The dense fog dispersed, leaving behind only bone-chilling dampness and the suffocating atmosphere of impending violence within the Governor’s Mansion.
The aftermath of the gunfire at the docks hung over every corner of the estate like an invisible boulder.
The bustle of the Front Courtyard had been replaced by an unnaturally suppressed silence.
The servants walked on tiptoe, their eyes darting nervously.
The air itself seemed filled with invisible gunpowder and heavy suspicion.
Even the Side Courtyard, this forgotten tomb for the living, did not escape its reach.
Qin Shu sat beside Floating Cloud’s bed, mechanically grinding a small handful of medicinal herbs between her fingertips.
Floating Cloud lay face down on the bed, breathing weakly.
Around the thick bandages wrapped over her back, dark-red bloodstains remained like grotesque brands, silently accusing Xu Feng’s cruelty.
Qin Shu’s deep brown eyes rested upon Floating Cloud’s pale profile.
They were as calm as an ancient well.
Only deep at the bottom of that well did an icy flame continue burning silently.
Floating Cloud had already been given the anti-inflammatory medicine powder Jiang Chen had risked delivering the previous night.
But whether she could survive the coming infection remained uncertain.
The old food basket A-Fu had returned contained nothing.
Whether the desperate operation at the docks had succeeded or failed…
Whether those involved had lived or died…
All of it remained like a sword hanging above her head.
Beyond the courtyard wall, a strange sense of hidden observation silently coiled around the ruined courtyard like the icy tongue of a snake.
Several times, as Qin Shu went out to fetch water, the corner of her eye caught fleeting figures in military uniforms disappearing behind distant trees or corridor pillars.
They were not obvious guards.
They were hidden watchers.
Xu Feng’s claws had finally turned toward this abandoned courtyard.
Their scrutiny was cold.
Sharp.
Every time Qin Shu opened the doors or windows…
Every time she lingered briefly in the courtyard…
She could feel those invisible eyes piercing into her back.
She still wore the same faded gray-blue padded jacket.
The oil stains on the cuffs and the dried blood remained stubbornly visible.
She kept her head lowered and walked slowly, like an empty shell stripped of its soul.
Her eyes appeared hollow and numb.
She perfectly recreated the appearance of the discarded wife that five years of imprisonment had forged.
Only the pale whiteness of her fingertips as she gripped the washbasin betrayed the overwhelming hatred and extreme vigilance buried inside her heart.
What was meant to come…
Could never be avoided forever.
That afternoon, the cold wind carried tiny snow pellets that lashed against the torn window paper.
The rusty lock on the courtyard gate was unlocked with brutal force.
Its grating sound was even harsher than usual.
Heavy military boots struck the frozen earth with dull echoes.
It was not the old woman delivering food.
Nor was it the mute servant A-Fu.
The old steward, Uncle Li, stood stooped in the doorway.
His stern face remained expressionless.
His cloudy eyes were lowered toward the ground.
He stepped aside.
A tall, imposing figure entered, wrapped in biting cold and invisible authority.
Like an iron tower, he completely blocked the courtyard entrance.
Xu Feng.
He still wore his perfectly tailored military uniform.
The epaulettes gleamed coldly.
His hawk-like eyes swept across the dilapidated courtyard.
They passed over the dead pomegranate tree before finally settling upon Qin Shu, who stood outside the room wrapped in her old jacket with her head lowered.
His gaze regarded her with the same cold disgust one reserved for refuse.
Behind him stood two armed guards.
They resembled statues carved from ice.
The air froze instantly.
Even the winter wind seemed to stop.
An overwhelming pressure settled heavily upon Qin Shu’s slender shoulders.
Xu Feng stepped into the courtyard.
His boots left crisp impressions upon the frozen ground.
Stopping several steps away from Qin Shu, he looked down at her from above.
Qin Shu could clearly feel the icy weight of his gaze scraping across her skin like a blade.
Instinctively, she shrank back.
Her head lowered even further.
Her shoulders trembled ever so slightly, like a withered leaf about to be carried away by the winter wind.
She tightened her grip on the broken wooden basin filled halfway with cold water.
Her knuckles turned white.
“Raise your head.”
Xu Feng’s voice was low and cold.
Without the slightest fluctuation.
It carried unquestionable authority like steel grinding against steel.
Qin Shu’s body shook violently, as though frightened by the sound alone.
With terror and timidity etched into her bones, she slowly raised her head.
She did not dare meet Xu Feng’s eyes.
Instead, her vacant gaze remained fixed upon the row of cold brass buttons on his uniform.
Her face was so pale it was nearly transparent.
Her lips were devoid of color and trembled faintly.
Her eyes held only the numbness, obedience, and deeply ingrained humility that five years of confinement had carved into her.
Not the slightest trace of resentment could be found.
Xu Feng studied her face carefully.
His eyes searched every expression as though trying to strip away the mask of submission and uncover the truth beneath it.
He remained silent for several moments.
The air felt so heavy it seemed capable of dripping water.
“Feeling better?”
he suddenly asked.
His voice remained just as cold.
The question sounded almost irrelevant.
Qin Shu trembled once more.
Her voice was scarcely louder than a mosquito’s buzz.
It quivered noticeably.
“R-Replying to the Governor… m-much… much better…”
She awkwardly attempted to hide the broken basin behind herself.
The gesture appeared clumsy.
Pitiful.
Xu Feng’s eyes swept over the hand wrapped in old cloth, where the burn scars were still visible.
Then his gaze moved across the dried bloodstains darkening her faded jacket.
Finally, his eyes returned to her face filled with fear and numbness.
He stepped forward.
The enormous shadow cast by his tall frame almost swallowed Qin Shu completely.
