Chapter 107 Fire

On the surface, the Second Prince's residence appears calm and peaceful.

Lan Yuanzhi returned to her residence. Zhou Ao assumed that Lan Yuanzhi's extra day at the Princess's residence had brought them closer and that she could pry out the real secrets from Zhou Chaoyun.

He then came to see her and learned from Lan Yuanzhi about Zhou Chaoyun's actual political affairs. He was overjoyed, as this was a rare piece of good news after the arrest of those illegally manufacturing weapons in Quanshan, Yangzhou. Although the weapons matter did not escalate, he intercepted the news in time before it reached the capital, preventing it from reaching the emperor. In the end, the matter was resolved peacefully.

He was busy with another matter recently and couldn't spare the time to punish his subordinates for their dereliction of duty. However, hearing Zhou Chaoyun's plans for the court a few days later was a pleasant surprise. He hadn't expected that the women in the inner quarters would still be somewhat useful.

Zhou Ao offered a few words of praise, but Lan Yuanzhi merely gave perfunctory replies and excused herself, citing illness.

After returning to the room and dismissing the maid, she saw Miss A-Wu, who was supposed to help her escape. When there was nothing to do, Miss A-Wu was nowhere to be found; perhaps she was out gathering information.

The next day, to maintain her lie, she kept walking around the mansion. Only from a distance could one see that she mostly moved around the Lotus Garden. But even by nightfall, she didn't notice anything unusual. Not only did she not hear any secrets, she didn't even see the person in the garden.

She had already instructed the maid to return to the servants' quarters to rest, as she wanted to take a walk alone.

With the moon high in the sky, the excuse of taking a walk after dinner to digest was no longer valid. Lan Yuanzhi tightened her cuffs and walked back to Xuanyu Pavilion with a mixture of anxiety and hesitation. As she passed the Lotus Garden, the bright firelight flickered, and some of its warm light spilled out of the garden. She glanced at it for a moment, then pretended not to notice and looked away, continuing on her way back.

After passing the lotus garden, then the waterside pavilion and the moon gate, Ah Wu suddenly appeared in front of her, signaling her not to make any rash moves.

Lan Yuanzhi fell silent. The only sounds in the night were the chirping of insects. In this quiet moment, she felt her heart pounding, one beat after another, making a great commotion.

Rushing footsteps came from under the pavilion by the water, and in the shadows, it seemed like voices were coming. One of them was a man, but the other was indistinguishable in gender.

"How's the investigation going?"

"Madam Jiang hid it too well; we couldn't find any of her belongings."

"Keep searching."

Why not try to confuse her and make her reveal where it is hidden?

"You think Yue Mingzhu didn't think of the logic that you could guess? Once the Gu worm enters that woman's body, the protection that Yue Mingzhu left on her will be triggered. As long as she doesn't die immediately, she will burn all her belongings."

"The relics...are they important?"

"The inhuman creature you're controlling was killed by her... The remnants of you within it aren't... To achieve perfect control, you need to unlock... It's in the relics..."

"...You promised..."

"I'll give you the things... You just need to distract them..."

The more they read, the more confused they became. They skipped over some parts of the content, though the two of them understood what it meant. But the four eavesdroppers had no idea!

Shang Yuji desperately wanted to poke Jiang Xi's collarbone to get him closer so she could eavesdrop, but their current position was already the closest hiding place to the pavilion.

What happened to the belongings that Madam Jiang kept?

What is that thing that is neither human nor ghost?

Whose attention are they trying to distract? What wicked thing are they plotting!

And those two people... because they were behind the roof, the man should be the Prince of Qi whom she hadn't seen during the day, and the other person was shorter, dressed in a tight-fitting night outfit, hiding himself completely, only revealing a pair of deep eyes.

She had originally thought the conspiracy would take place in the Lotus Garden, and planned to stake out the place forever. But seeing that Lan Yuanzhi returned empty-handed, she realized that Lan Yuanzhi was the key figure in triggering the event, so she should follow her to unlock the eavesdropping event.

