Better to Kill the Innocent Than Let the Guilty Escape

Almost without stopping, Di Qingyu set out from the imperial palace in a carriage the very next moment.

Although the palace had a curfew, she had a token specially granted by the emperor that allowed her to come and go freely.

On the second day after leaving Xiling Royal City.

"Young master, we've reached Cangling City. Shall we stop and rest?"

A carriage sped along a narrow road. Inside sat a young man with a fair complexion and a sickly air, dressed in white robes of exceptional elegance.

Di Qingyu's features were three parts valiant and seven parts cold beauty. Her foxlike eyes were long and narrow, and when her expression turned sharp and fierce, it was hard to tell whether she was a man or a woman. She had also bound her chest with silk, deliberately concealed the feminine features of her face, and fashioned a false Adam's apple from special sculpting clay. Even so, she looked like a pampered young master from an aristocratic family.

"No need. Keep going." Di Qingyu coughed softly a few times, her lowered voice dark and cold.

She did not want to wait a moment longer. She could hardly wait to take that person's life.

"Yes!"

Zhu Prefecture lay near Xiling's southern border and was rather remote. The group traveled for days with scarcely a pause, changing horses whenever they reached a settlement, while Di Qingyu and her companions made do with resting in the carriage.

At last, on the afternoon of the sixth day, they reached Zhu Prefecture.

"Young master, we've arrived."

Di Qingyu and her party came to an inn called Fengkelai.

After nightfall, someone knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Three maids stood beside Di Qingyu.

"It's me, Shao Lan," came a boy's youthful voice.

Only then did Chunzhi open the door.

"Your subordinate greets you, master." A boy in ragged clothes, his hair as disheveled as a beggar's, happily knelt on one knee before Di Qingyu.

"Have you gone back to... your old line of work?" Di Qingyu looked thoroughly disgusted.

"No." Shao Lan rubbed his head and smiled sheepishly. "I've been keeping an eye on that Gu Wenci these past few days. He lives out in the mountains, and it hasn't been easy to bathe or change clothes while watching him. I had to wait until you arrived, didn't I, master?"

"Couldn't you have had someone else take over? Where's Shao Chi?"

Di Qingyu felt a headache coming on. She always felt there were too many oddballs around her. She had no idea what remote mountain nook her loyal subordinates from her previous life were in, so she could only recruit "talent" on the spot.

"Shao Chi has taken over watching him now," Shao Lan said, blinking innocently.

Di Qingyu steered away from the subject. "Tell me the situation."

"Oh." Shao Lan put away his playful expression. "Your subordinate observed him for six days. During the day, Gu Wenci teaches children at the school in Maotun County. At night, he returns home and studies diligently. In his spare time, he helps his parents make bamboo baskets to sell. The family lives in a village out in the mountains. As for those connected to him, he ordinarily has only a few scholar friends and some dealings with the magistrate of Maotun County. There is no one else."

Di Qingyu lowered her eyes in thought, though it was unclear what she was thinking. After a brief pause, she spoke.

"We'll act tonight. The sooner we go, the sooner we return."

"Yes."

Late at night.

At a farmhouse in Liji Village, Maotun County, Zhu Prefecture.

"Son, leave your books until tomorrow. You've done enough helping us till the fields today. You must be tired."

"Mother, I'm not tired. You and Father go to bed. I want to read a little longer. The spring examinations are next year, and I can't afford to slack off."

"All right, then. Keep reading. Your father and I are going to rest."

"Mm."

By candlelight, the silhouettes of a loving mother and dutiful son fell across the farmhouse's somewhat tattered window paper.

Watching from a short distance outside the fence, Di Qingyu wore an unreadable expression, a faint glimmer in the gloom of her eyes.

"Master, do we kill them all?" Dressed entirely in black, Shao Lan raised his eyes and asked.

Di Qingyu curled her fingertips, as if considering it. None of the others dared to speak.

"Release the poisonous smoke first. Knock them all unconscious."

"Yes."

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the figure who had been reading inside suddenly collapsed. Only then did Di Qingyu and her companions push open the fence and enter.

Shao Lan forced the door open. Di Qingyu went to the room on the left, and as soon as she entered, she saw a clean-featured man lying on the floor. He looked somewhat young, but he was not as handsome as the Gu Wenci from her previous life.

Shao Lan went over and checked his breathing. He was indeed unconscious.

Di Qingyu crouched down and studied the man's face. His name was the same, but his appearance was different, and he was a year older as well.

Unfortunately, she did not like leaving herself even the slightest threat.

"Sword."

Di Qingyu held out her hand, and Shao Lan immediately offered his sword.

"Shing!"

Di Qingyu's gaze sharpened slightly. After pondering for a moment, she finally drew the long sword, her eyes frighteningly cold. She raised it and aimed at the scholar's head.

"Crack!"

Her hand rose and the blade fell, splattering blood across the floor. A few drops landed on the hem of Di Qingyu's robes.

With his head gone, no matter how heaven-defying that system was, surely it could not restore the corpse.

Shao Lan swallowed. Even after all this time, watching his master strike still made his heart tremble with fear.

"Take the body and head away and throw them somewhere with wild wolves and hyenas. Don't let the old couple see something so dreadful."

Di Qingyu held out her hand, and Xialin immediately took the sword while Chunzhi handed her a handkerchief.

"Yes."

Before leaving, Di Qingyu placed a banknote for fifty taels of silver on the table.

From the moment she had set out to seize power in her previous life, she had never expected to keep her hands clean. Whatever retribution awaited her could wait until her next life.