The moonlight enveloped the entire Western Depot prison in silence, with a few thin clouds floating in the night sky.

After relishing a jug of liquor, Warden Qiu was napping on the narrow bed in the guards' quarter.

Xiaochun walked in and sat on the bench with a sullen face.

"Oh! It always gets busy when it's my shift. Damn it!"

Chattering complaints, Xiaochun picked up the jug on the table and shook it.

Realizing that nothing was left, he threw the empty jug away with a dissatisfied mouth curl and then picked some peanuts for a chew.

Warden Qiu opened his sleepy eyes and looked at him on the other end of the table. Reeking of alcohol, he asked lazily.

"What's wrong?"

"Why! We've got four Western Depot guards coming to pick up the arsonists in a carriage before.

Just now, four other people showed up outside the prison and insisted that they were sent by the Western Depot to interrogate the criminals..."

"What!"

Before Xiaochun finished, Warden Qiu jumped up from the bed like a carp from the river, immediately sobered up.

"Where are they now?"

The consternation of Warden Qiu frightened his apprentice.

Xiaochun could not fathom the reason. Hesitating, he looked at his mentor and mumbled with a peanut in his mouth.

"They were making so much trouble that they angered Warden Bai of the male prison. They came in untidy clothes and had no badges. So Warden Bai had his men put them behind bars as lunatics."

Warden Qiu seemed to have been hit by a bolt from the blue. Scared out of his wits, he hurried down the bed and ran outside as soon as he was shod.

Seeing this, Xiaochun took a lantern and chased after him, yelling.

"Master, what are you doing? Take the lantern with you..."

...

In the Western Depot.

Another round of violent flogging failed to force Ming Lan to reach into the spittoon for the important matter.

However, one thing shamed Ming Lan more than a good whipping. Unbelievably, his disappointing body had sensed the most welcomed pleasure under the nonstop lashes.

In uncontrollable shivers, his soul seemed to have ascended from his shell to an unattainable trance and satisfaction.

After that, he fell to the ground in exhaustion, incapable of any movement except for panting.

Lu Qiange witnessed his reaction clearly from the side. After a moment of surprise, he put down the whip and covered his chuckling mouth.

It seemed that the Western Depot Master was really a sick pervert.

Ming Lan gradually came to after a short break.

Blushed, he looked around and then burst into tears at the spittoon.

"My baby, my baby is gone..."

Kicking Ming Lan with a frown, Lu Qiange threatened him with a shining dagger.

"Shut up! Want it? Grab it yourself!"

"No..."

Quieted, Ming Lan knelt before the spittoon, sighing and shaking his head.

"It's too dirty inside. How could you have me do that?"

Lu Qiange sniffed.

"Why the disdain? It came out of yourself. Weren't you having fun with it back at the Qingfeng Temple?"

"You!"

Ming Lan was shocked at his words, his tearful eyes shining with inexplicable astonishment.

"The Qingfeng Temple" marked a shameful memory of Ming Lan that he had sealed in his heart. It was also the source of his hatred for Leng Qingtang, Gu Yunxi, and the Eastern Depot.

"It turns out that you are sent by Leng Qingtang!"

Suddenly, his red eyes glared with rage, stabbing at Lu Qiange's proud smiling face.

Ming Lan gritted his teeth with resentment, the noise from which brutally broke the silence in the tranquil room.

"I didn't expect that Leng Qingtang would send you here to humiliate me like this!"

It was no wonder that every time something happened, Ming Lan would regard the Eastern Depot Master as the culprit.

Ming Lan had always seen Leng Qingtang as his opponent.

Once before, a romantic soul like him had been tempted to the Qingfeng Temple by Leng Qingtang who used Gu Yunxi in female clothing as the bait.

A few days ago, the Eastern Depot's tenth tribe had infiltrated his mansion for a jailbreak.

Now it was his turn to be taken hostage, so he naturally inferred that Leng Qingtang had got the news of Gu Yunxi's disappearance. Consequently, he secretly ordered a master to the Western Depot to humiliate him in retribution.

Lu Qiange's eyes froze at his reckoning. His lips twitched with disdain and his eyebrows rose proudly.

"The Eastern Depot is nothing to me."

The sharp edge of the dagger slashed and drew a straight silver line in front of Ming Lan's eyes.

Ming Lan took a breath back and immediately shut his mouth. He gazed at the man's cold purple eyes that were emitting an indifferent and eerie light.

"No debts without creditors, and no hatred without cause. I was the one who had left the note in the Qingfeng Temple. 'The Lone Ranger', Lu Qiange."

"...!"

Ming Lan's pupils enlarged in disbelief. Somehow, the man's leisure smile gave him the shivers.

"I've played with you for too long. And you enjoyed it. Now it's your time to give me something as a gift, right?"

Ming Lan stared at the approaching dagger and asked in a shaking voice.

"What... what do you want...?"

Before his voice vanished, a cold light passed by. He felt a chill in the left hand, followed by a sticky, hot, and gushing liquid. Finally, a bone-piercing pain rolled in.

"Ahh."

Ming Lan squeezed the bleeding left hand with his right hand. Meanwhile, he had to let out screams that could almost blow over the roof.

Under the intense pain, he trembled in sweat and fainted with a pale face.

...

Dressed in casual clothes, An Hong was leading a swarm of people to the backyard.

He heard the creepy howl of his Master halfway through.

"Hurry, hurry!"

An Hong was shocked after a short halt.

He speeded up and rushed into Ming Lan's room in one breath.

Ming Lan was lying in a bloody puddle in torn clothes. The things beside him were the cut-off little finger and ring finger, pieces of broken porcelain, and eight words written in blood.

