Chu Changping’s men quickly dug open the grave and lifted out the exquisite willow wood coffin.

A trusted confidant asked him, “Sir, shall we open the coffin to take a look?”

Chu Changping looked up at the sky, took a deep breath, and fought back the tears in his eyes, saying, “Open it.”

As the coffin lid was pushed aside, a strong smell of decay immediately wafted out.

The woman inside the coffin had also died from a collision; her head was broken, and blood had covered her face.

No one had cleaned her face before burial, so it was impossible to see her features; one could only discern that she was a young woman, around eighteen years old.

Her clothing was tattered, barely enough to cover her modesty, with her arms and half of her thigh exposed, and beneath the corpse’s marks, one could still see some ambiguous bruises.

It wasn’t hard to imagine what she must have gone through while alive.

Chu Changping felt his heart ache like it was being cut by knives; he stole a quick glance and could no longer bear to look closely, removing his cloak to cover his niece.

With red eyes, he roared into the rainy night, “Dog Emperor! My Chu family will never coexist with you!”

After closing the coffin, his confidants placed it on a cart, covering it with cages stacked on top and on both sides for concealment.

The city gate of Xizhou had already closed; they wouldn’t be able to escort the coffin out of the city tonight.

The group prepared to return to the inn they had previously arranged to rest for the night, intending to set out again at dawn.

In this borderland, after nightfall, every household had extinguished their lights, and not a single shadow could be seen on the streets.

The sound of the wagon wheels was particularly clear in the night.

Chu Changping rode ahead, and as he turned a corner, he suddenly saw a team of armored soldiers blocking their way.

He tightened the reins, causing his horse to neigh loudly, and the group came to a halt.

The rain poured heavily, with cold water dripping from the edge of his hat.

Chu Changping’s gaze fell on the wagon behind the armored soldiers, and he cupped his fists, asking, “Is the Prince of Liao Nan inside the wagon?”

There was no sound from the wagon, but a commander from the front of the troops spoke up, “Lord Chu, why have you come to the territory of Xizhou from Yongzhou?”

Yongzhou was located on the border of Liao Dong, and traveling from Yongzhou to Xizhou was like crossing half the Xuanzhao Dynasty.

Officials with military ranks were not allowed to leave their jurisdiction without reporting to the court; if this were to reach the emperor’s ears, it would be considered a crime of deceiving the emperor.

Having decided to come personally to bring his niece back to the capital for burial, Chu Changping was unafraid of being accused of deceiving the emperor.

He replied, “My niece has met with misfortune; even grass and trees emphasize returning to their roots. I have come solely to bring her back to the capital. I will forever remember the Prince’s benevolence in providing the coffin, and I will repay it in the future.”

Xing Yao glanced indifferently at the wagon behind him before signaling the armored soldiers blocking the street.

Soon, the sound of clashing armor echoed, and the armored soldiers quickly opened a path.

Chu Changping cupped his fists again, saying, “I thank the prince.”

He led his men through the dark army hidden in the rain.

The wagon’s curtain was finally lifted, and Chi Qing glanced at the direction Chu Changping was leaving: “To make Chu Changping risk the crime of angering the emperor by coming all the way from Yongzhou to collect a corpse, it seems that the deceased courtesan was indeed the legitimate daughter of the Jiang family.”

Feng Shuo remained silent, seemingly resting his eyes.

There was no one around him who recognized the legitimate daughter of the Jiang family; even if they detained Chu Changping and forcibly opened the coffin to inspect the body, they could only rely on the coroner to determine whether the corpse was indeed intact.

It is said that the dead are to be respected; since the person had already passed away, using such means to verify the body was unnecessary.

If it turned out not to be the Jiang family’s legitimate daughter, it would be fine, but if it were… Chu Changping would likely go to great lengths for her.

In the end, Feng Shuo chose to let Chu Changping leave; after all, he had traveled a great distance to collect his niece’s corpse, and he would not have failed to recognize her.

So…

What about that chef in the military camp?

Was there really someone in the world named “Jiang Hua,” or was she an undercover agent hidden deep?

Chi Qing was unaware of Feng Shuo’s thoughts; he watched Chu Changping’s retreating figure and sighed, “Speaking of this Lord Chu, he has experienced quite a few ups and downs in the officialdom. Back then, he was the new champion appointed by the late emperor, and the princess took a liking to him at first sight, clamoring to marry into the Chu family.

Among that year’s new Jinshi, who had the same glory and splendor as Chu Sanlang? Unfortunately, he was already engaged and did not want to be a faithless villain.

Even though the late emperor’s esteemed consort made several visits to persuade Chu’s old lady to either break off the original engagement or take the girl as a concubine so that he could marry the princess in style and become an imperial relative… but Chu Sanlang refused them all.

Later, he did marry the youngest daughter of the Ministry of Rites, with whom he had an engagement, but his career came to a halt.

He simply abandoned the literary path and took up arms, rising from a lowly soldier to the position of Commander of Yunzhou.

