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His eyes briefly met Li Hua’s, and he immediately lowered them. “Greetings to Her Highness. I am glad to see her,” Tang Zhaodang said, keeping a tiny smile on her lips.

He turned to look at Xu Zifan when he finally realized that his right arm wasn’t present. “What happened to your arm?” Tang Zhaodang asked.

“The person who attacked Xu Zifan that night cut his right limb,” Lóng Wei replied, and sat on the chair and pulled Li Hua down beside him. He looked at Eunuch Qian He and asked him to give him water.

“Why don’t you take a seat, Tang Zhaodang?” Mingquan asked him. Huang Xi took him to the chair and asked him to sit. They all took their respective seats.

“Xu Zifan, you don’t need to be suspicious of Tang Zhaodang. He will not betray you as Feng Lao did,” Lóng Wei proclaimed after he drank the water. Xu Zifan’s coldness was too evident even when he didn’t speak a word.

“Did you suspect me?” Tang Zhaodang asked Xu Zifan.

“Forgive me. Feng Lao betrayed me, so it was tough to trust the others,” Xu Zifan said coldly.

“I forgave you. Where is Xu Zuwen?” Tang Zhaodang inquired.

.....

“He is no more,” Xu Zifan answered. Li Hua’s eyes were filled with tears, and she wiped them with the pad of her fingers. “Except Li Hua and I, no one survived,” Xu Zifan answered.

Tang Zhaodang wasn’t able to respond to that. Since the day he saw Li Hua, he had hoped that they were all alive and safe. But his hopes were shattered.

“His Highness saved me that night,” Xu Zifan said, looking at Lóng Wei.

“How could Shui Feng Lao do this? We were all friends. What happened that night?” Tang Zhaodang knitted his brows.

“Sometimes for selfish reasons, friends betray each other,” Lóng Wei answered.

“He has fooled everyone in Xinshui. Not only he, but his entire family fooled the people of Xinshui,” Li Hua pronounced at this time. She was anguished by the Shui family’s betrayal.

“Xu Zifan, what happened that night? How did it all happen?” He asked again.

“The Shui Family had come to our house for Li Hua’s marriage proposal. Soon, a blood bath occurred, and everything was destroyed. My parents, my brother, and the people in the residence, all lost their lives. Feng Lao took Li Hua to the forest that lead to the village adjacent to Xinshui and asked her to run away.” Xu Zifan briefed that day’s incident.

“How could they spread a lie about it? No one knows that the Shui Family ever visited the Xu Family. We all are told that bandits attack the Xu Family. Did their soul not tremble once while performing such a dreadful act?”

“Those who are blinded by power, they are ready to do anything. Tremble word doesn’t even exist in their dictionary unless their true faces are exposed or they are in front of the door of death,” Lóng Wei pronounced and chuckled.

“Brother Zhaodang, is he happily living? Did he even shed a single tear for us?” Li Hua asked Tang Zhaodang.

“He is happy. He asked his close friends not to talk about it. “After that day, his interaction with me was limited,” Tang Zhaodang replied, keeping his gaze low.

Li Hua turned to look at Lóng Wei. “Will we go in the evening to see them? I have to ask some questions from him,” she stated.

“I will tell you in a while,” Lóng Wei replied. “If you have more questions from Tang Zhaodang then ask now,” he told her. Li Hua shook her head.

“Now, I will ask the remaining questions from Feng Lao only,” Li Hua announced her decision. Lóng Wei wanted to ask her why she told Huang Xi to bring Tang Zhaodang when she had only one question, but before he could ask her, she opened her mouth to speak.

“I am going to the chamber,” she stated, and stood up. Lóng Wei got up and asked Qian He to accompany Li Hua. Once she left, Lóng Wei sat down.

“Li Hua must be upset to hear what Tang Zhaodang said,” Xu Zifan stated and glanced at him. “The wounds from that day cannot be healed, Tang Zhaodang.”

“Why didn’t you come with your sister to the town and tell the truth to everyone?” Tang Zhaodang queried. “The Shui Family would have been punished by now,” he opined.

“Li Hua wasn’t here. She was in the palace,” Xu Zifan answered.

“Why don’t you two go to Xu Zifan’s chamber to converse?” Lóng Wei suggested them. Xu Zifan agreed with his words and asked Tang Zhaodang to come with him.

Once they left, Lóng Wei took out the folded paper from his inner pocket and looked at Mingquan.

“Read it once,” he urged. Huang Xi went to him and handed the folded paper to Mingquan, who opened it.

“The stamp is from the palace,” Mingquan stated, and looked at Lóng Wei in bewilderment.

“Shui Feng Lao gave this to Tang Zhaodang, saying he should deliver it to Xu Guang Li. He told Tang Zhaodang that he would leave tomorrow for another city for some work,” Lóng Wei said.

“Why did Shui Feng Lao give it to him when it was planned that Xu Guang Li would die in the evening?” Mingquan questioned. Huang Xi took the paper from Mingquan and read the message in it.

“Fourth Brother, if Shui Feng Lao knew what was inside the envelope, then he would not have handed it to Tang Zhaodang,” Lóng Wei stated and recalled his remaining conversation with him before Huang Xi appeared.

**Flashback started**

“He gave you this paper without any envelope?” Lóng Wei asked.

“It was inside the envelope. Feng Lao was in a hurry and told me that he collected it from the town’s administration office. It was in an envelope, but I decided to take a look at it yesterday. After that day, I never checked it until yesterday.” Tang Zhaodang narrated it to Lóng Wei, who was amused to hear it.

**Flashback ended**

“His Highness is right. It was from Qinping’s administration office. Xu Guang Li was supposed to come to Qinping after two days to submit the financial report of Xinshui Town,” Huang Xi pronounced.

“The message is something else,” Lóng Wei said and stood up. Mingquan and Huang Xi were puzzled to hear him.

He took the paper from Huang Xi and rubbed his fingers over it. “This message is a cover-up. The real message is hidden behind it,” he stated and turned the paper. Huang Xi understood and ran out to get a lantern.

He returned and opened the lantern’s cover. Mingquan also went near them when Lóng Wei placed the backside of the paper over the flame at an appropriate distance so that it wouldn’t burn.

The letters started to appear at the back and a smile formed on his lips. “Feng Lao himself left an important clue for us,” Lóng Wei said and pulled his hands back. He read the message and a grim expression appeared on his face.

The trio looked at each other as they were dumbfounded by what was written on the paper.