Lost in thought, they arrived at the general's mansion. Meng Yuxiu carried Chang Lili down from the carriage and headed straight for her residence.

The mother-in-law sat in the courtyard, anxious and helpless. Several times she tried to rush out the door, but the nanny in the courtyard stopped her. She could only sit in the courtyard and worry helplessly.

Seeing Meng Yuxiu carrying Chang Lili in, she hurriedly and shakily went to greet him.

"General, General... Lili... how did she become like this..."

Upon closer inspection, the person Meng Yuxiu was holding was covered in wounds, pale-faced, and had white, cracked lips. The mother-in-law was heartbroken, and tears immediately streamed down her face.

Meng Yuxiu frowned, carried Chang Lili into the house, carefully placed her on the bed and covered her with blankets, then turned around and said in a deep voice, "I have already sent someone to fetch a doctor, she will be fine, it's just a superficial injury."

"Thank you, General. Thank you, General." The old woman could only express her gratitude in her concern.

After examining Chang Lili's pulse, the doctor said there was nothing seriously wrong, just some superficial injuries, and left some common wound medicine.

Meng Yuxiu, however, looked down on those wound medicines and went to his own room to get some wound medicine, which he then gave to his mother-in-law.

Having already troubled Meng Yuxiu so much, the mother-in-law felt embarrassed to use his medicine again, but for Chang Lili's sake, she still accepted Meng Yuxiu's kindness.

After cleaning Chang Lili's wounds, applying medicine, and changing her into clean clothes, the mother-in-law was already sweating profusely from exhaustion.

The mother-in-law was grateful to Meng Yuxiu, but she didn't know the guilt in Meng Yuxiu's heart. If she hadn't gotten involved with him, Chang Lili wouldn't have suffered like this and almost lost her life.

The mother-in-law, carrying Chang Lili's tattered clothes, walked towards the door and bumped into Meng Yuxiu.

“General… Lili needs to rest right now and is sleeping,” the old woman said to Meng Yuxiu, who wanted to go in and visit her.

She felt that Meng Yuxiu's blatant act of bringing Chang Lili back and visiting her in her room was ruining Chang Lili's reputation.

Little did she know that even more outrageous things had been done, so this little bit was nothing. But Chang Lili probably didn't want her mother-in-law to know.

Meng Yuxiu stopped in his tracks as if possessed, and said, "That's good, you should take good care of yourself."

Now that the mother-in-law was relieved, she came to her senses and said, "Our Lili was able to escape with her life thanks to the General."

As she was about to kneel down, Meng Yuxiu quickly pulled her up, saying, "You don't need to do that. Since I've kept you in the General's Mansion, I'll naturally take care of you."

The mother-in-law looked ashamed: "General, you kindly took us in, but Lili has caused you trouble. I apologize to you on her behalf."

Seeing that his mother-in-law was about to kneel down again, Meng Yuxiu quickly helped her up.

Before Meng Yuxiu could say anything, she hurriedly defended her: "Although my Lili is a bit mischievous, she would never do such a petty and despicable thing."

Meng Yuxiu swallowed back the words that were about to jump out of his throat.

"But General, please rest assured, we will not bother you like this. Once Lili wakes up, we will leave the General's Mansion. Thank you for taking care of us these days."

They were talking about this just now, but his mother-in-law suddenly said she wanted to leave. Meng Yuxiu naturally wouldn't agree to that, but he couldn't very well say that he had finally managed to bring Chang Lili along to shield him from other suitors.

He spoke nonsense with a straight face: "I suffered a lot of injuries on the battlefield in the past, although they were all superficial wounds." The old woman looked at Meng Yuxiu in confusion, wondering why he was suddenly saying these things out of the blue. "I also used medicine, but because I didn't rest properly at the time, it still sometimes hurts."

Seeing Meng Yuxiu's earnest attempt to endure the pain, the old woman panicked and hurriedly said, "The general means that if he doesn't rest properly..."

Meng Yuxiu said solemnly, "If I, a man, am in such a state, then she, a woman, has been beaten so badly that her skin is torn and bleeding. She needs to rest and recuperate even more."

The mother-in-law immediately looked worried and troubled. Meng Yuxiu played the good cop and the bad cop, saying, "Mother-in-law, there's nothing to worry about. Just stay here and we'll talk about the future later."

The mother-in-law had no choice but to nod in agreement, as Chang Lili's health was the top priority.

At this moment, Meng Yuxiu noticed something strange on the clothes his mother-in-law had placed on her arm, the tattered clothes stained with blood.

He looked closely and sure enough, he saw something that looked like a wire hanging on his clothes. He reached out and picked it up, only to find that it wasn't a wire at all, but rather a tiny, exquisitely crafted saw that had been shrunk down.

His mother-in-law's eyesight wasn't as sharp as his; it took her a while to realize what Meng Yuxiu was looking at, and she looked somewhat flustered.

"This thing looks interesting. Where did Grandma get it?" Meng Yuxiu asked, looking at the wire saw with admiration.

"Lili just made this for fun because she's playful. But Lili is a good child and would never use it for anything bad. General, please give me this little thing, and I'll take it back to Lili." The old woman lacked confidence and was anxious to get the thing back.

Meng Yuxiu, however, became interested. He dodged his mother-in-law's outstretched hand, but his gaze never left the exquisite object. He said, "This thing is very exquisite. Please lend it to me so I can take a look."

As he spoke, he walked out of the courtyard, ignoring his mother-in-law calling after him, "That doesn't belong to this old woman, it belongs to Lili!"

Carrying the item to the front hall, Meng Yuxiu immediately summoned several of his personal guards and placed the item on the table.

Without careful examination, it's impossible to discern anything about this thing. Meng Yuxiu even doubted whether Chang Lili could actually make it.

The guards looked at the wire-like object with suspicion at first, but after seeing it clearly, they all sighed in disbelief.

"General, where did you find such a skilled craftsman? To be able to make such an exquisite object, even on something as thin as an iron wire, you can create such fine and sharp serrations!"

"Yes, there are probably only a handful of people in the whole world with skills like that."

"General, now that you've hired such a capable person, shouldn't we change our weapons? With new weapons, won't we be invincible?"

The guards chattered amongst themselves, but Meng Yuxiu remained solemn, his brow furrowed in deep thought.

Chang Lili was still asleep in the house, unaware that her little wire saw had caused a huge uproar.

But she couldn't sleep soundly. She had suffered such a serious injury, and even though she had been treated, she was still bound to suffer.

Soon her forehead was soaked with sweat, her cheeks were burning red, and she was babbling incoherently.

Her mother-in-law wiped the sweat from her forehead and took care of her closely.

"Fire... such a big fire... help..." Chang Lili murmured as she felt suffocated.

In her dream, she stood in a magnificent and towering palace, watching as flames devoured the vast palace inch by inch, climbing toward her.