The second son of the Pei family in Yiling, an invalid who had never left his home… The rumors from her previous life matched one by one.
This boy before her was the real Pei Yinzhi, the one whose identity Pei Zhaoye had taken.
The boy, however, grew bold enough to ask, “Has Pei Zhaoye returned? Are you working with him?”
“You know him?”
At the mention of Pei Zhaoye, Lizhu saw a trace of disdain and resentment flash across his ashen face.
“That bastard, everyone in the Pei family—wrong, wrong! Don’t kill me!”
The tip of Lizhu’s sword pressed against his face. Her voice was cold. “Speak properly. Don’t insult him.”
Pei Shao had been spoiled since childhood by doting parents; aside from having his leg broken by Pei Zhaoye, he had never suffered so much as a scrape. Such fright nearly made him cry.
“I understand, I understand.”
He swallowed hard and said, “Of course I know him. Although he was born of one of our Pei household’s songstresses named Hanchu, that—wild—one somehow earned my father’s favor. Seeing his strength and sturdy build, my father even took him as an adopted son when he was twelve.”
Lizhu asked, “So your Pei family treated him quite well?”
“Of course!” Pei Shao replied with confidence. “He was the illegitimate son of a courtesan, yet he became my father’s adopted son, my sworn brother—ahhh!”
The sword tip drew a cut under his chin.
“I told you, no insults. Not him, not his mother!”
“His mother really was a—she was born of a Wuhuan and a Dayong person, I’m not lying! Everyone in the Pei family knows it! Pei Zhaoye’s got that mixed Wuhuan blood, that’s why he’s always been rebellious. When he was fourteen, he killed a Wuhuan merchant and made my father pay a huge sum in compensation!”
Pei Shao trembled, clutching his face.
“Our Pei family treated him with all possible kindness, and yet he repaid it with betrayal! He had my leg broken, and when his wings grew strong, he just left as he pleased. He’s a wolf that can never be tamed!”
Lizhu’s hands and feet turned cold, her heart pounding wildly.
…Wuhuan people?
Pei Zhaoye’s mother actually carried Wuhuan blood?
The news struck Lizhu so hard she froze for a long moment before coming back to her senses.
“Stop pretending. Pei Zhaoye has always been clear about gratitude and grudges. If you hadn’t bullied him, how could he possibly have broken your leg?”
“Clear about gratitude and grudges”? More like vengeful over the smallest slight!
Pei Shao was so angry he coughed several times in a row, the air wheezing in and out of his chest like a bellows.
“Don’t play dead!”
Lizhu kicked his crippled leg.
“Why did he break your leg? Say it! If you don’t, I’ll chop off the other one!”
Pei Shao looked at the delicate young woman before him and instinctively felt she wouldn’t actually do it. He covered his head and pretended to faint.
Lizhu, furious, kicked him several more times—yet still couldn’t bring herself to really cut his leg.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind, and she hurried toward the spot where the record books were hidden.
Since the Pei family had that habit of recording the secrets of high officials and nobles, and Pei Zhaoye was now a bandit leader in his own right, there was no way they would have no record of him.
Lizhu flipped quickly through the books.
“—Who allowed you to let anyone inside! Fools! Break the door down!”
Outside came Pei Congxun’s furious voice.
“But, that woman—she’s taken the young master hostage…”
“She could take my own mother hostage and it wouldn’t matter! Haven’t I told you? Even if the whole mansion catches fire, the study must never be left unguarded—and no outsiders are allowed in! Smash it open!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The repeated pounding on the door made Lizhu shiver in fright.
How did they get here so fast!
Her hand froze on one page of the book.
—Found it.
【Pei Zhaoye, son of the songstress Hanchu. Possesses exceptional bravery from a young age, sly in nature, skilled in disguise, outwardly and inwardly at odds. Has befriended countless wandering warriors, harbors ambitions to enlist in the army and reclaim the northern lands.】
To enlist in the army and reclaim the north!
Lizhu’s heart thudded wildly.
She knew it!
Under the pounding of the door, Lizhu’s eyes darted swiftly to the next line.
【Pei Shao, jealous of his talent, often slandered and excluded him. At age fourteen, when Hanchu newly passed away, Shao sold her corpse to a Wuhuan merchant. Pei Zhaoye, with his friends, ambushed and killed the man, buried his mother, and formed enmity with Pei Shao. He has hated the Wuhuan people ever since. He could not remain in the household and was therefore expelled.】
Lizhu’s fingers, gripping the record, turned white. She snapped her gaze toward Pei Shao huddled in the corner.
No wonder he hadn’t dared say a word even after being kicked!
There truly existed people so vile they would sell a mother’s corpse, breaking his leg was mercy!
Before Lizhu could rush over to give him a few more kicks, the study door was violently burst open.
“…So it was the princess after all.”
With servants crowding behind him, Pei Congxun entered. Lizhu pressed the sword against Pei Shao’s neck and backed away repeatedly.
Pei Congxun swept a glance at the books scattered over the desk and smiled faintly.
