The sobbing in the room had not yet faded.
A-Yuan was about to make the decision himself when he turned and saw that the Heir was still standing in the courtyard. He asked tentatively, “Young Master, should I go invite the residence physician?”
No matter what, the cousin miss was still the cousin miss — of course a physician should be called. But since the Heir was still present, A-Yuan naturally had to ask for his opinion.
After he finished speaking, he saw that figure leave without the slightest hesitation, as if he had never stopped at all, leaving not a single word behind.
“In that case, go invite the residence physician,” A-Yuan finally decided.
Silver Apricot ran anxiously into the room. Seeing the girl collapsed beside the bed, tears still clinging to the corners of her eyes, her nose stung with emotion as she hurried to support her. “Miss, you’re burning up. Lie down and rest first — the doctor will be here soon.”
As she spoke, Silver Apricot sighed in her heart at how truly ill-fated her young miss was. Such a delicate young lady of the inner chambers had to rely on the Heir’s guard even to summon a physician!
How pitiful the cousin miss was — in this Marquis’s residence, there was not a single person who truly cherished her.
Zi Shu Sui’s vision seemed to spin. As her head grew heavier and heavier, she had long since stopped crying.
She was truly ill.
Lying on the bed, Zi Shu Sui buried herself in the blankets. Vaguely, she heard Silver Apricot fussing beside her, but she had no strength to respond.
She only felt alternately cold and hot all over.
All she wanted was to sleep.
Because of the search for the assassin, every household in the Wu Ning Marquis’s residence was disturbed that night.
In the main courtyard, Madam Cui was woken by the commotion, just as her trusted maid, Nanny Liu, came to report—
“Madam, there’s a thief in the residence. The Heir led guards to search Youlan Courtyard. The cousin miss was angered into illness, and they’re calling the residence physician now.”
Madam Cui sat up and rubbed her temples. “They were just searching the courtyards — the whole residence was searched. What does she have to be angry about?”
Nanny Liu replied gently, “Well… Yun Xiu said that the Heir had two servant women search the cousin miss’s body.”
Here, Nanny Liu did not mention her daughter’s schadenfreude when she spoke of the matter.
“What?!” Though Madam Cui had developed some dissatisfaction toward Zi Shu Sui because of the earlier incident in the garden, hearing about the body search still shocked her greatly. “This is getting more and more outrageous. Could the thief really hide on Sui girl’s body?”
Her drowsiness vanished completely. With Nanny Liu’s help, Madam Cui got dressed and headed toward Youlan Courtyard.
Meanwhile, Xiao Bi’an had not led the guards very far.
Suddenly, something occurred to him.
“Let me see that arrow,” he said. He had only heard that the thief was injured but had not personally seen the broken arrow.
The guard handed over the bloodstained half-arrow.
Xiao Bi’an took it and glanced at it. His eyes darkened slightly.
So close — he had almost been fooled by her!
The color of the blood on the wooden arrow was darker than normal fresh blood.
Moreover, the arrow had been forcibly snapped, and the remaining half was already slightly bent. If the other half were still lodged in a body, it would inevitably be bent as well.
So what was the purpose of breaking the arrow?
To make the injury more severe?
No. That person might not have been injured at all. The purpose of breaking the arrow was simply to tell the guards that she was wounded, thereby narrowing the scope of the search.
Why narrow the search? Because she was still inside the residence.
If she had already left, there would have been no need for such an extra step.
Thinking this through, Xiao Bi’an looked at the guard as if he wanted to devour him. “Are you sure you hit the assassin?”
Caught off guard by the sudden question, the guard grew uncertain. “This subordinate… I didn’t see it with my own eyes, but—”
“Useless!” Xiao Bi’an barked angrily, cutting off his excuse.
The only thing that could be confirmed now was that the thief had entered the water.
Among all the courtyards searched tonight, only the girl in Youlan Courtyard had wet hair…
Recalling her earlier sobbing, Xiao Bi’an sneered inwardly. If it really was her, he would definitely interrogate her thoroughly.
Someone who could act so convincingly must have an ulterior motive.
“Go back to Youlan Courtyard. That other half of the arrow must still be in the residence!” Xiao Bi’an said darkly, leading more than ten men back toward Youlan Courtyard.
Inside Youlan Courtyard.
Silver Apricot was just ushering the residence physician into the room when the murderous footsteps returned.
At the front was still the Heir.
His face was dark. “Search!”
With that command, the guards split into several teams: some headed for the side rooms, some searched among the flowers and shrubs in the courtyard, and another group went straight into the bedroom.
