Seeing that he truly treated life and death as nothing, He Lingchuan leaned a little closer and asked, “Do you still remember Qing Gu?”

“A woman from the red light district.” Wan Song gave a scornful little laugh. “Don’t tell me you want to use her to threaten me?”

“Wan Xianneng would have to step aside, and you think she counts for anything?” He Lingchuan laughed too. “I’m talking about the child in her belly—”

Wan Song’s expression shifted slightly as He Lingchuan deliberately dragged the last words out.

“—your child.”

Wan Song froze for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Hahahahaha... Ow!”

He had stretched a wound, and the pain made him gasp.

But the more it hurt, the more he wanted to laugh.

“You’re saying Qing Gu is pregnant with my kid?” Tears were practically coming out of his eyes. “If you’re going to lie, could you at least draft it first?”

He Lingchuan sighed. “You’re about to die. Why are you still keeping Mr. Mai’s secrets?”

“I just like seeing you lot panic and grasp at straws!” Wan Song panted for a couple of breaths. “I die, and you still can’t close the case. You’ll be the ones in trouble!”

A strange flush rose in his cheeks, and even his eyes looked brighter. He Lingchuan knew what it was. It was his final burst of life, the brief flare before the candle went out.

He waited patiently until Wan Song’s laughter finally died down, then said lazily, “Fine, you asked for this. The physician says the timing matches. Qing Gu had only one client during that stretch, which was you. Don’t you remember? A hundred days ago, you’d just gotten a huge sum of money, and you very generously booked her for a whole month.”

“I saw her just a few days ago! She never mentioned anything like that!”

“Of course not. She doesn’t even know herself. Some women can be three months along and still show nothing at all,” He Lingchuan said. “It wasn’t until we locked her up that she suddenly fainted. A physician checked her pulse, and that’s when we found out.”

“Words are cheap. You’re just making things up!” Wan Song snapped. “A woman like Qing Gu takes precautions. There’s no way she got pregnant!”

“Believe it or not, that’s up to you.” He Lingchuan pointed at his shattered legs. “I’ve already had men cut off a bit of your flesh. Qing Gu is waiting outside. If you don’t believe me, we can cut her open right now, take the fetus out, and see whether it’s your blood.”

Wan Song snorted. “Do what you want.”

He Lingchuan nodded toward the constables. One of them immediately went out, and soon returned carrying a woman into the room and laying her on the other bed beside Wan Song.

The woman was unconscious. It was Qing Gu.

Wan Song frowned. “What happened to her?”

“Time’s precious, so I knocked her out first.” He Lingchuan spread his hands. “You didn’t think I’d carve her open while she was awake, did you? I’m not that cruel.” Then he turned to the physician and asked, “I’ve never done something like this before. How big is a three-month fetus?”

The physician held up one finger. “About a finger’s length.”

“Can you tell if it’s a boy or a girl?”

“Yes. The shape has already begun to form.”

He Lingchuan pointed at Qing Gu. “Alright, do it.”

The physician hesitated. “Th-this...” He was a healer, not an executioner.

“You can’t do it?”

“My lord, this—”

“It’s fine. I’ll do it myself.” He Lingchuan drew a dagger from his boot. He tore a scrap of cloth from the tray at Wan Song’s bedside and wiped the blade casually, then flipped the knife in a quick, jaunty flourish.

Wan Song sneered. He did not believe a word of it.

He fully believed that the man before him was merely bluffing him. “Even if she is pregnant, even if it’s really mine, what do you gain by cutting it out?” You’re going to kill my child and then expect me to cooperate?

“You cut off my road, I cut off your line.” He Lingchuan tapped Wan Song’s face with the flat of the blade, flashing a vicious smile. “No gain, just satisfaction. Come on, let’s hurt each other.”

Wan Song stared at him hard.

He Lingchuan stepped to Qing Gu’s side. With one swift slash, her inner and outer clothes split open together. The physician hurriedly helped peel the fabric aside, exposing her abdomen.

The movement was so fast that it left an afterimage, yet he did it with the air of someone idly trimming a thread.

Wan Song was not ready for it, so his eyebrows practically jumped.

He Lingchuan had already extended his spiritual sense. Without even looking up, he caught every flicker of Wan Song’s expression in perfect detail, and his heart settled.

“So, this is your last chance.” He Lingchuan prodded Qing Gu’s belly lightly. Wan Song’s gaze sharpened, and he only then realized that He Lingchuan was using the hilt, not the blade. “Your crimes are enough to wipe out your whole family. There’s no escaping that fate. However, the people above don’t know there’s still an unborn Wan in the world. If I don’t speak, and these physicians don’t speak, you’ll still leave a seed behind. Well? Will you cooperate?”

Wan Song gave a cold laugh and said nothing, but He Lingchuan saw his jaw bulge. He was grinding his teeth.

The physician could not help but blurt out, “My lord, half an inch is enough to start—”

“What, you’re worried about hurting the fetus?” He Lingchuan smiled faintly and looked at Wan Song. “Open your eyes wide. See whether your little bastard is a boy or a girl.”

Then he pressed the dagger just below Qing Gu’s navel and drew it across.

Wan Song saw the tip go in with his own eyes. In that instant, he believed that the man before him would truly cut open a belly and take the life of an unborn child. He finally shouted, “Stop!”

Blood ran down Qing Gu’s belly, though not much. He Lingchuan’s hand froze mid-motion. He tilted his head and asked, “Are you talking or not?”

“I’ll talk.” Wan Song sucked in a harsh breath. “Don’t hurt it.”

For all his thin-blooded cruelty, at the very edge of death, he still wanted a descendant left in the world.

