Creak!0

The gate to the shanty district swung open, letting out a stale, musty draft. Xue Ning remained in the carriage outside. Li Yuan helped Yan Yu step over the threshold and into the small home where Bear and Feng’er had once briefly stayed.0

Inside, everything was tidied up and spotless. A few patched garments, neatly folded, still sat in the wardrobe. Out in the courtyard corner stood a little flower bed bordered by smooth pebbles, with a single, unrecognizable sapling planted in the soil.0

Yan Yu murmured, “Feng’er wanted to live here for a long time.”0

Li Yuan thought back. “I haven’t seen her since she and Bear left. The Fragrant General’s people departed in two groups. I followed the first, so I didn’t see the second. Bear left later, so maybe he helped her settle down somewhere.”0

After saying that, another possibility, much darker and more unpleasant, flashed through his mind. 0

Li Yuan quickly pushed it aside, not wanting to speak of such matters when his wife was with child.0

But Yan Yu was too perceptive not to sense his worries. She said nothing, merely wandered through the rooms. In front of a polished bronze mirror, she picked up a wooden comb still entangled with a strand of long hair and...0