Alarm Bell

The last time... was it? Recalling Li Junwu's trembling shoulders as she left, Xu Yuan raised his eyes toward the sky above and sighed softly. She had to be feeling awful right now. Just like that tired meme from his past life: *If you never try, you'll never know just how useless you really are.* She had clearly resolved to act, only to realize she was nowhere near as omnipotent as she had imagined. She believed she could step forth as a savior to uphold a collapsing mansion, only to be slapped in the face by reality before she had even begun. Her ideals had been crushed to pieces, and on top of that, a fair-weather friend like him—who had originally lagged behind her by every metric—had somehow left her far behind... "With a demeanor like hers, how could she ever hold up Zhenxi Manor?" A sudden hoarse voice broke Xu Yuan's train of thought. Glancing back, he saw that the speaker was none other than the heavily armored old commander. As an expert of the Origin Realm, Lu Baizou was elderly, yet over the past few quarters of an hour he had managed to heal the wound on his neck. Staring in the direction where Li Junwu had departed, his cloudy eyes held nothing but contempt and mockery. "If she had even half the caliber of Princess Wuyuan, brothers like us who followed the Marquis our entire lives would never have harbored second thoughts." "..." Xu Yuan kept silent, dismissing it as nothing more than the barking of a dying dog. Seeming to read Xu Yuan's thoughts, Lu Baizou paid him no mind. He sat cross-legged on Xuanwu Platform, gazed out over the now-empty drill grounds, and spoke as if to himself: "Brat, do you know? Back then, us old farts petitioned the Marquis more than once. Even though the Commandery Princess was a girl, she had to be groomed as an heir because she was the Marquis's sole offspring, and Zhenxi Manor needed her to reassure the people." With nothing else to do, Xu Yuan offered a lukewarm reply upon hearing this: "If I recall correctly, Li Junwu was sent to Di'an as a hostage when she was only six years old." "Hostage my ass! Coming from someone of your status, don't you find that laughable?" Lu Baizou showed no deference toward Xu Yuan, his eyes slanting sideways. "With the Marquis's accomplishments and prestige, he had a hundred ways to demand the Commandery Princess back from the Imperial Capital." At this, the wrinkles on Lu Baizou's face sagged slightly, yet his tone remained leisurely and calm: "Back then, Princess Wuyuan's fame was already soaring across the Northern Border. Her example gave us old retainers hope. As long as the Commandery Princess could be groomed into a heroine like Princess Wuyuan, our Zhenxi Manor would have a future. But all our petitions brought in return was disappointment after disappointment. "The Marquis was unwilling to drag his daughter into this quagmire. If it were only that, it would have been fine had the Commandery Princess made a name for herself in Di'an City. But her conduct in Di'an... as one of the Four Young Masters of the Imperial Capital alongside her, you should know all too well." Silence followed his words. Only after a long while did Lu Baizou slowly raise his eyes toward Xu Yuan and ask with a smile: "Tell me, brat. In a hopeless situation like that, how could us old-timers loyally devote ourselves to Zhenxi Manor in peace?" "..." Xu Yuan looked down at the old man sitting cross-legged on the ground and said calmly: "No matter how eloquently you spin your motives, you will not escape death." Hearing this threat, the disdain in Lu Baizou's eyes only deepened. "Death? Brat, this old man fought for every bit of his current status step by step between life and death. The moment I set foot in the military, I was prepared to die at any time. "The only reason I told you all this is to let you know that Li Junwu does not deserve Zhenxi Manor's loyalty." With that, Lu Baizou slowly drew the saber at his waist. Gazing at his reflection on the gleaming blade, he chuckled softly. "This old man finally won't have to suffer any longer. "Your Prime Minister's Manor and the sects are cut from the same cloth, and with Li Junwu's caliber, it's impossible for her to preserve the foundation built by the Marquis. "To die before having to watch Zhenxi Manor's ruin with my own eyes can be considered a blessing." "..." Xu Yuan made no move to stop him, merely saying: "Name the other spies within Zhenxi Manor, and I will ensure your family remains unharmed." "..." Hearing this, Lu Baizou, who was slowly resting the blade against his throat, suddenly revealed a bizarre, amused look. Xu Yuan frowned slightly. "What are you laughing at?" Lu Baizou laughed hoarsely. "I, Lu Baizou, have spent my entire life fighting in campaigns. I have neither wife nor child. Isn't that threat of yours hilarious?" "..." Xu Yuan was taken aback for an instant, reflexively asking, "Neither wife nor child? Then why betray Zhenxi Manor?" "This