Chapter 9 Blood on the Edge of a Knife: Was she a spy?

As Feng Huaihe watched Zhu Qing squatting on the ground teasing Bao Bao, he couldn't help but feel a deep curiosity.

Now that she's back, why can't she make sweet flower soup? Is she holding a grudge against him from her past life and refusing to make him sweet flower soup again, so she's pretending?

Or perhaps Zhu Qing never returned at all? If so, why isn't she pursuing her studies? Feng Huaihe couldn't understand why, and his expression grew increasingly grim.

Zhu Qing felt inexplicably frightened and looked up, whispering, "It's just a bowl of soup, you don't need to look at me like that..."

Did I speak too harshly and upset Feng Huaihe? After all, regardless of our past relationship, he's a high-ranking leader now. Can he let me speak like that?

Zhu Qing silently prepared some kind words to appease her boss, but she found that Feng Huaihe's eyes seemed to want to tear her flesh apart, to expose the real, bloodied woman beneath her skin, and to make her stand in front of others completely innocent and without a single secret.

But how could she let others uncover her secret? Zhu Qing stood frozen in place, not moving. Bao Bao was attracted by a flying insect and darted away from her hand. Her hand, which had been stroking Bao Bao, missed its mark. Only then did she come to her senses. Just as she was about to say something to ease the strange atmosphere, the sound of evening drums came from the distant streets.

It's time to go back on duty!

This is absolutely wonderful news!

Zhu Qing's face lit up with joy. He quickly came to his senses, stood up from the ground, and dashed out at a speed similar to Bao Bao's.

It's impossible to appease the boss, it's impossible in this lifetime. Zhu Qing ran out of the secretary's courtyard, panting, one hand on the gate and the other wiping the sweat from her forehead to catch her breath.

The short distance had nearly made her lose half her soul; just how bad was Zhu Qing's original body?

A few steps away, on the tree-lined path, Hua Ning, Tian Jiuzhu, and Bao Fu walked out together. Hua Ning saw Zhu Qing first and quickly waved to her: "Shall we go back to the Mushe together?"

Zhu Qing had rested enough and hurried to catch up with them.

As they approached, they heard Tian Jiuzhu say, "Shall we eat at the communal kitchen?"

Hua Ning shook her head weakly and said, "I've saved up so much food in the Mu She. I've always been reluctant to eat it before. I have to save it for when I get back and finish it all. Otherwise, it would be such a waste if I died soon."

Tian Jiuzhu glanced at her and said, "You're something else." Then she took another route to the public kitchen by herself.

Bao Fu watched her retreating figure and sighed, "I also really want to be Grandpa Tian's godson."

Hua Ning mimicked Tian Jiuzhu's tone: "How promising! How many of Eunuch Tian's godsons have a good ending? Don't envy Jiuzhu. She's better off than us now, but who knows what will happen to her in the future!"

After Hua Ning finished speaking, she took Zhu Qing's hand and stepped into the women's quarters.

The rooms were shared by four people. There used to be a servant living in their room, but he resigned and got married, so the room became empty.

Later, due to the chaos of war in the imperial court, no one was willing to enter this profession anymore, so the wooden bed was left empty and is now used by them to store some odds and ends.

As soon as Hua Ning entered the room, she went straight to the bed, rummaged around for a while, and found a wooden box inside.

Hua Ning turned around, clutching the box, and saw Zhu Qing looking at her. Her face fell, and she said in a hoarse voice, "I'm sorry, Qingqing, I've been saving these treats for over half a year. Except for the dried meat, everything else has turned a bit sour. You're not feeling well, so I won't give you any..."

"However, I can share some of this jerky with you..."

Hua Ning wiped her moist eyes, slowly took a small handful of dried meat from the box, and handed it to Zhu Qing with heartache.

Zhu Qing pushed Hua Ning's hand back: "You eat, I've already eaten."

Hua Ning said "Oh," stuffed the small piece of jerky into her mouth, and choked up as she ate: "Sometimes I really don't understand. I've always worked diligently in the secretary's office, and if I had the chance, I would do my best to flatter and please the higher-ups. Why is it that when something like this happens, I still have to be innocently dragged down with them?"

Zhu Qing couldn't understand why, despite always abiding by the law and respecting her teachers and elders, she had ended up drowning. Just when things seemed to be turning around, it was in an era where even basic necessities like food and clothing were a problem.

Unable to answer the question, she sighed inwardly and slowly sat back down on her bed.

The bed board was very hard, covered only with a thin coarse cloth and a thin quilt.

She looked around the room; it was cramped, with four hard bed boards arranged in a U-shape, a small table in the middle for stacking books and documents for overtime work, and a small candlestick lit in a corner.

The conditions looked very harsh, like several people crammed together in a coffin.

Zhu Qing asked Hua Ning with a puzzled look, "Jiu Zhu is Eunuch Tian's goddaughter, so why is she still eating and living with us?"

Logically speaking, Tian Jiuzhu should be the most influential person in the entire shogunate. According to Zhu Qing's common sense, such people should not be treated this way.

With something in her mouth, Hua Ning mumbled, "I don't know either."

Hearing her answer, Zhu Qing didn't say anything more. She touched the letter on her body, then looked at the flickering flame in the candlestick. Was it burned...?

