You cause trouble and I collect your body, the little emperor’s aunt abuses the scumbag again

The candlelight inside the room flickered.

Xingzhi spread a map of the capital's defenses, which he had taken from the assassins, on the table. His slender fingers traced the red dots circled in vermilion ink on the map; each red dot represented a deadly spot.

"This is the territory of the Nine Cities Military Command, and the newly appointed commander is the Empress Dowager's man."

"This is a secret outpost of the Five Cities Censorate. They only obey the emperor's orders. The current emperor wants me dead."

"And here, here, here..."

With each word he spoke, his voice grew colder, as if he were dissecting a corpse rather than discussing his impending journey home.

“Meng Liancheng is not dead. He used our whereabouts as a pledge of loyalty. The capital city now is a net spread out for me, a giant meat grinder.”

He finally stopped and looked up at Meng Siya.

“I’m taking you back not out of love, but to send you to your death.”

Meng Siya stood opposite him, listening to his cruel yet calm analysis, tears streaming down her face without making a sound. Her hands gripped the hem of her dress so tightly that her knuckles turned white, almost tearing the fabric apart.

She wanted to say, "We'd rather die together," and wanted to throw herself into his arms to stop him from saying such hurtful things.

But her hand instinctively reached for her still flat stomach, where a tiny life was telling her that she couldn't.

She swallowed that impulse back.

After a long while, she raised her red and swollen eyes, which were no longer pleading, but only a tenacity that I had never seen before.

"Okay, I'll stay."

She walked up to him and straightened his slightly disheveled collar.

"But remember, I want to see you on the day the child is born."

The door creaked open, and Lin Daxiong swaggered in, plopped down on the stool next to him, crossed his legs, and immediately broke the heavy atmosphere in the room.

Just as Xingzhi was about to speak and ask him to stay and take care of Meng Siya, Lin Daxiong spoke first.

"Don't bother, I'm not going to be a nanny."

“This manor has plenty of money and grain, and three hundred assassins who are more powerful than ghosts. They don’t need a half-baked doctor like me.”

He was shaking his leg, acting like a dead pig that wasn't afraid of boiling water.

"I want to go to the capital with you."

Xingzhi frowned, his voice so cold it could shatter ice.

“I’m going there to kill people, not to go sightseeing. You’re too weak to even kill a chicken; you’ll only be a hindrance.”

"kill?"

Lin Daxiong seemed to have heard the biggest joke in the world. He stood up from the stool, his beady eyes shining with an unprecedented light.

"That's what a brute would do! Xingzhi, my Crown Prince, if you want to reclaim your throne, relying on your few broken swords is too slow!"

He straightened his chest and pointed to his head.

"This is what you're lacking! It's a technology that doesn't exist in this era!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Daxiong took out a piece of straw paper from his pocket and slapped it onto the defense map.

"Open your eyes and see!"

Xingzhi looked down and saw that the paper was drawn with things he had never seen before.

Some were round earthenware jars painted with fuses and symbols, while others were mechanical structures, more complex than the best repeating crossbows in the army.

"What is this?" Xingzhi's voice was a little hoarse.

"This is called a palm-sized thunderbolt!" Lin Daxiong pointed at the pottery jar, spitting as he spoke. "Don't underestimate its size. As long as the ingredients are mixed correctly, light it and throw it out. With a bang, everyone within a ten-meter radius will be thrown to the ground. It's much faster than your assassins cutting people down!"

He then pointed to the mechanical drawing.

"I call this the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow Plus! Your thing can only fire ten arrows at a time, but mine can hold fifty arrows at once, as long as the gears and slots are in place. Pull the trigger and it will fire continuously. One person is a whole volley of arrows!"

Lin Daxiong became more and more excited as he spoke, as if he could already see thousands of troops being defeated in front of his invention.

"I am a modern person, and I have a five-thousand-year-old wisdom database in my mind. This is the most powerful cheat code on your path to revenge, understand?"

Xingzhi picked up the blueprint and ran his fingers over the rough lines on it.

He couldn't understand the formula and structure, but he was a seasoned veteran who could see the potential in these things.

He looked up and re-examined the man in front of him, who was usually greedy, cowardly, and full of empty talk, as if he were meeting him for the first time.

After a long while, he put down the blueprints, faced Lin Daxiong, and slowly extended his fist.

Lin Daxiong was taken aback, then grinned and raised his fist, bumping it heavily with his.

“Good!” Xingzhi’s voice was deep and powerful. “If I ascend the throne, I will reserve the position of Minister of Works for you.”

The decision had been made, and the moment of parting had finally arrived.

Meng Siya forced back her tears and pulled the only plain silver hairpin from her hair.

This was the first gift he gave her when he was still a down-on-his-luck scholar, and it is now the only valuable and sharp thing she possesses.

She walked up to Lin Daxiong and placed the cold hairpin into his hand.

“Brother Daxiong,” her voice choked with emotion, but clear, “this journey has been fraught with danger, I’m entrusting it to you. Take this hairpin, if it’s in a critical moment… even if it’s to take a knife for him, or to get a bite to eat, it’ll do.”

"Help me, bring him back alive."

Lin Daxiong looked at the silver hairpin in his hand, feeling as if it weighed a ton. He nodded solemnly: "Don't worry, sister-in-law."

In the darkness of night, Xingzhi summoned the Awakening of Insects.

He pointed in the direction of the main house and issued the harshest death order of his life.

"From this day forward, leave half of the 'Dragon Breath Guards' here. Within a five-mile radius of this manor, anyone, human or ghost, without a waist token, will be killed without mercy!"

“If there is even the slightest mistake, you will all come back with your heads.”

"As ordered!"

Upon receiving the order, a dozen dark figures instantly disappeared into the darkness surrounding the manor, turning it into an invisible iron prison.

After dismissing everyone, Xingzhi returned to his bedside.

That night, he neither studied the map nor cleaned his weapons.

The red candle burned out, and the first light of dawn appeared.

He kissed Meng Siya passionately, whispering "I love you" in her ear over and over again, as if trying to imprint his entire being into her soul. Even as the sky began to lighten, their hair remained intertwined.

As dawn broke, Xingzhi ruthlessly pushed away the person in his arms, strode out of the room, and never looked back.

He was afraid that if he turned around, he would never be able to take another step.

At the window of the attic, Meng Siya, wearing only a thin coat, watched the carriage kick up a cloud of snow, turn into a black dot, and finally disappear into the vast snowfield.

She placed her hand on her lower abdomen, her eyes gradually turning from gentle to cold.

To protect this home, she too must fight her own battle here.

The carriage had only traveled ten miles when Lin Daxiong was excitedly showing Xingzhi the blueprints and boasting about the feasibility of his next invention—the "flying wing."

Suddenly, the carriage jerked to a stop.

"What's going on?" Xingzhi lifted the carriage curtain.

Ten steps ahead, a broken arrow was stuck in the snow.

The arrow's tail was tied with a piece of charred cloth, the very same brocade found only in the Dream Palace's storeroom.

On the fabric, two words were written in bloody fingerprints:

"Help me."