Official Ma paced around in his office, obviously conflicted. His original plan to convict and execute Wang Jingyuan on the basis of unreasonably murdering fellow martial artists had been disrupted with the appearance of the men in black. A nice alternative was to let her get killed by those masked men. However, he did not expect them to try and kill him too, and Official Ma did not want to die so soon. The only way for him to live was to have Wang Jingyuan protect him, and so she escaped death once more.
But now what? He no longer could convict Wang Jingyuan of murder, which meant he needed another way to kill her. However, there was not much he could do because he was still just a lowly local magistrate. Plus, she had saved his life, and Official Ma's conscience protested against taking her life for no other reason besides the fact that the Fourth Prince wanted her dead.
