Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

Yin Shuo was imprisoned in the woodshed of the west courtyard of the He family mansion. The Tian Shu Division guarded him in three shifts, and the Dark Pavilion set up hidden stakes outside the west wall. Even the steward of the He family mansion changed the locks three times.

But Yinsuo remained silent. He sat on the woodpile, his jade thumb ring taken away, his fingers resting empty on his knees, his expression like a frozen pool of water.

On the evening of the seventh day, the door to the woodshed was pushed open.

When Xi Yueli walked in, Yin Suo raised her eyelids slightly. Sunlight streamed in from behind her, casting a backlit silhouette of her pale blue dress, like a slowly advancing blade.

She stopped in front of the silver shuttle, her hands clasped in front of her, looking down at him. Five breaths, ten breaths, she didn't speak, just stood there, her gaze fixed calmly on his face.

Yin Suo's Adam's apple bobbed first. He endured ten breaths under that gaze before finally speaking, "You... are from the He family?"

Xi Yueli tilted her head slightly, took out the scroll from her sleeve, unfolded it, and let it hang down in front of the silver shuttle.

The paper contained three lines of dates and place names, and seventeen delivery routes between Beishuo, Tingzifu, and the capital, each marked with the name of the contact person and the handover code.

She placed the scroll on the woodpile in front of Yinsuo's lap. "You delivered seventeen secret letters for the Empress. Twelve of them were hidden in the lining of tea chests, three were hidden in the crevices of ships sailing at night at the dock, and two were hidden in the ruins of Ci'en Temple. My men investigated nine of them, and the remaining eight—"

She paused, her gaze falling on the silver shuttle. "Fill in the details of the remaining eight contact persons and handover times for me. I'll put you on that night-voyage ship and let you go. The Empress won't know it was you who missed it."

Yinshuo looked down at the roll of paper on his lap. The arrangement of the three lines was exactly the same as he remembered, with only a day or two difference in date.

He looked up at her, and something flickered in his eyes, which were used to reading people in the shadows: "Who exactly are you?"

Xi Yueli slightly curved the corners of her mouth, the curve so shallow that it seemed she had no intention of letting him see it clearly.

"The new head of the He family." She answered the first question, then bent down, placed her hands on her knees, and looked him straight in the eye.

"He is also the Grand Preceptor of Beishuo and the head of the Dark Pavilion. Of the seventeen letters you wrote on behalf of the Empress, three were drafts copied by my people."

Silver Shuttle's pupils suddenly contracted. He stared at her as if he were watching something suddenly rise from the depths of the water, the resulting wave slamming him onto the shore.

Xi Yueli straightened up and took a half step back: "Think carefully before you speak. I'm not in a hurry, but you've been on her side for five years. What reason does she have to spare your life?"

The interrogation continued late into the night. When the fourth lamp was lit, Yin Shuo finally relented and took out the seventeen pages of the secret letter draft from a hidden pocket in his bosom, one by one. Each page was marked with the date, location, person in charge, and method of secret writing.

Seventeen pages of paper were spread out on the table, forming a complete intelligence network spanning three locations, with each node marked with a name and a secret code.

Xi Yueli stood by the table and read through the seventeen pages one by one. Her fingertip paused for a moment on the back of one of the pages, which read, "Nightfall, Mufeng Cliff, Master Xuanji's protection."

After she finished reading, she folded the page and put it in her sleeve. She then looked up at He Qingshuang, who was standing at the door of the woodshed: "The accountant at berth number three at the dock, the one you personally recruited five years ago."

He Qingshuang leaned against the door frame and rubbed her fingers together: "Let's change it tonight."

Before dawn the next day, the He family began to remove their stakes one by one from the seven shops, three docks, and four caravans in Tingzi Mansion.

When the accountant was carried off the dock, he was still clutching his unfinished account book. The second manager of the tea shop was invited into the backyard during a break from exchanging tea and never came out again. The five business cards in the hands of the caravan leader were all replaced with new ones that night.

He Qingshuang sat in the accounting room, copying down every transaction of money with the Empress's faction. The newly appointed accountant stood behind her, his undergarments soaked with cold sweat.

Meanwhile, the Dark Pavilion's communication lines were laid all the way from the southern border back to the capital.

Xi Yueli's message was simple: to cut off all communication between the remaining eight of the seventeen secret messages on the same day.

When the operators opened the hidden compartment of the connector the next morning, it was empty; not a single copper coin remained.

The Empress and the Empress in the capital received an urgent report from the south three days later.

All seventeen nodes were lost within three days. Even the last line of silver that was used as a safety net was sealed off the night before, and all the records of silver money going north on the books were erased.

The Empress sat on her phoenix throne, clutching the urgent report in her hand. After reading it, she remained silent for a long time. She slowly put the paper down, her fingertips pressing against the paper until her knuckles turned white. She had been cultivating those connections in the south for five years. Five years.

She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them again, her gaze was as if it had been tempered with a thin layer of ice. She turned her head to the female official behind her, who stood with her hands hanging down, and said, "Pass on the decree."

"Xi Yueli, the concubine's daughter of the Xi family, did not die in the fire. It has been confirmed that she is a descendant of the royal family. She is hereby ordered to return to the capital to acknowledge her ancestors and return to her clan."

That night, the imperial edict was delivered from the east gate of the palace and traveled south along the official road.

On the same night that the imperial decree was issued, the three channels of communication in the capital were quietly blocked by the Tian Shu Si (the imperial secret police). From that night onward, every message sent by the Empress and the Empress Dowager would be recorded for each additional channel, and all of them would be copied and archived.

The lights at the Tingzi Mansion and the He Mansion were still on.

Xi Yueli stood under the eaves of the west courtyard. The winter moonlight filled the courtyard, illuminating the urgent report from the capital that had just arrived in her hand. It read, "The imperial edict has been issued and will arrive in Tingzhou soon, summoning Xi Yueli back to the capital to acknowledge her ancestors."

After reading the line of text, she folded the urgent report and put it into her sleeve. The Nine Heavens Hairpin in her hair made a very soft sound when it was brushed by the night wind, like the sound of ice and snow splitting open as they first melted.

Helian Jing stood beside her, watching her profile silhouetted into a sharp arc in the moonlight.

"She wants you to go back, and in that decree, she slapped the label of 'royal bloodline' on you. With that label on, you went from being the head of the He family to a noble person appointed by the court, and she can move against you at any time."

Xi Yueli turned her head to meet his gaze, a smile curving her lips. The curve was unhurried, like the certainty that comes from someone who has finally reached the center of the chessboard and looked down at all of the opponent's pieces.

"She can only try to harm me if she can still attach one of her seventeen nails."

She reached out and took the rolled-up urgent report from his hand, unfolded it again, and glanced at it. "She bestowed upon me the title of Noble Lady, so I will return to the capital as a Noble Lady. Your Highness, Prince Chen—guess how many of the people she sent to fetch me were her own people?"

Helian Jing looked down at her eyes, which were slightly bright in the moonlight, and asked no more questions. He knew that she had already seen through all the remaining people on the Empress's chessboard.

The lights in the east wing of the He residence remained on until midnight.

Four secret reports lay side by side on the desk, each with a different handwriting: an urgent letter from Liu San Niang of Bei Shuo, a secret report from Han Zheng of Tian Shu Si, a coded message from the Southern Branch of the Dark Pavilion, and a handwritten account of transactions by He Qing Shuang.

Xi Yueli sat behind her desk, comparing the four pieces of news one by one, her pen moving so fast that it left only a blur on the edge of the paper as she annotated.