Cannon fodder and female supporting role, a match made in heaven

"Wait." Her voice tightened, her fingertips unconsciously digging into her palm, "Shi Yu, can you show me the dagger?"

Shi Yu was stunned for a moment, then bent down to pick up the dagger.

He didn't usually carry this dagger with him. Today, a disciple heard that he had a dagger that could cut through iron like mud and begged him to see it, so he brought it with him.

He handed the dagger to Shen Zhaozhao as he was told.

As soon as Shen Zhaozhao's fingertips touched the handle of the dagger, his whole body trembled violently and his face instantly lost all color.

Shi Yu saw that her face looked strange and asked, "What's wrong?"

"This dagger..." Her voice was trembling, as if squeezed out from between her teeth. "Where did you get it?"

Shi Yu saw her pale face and didn't know why she lost her composure, so he answered truthfully: "My master gave it to me a few years ago. At that time, I won the first place in the sect competition. He said this dagger is suitable for me..."

Xie Qingyao?

Shen Zhaozhao felt dizzy. In the illusion, the image of his father lying in a pool of blood overlapped with the dagger in front of him. His heart felt as if it was being cut by the cold blade.

The illusions woven by the phantom demon are both real and fake, but is there such a coincidence in the world?

Coincidentally, the black jade on the daggers are all the same.

She clenched the dagger tightly, not even noticing the cuts on her fingertips. She spoke with difficulty, "Shi Yu, can you... lend it to me?"

Shi Yu was shocked when he saw this and hurriedly tried to grab it: "What do you want this for?"

He looked at the pain surging in her eyes, and a terrible idea suddenly popped up in his mind. He hurriedly held her hand, and his voice changed.

"Don't mess around! This prison is protected by the 'Soul Binding'. Forget about using a dagger to injure yourself. Even if you bang your head against the wall, you won't be able to break through the stone. You won't die!"

Shen Zhaozhao ignored him and just held the dagger tightly. Blood seeped out from between his fingers and dripped onto the blade, spreading a small patch of dark red.

She looked at the black jade on the handle of the dagger. The jade glowed coldly in the dim light, just like her father's eyes filled with helplessness and pity when he looked at her for the last time in the illusion.

She wanted so badly to find out the truth.

Shen Zhaozhao looked up at Shi Yu, his eyes red, his hand gripping the dagger tighter, his voice trembling with pleading.

"Shi Yu, please lend it to me temporarily. This dagger is very important to me. I will return it to you after I have used it."

Shi Yu looked at the light in her eyes. There was pain, confusion, and a kind of stubbornness in that light that he could not understand.

He finally sighed and withdrew his hand: "This dagger... just take it."

Jian'an City.

Yu Miaoyi has been looking for evidence to clear the name of the Yongping Palace, and she has set her sights on Prime Minister Wei Chengye.

Wei Chengye was the prime minister most favored by the late emperor. When the late emperor was in power, he had no opinions of his own and always listened to what Prime Minister Wei said.

Wei Chengye has absolute power, but he is only afraid of the upright Prince Yongping who holds military power.

The evidence of her father's treason was written in black and white, and the witnesses were "conclusive".

The late emperor was suspicious to begin with, and when he saw these "ironclad evidences", he immediately slammed the table in anger.

Without any interrogation and opportunity to defend himself, Wei Chengye personally led the imperial guards to surround the Yongping Palace, imprisoned thousands of people in the palace, and executed them.

Wei Chengye was always cautious in his work. He never left a single piece of paper or a single word in his house. He would burn all the secret letters he received and received after reading them. Even his servants only dared to take down his instructions orally, not write them down.

The days of searching for evidence felt like an endless journey.

Yu Miaoyi knew that Wei Chengye's mansion was as clean as if it had been washed, so she went to check his long-abandoned old houses, remote courtyards, and even the alleys where he lived in his youth.

She had pretended to be a beggar, worked as a handyman, squatted all night in a cobweb-covered corner, and rummaged through fragments beside a mossy well.

Finally, she made a discovery in an abandoned temple on the outskirts of Beijing.

The temple had been uninhabited for a long time, and the beams were covered with cobwebs. She climbed up the rickety wooden ladder and found a stack of hard paper in a wooden box that was mostly eaten by insects.

It was mulberry paper, with words written on the back with a special potion that could only be seen clearly when held up to the light - it was a secret letter between Wei Chengye and the enemy country.

