Chapter 154: —She Just Puts up a Tougher Front Than Anyone Else

Chapter 154: Chapter 154: —She Just Puts up a Tougher Front Than Anyone Else

Zhao Shijie’s letter stated that since no mail had come from Pingzhou for many days, Chen Minrou was sleepless with worry. Compounded by a relapse of an old illness with the changing season, her body was starting to fail her, and she was now confined to her sickbed...

He hoped Cui Lingyao would send a letter back to the Capital City by express posthaste to put his beloved wife’s mind at ease.

Xie Jinbai knew that Cui Lingyao had written a letter to Chen Minrou every day since leaving the Capital City.

During the earlier city lockdown, her letters couldn’t be sent out.

Then, the city gates reopened, but she died on that very same day.

All told, it had been many days since anyone in the Capital City had received a letter from her.

Zhao Shijie’s anxiety and grief leapt off the page.

A letter from the Capital City to Pingzhou took about seven or eight days to arrive. Even with a courier riding day and night, it would take four or five days at the very least.

Four or five days was more than enough time for a woman who had been bedridden for years and was on the brink of death to draw her last breath.

In other words, Chen Minrou might already be dead.

If she really was dead, her death would be inextricably linked to his decision to lock down the city.

’Once she’s reborn and finds out her best friend is gone just like that, will she take her anger out on me again?’

Xie Jinbai actually felt a twinge of panic.

’How pathetic.’

He slowly folded the letter, silent for a long moment.

Inside the room, the lieutenants with tasks at hand quietly withdrew one by one.

Only a few of his advisors remained.

In the utter silence, Xie Jinbai looked up and asked, "Where is Shen Tingyu?"

Liu Rong replied, "He’s still staying in the rear courtyard. His injuries haven’t healed yet, and with the constant rain these past few days, it’s been difficult for him to leave."

As he spoke, he hesitated, then lowered his voice. "As for Miss Pei... Do you think we should send her back to the Capital City, or...?"

Even though it was late autumn, the weather wasn’t particularly cold.

Certainly not cold enough to slow a body’s decomposition.

After several days without a burial, the stench of decay was becoming impossible to conceal.

Xie Jinbai seemed to space out for a moment, as if just now recalling the body she had temporarily used, still lying in the rear courtyard.

He paused, then said, "Bury her."

’When she was alive, she’d get upset if I even kissed her a few extra times.’

’She’d torment herself, always feeling like I had touched someone else.’

Now that the soul he loved was gone, that body held little meaning for Xie Jinbai.

’Keeping it around might just make her unhappy later on.’

With her gone and his head finally clear, Xie Jinbai belatedly realized just how jealous his beloved girl could be.

—Her words were always tougher than she was.

But in reality...

Xie Jinbai’s expression shifted. He suddenly asked, "Has everyone in the Pei Family been executed?"

Liu Rong was surprised he would ask about such a minor detail and didn’t know the answer.

He bowed in apology and excused himself to the outer room. After summoning a trusted aide and asking a few questions, he returned and reported, "The Pei Family is very large. Starting the day before yesterday, a hundred people have been executed at the marketplace each day. The direct line is almost entirely gone now. Only a few collateral branches and some servants remain."

Over four hundred people in total.

Executions had been carried out for three days, one hundred people a day.

This meant that, including the servants, over a hundred people were still left.

An influential family that had been entrenched in Pingzhou City for a century, wiped out in a matter of days...

Xie Jinbai asked, "Is the young maid who served her still alive?"

"She is,"

Liu Rong confirmed. "Per your instructions, the executions started with those surnamed Pei. Since there are still members of the Pei Family left alive, a mere maidservant like her would be unharmed."

Xie Jinbai raised a hand. "Let them all go."

Liu Rong froze. "...Let them go?"