She secretly observed Hua Ning's movements and saw that Hua Ning had finished eating a whole box of food and was now looking for clothes on the bed board piled with things, muttering, "I secretly made a beautiful dress before, and I've been reluctant to wear it. I'm going to dig it out and wear it. I'll die looking beautiful..."

As Zhu Qing listened to her muttering, he turned his back to Hua Ning and slowly walked towards the candlestick, taking out the letter from his person and extending it towards the candlestick.

With a snap, the curtain door was suddenly pushed open.

Zhu Qing abruptly withdrew her hand, looked up and saw it was Tian Jiuzhu. She secretly hid the letter behind her back, pretended nothing had happened, and sat back down with the letter hidden behind her back.

Tian Jiuzhu glanced at her suspiciously: "Why are you so nervous when you see me?"

"Really?" Zhu Qing pretended, "I'm just nervous about Eunuch Tian's matter."

"Yeah?"

Tian Jiuzhu seemed not to believe it, but she didn't ask any more questions. She tidied herself up and sat down by the table, flipping through the documents by the light of the candlestick.

Hua Ning changed into her beautiful clothes, a bright green dress, and recombed her hair. Then, she lay down on the wooden bed with a look of utter despair. She had been crying sadly just moments before, but after lying down for a short while, the even breathing of her sleeping body could be heard.

Zhu Qing also lay down on the bed, clutching the envelope tightly, intending to wait until Tian Jiuzhu fell asleep before burning the letter. But Tian Jiuzhu was indeed a woman who wanted to climb the social ladder, and she was working too hard. Especially as the night deepened, Zhu Qing felt colder and colder.

She then realized she hadn't taken her medicine that night, and her body just couldn't take it. Even though it was summer, she felt cold and uncomfortable, and finally couldn't hold on any longer and fell asleep.

Zhu Qing felt a tightness in her chest even in her sleep, and felt very uncomfortable. She didn't know if it was because of the dream or because she hadn't taken her medicine.

She was half-asleep, half-awake, and in her blurry vision, she saw Tian Jiuzhu put down her book, blow out the candle, grope her way to the wooden bed in the dark, and close her eyes.

The small, dark room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Just as Zhu Qing was drifting off to sleep again, a ray of light forcefully pierced through the window, breaking the oppressive darkness of the room. Along with it came the sounds of a group of orderly and powerful footsteps, the clanging of armor, and roars, all mixed together in a chaotic cacophony.

Zhu Qing and Tian Jiuzhu became alert almost simultaneously, immediately opened their eyes, got out of bed, walked to the window, and quietly pushed open a crack to look outside.

Outside, in the flower-lined courtyard, dozens of Shence Army soldiers appeared. They carried torches in one hand, the flames illuminating everything in the courtyard, and sharp scimitars in the other. They moved about the courtyard with practiced ease, as if searching for something.

Zhu Qing lowered her voice and asked, "This is... Eunuch Tian's Shence Army. What are they doing here so late?"

Tian Jiuzhu was silent for a moment, then said, "Kill."

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhu Qing saw two Shence Army soldiers enter the adjacent tent. A moment later, they dragged out an officer. Before Zhu Qing could react, there was a "thud" sound. One of them raised his knife and cut off most of the officer's neck, leaving only a thin strip of skin connecting it, with his head hanging down.

Swish—

Blood gushed out onto the window in front of Zhu Qing, and a few drops even flew through the window cracks onto her face. She felt the warm, sticky sensation and was so frightened that she covered her mouth tightly to prevent herself from making a sound.

Zhu Qing asked, trembling, "Is this person an agent, a spy?"

Jiuzhu calmly whispered in her ear, "She isn't."

Zhu Qing turned around in surprise and met Jiu Zhu's gaze: "That..."

"Judging from this situation, the Shence Army has no clue what to do and can only kill them one by one, killing ten thousand innocent people but letting one guilty person go free. They deliberately chose to do it when we were sleeping, probably just because they were worried that someone would make a fuss and cause unnecessary trouble."

Bang--

As soon as she finished speaking, the door behind her was suddenly kicked open with great force. Zhu Qing turned around sharply and saw two soldiers holding curved swords standing in the doorway, their menacing expressions sweeping over everyone in the room.

Suddenly, Hua Ning screamed in his ear. Zhu Qing turned his head and saw Hua Ning covering her head and jumping off the bed, screaming as she shrank under the bed.

A soldier walked to the bedside, raised his scimitar high, and thrust it into the bed frame with a sharp clang. The sword pierced through the bed frame and reached the bottom of the bed. When he pulled the sword out, the gleaming blade was stained with bright red blood.

Zhu Qing began to tremble violently, her blood almost running backward. In that instant, she couldn't think straight, and only acted on instinct, rushing forward and grabbing the soldier's arm, shouting, "No, no, no! I know! I know who the spy is!"

The room fell silent upon hearing this.

Even the sound of his heartbeat seemed deafening.

Zhu Qing opened her eyes wide, staring intently at the knife right in front of her, with bright red blood slowly flowing and dripping down it, staining Hua Ning's bedding red.

“I know who you’re looking for,” Zhu Qing said with difficulty, her face pale, “Spare the Shogunate…”