“That’s more like it. Mr. Mai is just your employer, not your father. Why would you shield him with your own child’s life?” He Lingchuan paused, then added thoughtfully, “Unless he really is?”

“He isn’t.”

Only then did He Lingchuan withdraw the dagger. He wiped the blood from its tip and said to the physician, “Take her out and stop the bleeding.”

At that point, Wan Song did not even bother hiding his panic. He demanded of the physician, “My child’s alright, right?”

The physician checked her pulse carefully, then nodded. “It’s fine.”

They carried Qing Gu out.

He Lingchuan sat back down. “Alright, a man should be straightforward. I spared your child’s life. What will you pay me in return?”

Wan Song closed his eyes, deflated. “What do you want to ask?”

“What are jiang beads used for?” He Lingchuan began firing questions. “Why is the consumption so massive?”

“First, I need you to swear to me that my child won’t be harmed,” Wan Song said, not stupid.

“Fine, I swear to Heaven. I will absolutely never harm the descendants of Wan Song. Is that good enough?”

Only then did Wan Song speak. “They’re one of the main ingredients for refining a life-extending pill, also called the elixir of youth. As for how it’s refined, and what else is needed... I don’t know.”

“Elixir of youth?” Something stirred in He Lingchuan’s mind. The name sounded familiar. In the mirage he had seen among Qianxing City’s ruins, the late King of Yuān mentioned it.

“What does it do?”

“Supposedly, it lets the one who takes it live longer.” Wan Song coughed, blood seeping at the corner of his mouth. “It was originally called a life-extending pill, but later they just borrowed the name of an ancient immortal elixir and called it the elixir of youth. I’ve never taken it myself, so I don’t know.”

“You spend all day hunting jiang beads for Mr. Mai. Why don’t you get yourself a portion of elixir of youth and try it?”

Wan Song said coldly, “Easy for you to say. You think I’m someone who’s allowed to eat that?”

He glanced at He Lingchuan. “Don’t try to fish around. I’ve never seen the finished product, and I never will. A bricklayer has no good house; a carpenter has no good bed[1]. I’ve accepted it.”

“Then who gets to take it?” 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

“I don’t know. I just hand over the jiang beads and get paid.” Wan Song rolled his eyes. “Who else would use that kind of thing? If they’re not rich, they’re nobility.”

“Now tell me about Lingxu City’s courier.” With several monsters standing at his side, He Lingchuan raised the question they cared about most. “Why did you kill it?”

“I didn’t know beforehand,” Wan Song said helplessly. “If I’d known, why would I lay a hand on it and invite death onto my own head?”

“How did you even find it?” He Lingchuan still found that part strange. “An eastern imperial eagle flies in the sky, so how did you know when it would land?”

“There’s a small lake outside Shuangyi Town. The water’s clear, and there’s plenty of fish and shrimp. A lot of migrating birds stop there to rest, including plenty of bird monsters.” Wan Song recalled, “Those days, we couldn’t find any suitable monsters out in the wild, so Mr. Mai ordered us to go try our luck by the lake near Shuangyi City. When we got there, we saw that eastern imperial eagle... It kept drinking, and it was the largest and most conspicuous of the lot. All the other birds kept far away from it. A monster like that condenses the most jiang beads, so we set our eyes on it.” He licked his lips. “It was already evening. We figured the eastern imperial eagle would stay the night there, so we waited until dark to act. It went smoothly, no complications.”

“So the eastern imperial eagle died in its sleep?”

He Lingchuan knew that a flying courier usually carried oral messages, unless it was some long, detailed report.

No written record meant the information was safer.

However, it also meant the eagle’s death was unjust beyond measure.

“...Yes.”

“In other words, choosing the eastern imperial eagle as a target was purely a coincidence, not something planned in advance?”

“We can’t see the future.” Wan Song said that, then paused to catch his breath.

He Lingchuan waited several beats and saw Wan Song’s eyes glaze over, as if he were about to drift off again. He reached out and gave him a shove. “Stay with me. If you fall asleep now, you won’t wake up.”

Wan Song slowly roused.

“Tell me about Mr. Mai,” He Lingchuan pressed. “How did he show up?”

Wan Song thought for a long while before he managed to dig the memory out. “My original handler’s surname was Bai. A few years ago, it changed to Mr. Mai. His temper is better than Bai’s, at least, he’s much more agreeable. He also fought for higher pay for us. For two of the past New Year’s, he even brought us holiday gifts.”

“How do you know he took Bai’s place instead of killing him and replacing him?”

“The talisman tokens and passphrases matched.” Wan Song’s voice was flat. “As long as the pay’s on time, I can’t be bothered to care about anything else.”

“Who is Mr. Mai’s superior?” If Wan Song’s handler could be replaced, then Mr. Mai clearly was not the highest authority.

“I don’t know. I’ve never met them.” Seeing He Lingchuan’s brow knit tightly, Wan Song added, “But that person should be based in the north. Both times Mr. Mai brought us New Year gifts, they were specialties from Baishajue. And once, there was something else.”

“Hm?”

“Once, Mr. Mai suddenly ordered the snail toad to move, not to hunt monsters, but to transport people.”

“Oh?” He Lingchuan’s interest sharpened. “Who?”

“Four people, all wearing masks. I don’t know who they were. But the leader was a woman, you could tell by her build. And she thanked Mr. Mai. Mr. Mai said it wasn’t necessary, that he was only repaying a favor. Then he made her swear never to reveal the snail toad’s existence to anyone.”

1. This is basically just a saying that refers to how certain people are too busy handling things for others that they neglect their own situation. The typical English equivalents are “The cobbler’s children go barefoot” and “Every house but the carpenter’s is fixed.” However, even those aren’t really seen that often. ☜