After hearing my words, he slightly raised the corners of his mouth, “Xiao Qitang, when you gamble, you should accept defeat gracefully.” He spoke, but his voice was no longer A’Zuo’s usual hearty tone—lazy and indolent, yet strangely familiar to my ears. “This round, you’ve lost.”

This round? When had there ever been… a previous round?

I stared blankly at A’You, seeing that she remained completely silent. Somehow, after the extreme pain, I found myself calming down instead. “From when did you start impersonating A’Zuo? And where is the real A’Zuo?”

Hearing this, he couldn’t help but smile, glancing at A’You lying in a pool of blood, then asked me in return: “What do you think?”

A’Zuo… was also dead.

Seeing me clutching the wooden box tightly, Feng Li didn’t step forward to forcibly take it. “From the moment you ordered him to monitor Cai Mi, that A’Zuo was no longer your true shadow guard.”

My heart trembled. “So the person you killed outside the stone cave earlier was merely one of your pawns…”

His gaze was profound. “If I couldn’t give you a dead ‘Feng Li,’ how could the Princess easily activate the secret passage mechanism?”

So it was a case of luring the enemy into a trap—only I had entered someone else’s trap.

He knew that I handled everything personally, and that the only ones I could trust were A’Zuo and A’You. Using this as his entry point, he arranged scene after scene, letting me narrowly win once to make me complacent.

Trap within trap, scheme within scheme—in the end, I was still one move behind.

But this opponent in our game knew my methods far too thoroughly.

Throughout the process, even my own reactions were often instinctive, not premeditated.

I closed my eyes. “Who exactly are you?”

He said: “Since you’ve already seen through it, why ask more?”

“Yes, you are Feng Li, but Feng Li, who are you?” Opening my eyes again, I could no longer calmly play these games of strategy with him. “You could recruit my maid Cai Mi seven years ago, massacre an entire escort agency to seize the secret location, carefully planning just to obtain this military tally and stir up the clouds of war. Now that you’ve been exposed, you could kill me in an instant, yet you still won’t remove your mask—there’s only one explanation: you’re afraid I’ll recognize you!”

“Xiao Qitang,” the corners of his mouth held a cold smile, “if you don’t give me the military tally and roster, don’t blame me for being merciless.”

I gritted my teeth: “Do you think that by snatching the brocade box, you can walk out of this tomb alive?”

He paused, smiling faintly: “You mean the thirty-eight shadow guards of the Bureau of Illumination outside the tomb? Before setting out tonight, I had already laced their night clothes with colorless, odorless bone-softening powder. I delayed entering the tomb after you precisely to confirm whether the drug had taken effect—ha, what the Princess could think of, how could I be unprepared?”

Despite the turmoil in my heart and the chill throughout my body, I showed no expression of surprise.

I said: “I never underestimated you. Tonight, before entering the tomb, I had no idea what mechanisms or secret passages lay beneath, nor had I ever thought about real or fake Feng Li. So naturally, I also made preparations… preparations for losing to you.”

Feng Li’s brow lifted slightly. “Oh?”

“Today, before setting out, I deployed thirty cannons from the Divine Engine Battalion, aimed directly at Ten Thousand Graves Hill.”

I reached into my robes and pulled out five firework sticks from my chest, spreading them out. “I arranged with the Divine Engine Battalion commander that if no firework signal appeared from Ten Thousand Graves Hill before the third quarter of the hour of Chou tonight, they would fire all cannons and level this place.”

Hearing these words, Feng Li’s pupils flashed.

“Take them if you want,” I held the fireworks before him. “But whether to fire one, two, three, four, or five, or to fire two together, three together—only I know the signal patterns. If you kill me and take this military tally, you’ll die. If you don’t kill me but take this military tally and I don’t set off the firework signal, you’ll still die… And now, there shouldn’t be enough time left before the third quarter of Chou for you to escape Ten Thousand Graves Hill, should there, Feng Li?”

“You’re insane.” Feng Li smiled slightly, his smile no longer containing any composure. “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have let you speak so much. Even if I take this military tally now, you can still plan countermeasures—whether reducing feudal power or deploying troops—you might not be unable to turn the tables. Yet you’d rather mutual destruction…”

I cut off his words: “Rather than letting the tiger return to the mountain and allowing you to start wars that would leave the people in misery, mutual destruction would indeed be better… Besides, my life won’t last much longer anyway. Now, this could be considered dying for a worthy cause.”

