Chapter 271: White Hair

The atmosphere in Litian City was suffocating.

Zheng Fan suspected even the dogs in the city could feel it.

The new residence of the Marquis of Jingnan stood within Litian City. No one had openly called it an enfeoffment, but in practice, that was more or less what it amounted to.

In Great Yan, a Marquis was the highest noble rank available to someone outside the imperial clan, roughly equivalent to a “Prince” in other states. And the two great Marquises of north and south stood at the very pinnacle even among Marquises.

By establishing the Marquis of Jingnan’s residence here, both the imperial court and the Emperor had effectively acknowledged Tian Wujing’s responsibility for governing the newly annexed Jin territories from Litian City.

And now the mistress of that residence had met with disaster.

As newly incorporated subjects in newly conquered lands, the people here were already terrified of the State of Yan—and even more terrified of the Marquis of Jingnan, a man whose image in their minds was little different from that of a demon.

If the city gates had not been locked and inspections kept so strict, quite a few citizens would probably have fled by now simply to get somewhere safe.

After all, who knew what this Yan Marquis might do to vent his fury?

Rows of armored soldiers stood outside the Marquis’s residence.

Zheng Fan dismounted, took out his waist token, and handed it over.

The Lieutenant Commander among the guards at the gate recognized him. Even so, he followed procedure, examined the token, then returned it to Zheng Fan.

At the same time, he gave Zheng Fan a grave nod.

Zheng Fan put on an expression of understanding and nodded back, drawing in a slow breath through his open mouth.

In truth, he had absolutely no idea what this Lieutenant Commander—someone he had merely seen a few times before—was trying to convey.

Zheng Fan simply had a habit of not wanting to disappoint people.

Once inside the residence damn.

Now that was a sight.

Rows upon rows of armored soldiers knelt throughout the courtyard.

Judging from their condition, they had been there for a long time. Most had dry, cracked lips, with fine threads of blood seeping from the splits.

Yet every one of them maintained a perfectly proper kneeling posture.

No one stood nearby to supervise them.

Even so, not a single man dared relax.

Barring any surprise, these were the soldiers who had been responsible for protecting Dujuan.

Zheng Fan walked around them and continued deeper into the residence.

Two Chief Commanders were kneeling in the covered corridor ahead.

One was surnamed Chen—Chen Yang.

The other was surnamed Luo—Luo Ling.

After Ma Kui delivered the news, Tian Wujing had ridden his Pixiu back alone.

The army he had originally led out on campaign had immediately donned armor and prepared to move as well. But mobilizing an entire army took time, and the journey itself would be slow.

So Zheng Fan had not remained with the main force either.

He had taken two horses and ridden ahead alone, chasing after Tian Wujing.

Even now, Zheng Fan could not forget the scene in the Jingnan Army encampment after Tian Wujing departed by himself.

Countless soldiers had roared in fury.

Every one of them looked ready to kill their way back immediately and avenge their mistress no matter who the enemy turned out to be.

Zheng Fan shook his head and looked around for someone who could announce his arrival.

Apart from the two Chief Commanders kneeling there, he saw no one.

At the end of the covered corridor lay the main hall.

The residence of the Marquis of Jingnan was not absurdly large.

Neither Tian Wujing nor Dujuan had any taste for extravagance.

The residence had originally belonged to one of the Wenren Clan’s civil officials, and both its layout and furnishings were elegant and refined.

As for the Wenren Clan’s ancestral estate, which rivaled an imperial palace in scale, Tian Wujing had shown no interest in living there.

From where Zheng Fan stood, he could see strips of white mourning cloth hanging around the main hall at the far end of the corridor.

A few white candles lay scattered across the floor.

Clearly, the hall had been arranged as a mourning hall.

But after Tian Wujing returned last night, everything here had stopped.

Those who needed to confess their guilt, confessed.

Those who needed to remain silent, remained silent.

Those who needed to wait... waited.

As Zheng Fan approached, both Chief Commanders lifted their heads and looked at him.

Chen Yang glanced at him, then lowered his head again.

Luo Ling spoke.

“The Marquis is inside, accompanying Madam.”

Madam?

They had found Dujuan’s body?

Zheng Fan froze.

His thoughts immediately became chaotic.

The Blind Man had originally traveled here with him.

Time had been too tight for them to sit down and talk everything through before setting off, so the Blind Man had given Zheng Fan his analysis while the two of them rode.

Among all those possibilities, there was one Zheng Fan had been especially willing to believe for purely emotional reasons.

Ma Kui had come to deliver the news.

But Ma Kui had not witnessed what happened.

At the time of the incident, he had been at the Marquis’s residence.

By the time he received word and then hurried off to report it, a great deal of time had already passed.

According to Ma Kui, Madam had met with an accident on Tianhu Mountain.

She was “gone.”

But “gone” did not mean dead.

It meant missing.

Dujuan had been heavily pregnant, and judging by the dates, she should have been close to giving birth.

For someone in that condition to suddenly disappear was terrifying enough by itself.

But the Blind Man had proposed another possibility.

Perhaps the Marquis of Jingnan and Dujuan had arranged the entire affair themselves.

Tian Wujing’s child was simply too politically sensitive.

If it was a girl, matters might be easier.

If it was a boy, countless nerves throughout Great Yan would inevitably be touched.

In fact, Tian Wujing merely having an heir at all was enough to make certain people unable to sit still.

So the Blind Man had wondered whether this entire “accident” might have been deliberately staged.

A cicada shedding its shell.

*The Orphan of Zhao.*

*The Civet Cat Replaces the Crown Prince.*

The stories were different, but the underlying logic could be the same.

