Chapter 880

The tofu pudding stall owner did not escape.

The alley beyond the academy's southern wall was narrow and winding, and he had planned it well — two turns and a hidden doorway, a change of outer robe, a different face for the busy street beyond.

What he had not planned for was that Wang Xuan's secret guards knew Qingzhou City better than he did.

They had been stationed here for years. They knew every alley, every shortcut, every dead end that looked like a passage but wasn't.

He was caught three streets from the academy, pressed against a wall with a blade at his throat before he had finished changing his robe.

He was brought back to the security bureau in restraints, his expression closed and flat — the face of a man who had known this was a possible outcome and had made his peace with it.

Wang Xuan sat across from him in the interrogation room and studied him for a long moment.

"Six years," Wang Xuan said.

The man said nothing.

"Six years selling tofu pudding in Qingzhou City. Establishing yourself. Becoming a familiar face. Building relationships with security bureau personnel." Wang Xuan laced his fingers together on the table. "That is patient work. The Prince of Chu chose well when he sent you."

Still nothing.

"The other two from the garden have already talked," Wang Xuan said. This was not entirely true, but it was close enough. "The escape route, the contact points in the south, the receiving party waiting beyond the city boundary — we have most of it. What I want from you is the rest."

The man looked at the table.

Wang Xuan waited.

After a long silence, the man said, "I have a family."

"I know," Wang Xuan said. "That is why we are having this conversation rather than a different kind."

Another silence. Shorter this time.

Then the man began to talk.

Outside the interrogation room, Di Ying stood in the corridor.

He had submitted his written confession to Wang Xuan's adjutant an hour ago — a full account, nothing omitted. The weight of it had not lifted exactly, but it had changed in character. It no longer felt like something coiled inside him waiting to destroy him. It felt like something that had already happened and could not be undended.

Wang Xuan emerged from the interrogation room, closing the door quietly behind him.

He stood beside Di Ying for a moment without speaking. Outside the narrow window at the end of the corridor, the morning had fully arrived — the city noise had resumed, the emergency having passed without the chaos that could have come.

"The students?" Di Ying asked.

"Detained for questioning. Most of them are frightened children who were told they were being sent to better opportunities in the south. They knew very little." Wang Xuan paused. "A few knew more. Those will be handled separately."

Di Ying nodded.

"Di Ying." Wang Xuan turned to look at him directly. "What I told you this morning — about His Majesty's intentions regarding your reinstatement."

"Was it true?" Di Ying asked. His voice was steady.

"It was true when I said it." Wang Xuan held his gaze. "Whether it remains true after today's report reaches Jinling Province — that is no longer in my hands."

Di Ying looked at the window.

"I understand," he said.

He did understand. He had made his choice this morning — not to cover his tracks, not to run, not to find some middle path that preserved his position while betraying his oath. He had made the only choice that left him able to look at himself.

Whatever came after that was simply consequence.

"The southern operation," Di Ying said after a moment. "Lu Fei's campaign. If there is any way that my information about the Prince of Chu's network in Qingzhou can be of use to the army's efforts—"

"I'll see that it reaches the right hands," Wang Xuan said.

He said nothing more. But he did not walk away immediately.

They stood together in the narrow corridor for a moment — two men who had known each other since before either of them had commanded anything — and then Wang Xuan straightened his coat and walked toward the main hall.

Di Ying watched him go.

Then he turned back to the window and waited for whatever came next.