Zhang Yuehui’s face immediately became serious. With a flick of his thumb ring, a blade immediately sprang from the silver ring, saying in a voice only Nanyi could hear: “Don’t let him make a sound.”
But Nanyi was still hesitating—this was just an ordinary citizen after all.
Looking up, she discovered that curious heads were poking out from the doors and windows of several neighboring households. This situation was not good—so many people had seen them.
The homeowner suddenly looked away, pretending not to see the two, and shouted loudly: “Looking for assassins! Come quickly and help the soldiers find the Bingzhu Division assassins!”
But with his hands, he pointed toward the back door path for Nanyi and Zhang Yuehui.
Zhang Yuehui was still uneasy, but Nanyi directly dragged him toward the back door.
This shout was like a stone stirring up a thousand waves. The surrounding households all understood, tacitly lighting candles and coming out to create chaos, all shouting “find the assassins” together.
At first, there were only two or three people, but soon every household opened their doors.
Zhang Yuehui and Nanyi looked back once. Starlight lit up throughout the neighborhood, stretching into a giant dragon. Unarmed common people poured onto the streets, the human tide blocking the pursuing Qi soldiers.
Everyone knew that something had happened at the Bureau of Shipping tonight, involving the Bingzhu Division.
Everyone knew that those being hunted by Qi people must be righteous heroes worth protecting.
For the common people, the Bingzhu Division wasn’t such a concrete existence—everyone treated it as after-dinner stories. If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, no one would believe that in these turbulent times, there really were such people carrying heavy burdens forward.
And the people being protected—they were ignorant and powerless, always huddling together trembling, but they were also the city walls upon this land.
Nanyi and Zhang Yuehui walked with their backs to the crowd onto an increasingly dark path, limping forward step by step.
…
Huachao Pavilion.
Even after returning to his own territory, Zhang Yuehui didn’t disturb too many people, only having his trusted subordinates come in to treat the wound. Nanyi noticed he had inexplicably become particularly quiet. No more teasing, no more joking around, just frowning and groaning dully.
When the arrow was removed along with flesh and blood, it was horrifying to watch. Nanyi suddenly remembered that Zhang Yuehui used to be the type who couldn’t tolerate pain—even the tiniest cut would make him frown with distress. This arrow wound was quite deep, yet he wasn’t crying out to heaven and earth, seeming somewhat melancholy instead.
Watching Zhang Yuehui’s changes, she thought of the past, feeling it was distant yet seemingly within reach. Then inevitably she thought of Xie Queshan. This temporarily peaceful atmosphere made her anxious.
She wanted to ask Zhang Yuehui something, but was still cautious in front of outsiders.
After the bandaging was complete, Zhang Yuehui gave an instruction: “Take people to check outside the neighborhood and handle the aftermath. Some people saw my face—have them keep the secret.”
“Yes.”
Nanyi was alarmed: “You wouldn’t want to silence them, would you?”
Zhang Yuehui looked at Nanyi speechlessly: “Right, kill all these foolish people. Don’t know what they were joining in for—must think their lives are too comfortable.”
Nanyi heard the sarcasm in Zhang Yuehui’s words and relaxed her tone: “If not for those kind people helping us block them, how could we have escaped so smoothly?”
“Meddling in other people’s business.” Zhang Yuehui had no good mood.
Zhang Yuehui felt inexplicably annoyed. He had originally thought the subjects on this land were as foolish as their ruler, but they had ended up saving him. He felt he owed a very large debt.
This account of hatred suddenly couldn’t be calculated clearly.
Nanyi twisted her mouth, really wanting to curse him thoroughly for not knowing what’s good for him, but vaguely felt his words weren’t from the heart—he had always been a contrary person. At this moment she had a favor to ask, so ultimately she didn’t say much, only obsequiously handed over a cup of tea before asking about what she had been worried about: “Thank you very much for tonight… the things he instructed, did they all go smoothly?”
Zhang Yuehui gave Nanyi a resentful look. As expected, her heart was still entirely on Xie Queshan. But he didn’t want to show such jealous weakness, so his words came out somewhat barbed, his expression indescribably exaggerated.
“Told you not to run around randomly, or it would have gone more smoothly.”
“What do you mean?” Nanyi immediately became tense.
“He planned to die according to the plan, and Song Muchuan would be safely protected—” Zhang Yuehui sighed deeply, “This kid really has good fortune. Was already prepared to report to the King of Hell, but you forcibly fished him back.”
Zhang Yuehui knew Xie Queshan was going to die. With time pressing, he couldn’t stop him either. He could only first complete what the note indicated. Moreover, even if he had ample time, why would he go stop him?
He wished Xie Queshan would die.
But he still went to the Bureau of Shipping as if possessed. He hadn’t expected that Nanyi would somehow sneak in too, and recklessly want to kill Gusha. Really, each one crazier than the last, all requiring him to clean up their messes.
His martial arts weren’t high—he relied on carefully crafted hidden weapons all over his body. Dealing with one or two Qi soldiers and seizing a crossbow wasn’t a big problem.
He didn’t want her to lose. Fortunately, their first cooperation yielded good results. Although the beneficiary was Xie Queshan.
Having already survived the disaster, hearing Zhang Yuehui’s words still felt like being hammered hard in the chest, making her heart ache dully. If they had been just a bit off, wouldn’t they all have been finished?
She felt afraid for quite a while before continuing to ask: “The ‘fish that escaped the net’ he mentioned—what exactly does it mean?”
“The night of the mountain explosion, all of Gusha’s people died in the tunnels, but there was one survivor—I found him.”
Nanyi pondered for a moment and immediately frowned: “So, Gusha’s suspicions about the Yucheng Army were all manipulated by you?”
“This matter actually…”
Zhang Yuehui felt a bit guilty and wanted to make excuses for himself, but Nanyi wasn’t really concerned with these details anymore. She quickly grasped a thread of logic from the tangled mess and interrupted his sophistry.
“Xie Queshan guessed it too? He knew you had this leverage but never exposed it, wanting to use your hand to do something?”
“Only by letting Gusha seize on this point and make trouble could Wanyan Jun be brought down,” Zhang Yuehui knew he couldn’t fool Nanyi anymore and could only speak honestly. “If you had to choose an opponent between Gusha and Wanyan Jun, anyone would choose Gusha.”
Nanyi didn’t have time to scold Zhang Yuehui because Song Muchuan had planned the same thing. Everyone had their own schemes mixed into this game, but the result they achieved was the same.
But the variable was that no one had anticipated Gusha would be struck by a falling pie from heaven, obtaining a crucial piece of intelligence.
All plans were disrupted.
“But what does this ‘fish that escaped the net’ have to do with saving Song Muchuan?”
“The key to saving Song Muchuan actually wasn’t in Song Muchuan himself, nor in how to save him, but in—who exactly was suspecting him, who wanted to kill him. Solve that person, and this matter would become easy.”
“But even if Gusha is dead, the leads he uncovered won’t disappear. We can only hide for a while but can’t truly deceive heaven and cross the sea.”
“So, we need to fish Gusha’s opponent back up and have him overturn all of Gusha’s discoveries.”
Nanyi opened her mouth, somewhat uncertain: “Make the fish that escaped the net… turn traitor?”
Zhang Yuehui nodded. This was back to his familiar territory, and he showed a fox-like smile.
“Everything in this world has its price.”