“Third Master Xie has arrived.”

Speak of the devil and he appears.

Master Pei’s feet seemed to have wheels beneath them as he whooshed over to Xie Zhifei.

Their four eyes met. Master Pei was anxious as fire.

“Chengyu, you’ve finally come. Come, come, let’s find a place to talk. I have a bellyful of words to say.”

“Hold it in first!”

Xie Zhifei, dressed in military official attire, walked around him and strode toward Yan Sanhe and the others.

Ji Lingchuan stepped forward. “Chengyu has come.”

“Uncle Ji.”

Xie Zhifei saluted. “I was on street patrol when I happened to encounter Huangqi. I’ve already sent someone to find Mama Chen. It’ll probably take two or three days for news. Fearing you’d worry, I came to inform you.”

“Much obliged.”

“Uncle Ji, don’t stand on ceremony with me. Whatever help you need, just speak up.”

Xie Zhifei lifted his eyelids and swept a faint glance at Yan Sanhe. “I’m at the Five Cities Military Patrol Bureau—I may lack other abilities, but finding and investigating people is quite convenient.”

Yan Sanhe acted as if she hadn’t seen that glance Third Master Xie swept over. “Minister Ji, you still haven’t explained why the old lady lived here.”

“My mother said she lived in a bamboo grove when she was young and had grown accustomed to it.”

Ji Lingchuan quickly explained: “She also said without hearing the rustling of bamboo leaves, she couldn’t sleep.”

“Is there a problem with this courtyard?”

Xie Zhifei adopted an expression of humble inquiry. Yan Sanhe pressed her lips together, glancing at Li Buyan from the corner of her eye.

Li Buyan smiled sweetly: “The courtyard’s yin energy is somewhat heavy. For elderly people, it’s better to get more sun—convenient for calcium supplementation.”

“Supplement what?”

Pei Xiao followed over, happening to catch this remark.

Li Buyan’s eyes curved in a smile: “Supplement! The! Brain!”

Pei Xiao: “…”

Yan Sanhe lifted her leg and walked into the courtyard. Two matrons approached and paid their respects.

Ji Lingchuan, following closely behind, quickly said: “These two watch over the courtyard.”

Yan Sanhe: “Did you two serve the old lady?”

Both shook their heads.

“You may all leave!”

Yan Sanhe’s gaze turned to Li Buyan again. Li Buyan smiled sweetly: “Minister Ji, you accompany the young miss inside first. I’ll take a turn outside and return shortly.”

Before Ji Lingchuan could speak, she had already walked along the path into the depths.

Xie Zhifei covered his mouth and coughed: Mingting, something’s fishy.

Pei Mingting rolled his eyes: You’re just telling me that now!

“Next I need to go inside and examine the old lady’s belongings.”

Yan Sanhe’s gaze swept faintly over Xie Zhifei, her words carrying hidden meaning: “Minister Ji, are you certain everyone should follow inside?”

“This…”

Ji Lingchuan was in a bind.

Letting Xie Zhifei follow—what if they discovered some of the old lady’s private matters?

Not letting him follow—the man had kindly come to help. Wouldn’t that disappoint him?

“Uncle Ji, I’ll just sunbathe outside.”

Xie Zhifei’s voice was somewhat lazy: “Sunbathing supplements the brain, doesn’t it, Miss Yan?”

“You don’t need supplementing!”

Miss Yan tossed out this line and walked straight into the room.

Smart enough already!

Xie Zhifei watched her retreating figure, smiling to show a mouthful of white teeth.

“That… someone, brew tea for Third Master.”

“Uncle Ji needn’t mind me. Go in quickly!”

Xie Zhifei shot Pei Xiao a look. Pei Xiao quickly stepped forward to support Ji Lingchuan: “Uncle, come, I’ll accompany you inside.”

The courtyard emptied out.

A maid brought over a bamboo chair and small table, brewed hot tea, and called “Third Master, please have tea” several times, but Third Master simply didn’t hear.

What was Xie Zhifei thinking about?

He thought of how when Yan Sanhe dissolved the demon at the Xie family, she never spoke of anything to anyone else, only to the head of household.

