A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

The snow fell for several days in winter, and then for several more.

At Yang's clinic in the east of the city, the line of patients stretched as far as the alley entrance. But Yang Hu knew in his heart that a pair of eyes were watching him more and more closely from all around the courtyard.

Across the street, in a rented house, lived several people who claimed to run a small business. These past few days, they'd been glancing at Yang's shop more and more frequently. Someone on the street even reported that strangers were going back and forth in the alley, asking increasingly detailed questions about the women working at Yang's.

People from the Zhao family!

The Zhao residence is located in the west of the city.

Ever since Zhao Yanei was dragged out by his father that time, he has been thinking every day about waiting for his father to come out so that he can get revenge!

As a result, Magistrate Zhao didn't take any action!

Zhao Tongpan, a former official in the capital, was not in a hurry. If he wanted to deal with someone, he would never resort to violence in the street, as that was the behavior of a reckless person. He would first turn the person upside down, find their Achilles' heel, and then catch them alive without making a sound.

During this period, he secretly sent his capable men to investigate Yang's shop in the east of the city.

The cases we investigated all turned out to be strange.

This doctor surnamed Yang was just a traveling physician who roamed around a thatched village in northern China six months ago, and he even walked through the city gates covered in ash, carrying refugees with him.

But this itinerant doctor entered the city and so quickly cured the terminal illness of the old man of the Zhou family, a major grain merchant. Everyone in the Zhou family liked him. He also helped the city defense battalion on the main road in the north of the city. Even the head of the city defense battalion, Wang, called him brother.

What makes a traveling doctor so powerful that even the Zhou family's city defense battalion would back him up?

And what about the women in his yard?

Zhao Tongpan's men saw the gray figure from afar, but it couldn't hide the heroic spirit of the woman. When they returned to report, they even stammered.

The woman stood there with a straight back and sharp eyes, unlike an ordinary woman, but someone who had seen the world and experienced many trials.

The more I thought about it, the more something seemed off.

How could an ordinary woman who comes from a humble background develop that kind of aura? A person who can develop that kind of aura must come from a good family or a prestigious family. But how could someone run to the border and hide in the courtyard of a quack doctor, not daring to show themselves even when they're hiding like a ghost?

First, check the household registration files in the city. The household registration is in the east of the city, Yang Ji. It was registered half a year ago. The family members listed are from a small village in the north. The male head of the household is surnamed Yang, and there are four female relatives. The registered names are all very ordinary names. However, when you check these four names, they are all blank and do not match any family with roots.

He then sent people to teahouses and taverns to inquire about the appearance, mouths, and speech of those women.

Most of the ordinary ones would pass, but that woman with the ash-covered face, who had a heroic air about her, was hard to talk to.

When people talk about it, they say that he doesn't seem like an ordinary person, but they can't quite put their finger on what kind of person he is.

He even asked an acquaintance who was a high-ranking official in the capital to draw a detailed picture of the girl's appearance and age, and asked someone to match it with any missing or fallen young ladies in the capital over the years.

But when the replies came back, how did that girl come to be? It was as if she appeared out of thin air, completely unrelated to the person in question.

The more discrepancies arose, the heavier Zhao Tongpan's heart became.

"Father," Zhao Yanei urged repeatedly, "Is the investigation complete? When are we going to take action?"

"Father!" Young Master Zhao stamped his foot. "He's just a quack doctor and a few women! Just say one word, and I'll take men to ransack the place, bring him back to the manor, and what can anyone say then?"

"Idiot!" Magistrate Zhao slammed his hand on the table. "You say you stop people on the street, spread rumors, and ruin their business, how do you gain anything? That guy surnamed Yang, with Zhou Ji and the city defense battalion backing him, if you touch a single finger, tomorrow the whole city will know that it was your Zhao family who bullied people by relying on their power."

He paused to catch his breath, then said with a dark face, "The water there isn't as shallow as you think. That woman's background is unknown, and it's too dangerous for her to take action. If things get out of control, can you afford the consequences?"

He needed to investigate further, find out who the woman was, and capture her so that he could win in one fell swoop.

Behind this seemingly ordinary doctor was a powerful grain merchant and the city's garrison, and in his courtyard was a woman of extraordinary bearing and mysterious origins... Judge Zhao, who had been an official for most of his life, instinctively sensed that what was hidden behind this was far greater than what his good-for-nothing son was trying to woo a beauty with.

He even had a feeling that if he really broke through this barrier, what he might catch wasn't a disaster but a great achievement.

That's precisely why he can't be in a hurry.

Judge Zhao was unaware.

The woman whom they could never figure out, no matter how hard they tried, was Qin Ying, the granddaughter of the Duke of Zhenguo—the daughter of a military family who was ordered to marry the Third Prince, was ambushed on the border, and was described in official documents as fighting to the death for her country.

A woman who should have died at the border was actually living right under his nose in this courtyard in the east of the city.

He couldn't find her because he never dreamed that a woman who had been thrown into a pile of corpses could come back to life.

Night, Yang's backyard.

Qin Ying sat by the window, using the snow light to clean the half-new, half-old knife.

"The people at the Zhao residence are getting tighter and tighter!" she suddenly said, speaking very softly. "Today, Liu Ye said that those who are following you even know how Zhou Ji invited you into the residence for medical treatment."

Yang Hu nodded. He had known for a long time that these days their eyes had been watching the courtyard more and more blatantly, and their questions were gradually getting to the heart of the matter.

"Zhao Tongpan is a tough one to deal with," Qin Ying said. "Unlike his good-for-nothing son who just throws tantrums in the streets, he's going to investigate us thoroughly and uncover our secrets!"

Qin Yingtai knew this kind of person all too well. Back in the military and in Beijing, she had seen far too many such deep-thinking, unassuming individuals. The Zhao Yanei who stopped people in the street wasn't scary; what was scary was his elderly father, whose layers of intrigue were peeling away one by one.

She paused, her grip on the knife tightening.

"My identity might fool ordinary people, but it can't fool someone who was once a high-ranking official in the capital and is determined to investigate." She lowered her voice. "Once he finds out..."

She didn't finish the sentence.

Yang Hu knew what she was going to say.

Once Judge Zhao discovers that Qin Ying is the granddaughter of the Duke of Zhenguo, who should have fought to the death for her country, it will be a hundred times more dangerous than Zhao Yanei stopping someone in the street. Not only the Zhao family, but even the hand that was hiding in the capital and wrote her as dead back then will come knocking on their door.

By then, no one in his courtyard will be able to escape.

These days, he outwardly continued to see patients and practice medicine as usual, but secretly he didn't dare to relax for a moment: he kept a close eye on the people in the courtyard and instructed Liu Ye to keep a close watch on the pairs of eyes across the street, and to report immediately if there was anything unusual.

"He won't find anything," Yang Hu said, his voice steady. "No matter how well he investigates, he won't suspect that a dead man is still alive. As long as we don't give ourselves away, he won't be able to go any further down this path."

Qin Ying looked up at him.

Under the lamplight, this young man in his early twenties showed not a trace of panic.

But she knew in her heart that these words were easy to say. Judge Zhao was secretly peeling back the layers, watching more closely each day; and her identity, which she had kept hidden for more than half a year, was like a thin sheet of paper. No one knew when this cunning old fox would pierce it with a single finger.

Outside the window, the snow was still falling, silently covering the entire courtyard.

The eyes of the Zhao family, hidden in the deep snowy night, were watching the courtyard, inching closer and closer.