In the blink of an eye, it was the twenty-sixth day of the Twelfth Lunar Month, only one day away from the capital lifting its curfew.
Willing or not, Sun Shaozong could only make every possible preparation and strive to avoid having those old ministers see through his identity when he revealed himself before the public.
Yet at that very moment, sudden news disrupted his original plans—Wang Ziteng, Grand Commandant Wang and the Nine Provinces Chief Inspector, had died of illness in Tongzhou the day before.
As a standard-bearer among the old meritorious nobility, news of his death undoubtedly caused a greater shock than the confiscation of the Shi family's estate or the imprisonment of Jia She and his daughter-in-law.
Of course, the greatest impact on Sun Shaozong was that he had to set aside what he was doing and go to Prison God Temple to console Phoenix Sister.
Since he had told her during his last visit that Grand Commandant Wang was critically ill, Wang Xifeng kept her emotions relatively under control. Still, having lost the greatest support behind her, she became increasingly clingy and dependent on Sun Erlang.
Had she not been in Mourning Garb, she surely would have pressed him against the cell door and drained him to the bone before she was willing to stop.
He had only just managed to struggle free from the cell, hunched over with his chest tucked in, and was about to find somewhere quiet to straighten out the troublesome branch growing at his waist when a guard passed on word that First Madam of the Shi family wished to see him.
He was accustomed to hearing First Madam of the Rong and Ning Mansions pronounced with the first tone, but he had never met First Madam of the Shi family.