

“Move aside!”

Yan Sanhe pushed Pei Xiao to the side and broke into a run.

“Xie Fifty, look at her…”

“Stop your nonsense!”

Xie Zhifei grabbed Pei Xiao and pulled her along, chasing after Yan Sanhe.

This was the fastest Yan Sanhe had run in her seventeen years of life—she nearly ran herself breathless.

Li Buyan, worried she’d exhaust herself, grabbed her arm and used some force to help her run.

The fire was in a spacious courtyard.

The two had just rushed in when they were forced to step back by the rolling waves of heat that struck them head-on.

Within the heat waves, all the black-clad men were kneeling in the courtyard, motionlessly watching the raging fire.

Tears streamed down from their eyes.

“Why is there a fire?” Yan Sanhe shouted.

Not one of the black-clad men answered her.

Yan Sanhe’s gaze quickly swept across these people and discovered Zhou Ye wasn’t among them.

“Where’s Zhou Ye? Where is Zhou Ye? Where is he?”

One of the black-clad men turned his head, his face covered in tear tracks, and said to Yan Sanhe: “Brother Aye is inside. He said the Master would be lonely going alone.”

“Lonely my ass!”

Yan Sanhe shouted in desperation, “Go save him! Hurry, go! Go save him, quickly…”

While screaming hoarsely, she lifted her leg to rush inside.

Li Buyan, frightened out of his wits, held her tightly. “Sanhe, Sanhe, calm down, calm down.”

“Go save him, save them all, everyone must be saved…”

Yan Sanhe struggled frantically like a madwoman while shouting wildly.

“Zhou Ye, you come out, come out… run quickly… don’t die… don’t die… run…”

She roared until her voice was hoarse, her entire face twisted and fierce from exertion. In the red glow of the fire, she looked exactly like a vengeful ghost crawling up from hell.

“Yan Sanhe, Yan Sanhe!”

Hearing Xie Zhifei’s voice, Yan Sanhe immediately turned around and grabbed his collar.

“Xie Zhifei, go save them, save them all… quickly…”

“Yan Sanhe, this is their decision…”

“It will hurt so much, it will hurt so much, no… no…”

Seeing her shout heart-wrenchingly, unable to hear anything, Xie Zhifei in his desperation could only raise his hand and strike.

As pain came from the back of her neck, Yan Sanhe’s eyes widened, using her last bit of strength to look toward the firelight.

She seemed to see Zhou Ye’s plain and ordinary face, smiling gently at her once more.

“Miss Yan, I take my leave!”

Tears silently slid from the corners of her eyes. As Yan Sanhe closed her eyes, Aqiang’s deafening voice shouted from behind.

“Master—”

“Brother Aye—”

…

On the official road in the dead of night, two carriages raced toward the capital.

The drivers were Zhu Qing and Huang Qi.

When the light of dawn filtered in, Yan Sanhe opened her eyes to Li Buyan’s worried gaze.

The jolting beneath her meant she was in a carriage.

As she sat up, she asked: “Are we heading to the capital?”

This question startled her.

Yan Sanhe pointed at her own throat, her face full of alarm: “What happened to my voice?”

You have the nerve to ask?

Li Buyan made a motion as if to strangle her. “You shouted yourself so hoarse—it would be strange if your voice didn’t crack.”

Yan Sanhe let out a long breath of relief.

“Yan Sanhe.”

Li Buyan sat up straight facing her, his expression more solemn than ever before.

“With such a huge fire, you desperately tried to rush in and couldn’t be stopped—who were you trying to scare to death?”

Yan Sanhe’s head drooped down. She spoke a few words, then realized Li Buyan couldn’t hear her, so she quickly looked up and pointed at her lips to mouth the words.

“Very familiar, as if I had personally experienced it myself.”

Li Buyan couldn’t help but turn pale with shock.

Yan Sanhe forced out the words one by one:

“The instant I saw the fire, I felt like someone was attached to my body, and I felt like those flames were burning on me. Very painful, very desperate.”

“It seems you truly have experienced it.”

Yan Sanhe nodded, her face full of bitterness.

Li Buyan said with extreme calmness: “You’re in such pain—it seems the person trapped in the sea of fire was very important to you.”

Yan Sanhe’s eyes instantly darkened. “Do you think… could it be my parents? Were they also burned alive?”

Li Buyan lightly flicked her forehead. “Don’t think randomly about things without evidence. Lie down obediently and rest.”

How could Yan Sanhe possibly sleep now? “Where are they?”

Li Buyan pointed behind her. “In the carriage.”

Yan Sanhe: “Why aren’t they riding horses?”

“Every one of them is exhausted like dogs—who could still ride?”

Li Buyan: “Master Pei asked the old monk Changqing for these carriages. We didn’t delay a moment and set out overnight.”

Yan Sanhe was silent for a moment. “What about the estate at the foot of Daming Mountain?”

Li Buyan bit her lip. “Aqiang simply burned it down with one fire.”

All the strength drained from Yan Sanhe’s body at once, and she slowly leaned back.

Burning it was good.

This way, Zhou Ye’s identity and Wu Shunian’s past had all turned to ash. No one would ever know, and no one would ever disturb them again.

“Aqiang will take their remains to the top of Daming Mountain and bury them together with Wu Guanyue.”

Li Buyan shook his head.

“Aqiang said nothing else was regrettable, but it was a pity that all the fine things Zhou Ye had found for Wu Shunian over the years were gone.”

The sadness in Yan Sanhe’s eyes couldn’t be hidden. “Actually, it’s a good ending.”

“Third Master and Master Pei said the same thing.”

Li Buyan rubbed Yan Sanhe’s hair, his voice gentle.

“The remaining guards were all dismissed to go their separate ways. The other reason Zhou Ye’s expenses exceeded his income, which he didn’t truly tell us—actually, he had saved a sum of money for each guard.”

This person…

Yan Sanhe shook her head, not knowing what to say.

“Oh right, Aqiang didn’t leave. He said he’ll stay on the mountain as a tomb keeper, guarding the Wu family graves for the rest of his life.”

Yan Sanhe turned her face away, forcing back the tears welling up in her eyes.

After a long silence, she then said softly:

“That’s also a good ending!”