The atmosphere in the main tent seemed to freeze for a moment upon Guo Dajiang's report.
Li Xiaotian's heart first gave a violent jolt, but he quickly sensed something was amiss. It was not yet noon, far too early for the plan to be set in motion. Had something happened, forcing a change?
Keeping his inner turmoil hidden, Li Xiaotian's expression remained appropriately grave as he rose swiftly alongside Huo Tingshan. Heading out, he asked Guo Dajiang, "Who attacked? Forest bandits or the Jingzhou army?"
Guo Dajiang replied, "The Jingzhou army."
Li Xiaotian was not surprised. With guards from both the Si and You armies escorting the party, it was unlikely any forest bandits would be so foolhardy.
Only the Jingzhou army—and that particular Jingzhou unit was under his command.
Li Xiaotian felt assured inwardly.
In action, however, he moved promptly with Huo Tingshan. They mounted their horses, each leading a contingent of soldiers, and galloped towards the manor.
A carriage journey to the manor took about an hour; on horseback, it was much faster, requiring just over half that time. The ambush site was roughly halfway, and with both parties moving towards each other, they met in less than half an hour.
Before long, Li Xiaotian spotted a carriage.
Carriages used on military campaigns were simple and plain, both his side and Youzhou's were the same.
Li Xiaotian looked closely and recognized it as a Youzhou carriage. At that moment, a strange sense of dissonance stirred within him.
Inside the carriage, Pei Ying heard the approaching hoofbeats from ahead through the thin curtain.
It seemed Huo Tingshan had arrived.
He had mentioned to her earlier that after their departure, he would invite Li Xiaotian, so the Si Governor was certainly among the arrivals.
"Nanran, how do I look?" Pei Ying asked Wu Nanran.
After hearing Zhuang Manxiang's heart-wrenching cry of "My son!", she suddenly realized she couldn't appear before Li Xiaotian's men in her usual composed state.
Having suffered a surprise attack without preparation, they should logically be panicked and disheveled, with hairpins askew and faces pale with fear—not with every hair perfectly in place as when they set out.
So, upon entering the carriage, Pei Ying had loosened her jade hairpin, deliberately mussing her elaborate coiffure. She then looked down at her clothes. Initially, she thought of staining them with blood but ultimately couldn't bring herself to ruin the fine fabric.
Her garments were all made of Shu brocade. Such exquisite material was fine for regular wear, but deliberately ruining it felt unnecessary, even if the mansion's storerooms held plenty more.
After some thought, Pei Ying finally decided to dab a few drops of blood on her face, pretending it had splattered from a guard struck by an arrow flying past her.
Wu Nanran looked at Pei Ying and nodded. "You look perfectly appropriate, my lady."
During this brief exchange, Pei Ying felt the carriage gradually come to a halt.
She heard Chen Yuan greeting Huo Tingshan, signaling their arrival. Making a decision, she prepared to act.
"My lady, how are you—" Huo Tingshan's question was cut short as the carriage door was suddenly pushed open.
A graceful figure stumbled out.
The woman was exceptionally beautiful, with lush, cloud-like hair and skin that glowed with a pearly radiance in the sunlight. Yet now, her hair was disheveled. On the left side of her cloud-like chignon, a gold-threaded floral jade hairpin clung precariously to a few stray locks, threatening to fall.
She lifted her head. Her face, pale as fine paper, bore a smear of red, like a vivid pistil emerging from a spirit of snow and blossoms—a stark, captivating beauty.
Huo Tingshan had initially feigned solemnity, but the moment he saw Pei Ying clearly, his pupils constricted. He strode forward immediately, but only reached out to support her arm, careful not to touch her elsewhere. "Where are you hurt, my lady?"
His gaze darkened as it swung towards Chen Yuan, a storm gathering in his eyes, oppressive as looming thunderclouds. "Is this how you protect someone?!"
From their first meeting, Pei Ying had known Huo Tingshan was a man of formidable presence. Later, he had gradually softened, though he still occasionally made outrageous remarks. Over time, she had almost forgotten the intimidating aura of aggression he initially projected.
But now she felt it again—massive as mountains and seas, a weighty, oppressive force.