The letter described how he betrayed the border defenses and how he planned to get rid of Prince Yongping. The signature was stamped with his private seal, which he never showed to anyone, and the handwriting was exactly the same as the "secret letter" he forged from Prince Yongping.

Yu Miaoyi sent the secret to the palace through a messenger, and Wei Chengye's house was confiscated and he was imprisoned.

The evidence is conclusive and the execution will be carried out in three days.

The incident happened the night before Wei Chengye was to be executed. He bribed the jailer and escaped from the "iron wall" prison that he had personally supervised.

When the news came, Yu Miaoyi was copying a memorial under the lamp to overturn her father's verdict. The tip of her pen suddenly stopped, and the ink spread out - she knew that Wei Chengye would definitely come to find her.

The secret guard who had been ordered to secretly protect Yu Miaoyi knelt on the floor tiles of the Yangxin Palace, holding a white handkerchief embroidered with the word "Wei" in his hands, and said in a trembling voice: "Your Majesty, the princess is missing. This was found in her room."

Xiao Shengan's fingers that were holding the handkerchief suddenly tightened, causing the corners of the handkerchief to wrinkle.

He stood up suddenly, and the hem of his dragon robe swept across the table, causing the inkstone to fall to the ground and break into two pieces.

"Prepare the horses!" His voice was hoarse, unlike his own, and the panic in his eyes almost overflowed.

The secret guard wanted to persuade His Majesty to put his health first, but was frightened by the cruelty in his eyes and swallowed his words back.

Xiao Sheng'an, now the new emperor of Dazhao, had long since cast off the disguise of a dandy prince, but no one had ever seen him lose his composure like this—his dragon boots stepped on broken porcelain pieces, and the wind they brought with them carried an impatient burning sensation.

He rode his horse through the streets of Jian'an City. The wind blew into his clothes, making the panic in his heart grow more and more intense.

The secret guard followed the trail all the way and finally stopped outside an abandoned yard on the outskirts of the city.

Xiao Sheng'an dismounted and heard Wei Chengye's sinister laugh coming from the main room.

"Princess Yun'an, you are indeed still alive. Do you think finding those letters can overturn the case? It's true that your father commanded his own army, but now that you are in my hands, it can be considered as a daughter paying off her father's debt!"

"Traitor!" Yu Miaoyi's voice was muffled by the sound of her mouth being gagged, but it was still sharp. "My father was loyal to the emperor and patriotic, but you are collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country. The evidence is irrefutable, and you still want to live on?"

Wei Chengye said angrily: "If you can't survive, I will drag you to be buried with me!"

Xiao Shengan kicked the door open.

Yu Miaoyi was tied to a chair, with a cloth on her mouth and clear slap marks on her face, but her eyes were still as bright as if they were quenched by fire.

Wei Chengye held a tinderbox in his hand, with black dynamite piled at his feet. Seeing Xiao Sheng'an, he suddenly smiled and brought the tinderbox close to the dynamite fuse. "Your Majesty, you've arrived just in time! Either give me a horse and let me out of the city, or else, send her to hell with me!"

When the secret guard saw the explosives, he rushed forward to protect Xiao Shengan.

Xiao Shengan pushed them aside, took a step forward, and his eyes fell on Yu Miaoyi. His voice trembled: "Let her go, and I will spare your life."

"Forgive me?" Wei Chengye laughed even crazier. "Your Majesty, do you think I'm a three-year-old child? Today, either she dies or you let me go! Your Highness, you'd better step back. I, a fire starter, don't have eyes."

Xiao Shengan said, "Okay, I'll step back, don't act rashly."

Wei Chengye said ruthlessly, "Retreat outside the yard and lead the horse to that tree. Stay away, or I will ignite the explosives now."

Xiao Shengan did as he was told, retreated outside the yard, and asked the secret guards to prepare the horses.

At this moment, Yu Miaoyi suddenly struggled, and the chair legs made a harsh sound on the ground.

She slammed her bound hands against the candlestick on the corner of the table.

"boom--"

Flames suddenly burst out from the doors and windows, and a wave of heat rushed towards him. Xiao Sheng'an's mind buzzed, and all rationality disappeared. He rushed towards the fire like a madman: "Miaoyi!"

"Your Majesty, you can't!" The secret guard hugged him tightly, "There are explosives inside. Going in is suicide!"

"Let go!" Xiao Sheng'an struggled like a beast out of control, his strength frighteningly strong. "She's in there!"

