Chapter 77

The old servant cautiously led the group of maidservants into the room. Standing behind the curtain, she asked Nan Yi, “Madam, Guilai Hall sent over some medicinal dishes. Would you like to have them?”

Nan Yi, lying on the bed in boredom, suddenly caught a whiff of an enticing aroma... So fragrant!

Her meals over the past few days had been light and bland due to her injuries, filled with dietary restrictions. This sudden tempting fragrance made her subconsciously swallow her saliva. It took her a moment to react—Guilai Hall?

Zhang Yuehui had come looking for her? But why would he only send food instead of seeing her in person? Did he think this insignificant gesture of compensation would win her over?

Shouldn’t he come and sincerely explain everything to her?

“Not eating!” Nan Yi said angrily.

The old servant immediately breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly replied, “Then I’ll have them take the food away.”

“Wait...” Hearing footsteps retreating toward the door, Nan Yi suddenly called out to stop them. “If you take these medicinal dishes back, what will you do with them?”

There was a moment of silence outside the curtain. The old servant glanced at the lead maidservant, who lowered her head respectfully and replied, “Naturally, they’ll be discarded.”

“That’s such a waste!” Nan Yi blurted out.

The old servant hesitantly asked, “Then, Madam, are you saying...”

“That man may be awful, but the food didn’t do anything wrong. Why shouldn’t I eat it?” Nan Yi justified herself righteously. “Bring it in.”

She remembered an old saying from the elders in the alleys: after death, people must consume all the food they wasted in life before they can reincarnate. Her life philosophy had always been to never go against food.

Upon receiving her order, the small room was quickly overtaken by the well-trained maidservants. The two old servants were pushed aside, rendered completely unnecessary.

The maidservants divided their tasks efficiently: laying out carpets, spreading tablecloths, setting the dishes in order. Even the dining chair was brought by them, cushioned with soft fur to avoid irritating Nan Yi’s wounds. Meanwhile, two female medical officers went behind the curtain to check her pulse. Based on her current condition, they handed her a pre-prepared bowl of medicinal soup.

Once everything was ready, they invited Nan Yi to dine.

Nan Yi was taken aback. Although Wangxue Villa was already luxurious beyond her imagination, its daily provisions were not as extravagant as this.

She sat down at the dining table as if in a dream. There were eight dishes, one dessert, one bowl of chicken soup—each plate portioned precisely, enough for her to enjoy every dish without feeling overly full.

It was meticulously thoughtful.

Nan Yi glanced at the lead maidservant. “Zhang Yuehui is this rich?”

The maidservant, thinking this was finally her chance to boast about her master’s wealth, even answered with a hint of pride, “Our master’s businesses span all nine provinces. Saying he’s as wealthy as a nation is no exaggeration.”

Nan Yi stabbed her chopsticks into the plate, breaking off a chicken leg with force.

The maidservant noticed that the madam didn’t seem particularly pleased upon hearing about their master’s wealth and wisely fell silent, lowering her voice.

Nevertheless, Nan Yi truly enjoyed this meal.

She hadn’t had an appetite for the past few days, surviving on a little rice broth. Yet the medicinal soup given to her before the meal had a miraculous effect in stimulating her appetite. Adhering to her principle of wasting nothing, Nan Yi cleared every dish on the table.

When Xie Queshan saw the empty plates and bowls being carried out of the room, his rational mind told him this was a good thing. Yet a certain emotion made him burn with jealousy.

She truly was… Why was she always cold toward him, yet so forgiving toward Zhang Yuehui?

So, he was just some incidental part of their long-awaited reunion and their happy ending as lovers, wasn’t he?

And to think he had been so resolute, willing to risk everything, even his life, to save her. Looking back, it seemed his efforts were unnecessary. Zhang Yuehui would have cared for her perfectly well regardless.

For the first time, Xie Queshan felt like a clown.

As for Zhang Yuehui, who was the subject of Xie Queshan’s jealousy, things weren’t as rosy as they seemed.

