The Reticent Blade-Chapter 61 - The Tenderness of a Blade

Chi Nanwei turned a deep red as she muttered, "Pffftt... Just take the blade. Why do you need me for..."

"Here... your blade," Chi Nanwei drew the blade from the bundle and threw it into Ye Beizhi’s arms. "I didn’t want to keep it for you anyway. It’s so heavy, I don’t know how you manage to use it..."

Ye Beizhi took the blade and gently stroked the blade.

He noticed that the iron scabbard was spotless. Previously, to make it easier to hold on to, he had wrapped some coarse cloth around the middle part of the scabbard, but now the cloth had been replaced with fine red silk.

The red cloth on the hilt had also been rewrapped with a strip of red silk, adding a hint of elegance to its ancient style.

It was clear that, contrary to her claim that she did not want to keep it, Chi Nanwei cared deeply about it.

Ye Beizhi looked at Chi Nanwei, his mouth opening and closing as if he wanted to say something.

"Sorry... sorry," Ye Beizhi held the hilt, his voice almost inaudible.

"Hm?" Chi Nanwei turned her head to look at Ye Beizhi.

"Escort, the escort agency... Old Wu..." Ye Beizhi choked up momentarily, unable to look into the eyes of the woman before him.

"Mm... I understand," Chi Nanwei said with a melancholic expression. She took a deep breath before continuing, "You don’t need to apologize, I never blamed you."

The room fell into an involuntary silence.

At this moment, there was a commotion coming from downstairs, occasionally mixed with the sound of hurried footsteps and things breaking on the ground.

"What’s happening downstairs?" Chi Nanwei asked in confusion as she went to open the door to check. "By the way, how did you get in?"

Ye Beizhi held her back and scratched his head. "I think they came to find me... I didn’t enter very peacefully."

"Not very peacefully?" Chi Nanwei raised her eyebrows. "So what now?"

Ye Beizhi looked at Chi Nanwei seriously and asked, "Do you want to stay and get married?"

Chi Nanwei stared at the man in front of her with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile and said, "If I don’t want to stay... would you take me away?"

"...Mm."

"Then let’s go."

***

Zhou Kunxin, the governor of Luzhou, was livid. He had received the news that someone severed his son’s hand. Never in his wildest dreams would he expect that to happen on his son’s wedding day and in his own territory to boot!

Zhou Kunxin was so enraged that his hair almost stood on end. His Zhou family had only one heir, Zhou Yi. the fact that one of his hands had been cut off, felt like a heavy slap across his face.

"Catch him! Bring him back to me. I want him to regret being born!"

Qian Feida had been the chief constable of Luzhou for nearly five years.

His parents gave him his name in their hopes that he would rise to prominence, but he had only managed to become the chief constable after struggling for so many years.

He had thought he would never have another chance to advance in his life, but with today’s incident, he knew his opportunity had arrived.

There had been a major incident in Luzhou: the governor’s son had had his arm severed in the street. Sensing the direction of the wind, he had preemptively mobilized his forces, before the governor's orders came down.

Once the orders arrived, all the constables and officials in Luzhou began to move. A large number of troops were stationed at each city gate, and everyone leaving the city was thoroughly examined. He himself led a team of elite soldiers to the Li residence, ready to personally capture the criminals.

This might be my last chance to advance in this lifetime, I have to seize this opportunity, Qian Feida thought to himself.

When he arrived at the Li residence with his team of elite soldiers, Qian Feida saw that the usually aloof Li Muxian was now sitting dazedly on the threshold of the gate. His distinguished demeanor was gone.

His thin face looked extraordinarily withered and his clothes were covered in dust. The renowned scholar sat in the dirt, holding the broken plaque, completely indifferent to his surroundings. Madam Yu stood beside him, wiping her tears and occasionally trying to comfort him.

Qian Feida knew the details of the situation and sighed inwardly. The Li family’s reputation would surely plummet after today, and they would lose their former prestige.

However, he had no time to think about that now. Capturing the criminal was the most important thing, as that was the only way to improve his future prospects.

"Deploy and surround the Li residence!" Qian Feida shouted, and the constables behind him immediately acted, surrounding the mansion tightly.

"What are you doing!"

Seeing the constables readily surrounding her home, Madam Yu became flustered and quickly grabbed the head constable, Qian Feida.

At this moment, Li Muxian was in a trance, seemingly unaware of what was happening, leaving it solely to Madam Yu to step forward.

"These are criminal matters, people unrelated must stay away!"

Qian Feida shook off Madam Yu’s hand from his sleeve without even looking at her and waved to his men. "Search! Search every nook and cranny! Make sure there is no place to hide!"

