Although Ugusdan was severely injured and infected with a cold, his hearing remained sharp.

From afar, the sounds of hooves and the clash of iron armor echoed down the street.

If he were to escape, the Prince of Liaonan would surely search the entire city, and Ugusdan knew he might not escape this calamity.

His voice hoarse, he asked Jiang Yanxi, “Since you hid in this broken temple, how many people have seen you?”

Jiang Yanxi shook her head while hugging her knees. “I didn’t dare to go out. I only exchanged my earrings with a few beggars at the end of the alley for some steamed buns.”

As she spoke, she took out half of a steamed bun that she hadn’t finished and carefully handed it to Wugusdan. “This is the half I saved for you.”

Ugusdan didn’t take it.

He looked at Jiang Yanxi, who clearly feared him but was stubbornly clinging to him, weighing the pros and cons in his mind.

If he were captured again, his escape would be in vain.

Moreover, the guards would surely be on high alert in prison, making his chances of escaping even slimmer.

As long as he remained in Feng Shuo’s hands, the Turkic tribes wouldn’t dare to attack the Western Province.

After contemplating for a moment, a flash of determination crossed Ugusdan’s eyes.

He struggled to pull off the wolf tooth pendant from his neck, turned to Jiang Yanxi, and said, “I’ve saved your life as well.”

In the firelight, his androgynous face, stained with blood, had much deeper features than those of the people from Daxuanchao.

The thick scarf around his neck hid his Adam’s apple, making him look like a beautiful foreigner.

Jiang Yanxi nodded.

Ugusdan handed her the wolf tooth pendant. “Do me a favor, and consider it a repayment for saving your life. Take the wolf tooth and leave now. For the next few days, go to the tea house at the north city gate to drink tea. If anyone asks where you came from, tell them you’re from the land of the wolves. If they ask how many wolves there are, say they’re all dead.”

The wolf tooth, taken from his neck, was warm from his feverish body as it fell into Jiang Yanxi’s cool palm.

But it was thick, about the width of her pinky, and seemed to emanate a sinister aura, making it easy to imagine how ferocious the wolf that possessed this tooth was.

Jiang Yanxi’s hands trembled unconsciously. “What will you do if I leave?”

Ugusdan scoffed, a mocking look on his ambiguous face. “What do you think you can do by staying?”

Jiang Yanxi bit her lip in embarrassment. “I’m sorry…”

Hearing the approaching hoofbeats, Wugusdan’s brows furrowed with impatience.

If he weren’t gravely injured and suffering from a cold, he wouldn’t want to pin all his hopes on a useless person who could only cry and whine.

To make Jiang Yanxi feel more at ease leaving, he gritted his teeth and said, “Go now! I killed that person; it has nothing to do with you. If you stay, you’ll be treated as an accomplice!”

Jiang Yanxi shook her head. “But… that person was the one who wronged me first. In court, I can testify for you. Maybe I could help lighten your sentence. You saved me; how can I just leave you?”

Ugusdan was still hoping that she would run out and send word for help, but with her hesitating, he felt a surge of irritation and wanted to kill.

If only he had held on for a little longer last night and kidnapped a passerby, he might be in a better situation now.

Ugusdan drew a dagger, the blade pointed at Jiang Yanxi, and forced her, “Leave!”

Tears streamed down Jiang Yanxi’s face as she turned back to leave the broken temple.

Ugusdan shouted with difficulty, “You must go to the tea house at the city gate!”

His throat was in excruciating pain, and his voice was hoarse, not loud enough.

Jiang Yanxi had already stepped out of the broken temple, standing at the door, and heard him vaguely.

She thought he was reminding her and felt touched. “Don’t worry, I will take care of myself!”

Lying in the broken temple, nearly out of breath, Wugusdan thought, “…”

He wanted to kill!

As Jiang Yanxi passed through the alley in front of the broken temple, she encountered a beggar.

This beggar was someone Jiang Yanxi had seen during the day; he had tried to take advantage of her with a few steamed buns, but she had ignored him and exchanged her earrings for buns with a few other little beggars.

Now, when Jiang Yanxi encountered the beggar again, he was leering at her, making her scared enough to cover her face with her hands and hurriedly walk outside.

The beggar laughed creepily and chased after her, but at the alley’s mouth, he ran into the searching soldiers, which scared him so badly that he hurriedly turned back, leaning on his stick.

Seeing the soldiers, Jiang Yanxi’s face turned pale.

The leader, sitting on horseback, spotted Jiang Yanxi and immediately shouted, “Who are you?”

Jiang Yanxi’s mind went blank. “I’m a common girl… my surname is Li. I came from the capital to Xizhou to find my relatives.”

Since leaving the capital, she had been questioned by the soldiers every time she passed through a city gate, so she spoke this out of instinct.

When Minister Jiang forged her household registration, he said that Li was her mother’s surname.

