Peach Blossom.

As night fell, the Chen Mansion became increasingly quiet.

The two guards in Chen Ji's courtyard were ordered by Chen Xi not to leave without permission, but the night was too cold, so in order to keep warm, they walked around the courtyard again and again, just as a patrol.

Until they were tired of walking, they sat on the threshold of the courtyard to rest. After chatting for a while, they fell asleep without knowing it.

It was midnight and the place was quiet.

A fire started inside the east wall and burned for a moment before being noticed by the two guards.

They suddenly woke up and shouted in the empty yard: "It's on fire! Everyone wake up and put out the fire!"

Soon, the lights in every room near and far were lit, and many servants simply put on their coats and hurried to fetch water to put out the fire.

Chen Xi had fallen asleep long ago. He suddenly woke up when he heard someone outside shouting "fire". He immediately got up to see that the doors and windows of Chen Ji's house were blocked by fire, making it difficult to enter. A woman's voice could be heard faintly from the fire: "Help! Help!"

Chen Xi looked at the servants coming and going to put out the fire and asked loudly, "What's going on?"

A servant replied: "My Lord, it is the middle of the night and everyone is fast asleep. We found out a little late and there is no way to get in. We can only save people after we put out the fire!"

Chen Xi looked at the fire that was burning more and more vigorously, with some worry flashing in his eyes. No matter what caused the fire, as long as these two people died in the Chen Mansion, he, as the master of the Chen Mansion, would be inextricable from these two lives in any way.

He then shouted to the servants who were putting out the fire, "Whoever can go in and carry the person out first? I'll give him a hundred taels of silver!"

A few servants hesitated for a moment, but when they saw that the doors and windows of Chen Ji's room had almost been burned, they all unanimously chose to continue fetching water to put out the flames.

The fire had already spread, and pouring water on it was just a drop in the bucket. The entire house was completely engulfed in flames.

Tao Ye was the only one in the room.

Chen Ji's original plan was to escape in the chaos after setting the fire, but later found that the two guards sent by Chen Xi were asleep in the yard, so he climbed over the east wall before setting the fire. Ma Da also took this opportunity to drag a male corpse into Chen Ji's room, and then the master and servant left together.

Tao Ye followed Chen Ji's idea, pushed the man's corpse to the westernmost end of the room, and set it on fire there.

After lighting the fire, Tao Ye realized how ignorant she was.

The fire burned very slowly at first, and Tao Ye was afraid that the servants would discover it too quickly and put out the fire too quickly. If the fire was put out before the man's corpse was burned, Chen Ji's fake death would be exposed.

But in fact, people who sleep soundly late at night wake up much slower than Tao Ye imagined, and as the area burned by the fire gradually becomes larger, the burning speed also becomes faster.

Moreover, when the small fire became a big fire, even if she kept a distance from the fire source, her skin still felt noticeably burning, and even the air felt hot.

She began to feel scared and wanted to escape through the east window. Only then did she realize that the east window that was not burned by the fire had already become hot to the touch. She didn't even dare to touch it, let alone know how to climb out.

She then kept shouting "Help", but the servants outside seemed to be just putting out the fire and no one came in to save her!

When the whole house was engulfed in flames, there was absolutely no hope for her to escape from the fire!

She thought about death. Since she came to the ancient times, she had thought about the possibility of death more than once, but... even if she died, the taste of being burned to death was too uncomfortable! She would rather be killed by a sword, drowned in a river, or died by drinking poisoned wine...

She was scared! She was really scared!

This was definitely the greatest fear of death and pain she had ever experienced in her life. She began to feel dizzy. She knew it was because the oxygen in the room was almost exhausted and the carbon dioxide was increasing. She might suffocate to death before being burned to death.

She felt so stupid! Would anyone in the world set a fire to cover others' escape and then die in the fire? Why didn't she consider her own safety in advance?

Perhaps it was because thinking was too physically demanding, and as she was thinking, she could no longer control herself and fell to the ground. Facing the raging fire, she felt infinite despair.

"Ah Jiao!"

Tao Ye's consciousness was becoming increasingly blurred. She felt as if she was floating, as if she heard Wang Jing's voice.

She thought she might be hallucinating. She saw Wang Jing rushing into the burning house. In the hallucination, Wang Jing could walk normally and even run. Then, her brain finally went black.

The Chen family and the Wang family were originally not far apart, and the fire was very conspicuous at night. The insomniac Wang Jing had seen it a long time ago. He thought that the direction seemed to be the Chen Mansion, so he immediately rode a fast horse to the Chen family. Sure enough, he saw flames rising into the sky and the servants of the Chen family were pouring water to put out the fire.

Wang Jing entered the courtyard and saw that the fire was the one he was most concerned about. He hurriedly grabbed Chen Xi and asked, "Have the people in the house been rescued?"

Chen Xi was still anxious, and answered truthfully: "I don't know if my second brother is in the room. I just heard Miss Man shouting for help."

Without thinking too much, Wang Jing threw away the crutch in his hand, snatched the bucket from a servant, poured the whole bucket of water on himself, and immediately ran into the fire.

The wood and tiles on the beams were falling down with a crash. Wang Jing saw Mantangjiao in the room, who was not burned by the fire but had fainted - in fact, it was Taoye.

