Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

But what she said in the carriage just now wasn't fake. The crisp scent of pine resin seeped from Helian Jing's cloak, silently drawing attention to a long-dormant corner of her mind.

Xi Yueli buried her face deeper into her cloak, her nose brushing against the lingering scent of the fir leaves on the fabric. Her eyes were closed, and the slight curve of her lips had flattened.

After the carriage resumed its journey, the atmosphere inside the carriage changed.

Helian Jing lifted the curtain and entered, sitting down opposite Xi Yueli with his elbows on his knees and his gaze fixed on her face.

Xi Yueli was already awake, still wrapped in her cloak. She sat half-sitting, half-leaning in the corner, clutching the corner of the diary in her hand, her fingertips tracing the creases of the pages.

She looked up at him, the morning drowsiness in her eyes quickly fading, revealing her usual alertness.

"The group of people last night came from Prince Chong."

Helian Jing did not deny it, but simply tilted his head to signal her to continue.

"Such perfect horsemanship and coordination could not possibly be from a wandering swordsman. Who in the court would dare to touch Prince Chen, unless... the Empress?"

Helian Jing raised an eyebrow. The speed and logic of her analysis of the situation were completely different from the person who had been curled up in the corner talking in her sleep last night. Yet, the switch between these two states was seamless, without any transition in between.

"The border of Beishuo has been rather unsettled lately," he added. "I have discovered that someone is sending border defense maps of Daying to Beishuo."

"A border map?" Xi Yueli closed the diary, her gaze sharpening slightly. "Whose pen was this?"

"The matter hasn't been investigated yet. The messenger was intercepted on the way, and he committed suicide by biting his tongue. The only thing found on his body was an unmarked iron plate."

Xi Yueli leaned against the car wall and closed her eyes briefly, as if searching for something in her mind. When she opened her eyes, her gaze was clearer.

"Beishuo has been plotting against Daying for years," she said.

"On the surface, nomadic tribes and farmers live together, but the Northern Shuo Royal Court has long been divided into three factions. The pro-war faction has gained the upper hand in recent years. All they need is a pretext. If the border defense map really falls into the hands of the Northern Shuo Royal Court, there will definitely be a battle before the spring."

Helian Jing looked at her, something deep in his eyes stirred. The familiarity she showed with the situation in Beishuo was unlike that of someone who had never left the capital.

When she uttered those words, she spoke with such confidence, yet she had clearly stated that she had never been to Beishuo.

The carriage arrived at a post station beside the official road in the afternoon.

Inside the post station, a group of people dressed as merchants were resting under a shed in the courtyard. Three mule carts loaded with goods were parked in the corner of the courtyard, and seven or eight men were sitting around a low table, drinking water and eating flatbread.

Helian Jing got off the carriage, quickly scanned the caravan, and then casually walked to another empty table in the courtyard, where he sat down and asked the innkeeper for two bowls of hot soup and a few mixed flour cakes.

Xi Yueli followed him out of the carriage. She was wearing a coarse cloth cloak, and the veil of the hood hung down to cover most of her face, only revealing a thin curve of her chin. But her gaze lingered for a moment on the mule cart of the caravan.

The leader of the group of men was a middle-aged man with a square face and a thick beard. He was breaking a pancake with his head down when he heard the sound of horses' hooves. He raised his eyes and saw Helian Jing and Xi Yueli walking into the courtyard one after the other. His gaze lingered for a moment on the outline of Helian Jing's waist.

He quickly looked away, but that one lingering glance was enough to make Helian Jing wary.

As Xi Yueli sat down at the table, the veil of her hat was lifted by a corner in the wind. She reached out to press the edge of the veil, and her hand paused in mid-air for a moment, as if she had been distracted by something.

She turned her head, her gaze passing through the curtain to the three mule carts in the corner of the courtyard, stopping at the hind leg of one of the mules.

A horseshoe was nailed to the hind hoof of the mule, the iron surface mostly covered with mud, but a very shallow groove was visible on the turned-up edge.