Feng Li stopped smiling. He quietly looked at me for a moment, his expression appearing dark and unclear in the firelight. “Does the Princess think that dying here tonight along with the previous dynasty’s military tally will bring peace to the world? The tally may be gone, but the troops remain, and there are still members of the previous dynasty’s imperial family alive. Those who covet the world are everywhere. Don’t forget, there’s still Song Langsheng outside.”

I said: “Feng Li, we’ve come to this point, and you still try to disturb my peace of mind by using my Prince Consort? Is it interesting?”

“Prince Consort?” Feng Li’s expression was as if he’d heard the joke of the century, repeating again, “Prince Consort? The way he treated you, and you still call him Prince Consort?”

I was stunned for a moment, almost instinctively asking: “He? How did he treat me?”

Seeing me ask this way, he couldn’t help but frown. “Your memory still hasn’t recovered? Two years ago, on that night at Ling Mountain, do you truly remember nothing?”

A sharp pain suddenly pierced my heart. Though I hadn’t recalled anything specific, just hearing his question made my chest feel suffocating.

Feng Li’s voice seemed to float from far away: “Two years ago, who exactly forced you to take that deadly poison, who drove you to desperation and made you fall from the cliff—all of this, do you truly have no recollection…”

I stared blankly at Feng Li, watching his face become increasingly blurred while scenes from that year became clearer. I wanted to shake my head to dispel those images. “No matter what you say, I won’t believe it!”

“Xiao Qitang, oh Xiao Qitang, despite your exceptional intelligence and unparalleled cunning, in the end you still fell to the word ‘love’… Song Langsheng was truly right—no matter what you forgot, you would never forget your feelings for him…”

It was at this moment that I triggered the hidden weapon in my sleeve—the Torrential Pear Blossom Needles that the fake Feng Li had failed to use in his sneak attack earlier.

Feng Li was greatly alarmed, retreating several steps and rolling to dodge, but still caught several needles unexpectedly, groaning and dropping to one knee.

I could no longer afford to entangle with him. Clutching the brocade box and bamboo scroll with one hand and supporting myself against the rock wall with the other, I fled outside.

Footsteps echoed in the long cavern. I no longer knew how long I had been running, but when I climbed the last step and saw the shadow guards lying scattered outside the tomb, my heart felt crushed by layers of boulders.

It was the despair of darkness overwhelming everything, yet there was no escape, no room for retreat.

Feng Li hadn’t deceived me—he had eliminated even my last remaining shadow guards.

But I had never deployed any Divine Engine Battalion cannons. To protect Jun Jinzhi’s secrets, how could I dare alert my younger brother the Crown Prince?

At this moment, light rain began falling from the dark night sky.

The mountain path was slippery. I fell again and again in the mud but never stopped running forward.

Because I knew Feng Li would catch up soon.

The mountain peaks stretched endlessly. The closest place was Jade Dragon Manor at the foot of Ling Mountain.

But I clearly understood that I couldn’t reach it.

From Ten Thousand Graves Hill to the peak of Ling Mountain, this short stretch of mountain path had exhausted all my strength.

I finally collapsed, and this time, I truly couldn’t stand up no matter what.

At the summit was a long stretch of solitary peak cliff wall. Looking down, the city’s night scene appeared dim and indistinct.

This desperate flight, this scene—how familiar it was, familiar enough to make me almost forget to breathe.

Memories rushed past like howling wind. I stared blankly into the distance, suddenly enlightened.

The same weed-grown mountain path, the same pursuit, the same cliff, the same… despair.

I had never imagined that the memories I had long sought would surge back like a tide at this moment.

That day was my Prince Consort’s birthday. I had invited him to Ling Mountain, intending to tell him that I was the little sister from years ago. But due to Xu Fang’s appearance, I missed Song Langsheng.

After leaving Xu Fang, I searched for my Prince Consort along the slope leading to Jade Dragon Manor and accidentally discovered a grove of trees.

The grove was filled with a mass of people dressed like common villagers in gray cloth, yet they stood in formation and moved with trained precision.

My heart filled with confusion. What could be the purpose of gathering so many people in this wilderness near the imperial city in the dead of night?

Just as I was thinking this, the crowd suddenly raised their hands and knelt in worship.

I shivered slightly.

Then I saw a person walk forward unhurriedly, looking down at them: “Rise.”

