The crowd felt a sense of loss.
Well, that was a wasted anticipation!
Nan Shiying blinked, still unable to recall anything, but it didn't matter.
Seeing that she still didn't remember him, Cheng Zimo trembled with anger. The taunts and mockery he had prepared in his mind all the way here now couldn't be uttered. It wasn't that he didn't want to speak, but his furious attempt at revenge, met with her indifference and coldness, felt like throwing a punch with all his might at cotton – stifling, disheartening, and leaving him helpless.
He gripped the iron bars of the cage, his knuckles turning slightly white. His face, which had already healed, now throbbed faintly again.
Cheng Zimo dared not use torture on his own. The Langhuan Army had strict discipline. Without the commander's order, they had no right to deal with prisoners privately, even if they were captives.
Unable to hit or taunt her, Cheng Zimo was filled with frustration, wishing a bolt of lightning from the heavens would strike down this arrogant bastard.
Seeing his long silence, Nan Shiying slowly closed her eyes again.
Her composed and indifferent demeanor didn't make her look like a prisoner at all. Cheng Zimo almost mistakenly thought he was the one in the cage instead of her.
How could she?
“Guards! No one is to give her any food or water today!”
Cheng Zimo roared outside in a fit of rage.
He had only joined the camp this year; he was just a raw recruit and had no authority to command others. However, the soldiers guarding the tent gave him face and replied, "Yes!"
After all, he was General Cheng's son.
"You just wait!"
Cheng Zimo spat out a harsh threat and strode out of the tent.
Cheng Zimo was seven feet tall, and clad in armor, he looked robust and imposing. But his actions were like those of a three-year-old child, yes, at most three years old.
...
At noon, during the shift change, Cheng Chongyu and Cheng Zimo shed their armor, changed into casual clothes, and returned to their manor.
"Master, Young Master!"
A servant took the reins and led the horses to the stables in the backyard. Upon returning to the manor, Cheng Chongyu's first inquiry was about the incident with the intruders the previous night.
"Reporting to Master, around the hour of Hai last night, patrolling guards discovered someone had broken into the study..."
Thinking back to what happened last night, Lin Si still found it eerie. Putting aside why those thieves had broken into the Master's study, there was the overwhelming rain of arrows that followed. It seemed someone had anticipated intruders at the Cheng manor and had already laid a trap from the very beginning.
What Lin Si found even stranger was that the arrow rain hadn't managed to apprehend the thieves.
Whether it was the ambushers or the thieves they intended to trap, apart from the arrows stuck in the floor tiles of the front courtyard and the blood splattered on the ground, not a single living or dead person was left behind.
Everything Lin Si recounted was based on the traces left at the scene and the testimonies of Wang Er, who had discovered the thieves, to deduce the outcome.
Cheng Zimo was unaware that the manor had also experienced an incident last night. Hearing about it now, he felt a sense of unease.
"Father..."
Cheng Chongyu looked up, stopping Cheng Zimo's inquiry.
It was better not to let too many people know about the assassination attempt he had faced last night.
Cheng Chongyu dared not claim his entire life had been without flaws, but for the nation, the people, and his family, he had a clear conscience. He didn't know how he deserved to be drawn into this vortex and become a pawn on someone else's chessboard.
"I understand!"
Cheng Chongyu nodded at Lin Si, signaling him to withdraw.
After Lin Si departed, Cheng Zimo stood up, wanting to say something, but the words caught in his throat.
After a few seconds of silence, Cheng Chongyu asked him, "Zimo, I've never inquired about your affairs, but today I want to ask: is all of this related to you?"
Cheng Zimo didn't answer, as he was unsure and didn't know if it was related to him.
Seeing Cheng Zimo's silence, Cheng Chongyu asked no further questions. His inkstone on the desk had vanished, and a fragment of an inkstone was hidden on the outer edge of the desk corner, so small it could be ignored. He didn't particularly like writing or reading, and most of the inkstones in his study were covered in dust. Yet, he felt a pang of heartache – that inkstone was a gift Zimo had bought with his first month's salary after joining the camp.
"Zimo, whatever you are doing, your father can refrain from asking, but if I discover that your actions are evil, your deeds are wicked, your father will not tolerate it!"
Cheng Chongyu's voice trembled slightly. A voice within him told him that last night's events, whether it was the intrusion of thieves or his assassination attempt, were undeniably linked to Zimo.
Yet, he also couldn't believe his son would commit such heinous acts.
But if... if he truly did, he would absolutely not show leniency!
"Son knows what he can and cannot do. Son is clear..." Before today, Cheng Zimo's sole focus was finding Qin Si's daughter. Whether she was alive or dead, he simply wanted to report the outcome at his dear friend's grave.
Cheng Zimo had never imagined that a missing person case would lead to such consequences. He felt a sense of panic and unease. Reason told him that if he continued to investigate, the arrows in the front courtyard next time would not be aimed at thieves but at the dozens of people in his own Cheng manor. But... but every time he closed his eyes, he saw the scene of Qin Si committing suicide by smashing his head against a wall right before his eyes.
Qin Si's name was pleasant, but in reality, he was just a vendor selling wontons at a street corner outside the Cheng manor. If there was anything different about him compared to other commoners, it was that he was a disabled man with a missing limb.
When Cheng Zimo was young, Cheng Chongyu was often not at home, and his elder brother, though much older and doting on him, was from a military family and disliked martial arts, preferring scholarly pursuits. He would spend his days with books, reading articles that gave Cheng Zimo a headache, and often forced him to study together.
Every time this happened, Cheng Zimo would sneak out and play outside the manor all day. When he got hungry, he would go to Qin Si's wonton stall to eat wontons. Over time, he became familiar with Qin Si.
Qin Si was a man with a story.
He was once a renowned expert in the martial arts world. In his youth, he had made mistakes. Later, his enemies sought revenge, his wife died, and he was crippled.
Now, he could only stay in Wucheng, selling wontons to support his daughter.
Cheng Zimo was captivated by the martial world he spoke of, but Qin Si often said that the martial world was a road of no return.