The important point is that in the inevitable death route, Lan Yuanzhi most likely did not enter the Lotus Garden and hear things she shouldn't have heard, only to be discovered by the King of Qi and die. Rather, she accidentally passed by the waterside pavilion and overheard some secrets. It's uncertain how much she heard or understood, so to be on the safe side, the King of Qi found a pretext to kill her.

Therefore, due to her preconceived notions, she mistook the location of the corner incident. Fortunately, she realized her mistake in time and directed Jiang Xi to change the route.

According to what the two were saying, A-Yue's belongings were of utmost importance, and they had to get their hands on them before the King of Qi.

“Yesterday, someone sent a visiting card to Madam Jiang. My spies said that the person came to visit under the guise of being a junior friend of Yue Mingzhu.”

The man said indifferently, "Don't worry about it. Last time, two people from Southern Xinjiang came to her door under the guise of being her old friends, but they still couldn't get that woman to agree. Let alone her old friend's juniors? It's just unnecessary trouble."

To be honest, he only found out later that the two women from the Southern Frontier and Yue Mingzhu came from the same Wuming Village. Zhou Ao, who was more trouble than he was worth, had three Gu practitioners from Wuming Village practically handed to him, yet he let them go so easily. In addition, there was the Quanshan incident he had recently learned about... His mother was known in the capital for her intelligence, yet she had given birth to such a stupid son. If he didn't need to use him to cover his tracks, he would have crippled him and thrown him aside long ago.

After the two finished talking, Lan Yuanzhi and A-Wu looked at each other. A-Wu nodded, and then Lan Yuanzhi moved slightly, stepping on a fallen leaf at her feet. With a soft sound, she stopped moving again.

The people under the pavilion stopped abruptly, turned their heads sharply, and looked towards the Moon Cave Gate. The man made a gesture, and the short, thin man stepped lightly and disappeared into the waterside pavilion in the blink of an eye. Jiang Xi pressed the person in her arms to her shoulder and neck, and together they hid behind the roof.

If it were just Jiang Xi going alone, he wouldn't care whether he was discovered or not. But if he brought A Ji along, he would subconsciously worry about every little thing happening.

Shang Yuji was like a puppet whose movements were restricted. Even the blinking of her long, straight eyelashes was several times slower than usual. She was powerless to resist his action of pressing her head down, and let him do as he pleased, burying her head in his neck. At such close range, she could smell the ephemeral fragrance emanating from his very bones.

She felt her heart stop beating, she stopped breathing, and she didn't even blink. The only difference between her and a corpse was that she still had body temperature. As expected of a Gu worm used to conceal life, it turned a person into a corpse with barely any warmth. Who would suspect that a dead person lying on the ground without any signs of life was a spy?

Believe it or not, it's also quite good for feigning death on the battlefield.

...Upon closer reflection, this Gu is like turning people into real-life puppets, with zero ability to resist, which can be categorized as imprisonment. If any unlucky soul toys with the feelings of the people of Southern Xinjiang or is toyed with by them, be careful that the Gu master, in a fit of rage, might plant a Breath-Concealing Gu, ultimately turning them into a real-life puppet at the Gu master's mercy.

Shang Yuji didn't dwell on whether any unfortunate predecessors had ended up as puppets. In any case, Jiang Xi wouldn't turn her into a living specimen who could only feel but not resist. So she continued to instruct him to follow the man who quietly returned to the Lotus Garden.

With a slight bend of her finger, she touched his collarbone and whispered, "Follow him."

Before leaving, the man looked strangely in the direction of Xuan Yu Ge. Without guessing, Shang Yu Ji knew that he had secretly decided to kill her. As expected, Lan Yuan Zhi would not survive tonight. Unfortunately, because of their intervention, something unexpected was about to happen in the middle of the process.

After returning to the Lotus Garden, the man went inside. The candlelight inside was bright, clearly illuminating his figure.

Aji nestled softly against his shoulder in his arms. Jiang Xi tried to tighten his embrace, hoping to keep out the cold night wind. Shang Yuji, unaware of his intentions, tightened his grip on her shoulder, pulling her closer. She tapped his collarbone twice to express her disapproval, at which point he realized what he meant and loosened his hold.

