Yang Xiu glanced at the hunched-over old scholar and smiled as he explained to the officers, “The boss asked me to bring these snacks for the old gentleman. Look at my memory—I nearly forgot!”

With that, Yang Xiu took a few steps forward, holding out two large paper packages filled with dried meat. “These are from the boss, for you.”

The old scholar reached out to accept them. “Thank you… cough, cough…”

Yang Xiu’s eyes narrowed. He recognized that the dried meat was specifically what Jiang Yanyi had asked them to bring for Chu Changping.

The old scholar couldn’t be unaware of this; on the way back, he had been talking and laughing with them.

How could his voice now be so hoarse?

There was definitely something suspicious here!

Just as the “old scholar” was about to take the package, Yang Xiu grabbed his hand firmly and swept his leg out, kicking him to the ground.

Caught off guard by the sudden attack, the “old scholar” was knocked over by Yang Xiu’s kick.

Everyone in the courtyard was stunned by the sudden turn of events.

The “old scholar” abandoned the main door and sprang up, rushing toward the back window.

His back was no longer hunched, and his movements were agile.

Yang Xiu shouted, “He’s not the old scholar!”

The officers finally snapped out of their shock and chased after him as a group.

The “old scholar” smashed through the window and jumped outside, but he was met with a gleaming sword at his throat.

Bing Shao, who had been waiting by the back window, called into the house, “We’ve got him!”

The “old scholar” couldn’t figure out how he had been exposed.

Anger flashed in his eyes as he leaned back, dodging the blade, and kicked Bing Shao in the chest in an attempt to escape.

Bing Shao staggered from the kick, barely catching his breath.

He swung his sword’s back edge, striking the “old scholar,” who, apparently injured, spat up blood and collapsed to the ground.

At that moment, Yang Xiu and a few officers arrived.

One of the officers yanked the “old scholar” up and pulled off the scarf covering half of his face, revealing a face with ambiguous features.

The person had hair slightly curled from years of being tied in a braid, and an arrow wound, reopened from the scuffle, was visible on his body.

These characteristics perfectly matched those of the man they were ordered to capture!

The officers were overjoyed and quickly tied him up.

They cupped their hands to Yang Xiu and Bing Shao in gratitude. “Thank you, brave men!”

Yang Xiu and Bing Shao returned the gesture.

Yang Xiu had already searched the house thoroughly and couldn’t find the real old scholar.

Worried he might be in danger, he briefly explained the situation to the officers before grabbing the imposter and threatening, “Where did you hide the old man in the house?”

“Killed him,” sneered the Turkic prince, Uguistan, blood dripping from his mouth.

Bing Shao delivered a punch to his face. “Tell the truth!”

The prince’s smile didn’t waver. “I am telling the truth.”

“Do you believe I won’t kill you right now?” Bing Shao wanted nothing more than to finish him off on the spot.

Uguistan(Turkic Prince name) spat blood at him, taunting, “Take your time looking. You’ll find him eventually.”

“You son of a dog!” Yang Xiu cursed, digging his fingers into the arrow wound near Uguistan’s left chest. “Will you talk now?”

Uguistan’s body convulsed in pain, and finally, he relented. “In the cabinet.”

“Don’t play games! I already checked the cabinet!” When Yang Xiu had searched the house, he had pulled out the blankets and only found a shallow pile of old clothes at the bottom.

There wasn’t enough room to hide anyone.

“I’m not lying. I knocked him out, laid him flat inside the cabinet, then piled clothes and blankets on top,” Uguistan replied, breaking into a cold sweat from the pain.

The cabinet in the old scholar’s room had no shelf, so it was open all the way down.

Being a thin man, he could easily be concealed under a layer of clothes and go unnoticed.

Yang Xiu exchanged a glance with Bing Shao, who immediately climbed back through the window and swiftly removed the items at the bottom of the cabinet.

Sure enough, he found the old scholar, stripped of his outer garments and wearing only a thin undergarment.

Bing Shao checked the old scholar’s breathing, sighing with relief when he felt it.

He called out to Yang Xiu, “I found him! He’s alive!”

It turned out that Uguistan had hidden the old scholar just moments before the officers entered and removed most of the blankets on top.

When Yang Xiu searched, he had overturned the rest of the pile, leaving only a thin layer of old clothes.

This saved the old scholar from suffocating.

Bing Shao pressed on the old scholar’s acupoints to wake him.

The old man had merely been knocked out and wasn’t otherwise injured.

His eyelids fluttered, and he finally regained consciousness.

He looked at them, still shaken, and exclaimed, “There was a thief in the house!”

“Don’t worry, old man. The thief has been caught by the authorities,” said Bing Shao.

Only then did the old scholar sigh in relief.

When he returned with Yang Xiu and Bing Shao, they were stopped several times by soldiers along the way.

Even if he were dull, he now understood that the authorities were clearly searching for someone.

Normally, Yang Xiu and Bing Shao would only escort the old scholar to his door and then leave.

But after the old scholar entered his house, someone held him at knifepoint, demanding his household registration.

