After a long while, Yan Sanhe calmed her emotions and turned to place the teacup before Xie Zhifei.

“Anything else?”

Xie Zhifei took it and drank a sip. “That’s all I know. I’ve told you everything.”

Yan Sanhe’s brows curved. “Where is Lady Zhao’s natal family?”

Xie Zhifei put down the teacup and shook his head.

Yan Sanhe: “Does her natal family still have people?”

Xie Zhifei continued shaking his head.

Yan Sanhe said to herself, “It seems we need to investigate everything carefully.”

Xie Zhifei stood up, having waited for exactly this statement.

He walked to the door. When his fingers touched the door bolt, he turned around, each word filled with disbelief.

“What fate indeed, Yan Sanhe—my birthday is also July fourteenth.”

The door closed. The sand in the hourglass fell silently.

Yan Sanhe looked at that cup still steaming with heat and slowly frowned.

For some reason, she always felt Xie Zhifei’s last words seemed to point to something.

But point to what?

She was utterly confused.

…

Xie Zhifei walked out of the courtyard and stood quietly in the darkness for a moment, finally confirming one thing—

She truly remembered nothing!

“Can’t rush, don’t rush!”

He said quietly to himself. As the Zheng family case was investigated bit by bit, something would eventually be uncovered.

Just thinking this, his peripheral vision suddenly caught Li Buyan several zhang away, arms crossed, looking at him with a half-smile.

“Third Master, let’s chat!”

“I have nothing to chat with you about.”

“That won’t do!”

Li Buyan’s eyes were pitch black. “I’m someone who can’t let words sit overnight. If they sit overnight, they fester. When they fester, I get violent. When I get violent, I want to kill people.”

How amazing you are!

Xie Zhifei barely maintained his composure. “Speak!”

“Come with me.”

Li Buyan glanced at the lit courtyard and turned to leave.

Xie Zhifei gritted his teeth and followed.

After walking over a dozen zhang, Li Buyan stopped, turned, and sneered coldly.

Xie Zhifei was made uneasy by her laughter, but his face remained impassive.

“Was it you who told Young Master Pei not to give up on my young lady?”

“…”

Xie Zhifei had already mentally strangled Young Master Pei dozens of times.

This useless bastard—couldn’t he keep anything to himself?

How could everything be pried out of him?

Xie Zhifei felt somewhat humiliated with anger. “Is it any of your business?”

“Whether it’s my business or not isn’t for you to say.”

Li Buyan pointed her thumb at herself. “This auntie says so.”

Xie Zhifei took deep breaths. The cold wind entered his lungs, barely suppressing his anger. “I said it. What does Auntie plan to do about it!”

“You’re something else, Xie Third Master!”

Li Buyan was angered to laughter by this person’s shamelessness. “The top is growing quite lush and leafy, but the roots below haven’t developed—you’re a radish about to become sentient!”

“…”

“I really want to stew you in a pot!”

I want to cleave you with one stroke!

Xie Zhifei’s gaze suddenly turned cold.

“From now on, stay away from my young lady. If you dare flirt again, watch out—I’ll really chop off your lecherous pig trotters.”

“Li! Bu! Yan!”

“What are you shouting? This auntie isn’t deaf!”

Li Buyan thrust out her fist and waved it before Xie Zhifei.

“See this? A fist, big as a sandbag, specially for beating scumbags. Next time, Third Master can have a taste.”

This shrew!

Xie Zhifei’s chest heaved.

Really unreasonably shrewish!

…

When two meet on a narrow path, the shrewish one wins.

Xie Zhifei, holding in a belly full of anger, returned to the guest courtyard to find the hall lamp burning eye-piercingly bright.

Walking in for a look, Pei Xiao’s eyes were red-rimmed as he drank alone.

The rage that had already reached his throat had to be swallowed back down. He sat beside him.

“What’s wrong all of a sudden?”

“I sounded her out. She doesn’t have feelings for me.”

“And then?”

“Then you won’t even let me drown my sorrows in wine.”

Pei Xiao looked miserable. “Are you even human?”

I’m not human?

If I weren’t human, I’d have turned and walked away long ago.

Xie Zhifei softened his voice. “What reason did she give for not having feelings for you?”

“How would I know!”

Young Master Pei pointed at himself.

“I have looks and family background. You’d have to search the world with a lantern to find someone like me, yet she just doesn’t appreciate it. My heart is broken.”

Xie Zhifei didn’t know what to say.

This kid used to buzz around Yan Sanhe constantly, and he found it grating, wishing he could slap him away with one palm.

Now that it was truly hopeless, he found him pitiful.

No—besides pitiful, there was also a small bit of secret satisfaction.

When the words “secret satisfaction” surfaced, he suddenly wanted to slap himself hard.

Xie Zhifei, what the hell do you want to do? No wonder Li Buyan called you scum!

But can you blame me?

Xie Zhifei felt indescribably wronged.

Just as I figured out my feelings for her, she became Zheng Huaizuo’s real sister.

Just as I’d barely accepted the facts, Zheng Huaizuo’s real sister—whoosh—transformed into Tang Mingyue.

Who can I reason with?

I still have a belly full of secrets I can’t tell anyone, mustn’t tell anyone.

I carry a blood debt of deep revenge, thinking of it day and night, restless and terrified.

I’m the pitiful one!

People are ultimately people. No matter how hard the skin they wear, no matter if they’ve lived twice—

Young Master Pei’s sharp edges grew outward, hurting others.

Xie Zhifei was exactly opposite—his sharp edges all grew inward, stabbing only himself.

After that trip to the study with Yan Sanhe, being scolded by Li Buyan, provoked by Young Master Pei, plus the exhausting journey to and from Muli Mountain, the revelation of Tang Mingyue’s background, the farce at the Xie family feast…

That string in his heart that had long been stretched taut and tight suddenly snapped.

Xie Zhifei grabbed the wine from Pei Xiao’s hand and gulped it down in one go. “Zhu Qing, bring more wine.”

Zhu Qing not only brought wine but also secretly procured some drinking snacks from the kitchen.

The two brothers drank cup after cup, and several jugs were soon emptied.

One shouldn’t drink when heartbroken—the more one drinks, the more heartbroken one becomes, and the faster one gets drunk.

Zhu Qing saw things going badly and quickly stepped forward. “If His Highness were in the capital, he’d definitely drink with both masters until none could stand.”

These words didn’t contain a single word of “stop,” yet made both Xie Zhifei and Pei Xiao put down their cups. But it was too late.

Young Master Pei’s tongue was already thick, mumbling unintelligibly while shedding tears.

Xie Zhifei couldn’t bear to watch. “Get him inside to sleep.”

Zhu Qing and Huang Qi quickly supported him on both sides and helped him into the side room.

Ding Yi went to the kitchen to brew hangover soup.

By the time they’d settled Young Master Pei and Zhu Qing came out of the room, his scalp nearly exploded.

Third Master had disappeared.

…

In the study, Yan Sanhe still sat dazed.

“Bang”—the window flew open and a man’s handsome face appeared.

“Yan Sanhe, do you dare come with me somewhere?”

Before Yan Sanhe could answer, he swung his legs over the windowsill, entered with a few quick steps, and walked over. “Do you dare or not?”

Drawing closer, Yan Sanhe finally noticed the person reeked of sharp, clear alcohol.

“You’ve been drinking?”

“I’m just asking if you dare or not?”

The wine-laden peach blossom eyes, upturned and glistening, stared straight at Yan Sanhe as Xie Zhifei hummed out a single syllable through his nose: “Hmm?”

I’m asking if you dare or not, hmm?