Even knowing his fury wasn't directed at her, Pei Ying still stiffened slightly. Her hand was resting on his arm, and with that slight movement, the beautiful lady's fingers twitched, giving a light tap.
Huo Tingshan paused momentarily, then understood instantly.
He had said it before: the battlefield might not claim him, but she would likely be the death of him yet.
Seeing Huo Tingshan's rare change in expression, the dissonance Li Xiaotian felt lessened somewhat, but confusion swiftly took its place.
Lady Pei was actually here?
His plan had failed.
But why had it failed? The plan was so thorough. Could something have gone wrong on Du Liang's end...
Clip-clop, clip-clop. At that moment, another carriage came into view.
Li Xiaotian turned to look. This time, he saw his own people, though the soldier driving wasn't the one originally assigned.
"Lord Li, a grave misfortune!" The Si Province soldier wore a look of terror. "We were ambushed by the Jingzhou army on the road. Heavy casualties... the Young Master..."
He seemed to struggle with the final words. After a brief pause, he continued, "The Young Master was struck by an arrow."
Li Xiaotian was shocked and about to press for details when the carriage door opened, revealing the scene inside.
Zhuang Manxiang sat slumped on the carriage floor, her hairpins askew. Her face was bloodless, her eyes vacant, the skirt of her dress stained with a large patch of bright red blood.
But Li Xiaotian's focus was elsewhere. His gaze was fixed, deadly still, on the figure lying rigidly by Zhuang Manxiang's feet.
The face was all too familiar to him, but its expression was frozen in a wide-eyed stare, never to move again.
It was his legitimate son, Li Kangshun!
Li Xiaotian felt as if struck by lightning. Staggering back a step in shock and horror, he cried out, "My son?!"
Zhuang Manxiang paid no heed to her husband. Her dull eyes shifted, as if restarting, and she turned her head, searching for Pei Ying.
She found her quickly.
Pei Ying stood beside Huo Tingshan. The man next to her was raising his hand, attempting to reposition the gold and jade hairpin that threatened to fall. Unfortunately, her hairstyle was complex, and with the chignon already in disarray, simply pushing the pin back in was futile.
The man's brows drew together slightly, as if finding the situation rather troublesome.
Bloodshot veins crept into Zhuang Manxiang's eyes. "Husband, they killed my son."
Stricken with grief, Li Xiaotian was rooted by her words. He first glanced at his wife, then turned his gaze towards Huo Tingshan.
"Lady Zhuang, choose your words carefully. Some accusations cannot be made lightly," Huo Tingshan said sternly.
"My lady, please calm yourself first," Li Xiaotian knew this matter couldn't be concluded rashly.
Everything required evidence. Making baseless accusations would not only invite ridicule but also easily provide others with leverage.
Besides, he had just seen Lady Pei's face, pale as gold leaf. That pallor couldn't be faked. Mere exposure to a couple of dead bodies wouldn't cause such terror; she must have faced a genuinely life-threatening danger.
"Calm? How can you ask me to be calm?! My son is gone! He's dead, murdered! And you, his father, won't even avenge him? You stop me instead!" Zhuang Manxiang shook off Li Xiaotian's outstretched hand, glaring venomously at Pei Ying and Huo Tingshan. "It must be them. If not them, then who? Besides us, only the Youzhou people are here."
Li Xiaotian's temples throbbed, a vein bulging on his forehead as he felt a splitting headache. He gave a look to the guard, signaling him to take Zhuang Manxiang back to the carriage.
"Where were you attacked?" Li Xiaotian asked the carriage driver, who was also a guard.
The guard named a specific location ahead.
Li Xiaotian nodded. He swiftly mounted his horse and only said to Huo Tingshan, "Governor Huo of Youzhou, I will go ahead to scout the front," before leading his men forward at a gallop.
Seeing this, Pei Ying whispered to Huo Tingshan, "You go too. I'll return to the military camp and wait for you."
Huo Tingshan squeezed her hand, feeling her fingertips were unusually cold.
The man lowered his gaze, his eyes deep and inscrutable. Seeing him hesitate, Pei Ying urged him again, "Go on, quickly."
...
The thunderous sound of hooves rose and fell along the official road as Li Xiaotian and Huo Tingshan arrived at the scene of the incident one after the other.
