Li Shi was even more surprised upon hearing this.

Ren Yaoqi was different from Ren Yaohua – she had never won Old Madam Ren’s favor since childhood, so she disliked going to Ronghua Garden the most.

Usually, aside from morning and evening greetings, she would avoid going there if she could.

Ren Yaoqi knew what Li Shi was thinking: “I happen to be looking for Fourth Sister anyway, so I’m just taking a quick look while I’m there. Mother needn’t worry.”

Seeing her insistence, Li Shi couldn’t say more, only asking Ren Yaohua: “Hua’er, why don’t you go along and take a look too?”

In the past, Li Shi would never have said such words, but recently, the relationship between the two sisters Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua, had somewhat improved, which Li Shi and several close people around her had witnessed.

“No need. I’ll just go and come right back. Let Third Sister stay here to keep you company.” Ren Yaoqi said while heading outside.

With matters on her mind, she walked hurriedly forward with her maids the entire way. After rounding the winding corridor, just as she was about to turn through the garden, she heard the voices of several men in conversation carried over by the wind. At the same time, she heard the “crunching” sounds of several pairs of boots stepping on snow getting closer.

“Didn’t Third Uncle bring us to the garden saying he wanted to personally collect snow from the plum blossom trees to brew tea? The household has planted several plum trees, but not a single branch has bloomed… cough cough” A young man’s voice complained dissatisfiedly.

“Miscalculation! Miscalculation! But Yijun, it’s not that Third Uncle is criticizing you, but you should come out and walk around more. Always staying cooped up in your room will make you sick even if you aren’t already… cough cough” Ren Shimin said leisurely.

“Third Master, didn’t you see Third Young Master coughing again just now? This is bad, this is bad! He must have caught a cold from the wind. When we return, First Madam will surely skin me alive! Young Master, since there are no plum blossoms, let’s go back. You must take care of your health!” A voice with a crying tone said urgently.

“So nagging! When did it become your place to control where the young master goes? Give me… cough cough.” The young man spoke irritably but was interrupted by coughing again.

“Young Master—”

Hearing this, Ren Yaoqi understood that her father and Third Cousin were currently in the garden.

Third Cousin Ren Yijun was the Second Master’s second son, born with constitutional deficiencies. A fortune teller had once predicted he wouldn’t live past ten years old. Over the years, First Madam had searched everywhere for body-strengthening remedies, preparing tonifying soups for him daily. His three meals consisted only of medicinal cuisine – one could say this cousin had grown up soaking in medicine jars.

Now Ren Yijun was sixteen years old. Though constantly plagued by minor ailments, he was still living quite well.

Thinking that it was her father who had lured this cousin, who rarely left home, outside and made him endure the cold wind in the snow, Ren Yaoqi couldn’t help but feel a headache coming on. If Ren Yijun caught a cold from this, First Madam would blame her father again.

Because of his poor health, Ren Yijun was always confined to his courtyard and rarely went out. Combined with everyone in the family from Old Madam down to his brothers and sisters indulging and accommodating him, he had developed a somewhat strange and solitary temperament. His relationships with his peers, including his legitimate older brother, were all distant. Only with his Third Uncle, Ren Shimin, did he get along particularly well.

Ren Yaoqi remembered that in her previous life, she too had disliked this Third Brother, who was always gloomy and never smiled.

Until later, after Father died and the Ren family dared not bring his body back home.

Under the scorching sun of June, she knelt in the courtyard of Ronghua Garden, crying and begging Old Master Ren and Old Madam Ren to collect Father’s body. She nearly fainted from heatstroke, but couldn’t get the slightest reaction from those inside.

It was then that Ren Yijun came over, leaning on his walking stick with a gloomy expression, pulled her up, and dragged her away.

In a daze, stumbling, she was pulled by him to the Ren family’s “Sansheng Hall” – the place where the ancestral tablets were enshrined, the Ren family ancestral hall.

“What use is your crying? Their hearts are cold, and their blood is cold too. You should do this instead.” With those words, Ren Yijun raised the walking stick in his hand and swept more than ten tablets from the offering table to the ground.

She was so frightened she went completely numb, watching helplessly as he threw down his walking stick and began madly trampling on the tablets on the ground, cursing as he did: “Receiving our offerings yet allowing descendants to suffer, indulging those despicable people in the Ren family to mistreat us – it’s better if such incense offerings are cut off!”