“Treacherous eunuchs are condemned to have no offspring.”

...

Leng Qingtang rode his horse straight to the Eastern Depot after his arrival in the capital.

Leng Qingtang had been occupied with extremely bad presentiment on his way back because of the inexplicable voice he had heard at the official post house of Taichang.

Yet, he was one step too late.

Leng Qingtang rushed into the main hall so fast that the tail of his robe fluttered as he strode. Then he saw Chiliarch Cheng Wanli led the captains to kneel and realized that what he feared the most finally happened!

"Yunxi. What happened to her?"

Sorrowfully staring at them, Leng Qingtang suddenly felt that his heart had suddenly ceased beating as if it had been frozen up in ice.

By his side, Xiao Xiaoshen was so nervous that he could not breathe. He got cold feet with a glance at his Master.

"Master..."

Grieved, Cheng Wanli raised his eyes at Leng Qingtang but immediately looked away.

"Speak!"

Chiliarch's uncoordinated movement was driving Leng Qingtang mad. He ordered anxiously as his fingertips trembled.

"In the night you led the team out of the capital. The tenth captain was caught when he went to the Ming's mansion for a rescue. They cut his tendons in his hands and feet..."

Cheng Wanli hesitated to continue.

"That night, Ming Lan decided to transport Yun elsewhere. Their carriage was attacked by an unknown person. Yun... is still missing..."

"..."

The news came as a crushing blow, and Leng Qingtang's face slowly went pale until it was dead gray.

Yunxi was missing and we didn’t her now.

The words penetrated his heart as a suffocation pain whelmed his body.

For a moment, Leng Qingtang could not tell the difference between reality and illusion.

His eyes remained wide-open for a long time, unaware of the dry tingling in them.

Staring blankly around at the people kneeling in the room, he was instantly hit by an inexperienced sense of weakness and loss.

Leng Qingtang had considered himself a genius at strategizing in the game of power.

In his original plan, suppressing the rebellion in Mount Ruyi was urgent and would be beneficial for his career.

The journey would take only five or six days. And Yunxi was shrewd enough to protect herself in Ming's mansion.

When Mount Ruyi's case was over, he would be revived as the Seal Keeper of the Imperial Ceremony Office. As the head inner servant, he could force Ming Lan to release her.

After he ran into Lu Qiange in Mount Ruyi, it occurred to him that he should use Lu's affection for Yunxi and lure him to save her in the capital.

He thought Lu Qiange could easily rescue Yunxi with his ability.

However, in just a few days, the situation had derailed uncontrollably.

Next to Leng Qingtang, Xiao Xiaoshen, who was close to Yuan Qian, heard that his tendons had been cut. His legs went weak at the bad news and felt as if the ground was trembling.

Stunned for a while, he steadied his body and asked Cheng Wanli anxiously.

"Master, how is the tenth captain now?"

"Qinger drove them back last night. I heard from her that they were saved by Lu Qiange, the man who once made trouble here.

Now I settle them in the Western Residence. The doctor is taking care of them."

"Qinger, too..."

Xiao Xiaoshen panicked. He soon composed himself and then ran to see his mates in the Western Residence.

The main hall fell back in silence.

Leng Qingtang's once straight back now was hunched. And he was confused like a tangle of flax.

Cheng Wanli was more saddened at the sight of him.

"Master, punish me. It's my incompetence and failure to manage my men that have ruined your plan!"

Cheng Wanli understood that the Master repeatedly told him and his captains to obey orders before he left. They should act as the plan and never presume.

However, Yuan Qian was too young to be patient.

If he had not triggered Ming Lan with his failed rescue, the eunuch would not have come up with the idea to relocate Yunxi. And hence, she would not have been taken away back the mysterious person.

Seeing Cheng Wanli had taken all the responsibility, the other captains spoke up one after another.

"Master, I'm willing to pay for my incompetence."

"Get up, all of you."

The hoarse shout seemed to have exhausted Leng Qingtang.

His black eyes sank into dark chaos and slowly closed, covering all the regret and despair in them.

Everyone got up helplessly. Cheng Wanli stepped forward and bowed in guilt.

"Master, the Eastern Depot has sent five hundred secret guards to search the capital. The responsibility for this incident rested with me. I dared not rush to notify you for the shame."

"Leng Qingtang."

A loud call sounded behind him.

Leng Qingtang turned and his gloomy eyes met Gu Yunyao's glaring ones.

Dressed as an inner servant, she stormed to Leng Qingtang regardless of the guards' attempts to stop her. Closely behind her was Zhao An, who looked frightened.

Regained part of his composure, Leng Qingtang ordered his captains.

"Chiliarch Cheng stays. The rest of you are dismissed."

When they were left alone, Gu Yunyao narrowed her angry eyes and interrogated in a cold tone.

"Where is Yunxi?"

"She has not recovered from the fever..."

Leng Qingtang raised his eyebrows at her and lied absent-mindedly.

Slap.

The people present were horrified at the thwack. They stared at the red mark left by her palm on Leng Qingtang's fair skin.

Leng Qingtang lowered his eyelashes in calm and quietly savored the burn on his cheek.

"My lady, calm down!"

"Master!"

Zhao An dropped on his knees and lowered his head, not daring to move.

Cheng Wanli rushed forward to defend the Master but did not dare to touch a single hair on the fiery Zhaoyi.

He had to look on in despair with his fists clenched tightly, and his dark face was lost in unspeakable misery.

Shivering, Gu Yunyao glared at depressed Leng Qingtang with goggle eyes that were blazing with furious tears. She insisted on rising flames of fury.

"How long do you want to keep it from me? Yunxi risked her life for you, yet you abandoned her again. Leng Qingtang, do you have a conscience?"