The mistress who remarried has returned.

"Yes, all the problems are my fault," Su Yunxi said, feeling wronged. "You're such a good person, you have no problems at all, it's always me who bullies you, isn't it!"

Qin Huai didn't know what she was accusing him of. She seemed really wronged, but he was also quite innocent. He stopped arguing with her right then and there. He figured there wouldn't be many opportunities to cross paths again, and he didn't want the only time they spent together to be unpleasant.

Qin Huai took a deep breath, stood up from the table, walked to the couch, loosened his belt, and let his clothes fall loose. In this domineering manner, he said to Su Yunxi, "I'll show you my injury."

Su Yunxi stopped arguing with him while he was drunk. Seeing the bruises all over his body, she felt only heartache. She took out some medicine from her bag, came close to him, bent down in front of him, applied some medicine with her fingertips, and then applied the medicine to Qin Huai.

Qin Huai felt the cool touch on his skin, and his body tensed up. He felt that Xi Xi was treating him very well at this moment, so well that he thought she wanted to come back to his side, so well that he thought Xi Xi loved him even more deeply and intensely than he loved her.

Seeing that it was getting late and it was time to settle in, Qin Huai said, "I'll take you back."

Su Yunxi said, "I want to stay here."

Qin Huai considered his promise to Lord Qin and the reputation of Xixi. Given their current circumstances, they shouldn't be involved any longer. He said, "Then I'll go back to the manor first. There are guards here, so it's safe."

Su Yunxi lowered her hand and tugged at his sleeve without saying a word. After a long while, she finally said, "You're not allowed to go back either."

Qin Huai was conflicted, his reason and emotions clashing. The two of them remained there, waiting until dawn.

Su Yunxi sighed as she looked at the pale sky and asked, "What exactly were I to the General during those seven years? Was I just a tool?"

Qin Huai thought, she was his sister, his lover, and later, the one he couldn't have. But before he could speak, before he could ask her what she was planning, after all the provocations she had caused him, even after he helped the Crown Prince overturn his case, she still entangled with him in Jiuli Lane.

Chen Lin rushed in with an urgent report: "General, Madam Qin handed Miss Xue over to the envoy from Daqi on the banks of the Dongjiang River in exchange for Zhou Yun and to prevent Zhou Yuan from being married off to Daqi. Madam Qin has asked you to confiscate your weapons to prevent you from breaking through the siege to rescue Miss Xue."

Upon hearing this, Qin Huai's gentle gaze instantly cooled, and the illusion that Xi Xi had been so kind to him, making him feel like he wanted to return to her side, vanished in an instant.

Qin Huai stared at Su Yunxi. He thought of how Xue Wenying had sent someone to invite him to keep her company early this morning. He had ignored Xue Wenying because he was on his day off and had to spend time with Su Yunxi. Suddenly, his eyes stung and he chuckled softly.

Su Yunxi also heard the words "exempting Zhou Yuan from being married off to a distant place" and realized that the Emperor wanted to marry Zhou Yuan off to Daqi in exchange for Shufei's son, Zhou Yun. She heard Qin Huai's laughter and turned to look at him.

"For Zhou Yuan, is that it?" Qin Huai said slowly to Su Yunxi, enunciating each word clearly. "From the moment I left the East Palace yesterday, you followed me out, saying you wanted to see my injuries, that you wanted to know what was on my mind, showing me all sorts of concern, even pestering me from morning till night today—all for the sake of saving your sister, right?"

He refers to Zhou Yu.

Su Yunxi only just realized that Zhou Yuan had been used by the Emperor to marry a foreign ruler. Presumably, when the Emperor made the decision, the truth about the Crown Prince's murder of the Emperor had not yet come to light. She now understood that when Zhou Yuan went to the East Palace to see Zhou Yu yesterday, she did not mention that she was about to be married off to a distant place because she did not want her brother and herself to worry. In fact, she came to say goodbye to them.

"I...I didn't."

"So you're saying you were unaware of Madam Qin handing Xue Wenying over to Da Qi? You weren't involved?" Qin Huai's voice trembled, and the hope in his usually cold eyes shattered bit by bit. "You even sent your brother to tell me about your bracelet-collecting, just to lure me in, wasn't that right!"

"I did know that Madam Qin handed Xue Wenying over to the envoy from Daqi," Su Yunxi said truthfully. "But I wasn't so despicable as to have Yunze help me seduce men!"

Upon hearing this, Qin Huai tightly closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, his eyes were filled with pain. He had endured fifty lashes to protect her reputation, yet she had conspired with Madam Qin to scheme against him. "You and Madam Qin conspired against me? Now that my weapons have been confiscated, you must know I was on my way to rescue someone. You share her thoughts, believing that I should be the one to die."

He paused slightly, then said, "That's right. You're not satisfied with just tearing up the marriage certificate after the Crown Prince's restoration. Only when I die can you sit in the position of Crown Princess with peace of mind."

After Qin Huai finished speaking, without giving Su Yunxi a chance to reply, he asked Chen Lin as he walked towards the door, "Where are the people from Da Qi now?"

"We left the Dongjiang Riverbank early this morning," Chen Lin replied.

Su Yunxi saw Qin Huai walk towards the door. She had been hoping to find some clues that Qin Huai still cared. Now that Qin Huai had responded to her, it was because she had hurt Xue Wenying. She found that this feeling was not pleasant either.

She quickly walked to the door and stood in front of it.

Seeing that Su Yunxi was using the same old trick and pestering him relentlessly, Qin Huai guessed that she was worried that he would rescue Xue Wenying and instead send Zhou Yuan to marry a foreign ruler. He said unhappily, "Go away, Xixi."

"You have no weapons, so you are not allowed to risk your life to pursue and kill the envoy from the Great Qi."

"What grudge do you hold against Xue Wenying?" Qin Huai suddenly erupted in anger. "Aside from verbal attacks, has she ever actually hurt you? I don't care how badly you treat me, but what has she done to you? You and Madam Qin dislike me, so why are you hurting an innocent woman?"

Qin Huai is right. In reality, Xue Wenying had not hurt her, but she just didn't like Xue Wenying.

Su Yunxi raised her face, staring at Qin Huai, "I was cooperating with Madam Qin. I stalled you for a day and a night, and then Madam Qin took the opportunity to hand Miss Xue over to the Daqi envoy. But I wasn't doing this to save Zhou Yuan."

Qin Huai said coldly, "Is that so? Then what is it for?"

"Qin Huai, I can't stand seeing you and Miss Xue together all the time. That's the first reason." Su Yunxi was always honest, but Qin Huai never trusted her honesty. "I'm cooperating with Madam Qin, and she promised she won't hit you anymore. That's the second reason."

"It was all for me. I'm so touched, Su Yunxi!" Qin Huai didn't believe a word of it.

Su Yunxi felt utterly powerless.

Qin Huai pulled a dagger from the sole of his boot and handed the hilt to Su Yunxi. "I won't stop saving Xue Wenying unless I'm dead. No amount of sweet talk will help. Just stab me to death."

Su Yunxi's hand was held by him, and she pressed the dagger against his heart. She, who usually disliked explaining herself, unusually explained again: "I stopped you not because I was worried that if you rescued Miss Xue, Zhou Yuan would be sent to a marriage alliance. I just couldn't stand seeing you and her together..."

Qin Huai's expression suddenly turned serious. "Since Master is feigning compassion and unwilling to kill me, then I have no choice but to kill Master..."