HNYWEF -Chapter 158 The One Who Breaks the Deadlock

The meeting was over.

Zhangsun Wuji walked out last.

Ahead of him, the sound of Cheng Yaojin’s footsteps had already faded into the distance. Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng had turned past the corridor on opposite sides. He did not know when Qin Qiong had left; there was no sign of him anymore.

Zhangsun Wuji walked slowly.

One step at a time.

His boots landed heavily against the green bricks, producing dull thuds.

His mind was still turning over everything that had been said in the meeting just now.

Fang Xuanling had said that among the strange things Zhou Xiong spoke that day, one sentence was in the language of Dongying — asking for the time. The other two lines could not be identified, but the meaning was probably similar.

Wei Zheng had said they could not interfere. They could only let him recover on his own.

Li Shimin had said the entire meeting had been pointless.

And then everyone dispersed.

As Zhangsun Wuji thought about those words, another memory suddenly surfaced.

The first time he met Zhou Xiong.

The ninth day of the sixth month, ninth year of Wude.

That ruined house, after everything had finally settled into dust.

He had followed Li Shimin to that shabby hut outside the city.

At the time, he did not know who Zhou Xiong was. He had only heard that this man had saved the Prince of Qin’s life.

He had wanted to see him for himself.

To see what kind of person would dare open his door on a stormy night.

And what happened?

He had stood inside that broken house, looking at Zhou Xiong’s utterly expressionless face, looking into those hollow eyes.

Then the words came out.

“So you’re Zhou Xiong?”

“Do you even know who the Prince of Qin is?”

“What kind of attitude is this?”

Thinking back on those words now, even he himself found them inexplicable.

At the time, he believed he was defending Li Shimin’s dignity, defending the authority of the imperial family.

But later, Cheng Yaojin scolded him for it. Qin Qiong had also spoken against him. After returning home, he thought about it for a very long time, and eventually understood—

It was never about defending anything.

It was something else.

A feeling he could not explain.

As though…

He had lost something.

He did not know what he had lost.

But he knew that the moment he first saw Zhou Xiong in that ruined house, something surged up inside him, pressing against his chest, clogging his throat, refusing to come out unless spoken aloud. That was why his words had been so sharp, so unpleasant.

But now—

Zhangsun Wuji stopped walking.

He stood motionless in the middle of the corridor.

That feeling was gone.

Just now in the hall, listening to Fang Xuanling speak, listening to Wei Zheng speak, his thoughts had kept spinning and turning. But suddenly he realized that while thinking through everything, his heart felt empty.

That pressure was gone.

That suffocating blockage was gone.

Instead, there was a very light feeling.

As if something he had carried on his back for a very long time had suddenly been removed.

He did not know what it was.

But he knew it was gone.

Zhangsun Wuji stood there for a long time.

Then he raised his head and looked at the beams above the corridor.

They were painted vermilion, polished bright beneath the daylight.

He watched them quietly for a while.

Then he continued walking.

Even slower than before.

Step by step.

His thoughts began turning again.

Sun Simiao had said that man was a soul borrowing a corpse to return to life.

Sun Simiao had said they must not pry into his previous life.

Sun Simiao had said everything depended on himself alone.

But if nothing could be done, then what were people like them supposed to be?

He remembered the expression on Li Shimin’s face just now.

Helpless.

Exhausted.

Suddenly, Zhangsun Wuji felt as though something inside him was stirring.

Not that suffocating feeling from before.

Something else.

And faintly, he felt that Heaven intended for him to do something.

To become that…

Person who breaks the deadlock?

But what deadlock?

Where should it even begin?

He had no clue at all.

Zhangsun Wuji stopped again.

Standing on the palace road, he looked toward the gate ahead.

The doors stood open, sunlight pouring in from outside, dazzlingly bright.

He watched for a while.

Then he continued forward.

Out through the palace gates.

Onto the streets.

The street was crowded with people coming and going — peddlers carrying shoulder poles, carts being pushed along, parents leading children by the hand. They passed by him one after another as he walked slowly behind them.

He was not in a hurry.

He simply walked.

That thought still turning in his head.

The one who breaks the deadlock.

But how?

He did not know.

All he could do was carry that question with him, walking step by step forward.

Toward his Duke of Qi residence.

The sunlight shone warmly upon him.

He did not notice it.

He simply kept walking.

Walking the entire way, thinking the entire way.

Without understanding anything at all.