old man already told you the reason." Lu Baizou's gaze was calm, devoid of any fear of death. "Because Li Junwu is unworthy of my, Lu Baizou's, loyalty." Lu Baizou took his own life. Summoning Zhou Chen to gather the remains, Xu Yuan left the Xuanting military camp with the Linlang. When he saw Li Junwu again at the prefectural yamen, she was bent over a desk dealing with an ocean of official documents. Organizing a company outing was already a massive undertaking, to say nothing of the personnel and logistical mobilization required for a prefectural city on the brink of war. Flanking her on either side stood two men—one dressed as a scholar and the other in armor. Both offered her suggestions and revisions from time to time, presumably serving as aides of Zhenxi Manor. Seeing Xu Yuan walk into the hall, Li Junwu reflexively started to rise, but after a flicker of hesitation surfaced in her eyes, she remained seated behind the desk and simply asked: "Something the matter?" "..." Standing in the hall, Xu Yuan remained silent, looking instead at the two aides beside her. Noticing this, Li Junwu waved her hand dismissively at the two. Once the room was cleared, Xu Yuan said in a measured voice, "Lu Baizou is dead. Suicide." Staring at the dossier before her, Li Junwu gave a quiet acknowledgment. "Mm, I know." "Before dying, he named several people who might be spies." "What?" Li Junwu looked up, instinctively asking, "Can his words be trusted?" Yet as soon as the question left her mouth, Li Junwu gripped her wolf-hair writing brush with an imperceptible tightness, changing her tune: "Never mind. Just give me the list first." Seeing her reaction, Xu Yuan did not step forward right away, remaining where he stood. Li Junwu knitted her delicate brows slightly. "What is it?" Xu Yuan smiled and joked, "Getting too obsessed isn't good. Even if you don't want to rely on your buddy here anymore, you should at least ask for the full story, shouldn't you? After all, Lu Baizou was still one of Zhenxi Manor's senior leaders." Li Junwu fell silent for a moment and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Make it brief. I'm very busy right now." Xu Yuan went straight to the point. "Before he died, Lu Baizou told me why he betrayed Zhenxi Manor." As he spoke, he stepped forward, retrieved a paper scroll from his Sumeru ring, and placed it on the desk. Li Junwu reached out to take it, only to find that Xu Yuan held it pinned down with his index finger. Perplexed, she looked up, meeting his serious gaze. He looked at her, pronouncing every word deliberately: "He said you do not deserve his loyalty." *Crack.* The wolf-hair brush snapped in two. As those brief words reached her ears, a suffocating weight surged into Li Junwu's chest. She instinctively looked away from his piercing gaze, her fingertips digging into her palms. The city defense formation was exceedingly formidable; if she wished, she could inspect every inch of the city at any time. She had overheard many opinions about her from those below. "It was bad enough that she acted like a wastrel in Di'an, but last year she even ran off to the Western Border to keep fooling around." "She spent over a month wining and dining shamelessly in Zhenxi Manor, and then the Marquis suddenly put her in the military—what kind of nonsense is that?" "I suppose they wanted to train her, but isn't it a bit too late for the prodigal to turn back?" "If you're a wastrel, just stick to being a wastrel. Suddenly taking command of troops is just going to get people killed!" "That woman was just lucky to be born into the Marquis's house." Those words had pierced her heart like fine needles, but Li Junwu had been able to accept them. Those complaints stemmed from her past actions and could be turned around little by little through hard work. But what Xu Yuan had just conveyed sliced straight through her like a sharp blade, cleaving her in two. Her constricted pupils trembled, her breath growing ragged. She had caused the division within Zhenxi Manor. She had caused those who were originally loyal to her father to harbor second thoughts. In Li Junwu's downward gaze, Xu Yuan's index finger slowly released the scroll. She looked up at once, only to see that Xu Yuan had already turned and was walking toward the hall's exit. As he walked, Xu Yuan said calmly, "You don't need to worry so much. Lu Baizou's words might have just been concocted before dying to spite you." Watching his back, complicated emotions welled up in Li Junwu, though her voice remained steady. "Lu Baizou followed my father his entire life and had neither wife nor child. He had no reason to stay loyal to those sects before his death." Xu Yuan paused and turned his head halfway back. "Then his words and that list are likely real." Li Junwu gritted her teeth slightly and replied, "Mm." Xu Yuan turned fully around and smiled faintly. "Looking at it that way, you and I are pretty much brothers