Zhou Mu climbed back to the capital from the mountain of corpses at the Border Pass, carrying only one sentence: "It is an imperial decree that anyone who is falsely accused against a deceased person shall pay for his life with his life." But when he knelt outside the Meridian Gate in public and held out the secret letter that betrayed the entire army, the civil and military officials in the court burst into laughter - because the signature on the letter was the deposed prince who died of illness three months ago. At the moment when trust collapsed, Zhou Mu saw Shen Zhao gesturing to him in the crowd.