The seven-day agreement with Wanyan Jun had only five days left. Knowing that Nan Yi was at least willing to accept his arrangements eased his guilt only slightly. He still hadn’t figured out how to face her and could only sit down to sort out his own affairs first.

He wasn’t without options. Song Muchuan’s identity was an excellent piece of information that could help him extricate himself effortlessly.

But Zhang Yuehui didn’t like being threatened.

Wanyan Jun stepping on his head made him deeply uncomfortable. How could he obediently hand over such crucial information? If he did, there would only be more demands in the future. Wanyan Jun would come to believe that the entire Guilai Hall existed to serve him.

Zhang Yuehui was always one to repay grievances with vengeance.

However, bargaining with a tiger was never easy. To escape this time, he needed not only to secure his position but also to retain enough strength to protect Nan Yi. He had to reverse the situation, ensuring that Wanyan Jun became a beaten dog, groveling to him instead.

This was equivalent to setting the difficulty level to hell mode.

But how could the cunning Master Zhang not have a contingency plan?

Before him lay a neatly arranged chessboard with half a game completed. Zhang Yuehui, however, casually scattered a handful of black pieces across it, leaving the board in complete disarray, as if the black and white pieces were caught in chaotic battle.

Hmm... Some unfortunate soul, he can come to the table now.

Recently, Gusha had been in a gloomy mood, staying home and not going out.

The fact that his soldiers had left him was no secret, and Wanyan Jun had even maliciously accused him first, severely reporting that he acted without authorization, nearly disrupting the plan and causing significant losses to their forces.

The memorial had already crossed mountains and valleys, making its way to the capital of the Daqi Kingdom. Once the court’s response returned, Gusha might end up returning to face punishment, disgraced and defeated.

At the moment, he was unable to muster any energy for anything. He didn’t even bother to go to the military camp, instead staying home drinking heavily and sleeping in.

One day, the incessant knocking on his door disturbed his deep slumber. He put on his clothes, cursing as he opened the door, only to find a small beggar leaning on a crutch, which only made him more irritable. Just as he was about to shout at the beggar, the beggar suddenly threw away the crutch and knelt down with a loud thud, crying and pleading.

“General—!”

Gusha froze, rubbing his eyes.

What the hell, there’s still someone alive?! Is this a person or a ghost?

It was indeed a strange turn of events. The beggar used to be one of Gusha’s personal soldiers. That night, he had been secretly sent to Huigui Mountain to search for the Yucheng Army. When Wanyan Jun detonated the tunnel, the entire team entered through a well but found only some armor, no Yucheng soldiers. He tried to pursue, and was close to the exit when he became the sole survivor by pure coincidence.

He crawled out from the collapsed tunnel with one leg numb. After crawling for miles, he was planning to return to the city to report to Gusha when he collapsed in the freezing cold. When he woke up, he found himself in an unfamiliar hut.

Spring had arrived in the mountains. He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious, nor who had saved him and why they disappeared after he woke up... It felt as if they had known exactly when he would wake.

But he didn’t suspect anything and assumed a hunter had rescued him, abandoning him to his fate in the hut. He believed he had survived purely by luck. What mattered most was getting back to the city to report to Gusha—there were no Yucheng soldiers in the tunnel!

He didn’t know who was responsible for the explosion that day, but he thought Gusha would be shocked by the news. To his surprise, Gusha’s face suddenly lit up with joy after hearing it.

“You mean—there were no Yucheng soldiers in the tunnel? All those who died were our brothers?!”

“General, that’s right. This must have been a trap set by the Yucheng Army to escape the situation! Please send people to find the Yucheng Army!”

“No, no—not the Yucheng Army,” Gusha said, pacing back and forth in the tent, his face flushed with excitement, as though he had uncovered a hidden treasure. His eyes shone brilliantly. “There must be a spy in our army who’s working with the Yucheng Army! Once we find that person, everything will be much easier.”

“So the general suspects...”

Who would know so clearly that Wanyan Jun would launch a sneak attack on the Yucheng Army? Who would know that Gusha would try to claim credit for this? Xie Queshan! The person who voluntarily confined himself to Wanyan Jun’s residence, making everyone overlook him, yet he appeared at every key moment.

