Chapter Twenty-Six: The Affair Exposed

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Shen Xiunian sighed, finally understanding why he had been chosen to investigate the matter.

If the story about the drugged incense was true…

Pei Zhouwu, being imprisoned, couldn’t have obtained it himself.

So if the guards carried incense meant to knock someone out—who was it intended for? To use against Pei Zhouwu?

This wasn’t a case just anyone could be sent to investigate. The empress and the Pei family would never agree to letting someone potentially tied to the incident’s perpetrators handle it—they’d want someone who wouldn’t collude to hide the truth.

The investigator had to be someone uninvolved in the capital’s court politics, yet powerful and difficult to bribe.

Shen Xiunian, ranked second-grade official and commander of hundreds of thousands of troops, was just that—stationed far from the capital year-round and aligned with no factions.

It made perfect sense to send him.

After returning to the estate and changing into armor, he led his men out of the city and toward Xiangshan.

Pei Zhouwu’s prison was in an extremely remote location—nestled in dense forest halfway up the mountain, hidden from plain sight. It wasn’t until they reached a cliffside that they finally spotted the massive pendulum marking the place. Sheer cliffs surrounded it—nothing visible above or below—truly a perfect place to hold someone.

When the neatly arranged army approached, the mountain guards panicked.

“General, have you come to detain the traitor Pei Zhouwu?”

“Traitor?” Shen Xiunian looked the man over with interest. “Has His Majesty declared him a traitor? You speak quite confidently.”

“W-Well, Pei Zhouwu did kill someone—how is he not a traitor?”

“Why did he kill?”

“He was trying to escape!”

“If I recall correctly, he’s been imprisoned here for half a year. Why not try escaping before? Why just last night—conveniently after your new squad leader took charge? Could it be your own leader gave him the opportunity to flee?”

“T-That’s impossible… We would never—”

Shen Xiunian had no patience for their excuses and headed inside.

The second room he entered reeked of blood, making him wrinkle his nose.

The man on the bed had his eyes tightly shut, lips deathly pale, and his bloodstained body was a shocking sight.

Although they weren’t close, Shen Xiunian had met Pei Zhouwu before on court occasions.

Once, Pei Zhouwu had shone like the midday sun.

Now… seeing him in this state, it was hard not to feel a pang of pity.

Shen Xiunian reached out two fingers and placed them under Pei Zhouwu’s nose—his breathing was so faint his chest barely rose or fell. He truly looked dead.

“Su…”

Pei Zhouwu’s faint murmur startled him into withdrawing his hand.

“…Yueying.”

The voice was too weak for Shen Xiunian to catch clearly.

But as an investigator, he couldn’t dismiss anything that might prove useful—even a delirious whisper might be a clue.

So he leaned in closer.

After a moment, Pei Zhouwu murmured again, “A-Ying…”

“A-Ying?” Shen Xiunian repeated the name aloud.

A Ying?

He suddenly straightened, his entire back tense.

It wasn’t surprising that he’d immediately say “A Ying”—among all the people he knew, only Liu Fuying had that phonetic in her name.

And Pei Zhouwu, mumbling it in such an intimate tone, clearly referred to a woman.

In an instant, an absurd thought struck Shen Xiunian.

Could it be… he had just uncovered Liu Fuying’s affair?

He had long suspected she was seeing someone, and since she often went to Xiangshan’s Changming Temple, he assumed she met her lover there in secret.

Had he guessed wrong?

Was her secret rendezvous not at the temple… but here?

No—how could that be?

This place was surrounded by cliffs and guarded by soldiers. How would Liu Fuying even get inside?

Then suddenly—

A memory surfaced, deepening the crease in his brow.

Once, Liu Fuying had fallen off a cliff at Xiangshan and didn’t return until the next day.

After that incident, she began visiting Xiangshan frequently, claiming she was praying for a child at the temple…

Xiangshan. A Ying.

Such coincidence?

Or… was it really just coincidence?

Perhaps Pei Zhouwu’s whispered name simply sounded like hers. Maybe he was overthinking.

After all, with so many soldiers guarding the place, how could she have slipped in, not once but repeatedly, to have some secret affair with a prisoner?

“Ying…”

Pei Zhouwu’s murmurs continued.

The more Shen Xiunian listened, the faster his heart pounded.

It wasn’t jealousy that gripped him—it was fear. Pei Zhouwu’s identity was far too dangerous. If something went wrong, the entire Shen family could be wiped out.

“Hairpin… hairpin…”

Pei Zhouwu’s fevered words pulled Shen Xiunian in again.

Bracing himself, Shen Xiunian stepped forward to hear more.

“Hairpin…”

The tone had become anxious. Shen Xiunian furrowed his brows and focused.

“Yueying…”

“Su Yueying.”

Su…

This time, he heard it clearly—Pei Zhouwu had said “Su,” not “Liu.”

He let out a breath of relief, his shoulders loosening.

Not Liu Fuying.

Thank goodness.

Moving to rise, his foot brushed against something. Looking down, he spotted a wooden hairpin on the floor in front of the bed.

He crouched and picked it up—finally understanding what Pei Zhouwu had meant by “hairpin.”

Just as his fingers touched it, a glimmer of something caught his eye under the bed.

He reached under and pulled out… a spent stick of incense.

His heart skipped a beat—this must be the very drugged incense his subordinate had mentioned.

He was still staring at it when he suddenly met a pair of cold, open eyes.

Pei Zhouwu was awake.

Startled, Shen Xiunian stood quickly. Pei Zhouwu also pushed himself up.

Despite his bloodied, broken state, his eyes were razor-sharp—glaring at Shen Xiunian like a predator, as if he were the one in control, not the one half-dead on the bed.

Without saying a word, Pei Zhouwu reached out his hand.

A silent standoff stretched between them in that blood-soaked room.

Shen Xiunian understood—he wanted the hairpin.

Even in unconsciousness, Pei Zhouwu had been fixated on it. Clearly, it meant the world to him.

This kind of feeling… this depth of emotion… Shen Xiunian understood too well.

They were both men burdened by love.

He didn’t make things difficult—he handed over the hairpin.

Only then did he notice that it was carved with two tiny fireflies.

That explained everything.

Pei Zhouwu hadn’t been saying “A Ying” as in “Fuying,” but “Ying” as in firefly—Liu Ying.

So it was “Yueying,” not “Fuying.”

He really had overthought it.

How could Liu Fuying and Pei Zhouwu possibly be involved?

Thinking back to that morning when Liu Fuying said she looked down on him—well, if she didn’t even want him, she certainly wouldn’t fall for a prisoner.

“General Shen…” Pei Zhouwu rasped.