Although Qiu Xinran had already witnessed death three times with her own eyes in just a short day, this was the first time at such close range. When Xia Xiuyan jumped down from the tree, suspecting she had been frightened silly, he only went forward and patted her lightly, which caused her to collapse sitting on the ground.

He sneered and walked straight to the corpse without a sidelong glance, beginning to search through the things on the body. From it he retrieved a Feathered Forest Army identification token and a secret letter stained red with blood. Xia Xiuyan opened it to look—on it were only four characters: “Do not forget your promise.” The signature bore a seal with a strange pattern, the identity of its owner unknown.

Qiu Xinran stood to the side, her soul still unsettled, using her sleeve to wipe her face. She watched as Xia Xiuyan folded up the letter paper, put it away, and walked toward her. Her feelings toward this Young Master Xia were now somewhat complicated—if possible, she never wanted to oppose him in this lifetime.

“I promise not to tell anyone.” Qiu Xinran made this solemn vow before he could open his mouth.

“Not tell anyone what?”

Qiu Xinran glanced at the arrow gripped in his hand. Xia Xiuyan raised his eyebrows slightly: “Have you seen me practice mounted archery?”

“Once at the training grounds.” She answered honestly.

Xia Xiuyan held the bow and asked again: “What else do you know?”

Qiu Xinran instinctively wanted to deny it, but meeting his gaze, she paused before saying carefully: “You’ve actually been pretending to be ill all along, haven’t you?” Someone truly plagued by illness couldn’t possibly have the strength to draw a bow multiple times in such a short period, nor could they pull the bow so steadily and shoot every arrow so accurately.

As expected, Xia Xiuyan didn’t deny it. With an expression that could practically be called amiable and pleasant, he asked her: “What else?”

Qiu Xinran closed her eyes in despair: “Also… are you now thinking about whether or not to kill me to silence me?”

The forest was quiet for a very long time. Qiu Xinran opened her eyes to see the person opposite standing before her with a half-smile, as if truly considering her fate. After quite a while, she finally heard him say deliberately: “I said yesterday that people with a little too much cleverness die the fastest… You now truly know too much.”

Qiu Xinran summoned her courage: “Your leg is injured—I can run.”

Xia Xiuyan glanced at her coolly: “You can try whether your legs run faster or my arrows are faster.”

He was right. Ten thousand thoughts spun through Qiu Xinran’s mind, but finding them all useless, she instead broke down in despair and said resentfully: “It’s not like I wanted to know on purpose! If I had abandoned you yesterday and run away by myself, today’s events wouldn’t have happened!”

“So yesterday you really should have fled alone.” Xia Xiuyan moved closer, saying regretfully: “I gave you the chance.”

He bent down and leaned in closer. Qiu Xinran’s eyes revealed a trace of terror. Instinct told her to run quickly, but just as she moved, she felt a pain at her neck, and then lost consciousness.

…

When Qiu Xinran opened her eyes again, she was already lying in her own room in the traveling palace. Yuan Zhou had been keeping watch at her side, and seeing her slowly awaken, he breathed a sigh of relief: “Finally awake! If you hadn’t woken soon, I was going to fetch the imperial physician.”

He carefully helped her sit up. Seeing her completely bewildered expression, he couldn’t help but worry: “Don’t tell me you’ve damaged your brain from the fall—do you still remember who I am?”

Qiu Xinran rather irritably waved away his hand reaching toward her face, and only upon opening her mouth discovered her throat was terribly hoarse: “How did I get back?”

“At daybreak, the guards at Jinhe Palace discovered Young Master Xia was missing. His close attendant was found unconscious beside the hunting ground on the back mountain, saying that last night villains had raided Jinhe Palace at night and abducted the young master. His Majesty was furious and ordered people to search the mountain. Fortunately, you and the young master were safe and sound.”

Qiu Xinran recalled the events of last night and asked again: “How long was I unconscious?”

“A whole day,” Yuan Zhou stood and pushed open the window—outside, the sunset was indeed sinking low. “The traveling palace actually had villains infiltrate it, so His Majesty issued an edict to return to the palace immediately. If you hadn’t woken, tomorrow you’d probably have been carried onto the carriage to go back.”

“What about Xia Xiuyan?”

