Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Did Someone Bless Your Brain?

Xie Yu Chuan’s sudden silence had Tu Hua pacing like a caged cat.

The system tried for calm. “Ward has no immediate threat to life.”

“That’s not comforting,” Tu Hua muttered. “Torture is torture. And he’s still running a fever.”

She waited through the afternoon.

Then through the evening.

She even tried sending food and water down to the Xie family, but without the link to Xie Yu Chuan, the remote feeding function might as well have been a decorative button.

Finally, a little after five, her phone chimed.

A new message.

“Xie Yu Chuan: Household God… are you still there?”

Tu Hua exhaled so hard she nearly laughed. “I’m here. How are you?”

In the imperial prison, Xie Yu Chuan’s shoulders sagged with relief at the sound of her voice.

The deity hadn’t abandoned him.

“Xie Yu Chuan: Much better. The medicine you gave is truly miraculous.”

Tu Hua didn’t buy that for a second. “Why did you get tortured again?”

He went still. Then, as if realizing how ridiculous the question sounded to a man in chains, he typed carefully, “Household God… how do you know Yu Heng was punished?”

A soft laugh touched his ear, and heat crept up the back of his neck.

He didn’t want to drag her through the filth of court games, so he kept it brief.

The emperor was afraid.

Afraid of the divine seat.

Afraid the Xie family had anything above him.

Even after the shrine was attacked, even after the “manifestation,” the sovereign still came to the prison to vent his rage and test him.

That meant the Xie family had leverage now.

But if the emperor wanted peace, he would demand certainty.

And certainty meant cutting off the Xie family’s last spiritual pillar.

Tu Hua listened, turning a mug of hot coffee between her hands. Her gaze drifted toward the divine seat downstairs.

Then she said, calm as if she were offering a grocery tip, “Have your family hand over the divine seat.”

In the imperial prison, Xie Yu Chuan’s mind blanked.

He typed so hard his fingers ached.

“Xie Yu Chuan: !!!”

Then, after a pause: “Xie Yu Chuan: …Household God, why would you say that?”

Tu Hua’s answer didn’t waver. “Objects are dead. People are alive. If they want it, let them take it.”

During the hours he’d been unconscious, she’d asked the system the only question that mattered.

If the divine seat was gone… would the link disappear?

The system’s reply had been blunt. “Host, the link is locked between you and the ward. It is unrelated to the divine seat.”

So why bleed for a piece of wood?

In the imperial prison, Xie Yu Chuan sat for a long time, staring at the dark.

Then he called the jailer.

Two hours later, a handwritten letter left the imperial prison and reached Protector Duke Manor.

Old Madam Xie read it, hesitated until her jaw went tight, then let out a long, weary sigh.

She gathered the family and led them to kneel before the divine seat one last time.

The letter’s meaning was hidden in coded phrasing outsiders wouldn’t understand.

And then the world moved.

In the thirteenth year of Qingyuan, at the turn of late autumn into early winter, Emperor Long Qing Xia Hou Jie studied the case in the imperial study for an entire day.

In the end, he scratched the Xie family off the autumn execution list.

Immediate execution became exile—three thousand li away.

Both sides took a step back.

The Xie family surrendered.

The Imperial Court—pointing to generations of military merit—declared mercy outside the law, a “chance to reform.”

Xie Yu Chuan didn’t fool himself. Xia Hou Jie wasn’t sparing them out of kindness. He was sparing them because he wanted control, and because a public massacre would have consequences.

Exile to a frozen wasteland could kill just as cleanly as a blade. A little “accident” on the road, and no one would be to blame.

Still, leaving the capital was the first win. Once they were out, he could plan the next move.

The Xie family was thrown into prison to await the day of departure.

Tu Hua sent Xie Yu Chuan a second batch of supplies—disinfectants and anti-inflammatories, enough to keep his wounds from rotting him alive.

He applied the medicine until sweat soaked his hairline.

Tu Hua recorded a short video of the Xie family’s last moments leaving the shrine and sent it to him. He later saw it through dreamwalking, and even after waking, the shock wouldn’t leave his bones.

At midday, Tu Hua boiled noodles in her kitchen like this was a normal Tuesday.

“If your sentence is exile now, why aren’t they letting you leave the capital?”

Xie Yu Chuan sounded as if he’d expected it. “They’re observing.”

“Observing what?”

“They doubt we handed over everything,” he said. “Even if the divine seat is gone, the sovereign won’t believe it until he’s sure. He’ll watch to see if we still have the deity’s protection. Only when he’s convinced we have nothing left will he let us go.”

Tu Hua swallowed a mouthful of noodles and said, casual as if she were commenting on the weather, “Oh, right. This morning they tried to burn the shrine at Protector Duke Manor. I packed up your ancestors’ tablets first. When you’re settled, I’ll return them and you can set them up again somewhere safe.”

In her opinion, that was an efficient use of panic.

And honestly? She had the decree to thank.

The Xie bloodline had swung away from the brink, and the system had promptly rewarded her with ten more bloodline points. A starter gift pack had triggered, too, like the universe was handing out coupons for “prevented family extinction.”

She’d used one-click storage and tucked the tablets into her storage backpack.

Xie Yu Chuan’s gratitude came through even in the smallest words.

“Household God… your kindness is beyond repayment.”

In his heart, he was already planning what offerings might be worthy of a deity who delivered medicine through thin air.

Tu Hua didn’t know any of that. To her, it had been the obvious thing to do.

She nudged an egg in the boiling pot and said, “Your grandmother and mother are locked up now. Do you want me to send them food and water? I can’t do everything, but I can at least get them fed.”

The thought made her a little annoyed again.

After the Xie family was taken away, the system had let her choose a new location. She’d warned it repeatedly not to slap her entire house on top of a prison cell again.

When the first floor “returned to normal,” she’d run downstairs to check the fridge, absolutely thrilled—

And discovered the universe had a sense of humor.

Her fridge was still mostly eggs and beer.

Xie Yu Chuan paused, then asked quietly, “Do Grandmother, Mother, and the others face any threat to their lives?”

Tu Hua answered honestly, “Not that I can see. The jailers seem wary of your family. The food won’t be good, but they don’t dare do anything blatant.”

“Then please,” he said, voice firm despite the weakness in it, “watch and wait. Do not show yourself. Xia Hou Jie is suspicious by nature. Even after we hand over the divine seat, he may still not believe. He will observe until he is certain the Xie family has no deity left to rely on. Only then will he let us out of the capital.”

Tu Hua leaned back against her counter, glanced toward the stairs, and said, “All right.”

Putting on an act?

Yeah.

She could do that.