He picked up Tao Ye, bent down, used his body to block the bricks and tiles falling from the roof, and rushed out of the fire.

Chen Xi was delighted to see Wang Jing successfully rescued the people, and hurried forward to thank him: "Master Wang, thank you for saving my sister-in-law!"

Wang Jing ignored Chen Xi and slowly walked towards his crutches.

Chen Xi knew that Wang Jing was arrogant and didn't care. He just said again: "Master Wang, she is now a member of my Chen family. You can't take her away! And... even if you take her back, I'm afraid your family won't allow you to treat her injuries properly!"

Wang Jing stopped.

Chen Xi walked up to Wang Jing and said, "Don't worry, I will ask someone to treat her carefully, and after she is cured, I will never embarrass her!"

Wang Jing silently placed Tao Ye on the stone pillar against the wall, then picked up his crutches and left Chen's house.

Later, the servants of the Chen Mansion finally put out the fire, but it was not really put out. Instead, almost all the flammable materials inside and outside Chen Ji's house were burned out, leaving only the outline of a house.

The servants carried out a charred male corpse and replied to Chen Xi: "The second young master was in the house the whole time, but he couldn't be saved and was burnt."

Chen Xi nodded, secretly feeling lucky that Mantang Jiao was rescued by Wang Jing, giving him a witness.

Tao Ye woke up again. The sunlight coming in through the window was very dazzling. She felt pain all over her body. She opened her eyes and saw several maids around her, who looked like Chen Xi's maids she had seen before.

When the maids saw Tao Ye wake up, they hurried out and shouted, "My lord, Miss Man is awake!"

When Chen Xi heard this, he came in to see Tao Ye, but he didn't get close to her. He just greeted her symbolically through the screen: "Is your sister-in-law okay?"

"I'm fine." Tao Ye's head was in a daze. The last thing she could recall was that the fire was getting more and more intense, she felt difficulty breathing, and then lost consciousness.

As for how Jie Mo escaped from the sea of ​​fire, she had completely forgotten.

Chen Xi's face was calm, and his tone was calm as well: "Since my sister-in-law is fine, please help me with my second brother's funeral!"

"What...what will happen after that?" Tao Ye was stunned for a moment, and suddenly thought of Chen Ji... Yes, at this time, Chen Ji should be dead in the eyes of the world!

At this moment, Chen Xi seemed to have doubts: "Don't my sister-in-law know that my second brother has passed away?"

Tao Ye calmed down and regained her consciousness. She remembered everything that happened yesterday and what Chen Ji had said. She denied it immediately, "No! Of course I know! He died before the fire started!"

"Oh? My second brother really died before the fire?" Chen Xi remembered that he never heard Chen Ji's cry for help when he was putting out the fire last night, so he couldn't help but believe it.

Tao Ye answered with a very sure tone: "Of course! After he drank the wine given by the princess, he had a stomachache that wouldn't stop. He was sweating all over, his face turned purple, and he groaned for half a day. He finally died in the middle of the night."

"Oh...that's it..." Chen Xi slowly stroked his beard.

Even through the screen, Tao Ye could sense that Chen Xi wanted to stay out of it!

Tao Ye remembered the plan she and Chen Ji had agreed on before they parted, so she just said to Chen Xi: "The sudden fire in the middle of the night for no reason is most likely man-made. The arsonist must have poisoned the place!"

Chen Xi asked: "What evidence do you have?"

"The purpose of arson is to destroy the body and make it impossible for the coroner to test for poison. What other evidence do we need?" Tao Ye deliberately acted emotional.

Chen Xi shook his head and smiled slightly: "Sister-in-law, what you said is a motive, not evidence."

Tao Ye thought about it and could only hold on to another thing: "Then the poison wine must have been a fact that Big Brother saw with his own eyes, right?"

"After he drank that wine, did he eat or drink anything else?" Chen Xi seemed to still have doubts.

Tao Ye answered firmly, "No! Since we drank the wine given by the princess, Chen Ji and I have not stepped out of the door, and no one has brought us anything, so how can we eat and drink? Aren't big brother's confidants watching outside?"

Chen Xi nodded: "The dead cannot be resurrected, my brother and sister-in-law, please accept my condolences. The deceased needs to be buried as soon as possible, let's discuss the funeral first!"

Tao Ye thought to herself, if Chen Xi was unwilling to stand up for Chen Ji, with her current status, how could she have the chance to accuse the high and mighty princess? How could she find a way to return to the Wang family again? How could she see the poor little girl Yu'er again? How could she be worthy of the title of "mother"?

Without time to think, Tao Ye got out of bed, pushed aside the screen, and knelt on the ground: "Brother! I am a woman with limited knowledge, please forgive my rude words! Chen Ji is your brother, blood is thicker than water. Brother knew that he died an unnatural death but he just watched and did nothing. Is it the end of a hasty burial?"

Chen Xi looked at Tao Ye and sighed softly, unable to find a reason to refuse for a moment.

"Even though the princess is precious, Chen Ji is also from a famous family! Brother, as the head of the military officers, if you turn a blind eye to the death of your only brother, I wonder if people will think that you are heartless and ungrateful? Or do they think that our Chen family is weak and can be bullied? I beg you to take me to the palace to file a complaint, otherwise I would rather die here and you can just hold our funeral together!" After Tao Ye finished speaking, she knocked her head heavily to the ground.