Disclaimer: This is edited MTL. Do forgive any grammar mistakes as they are my own and not the author’s. I may add some of my own words for clarity sake, but I will try not to change the meaning of the whole sentence. When the author uses 成语 / Cheng Yu, which is something like idiom-like phrases, I may just translate them in simple English if they are not very meaningful. Otherwise, I will add a translation note. An example would be ‘不三不四’, I would most likely translate it as ‘dubious’ depending on the context.

Woohoo quarter of the story finished!

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The next day, the steward had just sent out Yan Ke’s letter to Meng You when a shadow guard jumped from the roof.

The steward was startled by the sudden appearance of the shadow guard.

Steward: “Hey, can’t you make some noise when you come down? This old man can’t take scares!”

The shadow guard solemnly whispered a few words in the ear of the steward and the steward’s face gradually became cold.

Steward: “Usually, would you or the other guards leave your post without any notice?”

The shadow guard shook his head: “Naturally we wouldn’t! Our lord’s study is a significant place, if an accident didn’t occur, there would definitely be someone guarding the room.”

Steward: “Go to the lord’s study to look around first, we better have not lost the most important thing there.”

The secret frame in the table was created by him. Having been by the Lord Crown Prince’s side for nearly two decades, he had long been considered as his confidant, so the Lord Crown Prince did not hide his intentions of putting the city defence map in that secret frame from him.

When the steward opened the secret frame and saw that it was empty, the steward who had always kept a smile on his face turned his lips into a frown.

The defence map was gone!

This was a serious matter.

The steward made a prompt decision to write a letter to Meng You and passed it to the shadow guard’s hand: “Send this letter personally with your own hands to Meng You and get him to make a decision about this issue. I will suppress the news here, losing the city defence map is a heavy crime. Everyone in our Crown Prince Manor, are all suspects.”

Shadow guard: “Yes!”

When the shadow guard left, the steward sighed. He closed the door to the study, looked at Yan Ke’s courtyard and then to the sky.

In this sky, dark clouds were gathering, things were probably about to change for the worse.

Yan Ke was heading to the kitchen to make some food for himself when he saw the shadow guard and the steward coming out of Meng You’s study in tandem, both of them walking in a heavy atmosphere, carrying heavy matters in their heart.

Yan Ke’s heart shook, and he knew that they had already discovered that the defence map was gone.

Thinking of the unfinished copy of the city defence map in his own study, Yan Ke lost his appetite. He turned back and returned to his study and began drawing again.

He estimated that he didn’t have much time left before they will discover his tracks. He needs to find a way to survive.

After finishing drawing the lines representing the roads, Yan Ke swopped the circular and triangular points around.

He had just finished writing the comments about the marks down, when he lost control over his hand.

Yan Ke’s eyes opened widely, he hurriedly threw the brush in his hand away. His heart was frightened, it was almost ruined!

Yan Ke raised his temper: “What are you fussing about? I’m saving our lives!”

Yan Ke saw that the original owner stopped moving about after hearing his words, and quickly kept the almost finished fake city defence map. He then took up a blank piece of paper to deal with him.

If he didn’t deal with him properly, this matter couldn’t be settled.

: You’re harming Su Yu Ge Ge! I will never let you do this.

Yan Ke rolled his eyes: “I didn’t harm him.”

: You changed the city defence map, I saw it.

Yan Ke: “Oh, your eyesight is very good.”

: Return my body to me!

Yan Ke: “I didn’t harm him, I’m just helping you to test him, our theft will definitely be discovered soon, so from the moment that you stole the city defence map, the only way we can walk away alive is through him taking us away.”

“I will give him this city defence map and ask him to take us away. If he agrees, since the real map is on our body, at that point, we can still help him out, what do you think?”

Yan Ke watched his hand holding the brush stop still on the white paper for a long time, the ink completely seeped through the white paper.

: Then if he doesn’t bring me away……

Yan Ke: “If he doesn’t, then why should we give the map to him? It just so happens that the fake map can be your revenge, both old and new grudges can be settled in one strike! Did you not think about taking revenge for your mum in the past?”

: No.

Yan Ke’s eyes were strained: “Do you not have a conscience? If I had a mother, I would cherish her to the skies.”

Yan Ke: “She placed one foot into the underworld when she was giving birth to you. If this foot wasn’t kept back, this would be an exchange of a life for a life.”

[T/N: Original text “一只脚踏进鬼门关把你生出来，这要是这只脚没收回来，那就是一命换一命了。”  I kept it as literal as possible since I’m not sure about this translation. I’ll leave the original text here for any Chinese readers.

She placed one foot into the underworld when she was giving birth to you. (Meaning she almost died)

There seems to be a few ways to interpret the “If this foot wasn’t kept back, this would be an exchange of a life for a life.”

• If she didn’t keep her life, she would have died while giving birth to him.
• If she didn’t give birth to him, his non-existence would be exchanged for her life. (Since he was indirectly the cause of her death.)

]

: The dead has departed, it’s useless to say more.

