Xiao Rong fell silent again. After a while, he said, “You’re being biased. Yuan Baifu hasn’t done anything inappropriate, but you—by staring at him so intensely—he’s naturally going to have complaints about you.”

Jian Qiao was baffled. He thought for a moment and asked cautiously, “Then… should I stop watching him?”

Xiao Rong said, “Keep watching him.”

Jian Qiao: “…”

Seeing his frustrated expression, Xiao Rong chuckled. “You’re already exposed. Just keep watching him. The King is injured. I’m not worried about the Xianbei taking advantage of it. I’m more worried about someone close to him. Not just Yuan Baifu—watch everyone. Until the King is healed, we must stay absolutely vigilant.”

Jian Qiao nodded firmly.

Then he hesitated. “Mr. Xiao, if what you said is right, then won’t my behavior these days make Yuan Baifu suspicious? Maybe he wasn’t planning anything, but now I’ve pushed him into it?”

Xiao Rong looked at him. Jian Qiao started to feel nervous under his gaze.

Xiao Rong said helplessly, “You’ve only treated him a bit poorly. No one develops traitorous intentions just because a colleague gives them attitude. If he does act on it, that means he already had those thoughts. It has nothing to do with you.”

Jian Qiao was relieved. He asked Xiao Rong to go inside, but Xiao Rong didn’t move. Instead, he asked, “After you caught them, did you interrogate them?”

Jian Qiao nodded. “Twice. We even used some torture, but they didn’t know anything and couldn’t say where their relatives might have fled.”

Xiao Rong asked again, “Did you ask about the Qingfeng Sect?”

Jian Qiao shook his head. “I was busy this afternoon. I had to send people to search for Yanmen Commanders. No one has questioned them about that today.”

Xiao Rong was surprised. “You didn’t, and no one else did?”

Jian Qiao grinned proudly. “Yuan Baifu wanted his people to watch them, but since I manage the central army affairs, I took the two from him. Without my permission, no one can go near them.”

Xiao Rong gave him a long, complicated look. Just when Jian Qiao thought he was about to scold him, he saw Xiao Rong raise a thumb. “Well done.”

……

When they went inside, the smell of blood here was far stronger than in the royal tent, and it also carried a stench of decay. Xiao Rong couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose. Jian Qiao quickly brought him a chair. Xiao Rong looked at the chair and fell silent for a moment, feeling that if he sat on it, he wouldn’t seem like a consort anymore, but more like a eunuch from the Eastern Depot.

He bypassed the chair and looked at the two listless men across from him. Just as Yuan Baifu had said, many believed these two were not traitors. Even if they had been tortured, it had only been with military rods. Nothing had come out of the interrogations, so they had been given up on.

They had suffered serious injuries to muscle and bone, but their lives weren’t in danger. However, given the severity of their families’ crimes, they didn’t even know if they could still survive. They looked as if they had resigned themselves to fate.

When they sensed someone approaching, both men looked up and saw Xiao Rong and Jian Qiao coming in. One of them looked like he was about to cry, but in the end, he didn’t. He only lowered his head in despair.

If they were truly innocent, then they were truly miserable.

Normally, Xiao Rong might have felt sympathy for them, but today he thought—if I pity them, who will pity me?

…

Standing in front of them, Xiao Rong pondered for a moment, then suddenly said, “Heaven and Earth, Pure Wind, No Birth, No Merit.”

Jian Qiao looked at Xiao Rong, confused. Xiao Rong stared at the two men before him. One of them had a similarly confused expression—he didn’t understand what Xiao Rong meant—but the second man briefly revealed a surprised expression. When he realized what had happened, it was already too late for regret.

Xiao Rong immediately looked at this man. “You’re a follower of the Qingfeng Sect?”

These two were a pair of ordinary soldier brothers. They shook their heads in despair. They couldn’t even speak loudly anymore, they could only keep whispering with pitiful breaths that they weren’t. One of them even broke down in tears. Jian Qiao then understood—the phrase Xiao Rong had said must be something only members of the Qingfeng Sect could recognize, hence their reactions.

Even though they had suspected this might be the work of the Qingfeng Sect, actually discovering that it really was done by these rats hiding in the gutter filled Jian Qiao with fury—these bastards again!

Jian Qiao kicked the sobbing man and shouted, “What are you crying for?! If you don’t speak the truth, I’ll kill you right now!”

Jian Qiao punched and kicked the second man, forcing him to confess. Meanwhile, Xiao Rong turned to look at the other man nearby. His face was pale as he stared at the scene, not feeling relieved at all. The only thing he felt was, once Jian Qiao finished torturing the other, it would be his turn.

At that moment, Xiao Rong walked over to him and squatted down in front of him, leveling their eyes. Seeing how terrified the man was, Xiao Rong calmly said, “I believe you have nothing to do with the Qingfeng Sect.”

The man looked at him fearfully, his whole body tense.

Xiao Rong said, “but I also believe—you’re family. You couldn’t have known nothing.”