The old scholar, sensing something was wrong, said he needed to light a lamp to find it.

His home hadn’t been lit for many years, and he could only hope that someone would notice this anomaly.

After the intruder took his household registration, the old scholar felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck and lost consciousness.

He had no recollection of what happened afterward.

When Yang Xiu entered the house and heard the old scholar recount the incident, he sighed and said, “You’re lucky. That thief wanted to hide and didn’t dare to kill anyone recklessly. Otherwise, the smell of blood would have alerted the soldiers, so he only knocked you out.”

The old scholar, hearing this, felt waves of lingering fear.

---

By the time news of the old scholar’s near-death reached Jiang Yanyi, it was already the next morning.

What had happened in the southern part of town the previous night was now the talk of the town.

As soon as Jiang Yanyi opened her restaurant’s doors, neighbors surrounded her, asking how the old scholar was.

Jiang Yanyi was confused—what had happened to the old scholar?

When they saw she was unaware, everyone started talking at once, filling her in on the events from the night before.

When Yang Xiu and Bing Shao arrived, they not only brought the ingredients that Jiang Yanyi had asked them to buy but also snacks—meat buns, jianbing, and candied hawthorn—from street vendors who had gifted them to these newfound “heroes.”

Around their necks, they had several strings of garlic hung by the appreciative townsfolk.

The people who saw them praised them with words like “heroic,” “righteous,” and “brave,” but Yang Xiu and Bing Shao were not used to this attention and felt increasingly awkward.

Only when they reached Jiang Yanyi’s restaurant did they finally relax.

Jiang Yanyi came out carrying a tray with two bowls of steaming lamb stew.

The broth, simmered overnight, was rich and fragrant, with tender chunks of lamb stewed to perfection.

The surface shimmered with small droplets of oil, and a few sprigs of fresh cilantro added a splash of green on top.

Yang Xiu and Bing Shao swallowed hard at the sight.

Smiling, Jiang Yanyi said, “Eat up! This is your breakfast.”

The two exchanged a glance and saw the same look of bewildered happiness in each other’s eyes.

Without even removing the garlic strings from their necks, they grabbed their bowls and devoured the food like starving men.

Since Jiang Yanyi’s hot pot restaurant only opened at noon, she didn’t usually provide breakfast for them.

Normally, they would eat a simple breakfast at their inn—just a couple of steamed buns to get by.

Sometimes, they even skipped breakfast to save room for the delicious food served later in the day.

Though the ingredients were the same, they couldn’t understand why Jiang Yanyi’s lamb stew tasted so different from the lamb hot pot.

Perhaps the hot pot used fresh lamb, while the stew’s flavor came from slow-braising, which made it richer and more complex.

Jiang Yanyi asked, “I heard you saved the old scholar last night. How is he now?”

“No serious harm. He should be able to come to the restaurant later,” Yang Xiu said, still shoveling food into his mouth.

At that moment, both of them thought: from now on, we should definitely keep doing heroic deeds!

After they finished eating, Jiang Yanyi had Bing Shao bring some supplements to the old scholar, telling him to rest and that there was no need to come to the restaurant today.

But, to her surprise, the old scholar showed up anyway.

The diners in the restaurant begged him to tell the story of what had happened the previous night.

However, Jiang Yanyi was concerned that the incident might have left the old scholar with trauma.

Moreover, the man captured was likely the Turkic prince.

If too many details were spread around and reached the ears of the prince’s people, they could retaliate, putting them all at risk.

So, she firmly refused their requests.

Even so, business at her restaurant was booming like never before.

Many customers commented that her restaurant was too small and suggested she should consider moving to a bigger location.

With the Turkic prince captured, Xizhou should be safe from unrest for now.

Jiang Yanyi had been contemplating whether to open a new branch or expand her current one, but both options were big undertakings that would likely have to wait until after the New Year.

With Chu Changping away, she spent her free time preparing the new house she had purchased.

Not knowing the preferences of the Chu family, she decorated their courtyard in the style typical of wealthy families in Xizhou.

She remembered the tastes of her original body’s mother and brother but didn’t dare to spend too lavishly on their favorite vases and ornaments, choosing instead to furnish the place as cost-effectively as possible.

---

Meanwhile, in the capital.

The scarlet palace walls were covered in frost and snow, and a lone plum tree stood in stark contrast to the bleak white surroundings.

Once a luxurious retreat, the Cangjiao Palace now stood desolate, with all its servants dismissed.

The courtyard was empty, and the place felt abandoned.

The doors to the inner hall were wide open, allowing the wind to sweep in snowflakes, making the hall even colder.

The new emperor sat on the steps, draped in a rumpled dragon robe.

His hair was disheveled, and the stench of alcohol clung to him.

A patch of stubble on his chin made him look even more worn down.

In the center of the hall rested a coffin. Inside lay a woman who had clearly been dead for days.

Yet, thanks to the cold weather, her body hadn’t decayed much, and her face remained unblemished, her expression serene.

She was dressed in the robes of an empress.