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

The bailiffs had already stepped onto the curtain leading to the back hall.

With a backhand shove, the first constable was caught off guard and knocked to the ground.

"This is outrageous!" Judge Zhao's face darkened. "How dare you resist arrest and search—"

Before the words were finished, the curtain hanging in the back room was lifted from the inside by a hand.

Qin Ying came out.

She was still dressed in the same faded coarse cloth clothes, her face smeared with ash to conceal her identity. But this time, she no longer hunched her shoulders or lowered her head, no longer playing the role of an inconspicuous country medicine boy. Her back was ramrod straight as she walked step by step from behind the curtain into the hall. Her posture and demeanor were completely different from before; it was the majesty she had cultivated little by little amidst thousands of troops and the clash of swords.

The constables with swords at their sides inexplicably and subconsciously took a half step back.

That's something only those who have truly commanded troops and held battles amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood possess.

She stopped, her gaze slowly sweeping across Zhao Tongpan's face before finally settling on him. Her voice wasn't loud, but each word struck the blue brick floor like a thunderclap:

"Qin Ying, from the Qin family, the Duke of Zhenguo."

Zhao Tongpan's smile froze on his face.

He had served as an official in the capital for several years and recognized the name. The granddaughter of the Duke of Zhenguo, Qin, the noblewoman from a military family who was ordered to marry the third prince and accompanied her father on a border patrol, but was ambushed on the way and reported to have "fought bravely to the death for her country," was said to have died long ago at the border.

He stared blankly at Qin Ying's ashes-covered face, his face growing paler with each glance. Those eyebrows, that posture, that commanding presence that held the entire room in check… it was clearly her.

"You...you are...?"

Zhao Tongpan's legs suddenly went weak.

The composure he had cultivated over half a lifetime in officialdom shattered completely in that moment. He abruptly bowed before a "village woman" dressed in coarse cloth and smeared with dirt, his back, which he had held upright for fifty years, trembling uncontrollably:

"Your Highness...Your Highness, I was blind and ignorant, unaware that Your Highness was here. I have offended you, and I deserve death!"

Everyone in the room was stunned.

Standing at the door, Zhao Yanei watched helplessly as his father, who had been an official for half his life and whom even the prefect had to give way to, bowed and begged for forgiveness before a village woman he had tried to abduct and humiliate just two days ago. He felt a chill run from his feet to the top of his head, his legs went weak, and he knelt down as well, trembling like a leaf, unable to utter a single word.

Judge Zhao turned around and saw his son, who had caused such a terrible disaster, still standing there, both shocked and furious. He slapped the boy hard across the face, making Zhao's head turn to the side.

"You wretched child! Do you know that just two days ago, you almost got your father into a disaster that would lead to the confiscation of our property and the extermination of our entire clan!"

Zhao Yanei covered his face, staring blankly at his own father.

These past few days, they've been sending spies, slapping him in the face, cutting off his food, and pressuring him for money, all determined to kick his yard to the ground! Just a couple of days ago, they were pointing their fingers at him and yelling for his dad to come and clean up the mess himself. Now that his dad's here, instead of helping him, he kicked him and slapped him across the face.

A slap to Zhao Yanei's face is a slap to the heart of the neighbors in the east of the city!

The neighbors hid far away in the corner of the wall, watching the man who had run rampant in the west of the city and killed someone without lifting a finger being beaten into such a sorry state in front of them. Then they watched as Zhao Tongpan, who had to smile obsequiously even when meeting the prefect, kowtowed and bowed to the woman smearing mud in Yang's courtyard. Their mouths were agape for a long time, and they had only one thought in their minds: What kind of deity is in this courtyard?

Qin Ying looked down at Zhao Tongpan with a calm expression, but the emotions in her heart made Zhao Tongpan unable to straighten his head.

"Lord Zhao," she said, "you'd better swallow everything you see and hear here today! There's no noble lady in this courtyard, just a few country women and a traveling doctor. Don't let a single word slip out, or your Zhao family can withstand the consequences."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Magistrate Zhao lowered his head to the very bottom. "This humble official knows, this humble official dares not utter a single word! Little Princess, rest assured!"

Qin Ying remained silent for a moment, then a cold glint flashed across her eyes.

"I'll ask you one more question," she said. "When I accompanied my father on a border patrol, we were ambushed halfway through. What did the official records say about that incident?"

Prefect Zhao hesitated, not daring to conceal anything: "Reporting to...Reporting to the young princess, the report says...our border patrol encountered a band of bandits at Yehuling, and the Duke of Zhenguo and his daughter fought valiantly to their deaths. The case file was stamped a long time ago and left there. I, the prefect, couldn't understand it, only reading one line..."

"I really don't know anything about what's going on down there."

Bandits.

He fought bravely and died for his country.

Qin Ying slowly clenched her fist over the short knife. She knew better than anyone that the people who ambushed her and her father that night were not bandits, but barbarian soldiers from beyond the Great Wall who had been lured there. Someone had sold the patrol roads and the true situation of the garrison to that hidden hand, and this bloody truth was easily extinguished by the excuse of "fighting to the death for the country".

The person who could so easily turn this matter of treason into an attack by a band of bandits, and who could cover up the case file so thoroughly that even a minor magistrate couldn't get to the bottom of it, was definitely not just Magistrate Zhao and the Prefect, but the person behind him!

Below the words "fought bravely and died for her country" was her father's corpse, the blood of the Duke of Zhenguo's family, and the reason for her lifelong humiliation and hiding.

Yang Hu had walked up to her without her noticing, and gently squeezed the hand she was holding on the hilt of the knife.

"Investigate layer by layer!" he said. "Today we've uncovered Magistrate Zhao, and tomorrow we'll find out who stole the exam papers! We've got the thread in our hands, and one day we'll pull it all the way through."

Qin Ying slowly loosened her grip on the knife hilt.

Zhao Tongpan left, drenched in sweat and looking dejected. Before leaving, he politely bowed to Yang Huke, and repeatedly warned his son, who was terrified and had wet himself, to never dare to look at the street in the east of the city again.

His once ostentatious hat and sedan chair, which had made him look so powerful and imposing when he arrived, turned into a defeated quail after he left, shrinking and trembling, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The clinic remained silent for a while before someone let out a long sigh.

In the evening, in the backyard.

The charcoal brazier was burning brightly and was very warm.

"Today was tough," Yang Hu said, pouring Qin Ying a cup of hot water. "To protect this courtyard, I had to reveal your identity, which you've kept hidden for so long."

Qin Ying held her teacup, not looking at him, but turning her head away, her ears turning slightly red.

"We're family, why say thank you?" she said softly.

Yang Hu chuckled but didn't say another word.

Under this warm light, he understood better than anyone else: today, a small gap had finally been torn in the window paper. Zhao Tongpan was intimidated and dared not make a fuss for the time being, which turned him into an official relationship that could be won over and leveraged.

But the fact that Qin Ying is alive is like a stone thrown into a very deep pool. If the dark hand that has been killing the entire Qin family in the capital knew that Qin Ying was still alive, it would be a much bigger problem than just the 10 Zhao Tongpans.

This gust of wind has passed.

But the storm we've been waiting for is still far from arriving...