The sun hung in the sky like a colorless white shadow, slowly sinking into the clouds.

In the distance, the gate of the Western State Camp stood over two zhang tall.

Excluding the archers stationed on the watchtowers on both sides, there were still about a hundred guards on duty at the gate.

Hanging in the middle of the gate was a bloody figure, with blood spilling down and staining the sandy ground.

It was the pockmarked face.

Liu Cheng’s forehead was drenched in cold sweat.

If the gap in the fence over at Poplar Forest hadn’t been sealed, he wouldn’t have risked coming this way.

He tightened his grip on the bundle containing fifty taels of silver on his shoulder, not daring to look at the half-dead pockmarked face.

He walked straight to the guards on duty and handed over his identification: “Sir, I’m from the Firehead Camp, out on some business.”

The guard took the identification, glanced at it, then looked at the scale armor uniform Liu Cheng was wearing.

Liu Cheng felt a chill at the guard’s gaze; he had stolen this scale armor to avoid being captured by the Tiger Step Camp.

Just as he was feeling anxious, he saw the guard beckoning behind him: “We’ve got a spy here! Bind him!”

The guards immediately surrounded him, dozens of long spears aimed at Liu Cheng.

Liu Cheng was frightened and dumbfounded: “I’m really from the Firehead Camp! Chef Li from the kitchen is my master…”

The guard sneered: “If you’re from the Firehead Camp, why are you wearing infantry scale armor?”

Only those who fought on the battlefield wore scale armor in the Western State Camp.

The Firehead soldiers, being stationed away from the frontlines, were only responsible for cooking and thus did not have scale armor.

Liu Cheng was at a loss for words.

He had changed into this military uniform to barely escape from the Tiger Step Camp, but he was mistaken for a spy just a step away from exiting the camp.

The thought that Chef Li might also be dead weighed heavily on his heart; he was carrying two lives on his back!

With a vengeful glint in his eyes, Liu Cheng knocked down one of the guards and dashed toward the camp gate without looking back.

“Catch him!”

Since the day Feng Shuo’s army settled into the Western State Camp, the guards at the gate had been replaced with troops from Liao Nan, all of whom were seasoned veterans from the battlefield.

Seeing Liu Cheng trying to escape, one of them threw his spear, piercing Liu Cheng’s left leg.

Liu Cheng screamed in agony and fell to the ground, the silver spilling out of his bundle.

“Silver! My silver!”

Like a mad dog, he scrambled to gather the silver into his arms, staring at the camp exit just within reach, his eyes bloodshot, dragging his injured left leg toward the gate: “I have money! I want to go out! I want to live a good life!”

The guards advanced, mercilessly thrusting their spears into his right leg.

With both legs pierced, Liu Cheng let out a pig-like scream, yet he still clung tightly to the silver in his embrace, refusing to let go.

In utter despair, he gazed up at the sky outside the Western State Camp.

The sun had completely disappeared behind the clouds, and the dark clouds covered the sky, as if a heavy rain was about to fall.

---

Xing Yao hurried into the big tent, “Master, we’ve caught the accomplice of that woman!”

Feng Shuo lifted his head from a pile of documents.

Dressed in a black robe embroidered with red patterns of swirling dragons and clouds, wearing a golden crown and a jade belt, his handsome, unmatched face displayed a consistent cold demeanor.

“What have you found out?”

Xing Yao briefly recounted how Liu Cheng and Chunxiang had conspired to harm Jiang Yanyi for the fifty taels of reward by instigating the pockmarked face.

A hint of impatience flashed in Feng Shuo’s eyes; he wasn’t interested in the power struggles among a few criminal slaves.

He directly asked, “Who made the gap in the fence at Poplar Forest?”

This was the main reason he had sent someone to capture Liu Cheng early in the morning.

The crack in the wooden fence was old, clearly indicating that the gap had existed for quite some time.

The watchtowers had blind spots, and in those blind spots, there were concealed paths leading outside.

Such a military camp was nothing short of a joke!

Last night, after interrogating the pockmarked face, he learned that he hadn’t known about the gap until last night when Liu Cheng told him.

Xing Yao said, “Liu Cheng, a Firehead soldier, couldn’t withstand the torture and confessed. He made that gap. Fan Wei’s son is fond of wine and women, and a few months ago, he brought back a group of good women to the army for fun. Among them was a foreign woman who became quite favored, but for some reason, she took a liking to Liu Cheng. That foreign woman coaxed him into making this gap so they could sneak away to Poplar Forest to rendezvous.”

During Fan Wei’s tenure, although there were camp prostitutes in the army, there were still some rules; after the hour of the pig, anyone who went to consort with prostitutes would be punished with lashes.