Silver Apricot was both frightened and indignant. “What are you doing? This is my miss’s private room! How can you barge in again and again?”
When she stepped forward to block them, she was pushed aside roughly and stumbled.
After regaining her footing, she gathered the courage to step forward and beg the Heir for mercy, but was intimidated into silence by a single look from him.
“She’s quite good at winning people’s hearts. Think carefully — who is your real master?”
Xiao Bi’an dropped those words and no longer followed the formalities as before. He entered the room cold-faced.
Silver Apricot stood frozen in place.
Her indenture contract was held by the Marquis’s residence — she was a servant of the residence.
“Then… then is the doctor still going to treat her?” the physician muttered softly while waiting outside.
Inside the bedroom.
Half of the girl’s face was exposed, while the lower half was covered by the quilt.
The sounds of rummaging through boxes did not wake her. Even someone standing by her bed did not register in her awareness.
In a daze, Zi Shu Sui seemed to fall into a dark abyss.
She could see nothing around her. It was as if she had become a fish in a tank being casually watched — unable to see the world beyond the darkness, yet faintly hearing malicious voices from outside.
Her body hurt terribly, as if someone were whipping her, lash after lash striking deep into her bones.
But the one crying out in pain and begging for mercy was not her.
She could not move. She could not resist.
Something cold seemed to touch her wrist, as though iron shackles were about to pierce through her bones in the next instant…
“No… don’t…”
The girl murmured in her sleep, indistinct and unclear.
Xiao Bi’an stood by the bed, looking down at her from above. He could not tell whether she was truly talking in her sleep or merely acting.
He bent down and pulled the quilt away from half of her face.
A thin sheen of sweat had formed on her forehead, and something — sweat or tears — slid from the corner of her eye onto the embroidered pillow.
Xiao Bi’an’s gaze tightened slightly. He saw her lips move as she continued mumbling in her sleep.
“Mother…”
He heard that word clearly.
“Mother, don’t… don’t leave me.”
“It hurts… Sui Sui is scared.”
As she spoke, the girl’s expression was filled with pain — it did not seem fake.
Xiao Bi’an frowned. Was she still acting?
Could someone really act this realistically even in a dream? Had he truly misjudged her?
To verify his suspicion, Xiao Bi’an reached out and grabbed the girl’s chin — and only then realized that her body temperature was excessively hot.
“Stop pretending to be pitiful.”
His words were as cold as ever.
Zi Shu Sui was still trapped in darkness. The person who had been beating her earlier seemed to have stopped.
She lifted her head warily. Out of nowhere, a large hand reached out and seized her chin!
That voice seemed to come from beyond the dark world—
“Stop pretending to be pitiful.”
Zi Shu Sui glared fiercely into the void, hatred surging in her heart. She lowered her head and bit down hard on the hand gripping her chin!
She bit down with all her strength, refusing to let go — like a cornered animal determined to tear a piece of flesh from the demon before her!
“Hiss.”
That “demon” actually felt pain. With a low hiss, he flung her aside.
What Zi Shu Sui did not know was that outside her dark world, Xiao Bi’an was staring grimly at her sleeping form on the bed.
Even after being flung against the pillow, she did not wake.
Suppressing the pain in his hand and the urge to strangle her, Xiao Bi’an then heard the girl mutter fiercely in her sleep—
“Do traitors and rebels also feel pain? My cousin will definitely kill you!”
Hearing this, Xiao Bi’an’s eyes froze.
She was not pretending to be sick, nor pretending to sleep.
Even in her dream, she called herself “Sui Sui.” Even in her dream, she cursed “rebellious traitors.” Perhaps she truly was Qi Sui.
At that moment, reports from the guards came from outside the courtyard one after another.
“Young Master, there’s nothing abnormal in the courtyard.”
“Young Master, there are no suspicious items in the side rooms.”
Xiao Bi’an lowered his gaze. Perhaps… this really was his prejudice?
But who was the “cousin” she mentioned? It certainly could not be him. When Pingting fell, he and Qi Sui were not close; in a moment of crisis, she could not possibly have mentioned a stranger as her cousin.
Could she mean her legitimate cousin from Longchuan?
But what ability would that cousin from Longchuan have to stand against the “rebellious traitors” she spoke of — let alone “kill” them?
Driven by an inexplicable impulse, Xiao Bi’an pretended to be the “rebellious traitor” in her dream and asked stiffly—
“Kill me? Which cousin of yours has the life to kill me?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the girl frowned slightly, her voice carrying trust and certainty—
“Big Brother Crown Prince… Cousin Crown Prince. He will definitely save me.”