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

"Then let's move it over there." In the backyard, Liu Ye rubbed her hands together and exhaled a puff of hot air.

"These past two days, quite a few people have gone into that abandoned manor... During the day, some people have been sneaking out to check things out and find their way. I followed one of them who came out to scout the area, and I overheard him saying to his companion, 'This place is doomed. Let's move everything to a safer location before the New Year.'"

Yang Hu frowned deeply.

These past two days, Liu Ye braved the biting cold, disguising herself as a woman traveling at night, and following the people from the abandoned village at a distance. She had fought against barbarian soldiers in the mountains, and her most proficient skills were lying in wait, recognizing roads, and listening to conversations. She gradually figured out the unusual busyness in the village these past few days.

"It probably finds this abandoned village unstable too, doesn't it?" he said slowly. "We were able to dig backwards from the origins of this abandoned village; it must have realized this itself. It's afraid, and it wants to move these things from this exposed hole to a new place no one could have imagined—either move them there, or burn them down!"

"The things were moved, and then the wire broke."

Qin Ying sat by the window, her hands wiping the knife pausing, her eyes filled with a deep, cold glint.

"Hmm." Yang Hu said calmly, "We've dug out the Wan Family Silk Shop, the North City Warehouse, the pawnshop, the Prefectural Magistrate's Mansion, the abandoned manor—one by one, it took us a whole year to get to where we are now. But what about all of this? Can we really find evidence to hold that hand in our hands? The weapons, ledgers, and letters used for smuggling with the barbarians are all in that abandoned manor. Once it's moved and set on fire, all of this will be reduced to ashes. All we'll have left are a pile of tangible evidence. At that time, the blood feud of the Qin family and the lives of the border soldiers will be buried back in the earth with a single word of silence, never to rise again."

The backyard was eerily quiet, save for the crackling of the embers in the charcoal brazier. The wind outside the window whipped the icicles from the eaves, making them creak and groan.

Everyone knew that if the entire truckload of goods burned, all the hard work they had put in over the past half-life, and all the clues they had obtained with lives and blood, would vanish into thin air!

"That night when it moved the goods," Qin Ying began, "was our only hope."

Yang Hu nodded; he knew this was the most dangerous path he could take.

"But this step is difficult." He got up and paced around the house, breaking down the matter carefully. "The only people we can really control are Liu Ye and Liu Da! Qin Ying, you absolutely cannot show your 'dead' face. If those people from 'That Hand' see through it, it will lead to a catastrophe. Officially, Zhao Tongpan is a coward who's been intimidated and doesn't dare to cause such a huge mess now. He might not be able to risk his life on such a major case of treason. If we, the few of us, manage to snatch that truckload of ironclad evidence from under their noses while they are heavily guarded and suspicious, the slightest mistake will mean total defeat and the loss of everyone in this courtyard."

She remembered how the ambush at Wild Fox Ridge that night had been meticulously planned, how they had calculated the route the father and daughter would take on their patrol, the timing of which checkpoints they would pass through, and how they had tampered with the military identification tags at the checkpoints along the way. The person who could orchestrate such a shocking and deadly trap was definitely not someone who would only panic at the last minute.

"A direct robbery is not feasible." Qin Ying had fought countless battles and set up countless ambushes in the army, and now the sharpness in his eyes grew stronger and stronger. "We need to calculate exactly when it will move its goods, what route it will take, and seize that huge cart before it even thinks about it. But every step is fraught with danger. What route will it take? When will it set off? How many people will be escorting it? Will anyone be there to provide backup? If even one obstacle is missing, this section will fall off."

"There's an even bigger danger." Yang Hu's tone shifted, his expression becoming so grave it seemed about to overflow. "Why, if it felt this abandoned manor couldn't be saved, didn't it act immediately, instead making such a grand show of scouting and spreading rumors during the day? It usually leaves no loopholes in its actions, so why are there so many?"

Qin Ying's hand, which was wiping the knife, suddenly stopped.

"You mean...this is a trap?"

"We must be on guard," Yang Hu said slowly. "That hand, capable of killing and silencing witnesses in death row, turning the living into the dead, is definitely not a reckless man. He might genuinely be panicking and want to move, or he might know someone is watching him and deliberately leak information about 'things he wants to move' to lure that person into a trap he has laid long ago. Whether it's a good opportunity for him to move or a trap to lure him in, it's not clear at the moment."

The charcoal fire cast shadows on the two people's faces, one bright and one dark.

To move or not to move?

Dong gambled the lives of everyone in the courtyard on an unknown adventure. If he won, he would find the culprit and avenge the Qin family; if he lost, he would lose everything. Dong watched as a large truckload of irrefutable evidence that could have cleared his family's name was burned to ashes in a fire years ago. He saw that his family's injustice could never be erased from their memory.

"Fear creates weaknesses; haste leads to mistakes." Yang Hu stood under the eaves, looking at the thick darkness and oppressive wind and rain over the north of the city: "The more anxious it is, the more it wants to act, the more it wants to burn; that estate holds its Achilles' heel, irrefutable evidence that could cost it its life, and it's scrambling to cover its tracks! We should seize that cartload of evidence from its hands before it sets fire to it!"

"This journey was fraught with peril!"

The room fell silent again, and Lu Yan, unaware of when, arrived at the door to listen to Yang Hu's words.

Having witnessed too much intrigue and backstabbing in the Duke's mansion, she knew better than anyone that the fate of her entire family hinged on this step. Yet, she didn't try to persuade Yang Hu to back down: "Qin Ying has carried this injustice for many years, and Young Master has been searching for this clue for many months. If you back down, it means the bloodshed of the entire Qin family, and the lives of all the soldiers on the border. No matter how difficult this journey is, we must continue!"

Liu Ye tossed the small dagger in her hand onto the table: "What's there to be afraid of? I've already stalked and circled around the wild wolves in the mountains! Those guards at that manor can't scare me!"

Qin Ying gripped the dagger and said, word by word, "Back then, my daughter and I were ambushed and couldn't protect the soldiers around us. This time, I can't hide again."

As Yang Hu looked at these people, the hesitation in his heart gradually disappeared, turning into a steady rock.

The night grew deeper, and the area north of the city, towards the village, was shrouded in darkness, like a ferocious beast lurking in the shadows, waiting for its chance to strike a fatal blow...

Yang Hu also knew that they only had a few days left before the New Year. In such a short time, they had to accurately predict the movement of those hands, prepare the troops and routes to intercept and kill them, and distinguish whether it was a golden opportunity or a trap. Every single thing was so urgent and so difficult!

That truck was filled with the blood of the Qin family, irrefutable evidence of the border officers' and soldiers' lives, and a vicious wolf lurking in the deepest part, waiting for an opportunity to strike at someone... In the end, it was a fight to the death with everyone and everything in this courtyard.