That person wore his hair bound and crowned, with graceful bearing. His official robes were brilliant red, striking and unrestrained—who else could it be but the current Minister of Justice!

Before I could cry out in surprise, I felt a heavy blow to the back of my head and fell into darkness.

When I awoke, I found my hands bound behind me, lying in a wooden hut.

The furnishings of the hut seemed very familiar. I recalled what I had seen before losing consciousness, and the more I thought about it, the more frightened I became. Just then, I heard people talking outside, though I couldn’t make out the words clearly.

I quietly moved to the door and heard an unfamiliar man’s voice saying: “Young Master need not worry overmuch. When we captured the Princess, no third party was present. Now that the matter is exposed, this subordinate will personally escort the Princess out of the capital tonight.”

A possibility arose in my mind, but I still held onto a slim hope, until another voice responded, cold as night wind: “The Princess prepared a birthday feast for me and even came to the Ministry of Justice to find me today. Her sudden disappearance—not to mention the court officials, even the Crown Prince couldn’t help but suspect me.”

“Young Master’s meaning is…?”

“Xiao Qitang must be eliminated, but not now. The grand plan still needs a year or two to implement. During this time, if Xiangyi Princess is absent from the capital, Xiao Jingyan’s position as heir apparent will be precarious. If a new ruler ascends the throne, the first person he’d eliminate would naturally be me, this ‘Prince Consort.'”

I stared wide-eyed, listening in a daze, feeling as if I had lost the ability to think, unable to understand what they were saying for a moment.

“But the Princess saw everything tonight. When she wakes, how will you explain to her?”

Accompanied by light laughter: “I had two Soul-Forgetting Pills. One was already switched by the Princess, and now one remains. After she takes it, she’ll forget everything she saw tonight completely.”

Like lightning striking my body out of nowhere, thunder crashed in my mind. I couldn’t believe it, didn’t dare believe it.

The unfamiliar man asked: “Soul-Forgetting Pills? If Xiangyi Princess loses her memory, she won’t remember Young Master either. Won’t all the previous efforts be wasted?”

Separated by only a door, I heard the person I had loved with all my life slowly say: “No. She will still fall in love with me, regardless of when or where, regardless of whether she remembers our past.”

Song Langsheng had never spoken words of love.

Yet these tender, poignant words were like sharp blades, cutting deep into my heart, seeping drops of blood.

I could bear no more. With my heart dead as ash, I leaned against the wooden door, which was unlocked and opened with a creak.

Looking up, I saw him under the moonlight, his eyes deep as pools.

That one look, those eyes, ethereal and distant, vivid as a painting.

“Not seeing you for a day feels like madness.”

That was the note I had written to him that morning.

And there he stood, looking down at me calmly, saying nothing. After a long while, he approached and crouched down.

Fireworks bloomed in the distant sky. His breath was close, his eyes reflecting the brilliant display.

Then he lifted my chin and placed the pill between his fingers into my mouth.

I didn’t dodge, only looked at him quietly, letting a tear fall from my eyes, sliding down with the pill into my stomach, disappearing without trace.

We looked at each other without words. In just a moment, youth faded, bonds faded, love faded.

Perhaps he still felt some guilt.

So when Xu Fang’s sword thrust toward him, Song Langsheng couldn’t dodge, taking a deep wound to his arm.

So when Xu Fang carried me away, Song Langsheng stood frozen for a moment before ordering pursuit.

That night’s flight was even more intense than tonight’s.

So many assassins pursued relentlessly. Xu Fang, wounded by an arrow in his thigh while protecting me, couldn’t run anymore and untied my ropes, shouting: “Go first!”

At that time, I hadn’t yet awakened from my overwhelming sorrow and couldn’t ask Xu Fang: What about you?

I kept running, not knowing where to go.

Throughout the mountains, inside and outside the palace, everywhere were his people.

I knew there was nowhere to escape. The overwhelming fatigue made me understand that once I fell asleep and woke again, I would remember nothing.

So I climbed step by step, reaching the mountain summit, the cliff’s edge.

By the cliff grew the most beautiful maple tree; below the cliff, lanterns wound like maples.

This was where my Prince Consort and I first met, where we pledged our love.

The place of our final parting.

Memory and reality overlapped and intertwined.

I stared blankly at my blood and tears dripping to the ground, hearing footsteps gradually approaching.

That night, like tonight, heaven sent light rain, and the evening wind was bone-chilling.

Only the pursuer was different.

