It doesn't matter what the lord is.

In this situation, either you die or I die.

45. Assassination Crisis

The city lord's mansion was smashed to pieces.

The signboard that read “The world is always peaceful” stood firm for a few minutes, but it couldn’t hold on, and fell to the ground with a clang after being blown to pieces by the wind. The stone tablet that read “All the world’s affairs are about peace” broke in two, which shows that one cannot have both the world and peace.

Reed stepped on the half of the stone tablet engraved with Taiping, looked around the ruins of the City Lord's Mansion, held a secret book he had searched out of the plywood in his hand, and yawned quietly.

The rain was drizzling down, the mist was hazy, and the broken bricks and tiles on the ground looked like wasteland in a fairyland.

A voice came from outside the door:

"The new Lord of Jinxiu City, Lord Xiang Tiange, has arrived—"

Lid said to Zhehua, who was holding an umbrella and searching for clues in the gravel with her scabbard:

"gone back."

Xiang Zhehua put away his sword and followed Lide. The two of them walked through the gate of the City Lord's Mansion. A tall and thin man came towards them. His eagle eyes stared at Lide coldly, but Lide ignored him and passed by him with Xiang Zhehua. The man called Xiang Tiange by others opened his mouth and said in a low voice:

"It says above that you are an ungrateful person."

Lid paused and replied:

"Indeed."

Xiang Tiange said lightly:

"You don't know what you just did, and you don't know what you are doing. But Yunyang will be buried with you soon. This is the price you have to pay for your arrogance and ignorance. Most monkeys in the world think that they look like humans when they wear clothes, but when they take off the outer robe... they are still just beasts."

Lid didn't look back, just looked at the rain falling outside the umbrella, tapped the secret book on his palm, and said:

"Whether they are beasts or humans, you can't tell from their appearance. Some people look impressive, but what they do behind the scenes is worse than beasts. Our Yunyang is a small place, so the city lord doesn't need to worry about it. If you have time, you might as well spend more time on the bloody clothes case to avoid worrying about the city lords of Nanchu. They are all useless."

Xiang Tiange sneered, stepped into the City Lord's Mansion which had turned into half of ruins, and said in a cold voice:

"Okay, I want to see if you can get out of this Splendid City!"

The tattered gate of the City Lord's Mansion was closed, and Lid led Xiang Zhehua into the heavy rain. Xiang Zhehua held an umbrella, her thin body trembling slightly. Her clothes were not thick, and most of them were soaked by the rain while searching for evidence in the rain. The cold wind froze her face pale.

Reed took off his coat and put it on her.

Xiang Zhehua hesitated in her heart whether to refuse, but the warmth from her clothes made her accept this gift in the end. She knew very well that her relationship with Lid was a mistake from the beginning. The direct bloodline of Lord Yunyang and the nobles of Nanchu should not have any involvement, but now that things have come to this, it is no longer something she can decide alone.

She thought of Xiang Linglong again. Until Xiang Linglong died, she didn't know which faction Xiang Linglong belonged to.

Maybe he was a peace advocate like himself, maybe he never thought of killing his niece, but all this did not affect his death. Xiang Zhehua did not give him any warning when he knew the news in advance. If Xiang Linglong was really a peace advocate, Xiang Zhehua could not escape the blame.

Now that the City Lord's Mansion has turned into ruins, Xiang Zhehua's heart suddenly feels a little empty. In the heavy rain, she recalled the night when she threw herself into his arms. Perhaps her fate was out of control from then on. She should have married a Nanchu nobleman of equal status, taken care of her husband and children, occasionally played some elegant music for her husband, and become a gentle young woman who can do both housework and housework, hiding all the sharpness of her youth in the years.

But now, she has one foot out of the cage, and at the same time she is facing an uncertain future.

In the heavy rain, Lid put away the umbrella in his hand, handed it to Xiang Zhehua solemnly, and said to her:

"Put it away for me."

Xiang Zhehua didn't understand what he meant, but Lid smiled at her and said:

"The assassin is coming."

Xiang Zhehua looked around, and the coldness seemed to be even stronger at that moment. She took Lid's umbrella, looked at him with some concern, and instinctively asked:

"Are you okay?"

