By the time Wen Yan and Mo Xingchuan rushed back to Guogongfu, dusk had already settled.
The charred ruins of Wang Fu’s residence lay like an unhealed scar across the estate’s rear courtyard, silently mocking their delayed arrival.
The trail had gone cold, severed in a crude and brutal manner.
Mo Xingchuan left trusted subordinates to handle the scene and personally escorted Wen Yan back to the estate.
As soon as they stepped through the main gate, a heavy, oppressive atmosphere enveloped them.
The servants kept their heads bowed, scarcely daring to breathe.
The main hall was brightly lit, with Gu Yuan seated in the master’s chair, his face as dark as the bottom of a pot. The tea before him had long gone cold.
Seeing Wen Yan enter, Gu Yuan slammed his teacup onto the floor with a backhanded motion. A sharp crack echoed as shards scattered in all directions.
“Utter recklessness!”
He shot to his feet, trembling as he pointed at Wen Yan. “You finally remember to return? Do you have any idea what kind of disaster you’ve caused today?”
Mo Xingchuan stepped forward to intervene. “Duke—”
“Lord Mo!” Gu Yuan cut him off without a shred of courtesy. “Xi Wei is a maiden awaiting marriage, not one of your constables from the Dali Temple!”
“Following you to raid homes and arrest people, stirring up a city-wide scandal—where will her reputation stand after this?”
“Are you helping her or ruining her?”
But Wen Yan was quicker. She raised a hand to stop Mo Xingchuan and calmly met her father’s fury.
“Father, please calm your anger.”
“Are you angry that your daughter has been seen in public with Lord Mo, or are you angry that my investigation has disturbed someone you wished to keep undisturbed?”
Wen Yan’s voice was soft, yet it pierced through Gu Yuan’s blustering facade like a needle.
Gu Yuan faltered.
His rage seemed doused by a ladle of cold water, catching in his throat. “You… what nonsense are you spouting!”
“The victim was me.”
Wen Yan gave him no chance to recover, each word striking at his heart. “A premeditated murder targeting your own daughter.”
She slammed the copied account book and the waist token engraved with “Wang Fu” heavily onto the table.
“Wang Fu, the steward of your estate. Over three months, seventeen transactions, forty-five taels of arsenic. One qian per day, not a single meal missed—all of it went into your daughter’s stomach.”
“Father, look at me.”
Wen Yan stared directly at him. “If not for my stubborn will to live, what you’d be seeing now wouldn’t be a living person, but a memorial tablet in a funeral hall!”
Gu Yuan lowered his gaze to the ironclad evidence on the table.
When he looked up again at his daughter’s unnervingly calm face, a bone-chilling cold shot up from his tailbone to the crown of his head.
The life-threatening illness his daughter had suffered not long ago,
the medicine dregs drained dry,
the agonized moans—
all exploded in his mind at once.
“This… has Wang Fu gone mad? Where did he find the nerve?!”
“He had no nerve. He was merely a dog, obeying his master’s orders.” Wen Yan sneered. “His master is Prince Jing’s residence.”
The moment the words “Prince Jing’s residence” left her lips, Gu Yuan’s legs gave way, and he collapsed back into his armchair.
“No… impossible… He is the future crown prince, your future husband’s family…”
“Why?” Wen Yan voiced the question for him, a mocking curl at the corner of her lips. “Perhaps because I, the rightful bride, am an eyesore, blocking the path of that ‘white moonlight’ of his.”
“Xi Wei! Hold your tongue!”
Gu Yuan slammed the table, his face as pale as paper. “How can you speak such words carelessly? That is slandering a prince! It’s a crime punishable by death!”
He rushed up to Wen Yan, his tone shifting from furious rage to a pitiful, almost pleading humility: “Listen to your father’s advice—bury this matter deep! Just treat it as Wang Fu’s greed leading to murder, and since he’s already dead, let it be! Tomorrow, I’ll go to the palace to confess my guilt. Don’t investigate anymore—we can’t afford to provoke them!”
Wen Yan looked at this father of hers, who had been utterly terrified by imperial authority, and felt nothing but pity.
“Someone held a knife to your daughter’s neck, and you’re telling me not to investigate? You even want to go kowtow to the murderer?”
She pressed forward step by step, her voice soft yet striking his heart like a heavy hammer.
“Father, look into my eyes.”
“In your heart, which is more important—the plaque of Guogongfu, or your daughter’s life?”
Gu Yuan was left speechless by the question, his lips trembling, unable to utter a single word.
Of course, he loved his daughter! She was the treasure he had raised in the palm of his hand!
But… but that overwhelming power was like a mountain pressing down on his back, bending him over for decades, unable to stand straight.
“My child! That’s Prince Jing! What can we possibly use to fight him?” Gu Yuan paced anxiously in circles. “Endure for a moment, and the storm will pass. I’ll find you a good marriage…”
“Endure?” Wen Yan sounded as if she had heard the greatest joke in the world.
