Pei Yan had no mind to concern himself with what Yin Hao was doing. In any case, he had given his instructions, and those below would carry them out accordingly. As for how Yin Hao would handle things, that was Yin Hao’s affair. He now sat in the main hall of the courtyard where Yu Tang resided, drinking tea while discussing with Yu Tang the marriage alliance between the Gu and Yin families.

“You should already know about it, right?” he said, lifting the lidded bowl and gently brushing aside the tea leaves floating on the surface. “The Gu family should be sending someone tomorrow to discuss the marriage arrangements with the Yin family. How ridiculous that Gu Zhaoyang is still planning to conduct the formal betrothal ceremony at our house. I’ve already told Second Brother Yin that I can provide money and people, but conducting the ceremony at our house is out of the question. What would our ancestors think? I think Second Brother Yin has been so busy he’s become confused and can’t even distinguish what’s important from what’s not.”

Yu Tang merely sat there with a smiling expression, listening without responding.

She vaguely felt that Pei Yan seemed rather pleased about this matter.

But this was Gu Chang getting engaged—what was he so pleased about?

She found it somewhat puzzling and couldn’t understand Pei Yan’s mood, so she simply remained silent.

Pei Yan felt rather frustrated.

Previously, it had always been Yu Tang speaking while he listened. He had merely said one wrong thing, and moreover, he had already apologized, yet she continued to be neither cold nor warm toward him. Wasn’t her temper a bit too much?

However, once she returned to Lin’an and saw the roomful of gifts, she should stop being angry, right?

Thinking of this, Pei Yan rallied his spirits again and said, “Have any strange things happened around you these past few days?”

Yu Tang shook her head.

Pei Yan became somewhat confused and murmured to himself, “That shouldn’t be right! After I drove Peng Shiyi out of Lin’an, he said nothing openly but was extremely angry, and even ‘accidentally’ beat to death a young servant at his side. Li Duan is still in the capital without making any moves… When did these two people even meet? And how did they get involved with each other?”

Yu Tang lowered her head and said softly, “Perhaps I remembered wrong! When I think of that dream now, it all seems very absurd. The elderly also say that what you think about during the day, you dream about at night. Perhaps I was so startled by my first glimpse of Peng Shiyi that I generated many wild imaginings?”

At this moment, it was Pei Yan who became skeptical instead. He said, “If it were imagination, it would be far too formidable.”

Only now did Yu Tang deeply feel that people truly cannot tell lies, otherwise you will go further and further down that path until you lose your way.

She could only say, “One can be a thief for a thousand days, but one cannot guard against thieves for a thousand days. For some matters, it’s better to leave them to fate!”

Pei Yan looked at Yu Tang with dissatisfaction.

What was wrong with this little girl? Every time he had seen her recently, she seemed listless, and the things she said were also dispirited.

It seemed Tao Qing was right—she hadn’t realized his apology at all.

He should be more obvious about it.

Pei Yan couldn’t help but silently applaud himself.

Good thing he was clever and had sent people to follow Yu Tang, buying everything she looked at with favor and sending it all back to Lin’an.

When she saw those things, she should be able to understand his intentions.

Perhaps she would even happily come to thank him.

Thinking this, Pei Yan’s mind conjured an image of Yu Tang’s delighted expression, and his brow naturally smoothed out.

He decided to magnanimously forgive Yu Tang and encourage her, saying, “What you say makes sense. However, if we clearly know who the thieves are and still let them go, we would be letting those thieves off too easily. Just rest assured—these two people, I will definitely deal with them. You just need to follow my arrangements, and I guarantee you’ll be perfectly safe without any incidents.”

Yu Tang believed this.

But she could sense Pei Yan’s mercurial mood—sometimes cloudy, sometimes sunny—and not knowing what had happened, she felt somewhat anxious and could only say, “With you protecting me, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Pei Yan hummed with great satisfaction, feeling he should continue discussing Gu Chang’s marriage with Yu Tang, though he worried it might not be quite proper to gossip about others behind their backs.

But when had he ever worried about anyone else’s preferences before?

Even now he hadn’t realized his own unusual behavior. Instead, after hesitating for a moment, he finally decided to just talk about Gu Chang using subtle wording.

“Gu Chang’s current situation is still quite difficult. A marriage alliance with the Yin family benefits his official career,” he said with a slight smile. “However, his mentor Sun Gao has been wanting to marry his daughter to him all along, and Gu Chang has been ambiguous about it, never giving the Sun family a clear answer. The Sun family is marrying off a daughter after all, so they naturally need to maintain some reserve. Plus, Sun Gao is somewhat stubborn and self-opinionated, thinking the Gu family couldn’t possibly marry a daughter from another family under these circumstances, and that the reason the Gu family hasn’t come to propose might be related to Gu Chang’s unreliable father. Who would have thought that Sun Gao’s approach actually gave Gu Chang an idea? This time, in arranging the engagement with the Yin family, Gu Chang used his elders as a banner, employing ‘parents’ orders cannot be disobeyed’ as his excuse. Sun Gao has suffered a silent loss this time and will probably turn against Gu Chang ahead of schedule.

“Yin Hao even came to me specifically about this, asking if I had any way to help Gu Chang.

“Thinking that our two families are related by marriage after all, I even gave Yin Hao advice—Sun Gao’s fury is unavoidable. Moreover, since Gu Chang hasn’t explicitly rejected the Sun family before, rumors have been circulating in the capital. If Gu Chang doesn’t suffer some grievances at this point, or even some humiliation, others won’t sympathize with him. That reputation of being an ungrateful wretch would stick to him.