“Your Highness, it was our ignorance that we failed to recognize your identity earlier. We offended you—please, may the princess be generous and allow us to atone—”
“The Pei household, you brothers are truly something.”
Lizhu’s chest rose and fell sharply, fury blazing in her eyes.
“Concealing refugees, seizing land, bribing officials, murdering for the gentry—utterly steeped in corruption! And you still dare, still dare to bully him like this—”
Pei Congxun narrowed his eyes.
He raised his hand. “Loose the arrows.”
A cold arrow flew almost the same instant he spoke.
But the one who fell was the archer beside him.
From the roof of the courtyard came a woman’s lilting voice:
“Not bad, right? Dead center in the heart! Nobody move now, I once shot five men dead in a single breath.”
Pei Congxun, his back to the door, suddenly stiffened.
“Danzhu!”
Lizhu’s eyes lit up with surprise. She turned eagerly toward the sound.
The back window of the study was lifted open.
Gu Bing’an said, “Madam Shen, this way. The mountain lord just secured the front courtyard.”
Lizhu at once shoved Pei Shao aside. She was about to turn and leave when she suddenly remembered something—she ran to the desk, tore off the curtain, and gathered the pile of books into her arms.
“Go!”
Gu Bing’an, leading three others, escorted Lizhu as they ran toward the front courtyard.
The night wind carried with it the thick scent of blood.
The Pei family’s servants, hearing Pei Congxun call her “Princess” yet still daring to obey the order to shoot, were clearly trained to the standards of death warriors.
Before Danzhu and the others arrived, how had Pei Zhaoye managed to handle them all alone?
Had he been hurt?
Worry gnawed at Lizhu’s chest. She turned quickly around an artificial hill, and ran straight into a familiar figure.
“…Lizhu?”
Leaning against the rockery for cover, taking a moment’s rest, Tan Xun’s face was ashen, his breath faint.
“Tan Xun? You—what happened to you?”
Lizhu, unaware of the full situation, thought he must have been injured by the Pei household.
If he was hurt this badly, then what about Pei Zhaoye?
Tan Xun’s gaze swept over her, frowning slightly.
“Why are you… dressed like this? My cloak—”
He motioned for Jie Yun beside him to hand the cloak to Lizhu.
Lizhu lifted her pale face, asking anxiously, “He’s not going to die, is he?”
“Your Highness need not worry,” Jie Yun said, “Young Master’s life is not in danger. It’s just that man named Pei Zhaoye—”
Before he could finish his complaint, Lizhu grabbed his arm tightly.
“What about him? Where is he?”
Jie Yun froze for a second, then pointed in one direction. “With the lady-in-waiting Xuan Ying, and your attendant Chang Jun—they’re over there.”
Wrapping herself in the cloak, Lizhu ran toward that direction without stopping.
Beside a heap of corpses, Pei Zhaoye was wiping his sword.
Lu Yu was seated on a stone bench to rest, while Xuan Ying was bandaging Chang Jun’s wound, her hands still trembling slightly.
Too terrifying.
That fierce, murderous aura—he had been cutting off heads as though slicing melons.
And as if he never tired. Lu Yu was considered a valiant man himself, yet even he was nearly drained of strength.
But Pei Zhaoye looked as if he had merely stretched his limbs a bit; not a trace of exhaustion could be seen on his shadowed face, though it was sunk deep in thought.
Such strength and skill, rare even among the imperial military officers in the palace.
No wonder he had become a bandit leader at such a young age.
That the princess had fallen into the hands of such a man and still escaped unscathed, surely there was something she hadn’t told them…
Just as Xuan Ying was thinking this, she suddenly saw a figure in a snow-white cloak running toward them.
Pei Zhaoye, who had wiped his sword and was preparing to go look for Lizhu, raised his head.
At a glance he saw the cloak she wore.
Her fiancé, it turned out, was Tan Xun.
She was to marry the son of Tan Jing.
Pei Zhaoye chewed over that sentence in his mind, a cold, cruel thought churning in his chest, surging wave after wave toward the girl running into view.
The palace’s golden branches and jade leaves paired with the noble family’s orchid and jade trees.
Truly a match of lacquered gentleman and silk maiden; who wouldn’t say they were well matched?
How could Heaven be so unfair.
Giving him wealth, power, and fame was not enough; they also gave him the best woman in the world to match him.
Could it be that Tan Jing is not his real father, and Heaven is his real father?
What kind of thing is that.
It’s maddening.
Pei Zhaoye’s eyes were cold, thick as a mire.
Never mind merely betrothed.
Even if they were married, he would still take her by force, to repay that day—
“Pei Zhaoye!”
He was lost in thought, and when he came to, a fragrance filled his arms; she had thrown herself wholly into his embrace.
Pei Zhaoye instinctively took her in.
“I will not let them off!”
The girl, holding the heap of books, poked her head out from his arms.
Her nose was red from the cold, yet she still wore an angry look, her eyes clear and bright, like a bolt of lightning cleaving the gloom from his sight—
“The people who bullied you, I will not spare a single one!”