The rich scent of cigars and leather mixed with overwhelming pressure as it enveloped her.
“A few days ago…”
“There was a little disturbance at the docks.”
Xu Feng spoke quietly.
Yet every word struck the frozen ground like falling ice.
“A few blind fools died.”
His eyes remained fixed upon Qin Shu’s face.
He watched for even the slightest change.
“I heard…”
“It caused quite a commotion.”
“So much so that even this Side Courtyard…”
“…could hear it.”
It had come.
Qin Shu’s heart pounded violently against her ribs, as though it would burst through her throat.
A tremendous sense of danger engulfed her like freezing floodwaters.
She forced herself to maintain the frightened, numb expression.
Yet beneath her deep brown eyes, violent waves crashed endlessly.
The docks.
He really had become suspicious.
He was testing her.
She abruptly lowered her head, avoiding Xu Feng’s gaze that seemed capable of seeing through everything.
Her body trembled even harder, like a fallen leaf caught in the autumn wind.
Her fingers gripped the basin until her knuckles turned white.
Her nails nearly dug into the wood.
Drawing a shaky breath, she answered in a voice thick with tears and terror.
“I… I heard it…”
“It was… so loud…”
“Like thunder…”
“But… not quite…”
“I… I was so frightened…”
“I… I hid under the bed…”
“I… I didn’t dare come out…”
Her words tumbled over one another in panic.
It truly sounded as though the gunfire had frightened her out of her wits.
She had even stopped addressing herself as “I” and instead used the humble term “this servant.”
Xu Feng stared at the top of her bowed head.
He watched her thin shoulders trembling violently.
He listened to her incoherent, fear-filled explanation.
On her pale, expressionless face…
He found nothing except terror and deeply rooted submission.
There was no guilty avoidance.
No carefully feigned composure.
Only the genuine reaction of someone utterly broken.
He remained silent.
The air solidified once more.
Only Qin Shu’s suppressed, frightened breathing could be heard amid the cold wind.
“Under the bed?”
Xu Feng said mockingly.
“You certainly know how to pick a hiding place.”
His gaze slowly shifted away.
It swept across the ruined doorway before falling upon Floating Cloud lying motionless on the bed.
“That girl still isn’t dead?”
Qin Shu’s body stiffened violently.
Overwhelming fury and boundless hatred sank their fangs into her heart like venomous serpents.
She bit hard into the inside of her lip until she tasted blood.
Only then did she suppress the furious scream threatening to burst from her chest.
Still keeping her head lowered, she spoke through trembling sobs with the humble resignation of someone who had already accepted her fate.
“Thanks… thanks to the Governor’s mercy…”
“She… she’s still clinging to a single breath…”
“It… it was this servant’s failure…”
“I… I failed to serve my mistress properly…”
“I brought this upon her…”
She accepted every bit of blame herself.
Lowering her posture until it lay in the dust.
Xu Feng said nothing further.
His sharp gaze swept once more across her lowered head…
Her filthy jacket stained with dried blood…
And the ruined courtyard that resembled little more than abandoned rubble.
The suspicion surrounding the leak at the docks still lingered in his mind.
But this woman before him…
This shell of a person imprisoned for five years until every edge and every spark of life had been worn away…
Could she truly be the hidden snake?
She did not even possess the courage to look him in the eye.
She could scarcely speak without trembling.
How could she possibly possess the means or connections to contact the rebels and leak the secrets of the docks?
A faint trace of irritation crossed Xu Feng’s mind.
Along with even deeper suspicion.
Perhaps…
He had become overly suspicious.
Perhaps the traitor was hiding somewhere far deeper within the mansion.
He cast one final glance toward Floating Cloud’s lifeless figure lying inside the room.
His eyes regarded her no differently than a worthless piece of trash.
Soon afterward, he withdrew his gaze.
Without sparing Qin Shu another look, he turned away.
The hem of his military coat swept through the air in a rigid arc.
“Keep this courtyard under watch.”
Xu Feng threw the order coldly toward Uncle Li standing at the gate.
“Not even a fly is allowed to leave.”
“Yes, Governor.”
Uncle Li answered stiffly, his back still bent.
Xu Feng strode away.
His heavy boots echoed across the frozen earth.
The two guards followed closely behind.
None of them looked back.
The courtyard gate was locked again behind them.
The harsh scraping of metal echoed through the deathly silence for a long time.
The cold wind swept snow across Qin Shu’s thin jacket.
She continued standing with her head lowered.
Her body still trembled faintly, as though she had not yet recovered from her terror.
The cold water inside the broken wooden basin rippled gently.
Its reflection showed her pale face hanging low.
A face filled with cowardice and numbness.
Only after the heavy footsteps had completely vanished into the winter wind…
Only after the invisible sense of surveillance beyond the courtyard wall seemed to ease with its master’s departure…
Did Qin Shu finally straighten the back that had appeared ready to collapse.
Carrying the battered wooden basin, she turned and walked back into the freezing room.
Her footsteps echoed softly across the icy floor.
She stopped beside Floating Cloud’s bed and gently set the basin upon the floor.
Then she slowly raised her eyes.
Within her deep brown gaze, the icy flame she had forcibly suppressed burst free once more like a ferocious beast escaping its cage.
The hatred and unwavering resolve within those eyes bore no resemblance whatsoever to the timid, broken “discarded wife” from moments earlier.
She did not look toward the courtyard gate.
Instead, her gaze settled upon the hand that still gripped the rim of the basin so tightly that her knuckles remained white.
Her fingertips had pressed so deeply that they had nearly embedded themselves into the rough wood grain.
Slowly…
She loosened her fingers.
Several bloody crescent-shaped nail marks had been left behind in the center of her palm.