Shi Yan crossed his arms in front of his chest, his expression cold. “Rather than worry about your beard, you should worry about your current situation.”

“Nothing is more important than my beard. What exactly did you do?” Luosai Huzi clearly couldn’t accept the devastating blow of waking up to find his beard gone, and he roared in anguish.

As for his situation?

Could there be a worse situation than losing his beard?

Kou’er was displeased. “What else could we do? We just cut your beard off. After all, you’re going to be sent to the Jinlin Guard’s Imperial Prison. You couldn’t possibly want to use your beard to conceal your appearance, right? Let me tell you, trying to escape after committing a crime won’t work…”

Jinlin Guard?

Luosai Huzi was still reeling from those three words when he heard the delicate little girl mention committing a crime—

He jumped up abruptly. “Who committed a crime!”

Hong Dou pursed her lips. “Oh, so it wasn’t you who robbed our beggar’s pork knuckle on the road to the capital?”

Luosai Huzi’s face flushed red. “I robbed real gold and silver!”

The one who robbed the pork knuckle was that fool Xiao Qi.

Wait, where was Xiao Qi?

Luosai Huzi looked around, his face turning from red to pale. “What have you done to Xiao Qi?”

“Don’t worry, that dark boy is fine. But you—come with me.” Shi Yan reached out and pressed down on Luosai Huzi’s shoulder.

Luosai Huzi struggled forcefully but found that the hand that seemed to rest lightly on his shoulder weighed a thousand pounds, making escape impossible.

“You really haven’t hurt Xiao Qi?” Not caring about his own fate, Luosai Huzi pressed the question.

“Why would we harm a half-grown child? He’s the victim.” Shi Yan said coldly.

Victim?

Luosai Huzi sensed something was wrong. “What victim?”

Shi Yan pointed to Xiu Yue standing in the corner. “The dark boy is her nephew. He was lost as a child, and she’s searched for him for years without success. Turns out you mountain bandits had abducted him and made him a little bandit—”

“Nonsense! Xiao Qi is clearly Uncle Yu’s nephew—” Luosai Huzi refuted excitedly, then realizing his slip, suddenly shut his mouth.

“And who is Uncle Yu?” Shi Yan asked.

Luosai Huzi remained silent.

Shi Yan sneered. “Since you won’t talk, then come with me to the Jinlin Guard. I’m sure once you get there, you’ll be willing to speak.”

Hearing “Jinlin Guard,” Luosai Huzi’s expression changed dramatically.

Though he was a mountain bandit, he knew the Jinlin Guard’s fearsome reputation—those who entered faced certain death and would suffer inhuman torture.

“You, by what right are you sending me to the Jinlin Guard?” Luosai Huzi panicked a bit. “Even if I’m a mountain bandit, can’t you just send me to Shuntian Prefecture?”

He was just a mountain bandit—he didn’t qualify for the Jinlin Guard!

Hong Dou giggled. “By what right? By the right that our Miss’s father is the Commander of the Jinlin Guard. If we don’t send you to the Jinlin Guard’s Imperial Prison, where else would we send you? Why let the benefits flow to outsiders?”

Kou’er tugged at Hong Dou’s sleeve. “That’s not how you use that saying.”

But Luosai Huzi was already scared senseless, murmuring, “The demon woman is the daughter of the Jinlin Guard Commander?”

Shi Yan increased the pressure on his hand to slap Luosai Huzi awake. “I advise you to explain everything clearly. Whether you live or die, the dark boy will have his aunt to care for him from now on. Think about it—is there any point in holding out?”

Luosai Huzi thought about it and realized he was right. If Xiao Qi was that ugly woman’s nephew, and he was Xiao Qi’s big brother, wouldn’t that make them family?

Why should he hold out?

At that moment, Luo Sheng walked in.

“Xiu Gu stays. The rest of you go out first.”

After Hong Dou and the others left, Luo Sheng sat down leisurely and said to Xiu Yue, “Ask whatever you want to ask.”

Xiu Yue hesitated.

Luo Sheng smiled. “Do you need me to leave as well?”

Xiu Yue struggled for a moment, then slowly shook her head. “Miss need not leave.”

The smile at the corner of Luo Sheng’s lips deepened.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Xiu Yue carried the secret of being a survivor of the Prince’s Manor massacre and was extremely guarded.

Yet this small test showed that Xiu Yue’s subconscious had developed a certain level of trust in her.

Perhaps Xiu Yue hoped more than anyone that she was Princess Qingyang.

“Tell us about Uncle Yu.” Xiu Yue struggled to say this sentence calmly.

“Uncle Yu—he voluntarily joined our Black Wind Stronghold twelve years ago. He said he’d been separated from his family and didn’t know how a grown man could raise an infant, so he sought refuge at the stronghold to find a way to survive… Uncle Yu was both literate and skilled in martial arts. The few characters I know were taught by Uncle Yu…”

Luo Sheng and Xiu Yue quietly listened as Luosai Huzi recounted the details about “Uncle Yu,” gradually sketching out the image of that man.

“He, he could play tunes with tree leaves?” When she heard this, Xiu Yue could no longer maintain her silence.

“Yes! Uncle Yu was especially amazing. He could play beautiful tunes with just ordinary leaves.” Luosai Huzi’s eyes lit up, already lost in blind worship of “Uncle Yu.”

Luo Sheng suddenly noticed that without his beard, Luosai Huzi was rather ugly, but he looked at most in his early thirties.

“How much older than you is Uncle Yu?” With this discovery, Luo Sheng asked.

Luosai Huzi pulled back from his thoughts, smiling sheepishly. “Uncle Yu is only eight years older than me.”

Eight years older?

Luo Sheng frowned.

She remembered that twelve years ago, Xiu Yue’s fiancé had been in his early twenties. If he were still alive, he’d only be thirty-three or thirty-four now. If so, the age didn’t quite match up.

“You—” Luo Sheng scrutinized Luosai Huzi with a frown.

Luosai Huzi looked even more embarrassed. “I’m actually only twenty-five…”

Though Luo Sheng was usually composed and steady, she was rarely surprised, and couldn’t help but look at Luosai Huzi deeply.

Only twenty-five? He really didn’t look it.

Luosai Huzi was obviously familiar with such looks and darkened his face, angry but not daring to speak.

Did they think he grew a beard to hide his matchlessly handsome face?

When he was seventeen, people constantly mistook him for thirty, which made him grow a beard in anger.

“Can you sing the tune he often played?” After a long silence, Xiu Yue asked in a trembling voice.

“Let me think.” Luosai Huzi recalled, then started humming.

It was a little tune sung by Luosai Huzi with the melody gone who knows where, yet the sweetness and sorrow within couldn’t escape.

Tears welled in Xiu Yue’s eyes as she asked in a trembling voice, “He, when did he pass away?”

Luosai Huzi also grew sad. “Uncle Yu passed away five years ago. Before he died, he specifically instructed me to take good care of Xiao Qi. Where exactly have you hidden Xiao Qi?”

He looked at Xiu Yue, his eyes full of suspicion. “Are you really Xiao Qi’s aunt? Then what’s your relationship to Uncle Yu?”

Xiu Yue covered her face with both hands, her shoulders trembling continuously.

She made no sound, but even someone as insensitive as Luosai Huzi could detect the heartfelt grief of this ugly-faced woman.

Luosai Huzi fell silent.

Luo Sheng also didn’t speak.

After an unknown amount of time passed, Xiu Yue slowly lowered her hands, revealing her tear-stained face.

She said softly, “I am his wife.”

At that moment, Luo Sheng’s eyes suddenly moistened.