Madam Yu saw the officials continuing to enter the Li residence and tried to stop them by saying, "This is the Li residence, do you know what you’re doing! You, you can’t go in! Stop! Don’t go in!"

Pushed aside by two officials, she yelled, "You bunch of scoundrels! Sooner or later, the Li family will make you pay!"

Qian Feida ignored Madam Yu’s words and entered the Li residence with his weapon out.

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The maids and servants of the Li residence were herded into the courtyard for a thorough inspection, and the constables searched each floor.

Qian Feida stood in the courtyard, scanning the faces of the servants and maids for clues.

One constable started interrogating a maid. "So, the criminal was targeting your young mistress?"

"I... I don’t know, sir," the maid, her face covered in tears and clearly frightened, said, "But since that person came to make trouble, it must be that he was after our young mistress..."

Qian Feida’s gaze sharpened, and he interjected, "Where is your young mistress now?"

The constable questioning the maid turned around upon seeing Qian Feida and hurriedly bowed. "Lord Qian..."

Qian Feida waved his hand and continued to watch the maid, waiting for her answer.

Hearing it was an important figure asking her, the maid became even more nervous and stammered, "I... I don’t know... when I came down, the young mistress was still bathing. Her room is on the third floor—"

"Send people to the third floor to search..." Qian Feida immediately instructed his subordinates. However, before he could finish speaking, the situation changed!

"You! Who are you! We need reinforcements!" A shout came from inside the building.

Qian Feida’s expression changed, and he quickly turned to look.

A man and a woman walked out of the main building. The man held a blade in one hand and led a woman with the other. The woman had a small bundle slung across her back and clung closely to the man.

The pair strolled leisurely, as if they were taking a walk in their own backyard. Qian Feida eavesdropped on their conversation. The man asked the woman behind him, "Are you scared?"

The woman responded casually, "Pffftt... What’s there to be scared of? I grew up in an escort agency, I’ve seen plenty of fighting and killing."

The previous shouts had summoned all the constables, who now tightly encircled the couple.

Qian Feida pushed through the crowd and stood in front of Ye Beizhi. He got to the point and asked, "Are you the one who injured the governor’s son?"

"Hmm?" Ye Beizhi thought for a moment. "Yes, it was me."

"To be so brazen after committing a crime, you’re something special indeed." Qian Feida sneered. "You can’t escape today. You should just surrender obediently. How does that sound?"

"You can’t make me," Ye Beizhi said seriously as he looked at Qian Feida.

"You little!" Qian Feida’s nose flared with anger. "What’s your name?"

"Ye Beizhi."

"Ye Beizhi?" Qian Feida frowned slightly, "Why does that sound so familiar?"

His face suddenly changed and he shouted, "Ye Beizhi... it’s you!"

Qian Feida remembered that a few days ago, he had heard that the imperial fugitive with a bounty of a thousand silver taels was named Ye Beizhi. He had personally distributed the arrest warrant around Luzhou.

"Do you know me?" Ye Beizhi asked, slightly baffled.

Qian Feida did not answer, he could hear his heart pounding with excitement. Capturing such a person would be a tremendous accomplishment.

The arrest warrant had come directly from the capital, and capturing an imperial fugitive might be enough to make him a general!

Ye Beizhi felt a budding dampness in the palm of Chi Nanwei’s hand.

Despite her bluster, she was indeed nervous. Facing such a large force, she was, after all, a single woman.

Ye Beizhi held her hand and looked at her, signaling for her to stay steady. Chi Nanwei gave him a slight nod.

The atmosphere was as tense as a rope stretched to its limit.

Ye Beizhi placed his right hand on the hilt at his waist.

Chi Nanwei heard Ye Beizhi suddenly ask softly, "Do you want to know why this blade is called ‘Stormqueller’?"

Chi Nanwei felt a change in the man beside her... his calm and implacable demeanor suddenly became sharp and intense.

Chi Nanwei smiled and nodded her head slightly.

"Go! Capture him alive!" Qian Feida roared impatiently!

"Kill!" the soldiers shouted in unison as they rushed forward!

Ye Beizhi flicked the blade’s sheath open with his thumb, revealing a flash of cold light.

The next moment, a vast blade intent swallowed the courtyard like a sudden stormwall crashing down from the sky!

The whole world seemed to lose its color, leaving only countless dazzling blade lights.

Clink! The blade returned to its sheathe.

There were no terrified screams.

There were no sorrowful wails.

It was as if the surging blade intent silenced the world.

There was only the sound of bodies spraying blood and hitting the ground. It sounded like the dying drizzle of a hurricane.

At this moment, the courtyard was left with only the man and woman standing.

Ye Beizhi stood before Chi Nanwei and wiped a drop of blood from her cheek.

"Let’s go."

A single slash to quell a storm.