The child's cries brought Bai Zhiyi back to consciousness.

"Cousin, wake up!" A pair of hands pushed hard on her shoulders, the voice trembling with tears. "Cousin, I'm scared."

It was Lin Fei's voice.

Bai Zhiyi barely opened her heavy eyes, and before her was Lin Fei's tear-streaked face. He was shaking her vigorously.

"Xiao Fei!" Bai Zhiyi sat up and hugged the crying Lin Fei tightly. "It's alright, your cousin is here."

Her cheeks felt burning, as if someone had smeared chili peppers on them, or as if many steel needles were pricking them. Her ears were ringing, and her head was throbbing. But she had no time to think about these things; she hugged Lin Fei tightly and looked towards the carriage.

The carriage had vanished, leaving behind a huge black crater, as deep as a person and large enough to fit a house. Thick black smoke rose from the crater, billowing and shooting into the sky.

The snow-covered ground surrounding the crater was littered with fallen silver, jewels, and the Lin family's entire fortune, all scattered in the explosion. Amidst the loot were burning wheels, the charred remains of dead horses, and human corpses.

The Lin family's private army abandoned what they were supposed to do and swarmed over to loot their property.

They were originally a group of thugs and hooligans, and when they saw gold and silver jewelry scattered all over the ground, they immediately revealed their greedy and cruel nature.

Before someone could even rejoice after grabbing several silver ingots, another man stabbed him in the back with a knife. The dead man fell to the ground, the silver ingots rolling out of his arms, and immediately five or six more people rushed up to grab them.

Amidst the thick smoke, Commander Xiao was shouting hoarsely, seemingly trying to get the Imperial Guards to maintain order. However, many soldiers in the Imperial Guards were also attracted by the wealth scattered on the ground and joined the scramble.

Bai Zhiyi carried Lin Fei to her feet and searched for her aunt and uncle among the corpses near the pit. But all she found was a torn piece of clothing, bloodied and hanging on the wheel, which looked like her aunt's clothes.

“Miss…” came the weak, hoarse voice of a maid from not far away.

Bai Zhiyi carried Lin Fei to the maid, knelt down, and cried out, "Xiao Ju, how are you?"

The maidservant lay face down on the ground, her clothes charred on the back. A large pool of blood lay beneath her. With her eyes half-closed, she murmured, "Miss, he lied to you..."

Bai Zhiyi put Lin Fei down and said, "Let's not talk about this now, let me help you up."

She could guess that Wei Jingzhuo was responsible for the carriage explosion, but now was not the time to dwell on that. She stopped thinking and reached out to pull the maid, but the maid did not respond. She shook the maid's shoulder forcefully, but the maid still did not react.

She frantically reached for the maid's mouth and nose, only to find that the maid had stopped breathing.

She collapsed to the ground, her mind blank.

Xiaoju was her personal maid, and although she was always outspoken and sometimes thoughtless, she didn't mind. She took Xiaoju with her wherever she went. She never imagined they would suddenly be separated forever.

"Cousin, cousin, don't stand there!" Lin Fei cried, clinging to her arm. "This place is too scary."

Bai Zhiyi snapped out of her daze and noticed that the Lin family's private army and the Imperial Guards had begun to kill each other. Everyone was fighting over the valuables on the ground. Originally, only the General's guards were on the snow, but now more and more people were lying on the ground.

The valley was filled with shouts of killing and screams, and the air was thick with the smell of blood; to her, it was like a living hell.

If we stay here, we will definitely be killed.

"I'm sorry, Xiaoju, I can't take you with me." She forced herself to stand up, picked up Lin Fei, and stumbled towards the exit of the valley.

The soldiers were all fighting over the loot and had no time to pay attention to her. She fell several times along the way, but finally managed to escape the valley.

The carriage that had brought them here was still parked at the valley entrance, but the driver was nowhere to be found; he had probably been frightened away by the explosion. He carried Lin Fei to the carriage, wrapped her in a blanket, and said, "Little Fei, don't get out of the carriage. Your cousin will take you away right away."

Lin Fei, wrapped in a blanket, nodded to her and whispered, "Cousin... but you're scary too."

Bai Zhiyi didn't know what Lin Fei was referring to, so she forced a smile, closed the carriage door, sat in the driver's seat, and took off the riding whip.

When she was a child, she had a coachman teach her how to drive a carriage. At the time, she thought it was amazing that the coachman could make the horses go wherever they wanted. However, her mother saw this and scolded her for an entire afternoon, saying that how could a young lady of the Duke's mansion learn such low-class things, and then expelled the coachman from the Duke's mansion.

Fortunately, she had this experience, and after a few tries, she finally got the carriage moving.

The carriage had only gone a few steps when the cold wind blew on her face, feeling like it was being cut by knives. She tried to touch it to see what was wrong, but the pain only intensified. So she grabbed a headscarf and wrapped it around her face, leaving only her eyes exposed, which slightly eased the pain.

She didn't know where to go; she just wanted to get out of that terrible valley as quickly as possible. After driving the carriage along the main road for half a day, she discovered it wasn't the way she had come.

Not knowing the way, she slowed the carriage down. Seeing a woodcutter carrying firewood emerge from the roadside woods, Bai Zhiyi quickly asked, "Brother, where is an inn nearby where I can rest?"

She definitely couldn't go back to the Lin residence now. The Lin family had ambushed the General's Mansion first; how could the General's Mansion let the Lin family off the hook? She planned to find an inn to rest first, and then take Lin Fei back to the capital. She had a thousand taels of silver on her, enough for lodging and food, and she could even hire a few guards at a high price.

The woodcutter didn't answer, but instead asked, "Young lady, you came from that direction, did you hear a loud noise on the way?"

Bai Zhiyi shook her head and said, "I'm hard of hearing, I didn't hear that. Where is an inn?"

Seeing that she wouldn't answer, the woodcutter stopped pressing her for an answer and said, "There are no inns in this rural area. If you want to stay in an inn, you'll have to go to Suiyang County."

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