Moreover, with fewer than a hundred camp prostitutes and several hundred officers in the army, the supply was scarce compared to the demand.

A lowly servant like Liu Cheng would never get a chance, so when the foreign women actively pursued him, how could he refuse such an opportunity?

He relied on bringing supper to the camp prostitutes at night, and by enjoying a brief romance with them, he lived a rather happy life for a while.

The more Feng Shuo listened, the darker his expression became, and by the end, his face was so gloomy it seemed it could drip water. “Immediately capture the foreign spies.”

To infiltrate the army under the guise of camp prostitutes and open a secret passage—was that not a spy?

Xing Yao bowed and clasped his fists, saying, “I’ll have the servant Liu captured and then send someone to investigate.”

Feng Shuo’s expression eased a bit, and he ordered, “Bring me the roster of camp prostitutes.”

He had taken the roster from the Western State military camp last night but hadn’t had the time to examine it yet.

Xing Yao found the roster from a nearby table and handed it to Feng Shuo.

Feng Shuo scanned it rapidly and discovered that there were more than ten camp prostitutes who had not registered their crimes with the authorities, among whom four could not provide accurate household registration information.

From the names, he recognized one of the four as the foreign spy.

He circled the remaining three with a red pen. “Send someone to keep an eye on them.”

Xing Yao complied.

He continued to read, and his gaze lingered on the name “Jiang Hua” at the end of the roster for a moment.

Among all the camp prostitutes, there was only this one named Jiang, likely the kitchen maid from the Fire Crew.

The household registration address listed for her was quite detailed, unlike the others that seemed fake.

However, two years ago, there had been an epidemic in Fengxian County in Dingzhou, resulting in several villages being wiped out.

The authorities, wanting to prevent further outbreaks, directly set the villages ablaze.

The county magistrate, fearing that too many deaths would bring blame from the court, forged a new household registration list, keeping only half of the residents’ information from those villages.

The original household registration was destroyed, and the identities of the remaining villagers were impossible to verify.

The registration was cleverly filled out.

Feng Shuo narrowed his phoenix eyes.

If this “Jiang Hua” was a fabricated identity, he had to appreciate the kitchen maid’s intelligence a bit.

He gently tapped the roster with his fingertips and asked, “How’s the investigation into the Jiang family’s legitimate daughter coming along?”

Xing Yao respectfully replied, “The spies in the capital reported that the Jiang family’s legitimate daughter was sent to the military camp beyond the pass to become a prostitute due to many conflicts with her illegitimate sister. After her sister entered the palace and gained the Emperor’s favor, the Emperor secretly ordered this to happen to give his favored concubine a way to vent.”

“Boom—”

A thunderclap sounded outside the tent, and a cold wind blew the tent flaps, with the bright flash of lightning reflecting on Feng Shuo’s face, his expression filled with derision.

Perhaps recalling some unpleasant memory, his eyes seemed to be frozen, and a light sneer formed at the corners of his lips. “No wonder that person’s precious grandson is so similar in this regard. Both he and his grandson really share the same methods.”

Wasn’t the current Emperor’s grandfather the late Emperor?

Xing Yao dared not respond.

Feng Shuo threw the roster aside, leaning back in his chair, his eyes filled with rich sarcasm concealing emotions unknown to others.

He said, “Did you find out if the person who died a few days ago was Jiang family’s legitimate daughter?”

Only then did Xing Yao speak, “I asked the two soldiers who collected the body. All the camp prostitutes had gone to the Fire Crew that day, and only one had passed away during the night. She was about eighteen years old, of above-average appearance, and had a scar on her forehead. Her name is not listed in the camp prostitute roster, but it closely matches that of the Jiang family’s legitimate daughter.”

“However, the newly appointed Manager Guo of the camp prostitutes is not aware of when she was sent here. I’ll go to the camp prostitutes tonight to ask more questions.”

It had already begun to rain outside, with large raindrops hitting the tent’s canvas, making a “pitter-patter” sound.

Feng Shuo clearly had no patience to wait any longer.

His voice carried a cold undertone as he said, “Dig up the grave and open the coffin for autopsy.”

In his mind, an image inexplicably surfaced—the delicate collarbone and rounded shoulder of that little kitchen maid under the moonlight, and the water-red tie extending to her snow-white neck, with not a trace of color but enticing lips that made one want to kiss…

Feng Shuo’s gaze darkened slightly.

If the deceased was indeed the Jiang family’s legitimate daughter, then this “Jiang Hua” was likely also a spy.

Or perhaps a spy trying to seduce him.

Realizing this spy might possess the means to restore his sense of taste, his gaze deepened even further.