“Young Master Xia injured his left leg, but it shouldn’t be too serious.” Yuan Zhou looked at her with a solemn expression and warned: “In front of outsiders, you must not call the young master by his personal name directly. You should be careful even in private.”

This junior apprentice brother of hers was older than her but lower in seniority. Since taking office in the palace, Bai Jingming had arranged for him to look after her this time because he feared she wouldn’t be cautious and thorough enough with etiquette in the palace. However, what Qiu Xinran was most concerned about now wasn’t this. She asked straightforwardly: “What did Young Master Xia say to His Majesty when he returned?”

Yuan Zhou was completely confused: “I don’t actually know that. I only heard palace rumors saying you were abducted up the mountain, but the bandits had internal strife, allowing you to escape by luck.”

Qiu Xinran looked thoughtful, knowing that Xia Xiuyan must have fabricated an account to cover for himself before His Majesty. Since he hadn’t planned to kill her to silence her on the mountain, now that they were back in the palace with many eyes and ears around, he probably wouldn’t want her life either.

Thinking of this, she breathed a sigh of relief. But Yuan Zhou was still somewhat puzzled: “By the way, today I also heard about something quite bizarre. I think it’s probably just rumors, so I wanted to ask you…”

Before he finished speaking, Qiu Xinran had already lain back down and pulled the bedding over her head: “Since it’s bizarre, don’t investigate it closely. My head is very dizzy—whatever it is, tell me tomorrow.”

Yuan Zhou thought this made some sense, and considering she had just woken up, he didn’t disturb her further. He soon closed the door for her and left the room.

Thus, after Qiu Xinran returned to the palace, she finally heard the complete version of that day’s bizarre rumor. At that time, Xia Xiuyan, using recuperation as an excuse, didn’t appear in the palace for quite a long while.

Before long, Yuan Zhou was promoted to the position of Night Watch Official and became busy with affairs. Meanwhile, she, this Divination Official, originally held an idle position. After returning to the palace, she took over Yuan Zhou’s place and followed Bai Jingming to gain experience at the Bureau of Astronomy.

The curriculum at the academy primarily focused on the Six Arts, but because Emperor Xuande enjoyed seeking immortality and pursuing the Dao, he hoped the heir apparent could also know astronomy above and geography below. Thus, every five days an additional astronomy course was held, taught by none other than Bai Jingming. So every five days, Qiu Xinran would also go to the academy, acting as an attending study attendant, recording and organizing the day’s lecture content from the side.

Unfortunately, the astronomy course content was obscure and difficult to understand, making it truly hard for people to summon their spirits. Bai Jingming naturally understood everyone’s suffering, so when teaching he often turned a blind eye, never assigning extra homework or conducting spot checks. Seeing this, the people at the academy became even less restrained—when astronomy class came, several would claim illness and not attend.

In the entire class, the one who listened most attentively ended up being only Qiu Xinran, who had originally come along to attend to writing materials. For half a shichen, aside from taking notes with her brush, she barely moved at all—this kind of concentration made even Zhou Xianyi, who considered himself diligent in the academy, feel inferior.

After her arrival, Bai Jingming actually taught more meticulously, which made it even harder for those below to understand. Previously when he lectured, no one below listened; now that he had brought his own student along, he could legitimately use the pretext of teaching the imperial princes to instruct his student on the side. Those below were also happy that the teacher didn’t supervise them. Over time, both teacher and students were content.

That day after class ended, Bai Jingming had already left first, while she still remained in the academy slowly finishing organizing the day’s lecture notes. Li Hanyuan walked to her desk and sat down cross-legged, asking curiously: “Xinran, will you come with us to archery class in a bit?”

Qiu Xinran shook her head and politely declined: “I still need to rush back to the Bureau of Astronomy in a bit to organize the annual calendar.”

Hearing this, Li Hanyuan seemed to find it regrettable: “Ah, I thought since you’re finally here, we could watch you shoot arrows.”

Qiu Xinran’s hand holding the brush paused: “What shooting arrows?”

“Watch you shoot arrows,” the little princess said with complete innocence. “They say you’re very skilled at archery—I want to see.”

“Who are ‘they’?” Qiu Xinran was completely confused. Li Hanyuan was made even more confused by her question. She turned to look at the other people in the room and said hesitantly: “They are… them.”

