Meng Yuxiu walked back to Chang Lili and her mother-in-law and asked, "How are you? Are you alright?"

Chang Lili turned to her mother-in-law and asked, "Grandma, are you alright?"

The old woman's expression was a bit strange. She stared at Meng Yuxiu for a while before saying blankly, "It's nothing."

"Are you really alright?" Chang Lili felt that her appearance was a bit strange and worried that she might have been too frightened.

Meng Yuxiu said, "I'll find a doctor to come and take a look at my mother-in-law first thing tomorrow morning."

"No need, no need," the mother-in-law immediately waved her hand.

Chang Lili insisted, "Look how scared you are! You have to see."

The mother-in-law had no choice but to comply.

The three of them left the woods and returned to the cabin. Chang Lili watched her mother-in-law fall asleep before coming out of the cabin.

Meng Yuxiu stood outside the door waiting for her. When he saw her come out, a smile suddenly appeared on his cold and solemn face, like ice and snow melting away.

"Why didn't you leave?" Chang Lili asked, feigning surprise.

Meng Yuxiu's smile deepened: "Don't you have anything to say to me?"

Seeing Chang Lili looking in the direction of the woods, one could tell without even looking that a mechanical bird lay there, and several trees had been knocked down.

A look of sadness immediately crossed her face. She walked to Meng Yuxiu's side and said sadly, "I have an idea."

"Oh? Tell me about it." Meng Yuxiu showed no airs of a great general and sat down directly on the ground.

Even sitting casually on the ground, he didn't look down on anyone; on the contrary, he had a unique charm.

Chang Lili couldn't help but glance at him a few more times, then sat down as well, moving closer to Meng Yuxiu.

"I feel it's too unsafe for my mother-in-law to stay here. You should take her back to the General's Mansion," she said sadly.

"Take her back to the General's Mansion?" Meng Yuxiu asked in surprise.

Chang Lili nodded: "Yes, of course I can't leave the Light Machinery Department, but I don't want anything to happen to my mother-in-law."

"But if we send your mother-in-law back to the General's Mansion, who will take care of you?" Meng Yuxiu asked with a worried expression.

Chang Lili retorted, "What do you mean, 'who will take care of me'? I'm all grown up now, I have hands and feet, why would I need anyone to take care of me? I can take care of myself."

Meng Yuxiu smiled, his eyes filled with a doting affection he himself was unaware of: "That's true, but I'm willing to send her back only if she's willing to go back. But, that big bird, shouldn't you explain that to me?"

He pointed towards the woods.

Chang Lili finally couldn't get away with it anymore, and chuckled awkwardly twice, saying, "That... it's the mechanical bird, the one I said I'd make before."

"Your mechanical bird is quite impressive. Not only is it huge, but it can also fly." Meng Yuxiu looked on with amusement, one of his long arms bracing against the ground.

"Yes...right, of course my mechanical bird is amazing." Chang Lili couldn't help but feel proud.

Meng Yuxiu scoffed, "If you're so powerful, how come you managed to flip it over?"

"Failure is the mother of success. This is my first time making a mechanical bird, and I haven't even test-flown it before. It's only natural that there would be some accidents," Chang Lili said timidly.

Meng Yuxiu's smile vanished, replaced by a stern expression. "Luckily, nothing went wrong this time, but I don't want it to happen again. The mechanical bird failed its test flight and cannot be used. If this happens again, all the materials you used to make the mechanism will be taken back."

"This is too...too cruel! I had no choice but to do this because of the emergency. If it weren't for this mechanical bird, we might not have been able to wait for you to arrive." Chang Lili was indignant at first, then looked aggrieved.

Meng Yuxiu said with some helplessness, "It's my fault for putting you in danger, but I promise it won't happen again. I also hope that you won't do such dangerous things again."

A certain part of Chang Lili's heart softened. Looking at Meng Yuxiu's face, she couldn't help but lean her head on his shoulder, puffing out her cheeks as she said, "This is not your fault, but I had no choice. I also value my life, and of course I could not joke about my mother-in-law's life. This time I had no choice, but it won't happen again next time."

Meng Yuxiu felt the warmth on his shoulder and looked at Chang Lili's delicate features so close to him. All his worries vanished like clouds.

He wanted to reach out and touch Chang Lili's face, but immediately remembered what had happened before. Chang Lili seemed to have forgotten her anger. He couldn't repeat the same mistake, so he resisted the urge to touch her.

With a gentle smile on his lips, he pondered, "I will leave Ke Shou here. With him here, things will be much better. In addition, I plan to rebuild the entrance here and set up trap arrays all around."

"Set up a trap array? Do you need my help?" Chang Lili immediately raised her head and asked with shining eyes.

As expected, it was the art of mechanisms that could move Chang Lili's heart. Meng Yuxiu thought to himself in bewilderment, and then smiled faintly, "Since it is a mechanism array, it is natural that the Light Machinery Department needs to take action, and you can naturally participate as well."

Chang Lili jumped up excitedly.

Inside the wooden house, the old woman was not asleep. She did not light a lamp, but sat on the bed and took out something she had been holding in her hand: a crumpled letter.

There was nothing written on the envelope. By the moonlight, she carefully took out the thin letter from the envelope with her withered hands.

The paper was covered with densely written characters, the handwriting both elegant and fierce.

The letter read: "Mother-in-law, by the time you see this letter, those assassins should already be dead."

After reading this sentence, the mother-in-law's mind cleared; the letter was actually written by Lu Zixin.

The mother-in-law was alarmed. Why would Lu Zixin's letter be delivered by those men in black?

In her letter, Lu Zixin wrote that Meng Yuxiu was currently investigating them very closely, and they could not afford to leave any trace. They had no choice but to use this method and risk sending the letter in.

After telling her mother-in-law that they were safe, Lu Zixin suddenly brought up the story of the destruction of the Great Shun Kingdom, saying that Meng Yuxiu had been involved in the matter.

The mother-in-law still didn't believe it when she saw this. After all, the destruction of the Great Shun Dynasty was ten years ago, and Meng Yuxiu was still a child at that time. It was impossible for him to lead troops to the battlefield.

But Lu Zixin's next words chilled her heart inch by inch.

Meng Yuxiu did not go to the battlefield or lead troops to break through the palace gates of Da Shun, but the Da Shun army was ambushed and its resources were cut off. As a result, Da Shun, which was already weaker than Yun Kingdom in terms of military strength, lost a lot of troops in the blink of an eye, and its generals were also ambushed.

Queen Da Shun was also a heroine who led troops into battle. Naturally, her mother-in-law knew something about what happened on the battlefield. She knew that when the Yun Kingdom had been besieging Da Shun for a long time without success, their food supplies were running out and they were about to withdraw their troops.

It was Yun Kingdom that used underhanded tactics to rout the Da Shun army, and Da Shun's downfall was imminent.

The thin sheet of paper, covered with writing, slipped from the mother-in-law's trembling hands.

Tonight, Meng Yuxiu saved her and Chang Lili. She was filled with gratitude and even felt that she could entrust Lili to him.

But now, she felt it was wrong. He was the one who destroyed Da Shun, the culprit who caused Chang Lili's family to be destroyed.

The image of the late queen before her death appeared in her mother-in-law's mind like a bubble rising to the surface of water, then burst open again, causing her excruciating heartache.