I have been farming since I crossed over.

A burnt smell wafted from the kitchen of Yuelai Inn. Yang Mingxi passed by with a handkerchief covering her nose. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the innkeeper stuffing something into a sack.

The stitching on the corner of the Shu brocade was crooked. It was the third stitch she had deliberately made wrong. The last stroke of the character "Shou" that should have been sewn was changed into a hook pointing diagonally to the right, which looked very much like the extra white stroke that Lu Jintang always liked to add when writing the character "Ming".

"Manager Liu, this is..." When she stopped, a copper coin fell out of her sleeve and rolled to the side of the sack.

The shopkeeper hurriedly blocked the message with his foot. "Ahem, I've already prepared the Sichuan brocade for the young lady's burial clothes. This bag... is filled with rags to be sent to the countryside."

Yang Mingxi bent down to pick up the money. She pressed lightly with her fingertips on the sack and touched a hard square object inside - it was clearly a piece of camphor wood carved with peony patterns. It was Lu Jintang's writing desk and also represented Lu Jintang's identity.

After Lu Jintang came here, he gave it to the owner of Yuelai Inn, asking him to do things conveniently. What does he want to do now?

Yang Mingxi smiled and said, "I'm hungry, so I came out to find something to eat."

The shopkeeper threw the cloth bag casually and pointed to the kitchen, "I prepared a midnight snack for the girl, it seems to be burnt, you go and take a look!"

Yang Mingxi walked towards the kitchen...

Late at night, when a dark shadow passed over the roof, Yang Mingxi was leaning against the window feeding the fish.

She watched the sack tucked under the man's arm, its edges swaying in the moonlight, and suddenly remembered what Lu Jintang had said when he was teaching her how to practice concealed weapons: "A true trap is one that makes the prey think it has taken the bait."

The koi in the water suddenly jumped up and snatched the fish food from her fingertips - that was bait mixed with cinnabar, which would leave a striking red mark in the back alley of Jishidiang Pharmacy tomorrow.

The copper gourd sign of Jishidiang swayed in the morning mist. Joey Wong pinched the dark pattern on the cuffs of her shroud, her fingertips trembling slightly.

"It is indeed the longevity pattern in the room of the Lu family's mistress," the staff behind him pushed his glasses.

Wang Zuxian handed over a prescription and said, "Let's see if I can do something about it."

"Add some Artemisia selengensis to it, as it will conflict with the initiator in the Lu family's youngest grandson's prescription."

Joey Wong nodded, "Go!"

Joey Wong threw the shroud onto the table. When the sandalwood paperweight pressed down the cloth, half of a wrinkled note was revealed underneath - it was the secret report that she had taken from the pigeon's legs last night: "Lu Jintang's internal organs are burning, and no medicine can cure him."

"Father is indeed as good as a god," he sneered, "Once that brat dies, the Lu family's personal guards will have to change hands."

The sound of horse hooves could be heard outside the window. Three carriages stopped at the corner of the street, and golden tiger-head patterns appeared through the gaps in the curtains - that was the special emblem for the death squads raised by Master Wang.

At the same time, in the secret passage under the Eagle's Beak Cliff, Lu Jintang was looking at the map in front of the fire stick.

"The secret letter from Jishitang says my burial clothes have been changed," he tapped the cinnabar mark on the rock wall with his fingertips. "I'm afraid Joey Wong thinks I'm lying in my coffin drinking ginseng soup right now."

The guard beside her suddenly handed over a piece of brocade handkerchief with a pair of bright and vivid lotus embroidered on it. It was the same one that Yang Mingxi had ruined when she got married.

Lu Jintang stroked the stitches with his fingertips and suddenly chuckled, "She's quite willing to do that. She even used my mother's dowry, the camphorwood pen stand, as bait."

Back in the capital, the candlelight in the Golden Palace flickered. Taifu Wang looked at the imperial physician kneeling below him, and a sinister glint flashed in his eyes.