in misfortune." "What do you mean by that?" "Literally what I said. You don't actually think the senior figures in the Prime Minister's Manor support me unconditionally, do you?" Xu Yuan's tone was easygoing as he murmured, "To win over those elders, even with my father keeping them in check from above, a former wastrel like me still has to build up prestige bit by bit." With that, Xu Yuan sighed with mock vexation and half-joked, "Besides, the problem I'm facing is even bigger than yours. After all, my family has way more money than yours." "..." Seeing his grinning, playful demeanor, Li Junwu couldn't help a slight smile, but once the feeling passed, it gave way to boundless melancholy. "You're different from me. I... can't do what you do." "No one in this world is born with innate knowledge. You've never learned these skills, so how could you handle them right off the bat? Oh, except for my father. He seems to have started scheming for power when he was six or seven." "And what about you?" "I'm not born with innate knowledge either, but my circumstances were rather unusual." Xu Yuan pondered for a moment and murmured, "You know that all sorts of odd figures frequented my home—ministers, court chiefs, princes, and nobles. Growing up immersed in that environment gave me far broader exposure than you had as a hostage. "Besides, my father never really hid things from us. The files of the Prime Minister's Manor were always open for me to read when I was young." At this point, a touch of embarrassment appeared on Xu Yuan's face. "Uh, there were exceptions, of course. After I took more than a dozen dossiers out and sold them, I was barred from going in. But you guys share the blame for that." Hearing this, Li Junwu spat lightly and scoffed, "You three liked showing off, so what does that have to do with this young lady?" Xu Yuan shrugged and pointed a thumb behind him with a chuckle. "In any case, ability is something that can be honed. Take just now, for instance. Our internal archive has collected several hundred cases of power struggles and palace coups. Reading through them is more than enough to find a solution. "So you see, "everyone grows step by step. Junwu, you don't need to be so hard on yourself." "..." Li Junwu fell silent for a few moments. "...Did you say all that just to comfort me?" "Pretty much." "Unnecessary. A waste of time." "Tsk, you little—" "Though it did help." Li Junwu's eyes curved into two delicate crescents, her smile serene and clear as the moon, breathtakingly striking. Xu Yuan was stunned for an instant, then grumbled, "Could you not smile like that? It's kind of creepy." Seeing his reaction, Li Junwu huffed and tilted her pale chin up. "This young lady is naturally stunning. It's only normal for you to react that way." Xu Yuan rolled his eyes. "With that hair and that armor, smiling like that just makes you look like a pretty boy from a pleasure house. I have no taste for men." "..." The corner of Li Junwu's eye twitched, and she gritted her teeth. "Once my long hair grows back and I dress up properly, you'll see just how beautiful I am!" Without waiting for Xu Yuan to respond, Li Junwu waved him off dismissively. "As for now, Xiao Tianzi, you may withdraw. This palace must attend to official business." "..." After locking eyes with her for an instant, Xu Yuan lowered his gaze with a faint smile, clasping his hands and bowing theatrically. "By your command." Taking several hurried little steps backward, he turned and left her hall. Watching him leave, Li Junwu unconsciously bit her lip and gently pressed a palm against her heaving chest, feeling the racing heartbeat beneath it, before scoffing under her breath... The commanders whom Lu Baizou had implicated as potential spies before his death were placed under house arrest by Li Junwu under various pretexts, and resources from the prominent clans, traveling merchants, and mercenary bands were requisitioned without issue. Xu Yuan took advantage of the lull to head to Shop No. 7 on Zitan Road. It was a membership-only tavern, quiet and elegantly decorated. Upon Xu Yuan's entry, Si Zijing, who had been waiting for a long time, stepped forward and handed him a small box from his robes. Beyond that, Xu Yuan also spotted a severed head steeping in a translucent liquor jar behind the counter. Mu Qing. As the commander of the Black Scale Guards' capital division, Si Zijing had arranged everything neatly before Xu Yuan even arrived. Without alarming anyone, Si Zijing had assassinated Mu Qing. Seeing this, Xu Yuan departed with satisfaction. The city defense formation and the army were firmly under control, and the spies within the city were being rooted out step by step. Everything was proceeding according to plan. Yet the moment Xu Yuan stepped out of the tavern— *Dong—* *Dong—* *Dong—* Nine tolls of the alarm bell abruptly resonated across the sky above Zhenxi Prefectural City without the slightest warning!