Infected by his frenzied, unrestrained appearance, thinking of her father’s cause of death, hatred surged in her heart. She crawled up, picked up the tablets from the ground, and smashed them hard against the wall one by one.

When other Ren family members arrived after hearing the commotion, only scattered wooden fragments remained on the ground. They had smashed every single ancestral tablet.

Old Master Ren nearly fainted from anger. First Master stepped forward and slapped Ren Yijun, knocking him to the ground, while First Madam collapsed in fright.

But he only laughed coldly as he surveyed everyone: “I smashed them all! Whatever family punishments there are, bring them all to me! After all, the Ren family lives aren’t worth much anyway!”

That was the first time she realized this Third Brother, who had been treated like a porcelain doll since childhood, wasn’t as fragile and vulnerable as they had all imagined.

Ren Yaoqi turned and walked back, intending to persuade her father and Ren Yijun to return, when she heard an unfamiliar young man’s voice.

“Without rootless water from plum blossoms, brewing tea with spring water is also excellent. I happen to have a jar of newly transported Huiquan spring water. Why don’t I have someone go back and fetch it now?”

Ren Yaoqi paused in her steps. She looked through the branches and leaves of several pittosporum bushes toward the garden, where a young man of about fifteen or sixteen was walking alongside Ren Shimin and Ren Yijun. She wasn’t very close, and trees were blocking her view, so she couldn’t see the young man’s features. She only knew he was tall and slender, with a bearing like a jade tree in the wind. Unlike Ren Shimin’s free-spirited transcendence in wide sleeves and flowing robes, he possessed a restraint and steadiness extremely rare in young people.

Ren Yaoqi roughly guessed his identity.

At this moment, footsteps sounded behind her. Turning back, Ren Yaoqi saw Ren Yaohua walking along the corridor. Seeing her standing at the garden entrance, neither entering nor leaving, Ren Yaohua frowned as she looked over.

Over there, Ren Shimin was suggesting they go to the warm pavilion in the center of the garden to drink tea and play chess. Ren Yaoqi turned back again.

“What are you standing there for?” Ren Yaohua glanced toward the garden, obviously having heard voices from within as well.

Ren Yaoqi smiled at her: “Nothing much. I just thought I heard Father’s and Third Brother’s voices. I originally wanted to go over and greet them, but I discovered there were strangers with them. I’d better not go over.”

Ren Yaohua asked no more questions and led the way toward Ronghua Garden. Ren Yaohua glanced once more toward the garden before following behind Ren Yaohua.

In Ronghua Garden, Old Madam Ren’s main room was lively. When Ren Yaohua and Ren Yaoqi entered, they saw that besides Old Madam Ren, Ren Yaoyin, and Ren Yaoyu, there was also a woman of about thirty and a girl of eleven or twelve.

The woman had delicate features but an unhealthy waxy yellow complexion, as if she were ill.

The girl sitting beside her resembled her in appearance, except her eyes weren’t large like the woman’s, but were slanted with single eyelids. Her complexion was extremely good – fair and translucent, making her lips naturally red without rouge.

They say fair skin covers all flaws, and she wasn’t ugly to begin with, so she appeared quite spirited and lovely.

“Why have you come over?” Old Madam Ren was somewhat surprised to see Ren Yaohua and Ren Yaoqi enter.

“I came to find Fourth Sister.” Ren Yaohua smiled as she walked over to pay respects to Old Madam Ren.

Hearing this, Old Madam Ren asked no more questions. As for why Ren Yaoqi had come, she cared even less.

“These are Third Son’s two daughters,” Old Madam Ren said to Madam Han, then instructed the two sisters: “This is Madam Han and Miss Han. You haven’t met before, so go pay your respects.”

Ren Yaohua and Ren Yaoqi stepped forward to greet the Han family mother and daughter.

“I’ve heard Great Aunt Xiao mention that the Ren family’s young ladies are all outstanding. Seeing you today proves it’s true.” Madam Han smiled as she took one hand of each girl, pulling them up while looking them over appreciatively.

Great Aunt Xiao was the type with wide connections who knew how to handle affairs. When mentioning her various patrons to others, she always spoke only good words and never bad ones. Old Madam Ren smiled: “It’s Miss Han who has the bearing of a great family’s daughter.”