After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

I could feel the murderous aura less than fifty meters from the Zhu residence.

They came for me.

Lu Yun originally intended to drive the carriage into the bustling city center to avoid the assassins by following the crowds, but Lu Zhiyuan did the opposite, instructing him to drive the carriage into a side alley. Before they had even come to a complete stop, several men in black descended from the sky, cutting off their escape route.

Their movements were synchronized and uniform, clearly not those of a江湖 (jianghu) assassin.

"Miss!" Lu Yun looked back and gripped the sword hilt tightly.

"Go!" Lu Zhiyuan said with her eyes closed. "Use the thing I gave you, and don't hold back."

Lu Yun nodded, put his sword away, and took out the Blood Droplet hidden in the partition. The Blood Droplet was a leather pouch containing several sharp knives, controlled by a mechanism. When someone was off guard, the pouch would be placed over their head, the mechanism would be activated, and the head would be taken instantly.

This was a gift from the young lady. He had witnessed its power; though it didn't take a head, it instantly froze his blood. Holding the blood-dripping guillotine, he stood atop the carriage, looking down at the assassins with disdain.

The process was too fast. By the time the assassins reacted, there were two headless torsos on the ground. Even more terrifying was that as Lu Yun effortlessly used it to decapitate people, he always wore a simple, harmless smile on his face, without even twitching his eyebrows.

"A ghost! He must be a ghost!"

When the third head was removed, the assassin closest to him panicked, taking two steps back and staring blankly at the corpse on the ground. The strong smell of blood made Lu Zhiyuan slightly uncomfortable, and she covered her nose as she stepped off the carriage.

"Lu Yun isn't a ghost, you are."

"What a sickly young lady from the Lu family! She actually has such a skilled fighter by her side." The leader narrowed his eyes: "Even the most powerful weapon is just a weapon. I don't believe it can take the heads of all of us in an instant."

Indeed, it's not possible.

Lu Zhiyuan nodded in agreement and slowly took something out of her sleeve.

The assassin leader scoffed, "It's too late to call for help now."

"It's not too late, after all, your eyesight is really bad." Lu Zhiyuan put the small bamboo tube to her lips and blew on it gently. There was no sound, which drew a burst of laughter, but the next moment, they stopped laughing.

The numbness began to spread from where the silver needles were inserted, and in no time, her whole body stiffened, leaving her unable to move. Lu Zhiyuan walked over with the small bamboo tube in her hand, tiptoeing as if she were strolling through a shopping mall, examining each one one by one.

The black veil used to cover their faces was carelessly tossed on the ground. The killers were in a panic, yet utterly powerless to resist. Compared to the murder weapon that could decapitate people out of thin air, the little girl before them, with her blinking eyes and delicate, porcelain-like features, was far more terrifying.

“You’ve all misunderstood something. I haven’t hidden a master; I’ve nurtured one.” He stepped back and beckoned, “Such a big secret can’t be leaked by you lot.”

Lu Yun stepped forward, holding the blood-dripping guillotine above the leader. Blood dripped from the guillotine, falling drop by drop onto the leader's face. Before his tongue stiffened, the leader begged for mercy: "I'm willing to reveal who's behind this, I only ask that you grant me a complete corpse, Miss."

"The person behind it all is none other than Prince Yong'an." Lu Zhiyuan put down her toes and turned her back. "That's not what I want to know. What I really want to know is the relationship between your prince and Ji Wanwan."

"This is the prince's private matter, how could we possibly know?"

"Lu Yun!"

The flying guillotine opened like a giant maw with blades, a sight that sent shivers down one's spine and made one's neck ache.

The leader gasped and said urgently, "Ji Wanwan saved the prince's life."

As the only non-royal prince in the court with military power, Prince Yong'an was both a thorn in the emperor's side and a source of great animosity. The emperor had repeatedly sent assassins to kill him, but Prince Yong'an always escaped death. During the time when he was most seriously injured, he met Ji Wanwan. When Ji Wanwan married Zhu Guozhi, Prince Yong'an even sent a congratulatory gift, reportedly a priceless headdress.

They followed the Marquis's carriage into the capital, their mission being to protect Ji Wanwan's safety.

On the day the Zhu family arrived in the capital, they informed the prince by carrier pigeon, but the prince did not reply until yesterday evening.

The reply contained only six words: Destroy the Zhu family, kill Zhiyuan.

Lu Zhiyuan pulled the dagger from the leader's body; the grooves on the blade were filled with blood.

"Since you destroyed the Zhu family, then you shall pay with your lives!"

The dagger sliced ​​across the leader's neck; he opened his mouth, then collapsed to the ground. In his final moments, he glanced at the headless corpse of his companion beside him, and slowly closed his eyes.

Lu Yun put away the blood-dripping dart: "I thought Miss would let him go!"

Lu Zhiyuan raised an eyebrow and stepped into the carriage: "He only wants me to leave him with a whole corpse."

As she lowered the curtain, Lu Zhiyuan added, "He's an assassin. Even if I let him go today, he'll still come to kill me on his master's orders another day. I hate trouble and don't want to waste my limited time on this kind of thing."

Lu Yun tightened his grip on the reins, turned around, and said through the curtain, "Miss will live to be a hundred! Also, let Lu Yun handle the killing. Miss's hands shouldn't be stained with their blood, it's filthy!"

Lu Zhiyuan looked at her hands; they were slender and pale, with a trace of blood on the little finger of her left hand.

The carriage left from the other end of the alley, leaving no trace except for the wheel tracks on the ground.

After all the commotion, it was already evening when they returned to the Marquis's residence. Liuying, carrying a lantern, looked around and, upon seeing the carriage, hurriedly ran over.

"Miss, Miss, you're finally back!"

"Such a panic... Has something happened at the manor?"

"Sister Qingzhi, they've had you arrested!" Liuying cried anxiously. "Madam has also been summoned away. We don't know if she's in danger or when she'll be back."

Xie Chaoyun was called away by the shop assistant, who said he had encountered a life-or-death situation and was in a particularly difficult situation. No sooner had Xie Chaoyun left than Lu Huai brought Ji Wanwan back from the Commandant's Mansion.

Ji Wanwan suffered greatly in the prison of the Commandant's Mansion. Apart from her face, which was still somewhat presentable, her whole body was covered in wounds, which she had scratched herself. She seemed to know about the clothes, and as soon as she returned to the manor, she started to cause trouble for Qingzhi.

With a sob in her voice, Liu Ying said, "Thirty strokes of the cane! She had the servants in the manor give Sister Qingzhi thirty strokes of the cane. Sister Qingzhi was vomiting blood, and they still didn't stop. After they finished beating her, they dragged her to the woodshed in the backyard. Miss, Miss, please go and save Sister Qingzhi!"

Qingzhi was deliberately thrown onto the pile of firewood and fell into a coma. Lu Zhiyuan gave her several acupuncture treatments before she slowly woke up and stammered, "Miss."

Liu Ying held the medicine bottle, unsure how to proceed. Everywhere she looked were wounds; her clothes were stuck to the torn flesh, and every movement brought excruciating pain.

The firefly couldn't bear it, covered its ears, and large tears fell down.

"Don't cry. Tears are the most useless thing in the world. They can neither heal wounds nor save Qingzhi's life."

Lu Zhiyuan picked up the scissors that Liu Ying had dropped on the ground, and cut open areas where the blood was light or where scabs had not yet formed, then tore the pieces of cloth off the wounds. Qingzhi fainted several times from the pain, and when she woke up, she used her last bit of strength to bite down on the pillow.

She was afraid that her screams would frighten Lu Zhiyuan.