In her previous life in the palace, the one thing she never lacked was long stretches of time. She tried hard to make her days more interesting, and whatever Jiang Quan and the Eighth Prince told her, she was willing to take out and repeatedly ponder during sleepless nights. The layout of the Shen manor was the same as in her memory, so walking through it now required no effort at all.

She turned past the previous corridor, went around a path, and walked to a small room behind a side garden, pushing the door open to enter.

The room’s furnishings were extremely simple – it seemed to be a long-unused, abandoned study. Several travel journals were scattered carelessly on the desk. Jiang Ruan walked around to the front of the desk, where a painting of wind blowing through a bamboo forest hung in the air above. She looked at it for a moment, then reached out to lift the scroll, revealing a perfectly smooth wall behind it.

Jiang Ruan placed both hands on the snow-white wall before her, slowly exploring. Before long, her hands pressed something, and with a clear sound, the middle of the wall slowly receded inward, revealing a small hidden compartment.

She paused, then reached into the compartment and pulled out a cloth bundle. The bundle was quite heavy in her hands – when she weighed it, it felt like books. Jiang Ruan smiled slightly – this was the special account book from Minister Shen’s household in the Shen manor. Officials in the court inevitably had to grease palms and make arrangements in their daily affairs. When bribing superiors, there had to be records of money spent. Minister Shen entrusted these matters to Madam Shen, but no matter where Madam Shen hid these account books, it never felt right, so she simply placed them in this abandoned study, hiding them so brazenly behind the painting. Who would normally think to look there?

However, in her previous life when the Eighth Prince met with her privately, he had mentioned this matter. Minister Shen was aligned with Jiang Quan, but later had some disagreements for unknown reasons. Jiang Quan didn’t mind because he had leverage over Minister Shen. These account books had somehow fallen into Jiang Quan’s hands. Once these account books were exposed, they would implicate many people above, inevitably causing another upheaval.

Regardless, today these account books were in her hands – at least this trip wasn’t in vain.

Jiang Ruan tucked the cloth bundle into her bosom, then suddenly froze and turned around.

A person was standing in front of the screen in the room, currently looking at her calmly, emotions unreadable in his eyes.

When she looked carefully, the person wore black clothing with extraordinarily cold brows and eyes. His appearance was inexplicably familiar – it was the black-clad youth she had encountered once at the temple when returning to the capital mansion that day. She hadn’t expected to meet him again here today – she didn’t know if this was fortune or misfortune.

Jiang Ruan stared at him warily, but he only looked directly at her chest. Jiang Ruan felt slightly annoyed, then heard him suddenly speak: “Account book.”

So he was staring at the account book in her bosom. Jiang Ruan was startled and frowned: “You want the account book?”

This youth’s background was unknown, yet he also wanted the account book. Could it be that he too was at odds with the Shen manor? Jiang Ruan paused briefly in her heart, then pulled the account book from her bosom and tossed it over from a distance. The black-clad youth raised his hand to catch it and looked at her thoughtfully. His handsome face remained as cold as ever, making his emotions unreadable.

Jiang Ruan felt carefree in her heart. She had only wanted this account book to cause trouble for the Shen manor and incidentally create some problems for Jiang Li. If she really had to say anything, keeping such things would only be a hot potato. Now that her wings weren’t fully grown, many things were inconvenient for her to handle personally – keeping them would actually be difficult to clean up. Since this person was also at odds with the Shen manor, what harm was there in selling him a favor? As long as she could see the Shen manor having no good days, she would be happy.

The black-clad youth stood tall and elegant, his presence in the room seeming to add an inexplicable radiance. His handsome and heroic features inexplicably carried an indescribable noble bearing. Jiang Ruan lowered her head in thought – she didn’t know what this person’s identity was, but his elegance emanated from within, making him truly mysteriously extraordinary. Fortunately, today he didn’t have that night’s murderous aura – it seemed he bore no killing intent toward her. This was indeed a blessing in misfortune.

Meeting twice in such circumstances could be considered being acquaintances, only every time was when doing bad things – she wondered what kind of fate this was.

Seeing the account book had fallen into the other party’s hands, Jiang Ruan felt there was no benefit to staying longer and prepared to leave. The other party didn’t move either, only standing quietly in place. Before Jiang Ruan reached out to push the door, she suddenly said: “Above the beams of the woodshed behind the Shen manor kitchen, under the scholar tree in Shen Mingzhen’s back courtyard, under the artificial mountain by the garden pond in the manor – there are also good things there. Under the wooden boards beneath the bed in Minister Shen’s study is a secret passage, and the passage may contain rich treasures. For all these various things, I hope they can assist you.”

The black-clad youth’s expression paused, and Jiang Ruan had already calmly pushed the door and left. After Jiang Ruan departed, someone suddenly leaped down from the beams and walked to the youth’s front, bowing his head: “Master, that girl’s words are not trustworthy.”

“The legitimate daughter of the Jiang manor,” the youth lowered his eyes, his long lashes concealing the emotions in his eyes as he said coldly: “Investigate her background.”

After Jiang Ruan left the room, she took a deep breath. The person in the room had too dangerous an identity. Though she didn’t know exactly who he was, having been immersed in palace life for so many years in her previous life, she knew that while a person’s identity could be disguised, their temperament and bearing could not be questioned. Just like how after her rebirth, the maids and servants around her always said she seemed like a noble person from the palace – it was merely habits formed in her previous life. The person in that room must have lived in luxury, with an inherent elegance in his bones. If she hadn’t guessed wrong, he should be from the imperial family.

Getting entangled with such a person was unwise, yet Jiang Ruan had still done so, even deliberately revealing the Shen manor’s secrets to him. She knew it was because her heart was unwilling to accept things. Even though she often warned herself to be steady and forbearing in all matters, her actions ultimately carried the resentment and solitary indignation from her previous life. The enemy of her enemy was her friend – if that person wanted to oppose the Shen manor, he was also opposing Jiang Quan. No matter what, this was something she was happy to see happen.

Shaking her head, Jiang Ruan drove away all the wild thoughts in her mind. In any case, she should deal with the immediate matters first – things hadn’t reached a troublesome stage yet.

Proceeding smoothly all the way, when she returned to the seating area, Shen Mingzhen couldn’t help but be shocked upon seeing Jiang Ruan and cried out: “How did you come back?”

Jiang Susu timely concealed the surprise in her eyes and stood up as well, saying strangely: “How did eldest sister come back alone? Where is third sister?”

Jiang Ruan smiled slightly: “Li’er was urgent to go to the washroom, so she had me wait first. I waited for a long time and happened to meet a little maid who brought me back here first.”

“A little maid?” Shen Mingzhen asked urgently, her voice rising somewhat and drawing the sidelong glances of the surrounding ladies and misses. However, at this moment she couldn’t care about that and only questioned: “Which little maid? What was her name? Are you trying to deceive me?”

Jiang Ruan looked puzzled: “Sister Mingzhen, what are you saying? If it weren’t for a little maid from your manor, how could I have come back properly on my first visit to the Shen manor? I’m someone who doesn’t know the way.”

Jiang Susu’s gaze flickered: “That’s indeed the case.”

Jiang Ruan smiled again: “However, I forgot to ask that little maid’s name. I only know she looked clever and cute, and she left after escorting me to the front.”