Zhu Qing was dozing when he suddenly heard movement from inside the room and quickly pushed open the door.

Lighting the candle and walking to the bedside, he reached out to check—Third Master’s entire back was covered in cold sweat.

Xie Zhifei pushed his hand away.

“Bring me a cup of tea.”

Zhu Qing mixed some hot water into the cold tea. Xie Zhifei drank it all in one gulp and fell back.

“I’m fine now. You go.”

Zhu Qing silently tucked in Third Master’s quilt and left, closing the door behind him.

A single lamp like a bean.

Xie Zhifei stared at the bed canopy above, quietly recalling certain events, certain people.

Yes.

Mother had been staring at Huaiyou.

From the time Zheng Huaizuo could remember, he knew that Father and Mother each had their favorites. Father favored his sister, Mother favored him.

The only difference was—

While Father favored his sister, he also loved him dearly. But Mother was completely cold and indifferent to his sister.

He felt indignant on his sister’s behalf.

His sister was so lovely, her calligraphy so beautiful, she studied so well, everything about her was obedient and proper—why didn’t Mother like her even a little?

Why was it that when he fell ill, Mother would watch over him day and night, but when his sister fell ill, only Father stayed by her bedside? Weren’t they both flesh fallen from the same belly?

Over this matter, he had even run to question Mother.

Mother said nothing at all, only looked at him coldly, then told him to get out.

Precisely because of Mother’s coldness toward Huaiyou, he as the older brother felt especially sorry for his little sister and took her everywhere.

Actually, the siblings couldn’t go anywhere. Grandfather looked down on Father and also looked down on them.

The reason Grandfather looked down on Father was supposedly because of Mother.

The Zheng family came from military traditions, so the women they married were all swift and decisive, all straightforward in temperament. Mother was the daughter of a scholarly family, someone Father had set his heart on himself and insisted on marrying.

More importantly: the siblings were born on an inauspicious date—they were ghost fetuses, and a monk had divined that they would bring misfortune to the Zheng family.

The siblings’ range of activity was limited to Haitang Courtyard. Even during festivals, they couldn’t walk out the main gate of Haitang Courtyard.

Their family of four could only celebrate holidays in Haitang Courtyard by themselves.

Fortunately, although Grandfather looked down on their branch of the family, he was never stingy with their food, clothing, and necessities. Whatever the other households had, they lacked nothing.

The only thing lacking was that there were no maids or servants to wait on them—everything had to be done by themselves.

Every day Father had nothing to do except teach him martial arts and teach his sister to read. He would also tend to Haitang Courtyard. Mother would wash clothes and occasionally do needlework.

The family’s days passed plainly and uneventfully.

Every year on July fourteenth, Father would go to the temple to donate incense money. Father had lit two eternal lamps at the temple for the siblings.

On this day each year, Father would leave before dawn, and Mother would move a bamboo chair into the courtyard to wait, with him and Huaiyou keeping Mother company.

Father never returned empty-handed—he would bring them novel trinkets from outside.

Mother had something too.

But Mother’s things Father never showed them—he always gave them to Mother privately behind closed doors.

After Mother received her things, she would be cheerful for over half a month. This was the most peaceful half month of the year in Haitang Courtyard. Even if he and Huaiyou got into trouble, Mother would just smile at them.

Haitang Courtyard was two courtyards deep with a small garden in back.

This palm-sized place, he and Huaiyou had long grown tired of. Sometimes when it was really boring, they would pester Father to tell stories.

Father would tell them about one victorious battle after another that Grandfather had fought; about autumn military reviews on the frontier; about the vast Mobei desert, and about Qi Kingdom where the heat could kill…

He and Huaiyou listened with great interest.

Father also told them about the Zheng family—

About the Zheng family’s ancestral home in Yangzhou;

About Bamboo West Pavilion next to the old residence;

About Yangzhou’s most famous Slender West Lake;

About the carnage when Jin troops entered Yangzhou;

About how Yangzhou people had “skin wrapped in water” in the morning and “water wrapped in skin” at night…

Thinking and thinking, Xie Zhifei turned over and buried his face in the quilt, his arched neck and spine trembling slightly.

He maintained this position for a long time, until the first rooster crow, then threw off the quilt and got out of bed, pushed open the window, spread his arms wide, and roared at the horizon:

“Ahhh—”

Outside, Zhu Qing, who had been sleeping, was so frightened his soul nearly jumped out of his body. He rushed into the side room at lightning speed.

Xie Zhifei turned his head, his face completely calm: “Return to the capital.”

…

On the road back to the capital, wind and rain never stopped.

By the time they reached the capital city, it was already the morning of August fifteenth.

As soon as they entered the city gate, Xie Zhifei reined in his horse: “Zhu Qing, you go report to the family that we’re safe first.”

Hearing these words, Zhu Qing felt his scalp tingle.

Ever since the lord had met that Tang Mingyue, not a single thing had been normal. What worried him even more was that the lord told him nothing—keeping it all bottled up inside.

“Where is my lord going?”

“To handle something.”

“Today is the fifteenth.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll definitely return in time for the reunion dinner.”

Zhu Qing opened his mouth, then took a deep breath and swallowed down his belly full of words, only instructing:

“My lord must return early.”

“…Alright!”

Xie Zhifei turned his horse around and headed west, straight for Water Moon Nunnery.

He had figured out Tang Mingyue’s background to within an inch of certainty. There was one last thing he had to confirm.

Over an hour later.

The old nun Huiru looked at the haggard man before her, so shocked she couldn’t speak for a long time.

“Lord Xie, you’ve just come from…”

“A trip out of town.”

Xie Zhifei touched the stubble on his chin, “Does your nunnery keep records of incense money donated by pilgrims?”

Huiru looked as if facing a great enemy, “Lord Xie, this, this is…”

“I’m not investigating you. I just want to take a look.”

Xie Zhifei added gently, “Of course, if the Bureau of Buddhist Registry were to investigate, I would have Lord Pei turn a blind eye.”

Huiru knew very clearly in her heart what Lord Pei did.

She nodded to Xie Zhifei: “My lord, please follow me.”

The two walked to a meditation room. Huiru took out a key from her robe and unlocked the padlock hanging on the door.

Xie Zhifei pushed open the door to discover this was a storage room.

Huiru took out another key and opened one of the trunks.

“Lord Xie, they’re all in here.”

A trunk full of ledgers, stuffed completely full.

“Help me find the ledgers from Yonghe year one to Yonghe year eight.”

“Yes!”

Huiru squatted down and quickly found eight ledgers.

Xie Zhifei also didn’t mind the thick layer of dust on the floor. He sat cross-legged and picked up the first one, turning through it page by page.

Reaching the last page, there was nothing.

Then he picked up the ledger for Yonghe year two. After turning several pages, suddenly his gaze paused, falling on a line of small characters:

July fourteenth, pilgrim Zheng Huantang, donated two hundred taels of silver.

After glancing at it, he quickly opened the third book: July fourteenth, pilgrim Zheng Huantang, donated two hundred taels of silver.

The third book;

The fourth book;

The fifth book…

After finishing the last book, he stopped his finger below that line, “Reverend Mother, do you have any impression of this person?”

“Zheng Huantang? I remember this person. Every year on July fourteenth he would come to the nunnery to light eternal lamps for a pair of children, then donate two hundred taels of silver.”

“Why do you remember something from so long ago so clearly?”

“This…”

Xie Zhifei’s face darkened.

“Speak!”