Arrows were embedded in the ground and pierced the bodies of the fallen, blood flowing everywhere, staining patches of earth crimson.
The width of the official road was limited, so the original carriage convoy had been in a line, not side-by-side. Consequently, the combat area was roughly divided into two sections: the front part belonged to Sizhou, and the slightly rear part to Youzhou.
Looking around, there were many corpses, almost forming a continuous line from front to back. There were soldiers wearing Sizhou military attire and others in Youzhou military garb.
Huo Tingshan said, "Governor Li of Sizhou, it hasn't been too long since the incident. If we pursue now, we should still be able to catch up."
Li Xiaotian only gave the battlefield a cursory glance, not examining it in detail. After all, the dead could not be brought back to life. Compared to these deceased soldiers, pursuing the culprits was more important.
Li Xiaotian raised his voice, "Lieutenant Liu, take a squad and search the woods on both sides! The rest, follow me!"
Huo Tingshan was also giving orders on his side. However, compared to Li Xiaotian's commands, his included an additional instruction: "...Sha Ying, take a team to clean up the battlefield."
Noticing Huo Tingshan's order, Li Xiaotian couldn't help but snort coldly.
This time, Youzhou had also lost some guards, but they were just common foot soldiers—expendable. If his second son had died here, he'd like to see if Huo Tingshan would still be in the mood for such face-saving gestures.
Brimming with resentment and indignation, Li Xiaotian led his men forward first.
Huo Tingshan's group followed.
Sha Ying was left behind. "Get to work, be quick about it. Once we're done cleaning up, we need to go assist the General."
Those who could follow naturally had been briefed beforehand. Now, the Youzhou soldiers understood implicitly and worked efficiently to collect the bodies of their "comrades" on the ground.
They only collected their own, leaving the Sizhou men lying where they were.
After finishing the cleanup, Sha Ying led his men back to the military camp first.
About half an hour after this group left, Lieutenant Liu, who had been ordered by Li Xiaotian to search the woods on both sides, emerged with his men.
They had searched both sides once and indeed found unusual broken branches and leaves, proving that a group had indeed hidden there waiting to ambush.
But the enemy had long since retreated. Following the trail of broken foliage, they eventually found a small path that curved out and connected to the official road.
The official road bore hoofprints, chaotic and numerous. Coupled with the fact that their own Governor and Governor Huo of Youzhou had already led troops past, Lieutenant Liu realized it was now impossible to determine the number of attackers based on the hoofprints.
In short, after half an hour of busy work, they hadn't found a single clue.
"Lieutenant Liu, what should we do now? Should we go find Lord Li, or..." The Sizhou soldier's gaze shifted to the ground, where their companions still lay, uncollected.
Lieutenant Liu understood his meaning. He pondered for a moment, considering that Governor Huo had also led troops there, so their Lord Li wasn't exactly alone and outnumbered. "Let's clean up here first," he said.
The other soldiers obeyed.
"Huh, something's odd..." A Sizhou soldier muttered, looking down at a corpse, then turning to glance not far away.
He was at the edge of the Sizhou "corpse field," not far from where the fallen Youzhou soldiers had lain earlier.
He stopped moving the body and walked forward instead.
These guards had died from arrows or blades. Arrow wounds were smaller and caused less bleeding compared to blade wounds. But regardless of the method, blood would have certainly flowed.
The Sizhou soldier crouched down, pinching a small clump of soil from the ground. The earth here was brownish, unlike the bright red stains over on their side.
The soldier held the clump to his nose. He smelled a foul odor—not the usual earthy scent, but a stench of decay.
Sizhou was surrounded by mountains, its land fertile, producing far more grain than Youzhou used to, and had never experienced famine. But with the world growing increasingly chaotic, and being soldiers, how could they not have seen death before?
This was the smell of a corpse. The brownish sticky substance on the soil was corpse fluid.
How could someone who had just died produce corpse fluid and such a stench? There was something wrong with the corpses on the Youzhou side!
"Lieutenant Liu!" the Sizhou soldier hurriedly called out.
Lieutenant Liu came over at the sound, and the soldier reported his findings in a rapid stream.
"Is that so? If that's the case, then this ambush certainly wasn't carried out by Jingzhou. This is a setup by Youzhou. They killed the Eldest Young Master," Lieutenant Liu's expression changed drastically.
