After a moment of distraction, Yan Sanhe pulled her thoughts back.

“Did you use Yan Ruxian’s debauchery in the rear palace as the reason to start this final act?”

The corners of Lu Shi’s mouth curved up.

“Without this sensational angle, how could I provoke his fury? Without his fury, who would dare thoroughly investigate Yan’s faction? Many things need a fuse.”

Yan Sanhe couldn’t help silently praising this move.

The men of this world, whether emperors and ministers or common vendors, all feared wearing a cuckold’s green hat.

This move was called seizing the initiative.

“Next, you first presented Yan Ruxian’s corruption with conclusive evidence.”

Lu Shi: “For Yan the traitor’s corruption, evidence wasn’t actually needed. Just raid his household and everything becomes clear.”

Yan Sanhe: “Then you presented Yan Ruxian and Li Xing’s Spring Examination fraud, escalating the matter further.”

Lu Shi: “This was also using their own methods against them. The difference is, back then they framed my teacher with fabrications; today the evidence is conclusive.”

Yan Sanhe: “Next, you incited scholars to riot, aiming to force Yan Ruxian to suicide.”

Lu Shi sneered: “With his crimes, being torn apart by five horses wouldn’t be excessive. Suicide was getting off easy.”

Yan Sanhe: “And the public display of his corpse—why?”

Lu Shi sneered again. “He occupied the Tang residence as his own. Isn’t that reason enough?”

Yan Sanhe thought of that abandoned theater stage, her heart stirring: “Enough.”

“Actually there’s another reason. Lin Bi became a hidden piece because he held her sister captive. This revenge was also for Lin Bi.”

So that’s how it was.

Yan Sanhe suddenly understood.

At this point, Yan Sanhe had reconstructed Tang Qiling’s case seventy to eighty percent.

Lin Bi stole Tang Qiling’s manuscript and gave it to Yan Ruxian’s people. Yan Ruxian colluded with Li Xing to leak the manuscript to examinees.

The manuscript was physical evidence, the examinees were witness testimony, the handwriting was ironclad proof. Even with ten mouths, Tang Qiling couldn’t defend himself.

Yan Sanhe: “After Yan Ruxian died, the Imperial Guards found suppressed memorials in his room, leading to the Jiangnan tax silver case. How did you know Yan Ruxian had suppressed memorials in his room?”

Lu Shi: “I assumed he’d burned them all. I didn’t expect he’d kept them.”

“In my view, he kept just these few to control Li Xing and his three sons.”

Xie Zhifei interjected. “Sometimes even masters must guard against cornered dogs.”

Lu Shi glanced at Xie Zhifei, then looked toward the boundless night, saying lightly:

“I didn’t need to think that much. For me, this was a good thing. You could call it karmic retribution.”

Xie Zhifei didn’t know how to respond, shooting Yan Sanhe a glance. Yan Sanhe continued her analysis:

“The Spring Examinations concern all scholars under heaven, tax silver concerns the empire’s foundation. Both are monumental matters. From this you forced the Emperor to issue an edict of self-reproach.”

Lu Shi: “Not a word wrong.”

Yan Sanhe: “Do you have any remaining moves?”

“Child.”

Lu Shi: “You overestimate me. Being able to force him to issue an edict of self-reproach was the entirety of my scheme. Thus, I’ve unloaded the heavy burden from my shoulders and can close my eyes in peace.”

His voice carried a kind of dead-ashes calm. In him, Yan Sanhe seemed to see another Wu Shunian.

“Actually you’d prepared that evidence long ago. You just waited to act until after she left.”

Lu Shi made a faint sound of acknowledgment.

“Some things cannot be risked. Shuiyue Temple is just a secluded nunnery, but actually every movement there is under others’ watchful eyes.”

Yan Sanhe’s heart trembled as she asked sorrowfully: “You’re a full ten years older than her—where did you get the confidence that you could wait for her to leave first? What if you left first?”

Lu Shi silently observed Yan Sanhe.

He suddenly recalled their first meeting when she disguised herself as an herb boy, her gaze sharp and defiant, her words full of coercion.

Now she was showing him sympathy for no reason. Third Master Xie wasn’t wrong—still too soft-hearted!