The leader questioned, “You came from the capital. Do you have any documents?”

Jiang Yanxi had packed all her belongings when she left Lu Lingyuan’s house.

She rummaged through her bundle and pulled out the document to hand it over.

The leader took a glance, couldn’t spot any issues with the document, and continued asking, “Since you’re looking for relatives, why are you here in the middle of the night?”

Jiang Yanxi bit her lip, a lock of hair falling over her ear, exuding a sense of pitiful desolation. “I spent all my money on the road and haven’t found my relatives yet, so I had to make do and rest here for the night.”

This area, with its gathering of beggars, was indeed a free temporary resting spot.

The leader asked, “Why are you out at this time?”

Jiang Yanxi’s palms were sweaty.

She seemed hesitant to speak and only glanced at the beggar who had been following her from the corner of her eye.

Seeing her movement, the leader quickly understood that she had likely been harassed by the beggar.

He signaled a nearby woman to search Jiang Yanxi, mainly because they were worried the Turkic prince might be disguised as a woman and had stolen someone else’s household registration.

The woman felt Jiang Yanxi up through her clothes.

After confirming she was a girl, she nodded to the leader.

Only then did the leader signal for his men to let her go.

Being searched in broad daylight was undoubtedly humiliating.

With tears in her eyes, Jiang Yanxi left, her thoughts drifting back to the injured woman still in the broken temple, and her conscience was uneasy.

She could only helplessly tighten the wolf tooth pendant that Ugusdan had given her.

Once Jiang Yanxi left, the soldiers began questioning the beggars in the alley but found no suspicious individuals among them.

The leader ordered his men to search the broken temple at the back and asked the beggars, “Have you seen an injured woman or man?”

Most of the beggars shook their heads, but the one who had been following Jiang Yanxi smiled ingratiatingly, revealing a mouthful of black and rotten teeth. “Sir, last night, two young ladies stayed at the broken temple. One of them knows some martial arts and is pretty formidable, but she seems to be injured. The other one is the one who just left.”

At that moment, a subordinate searching the broken temple returned, his face full of excitement. “Boss, we found her!”

But the leader didn’t have time to rejoice.

The thought that the Turkic prince’s accomplice had slipped away right under his nose made him curse angrily, and he immediately took his men to catch Jiang Yanxi.

Not familiar with the roads of Xizhou, Jiang Yanxi walked hesitantly, unsure whether to return and help Ugusdan.

As she passed by an alley, someone suddenly covered her mouth and dragged her in.

At the same time, the soldiers holding torches and riding warhorses chased from the street’s end, shouting, “Search thoroughly!”

The firelight did not bring a hint of warmth to the cold night; instead, it caused Jiang Yanxi’s heart to sink to the depths of despair.

The person covering her mouth was slender, and there was a pleasant scent of cypress on his collar, which made Jiang Yanxi burst into tears.

Lu Linyuan whispered, “Don’t make a sound. Follow me.”

The two of them climbed into the carriage, with Qingsong driving the horses back.

Lu Linyuan asked Jiang Yanxi, “Are you injured?”

His voice was gentle yet powerful, as if no matter what she had experienced, he could heal her.

Jiang Yanxi shook her head, crying silently.

Lu Linyuan wanted to comfort her, but it was clearly not the right time.

He said, “Someone died last night in Huajie, and your hairpin was the murder weapon. What happened last night?”

Jiang Yanxi knew that Lu Linyuan worked in the government office, and telling him the truth might help Ugusdan, so she recounted everything about how Ugusdan saved her, though she instinctively omitted the part about Wugusdan asking her to take the wolf tooth to the tea house at the north city gate to wait for someone.

After she finished speaking, Lu Linyuan asked a few more questions about the appearance of the girl who saved her, and concluded that the girl she mentioned was likely the Turkic prince Wugusdan.

He said, “Since you didn’t kill anyone, you don’t need to worry. I’ll find a way to send you to a safe place when we return.”

Jiang Yanxi anxiously replied, “He was injured while saving me; how can I just ignore her?”

Lu Linyuan closed his eyes briefly and said sternly, “Do you know who he is? If you get involved with him, it would be a crime that could implicate your entire family!”

Lu Linyuan’s words silenced Jiang Yanxi.

The wolf tooth in her sleeve was clearly not a Central Plains ornament, along with the officials searching throughout the night, and the girl’s deep features…

“Her” identity was evidently not simple.

Jiang Yanxi clenched her palms and forced a bitter smile. “To others, she may seem like a great criminal, but to me, she’s just my savior.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the carriage was stopped.

Lu Linyuan almost swallowed his reprimand.

The search chief blocked the carriage and shouted, “Who is in the carriage?”

Lu Linyuan gestured for Jiang Yanxi to move aside, then opened a crack in the curtain on the other side, coughing softly due to his cold. “I have met General Yuan; I am passing through this area.”