“Only by letting everyone see Sun Gao’s tyrannical behavior can they understand Gu Chang’s suffering!”

Yu Tang felt these matters were beyond her understanding.

She didn’t understand why Pei Yan was telling her all this, nor did she understand why Gu Chang would use his own marriage as a bargaining chip, and even less did she understand what was the point of their scheming and calculating.

She only pitied Miss Sun.

Not knowing whom she would marry in this lifetime? Would her husband be faithful to her?

Yu Tang merely nodded.

Pei Yan clicked his tongue inwardly.

How could this little girl still be so difficult to placate?

He sighed internally. At this moment, he found himself missing the virtues of Miss Xu—if Miss Xu were here, there would be someone to help keep the conversation going, and the young girl probably wouldn’t be so dejected.

However, the Yin and Gu families were about to become engaged, so the busiest person would be Third Madam Yang. As the future daughter-in-law of the Yin family, and with the Xu family being related to the Yin family by marriage, Third Madam Yang being unfamiliar with the place would likely pull Miss Xu along as a helper. Miss Xu probably wouldn’t have time to look after his young girl.

The thought flashed through his mind.

Pei Yan’s expression stiffened slightly.

His… um… young girl…

That was indeed correct, wasn’t it?

She was someone he had always wanted to protect.

But to call her his young girl… it seemed a bit… ear-warming… and also somewhat improper and unjustified.

Pei Yan felt rather uncomfortable and coughed lightly, pushing all these things he considered chaotic to the bottom of his heart. Somewhat impatiently, he brought up Miss Xu: “She must be very busy these days. If you feel bored, I’ll have Qing Yuan accompany you to stay at the estate near Phoenix Mountain. It’s far from the bustling market, with vast stretches of forest, verdant mountains and green peaks—very suitable for summer living…”

No matter how much Yu Tang tried to avoid it, she could still sense Pei Yan’s goodwill.

But she had come to accompany Miss Xu—how could she abandon Miss Xu to run off and play at his estate on Phoenix Mountain just because Miss Xu was too busy?

She couldn’t help but glance at Pei Yan and say, “Miss Xu has already told me about this. She invited me to go with her to help Third Madam Yang.”

Miss Xu’s exact words were that this was a rare opportunity—by learning how families like the Yin and Gu conducted wedding celebrations, when Yu Tang encountered similar celebrations in her own family in the future, she would know how to handle them.

Yu Tang would be managing the household in the future, and the ability to handle interpersonal relationships and ceremonial occasions was one of the important factors measuring whether you were competent.

Pei Yan immediately objected upon hearing this.

He said, “If they don’t have enough hands, why don’t they come to me to borrow people? Why drag you in to do hard labor?”

Someone he hadn’t even been willing to put to work—why should others order her around?

Just thinking this way, Pei Yan’s heart blazed like oil poured on fire, burning fiercely and constantly billowing smoke.

“Don’t go!” he said forcefully. “I think she’s gotten used to ordering Yin Mingyuan around and thinks she can use anyone she catches. You go tell her in a bit—no, let Qing Yuan go. Say that the weather is getting hotter, their affairs are nothing you can help with anyway, and you’ll be going to Phoenix Mountain shortly to stay for a few days. You’ll move back after they’ve finished their business!”

How could Yu Tang agree to this?

She saw that Pei Yan was so angry his face was taut and tight, practically freezing over, and knew he was truly furious. But she couldn’t understand why he would be this angry. Moreover, Miss Xu had her best interests at heart, and she genuinely wanted to observe how these great households conducted formal ceremonies and why they did so—afterward, she could try taking over such household affairs.

She had already decided to practice with her little nephew’s first birthday celebration next year.

She had even figured out how to persuade the elders in the family.

And now Pei Yan had suddenly thrown a wrench into everything.

A completely unreasonable wrench at that.

Yu Tang also thought that if Pei Yan was merely dissatisfied with Miss Xu, she should mediate between them.

She therefore said somewhat puzzledly, “Miss Xu means well—why are you so angry?”

Pei Yan was stumped by the question.

Why was he so angry?

Wasn’t it because he didn’t want others to give her the cold shoulder?

Why didn’t he want others to give her the cold shoulder?

Was it because he himself had never treated her this way?

He had never treated his own young niece this way either.

But he had never become furious because his young niece suffered some grievance.

Pei Yan’s heart began to pound chaotically.

He sensed that his attitude toward Yu Tang was vastly different from his attitude toward others.

Tolerating her swagger while relying on his power, tolerating her nonsensical talk, tolerating her aggressive manner… and even so, he still worried about her being bullied by others.

Given how vigorously she had pursued Lu Xin for paintings, was she the type to not fight back when bullied?

Yet he worried about her being bullied by Gu Xi!

He suddenly felt his mind in complete disarray, his head buzzing without knowing what he was thinking, his entire body rigidly frozen in place, his face dark as the bottom of a pot.

Yu Tang felt somewhat apprehensive watching this.

Had she stirred up a hornet’s nest again?

Pei Yan was truly difficult to deal with—you never knew when you would touch his sore spot or when you would provoke his laughter.

Not knowing when Miss Xu and the others would return to the capital.

She missed home a little.

She wanted to go back early.