Watching those three people leave, Ren Yaoqi also turned to return to her room.

On the way, she couldn’t help but recall the appearance of that young man she had seen earlier.

Because of Dongsheng’s matter, she could roughly confirm that he was indeed the second young master of the Xiao family.

Other things were temporarily impossible to verify, but based on appearance and temperament alone, he was truly an exceptionally outstanding person.

She wondered whether Xiao Jingxi could truly successfully implement her strategy. If things developed as she hoped, she didn’t know whether Zeng Pu would still be dispatched by the court to Yan Bei.

Thinking this way, Ren Yaoqi entered the room she shared with Ren Yaohua. She was about to hear Xiangqin and Wujing standing not far from the entrance whispering to each other. Seeing Ren Yaoqi enter, both quickly bowed.

Ren Yaoqi smiled and said, “What are you discussing so animatedly? Where is Third Sister?”

Xiangqin had now become familiar with Ren Yaoqi and felt she was an easy-going, good-tempered master, so she wasn’t very afraid of her anymore: “Third Miss found the room stuffy and went to ask the eldest young madam for embroidery patterns, leaving us two servants to tidy the bedding. Third Miss disliked the camphor smell in the bedding prepared by the manor, so she asked us to replace it with the bedding from our carriage.”

As she spoke, she moved closer and said in a low voice, “We servants were discussing the matter at White Cloud Nunnery. Fifth Miss, I heard that man was caught this afternoon.”

Ren Yaoqi was slightly startled. The man Xiangqin mentioned should refer to the lover of that nun at White Cloud Nunnery, but Li Tianyou should still be safely staying in the small courtyard at the foot of the mountain.

Wujing’s face reddened, and she pinched the soft flesh at Xiangqin’s waist: “How can you speak of such things to Fifth Miss? Aren’t you afraid of soiling Miss’s ears! If Nanny Zhou knew about this, she’d skin you alive!”

Xiangqin cried out and immediately hid behind Ren Yaoqi: “Fifth Miss asked, didn’t she? I can’t lie! Besides, there’s no one else here – how would Nanny Zhou know? If she found out, it would be because you tattled!”

Wujing was about to scold her more when Ren Yaoqi laughed and said, “Forget it. Xiangqin just has a monkey’s nature – don’t stoop to her level.”

“Fifth Miss, you just keep protecting her!” Wujing stamped her foot, glared at Xiangqin, and ran off.

Xiangqin made a face at her retreating figure, then, seeing Ren Yaoqi looking over, quickly smiled ingratiatingly.

Seeing her antics, Ren Yaoqi couldn’t help but smile slightly.

“What person was caught?” After thinking, Ren Yaoqi still asked. After all, it was related to Li Tianyou.

Seeing her ask, Xiangqin hurriedly said, “I heard it was a tenant farmer who emptied the waste at White Cloud Nunnery every day, living at the foot of the mountain. He was bound hand and foot and brought up by a clan uncle from that nun’s former husband’s family, causing quite a commotion at White Cloud Nunnery. However, this servant heard from a woman in the neighboring guest courtyard who went to watch the excitement that the nun was fair-skinned with a graceful bearing, quite a rare beauty. But that tenant farmer was already in his forties, with a face full of wrinkles and ugly. Though the nun was a religious person, she was quite fierce, cursing her husband’s relatives until they were thoroughly humiliated, then driving them out with a stick. Those relatives then refused to leave, camping in a small courtyard near White Cloud Temple, saying if White Cloud Temple didn’t give them an explanation, they’d have someone report to the authorities tomorrow. Because of the rain, things quieted down temporarily over there, but tomorrow will surely be another commotion.”

Hearing that Li Tianyou wasn’t implicated, Ren Yaoqi temporarily felt relieved. Thinking of the behavior of those women who had been searching throughout the temple earlier, the tenant farmer was caught temporarily to frame the nun.

In her heart, she thought that before leaving tomorrow, she must make Li Tianyou leave this place, lest he get confused and dragged into other people’s property disputes.

People die for wealth, birds die for food. In this world, some people would do any filthy, immoral thing for those gold and silver objects.

That night, Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua slept in the same bed.

Both sisters felt somewhat unaccustomed to it. In the first half of the night, Ren Yaoqi kept feeling Ren Yaohua, who was sleeping on the outer side of the bed, tossing and turning.

She also felt somewhat unaccustomed to sleeping with someone else, but she was lying there with many things on her mind, so she ignored this discomfort. Eventually, she drowsily fell asleep.

When she got up the next day, Ren Yaoqi noticed some dark circles under Ren Yaohua’s eyes.

After finishing breakfast, when the two went out, Ren Yaoqi saw her yawn and asked with a smile, “Third Sister didn’t sleep well last night?”

Ren Yaohua turned to look at her good spirits and glared at her somewhat gloomily: “You slept well enough – you snored all night long. How could I sleep!”

Ren Yaoqi was stunned. She didn’t remember having a habit of snoring – wasn’t this slander?

Just as she was about to retort, she heard someone behind them say, “Who snored all night long?”