Xi Yueli's pupils contracted slightly, the three diagonal lines intersecting like a trident embedded in the mud.

This type of pattern only appears on the horses of the regular cavalry of the Northern Shuo. The horseshoes used by civilians are not forged with this anti-slip pattern because it is too expensive and unnecessary.

She didn't know why she knew, but she just knew.

She suddenly tilted her head and fell to the side, knocking her veil askew and revealing half of her pale face.

The innkeeper, carrying a bowl of hot soup, was startled by the commotion, and the soup in the bowl wobbled twice, almost spilling out.

"Young lady? Young lady, are you alright?"

Xi Yueli mumbled incoherently, her voice drifting like a dream: "Horses... horseshoes... with winter stripes..."

She spoke incoherently and in a low voice, but the caravan men under the shed in the courtyard all looked up at the same time. The leader, a man with a thick beard, stared at her and stopped breaking the flatbread in his hand.

Helian Jing shifted his gaze from Xi Yueli and glanced indifferently at the reactions of the men.

When they heard Xi Yueli's words, three of them simultaneously reached for their waists, then stopped at the same time, and then, as if they had planned it together, picked up their pancakes again and continued eating.

Xi Yueli was still muttering, her head resting on the table, her fingers scribbling randomly on the edge of the table, making a crescent-shaped mark.

Helian Jing recognized it as the exclusive brand of the Northern Shuo army horses, the "Shuoyue Seal." His gaze fell on the hindquarters of the mule in the corner of the courtyard, and his hand under the table had already grasped the short blade hidden in his sleeve.

The bearded man's expression changed. He slapped the crumbs off his hand, stood up, and took two steps toward Xi Yueli's table, a smile plastered on his face.

"What this young lady is talking about, the horseshoe pattern? That sounds quite interesting. I'm a traveling merchant, have you seen my two mules before?"

As he approached, his sleeve swayed slightly, revealing the outline of a hard object.

Helian Jing's short blade was already drawn. The blade was narrow and thin, with an extremely sharp tip. It pressed gently against the soft flesh between the man's waist and ribs through the fabric.

"Take three steps back," Helian Jing said.

The bearded man froze, glanced down at the blade tip pressed against his clothes at his waist, and slowly took three steps back.

The other seven men stood up at the same time. The two men who had been squatting down tying shoelaces next to the mule cart straightened up and found something in their hands, hidden under their sleeves and held in reverse, with the blade pointing downwards.

Helian Jing's short blade didn't leave the man with the thick beard's waist, but he turned his head and called out towards the courtyard gate, "Come in."

Four guards silently vaulted over the courtyard wall, landing toe-first without a sound. They landed behind the caravan men, their narrow-bladed longswords gleaming blindingly in the sunlight.

Within three breaths, the situation was set: the eight caravan men were surrounded under the shed in the courtyard, unable to advance or retreat. Sweat rolled down the forehead of the man with the thick beard and dripped into his beard. He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

Helian Jing pinned the bearded man against the corner of the post station warehouse for interrogation, a short blade held against his neck, the blade pressed against his skin. If he dared to move, the pulse would stop.

"Who sent you?"

The bearded man gritted his teeth and remained silent. He was a scout from Beishuo, who had been incorporated into a caravan as a merchant to spy on border military intelligence for three months. He had traveled this route more than a dozen times without any mistakes, but today a crazy girl had exposed his military branding in just a few words.

Helian Jing pressed down slightly, leaving a bloody gash on the skin.

Xi Yueli arrived at the warehouse door at some point. She leaned against the door frame, her veil removed, revealing her pale and calm face.

"Thirty li north of Shuofeng Pass on the northern border," she began, her voice fluent, as if reciting a well-rehearsed official document.

"The guard duty changes every day at midnight. During the changeover, the hidden sentry post on the east side is unattended for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. Your intelligence channels must be coming in from there, right?"