The man’s face turned even paler.

Xiao Rong continued, “Becoming a sect member isn’t something that happens in one or two months. Besides, they went as far as digging up the King’s parents’ graves. Without years, maybe even over a decade of preparation, the Qingfeng Sect wouldn’t have asked them to do such a thing. You’re their blood relative—you’re their child. You must have noticed some clues. You knew they did something irreversible. You may have hated it, may have regretted it. You may be thinking, why didn’t I stop them earlier? But it’s too late now. You’re all going to die.”

Jian Qiao had already stopped and now looked at Xiao Rong with a complex expression. The man opposite Xiao Rong had begun silently crying.

Xiao Rong paused to let him process the words, then continued, “You are one of the King’s soldiers. For so many years, you followed him into battle. The King is a hero—and so are you. So I’ll tell you the truth. No matter what, even if I have to dig two feet into the earth, I’ll capture your whole family and execute them before the entire army. That is their punishment—but it is not yours.”

The man sobbed harder, but upon hearing the last part, he suddenly froze. He looked up and saw Xiao Rong firmly say, “Tell me everything you know. Every suspicious detail. Help me bring them to justice, and I will spare your life. You may not remain a soldier, but this world is vast—there will be a place for you, and you will never have to worry about being dragged down by your family again.”

After hearing Xiao Rong’s words, especially the part about “there will be a place for you,” the man lowered his head and finally cried aloud, the sound filled with regret. Jian Qiao couldn’t even be angry anymore, he just turned his head away and stood heavily to the side.

After crying, the man spoke up. “I… I didn’t know they would do such a thing.”

…

As for the other man, it was hard to say, but this man was truly unfortunate. He had joined the army at sixteen and hadn’t returned home for five years. It wasn’t until Qu Yunmie finally settled the capital at Yanmen Commandery that he brought his family over. Since then, he has gone back to visit once every month or two.

All his military pay had gone to supporting his family. When he discovered they had joined the Qingfeng Sect, he got angry and tried to persuade them otherwise—but couldn’t. So many people believed in the sect, he didn’t think it was a big deal. In the end, he had just turned a blind eye.

Who would have thought that his backward family could commit such an appalling crime?

He mentioned a few places his relatives might have fled to, as well as some people he had seen them associate with—people who had no personal ties to his family, which made him suspect they too were part of the Qingfeng Sect.

That was all he knew. Even though Xiao Rong promised that as long as he cooperated, he’d live, in this situation, the man didn’t dare to believe him. He remained in despair—but that was no longer Xiao Rong’s concern.

Once that man had finished talking, the other brother wanted to speak, but hesitated. No matter what crimes his family committed—they were still family. Not everyone could sacrifice kin for justice. Most people’s first instinct was to cover for them.

Xiao Rong didn’t care anymore. He only wanted to know whether this matter involved the Qingfeng Sect. Now that it was confirmed, he felt a sense of inevitability.

…

The Qingfeng Sect had previously targeted the Northern Army. After the army moved south, they suddenly went quiet. Even if Xiao Rong had been naïve, he wouldn’t have believed they had given up. They were clearly still planning something.

It had to be Sun Renluan or Qu Yunmie. Knowing the Qingfeng Sect, they would target one of the two—or maybe Xiao Rong had underestimated them, and they were targeting both.

Standing in the dark, Xiao Rong suddenly thought of someone.

Xizhu.

That female assassin, with whom he had only one encounter, died swiftly and decisively. Xiao Rong still didn’t know who she worked for, but he was certain it wasn’t Yang Zangyi. Assassins were a known export of the Qingfeng Sect. Even if they came from different branches, they were still fruit of the same vine.

Xiao Rong didn’t know if he was being too sensitive, but in official history, Xizhu had assassinated Sun Renluan—one of the Qingfeng Sect’s targets. Now that Sun Renluan was still alive, the one who narrowly escaped death had become Qu Yunmie.

Xiao Rong’s mind was a mess. One thing felt particularly strange: before, the Qingfeng Sect had tried to sabotage Qu Yunmie through political maneuvering—colluding with the Xianbei, contacting Li Xiuheng. Their approach was formal, indirect.

This time was different. Their attitude was open and aggressive—they wanted Qu Yunmie dead, clearly and directly.

Why?

Why had things changed so drastically in just half a year? They should have known that if the plan failed, it would bring furious retaliation from Qu Yunmie and the entire army.

Given that, Xiao Rong couldn’t help but wonder—was it because of him? Had he disrupted the timeline? Had he flapped the wings of a butterfly?

Still, change must have a reason. Was it the migration south? Or had they disrupted the sect’s original plans?

No.

The grave digging.

The key was the grave robbing. Until two days before Mid-Autumn, the corpses had still been intact. They even filled in the graves afterward, meaning this crime could have gone unnoticed. The graveyard beneath Yanmen Mountain had over 10,000 people. Though Qu Yue and Lady Qu were high-ranking, the army didn’t build mausoleums. Their graves were just small mounds.