The man went inside, and the two women waited outside for a while before seeing a dark figure slip inside. They didn't have time to hear what they were saying.

A few sparks lit up at Xuan Yu Ge, indicating that Lan Yuanzhi's residence was on fire. Shang Yuji gave a signal, and Jiang Xi grabbed Lan Yuanzhi and rushed to Xuan Yu Ge. They had to bury the infected Gu worms in the fire.

Lan Yuanzhi's stomping on leaves behind the moon gate, creating a sound, was meant to inform the people of the Lotus Garden that she had overheard their conversation. She also implied that, through a "fortuitous" coincidence, she had learned the specific characters of the Secret Language Gu, thus "inadvertently" triggering its activation, leading to her death from vomiting blood. All of this was to conceal the fact that they had triggered the Secret Language Gu, obscuring the true timing of its activation, and only presenting the result.

The whistling wind brushed against her cheeks, and Shang Yuji couldn't help but squint her eyes, her eyelids closing at a snail's pace. She even had the mind to let her thoughts wander.

During the day, she had met the Second Prince. Unlike the Eldest Princess, she was attracted by the Eldest Princess's tolerance and heroic demeanor after meeting and talking with her. When faced with difficulties, the Eldest Princess would take the initiative to take responsibility, act decisively and swiftly, and dare to think and act. She was a leader that people felt very reliable upon meeting her.

With such a leader, employees will only respect and trust him, and everyone will work together as one to drive the group toward positive development.

But Zhou Ao was different. Not to mention his manipulation of power, the servants and maids in the Second Prince's mansion obeyed his orders without question. This was not because of the strict rules of the mansion, but because, in order to survive, the subordinates had spontaneously learned the means of survival. They would speak less and make fewer mistakes, and if they did, they would be punished. As for the means of punishment, no one wanted to experience it firsthand.

This kind of leader is nothing like the one in her past life who enjoyed the flattery of employees, nitpicked every mistake, and was severely punished when caught. He used his power to act tyrannically and domineeringly... No, no, she can't accept such a person as her leader anymore. She can't breathe. Going to work every day is tiring enough, and she also has to deal with the backstabbing and infighting with her boss.

One salary for doing the work of three people, while also having to provide emotional value to the boss—it's truly heartbreaking to hear.

She would rather die than let the eldest princess ascend to the throne...

The flames suddenly intensified, the beams burned by the flames crackled and popped, accompanied by a heart-stopping sound. As they approached, a wave of heat hit them in the face, and Shang Yuji, blinded by the heat, instinctively closed her eyes. But Jiang Xi was faster than her in closing her eyes, using her body to shield them from the oncoming smoke and dust.

He untied the old handkerchief, and the secret-language Gu inside sensed the danger of the burning flames. Its body trembled in fear. Jiang Xi's face was grim, and he sternly commanded it, "Go!"

Hurry up and go in to your death, don't delay him from taking Ah Ji away from here!

In an instant, the Whisper Gu stopped trembling due to the fear of the flames. Its barely visible wings unfurled, and it fearlessly rushed towards the charred corpse lying in the room, burrowing into the pre-cut opening, and finally engulfed in the raging fire along with the corpse.

Moments later, panicked cries for help rang out from inside the mansion, but the fire was too intense, and it took all night to finally extinguish the fire at Xuanyu Pavilion.

As for Madam Lan inside?

Lying on the bed was a blackened corpse, burned beyond recognition, with a few pieces of charred fabric identifying the body.

Several maids who had been cared for by Madam Lan secretly shed tears for their kind-hearted mistress.

The fire started because an unstable candle flame burned the bedding, and eventually the fire grew so large that it burned down the entire Xuanyu Pavilion.

The assassins who received the assassination order arrived at Xuanyu Pavilion. Seeing the flames, they did not offer any assistance but waited quietly for the fire to die down. After confirming that Lan Yuanzhi was dead, they returned to report.

And this fire? It was simply divine intervention on his part.