Lid nodded:

"It's okay, just a small scene."

Amidst the quiet rain, a melodious flute sounded. It was like a shrill laugh coming from a graveyard at midnight, and the tingling sensation spread all over the body in an instant. In the pouring rain, snakes as thick as arms crawled out from all directions within sight, and instantly surrounded Lid and Xiang Zhehua.

Lid leaned forward and punched the ground. The ground outside the two of them collapsed inch by inch. The nearby venomous snakes were shattered to dust on the spot, and the venomous snakes in the distance were thrown into the sky. Snakes fell in the sky along with the heavy rain. Lid turned around and elbowed the assassin who tried to sneak in among the snakes, causing him to spit blood.

Many people wearing conical hats appeared in the rain.

A scarred man holding a machete said to the thin old man behind him:

"I told you that your snakes are unreliable. Hundreds of snakes were broken just by someone's words. If you don't come up with some new tricks, your snake wizard club's reputation here will be ruined."

There was a hint of gloating in his tone.

The thin old man's face was uncertain, and the flute in his hand turned upside down, and this time the sound of the flute was like crying. A cargo carriage in the distance exploded, and a golden giant python dozens of meters long rushed out of it, roaring and joining the battle. Scarface didn't say much, and gave the remaining people a look, and suddenly all kinds of weapons were unsheathed, and the dozen top assassins gathered here finally exuded a monstrous killing intent.

"What about the little girl?"

someone in the crowd asked.

Scarface snorted coldly and replied:

"Yutaishan didn't buy her life. If you catch her alive, I'll give her to you as a plaything. If she's dead, find a rope, tie her and the man next to her together and hang them on the city gate. It will be a tribute to their deep love!"

His hand brushed the gold ring on the back of the machete, and he suddenly waved his arm and shouted:

"Do it!"

A bolt of thunder exploded in the sky, and hurried footsteps were heard in the heavy rain.

Straw sandals stepped on the waterlogged ground. In an instant, assassins from Yutai Mountain were everywhere. Li De and Xiang Zhehua had no way to retreat in the heavy rain. But in the next moment, several tentacles pierced the hearts of those who approached like sharp knives, and then turned into smoke and disappeared in the rain.

It was as if time paused for a brief moment, and then the assassins who jumped high in the air turned into corpses and fell down.

The machete in Scarface's hand was less than three inches away from Lid's face. Lid looked into his eyes, smiled, and patted his shoulder. The sturdy man fell to the ground, vomiting blood, and his vision gradually began to blur.

Xiang Zhehua didn't understand how they died at all. After being stunned for a long time, he asked Lid:

"Have the assassins... been dealt with?"

Lid nodded, wiped the blood off his hands, and replied with a smile:

"This batch has been dealt with."

He paused and continued:

"Of course, there will be the next batch, the next batch, and many, many more batches. Assassins like this are probably all over Jinxiu City. All of them aim to kill us. This is just an appetizer."

With one punch, Reed smashed the head of the python that pounced from behind, and continued on his way towards Zhehua as if nothing had happened.

46. ​​Rain falls in southern Chu, violent waves surge

Reed and Xiang Zhehua did not return to the hotel room that could shelter them from the wind and rain smoothly.

The moment he stepped into the hotel, Lid suddenly put one hand on Xiang Zhehua's chest and pushed her out. He kicked the door open and knocked away two assassins. One of the assassins' knife cut Lid's arm, and the blood mixed with rain dyed the floor of the hotel red. Because the rain kept diluting the concentration of platelets near the wound, the wound became extremely difficult to heal, but Lid didn't care and let the blood flow continuously.

Reed looked up and saw that the wind had blew up the curtains of several houses upstairs, revealing glass splattered with blood.

It seemed that after Li De and Xiang Zhehua left the hotel, the place was invaded. It seemed that the other party did not leave any survivors, including the innocent guests staying in the hotel, as well as the innkeeper and waiters who ran the inn. Li De narrowed his eyes, grabbed the arm of an assassin who rushed over, swung him around three times as a weapon, and finally threw him into the hotel. With a loud bang, the counter was smashed to pieces, revealing the assassin hiding inside.

"Yutaishan... he's quite good at killing innocent people. With this level, can he be compared with Lingwu's hidden guards?"