"Is Lu Jintang really terminally ill?" The fingers that were twisting his beard paused, and the "Qianjin Fang" on the table happened to be turned to the page about "fake death medicine". There were traces of water stains on the edge of the page.

"Replying to Grand Master," the Imperial Physician said, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. "My fourth son personally examined Mr. Lu's pulse and confirmed that he only has three days left to live."

Suddenly, a bell rang outside the palace. Taifu Wang looked out the window at the darkening dusk, a determined smile on his lips - it was three quarters past midnight, the time when the palace gates were locked and each department took inventory of its defenses.

The secret decree hidden in his sleeve was slightly warm. It was written this morning with ink mixed with musk. When midnight came, he would lead the imperial guards to surround the Lu family's hiding place in Qianhuang Mountain in the name of "visiting a sick minister."

In the Northwest Military Camp, his own son Wang Zuxian would also send troops to attack Lu Jintang's tent, and destroy Lu Jintang's personal guards in the area where His Royal Highness the King of Xian led his troops to the battle.

Originally, he just wanted to change the owner of the personal guard, but he learned from Xiao Si, the personal bodyguard of Lu Changyu who was captured, that the Lu family personal guard would never change its owner, so there was no need for them to live now.

At the same time, Yang Mingxi, who had prepared his funeral clothes and returned to the top of Eagle's Beak Cliff, was pushing the last stone down the cliff.

The sound of falling gravel startled the crows. She looked at the torches moving like poisonous snakes at the foot of the mountain, and suddenly took out the jade hairpin that Lu Jintang had given her. The pearl on the hairpin had been picked out by her long ago, and it was filled with sulfur powder that could make the torches explode instantly.

"Lu Jintang, do you think Wang Zuxian's order was to attack the top of the cliff first, or to search for the secret passage first?" She whispered softly to the night wind, the sulfur powder on her fingertips seeping through the cracks in the rocks towards the gunpowder fuse buried under the cliff.

At midnight, the dog in the backyard of Jishiditang suddenly barked wildly.

As Wang Zuxian stepped into the courtyard with the sword in hand, she saw smoke suddenly rising from the funeral clothes piled in the corner - the powder of a sprig of wormwood on the snow on the cloth actually reacted with the ice flakes in the sachet on his waist.

"Not good!" Before he finished speaking, the green smoke turned into a raging fire, igniting the bunches of herbs hanging under the eaves.

At the same time, just as Wang Taifu in the Golden Palace was unfolding the secret decree, he heard a commotion outside the palace.

"Reporting to the Grand Master," the Imperial Guard Commander rushed in covered in blood, "Lu Changyu led his men to rob Xizhimen and is now with the Imperial Guard..."

"Impossible!" The secret decree in Wang Taifu's hand fell, and he found that the handwriting on the rice paper had already blurred, revealing the word "trap" hidden underneath - it turned out that the ink mixed with musk would become visible when exposed to fire.

At the foot of Eagle's Beak Cliff, Wang Zuxian's torch team suddenly fell into chaos.

After being fished ashore, the koi carps stained with cinnabar were stuffed into leather bags filled with tung oil. They were now rolling down the mountain, drawing blood-red arcs in the night.

Yang Mingxi stood on the top of the cliff, watching Wang Zuxian's men running around like headless flies, when she suddenly heard familiar footsteps behind her.

"Axi really didn't let me down." Lu Jintang's blue shirt was stained with the smell of gunpowder. He raised his hand to brush away the cigarette ash from her temples, and paused as his fingertips brushed across her earrings. "That Crane's Beak Red... let's save it for someone more important."

Yang Mingxi looked up at him and found that the firelight from the mountain below was reflected in his eyes, which was brighter than ever in her memory.

The sound of horse hooves could be heard in the distance. It was the Lu family's personal guards who had followed His Royal Highness the Virtuous Prince to war. The camphor-scented pen stand that she had hidden in her shroud should be lying in Taifu Wang's study at this moment. The middle of the pen stand was empty, and it was mixed with poppy extract, which would slowly absorb the will of its owner.