“Child, people live on one breath of qi.”

His expression was calm. “As long as I thought about how she wasn’t dead, how could I dare die before her? That breath of qi came continuously.”

Yan Sanhe asked without apparent reason: “What about now? Is that breath still there?”

Lu Shi smiled: “I can’t make her wait too long at the Bridge of Helplessness. She’s spent her whole life waiting for me.”

Hearing this, Yan Sanhe wanted to cry again.

What was wrong with her?

She resolved念解魔 for the dead. Her heart had grown harder and harder through repeated resolutions.

Why was this heart demon making her unprecedentedly fragile by the end?

“Is there anything else to ask?” Lu Shi asked.

“Yes.”

Yan Sanhe choked up: “Did Chu Yanping know about Lin Bi’s matter?”

Lu Shi: “Truthfully, whether the Crown Prince told him, I don’t know.”

“What about her—did she know?”

Lu Shi shook his head: “I wouldn’t let her know.”

“Were you afraid she’d be heartbroken?”

“I was afraid I’d be heartbroken.”

Lu Shi smiled: “She said she would accompany me for a long, long time.”

The tears Yan Sanhe had been holding back suddenly flowed down again.

Lin Bi was Tang Zhiwei’s best companion. Her betrayal would be more than heartbreaking for Tang Zhiwei—it would be a fatal blow.

After learning this, Tang Zhiwei couldn’t have survived.

Yan Sanhe wiped her tears messily with her handkerchief.

“What about going to Changchun Garden once a month to hear Romance of the West Chamber?”

“Changchun Garden’s predecessor was the Qingyu Troupe. Cheng Fuyao once performed for the young miss. She praised his performances as having the most flavor. Cheng Fuyao later encountered some trouble. I helped him a bit, which led to today’s Changchun Garden.”

Lu Shi: “She didn’t like theater when young—that boy surnamed Tang influenced her. I thought, since she couldn’t hear performances at the nunnery, I’d go listen for her.”

At this point, he showed a somewhat shy smile like a child’s.

“I don’t understand other performances. Having promised to play a scholar for her, I could only listen to Romance of the West Chamber. After listening long enough, with Cheng Fuyao’s guidance, even someone completely ignorant like me learned it.”

Just from listening?

Not likely!

Ten years of practice offstage for one minute onstage. The scholar in the play had flavor in every gesture—without ten years of hard practice, how could one perform so convincingly?

Yan Sanhe didn’t expose his deliberate understatement and asked her final question—

“Lu Shi, have you ever regretted these years?”

Lu Shi was silent for a while, then stood up and opened the water pavilion door.

Night wind blew in, carrying a trace of crisp chrysanthemum fragrance. He suddenly remembered her sixteenth birthday at the theater stage, her chest heaving with indignation.

“My senior brother is a proper scholar—don’t talk nonsense.”

“Oh, young miss, would we really wrong him?”

“You did.”

“One person wronging him—what about two?”

“Also wronged.”

“Young miss, you can’t be this unreasonable.”

“I’m just this unreasonable.”

She suddenly put her hands on her hips, exasperated: “In my own home, why should I be reasonable with you people?”

He also recalled the rear courtyard of the Tang residence—

“Lin Bi?”

“Young miss.”

“This place is filthy and unlivable. Help my senior brother pack his things and move to the front courtyard.”

“Yes!”

The girl walked to Lu Shi’s side, reaching out to tug his sleeve. “Senior brother, how should we handle the rest? You decide—I’ll follow you.”

“…Let it go.”

“Did you hear? My senior brother says let it go. Remember his kindness, otherwise you’ll end up like Li Xing.”

The girl pulled his sleeve: “Senior brother, let’s go.”

Lu Shi smiled gently. “Do you know what my teacher meant when he gave her this name?”

Xie Zhifei and Pei Xiao looked at each other blankly.

Yan Sanhe pondered briefly: “Does it mean ‘before the mulberry leaves fall, how lush and fresh they are’?”

“No.”

Lu Shi’s aged face showed a touch of tenderness. “Tang Zhiwei—the future未 is sweet.”

My girl will have a good life.

How could I have regrets!

Lu Shi said to himself inwardly.