Shen Huiyi returned to her room sobbing and sniffling, shut herself in to cry and think things over for a while, and finally decided to submit—what He Shi said wasn’t wrong either. Even her legitimate second brother Shen Qingrang, who was deeply favored by Old Madam, still had to lower his head before Song Chuyi for the sake of his future. How much more so for herself, who had never been particularly favored?

Thinking of this, she resented Shen Qingrang even more. If he hadn’t teased her every day when they were young about how unbearable and detestable Song Chuyi was, her prejudice against Song Chuyi wouldn’t run so deep. Nor would she have unwittingly become Chen Mingyue’s weapon and formed such a deep grudge with Song Chuyi. Now she didn’t even know how much effort it would take, how many times she’d have to bow her head before things could be turned around. The more she thought about it, the more wronged and miserable she felt. She wrote an invitation asking Han Yueheng to come visit—during the national mourning period she’d been strictly confined by her family, and other families hadn’t held any celebratory gatherings or flower viewing parties either, so these close female friends had only kept in touch through letters.

Han Yueheng herself had plenty of worries. When she received the invitation, she didn’t even glance at it before tossing it aside, venting angrily and viciously, “If she hadn’t been like a firecracker back then, igniting at the slightest spark, would she have angered that Song Sixth Miss? If not for that vexing Song Sixth business, I wouldn’t be in this state now!”

As soon as she vented like this, all the maids in the room panicked. They looked at each other, and finally all simultaneously jerked their chins toward outside, signaling her to lower her voice.

Han Yueheng followed their gazes and immediately deflated like a frost-bitten eggplant, no longer daring to raise her voice—outside sat her deportment tutor, the most rigid person imaginable, who would start striking palms with a ruler at the slightest disagreement.

After the last flower viewing incident, Young Madam Fan became too lazy to deal with her and went to request a tutor from Grand Madam Fan at the Eastern Palace. It was as if she had invited back a Buddha statue to enshrine—the tutor would lecture on proper conduct every few days. Walking too quickly would be criticized, speaking too loudly would be reprimanded, and even the maids in her room now conducted themselves according to strict rules, their temperaments worn soft and compliant.

She had fiercely made scenes a few times, but Young Madam Fan wouldn’t even lift an eyelid. She simply turned and instructed the tutor to discipline her as she saw fit, without needing to consider that she was a young lady of high birth.

Once the tutor received this mandate, it was as if she’d obtained an immunity talisman. She became even more rigid-backed before Han Yueheng, and over two years, Han Yueheng truly suffered every kind of hardship.

But though she had cut off her voice in time, she still alarmed the tutor outside who was doing needlework. The tutor pushed open the door and came in, her eyes like an ancient well sweeping over them. Seeing the invitation discarded on the floor, she asked, “What’s this about? Which family’s young lady has made our young lady unhappy, that she would slight someone’s face like this?”

Han Yueheng had studied proper conduct for a full two years. The principle of not speaking evil or listening to evil words had been drilled into her ears constantly. The moment the tutor asked, she knew this was bad. She cast a meaningful glance at her head maid, while her heart began pounding like a drum.

Qiuyue understood this tutor’s temperament. With a three-point smile at the corner of her mouth, she stepped forward to pick up the invitation and pretended to blow off the dust. “Tutor, you’re really wronging the young lady. It was my fault—I was busy talking with Qiuyu and accidentally knocked over the invitation sent by the Second Young Lady of Duke Yingguo’s mansion.”

The tutor glanced at them and turned to leave.

Qiuyu was so frightened her legs trembled. She stepped forward to lay out a rug for Han Yueheng and advised, “Young lady, you absolutely mustn’t let your temperament run wild like this anymore. Just a few days ago they said that during this spring hunt, the matter of the Ninth Princess’s study companion must be settled no matter what. If anything else goes wrong, Madam won’t be easy to answer to. Even the heir is being careful.”

Han Zhi wasn’t being careful out of fear of offending Young Madam Fan. It was his own conscience that troubled him.

The matter had been discussed and agreed upon so well with his cousin His Highness the Crown Prince. He had given his guarantee that he would safely and securely deliver the person to the estate in Suzhou to be kept there, yet halfway through someone had intercepted them.

Not only had they been intercepted, but Wei Yanjun had also been lost in the process.

The authorities investigated for days but not only failed to find the culprit, they even came to him, saying he seemed suspicious and bore some guilt. Because of this, Young Madam Fan had barely looked at him properly since.

The death of Wei Yanjun, with whom he’d spent day and night, wasn’t the critical issue. The critical issue was Song Chuning, whom Wei Yanjun had been escorting—they had spent such great effort to cure the poison in her body, used fake death drugs to trick her out of the Song mansion, and gone through a thousand hardships to devise a plan to switch her body, finding a funeral procession to pretend to bury her while secretly substituting her back. They had finally nursed her body back to health with great difficulty, yet at the final crucial moment everything fell apart.

Song Chuning was, after all, a person that even Prince Duan was determined to obtain. Moreover, he had dealt with her several times in Changsha, and after crossing moves with her a few times, he had truly come to respect her abilities. His aunt and cousin had both said that since the Crown Prince had someone with fortune by his side, naturally they needed one on their side too. That’s why he had exerted such deadly effort, managing to get her intact out of so many competing forces, only to have it all vanish into smoke in the blink of an eye.

Whenever he thought of this matter, his teeth ground audibly and his fists clenched tightly.

Not knowing who had made the move, he could only swallow this bitter loss. Wanting to find someone for revenge but having no target, a single frustration had been bottled up in his heart for two years, nearly suffocating him to death.

His already gloomy temperament became even more frightening, so much so that even Han Yueheng usually avoided crossing his path, as if both he and Young Madam Fan were man-eating tigers.

Wei Yanxi stood before him holding a stack of letters, waiting until he came back to his senses and cleared away the wine table before reporting expressionlessly, “We already have some leads. A hunter who was hunting in the mountains back then said several strangers kept wandering around the area. He described their appearances to us and we had portraits drawn. Recently our eyes and ears in the capital said they spotted this person.”

Han Zhi’s entire body was shrouded in dark energy. Upon hearing this, the hand holding a go stone froze in midair, and his face turned toward Wei Yanxi. “You truly found them?”

Wei Yanxi nodded, his facial expression unchanged. “Caught a distant glimpse. It will still take some effort to track them down.”

The go stone in Han Zhi’s hand fell onto the board with a clack, smashing the previous game formation to pieces. He stood up with his hands clasped behind his back and sneered coldly, “Finally they’ve appeared. I thought in this lifetime they wouldn’t show up again. Search carefully for me. When you find them, don’t be hasty to arrest anyone. Follow the vine to find the melon—trace back and drag out whoever’s behind them for me as well!”

Anyone who dared to ruin his plans and harm his people should have to pay the price!

His face darkened with gloom. For some unknown reason, he inexplicably thought of Song Chuyi. His brow twitched, and he gave Wei Yanxi an additional instruction, “Keep a close watch on that girl from the Song family too.”

Thinking it over repeatedly, sending Song Chuning to Suzhou was such an important matter that aside from his cousin and himself, no one else knew about it. Except for Song Chuyi, who had heard him recite poetry. If this girl truly had such cleverness and ruthlessness, his previous thinking would need to change.