Even though he already knew that the original owner Yan Ke had this type of character, but Yan Ke seeing these cold words, really wanted to drag him out from this body and violently thrash him.

His own mother never got up from the operating table that she gave birth to him on. Hence, in his past life, he was scolded to his face that he had a mum to give birth to him, but not a mum to raise him. Towards this person who knew who killed his own mother, yet didn’t want to take revenge, and even wanted to stay beside the murderer, Yan Ke felt that his eyes have been opened.

[T/N: Scolding someone as having a mum to give birth to but not raise, is an insult that implies that the person has/will have poor upbringing.]

Yan Ke who didn’t want his San Guan to collapse, decided to stop talking to the original owner and perfect the final details on the city defence map.

[T/N: 三观/San Guan means three outlooks/views. It refers to a person’s outlook on the world, outlook on life and outlook on values. ]

The original owner probably stopped preventing him from drawing because of his words.

After Yan Ke finished drawing every detail of the map, checked multiple times on the final product and dried the paper, the sky was already dark.

Yan Ke looked at the steward: “I’m going to find Tang Qi, yesterday we had arranged to meet up.”

The steward nodded his head and laughed: “The imperial city is not safe, Crown Princess, you should bring two shadow guards along to guard you, if there was someone accompanying you, this old servant would be less worried.”

Yan Ke tactfully declined: “No need for them, I will just get Tang Qi to send me back.”

“Oh right, steward, I have a box of snacks here, I made these in the afternoon. Help me find someone to send these to the Crown Prince, let him taste these. It’s just nice that it’s already night-time now, the temperature at night is low, the snacks won’t be spoiled so easily.”

The steward smiled as he received the box. He quickly managed to get someone to find a messenger, and repeatedly told the person to send it quickly, if not, the snacks won’t be fresh anymore.

Yan Ke seeing that everything has been arranged properly, stepped out of the door into the night alone.

The steward watched as he disappeared past the corner of the manor, and then he removed his smile and called for a few shadow guards: “Follow the Crown Princess and see who the Crown Princess is meeting. If it’s Imperial Guard Tang, then there is no need to disturb them.”

The shadow guard heard the other possibility from the steward’s words: “Steward, then if he wasn’t meeting Imperial Guard Tang?”

Steward: “Then split your troops into two, one for watching the Crown Princess, the other for finding Imperial Guard Tang.”

The steward took out a letter from his robes and passed it to a shadow guard.

Steward: “Then bring this letter to Imperial Guard Tang, after he sees it, he will naturally know what to do.”

Shadow Guard: “Yes!”

Not long after Yan Ke walked out, the person in his body started making a fuss again.

Yan Ke knew what he was making a fuss about.

He had placed the real city defence map into the box of snacks to be sent to Meng You.

Yan Ke said: “This is to give us another road to walk, if your Su Yu Ge Ge doesn’t bring you away, we will need to depend on Meng You to save our lives. If he brings you away, I have memorised the city defence map, I can still revert the fake map to the original for him.”

Yan Ke saw that the original owner was still controlling their body and walking around in circles, he felt that he was being absolutely stupid: “Or, do you also not believe that your Su Yu Ge Ge will bring you away?”

This indirect method of goading seemed to be effective, and the original owner stopped making a fuss.

Yan Ke went to the meeting spot where the original owner had met Su Yu at previously. In the afternoon, he had gotten a maid to ask Su Yu out to meet him at that spot. He probably should be there already.

Su Yu was inside a tavern at the side, watching Yan Ke standing alone while wrapping his clothes. After ensuring that no one was following them, he jumped down from the window.

[T/N: Buildings in the past aren’t very tall in the past so he wouldn’t die from jumping out the window. Sadly.]

Yan Ke was shivering in the freezing cold night, seeing Su Yu jump down from the window, he realised that he had probably reached a long time ago.

Showering him with scoldings: “Are you stupid? You’ve reached and yet you still didn’t come out, making me wait outside, cold and hungry in this freezing weather!”

Su Yu reached out his hand and ignored Yan Ke’s rage, his eyes lighted up and he excitedly asked: “Did you find it?”

Yan Ke: “Yes.”

Su Yu laughed: “Quickly give it to me!”

Yan Ke looked at Su Yu: “Bring me away, I’ve killed someone, they will never let me go.”

Su Yu smiling face turned cold in an instant but quickly reverted back. He gently caressed Yan Ke’s head, and his eyes were so gentle that water almost came out of them: “Zi Gui, be good and give it to me. After I wipe out this tiny little Moon Kingdom, I will come to fetch you.”

Yan Ke: “At that point, are you coming to collect my ashes?”

Su Yu saw that Yan Ke was difficult to dupe again, he was annoyed and frowned: “Zi Gui, now is not the time for you to mess around!”

Yan Ke was unrelenting: “I killed someone, and they have even discovered that the city defence map was taken by me, I will definitely die. You must bring me away, if not, I will never give you the city defence map.”

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Author has something to say:

Tonight’s chapter was edited and amended for a long time before it could be considered as finished. TAT