However, after the new emperor ascended, he was demoted to Yongzhou, a poor area…

The Jiang family and the Chu family have barely communicated during festivals lately, but back when Chu Changping was still the Commander of Yunzhou, Jiang Jing’an could rise to the position of Minister of Revenue thanks to his influence.”

Chi Qing lightly tapped his palm with his fan: “In my view, this Chu Changping in Yongzhou is not an ordinary person; your Highness, you have bestowed a coffin upon the Chu family, and if you ever wish to recruit him, it would be planting a favor in advance.”

Feng Shuo finally opened his eyes but didn’t respond to Chi Qing’s words.

He simply said, “Foreign spies have infiltrated the Western State army. It seems that Fan Wei intentionally turned the Western State camp into a sieve before handing over power. If the Western State loses even a city or two, the little emperor will have a reason to send troops to take control of the Western State.”

A hint of mockery flashed in his eyes. “My nephew is even greedier than I imagined.”

Chi Qing also realized the seriousness of the situation and frowned.

Feng Shuo had a reputation on the battlefield as the “Living King of Hell,” commanding a large army stationed in the Liao South region.

Even if the new emperor wanted to diminish his military power, he had no means to do so.

Whenever the military generals in the court mentioned Feng Shuo’s name, they would tremble with fear, let alone engage him in battle.

The new emperor was using Feng Shuo’s mother as a bargaining chip to exchange the Western State for Dazhou, claiming that Dazhou was wealthy, and had promised to hand over the Western State camp to Feng Shuo as compensation.

It was a pretty face-saving act, but in reality, the hundred thousand soldiers of the Western State camp were merely scattered troops, not to mention the foreign spies intentionally let in by Fan Wei.

It was, at best, a bad hand.

After pondering for a moment, he said, “There’s a saying: it’s better to wrongly kill a thousand than to let one go. Rather than wasting time and effort to find out how many spies are among the camp prostitutes, it would be better to send them all away.”

With the camp prostitutes helping in the kitchen, if they were to do something to the food, the entire Western State camp would be in grave danger!

There were plenty of hard labor jobs outside the pass, such as mining, washing, digging coal, and repairing the Great Wall.

He could send them off to do manual labor.

Feng Shuo didn’t immediately express his position.

It was only on the way back that he said, “Since Fan Wei has set such a big trap for me, it’s only proper to return the favor.”

Chi Qing was unsure of his intentions and hesitated to ask, “Your Highness, do you mean…”

---

The food situation in the army had improved, so few soldiers came to eat at the private stoves.

Aside from the occasional few who came for Jiang Yanyi’s hot and sour noodles every night, the other cooks had basically lost business.

Fortunately, the monthly military salary had also increased by two hundred coins, so no one envied Jiang Yanyi for earning a few copper coins from her evening noodle sales.

Jiang Yanyi was preparing the bone broth for the noodles she would cook in the morning, while Qiukui sat behind the stove, savoring the freshly made braised pork pie, looking quite satisfied.

The pie was crispy, filled with salty and delicious preserved vegetables, and the meat was a perfect balance of fat and lean.

After marinating and frying, the aroma was all released, and it burst with meat juice when bitten into.

Qiu Kui was already full from dinner but still devoured three braised pork pies in one go.

If Jiang Yanyi hadn’t stopped her for fear of upsetting her stomach, she would likely have gone for a fourth.

After the previous close encounter with danger, several big men who had carried Chef Li to the military doctor volunteered to escort Jiang Yanyi back to her barracks in the future.

Jiang Yanyi made each of them a braised pork pie as a token of appreciation.

Once the broth was about ready, Jiang Yanyi asked Qiukui to put out the fire and cleaned up the stove, preparing to return to her barracks to rest.

Qiu Kui quietly grumbled to her, “The strategist took your recipe last night and said he’d reward you with silver today, but he hasn’t shown up at this time. He’s probably just trying to fool people!”

Qiu Kui was generally magnanimous, but Feng Shuo had taken half a plate of chestnuts that belonged to her and even packed up half for himself, which left her feeling quite disgruntled.

Whenever she thought of that strategist, Jiang Yanyi recalled his intrusion into the tent that morning.

Knowing there were women inside who were not properly dressed, he had still deliberately approached; he could only be a lecherous scoundrel!

Hmph, men!

She turned around and caught sight of her cloak wrapped in cloth, feeling a bit of a headache.

If she personally returned it, that strategist might think she was trying to take advantage of him, right?

Jiang Yanyi felt somewhat annoyed and indignantly said, “That’s just a beast in human clothing!”

After saying this, she didn’t hear Qiu Kui echo her sentiment.

Jiang Yanyi’s expression stiffened as she worried Qiu Kui would ask for clarification.

Instead, she saw Qiu Kui looking puzzled and asking, “Yanyi, what does ‘beast in human clothing’ mean?”

Jiang Yanyi coughed a couple of times and said, “It means a person who is not true to themselves; it refers to a fraud.”

Qiu Kui nodded, jotting down this new term for calling someone a fraud.

“Achoo—”