The chief clasped his fists in salute from his horse. “Why is Lord Lu here?”

Lu Linyuan replied, “I’m ashamed to say that the murderer from the Huajie case has not yet been found, and the people in the government office dare not relax. We are currently investigating the case.”

Song Lushi had signed military orders in front of Fengshuo and suspected that the Turkic prince was somehow involved in the Huajie case.

In order to quickly find the murderer and capture the Turkic prince, everyone in the government office was tirelessly searching for clues.

The chief had heard a little about Song Lushi’s situation and said, “Lord Lu, you have worked hard, but to avoid suspicion, I must trouble you to open the curtain.”

Lu Linyuan’s smile remained undiminished. “Of course.”

He gradually lifted the curtain, inch by inch, while the chief kept his gaze fixed on the carriage.

“Stop!”

“Quick! Block her!”

Suddenly, a commotion erupted from a distance.

The chief turned his head to see a man in black leading a woman over the wall.

The dress the woman wore was identical to the one Jiang Yanxi was wearing.

By then, Lu Linyuan had already lifted half of the carriage curtain, revealing that the back of the carriage was empty—there was no one else inside.

The chief clasped his fists again. “Sorry for the disturbance, Lord Lu.”

With that, he urged his horse to chase after the fleeing duo.

Lu Linyuan lowered the curtain and instructed the coachman, “To the inn.”

His hidden guards wouldn’t hold for long.

Having been in Xizhou for so long, the Lu family was not weak in terms of wealth or reputation, and securing an inn as a stronghold was not difficult.

Jiang Yanxi pressed her back against the wall of the carriage close to the curtain, her cold sweat nearly soaking through her inner garment; it had truly been too perilous just now.

Lu Lingyuan said to her, “The Xiangyun Inn is a property of the Lu family. You should stay there for a while. After tonight, I’ll also be suspected, and you can’t go back with me.”

Jiang Yanxi nodded, her heart racing.

The leader and his soldiers pursued relentlessly, finally cornering their target in a small alley.

As the soldiers lit their torches, they could see that the figure in black wasn’t a woman at all; it was clearly a bundle wrapped in silk cloth.

Realizing the situation was dire, the person in black quickly tried to escape by climbing over the wall.

However, just as they reached the top, someone jumped up and kicked them squarely in the chest, sending them crashing down.

The sharp pain in their chest and the hard impact of the ground left the figure lying on the blue brick pavement, writhing in agony.

The leader looked at the robust man who landed steadily and quickly cupped his fists. “Commander Xing.”

Xing Yao said, “Tie this person up and take them back.”

The soldiers rushed forward to bind the figure in black.

Xing Yao stepped out of the alley and stood outside the window of a horse-drawn carriage, lowering his voice to report to Feng Shuo inside, “Master, we couldn’t capture the girl who assisted the Turkic prince in escaping, but we caught someone deliberately causing confusion. Clearly, there’s a mastermind behind this.”

Feng Shuo’s voice came from within the carriage, colder than the chilling wind of the snowy night. “Bring them back and torture them.”

Tonight wasn’t entirely fruitless; at least they had captured the escaping Turkic prince.

With the Turkic prince as a hostage, the Turkic forces would dare not declare war on Xizhou for the time being.

However, if the Turkic prince had shared any details with his accomplices, it could be detrimental to Xizhou.

As the carriage turned back, Feng Shuo lifted the curtain and looked outside, just in time to notice a set of wheel tracks in the snow.

The heavy snow continued to fall. If this track had been left earlier, it would have long since been covered by the snow.

But this set of wheel tracks was fresh, indicating that a carriage had just passed by.

Under the light of the hanging lanterns, a fist-sized dim glow illuminated Feng Shuo’s narrow phoenix-like eyes, reflecting the light.

He halted the carriage and asked Xing Yao, “Who else passed through here by carriage tonight?”

As Feng Shuo’s personal guard, Xing Yao didn’t know this.

He asked a subordinate, and after getting the answer, quickly reported back to Feng Shuo, “It was Lu Lingyuan. The government is investigating the murders in the Flower Street. But the men checked his carriage; it only had him and the driver.”

Feng Shuo remained silent.

He got off the carriage, looking at the two sets of wheel tracks left on the ground, and let out a soft, ambiguous sigh.

Xing Yao, holding the lantern, approached and carefully compared the wheel tracks from Feng Shuo’s carriage to those from Lu Lingyuan’s carriage.

He soon noticed something was off, his expression changing drastically. “I’ll take people to capture Lu Lingyuan right away!”

Lu Lingyuan’s carriage had left first, but with the snow having fallen for so long, the wheel tracks left by his carriage were still slightly deeper than those of Feng Shuo’s.

Lu Lingyuan’s carriage only had two people, and Feng Shuo’s carriage only had him and his guard, but the depths of the tracks were inconsistent, indicating that there were likely more people hidden in Lu Lingyuan’s carriage!