Jih Minghan never guarded against Yin Zhan, perhaps because he could never imagine a reason why his sworn brother would want to kill his wife. He had shared the clues he had uncovered with Yin Zhan, who gradually realized the crisis at hand. Although it didn’t currently implicate him and Lin Roujia, as ti passed, their connection with the matter would inevitably erge.
As for Yin Zhan, his own safety was one thing, but Lin Roujia could not die, for Lin Roujia was pregnant.
In the palace, Lin Roujia had been accused of framing the favored consort. To prove her innocence, she volunteered to go to the distant Red Mountain Temple to reflect and pray to Buddha, but in reality, she was there to nurture her unborn child. If Jih Minghan discovered any hint of what was happening, and if Yin Zhan and Lin Roujia’s affair ca to light, those to die would be not only him and Lin Roujia but also their innocent child. Yin Zhan placed his greatest hopes in this unborn child and would sacrifice anything, including Jih Minghan, to protect Lin Roujia and their child.
He lied to Jih Minghan, claiming he had found evidence of the real murderer, and noted the issue was grave, but that he was currently at the Red Mountain Temple, and requested Jih Minghan co to him. At the temple, Yin Zhan had laid an ambush with a hundred archers, and to ensure certainty, he had poisoned their arrows with Molan’s deadly toxin that worked upon contact with blood.
It was a cold, bitterly cold spring night. To this day, Yin Zhan didn’t understand why the wind on that spring evening felt so icy, as if it could pierce through bones, as though the lake would freeze over at any mont. Jih Minghan approached with complete trust, with no defenses up, and walked straight into the ambush.
It was like the operatic scene where "the hero challenges several generals in the Han camp. Alas, the enemy was nurous, and I few, making victory elusive."
The drama "Ambush from Ten Sides," familiar to the soldiers in the tent, was well known; one should not vainly learn from the Overlord. Yet when caught within it, there was no saying like "victory or defeat is a common occurrence in military affairs." There was no second chance to make a coback; winning was winning, and losing was losing. Yin Zhan watched with his own eyes as Jih Minghan charged into the ambush like a cornered beast. Despite being outnumbered, he showed unexpectedly valiant bravery. Jih Minghan was very clever; once he realized he was ensnared, he did not continue to fight but instead focused on escaping.
Yin Zhan, from his higher vantage point, fired a critical arrow at the one person struggling to break through the encirclent.
The arrow hit Jih Minghan in the back. Just as Yin Zhan was about to pursue, a different sound suddenly filled the sky, forcing him to halt. He couldn’t risk making too big a movent; otherwise, if the anomaly at the Red Mountain Temple was discovered, and Lin Roujia’s situation was exposed, what then? But he was certain that Jih Minghan wouldn’t survive the night; the poison on the arrow was fatal. Since Jih Minghan had been hit, his death was certain. Thus, he quietly sent his n to search for Jih Minghan’s body.
But Jih Minghan disappeared.
For a long ti afterward, Yin Zhan asked about Jih Minghan’s whereabouts everywhere. He even tried various ways to probe the mbers of the Jih family, but to no avail. Jih Minghan had vanished from the world. Jih Heng was growing up in the Duke Residence; if Jih Minghan was still alive, he surely would have co to see Yu Hongye’s son. But he didn’t.
He must have died in so forgotten corner.
Yin Zhan felt sowhat lancholic.
Later on, Lin Roujia gave birth to a son, and he swapped Lin Roujia’s son with his own wife’s son, then killed his own wife’s son. To dispel the late emperor’s suspicions, he remarried and had children. He moved away from Yanjing City to Yunzhong and raised Yin Zhili.
Many years passed, and life seed to be calm. Having left behind familiar surroundings and surrounded by strangers, Yin Zhan himself had forgotten the blood-soaked madness he had committed for Lin Roujia. This was different from the bloodshed on the battlefield where he protected his people and guarded the land. Now... he had betrayed a friend, killed family mbers, including his own son, and betrayed his brothers.
Did he regret it? It was all aningless. Once you started down this path, there was no turning back; otherwise, besides those he had killed, he wouldn’t be able to protect the most important things in his life either.
Yin Zhan once had a beautiful dream that the stains of his past, along with Jih Minghan and Yu Hongye’s deaths, would never be discovered by anyone, and he could smoothly initiate and conclude his strategies, leaving a pure realm to Yin Zhili.
But as soon as he returned and laid eyes on Jih Heng, he knew that the dream had shattered. Jih Minghan and Yu Hongye had never left. Jih Heng knew everything. Just as he had been plotting in Yunzhong, Jih Heng had been biding his ti in Yanjing. They were evenly matched adversaries, engaged in a competition of wits, but most crucially, Jih Heng was young and strong, in his pri, while he himself had aged.
He would not be as valiant as he once was, but perhaps there was one thing he could achieve—to be even more despicable than before.
"The Prince of Xia County is actually a rather despicable person," Jih Heng said with a smile, finishing a cup of wine, "but I have also done my share of despicable things over the years. So, it’s all aningless." He looked the Prince of Xia County in the eyes, spoke slowly and deliberately, "Shall we compare who is more despicable, you or ?"
Yin Zhan was taken aback.
The man in red sat before him, his manner jovial yet filled with an unmistakable murderous intent, as if he were the reincarnation of Yu Hongye, no, even more sinister, more ruthless, and sharper. He sat before him, a creditor co to settle debts.
The debt that was incurred twenty-three years ago.
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