Li De sneered and took Xiang Zhehua into the hotel. After a few leaps back to the room, they dealt with the assassin hiding there, then jumped down from the tall building with the suitcase and fell back into the heavy rain. The oil-paper umbrella was meaningless at this time. Li De and Xiang Zhehua were both soaked in their clothes and left the hotel with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

For Lid, it didn't matter if he lost his place to live, but he had to keep the banknotes, otherwise he would suffer a big loss.

Xiang Zhehua and Li De ran all the way and saw assassins along the way. The two finally hid under the eaves of a house to temporarily avoid the storm. Xiang Zhehua tried to wring out the water in his clothes and said to Li De:

"Now you should tell me. After killing Xiang Linglong, what are we going to do next? Also, you said you guessed the truth about the bloody clothes case, so what kind of interests are behind it that can make them so crazy? Even Yutaishan has joined in fearlessly, which is simply unimaginable."

Lid bit one end of the bandage to stop the bleeding on his arm, then raised his eyebrows and looked at Xiang Zhehua and asked:

"You looked scared before, but now you want to know?"

Xiang Zhehua was silent for a while, with a somewhat bitter smile on his face:

"I want to die with a clear mind."

Reed shook his head:

"Don't worry, you won't die, but I can tell you my answer. In short, Xiang Linglong is neither your grandfather Xiang Geling's man as we thought, nor is he a man of the war faction leader Xiang Jiqing. In other words, he is both Xiang Geling's man and Xiang Jiqing's man."

Xiang Zhehua chewed over what Lid said, trembled violently, and asked:

"What do you mean?"

Lid exhaled, looked at her with a smile, and replied:

"It's just what you think. The bloody shirt case is just a cover-up. The contradiction between the pro-war and pro-peace factions is not irreconcilable at all. There is only one answer to the reasons why we encountered so many assassinations along the way, why the other party dared to attack you, the granddaughter of the leader of the pro-peace faction, and why Yutaishan joined the game. That is Xiang Linglong, Xiang Tiange and others. Behind them are not a certain force, but Xiang Jiqing and your grandfather Xiang Geling."

Xiang Zhehua blew on her hands. Even though she pretended to be calm, her trembling voice still betrayed her inner panic:

"This is impossible! My grandfather is——"

Lid raised his head and looked at the drizzling rain, his voice a little cold:

"I was wrong at first. I kept thinking about which side would benefit from the blood-stained shirt case and who would benefit from it. But from a certain point on, I realized that I was wrong. For the war faction, the best outcome would be to confirm the fact that the peace faction persecuted Jiang Yuesheng. For the peace faction, the best outcome would be to bite back and prove that Jiang Yuesheng's imprisonment was a false accusation framed by the war faction. There is a problem here... The seven investigation teams before us must have left with different results, but they all died on the way."

Lid looked at Xiang Zhehua and said faintly:

"So I suddenly realized that maybe I shouldn't think about who will benefit from the solution of the Blood-stained Shirt Case, but who will suffer the most if the Blood-stained Shirt Case remains unsolved."

He whispered to Zhehua:

"Who?"

Lid pointed to the ground and said calmly:

"The Lord of Nanchu, and the Crown Prince of Nanchu, Xiaohei. The reason is very simple. I heard about the bloody clothes case when I first entered Nanchu. It can be seen that someone has been deliberately promoting this matter, and the propaganda angles are contradictory, causing a situation of nationwide dispute. The two factions seem to have reached the point of no return, but the truth has not been made public. In this case, the prestige of the Lord of Nanchu and the Crown Prince of Nanchu will decline with every day of delay. I heard that the army of Nanchu is in the hands of the nobles. When the prestige of the Lord and the Crown Prince is reduced to a certain level, it will be time for the pro-war faction and the pro-peace faction to join forces to replace them."

Lid bowed to Zhehua and said:

"So, you originally had the chance to become the granddaughter of the Lord of Nanchu. According to the history of Nanchu, you would marry a lord ranked in the top ten. I really can't afford it."

Xiang Zhehua's eyes were red, and her canine teeth bit her trembling lips, leaving blood stains. She twisted her fingers together, and her voice was a little tearful:

"My grandfather wants to be a lord? He would even sacrifice me for this wish...right?"

