As April drew to a close, the crab apple blossoms outside the entrance were already fading, their pink buds gradually transforming into light pink flower clouds, with petals scattered across the stone steps. The lotus flowers, however, had just begun to bloom, with white and pink blossoms spreading across the lake.

From the flower pavilion in Qingtong Court, one could see the fading crab apple blossoms, like accumulated snow.

Inside the pavilion, a thin bamboo curtain had been set up, behind which a newly invited master was teaching Jin Chao the art of the qin.

A few days ago, her father had acquired a hundred-year-old red sandalwood qin made of old fir from his colleague Liu Bing Hu, an Assistant Minister of Revenue. Not knowing much about qin artistry himself, he sent it to Jin Chao with a servant and hired a famous master to teach her. These days, her father loved sending her nice things, and Jin Chao understood it was because he felt guilty. She said nothing and accepted everything.

Jin Chao’s previous qin master was an old gentleman known as Zi Xu, who had retired to his hometown before Jin Chao had come of age. The new master her father hired was only thirty years old, one of the inheritors of the Yushan School, known as Wang Xi.

This Master Wang Xi was indeed quite skilled at the qin, but he was extremely particular about propriety between men and women. When teaching Jin Chao, he insisted on having servants draw a curtain between them. Even when Jin Chao played incorrectly, he never came over to correct her fingering.

Jin Chao began learning the qin after returning to the Gu family at the age of ten and studied for three years. Children younger than that couldn’t learn the qin—their hands weren’t strong enough. Pressing the strings too lightly produced no sound while pressing too hard made the fingers sore. Only after calluses formed at the pressing points would the pain cease. Jin Chao hadn’t practiced the qin for over a year, and the calluses on her hands had long disappeared. The first time she played before Master Wang Xi, her fingers became painfully raw after playing for a while, and her performance was halting.

Master Wang Xi was quite displeased after listening and mumbled softly, “Wasn’t she supposed to have studied with Master Zi Xu…”

Jin Chao heard this and pressed her lips together slightly. Master Zi Xu was renowned throughout Yanking, and Program Wang Xi thought she had brought shame to the old master.

During today’s lesson, Master Wang Xi played “Pu’an Incantation” once, and after listening to Jin Chao play it back, he couldn’t help but criticize her: “I already played it once yesterday, how are you still so unfamiliar with it? You were taught by Master Zi Xu, how can you play so poorly…”

Jin Chao could hear his impatience. She wondered how her father had managed to invite this person; he had no patience for teaching her. Although he had played it once yesterday, with the bamboo curtain between them, she couldn’t see his fingering or string technique, so how could she possibly play it well?

She couldn’t help saying, “Master, why not lift the curtain? Since you’re teaching the art of qin, we naturally have a teacher-student relationship. There’s no need for such formality.”

Program Wang Xi strongly disagreed: “Never mind, I’ll play it once more. Listen carefully…”

Jin Chao said nothing more.

As the master was leaving, Jin Chao looked from one end of the curtain and only saw that his hair was arranged in a Daoist bun, wearing a blue straight robe, departing Qingtong Court with his qin apprentice.

She asked Cai Fu to put away the qin, feeling somewhat annoyed.

Qing Pu came over with a black lacquer tray: “Miss, the weather is getting warmer. Have some sour plum soup to cool your temper.”

She also took a finger-sized paper roll from her sleeve and handed it to Jin Chao: “This morning, the servant saw a pigeon land on a crab apple branch. Upon closer inspection, I discovered something tied to its leg. When it saw me, it flew down, and after I took the message, it flew away.”

Jin Chao was puzzled. Carrier pigeons were commonly used by those who roamed the jianghu; why would one come to her?

She took the paper roll and saw it was sealed with red wax stamped with the character “Ye.”

Ye… could it be from Ye Xian?

Jin Chao remembered that the Marquis of Changxing had suppressed bandits in Sichuan in his early years and recruited various people into his army. Some became the Marquis’s guards, while others later achieved merit in battle and were enfeoffed as marquises or appointed as ministers. These people later served Ye Xian and had once night-raided the Chen family, leaving three-pronged hook marks on the Chen family compound walls.

If Ye Xian was sending her a message this way, could something have happened to Master Xiao?

After entering her inner chamber, Jin Chao had Qing Pu close the door before carefully opening the paper roll. It was indeed from Ye Xian. Jin Chao thought he had urgent matters, but the beginning just talked about how his turtle had bitten his koi fish and how his lark had laid a nest of light green eggs—trivial matters filling the small paper densely. Jin Chao couldn’t help but smile as she read.

Only at the end did Ye Xian mention that Master Xiao had been delayed and would arrive in half a month. He also said that after hearing about Jin Chao’s mother’s illness, Master Xiao had sent him a letter saying the illness was caused by physical weakness and long-term depression, and shouldn’t have been so recurrent. He suggested they pay attention to anything unusual.

Qing Pu had already lit a candle stand nearby, and after reading the note, Jin Chao burned it with the candle flame.

In her previous life, when her mother died, she had coughed up blood profusely, soaking her clothes with blood—a terrifying sight. But at that time, she had never suspected anyone might have tampered with her mother’s illness. After hearing Master Xiao’s words, her mother’s illness did seem suspicious…

But Nurse Xu had grown up serving her maternal grandmother. If someone had been poisoning her mother, how could it have escaped her notice?