Other soldiers gathered around. Upon hearing this, one said, "Lieutenant Liu, let's go inform Lord Li. The Eldest Young Master died by Youzhou's hand. This grudge cannot go unavenged."
"Right, and now we have solid evidence. Youzhou can't deny it."
But then someone spoke up, "It's not exactly solid evidence."
The surroundings fell silent. A soldier turned and saw that one of their squad was standing in what had been the Youzhou "corpse field."
"Look, there's bloodstains here, fresh blood," the man pointed at his feet, then at another spot not far away. "Not just here, over there too."
Lieutenant Liu walked over to look.
It was true.
"They must have cleaned up the battlefield," Lieutenant Liu said through gritted teeth. "From the time of the incident to our arrival, there was over half an hour. Plenty of time for them to tamper with things."
As for how they cleaned up, it was simple.
They just had to move some of Sizhou's recently deceased soldiers over, drain their blood, and splash it around on the ground to create the appearance of a killing ground.
See, even their Lord Li of Sizhou had been fooled by this smokescreen.
"Lieutenant Liu, let's hurry to the Youzhou military camp now and find those corpses. Wouldn't that be evidence?" a soldier suggested.
He was immediately smacked on the head. Lieutenant Liu said with exasperation, "Stupid as a pig! Youzhou knows they killed people. Why would they easily hand over evidence? They've probably disposed of everything by now, not waiting to be discovered."
"So the Eldest Young Master just dies for nothing?" the soldier grumbled. "We can't even retaliate when others bully us like this. It's too humiliating."
Lieutenant Liu pondered for a long while. Finally, he divided his squad into two. One half would transport the bodies back, the other half would follow him towards the manor to find Li Xiaotian.
Meanwhile.
All the way along the road, right up to the manor, Li Xiaotian found no trace of the bandits.
He had been following the hoofprints, but there were strangely many tracks on this official road. From the scene of the incident all the way to near the manor, it instead gave the impression that the destination was the manor itself.
But he knew it couldn't be the estate...
"Prefect Li, there's something off about this estate." Huo Tingshan glanced sideways at Li Xiaotian and continued, noting the other's momentarily altered expression, "Xiong Mao, surround this estate."
This last command was not a suggestion.
"Wait." Li Xiaotian interjected.
Huo Tingshan did not call a halt, so Xiong Mao and the others naturally would not stop at his word. Immediately, one group began moving along the estate walls, searching for side gates, while another forced their way through the main entrance.
"Does Prefect Li have a better suggestion?" Huo Tingshan raised an eyebrow.
Li Xiaotian clenched his jaw. "The hoofprints don't lead to the estate. It's unlikely anyone is hiding here. I think we're wasting time."
"Since we're already here, we might as well take a look. You may not grieve for your own dead son, but I mourn for my fallen soldiers." Huo Tingshan said with a faint, mocking smile. "Prefect Li, your reluctance to enter... could it be you know something is amiss inside?"
Li Xiaotian's heart skipped a beat and he naturally refused to acknowledge this. "Although my wife recommended this as a place for leisure, we are not the owners of this estate. What could possibly be amiss?"
"Good enough then." Huo Tingshan dismounted. "Let's go. We'll ask the estate's owner. We might just get an unexpected surprise."
Seeing Huo Tingshan enter, Li Xiaotian had no choice but to follow.
For reasons that could not be spoken, Huo Tingshan had brought a sizable contingent of soldiers, who were now split into several groups.
And this search did indeed yield an unexpected surprise.
"Who are you people? Who let you in?"
"They're armed, definitely not common folk. Attack! Seize them! Kill any who resist."
The courtyard descended into chaos. Seeing the Youzhou soldiers engaged with another group, the Sizhou soldiers immediately moved to assist their Youzhou allies.
A muscle twitched in Li Xiaotian's face, but it was not the time to call for a stop.
Two against one, and with the sudden arrival of the Youzhou and Sizhou forces, many in the courtyard were quickly subdued.
Xiong Mao led his men in a room-by-room search. When he pushed open another door and saw the woman inside, his face changed dramatically, and he instinctively exclaimed, "Madam?"