“Wang Fu was burned to charcoal, and the manager of Jishi Tang died in the courtroom. Two lives, gone just like that. Do you think that’s a coincidence? That’s silencing witnesses!”
“They kill without batting an eye—do you think they’d care about adding one more to the grave?”
Wen Yan’s gaze was sharp as a blade, scraping across his face.
“If I don’t investigate, it won’t be calm seas—it’ll be waiting to be slowly cut apart by a dull knife, dying without ever knowing why!”
These words were like a bucket of ice water poured over his head.
Gu Yuan froze in place.
He suddenly realized that since that serious illness, this daughter of his had changed.
She was no longer the sheltered young lady who only knew how to weep.
Now, she was like an unsheathed blade—sharp, calm, and carrying a fierceness that even frightened him.
Just then, the curtain to the inner hall was pushed aside, and the Lady of Guogongfu walked out, her eyes red.
She grabbed Gu Yuan’s sleeve, her voice choked with tears:
“Master! Xi Wei is right! The knife is already at our necks—are we still going to act like turtles hiding in their shells?”
She turned and grasped Wen Yan’s cold hands: “Xi Wei, what do you want to do? Your mother will listen to you!”
Wen Yan looked at her mother, and the ice in her eyes finally melted slightly at the edges.
“I want to file a lawsuit.”
“Take the case to the Dali Temple and present the evidence before the Golden Hall.”
“I want the whole world to see what kind of man-eating den that splendid Prince Jing’s mansion truly is.”
“You’re insane!” Gu Yuan cried out in shock. “This is putting the entire family on a fire to roast!”
“No, Father.” Wen Yan shook her head, her expression cool and detached. “I’m pulling the entire family out of the fire pit.”
She took a deep breath and dropped the final bombshell.
“You think taking a step back will bring peace? Just this morning at court, Prince Jing struck first—he submitted a memorial to the Emperor accusing me.”
“He said that after my serious illness, I’ve lost my mind, become consumed by jealousy, and slandered the mansion’s steward to force him to break off the engagement.”
Boom—!
The thread in Gu Yuan’s mind named “reason” snapped completely.
He stood there, dumbstruck.
So while he was still thinking of how to compromise and endure humiliation, the other side had already sharpened their knives, even preparing charges for his entire family!
“He… how dare he…”
“Of course he dares.” Wen Yan sneered. “Now, in the eyes of all the officials at court, I’m just a jealous madwoman. Do you still want to go confess your guilt now? That would only confirm my charges!”
“The dirty water has already been thrown at us. If we don’t stir it up, the whole family will drown!”
A deathly silence fell.
Gu Yuan slumped back in his chair, as if he had aged ten years in an instant.
His philosophy of “endurance,” “retreat,” and “considering the bigger picture” in officialdom shattered like a joke in the face of the opponent’s unscrupulous tactics.
The path of retreat had been blocked.
This was a war to the death, with no middle ground.
After a long while, he raised his head, a glimmer of resolve flashing in his clouded eyes.
“How certain are you?”
“I have irrefutable evidence. But in a lawsuit, what matters is momentum.” Wen Yan held up one finger. “Give me ten days.”
“Within ten days, I will lay the ironclad evidence on the desk of the Dali Temple. After ten days, regardless of life or death, I alone will bear the responsibility. I will never implicate Guogongfu.”
“Nonsense!” The Guogong’s wife embraced her daughter. “If we die, we die together! We are family!”
Gu Yuan looked at his wife and daughter weeping in each other’s arms, closed his eyes, and two lines of murky tears streamed down his cheeks.
All his life, Gu Yuan had grown accustomed to bowing and scraping in officialdom, almost forgetting that he was the descendant of a military family that had shed blood on the battlefield.
Today, he had been pushed to the edge of the cliff—not by Prince Jing, but by his own daughter.
Yet he felt no resentment, only endless shame and a burning, almost chest-piercing ferocity that had been ignited.
If even a young woman possessed such backbone, what face did he, as her father, have to act like a coward!
“Alright.”
Gu Yuan opened his eyes, and the timid, submissive air about him vanished completely.
“I’ll give you ten days.”
“For these ten days, Guogongfu will be your stronghold. Whatever you need, I will provide it even if it means bankrupting us!”
He strode to the door and roared at his trusted steward:
“Pass the order! Triple the guards in the estate! Not even a fly is to enter the young lady’s courtyard!”
“Also, go to the storeroom and bring out the ‘Dragon’s Gall Silver Spear.’ Clean it and hang it in the main hall!”
The steward was startled. “Master, that was bestowed by the founding emperor and has been sealed away for twenty years…”
“Hang it up!”
Gu Yuan’s voice carried an unprecedented ferocity, like a slumbering tiger opening its eyes.
“The Gu family has been silent for too long—so long that every stray cat and dog in the capital has forgotten how our ancestors rose to prominence!”
“Trampling through enemy camps, staining battle robes with blood!”
“Want to harm my daughter? First ask the Gu family’s spear if it agrees!”