Yan Ze finally caught that last elusive fish. Looking at the murky water in the lotus pond, he felt quite accomplished.

This fish was very good at hiding; catching it was no easy task.

Wan Xia invited them to have some ginger soup and reminded her daughter, “The wind’s picking up, don’t stay out on the corridor.”

Shi Buyu obediently came out from the wind-and-rain corridor and casually put forward a request, “I want some fish soup boiled until it’s white.”

Wan Xia agreed at once. As long as the girl didn’t eat raw fish, she could eat however she liked. Drinking soup was best; the girl needed to drink more soup these days to nourish her body.

Shi Buyu called Yan Shian into the study and handed over a wooden box. “Take a look.”

“Important news?”

“Sort of.”

To Miss Shi, anything counted as major news, so this was definitely not trivial. Yan Shian, following her habit of sorting information by importance, went straight to the important ones.

After a moment, he looked up to speak but froze.

Before, Miss Shi had been laughing and joking—other than noticing she had purposely dressed up today, he hadn’t noticed anything else. But now, her expression was calm and quiet—very weak, completely unlike her usual self.

Shi Buyu caught his gaze and after a brief moment of puzzlement, smiled. “Is it that you barely recognize me? When I looked in the mirror this morning, I didn’t dare believe it was me.”

Yan Shian quickly averted his eyes, clearing his throat. “Sorry, that was rude.”

“What’s there to be rude about? I even made a funny face at the mirror before I believed it was really me!” Shi Buyu waved her hand and got down to business. “Tonight, I’ll take Yisheng to identify the bodies. After a quiet period, the emperor has started dealing with corpses again, which means his illness has relapsed. Whenever there are dead people, new ones are needed to fill their places. So the arrests won’t stop—they’ll just be more hidden.”

Shi Buyu looked at him. “Brother Wu is helping me find people, but he’s not in the capital. Think of a way to catch this last tail.”

Yan Shian immediately understood. “Follow them afterward, and when they’re arresting people, expose them?”

“Yes. What the emperor is doing is inhumane, but he must know this can’t be made public. The people can’t do anything to him, but Dayou’s foundation isn’t completely rotten yet. There are still old ministers in the court who lived through the Qizong period, and he’s afraid of the historian’s pen. He’ll definitely try to cover this up. Once he tries to cover it, there will be moves.”

Shi Buyu smiled, “Fixing something is never easy. Wherever he tries to patch, I’ll poke there. The more I poke, the more he’ll have to patch.”

Yan Shian followed her logic and habit. “Once something is done, there’s a trail. The more he patches, the more you can do.”

“We’re opposing him, but it’s not a do-or-die game.”

Shi Buyu moved the red wooden ink screen between her and Yan Shian. “He can do whatever he wants to kill us, but all we can do is ruin his reputation. Only when you truly sit in that position will you have the right to decide his life or death. Until then, we might die; he won’t. Any disloyal or disrespectful act against the emperor is rebellion. Once you rebel, you lose all your advantages.”

Shi Buyu looked at Yan Shian. “The more evil he is, the more you must be kind and trustworthy. The more he degrades the people, the more you must protect them. The more foolish he is, the wiser you must be. Plus, you passed the imperial exam on your own merit, your talent is famous throughout the land. When your identity is revealed, and the emperor is found guilty of fratricide, many will flock to you. Who wouldn’t want the merit of serving the dragon?”

Yan Shian bowed his head, smiling. “You make me feel fired up.”

“With him in front, you’re destined to walk the path of ‘benevolence.’ That means you can only seize power in this way.” Shi Buyu looked at several sheets of rice paper. “You’re the internal threat of Dayou, so there can’t be an external one at the same time. The Danba Kingdom and Zhamu Kingdom cannot form an alliance.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“Isn’t it all about proof? I can give him a basketful with just a wave of my hand.” Shi Buyu chuckled. “No rush. When there’s news, Brother Jiu will send me a letter. We’ll adapt then.”

“You said yesterday the court wouldn’t believe it…”

Shi Buyu answered readily: “Danba has spies in Dayou, and Dayou certainly has spies in Danba. When the time comes, just find a way to get the information into the spies’ hands. As for how to get reinforcements beyond Danba, we’ll see then. It’s not unsolvable.”

Yan Shian laughed. “So yesterday you were just too lazy to bother.”

Shi Buyu gave a fake smile and didn’t say she was in a bad mood yesterday and didn’t want to think about these things.

But who would have thought, after waking up, these things were still waiting for her!

“After the autumn imperial exam, there’ll be many banquets in the capital. You show your face in front of those old bigwigs and get their favor. You can continue with the ‘Fusheng Collection’ and have your subordinates spread the name of Lord Shian outside the capital—farther the better.”

Yan Shian nodded. Having a clear direction made him feel much lighter than before.

“I’m going with you tonight.”

“Go ahead.”

Whenever they went out, Shi Buyu’s small bag was never short of food. This time she brought preserved fruit from a famous shop in the capital—it really was better than others.

At the foot of the mountain, she pinched a piece in her hand. When Yan Ze looked over, she immediately stuffed it into Yan Shian’s mouth, smiling as sweetly as the preserved fruit.

Yan Ze opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and closed it again. Seeing his cousin silently laughing and slapping her thigh, he simply turned around and looked away.

Wan Xia lightly tapped Miss Shi’s forehead. If Yan Manager could bear it once and pretend not to see, the girl wouldn’t have purposely provoked him.

During the day, someone had already scouted the path in advance, followed by him going up from another direction, then coming down to avoid leaving too many traces on the mountain road.

Yan Ze led several subordinates to dig up the grave. Two of them covered their mouths and noses, and looked at the six corpses wrapped in mats. They were buried shallowly and carelessly, stacked one on top of another.

By torchlight, He Yisheng stepped forward to identify the bodies. One by one he looked at them. Though their faces were scratched, he still recognized them: “Four men, two women. One is unfamiliar, the other five I’ve seen before.”

His expression calm but his voice slightly trembling.

Shi Buyu didn’t hold back and grabbed his clenched fist, then said to Yan Shian, “Check if their bodies have the same marks we saw before. A’Gu, you check the women.”

Wan Xia led her back a little before going forward.

Yan Shian glanced at their joined hands and followed A’Gu forward.

After checking one by one, Wan Xia turned back. “Same.”

Yan Shian also said, “Same.”

Truly incorrigible. Shi Buyu sneered coldly, “He’s doomed by heaven. Rebury them, clear all traces, and keep watching them.”