So long as the mounds were refilled quietly, no one would have discovered they had been emptied.

That meant they hadn’t planned this long ago. They had been forced to act just before Mid-Autumn.

This wasn’t a long-planned plot—it had surfaced only recently, perhaps right during those days.

Xiao Rong thought for a moment, then suddenly ran. Guards at the royal tent always searched everyone before entry, even Jian Qiao wasn’t exempt, but Xiao Rong didn’t need to be searched. Like Gao Xunzhi, he had free access at all times.

Qu Yunmie was drinking bitter medicine. When he saw Xiao Rong return, Wang Xinyong finally sighed in relief. He was about to salute Xiao Rong when Xiao Rong brushed right past him and began gesturing rapidly in front of the map.

He tried to calculate distances by time. He was trying to determine whether the Qingfeng Sect had already infiltrated Chenliu.

He suspected that when he passed out, someone from the sect—possibly the Mastermind—had been in the city, evaluating the threat Qu Yunmie posed and concluding that he had to be eliminated.

Yet as he stared at the map, he couldn’t be sure.

Travel times varied too much. He had made it in two and a half days, someone else might take forty-five. That alone wasn’t solid proof.

What’s more, no matter when the person had arrived, Xiao Rong was now sure they had already left. Whether their plan had succeeded or not, they had no reason to remain. If they succeeded, the Xianbei wouldn’t question them. If they failed, the Xianbei would be too busy with the fallout to chase after them.

Thinking of this, Xiao Rong finally turned, his face dark. He looked at Qu Yunmie and asked, trying to suppress his temper, “Has Your Highness eaten?”

Qu Yunmie glanced at his expression, then silently nodded. Before Xiao Rong could ask further, he voluntarily reported, “Two bowls.”

Xiao Rong: “…”

That’s as much as he ate in a whole day.

Qu Yunmie usually didn’t eat this much. He was probably just recovering from massive loss of energy.

Qu Yunmie then asked, “And you?”

Xiao Rong shook his head. “Not yet. I saw some bloody things earlier and lost my appetite. I’ll eat in half an hour.”

Qu Yunmie said, “Alright. I’ll eat with you then.”

Xiao Rong looked at him and smiled. “At this rate, Your Highness should recover in no time.”

Qu Yunmie smiled too. “Five days. In five days, I’ll go claim the Xianbei Emperor’s head.”

Xiao Rong neither agreed nor disagreed. If Qu Yunmie recovered, he wouldn’t stop him. If not—there would be no need. The poison had drained his body. Unlike superficial wounds, this poison struck deep. Even if he wanted to charge into battle, he wouldn’t be able to.

Speaking of which, Xiao Rong still had some doubts. “Does Your Majesty know what poison they applied to the arrows? Why was it so potent—and yet so easily cured?”

Qu Yunmie looked at him silently. Easily? If not for his strong body and will to survive, anyone else would be preparing their funeral by now.

Regardless, Qu Yunmie answered calmly. “The Murong tribe of the Xianbei rose through plunder. They exterminated all other tribes on the steppe. The previous imperial clan was the Yuwen, who had once ruled the Central Plains. The Murong seized all their wealth, their women, everything. Today, the richest treasury is not the Imperial Palace in Jinling, but the palace of the Xianbei. Gold, silver, rare treasures, forbidden medical texts, poisons, sacred herbs—they have everything.”

After saying this, Qu Yunmie lowered his eyes, lost in thought. After a while, he looked up again, just about to add more—only to see Xiao Rong staring at him with burning eyes. Not an exaggeration—his eyes were practically glowing green.

Xiao Rong said, “Really? Don’t lie to me.”

Qu Yunmie: “…”

They stared at each other. Qu Yunmie even felt like he was being hunted. His throat tightened. He nodded again.

Xiao Rong finally looked away, nodding repeatedly. “Good, good, good. I thought the best loot we’d get from this war would be cattle and sheep—but now there’s unexpected treasure. Great! That’ll fund the palace and tomb construction!”

After murmuring to himself, Xiao Rong suddenly turned around and took the empty medicine bowl from Qu Yunmie. Then, in an exceptionally kind tone, he said, “Your Highness must recover well. The whole army is waiting for the day we raise our swords against the Xianbei!”

As he turned to leave with the bowl, he suddenly realized there was someone behind him. “General Wang! When did you get here?”

Wang Xinyong: “…”

I’ve been here the whole time! You really didn’t see me?! I—

He turned and walked out, dazed, thinking to himself: Whatever. I’m used to it anyway.

…

Xiao Rong frowned. Once he was outside, he muttered, “How rude, leaving without saying a word.”

Qu Yunmie nodded in agreement. “He’s always like that. That’s why I never liked him.”

Xiao Rong: “…”

Who have you ever liked?

Xiao Rong wanted to say that aloud—but after a moment of hesitation, he said

 

Edited by: Antiope

 

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