The two turned around and saw Ren Yaoyu and Ren Yaoyin also coming out from next door, looking at them with interest.

Ren Yaohua paused, pressed her lips together, and pointed to Xiangqin beside her, saying quietly, “I was talking about this maid. Usually, she’s fine, but when she changes places, she loves to snore.”

Xiangqin looked at her master and silently lowered her head to look at her feet.

No wonder when she first entered the manor, Nanny Zhou had taught them rules saying: Masters have no faults or shortcomings, and if they do, it’s the fault of us maids.

Xiangqin once again felt that being a maid was truly not an easy job.

Wujing looked at Xiangqin’s dejected appearance and chuckled to the side.

This morning, the rain had already stopped. After being washed by the rain, the sky was exceptionally clear, tinged slightly with morning light, as if heaven and earth had also changed their aspect, becoming pure and clean.

The sisters went to the eldest madam’s place to wait and hear her arrangements for departing and returning to the manor today, but they saw a woman running over hurriedly, seemingly wanting to report something to the eldest madam.

Seeing her hurried appearance, Ren Yaoyu was somewhat curious and called out loudly to stop her: “You, come here for a moment.”

Ren Yaoyin recognized her as a second-class woman from her mother’s courtyard and said kindly to Ren Yaoyu, “She must have urgent business to report. Why are you stopping her? Let her go.”

Ren Yaoyu pursed her lips: “Away from home like this, what urgent business could there be? Nothing more than today’s itinerary. I’ll ask first so I can be prepared, right?”

Saying this, she ignored Ren Yaoyin and insisted that the woman explain what had happened.

The woman stammered: “There’s been some trouble at that White Cloud Nunnery outside, quite a commotion. This servant was afraid it might delay today’s return to the manor, so I came to ask the eldest madam.”

Ren Yaoyu became even more curious: “What exactly happened?”

The woman became even more troubled and refused to speak. Instead, Ren Yaoyin suddenly interrupted Ren Yaoyu’s persistent questioning, saying coldly to the woman, “Then what are you dawdling here for? Hurry up and report it.”

The woman felt as if she’d received a great pardon and quickly left.

Ren Yaoyu said dissatisfiedly, “I haven’t finished asking! You… do you know what happened?” Ren Yaoyu asked somewhat suspiciously.

The embarrassment on Ren Yaoyin’s face flashed and quickly passed. Soon she said seriously, “Eighth Sister, since she’s going to report to an elder, perhaps there are some things we shouldn’t hear. Why must you make things difficult for her?”

Ren Yaoyu snorted lightly but turned away from Ren Yaoyin and hurried toward the main room, muttering as she walked, “The more you hide it from me, the more I want to hear what it is.”

“Eighth Sister!” Ren Yaoyin frowned and followed.

Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua exchanged glances and also followed.

When they reached the entrance, they happened to hear the eldest madam’s somewhat displeased voice: “How could such filthy matters occur in this pure Buddhist sanctuary? It’s simply—”

Upon hearing the maid at the entrance report that several young misses had arrived, the eldest madam’s voice stopped abruptly. She only said to Nanny Cao behind her, “Go ask the monk Yuanjing at the temple. Since it’s in White Dragon Temple’s territory, have them send people to handle it. We’ll wait until the commotion outside dies down before leaving. Pass the word down – no one in the courtyard is allowed to go out and gather information. Anyone found to be curious about the excitement will be sold off immediately.”

Ren Yaoqi couldn’t help but frown. What trouble had occurred at White Dragon Temple again? Li Tianyou wouldn’t be implicated, would he?

Although the eldest madam didn’t want the Ren family people to get involved in such matters, she couldn’t stop the curiosity of the servants and maids.

So after Ren Yaoqi came out from the eldest madam’s place, she heard the whole story from Xiangqin.

It turned out that several relatives from the deceased husband’s family of the nun surnamed Liang had been camping in a courtyard not far from White Cloud Nunnery, refusing to leave. Unexpectedly, this morning, they discovered that an aunt from Nun Liang’s husband’s family and the tenant farmer who was previously said to be Nun Liang’s lover were found completely naked, embracing each other, dead in a woodpile outside.

Now that the aunt from Nun Liang’s family was crying and seeking death, the whole family was in chaos, and they no longer had the heart to trouble Nun Liang.

However, some people also said this nun was ruthless and vicious, capable of doing such immoral things.

Ren Yaoqi hurriedly sent a woman to check if Li Tianyou had left the place where he was staying at the foot of the mountain. The woman returned, saying the maternal uncle’s party had just left not long ago.

Ren Yaoqi then felt relieved.

The Ren family left White Dragon Temple close to noon. Ren Yaoqi sat in the carriage listening to Ren Yijian outside asking Qiu Yun about yesterday’s visit to Second Young Master Xiao.

Perhaps because they had braved the rain to pay their respects yesterday, Xiao Jingxi, unable to refuse their earnest gesture, had actually received them once and even played a game of chess with Ren Junyí.

Xiao Jingxi was very gentle as a person, but his chess style was extremely sharp, defeating Ren Junyí completely. However, Ren Junyí had an excellent impression of Xiao Jingxi because of this.