He had never lost his composure like this before. The carefreeness he displayed when pretending to be a dandy and the calm dignity he displayed after ascending the throne were all burned to pieces by the flames, leaving only scarlet blood and fear in his eyes.

The flames were still greedily licking the doors and windows, and the heat wave wrapped in the smell of burning rushed towards us, almost burning through our skin.

Xiao Sheng'an was held down tightly by the secret guards, his chest heaving violently, his dragon robe torn askew, and his hair, which was usually meticulously combed, stuck to his forehead in a mess, stained with cold sweat.

He watched the flames quickly engulf the room, a whimper like a trapped beast emanating from his throat, the scarlet in his eyes almost bleeding.

"Let me go...let me in..." His voice was hoarse and broken, and the strength of his struggle was so terrifying that the arms of the secret guards were trembling.

Just when he was about to collapse and his vision was going dark, the window of the east wing was slammed open with a bang.

A figure staggered out and staggered twice when landing on the ground.

"Xiao Shengan."

The voice was not clear, and was a little hoarse from the smoke of fireworks, but it was like a thunderclap that struck Xiao Che's ears.

He looked up suddenly - it was Yu Miaoyi!

She stood there, her hair a little burnt by the fireworks, her face covered with a layer of black ash, which made her eyes look particularly bright.

The sleeve of his left arm was burned, and there were a few blisters on the exposed skin, but other than that, it was intact!

"Miaoyi?" Xiao Sheng'an couldn't believe his eyes. The moment he shook off the secret guard, one of his shoes fell off and he rushed forward barefoot like crazy.

Yu Miaoyi subconsciously wanted to retreat, but he hugged her tightly in his arms.

His embrace was incredibly hot, and he was trembling with extreme fear, almost strangling her to the bone.

"You...what's wrong with you..." Xiao Shengan spoke incoherently, his hands frantically groping on her back to confirm that she was not seriously injured. Tears fell into her hair without warning.

Yu Miaoyi was strangled by him so hard that she could hardly breathe. She struggled to push him away, but he held her very tightly, so tightly that it seemed as if he wanted to rub her into his bones and blood.

Her voice was still a little muffled: "I'm fine. I'm wearing the vest Zhao Zhao gave me. It's made of the scales of a mountain god who has cultivated for thousands of years. It can block water and fire."

Ever since she knew Wei Chengye had escaped, she had been wearing the vest close to her body. It was still glowing faintly at this moment. It was because it blocked most of the flames and impact force that she only suffered minor injuries.

Xiao Shengan then noticed the faint light of scales peeking through her clothes, but he couldn't care about anything else at the moment. He just hugged her and repeated over and over again: "It's okay... It's okay..."

His voice was still trembling, with ecstasy and fear of surviving the disaster, he buried his head in her neck, greedily breathing in her scent mixed with the smell of fireworks.

The despair in that moment almost crushed him completely, and the real warmth in his arms at this moment was the only proof that she was still alive.

Yu Miaoyi raised her hand, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately did not place it on his trembling back.

The wind blew past with a burnt smell, and Xiao Shengan's heartbeat was like a drum, making her eardrums hurt.

Yu Miaoyi leaned in his arms, her whole body stiff.

She pushed him gently: "I'm fine, Xiao Shengan."

He then slowly loosened his hand, his eyes roaming over her face and arms.

She was not unaware of the traces of those secret guards - the lanterns that always lit up at the alley entrance when she came home late, and the oil-paper umbrellas that fell on the windowsill on rainy nights.

These subtle warmth, like spring rain, fell silently on her heart, but she could only pretend not to see it.

"Thank you." She raised her head, her eyes clear, "and... I'm sorry."

Xiao Sheng'an's eyes darkened, but he forced a smile. He reached out to wipe the dust off her face, but withdrew his hand just as his fingertips were about to touch her. "Thank me for what? Thank me for not keeping a close eye on the prison door and letting Wei Chengye escape?"

"Thank you for always protecting me." Yu Miaoyi's voice was very soft, "But I..."

"I know." Xiao Shengan interrupted her, his tone a little self-deprecating, "You have someone in your heart."

He paused, then added, "I also know that you don't like the high walls of the palace and are afraid that those rules will trap you."

He knows it all.

He knew that she loved freedom, the hustle and bustle of the city, and the gentle companionship of Xie Yanshu, not his protection hidden in the dark, nor the magnificent yet cold palace.