The truth hidden beneath the surface was now beginning to surface, subtly hinted at by the existence of a survivor.

“Once I find the truth, I’ll skin that person alive! No... It might not be just one person! I’ll use their heads to fill a wine jar and get revenge for our fallen brothers!” Gusha gritted his teeth. “Wanyan Jun, that incompetent fool! He still thinks he can suppress me—once I accomplish this, I’ll make him roll out of here!”

“General, you are wise!”

“Those spies are extremely cunning. We cannot let them know we’re investigating this matter. I’ll arrange for you to recover in secret. You can’t let anyone know you’ve returned.”

“Yes, General.”

For days, Song Muchuan, who had been quietly working on building ships, finally sensed something was amiss.

Wanyan Jun had set a tight deadline: within three months, he must build a dragonbone warship, which coincided with Song Muchuan’s final plan, so he worked day and night without rest.

The Yucheng Army, hidden deep in the mountains, posed no immediate threat of exposure. Normally, they didn’t communicate, but one day, he received a letter from Ying Huai, an undercover agent, asking if he had received any news from Nan Yi.

Song Muchuan had no idea that Nan Yi had entered Lidu Mansion!

Something felt off, so he immediately rushed to the Yucheng Army’s camp, where he learned that about ten days ago, Nan Yi had suddenly requested to go to Lidu Mansion. Afterward, a report came back saying she would be staying in the city for a while due to a task. However, Ying Huai found this strange, as the Bureau of Candlelight (Bingchu Si) hadn’t mentioned this to him... Given that the Yucheng Army had limited communication with the outside world, news was often delayed, but ten days had passed with no word from Nan Yi.

While Ying Huai continued to send letters to Song Muchuan and investigate any oddities in the army, his search uncovered a spy.

Under interrogation, it was revealed that this spy was from Guilai Hall, and it was they who tricked Nan Yi into the city.

Just as Song Muchuan arrived, Ying Huai informed him of the situation.

Though it was early spring, Song Muchuan’s back was drenched in cold sweat. Under his very nose, he had lost track of Nan Yi!

He immediately dispatched someone to follow Zhang Yuehui.

The secondary building of Huachao Pavilion had burned down and was now under repair, yet Zhang Yuehui still resided in the main building, living luxuriously with feasts, songs, and dances, showing no signs of trouble.

Guilai Hall seemed like a fortress, nearly impossible to infiltrate, with no useful information to be found.

That was until Song Muchuan discovered that Guilai Hall had purchased a restaurant.

Normally, a large merchant buying a property wasn’t noteworthy, but it was suspicious that the restaurant was adjacent to the private residence of the Xie family.

It was the very same residence where, to send Nan Yi away, they had lied about her suddenly falling ill and being moved to an outer villa.

After lying in wait for several days, Song Muchuan observed that the restaurant delivered food and medicinal soup to the residence via a private alleyway connected to it. Occasionally, Xie Queshan could be seen near the residence.

This left Song Muchuan very puzzled—could the person in the house be Nan Yi? What exactly were Xie Queshan and Zhang Yuehui up to?

He began to think of ways to infiltrate the seemingly inconspicuous but tightly guarded residence.

...

However, there was one person who could enter the house at any time but chose to wander outside every day.

Zhang Yuehui found a new excuse every day to avoid going into the house.

Whenever he approached the residence, his heart would become restless. He cared about how she was recovering but couldn’t bring himself to visit her. The decisive man he was in battle had become a hesitant deserter in front of this door.

By the time the crescent moon had risen high in the sky, he still hadn’t decided whether to move forward or retreat.

After thinking for a moment, he felt that it was probably too late, and she must have already fallen asleep. He decided to wait for another day.

To his surprise, with a creak, the wooden door opened.

Zhang Yuehui looked up and saw the girl standing beneath the moon, her black hair draped around her shoulders, quietly watching him.

Only then did he notice that the magnolia flowers on the wall had bloomed at some point, their faint fragrance filling the air.

It felt as though the long winter had passed.