Chu Ruoyan’s face showed sudden realization.
No wonder she felt her Aunt had been speaking up for Yan Zheng at every turn—he had been pulling strings behind the scenes!
But melancholy and sorrow? Yan Zheng?
Pairing these two utterly unrelated words together had an absurdly comical effect.
Caught red-handed, Yan Zheng looked slightly uncomfortable. "Why are you here? Go back!"
Meng Yang shrank his neck slightly.
Yan Wenjing, however, wasn’t afraid of him. "Third Uncle, you can’t do this. Have you forgotten what Father said? If you make a mistake, you must admit it! This time, you were wrong. You hid things from Third Aunt, making her worry for nothing. You owe her an apology!"
The little sticky rice ball spoke with utmost seriousness, and Chu Ruoyan felt a swell of pride, as if watching her own child grow up.
Yet Yan Zheng raised an eyebrow. "Why apologize? Her heart is tied to me. If she knew I was in trouble, wouldn’t she act recklessly and ruin things?"
"Did I act recklessly and ruin things?" Chu Ruoyan countered.
Yan Zheng fell silent.
In truth, she hadn’t acted impulsively at all—instead, she had been a great help.
The courtyard grew quiet.
Sensing the tension, Meng Yang quietly pulled Yan Wenjing away.
A cool breeze rustled through the treetops.
Just as Chu Ruoyan thought he wouldn’t speak again, the man finally said, "I underestimated the situation."
She stared blankly.
It seemed she hadn’t expected this future god of slaughter, this king of the underworld, to actually lower his head. Then she heard him murmur, "After his death, I grew used to being alone. Next time, I’ll try to consider you..."
The words were too raw.
So raw that Chu Ruoyan’s heart clenched.
He had been alone since childhood, with no one to rely on except his eldest brother. He solved every problem himself.
Never placing hope in others, he never considered them either.
"Actually, I also acted somewhat improperly..."
Before she could finish, Yan Zheng suddenly said, "No need to call yourself 'this humble one.'"
Chu Ruoyan blinked. He added, "Just speak as you did before. It makes you feel more real to me."
Her heart skipped a beat.
This Third Master Yan was sharp! She had only momentarily lost control of her emotions, yet he had sensed her previous act.
"My lord..."
"No need for 'my lord' either. Just call me by my name."
Chu Ruoyan parted her lips but found herself unable to say it.
Yan Zheng didn’t press her. His fingers brushed over a scroll before he said, "Do you know that the Yan Family’s calamity wasn’t solely the doing of the Marquis of Pingjing?"
Chu Ruoyan’s expression turned grave. She knew he was getting to the heart of the matter.
"The Marquis sent Ajiao to steal the city defense maps, leading to my brother’s defeat—but that was only one part of it. Before that, the Yan Family had been cut off from provisions for half a month."
"What?" Chu Ruoyan gasped.
The Ministry of Revenue was responsible for supplying provisions to Hangu Pass. Did this mean they were involved?
A mocking smile touched Yan Zheng’s lips. "Those officials were clever. They didn’t cut off supplies outright but mixed chaff into the grain, reducing what should have lasted a month to barely ten days..."
Chu Ruoyan covered her mouth in shock.
No wonder the enemy’s bait had been so obvious, yet General Yan had no choice but to engage.
He had been forced by starvation...
"There’s more." He drew a broken blade from his sleeve. "Afraid?"
Chu Ruoyan shook her head and took it from him.
The blade looked sharp, but its weight was all wrong.
Her brows furrowed as she swung it at the stone table—
Clang!
The blade shattered further, leaving the table unharmed.
"This was the weapon they sent to the battlefield," Yan Zheng said coldly.
Chu Ruoyan understood immediately—the weapons had also been sabotaged!
From provisions to weapons to the city defense maps...
This was a meticulously laid trap, designed to ensure the Yan Family’s annihilation.
The Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, the Marquis of Pingjing—so many factions, so many conspirators. The scale of it was staggering.
After speaking, Yan Zheng fell silent again.
His long fingers tapped the table lightly. Only after a long pause did he say, "Chu Ruoyan, you’re clever. I’ve laid out the Yan Family’s situation plainly. Stay or leave—the choice is yours."
She froze once more.
She had been stunned too many times today, yet a strange warmth bloomed in her chest.
This Yan Zheng, who said he would consider her, had laid bare every truth.
No concealment, no reservations—just complete trust, even handing her the power to decide...
"And you?" she asked softly.
Yan Zheng lowered his gaze, his words deceptively light. "My name is Yan. The blood debt of the Yan Family must be repaid in blood."
Blood for blood?
How casually he said it.
The Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War—never mind those. The Marquis of Pingjing alone was Empress Dowager Su’s nephew, protected by the emperor. How could he possibly retaliate?
Yet Chu Ruoyan didn’t doubt him. She simply held his gaze. "You told me all this. Aren’t you afraid I’ll betray you?"
A single leaked word would ensure Yan Zheng’s destruction.
But Yan Zheng only met her eyes, his dark, fathomless gaze steady. "Will you?"
Chu Ruoyan didn’t answer.
He shook his head slowly. "You won’t. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have rescued me from prison or gone this far for the Yan Family."
This far?
Yes, without realizing it, she had grown accustomed to helping him, to helping the Yan Family...
A smile unfurled across Chu Ruoyan’s face, her eyes curving like peach blossoms in early spring.
"Yan Zheng, since you already know everything, why ask me again?"
Yan Zheng stiffened slightly, his fingers tightening unconsciously—a telltale sign of tension. Chu Ruoyan noticed and smiled even brighter.
"You’re not as confident as you seem, are you? You laid everything bare, tested me with your words—were you worried I’d leave?"
Worried?
It had been so long since he’d felt anything like this.
The war had stripped him of all emotion, leaving only numbness and exhaustion. He had trudged forward alone, dragging his broken body...
He hadn’t known where he was going, hadn’t cared—until the day Steward Fang mentioned a woman who admired him, who vowed to stay by his side till death...
Yan Zheng closed his eyes.
His smile was bitter, lonely.
Humans were weak. Only now did he realize—yes, he had been afraid she would leave.
"Yan Zheng." Her voice was soft as the wind. "I won’t leave. At least, not until you stand tall and restore the Yan Family."
He opened his mouth, but she seemed to read his thoughts. "You want to know what I’m after. Truthfully, I did have motives. But after marrying into the Yan Family, I realized things weren’t what I imagined."
A shadow flickered in Yan Zheng’s eyes.
She had wanted him, only to discover he wasn’t the man she thought...
Unaware of his misunderstanding, Chu Ruoyan paused before continuing, "Right now, I don’t even know what I want. So promise me this—when I remember, I’ll come to you. Agreed?"
Yan Zheng studied her eyes—clear, limpid, like a pool of undisturbed water.
After a long moment, he said, "Agreed."
Just then, a servant from the Cao Family arrived, announcing that someone from the palace had come to see Yan Zheng.
Chu Ruoyan followed him out, only to see Yin Shun, the emperor's attendant, standing before them with an imperial decree in hand: "By the decree of heaven and the mandate of the emperor, His Majesty summons the Marquis of Pingjing to the palace at once without delay. This is the imperial command—"