Or perhaps not so different—just one person fewer.

Because tonight there was no Song Langsheng, only Feng Li.

Feng Li indeed had the antidote to the Torrential Pear Blossom Needles—he had caught up after all.

Seeing me sitting by the cliff edge, he was clearly startled, looking at me, then at the brocade box in my hands, stopping five steps away.

I asked: “Does this scene seem familiar?”

Feng Li’s face changed: “You remembered?”

“Though I have no recollection of what kind of human skin mask you wore then, I remember your voice.”

Feng Li stiffened: “You don’t ask where he is?”

“Conspiracies and schemes—I don’t want to hear any more.” I forced a smile. “You could pretend to be A’Zuo by my side for so long for the military tally, so naturally you could call Song Langsheng ‘Young Master’ by his side. He’s meticulous, you’re scheming—with you two fighting like snipe and clam, I can rest easy.”

Saying this, I slowly stood. Heaven and earth suddenly erupted in fierce wind, almost making me sway, my robes flapping wildly.

Feng Li stepped forward instinctively, reaching out: “Xiao—” He stopped abruptly.

I tilted my head to look at him: “Xiao?”

He opened his mouth as if to say something but didn’t, taking two more steps forward calmly: “Xiao Qitang, every time you feel heartbroken and despairing, is death all you can think of?”

“Feng Li, sometimes I truly can’t tell whether you care about my safety or the military tally’s safety.” I threw the brocade box toward him. It fell open, completely empty. “On the way here, I already buried the bamboo scroll and military tally under a tree. Unless you dig under every tree on this mountain—though this mountain will soon be sealed off.”

Feng Li’s cold face instantly went pale. I stepped back: “You’re right. When I feel heartbroken and despairing, death is all I can think of.”

As I spun and leaped from the cliff, I vaguely heard Feng Li shouting something, but it was covered by the rustling of branches and falling stones.

But none of that concerned me anymore.

In the night sky, maples danced everywhere; below the mountain, lantern light painted maples—heaven and earth were filled with warm, gentle colors.

Those lanterns were the birthday gift I had hung for my Prince Consort.

Even though that love never truly existed, I had ultimately fulfilled my half-lifetime of passion.

But I didn’t die after all.

Not two years ago, and certainly not two years later.

Two years ago, as I fell rapidly, someone suddenly grasped my arm. Looking back, I saw Xu Fang holding a tree trunk growing from the cliff with one hand, saying to me: “Hold tight!”

Two years later, I calculated my position, aimed for the trunk and held on tight, thanking heaven that this crooked tree had remained upright and unyielding through these two years.

Nearby was a small cliff cave.

I carefully climbed along the trunk to the cave entrance, half-leaning against the rock wall, extending my bloodied hands to pull out the thin branches embedded throughout my abdomen one by one.

It really hurt.

My heart ached with bitterness, not understanding why, when my heart was already dead, I would still care whether my body hurt.

Two years ago, when Xu Fang carried me into this rocky cave, I was already so drowsy I could barely open my eyes.

He desperately patted my cheeks, shook my body, ordering me not to sleep.

I raised my eyes with effort, almost mistaking him for Song Langsheng again.

I suddenly remembered his words: “She will still fall in love with me, regardless of when or where, regardless of whether she remembers our past.”

I suddenly began shivering… afraid his words would come true.

Seeing me shaking so violently, Xu Fang was frantically at a loss: “You—what’s wrong? Where does it hurt?”

Like grasping the last lifeline, I embraced Xu Fang.

I heard my voice trembling: “Take me away from the capital, take me away from him… and…”

Drowsiness surged again. I gazed at those scattered lanterns and, before closing my eyes, whispered: “…let me fall in love with you.”

Perhaps it was heaven’s will—good dreams are hard to fulfill.

After waking, even the incomparable Xu Fang had disappeared.

Those leisurely years, whether joyful or sad, glorious or painful, were all illusory.

Yet fate cycles, turning to the present, and I still couldn’t escape that person’s prophecy.

Regardless of when or where, regardless of whether I remembered our past, I still fell in love with him.

Feng Li was right. In the end, I still fell to the word ‘love.’

The tree outside the cave suddenly swayed.

It shook me from my immersion in memories.

Someone was there. Who?

I instinctively raised my eyelids.

A blurry red figure appeared in my blurred vision.

Tears burst from my eyes, and then I saw that person’s face clearly.

“Princess…”