From this it appeared she acted with great propriety, never leaking even the slightest detail about the party involved.

…

The old lady’s room was very large.

In the main hall sat an Eight Immortals table with Grand Tutor chairs on either side. Below were eight chairs, four on each side, all made of the finest rosewood.

The east wing was for daily living, the west wing for receiving guests—everything orderly.

The bed in the east wing remained, but bedding and pillows had all been removed.

Opening the cabinet doors revealed emptiness as well.

Yan Sanhe frowned: “Were all the old lady’s belongings burned?”

Ji Lingchuan: “Most were burned at the funeral procession, most of the remainder at the fifth seventh-day ceremony.”

Fearing Yan Sanhe would blame him, he explained: “This is the custom. Keeping a dead person’s belongings in the house is inauspicious.”

Yan Sanhe fell silent.

When a person’s pillow, bedding, and clothing were all burned clean in the fire, so clean it was as if that person had never come to this world at all—

Then how many years later would anyone remember that she had once walked in and out of this courtyard alive, hiding away what she considered the most delicious food, just to wait for her grandson to come and share it with him?

“Wasn’t even the slightest thing kept?”

Yan Sanhe took a deep breath. “Books she read, needlework she did, or gold and silver jewelry she wore?”

Ji Lingchuan broke out in a cold sweat from her questions. His lips moved as if to explain something, but he found he had no explanation.

“My maternal grandmother was illiterate—forget about books. How could the Ji family make her do needlework? They doted on her constantly. As for that gold and silver jewelry…”

Pei Xiao paused. “My mother said the old lady sensed her time was near and distributed everything. My mother received quite a few items.”

Yan Sanhe said nothing, clasping her hands behind her back as she walked out of the east wing.

In the west wing too, everything was empty, so clean there wasn’t even a speck of dust.

At this, Yan Sanhe fell completely silent.

Ji Lingchuan watched her anxiously, wave after wave of regret in his heart. Why hadn’t he thought to keep something of his mother’s as a keepsake?

“Wait!”

Pei Xiao clapped his hands. “In my room I have a set of brush, ink, paper and inkstone the old lady gave me. Would the young miss like to see it?”

Are you stupid?

Yan Sanhe retreated to the main hall, pointing at the Eight Immortals table. “Where did the old lady usually sit?”

Ji Lingchuan quickly replied: “Mother sat on the right, I sat on the left.”

Yan Sanhe swept aside her robe and sat in the right-hand chair.

The main hall’s door stood wide open. Looking out from here, one could see the blue-gray interior wall, bamboo growing beside the wall, and a well beneath the bamboo.

When wind blew past, the bamboo leaves rustled—that rustling sound seemed to scrape across one’s heart, gently, softly.

What a beautiful scene!

Sitting here, what would the old lady usually think about?

Her most treasured eldest grandson, or her departed husband separated by yin and yang?

Her past as a young girl, or her rise to power after marrying into the Ji family?

Just then, a man in official robes entered the scene, walking to the well’s edge. He looked down for several moments, then sensed a gaze behind him and suddenly turned around.

Without warning, their eyes met.

Xie Zhifei smiled at her gently, then nodded once.

Only then did Yan Sanhe notice that when this wastrel Xie smiled, his dimples were even more captivating than his handsome face.

She returned the nod and was first to look away.

“Minister Ji, was this courtyard the only place where the old lady usually moved about?”

“In the back garden there’s Heart Lake. When the weather was good, the old lady liked to walk by the lake and sit.”

“Who accompanied her?”

“Most of the time it was Mama Chen. Sometimes it was several daughters-in-law. Sometimes it was the younger generation of the residence.”

“May I go see it?”

“Of course!”

After Ji Lingchuan finished speaking, his brow furrowed slightly with a hesitant expression.

Yan Sanhe’s eyes were sharp. “If you have something to say, just ask.”

Ji Lingchuan started, then shook his head. “Nothing, nothing.”

“Uncle, don’t be coy.”

Pei Xiao rolled his eyes. “Miss Yan, I’ll ask this for my uncle. When exactly can we truly dissolve my maternal grandmother’s obsession and demon?”