Lid couldn't bear to provoke her any further, so he just replied:

"If you die here, it will make the water more turbid, which will be good for them."

Xiang Zhehua sniffed and covered her eyes with one hand to prevent Lid from seeing her crying.

Lid threw a stone into the puddle and continued:

"In the end, I didn't find any definite evidence. The last time I confirmed it, I persuaded Xiang Linglong to kill Jiang Yuesheng. There will definitely be more and more people making trouble outside. As long as Jiang Yuesheng is still alive, various forces will run around for him. For example, on the night I took office as the leader of the investigation team, six thousand veterans knelt down to ask for justice for Jiang Yuesheng. This kind of trouble will continue to happen. No matter whether Xiang Linglong is a pro-war or pro-peace faction, as long as he wants the case to be over, killing Jiang Yuesheng is the best way. But he refused, and the reason he found was very poor, so I guess he probably didn't want the case to end like this, and he wanted to use it to seek greater benefits."

Lid took out the secret book he had found in the City Lord's Mansion from his bosom, handed it to Xiang Zhehua, and said:

"This is most likely a record of the gifts he has given and received over the years. If you take a look, you will find that there are members of your peace faction as well as some members of the war faction. Xiang Linglong is a link, perhaps not the only link, but a bridge of communication between the peace faction and the war faction. They should have been planning this many years ago for the supreme power of Nanchu and for the unparalleled achievements they talk about."

47. Her Future

Xiang Zhehua quietly flipped through the secret book handed to her by Reed, and she indeed saw many familiar names on it.

Even though she had hardly been involved in the fight between the pro-war and pro-peace factions, she still had a good idea of ​​who her grandfather liked and disliked. Seeing the names on the secret book, she believed about 70% of what Lid said, but she still asked Zhehua painfully:

"Why... I have met Nanchu Lord Xiang Mu and Nanchu Crown Prince Xiang Hei. They are not mean and ungrateful people. Moreover, the pro-war and pro-peace factions have existed for such a long time, and there has never been a power grab. Why... at this time..."

Li De actually already had the answer in his heart, but he didn't tell Xiang Zhehua.

He just smiled quietly:

"This is not a problem you should be concerned about. If you have time to think about this, you might as well think about your own position. Your grandfather's victory over Ge Ling is good for you, but I am planning to take this benefit away from you now. You have to think this through."

Xiang Zhehua closed the secret book in his hand, lowered his head, and watched the rain falling into the puddles.

A small black beetle lying on its back was struggling to turn itself over in the puddle. However, no matter how hard its short legs tried, it was in vain. All its struggles, covered in mud, seemed meaningless.

Xiang Zhehua's voice was very soft:

"…My grandfather was a very kind man. He was very good to me, so good that I could hardly find fault with him. He taught me all kinds of things and met all my needs."

"But once I grew up to be old enough to get married, everything changed. Many people came to my house to propose marriage, and my grandfather would spare no effort to introduce my talents every time. I wore fancy clothes, performed in front of everyone, and put on a stern face to act like a lady from a noble family. It was then that I realized that I was actually just a commodity, and a commodity that needed to be promoted in every way to drive up the price."

"So later, I spread the word that I didn't like anyone. Women who are too picky are always disliked, so I gained temporary safety. But from then on, my once amiable grandfather became indifferent, perhaps because I was no longer useful to him... Even though I kept telling myself in my heart that my grandfather was just angry with me, and pretended to be a happy family to the outside world, in fact, from the moment I rejected the marriage that my grandfather had arranged for me, everything was irreversible."

Xiang Zhehua looked at Lid, his eyes full of fatigue:

"But, without my family, what would I be? I am just a flower growing in a greenhouse, with hands and feet, but I can't even support myself. When I was young, I thought the ways of the world were far away from me, but when I grew up, I found that all of these things suddenly came at me in an instant."

Lid smiled and replied:

"When I was in Lingyun City, I also thought that kind of life was pretty good. I didn't have to think about anything and could do whatever I wanted. Although I didn't have a good life in the family, I could rely on my status as the fourth young master to bully men and women. But in the end, I left there without hesitation."