Zheng Fan had desperately wanted to believe that possibility.

By “dying,” Dujuan and the child could escape.

They could avoid a future political tragedy and step out of the terrifying quagmire that was destined to swallow countless lives one day.

Besides, Tian Wujing was a divine commander, a master of calculation.

No matter how complicated the battlefield became, he could always peel the situation apart thread by thread until he understood it.

And Dujuan had once been a leader within the Secret Intelligence Department.

If the two of them truly wanted to stage some great deception and vanish from everyone’s sight, they possessed both the means and the ability.

But now Luo Ling was saying Dujuan had been brought back?

Zheng Fan looked at the kneeling soldiers outside.

At the oppressive silence inside the residence.

If Dujuan had been brought back, then she had certainly not been brought back alive.

“The Marquis is inside, accompanying Dujuan...”

A chill exploded through Zheng Fan’s chest.

His eyes began to redden.

Because throughout the exhausting ride to Litian City, killing horse after horse beneath him, Zheng Fan had used that theory to comfort himself.

It was fine.

Everything had to be fine.

After all, he was supposed to be that child’s godfather, wasn’t he?

Zheng Fan had even imagined that perhaps, more than ten years from now, after the wars had finally ended, he would ride into some remote mountain valley and discover a thatched cottage.

Outside the house, the Marquis would be standing with a hoe in his hands.

Behind him, Dujuan would be feeding chickens and ducks from a wooden basin.

And a cute little girl would come running toward Zheng Fan, calling him “Godfather,” while accepting the treats he had deliberately brought for her.

The picture had been so beautiful.

So peaceful.

Zheng Fan had even imagined returning to his old profession and painting a family portrait for the three of them.

No.

No...

How could this be happening?

How could things possibly have become like this?

But there was no point trying to find the Blind Man now.

The Blind Man’s body had not been able to endure such a prolonged forced march.

In the end, the difference between his physique and Zheng Fan’s Martial Artist body had shown itself.

Halfway through the journey, the Blind Man had been forced to fall behind and rest.

So only Zheng Fan had entered the city.

Chen Yang continued kneeling there.

Luo Ling lowered his head again and resumed his kneeling posture.

Both Chief Commanders looked calm.

But Zheng Fan understood that beneath that calm could be something truly violent.

Right now, the two of them looked more like weapons waiting for their master to give the order to unsheathe them.

The Jingnan Army inside and outside Litian City had become one enormous powder keg.

The slightest spark might make it explode.

And outside the city, the expeditionary army was still returning from the snowfields with the killing aura of recent slaughter clinging to its men.

Zheng Fan raised his head and looked toward the main hall at the end of the corridor.

Then he began walking toward it.

Even now, he still did not truly know what had happened.

No one had been able to explain the sequence of events clearly.

The only thing he knew for certain was that something had happened to Dujuan on Tianhu Mountain.

Everything beyond that remained unclear.

But... a corpse could be fake too, couldn’t it?

They could have made a body convincing enough to fool everyone and sent it back here.

Then they could announce to the world that Dujuan was dead, that the wife of the Marquis of Jingnan and the Young Marquis were both gone.

That was still possible!

Zheng Fan seemed to seize upon another thread of hope.

He began walking forward.

Of course he understood that if he was wrong, then the Tian Wujing inside that hall would be the most terrifying man imaginable.

Whether one considered political power or personal martial strength, he was someone who inspired dread.

Yet Zheng Fan was not thinking about fear.

City Defender Zheng, who had always been so skilled at protecting himself, simply wanted to see.

He wanted to see what the ending of this matter truly was.

The covered corridor was not long.

Yet Zheng Fan felt as though he walked for a very long time.

As he walked, his head lowered unconsciously.

His breathing grew heavier and heavier.

Words Tian Wujing had once spoken began surfacing in his mind.

*Tell me, what should a woman pay attention to during postpartum confinement?*

*In the future, let my child recognize you as godfather.*

When Zheng Fan had first awakened in this world, he had treated everything as a game.

Everyone except himself had seemed like an NPC.

Strictly speaking, even the seven Demon Kings beneath him had been little more than seven high-level NPCs.

People instinctively reject environments they do not understand.

But once you remain somewhere long enough, you cannot avoid becoming part of it.

You begin to share the emotions of the people around you.

You become angry.

And you begin... to hurt for them.

“You... came...”

Tian Wujing’s voice drifted from ahead.

It sounded as though nothing had changed at all.

Zheng Fan raised his head and looked forward.

He wanted Tian Wujing to tell him the truth.

He even hoped the two of them could share in the relief of having successfully “deceived Heaven and crossed the sea.”

But when Zheng Fan truly lifted his head, he froze.

Tian Wujing was sitting on the threshold of the main hall.

The sight was unbearably familiar.

The first time Zheng Fan and Tian Wujing had met, Tian Wujing had been sitting exactly like this on the threshold outside the mourning hall of the Chief Commander of Nanwang City.

And Zheng Fan had stood below him.

It was as though everything in this world moved in a circle.

After wandering far enough, you eventually returned to where you began.

Only this kind of coincidence, this kind of return to the beginning, was not something anyone would ever wish to experience.

At that moment, Zheng Fan understood.

Every trace of hope, every fantasy of a grand deception, had been nothing more than something he invented to comfort himself.

None of it could be true.

Some things had truly happened.

And once they happened, they left marks too deep to erase.

Because the Marquis of Jingnan sitting on the threshold had gone white-haired overnight.

[End of Chapter 271]