Bai Qingyan looked up and met Xiao Rongyan’s deep gaze, gently tightening her grip on the white glazed gold-traced teacup in her hand.

His eyes carried the faintest hint of amusement, calm and unperturbed, as if he hadn’t just spoken such surprising words.

Bai Qingyan lowered her gaze, the smile in her eyes deepening as her ears reddened. Steadying her mind and putting on a serious expression, she nodded: “Master Xiao is most thoughtful.”

“I heard the Emperor plans to send newly recruited soldiers to the southern frontier. Yan… congratulates the eldest miss on achieving her wishes.”

Bai Qingyan set down her teacup and likewise said to Xiao Rongyan: “I also congratulate Master Xiao on achieving your wishes.”

The new soldiers the Jin Emperor was sending would be trained by the Bai army and could potentially be used by the Bai army in the future!

And as long as Jin stationed troops at the Western Liang border, it would naturally resolve Great Yan’s crisis.

This time, both Bai Qingyan and Xiao Rongyan could benefit from this matter, truly mutual joy.

Xiao Rongyan sat beside Bai Qingyan, gazing at her delicate, pale features, his heart warming. The feeling of not seeing her for a day being like three autumns was not pleasant to endure.

These days, Great Yan’s affairs had occupied Xiao Rongyan, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to visit the Bai mansion daily. Sneaking into Bai Qingyan’s boudoir at night… he feared Bai Qingyan wouldn’t be able to explain to her mother. He had endured all these days, only now using the excuse of presenting birthday gifts to Bai Qingyan’s mother to visit and see her.

He felt that even just sitting together, drinking tea like this, brought him contentment and peace.

Xiao Rongyan had just taken a sip of tea when he saw Chun Tao gracefully enter from outside the main hall, walking around from behind the ebony gold-traced pillar to Bai Qingyan’s side, covering her lips with her hand and whispering in Bai Qingyan’s ear: “Second miss has sent word back—the messenger just arrived.”

Bai Qingyan nodded and looked toward Xiao Rongyan: “Master Xiao, please wait a moment. I’ll return shortly.”

“No hurry…” Xiao Rongyan said quietly.

Bai Qingyan, supported by Chun Tao’s hand, stepped out of the main hall. Walking to the corridor entrance, the black-clothed guard standing there immediately knelt on one knee, offering a letter with both hands: “Eldest miss!”

Bai Qingyan took the letter: “Thank you for your hard work. Go rest.”

After the black-clothed guard withdrew, Bai Qingyan opened the letter.

In the letter, Bai Jinxiu told Bai Qingyan about the progress of Prince Liang’s alchemy matter.

That day, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess went to Prince Liang’s mansion to visit him, only to discover that Prince Liang was indeed making elixirs in his mansion, using children’s fresh blood in the pills. The Crown Prince fainted from anger on the spot and was carried out by the Crown Prince’s guards.

The Crown Prince’s guards rescued those barely alive children from Prince Liang’s mansion, carrying them directly to medical halls in front of many citizens of the capital. The incident became huge, and even the Emperor could no longer protect Prince Liang.

Prince Liang was imprisoned and readily confessed to the alchemy matter in jail. He claimed he had been bewitched by that immortal master into using the fresh blood of boys and girls for alchemy. But Prince Liang was still clever—he said these children were bought from human traffickers, and Lu Jin even found the children’s indenture contracts in Prince Liang’s mansion.

Later, human traffickers came to testify that they had sold the children to Prince Liang, having bought them from others.

The case was quickly closed with overwhelming force. Prince Liang had the children’s contracts, and fortunately, these children were all still alive, just suffering from excessive blood loss.

Prince Liang violated ancestral teachings by privately making elixirs. The Emperor scolded him and ordered him to confine himself to his mansion for self-reflection.

At the censor’s request, Lord Lu nearly turned Prince Liang’s mansion upside down but found no missing children’s corpses. Instead, many corpses were found in the Wang family of Jiuqu Lane. When that woman saw her son’s mangled remains, she went mad.

Squire Wang left a confession and committed suicide with his entire family out of guilt. With no one left to testify and no way to defend themselves, the case was finally closed with Prince Liang suffering little consequence while the Wang family took the blame, leaving no survivors.

The children found alive in the Wang family of Jiuqu Lane were all sent back to their respective homes, and the Wang family’s property was confiscated.

The “playthings” rescued from young master Wang Kun were all sent to charity halls.

The Emperor originally wanted to investigate who had set fire to the Wang family in Jiuqu Lane, but later the Wang family burned too cleanly for anything to be discovered. The older rescued children said those people were about to kill them when the fire started.

Citizens discussed behind the scenes, saying the arsonist was acting for Heaven’s justice—otherwise, none of those children would have survived.

Bai Jinxiu felt uneasy. She had initially thought that with the Wang family of Jiuqu Lane burned and all Wang family members imprisoned, she withdrew the people watching the Wang family, not expecting others to exploit this gap and deliver the children’s corpses to the Wang family of Jiuqu Lane.

She also mentioned in passing that Bai Qingxuan, who had been sent to the Wang family of Jiuqu Lane, was also rescued. Probably because she couldn’t move while trapped in a jar, one side of her face had been burned, and she had a persistent high fever. The doctor treating her at the charity hall said whether she would survive depended entirely on Heaven’s will.

After reading the letter, Bai Qingyan stood under the corridor pondering carefully, strongly suspecting this matter… was the Emperor’s handiwork. The Emperor was protecting Prince Liang…

Prince Liang’s mansion was guarded by the Emperor’s secret guards, making it difficult for their people to approach without being discovered and alerting the enemy. Under the Emperor’s surveillance, Prince Liang naturally had to appear powerless, foolish, incompetent, and without anyone to use.

To deliver those children’s corpses to the Wang family of Jiuqu Lane under the noses of both the people Bai Jinxiu sent to monitor Prince Liang’s mansion and the Crown Prince’s people watching Prince Liang’s mansion—only the Emperor… had this capability and motive.

Or perhaps Prince Liang went to Shangmo Bookstore and asked Xiao Rongyan’s people for help?

After all, the more chaotic Jin’s court became, the more beneficial it was for Great Yan. For Xiao Rongyan, keeping Prince Liang alive was more useful than letting him die.

Bai Qingyan quickly dismissed this thought. No matter how capable Xiao Rongyan’s people were, they couldn’t possibly enter and exit Prince Liang’s mansion carrying children’s corpses under the Emperor’s secret guard encirclement.

Listening to the increasingly irritating cicada calls, Bai Qingyan grew more and more disappointed with Jin’s court.

If this were the case, the Emperor must have known about Prince Liang using children for alchemy, but these children’s lives were like grass to the imperial family—worthless. Just like the Bai family… to the Emperor, when not useful, they were also worthless, and he even wished to eliminate them quickly.

Wind passed, and the gilt copper hooks and bells made extremely subtle collision sounds. The gauze curtains in the corridor swayed, and the lush ancient trees rustled with their dense branches and leaves.

Bai Qingyan felt her eyes ache and swell.

The people are the foundation of the nation—the Emperor had probably forgotten this after ascending to power.

Children are the nation’s future!

There must be many in the capital who could see the strangeness in this matter. Noble families always moved according to the imperial family’s direction.

Now that the Emperor was protecting the alchemy-practicing Prince Liang, who knew how many noble families would follow suit and begin making and consuming elixirs. When that time came… with alchemy becoming fashionable among the capital’s nobility, the Emperor could righteously arrange for Prince Liang to continue making elixirs for him.