The two stared at each other for a long time. Suddenly, a soft laugh came from the corner. The Fourth Prince Li Hanxing said with an air of worldly wisdom: “Divination Official Qiu conceals her depths—everyone in the palace is now spreading that your archery is divine, that you have the skill to pierce a willow leaf at a hundred paces.”

Qiu Xinran blinked. Her heart was collapsing like mountains and earth splitting, but her face remained unmoved by the eight winds: “How is this being said?”

“You don’t know?” Zheng Yuanwu also joined in from the side, explaining: “You and Xiuyan were abducted that day at the traveling palace. Later the guards went up the mountain and found those three corpses. Xiuyan said that night two of them had internal strife, with one strangling the other to death, and you took the opportunity to escape. Is this what happened?”

Qiu Xinran considered and nodded: “Mm… that is indeed the case.”

“Later, the one who survived saw you had fled and chased after you. Xiuyan was shot in the leg by him, and you took the opportunity to ambush him from behind with a stick, then stabbed a hole in his throat with a hairpin—isn’t that right?”

Qiu Xinran said hesitantly: “That’s not entirely false…”

The eyes of those around her instantly filled with solemn respect. Even Li Hanyi looked over, his expression complex: “I didn’t expect you to have the courage to stab someone to death with a hairpin. Previously I underestimated you.”

Hearing she didn’t refute it, Zheng Yuanwu believed the previous rumors even more firmly: “And then after that, the insider came up the mountain in the morning, and you were hiding in the tree and shot him dead with one arrow—right?”

“…” Qiu Xinran said with difficulty: “That’s not entirely accurate either.”

Hearing her say this, Li Hanyi seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, his face recovering some of its arrogant expression: “I knew it! That bow is so heavy—whether you could even draw it is questionable, and killing with one arrow is simply preposterous!” But before he could feel smug for long, Li Hanling at the side couldn’t help but say: “If it wasn’t you, could it really have been Xiuyan?”

“That’s even more impossible!” Li Hanyi said decisively. “You’ve seen what he looks like shooting arrows at the training grounds!”

Thinking about it, everyone agreed this made sense. Zheng Yuanwu frowned: “But at the time, there were only the two of you—it had to be one of you.”

After he finished speaking, the rest all looked at her in unison. Qiu Xinran’s brain spun rapidly, and in one breath she had calmed down: “What I mean is—the rumors are somewhat exaggerated! Piercing a willow leaf at a hundred paces and killing with one arrow are all false rumors!”

She steadied herself: “That day I hid in the tree and shot many arrows without hitting. In the chaos, it was Young Master Xia who injured his left knee, which gave me the opportunity to hit his chest.”

Hearing this, everyone nodded thoughtfully—after all, hitting the chest was indeed much less difficult than hitting the knee. But Li Hanfeng frowned again and said: “But I heard that bandit’s fatal wound was the arrow in his throat—wasn’t that your shot?”

“That arrow—” Qiu Xinran paused. “That arrow was actually because the bandit saw his identity was exposed and knew he had no way out, so he took the arrow and committed suicide.”

So that was it!

This explanation was indeed much more credible than the previous rumors. Everyone was satisfied with this account. Even though they knew the situation that day wasn’t as dramatic as the rumors, they still felt the experience of those two was extremely thrilling.

Li Hanyuan sighed: “But how does Xinran know archery?”

Zheng Yuanwu spoke up: “The Nine Sects also has the Sword Sect branch—I just didn’t expect that women on the mountain would also practice martial arts.”

Qiu Xinran said modestly: “Practicing martial arts in the mountains is just for strengthening the body—it can’t compare to everyone’s prowess. If anyone else from this room had been on that mountain that day, they probably wouldn’t have been as pathetic as me.” The others thought carefully and agreed deeply—if even a sickly person like Xia Xiuyan and a skinny little Daoist like her could escape with their lives intact, naturally anyone else in this room would have managed even better. This flattery pleased everyone physically and mentally. After discussing the mountain details for a while longer, they all dispersed.

After class ended, Li Hanfeng detoured to the Princess’s residence to visit Xia Xiuyan, and while playing chess, casually relayed what had happened at the academy that day.

The hand holding the chess piece paused. Xia Xiuyan suddenly smiled silently: “She said that?”

“That’s right,” Li Hanfeng sought confirmation from him. “Is what she said true?”

“Why don’t you have her shoot arrows publicly another day and you’ll know.”