Jin Chao thought for a moment, then said to Qing Pu: “Go find Madam Tong and ask her to invite Doctor Liu here. Tell her I want to prescribe another tonic for my mother.”

Qing Pu accepted the order and left. Jin Chao walked outside to bask in the sunshine. Bao Pu was lying on the roof across from her, swishing its fluffy tail as it watched her. It had grown to be like a ball of fluff, and a few days ago, it had even caught a mouse from the side room, whiskers and all.

Bao Pu seemed to be getting drowsy in the sun. It stood up, stretched lazily, jumped to the nearby locust tree, and slid down to go to its nest for a nap.

Jin Chao found this amusing; the cat was lazy and unsociable, very reclusive.

As she watched the cat, she saw Yu Zhu running in from outside. Bai Yun was about to say something to her, but Yu Zhu ran up to Jin Chao and suddenly knelt, her eyes watery as if she was about to cry: “Miss, please save Xiu Qu!”

Jin Chao saw that Yu Zhu was holding a black lacquer box—the candy she had given to Yu Zhu.

“What’s happening? Stand up and speak.”

Hearing Jin Chao’s gentle tone, Yu Zhu felt even more distressed. She wiped her eyes and said: “I went to find Xiu Qu today, wanting to bring her a box of candy too… but Xiu Qu is no longer with Concubine Song. The cleaning maid told me that Xiu Qu had gone home to visit relatives…”

Jin Chao frowned and asked: “If she’s just visiting relatives, why are you so upset?”

Yu Zhu continued chokingly: “You don’t understand, Miss. Xiu Qu’s hometown is in Taiping Prefecture in Anhui. How could she possibly go home to visit? Concubine Song must have found out that she leaked information and wants to punish her. I’ve brought this upon her… she didn’t want to tell originally, it’s my fault… “

Jin Chao had Bai Yun help her up: “This can’t be entirely your fault. You didn’t know it would turn out like this. Don’t blame yourself anymore.”

Yu Zhu pulled at her sleeve, still unable to stop her tears: “Miss, you must help her. Xiu Qu is a good person.”

Jin Chao nodded: “She is suffering because of me. Stand up first. I won’t ignore this matter.”

Only then did Yu Zhu stand up. She trusted the young miss the most. If the miss said she would help, she definitely would.

Jin Chao, however, was uncertain. If Concubine Song wanted to punish Xiu Qu, she could have sent her to work in the outer kitchen or the stables—the most grueling tasks. But to make someone disappear so quietly—that was like wanting to silence her permanently!

Concubine Song was so ruthless! And who knew how many days had passed since this happened? If too much time had passed, the person might already be dead.

She wanted to call for Madam Tong, then remembered she had already sent her to find Doctor Liu. She changed her clothes and went to her mother’s place with Bai Yun and Cai Fu. It was already past noon, and her mother had woken from her midday nap. She couldn’t sleep at night but could rest a bit during the day.

“Come sit. I just stewed a pot of wolfberry, red date, and white fungus soup. Have some…” Ji Shi smiled, asking her to sit, and had Nurse Xu serve her a bowl. Jin Chao took a sip but found it somewhat bitter, and couldn’t help asking, “Why is mother’s white fungus soup bitter?”

Ji Shi smiled: “I added some medicinal herbs to brew together. I know you prefer sweet things… but you should drink some bitter things too, it’s better than taking medicine.”

Jin Chao disliked bitter foods; she wouldn’t even eat bitter gourd in summer. She put down the soup and paid no more attention. She said to her mother: “I came to ask Nurse Xu about something. You keep drinking.” Then she asked Nurse Xu to come outside with her.

Ji Shi shook her head helplessly and drank Jin Chao’s portion as well.

On the veranda, Nurse Xu smiled and asked: “What does the young miss wish to ask this servant?”

Jin Chao thought for a moment before saying: “I suspect someone might be interfering with my mother’s illness. Do you personally handle all of my mother’s food?”

Nurse Xu nodded: “Otherwise, it’s the young ladies Mo Yu and Mo Xue watching personally. Even when brewing medicine, it’s the same. There’s no possibility of anyone tampering. If the young miss is suspicious, I can thoroughly investigate everyone in Xie Xiao Garden. Besides food, incense burners daily bowls, and chopsticks could also be tampered with. When I was at the Ji family earlier, the Old Master’s two concubines were jealous of each other. One of them applied medicine to the other’s bowl, causing the other concubine to miscarry. It’s truly difficult to guard against everything.”

Jin Chao nodded. She was just suspicious, after all, her mother’s condition hadn’t worsened again… but it was always good to be cautious.

“There’s one more thing I want to ask Nurse Xu. If a maid committed an offense and her mistress wanted her to die quietly, how would it be handled?” Jin Chao lowered her voice.

Nurse Xu didn’t hesitate: “The usual way is to find a room and smother the person to death. More cruelly, they might gag them and beat them to death—all without alarming others. The beating wouldn’t kill immediately; the person would be tortured to death by pain and hunger after several days.”

Jin Chao pondered this for a while before asking: “Mother has a group of guards she brought from the Ji family. Could Nurse Xu lend them to me?”

Nurse Xu smiled: “Of course. I can bring them to you shortly.”

She neither questioned nor doubted—Nurse Xu was indeed the person her maternal grandmother had given to her mother.