"Yes," Xie Jinbai said, rubbing his aching temples. "The Pei Family deserved to die for colluding with foreign tribes, but the Pei ancestral tombs cannot be left untended. Release the rest of them. Order them to remain in Pingzhou City for all eternity to watch over the Pei Family’s ancestral tombs. You must ensure that Pei Shu’s family of three never lacks for offerings and incense during the holidays."

’Pei Shuyao’s body is about to be buried. I can’t let the vessel she once used end up in a lonely, untended grave.’

’Leaving some of the Pei Family alive can be considered a kindness, in return for her having borrowed Pei Shuyao’s body for a few months.’

’Otherwise, knowing my methods, the executioner’s blade would have shown no mercy.’

Liu Rong was stunned. He was well aware of the lady’s influence, but he never thought his master’s affection would extend this far.

’To show mercy even to the family that caused her death.’

He didn’t dare say another word, simply accepting the order and withdrawing.

The room fell silent once more.

Xie Jinbai gazed at the empty room and slowly closed his eyes.

...

Pei Shuyao’s funeral was a grand affair.

It couldn’t compare to the forty-nine-day mourning rites held for Mrs. Shen, but considering the rest of the Pei Family’s direct line had been executed, for her to receive such posthumous honors was enough to turn heads.

Despite his frail condition, Shen Tingyu personally presided over his cousin’s funeral arrangements.

The wake lasted seven days.

Rites were performed for seven days and seven nights. Finally, her casket was carried to the Pei Family’s ancestral tombs and buried beside her mother and father.

Only eleven days had passed since Mrs. Shen’s funeral.

The family of three was reunited in the afterlife.

Xie Jinbai did not appear for any of it.

He was recovering from his injuries.

Doctor Liu had been right. No matter how robust one’s constitution, you couldn’t keep courting death again and again.

He had stabbed himself clean through, and just after the wound was bandaged, he’d torn it open again with considerable force, aggravating the injury.

This injury was even more severe than any he’d sustained on the battlefield.

Xie Jinbai couldn’t even get out of bed.

...

「Capital City.」

Her soul had returned to her body, but Cui Lingyao, completely unable to move, was frantic with worry.

She was worried about both Xie Jinbai and Chen Minrou.

’I promised to send a letter every day, but I’ve broken that promise for so long now. Considering Chen Minrou’s delicate health—it’s almost like she’s sick with depression—I have no idea how this might have affected her.’

’And if news of my "death" got back to the Capital City, the consequences would be unthinkable.’

’...Surely Zhao Shijie isn’t so useless that he’d let news of my death reach Chen Minrou’s ears, right?’

Cui Lingyao was desperate and had been pestering the system constantly for the past two days.

Her sense of urgency was so intense that the system’s promised fifteen days were cut down by two.

She woke up on the thirteenth day.

The effort, however, left the system completely drained.

Never having been so tired, the system’s voice was faint: [I’m about to go into hibernation. This time, I’ll be truly cut off from everything, in a deep sleep. Even if you die halfway through the mission, I won’t be able to wake up. It’s all up to you now. You absolutely must get Xie Jinbai to give birth to the child.]

"Okay," Cui Lingyao said, feeling a pang of guilt. She promised earnestly, "Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to stay alive and complete the mission."

The system was hardly reassured.

But it was out of options. After giving her three Hundred Diseases Pills, it went offline.

When Cui Lingyao opened her eyes, she saw three small, emerald-green Jade Bottles resting beside her pillow.

Having witnessed the pills’ efficacy firsthand, she cradled the bottles in her palm like priceless treasures. Only then did she take a moment to look at her surroundings.

The familiar furnishings dredged up memories that had lain dormant in her mind for three years.

’This... this is Xie Jinbai’s study.’

His study was huge, divided into a front and rear section.

The front section was where he worked, held discussions with his advisors, and met with court officials.

As for the rear section...

It was practically his private living quarters.

During that half-year when he was so mercurial, he would often get angry for no reason, storm off, and end up staying in his study.

’Which meant... this very room.’