Both changed color. Rong Wei reacted extremely quickly, tilting his head to blow out the flint torch hanging on the ladder head.

Tie Ci looked around for hiding places. Both ends of the bookshelf were open with clear views, the reading tables had high legs that couldn’t hide people either, so there was only…

Rong Wei, still on the ladder, climbed a few steps and nimbly flipped onto the ceiling beams.

The footsteps were approaching, seemingly dragging something with scraping sounds.

Rong Wei leaned down to grab the top of the ladder and lift it, signaling Tie Ci to climb up.

Tie Ci leaped up, using the ladder to flip onto the ceiling beams. The two then pulled the ladder up with them.

Just as they settled, those footsteps had already reached the travel accounts section – coming straight toward them.

Lamplight swayed, casting clustered shadows. Under the light and shadows, that person’s hair at the temples was somewhat sparse – it was actually the Supervisor.

Tie Ci held her breath, watching the Supervisor carry his lamp and patrol before the bookcases below. Someone followed behind him, dragging a basket. Tie Ci also recognized this person – it was Chen Zhuolin, the academy steward who had been assigned by the Rong family to deliver bedding to her before.

The two didn’t speak. The Supervisor placed the oil lamp on a nearby table, its light slanting over to cast their shadows in intricate patterns all over the floor.

The Supervisor looked around and suddenly said: “Where’s the ladder?”

Chen Zhuolin walked off to search around, returning empty-handed: “Last time I heard the ladder was about to break. The library staff once reported requesting a replacement. The old one might have been taken away, but the new one hasn’t been issued yet.”

Tie Ci was concentrating on watching when suddenly Rong Wei behind her pulled her forcefully into his embrace.

The next instant, the Supervisor raised his head. If Rong Wei hadn’t pulled her deeper into the shadows, the Supervisor might have seen her.

After being startled, Tie Ci felt somewhat ashamed. She had seen the Supervisor had no martial arts and had been careless.

But at this moment, Rong Wei was holding her tightly, probably afraid she might unconsciously lean out again. He held her so tight she could even feel his cheek pressed against her ear. With slightly heavier breathing, she could sense that slightly cool, smooth skin, while the faint woody leaf fragrance kept drilling toward her nostrils like countless wisps of smoke from where their bodies touched. That fragrance carried some indescribable scent – crisp and refreshing, yet after smelling it long, it felt inexplicably seductive and wonderfully pleasant.

His fingers rested on her arm – slender, able to encircle her entire arm, each finger like jade, seemingly able to glow in the shadows.

That dazed sense of familiarity and heart-stirring feeling came over Tie Ci again.

She could only lower her eyes and pretend to be a wooden log.

With great matters unsettled, heartstrings were difficult to pluck.

Below, the Supervisor looked up at the top of the bookshelf and said: “Then how do we get up?”

Chen Zhuolin said: “Let me try.”

Then he swept up the bookshelf like light smoke, his toes clicking out two blade points that inserted into the wood of the bookshelf. Raising his hand, he began taking down travel accounts from the very top.

Tie Ci stared intently at his movements, wanting to see which books he was taking.

If she wasn’t mistaken, the Supervisor and Chen Zhuolin had come to take the travel accounts that Lady He had read.

She had questioned the Supervisor’s wife, not knowing if the Supervisor’s wife had let something slip. But the Supervisor, purely out of caution, had brought Chen Zhuolin to the library in the middle of the night to take away the books Lady He had read.

That showed a guilty conscience.

The one who came was the Supervisor, and Chen Zhuolin represented the Rong family’s power – Rong Luchuan. Were both the Supervisor and Rong Luchuan involved in that incident from years ago?

No, that wasn’t right.

The Supervisor had been the librarian back then, specifically in charge of managing the library. If Lady He had truly left something in the library, wouldn’t he have looked for it in all these years?

Was it that he hadn’t thought of the library before, but when she came to the academy as Lady He’s relative and began investigating the cause of the lady’s death years ago, he realized there might be problems here and rushed over urgently?

Below, Chen Zhuolin pulled out one book, then another.

Tie Ci was quickly disappointed.

These two seemed not to know which specific book to take either, but were replacing all the books on the shelf. The basket they brought was full of books – they were planning to replace everything.

This seemed to verify Tie Ci’s guess. The other party originally didn’t know there might be clues in the library, only just guessed it, so they rushed here hastily to replace books.

The books naturally couldn’t be allowed to be replaced. Once replaced, they could never be investigated again.

Tie Ci gestured to Rong Wei. Rong Wei nodded. Suddenly flicking his finger, he extinguished the Supervisor’s lamp.

The second floor was instantly plunged into darkness. Both the Supervisor and Chen Zhuolin were startled. Chen Zhuolin stopped pulling books and floated down. Both looked tense, not daring to make sounds, looking around in all directions.

Tie Ci had already removed her shoes, carrying them while taking advantage of the momentary darkness to walk quickly across the ceiling beams. After opening the skylight and going out, she flipped down along the eave corner, quickly slid to the bottom, put on her shoes, and woke up the guard who had been knocked unconscious by Rong Wei earlier.

Just before that student woke up, she threw a stone at the second floor window, hitting the open window sash so it banged shut.

The night-watching student just woke up and heard the noise from the second floor. Groggily, he picked up the candle on the table, lit the wind lantern, and carried it upstairs, calling: “Who’s there!”

After a moment, footsteps sounded on the stairs. The Supervisor brought Chen Zhuolin hurrying downstairs, saying in a deep voice: “We were patrolling at night and reached this place, but discovered you were sleeping soundly, so we went upstairs to inspect for you!”

The student lowered his head in shame, respectfully seeing the Supervisor and Chen Zhuolin out of the library. When he sat back in the small house this time, his eyes were bright and alert – he dared not sleep again.

Unfortunately, someone wanted him to sleep.

A figure flashed by. Tie Ci passed behind him like wind, delivering a neck chop, and the man softly collapsed again.

This time when Tie Ci returned, she saw Rong Wei crouching by that large basket, flipping through books.

Earlier Chen Zhuolin had brought books, but when leaving he couldn’t openly carry them back in front of people, so he had to leave them on the second floor first. However, they wouldn’t come a second time tonight.

The books in the basket were also travel accounts, with nothing unusual. Tie Ci looked up at row upon row of old books above, remembering she had only looked through one row in half a day, and felt a headache coming.

Since the Supervisor and others had the idea of replacing books, they would definitely come back to replace them. During the day when students were in class, no one would notice them entering. By tomorrow night, the books might all be taken away, but how could she flip through them all in one night?

Rong Wei threw a book into the basket and said: “One can see through them at a glance – they’re all just randomly assembled books for making up numbers.”

Like a bolt of lightning suddenly striking into Tie Ci’s mind.

She suddenly froze.

See through them at a glance…

See through…

Didn’t she already have X-ray vision!

Put the books together and use X-ray vision to look!

Although her supernatural abilities had already unlocked two powers, she didn’t know if it was due to inexperience or some limitation, but she couldn’t use them all the time. In daily life, without deliberately focusing her vision, she couldn’t activate the X-ray ability.

So much so that she had forgotten she had this skill available.

She was still somewhat hesitant about demonstrating supernatural abilities in front of Rong Wei…

But Rong Wei had already seen her use teleportation.

He didn’t ask much about it, as if he found it unremarkable. Tie Ci knew that currently supernatural abilities were said to be exclusive to the royal family, but that was just to deepen the royal family’s mystique and nobility. In the mountains and wilderness, there were still a few people who possessed supernatural abilities, like Dan Shuang, whose eyes could see very far.

There was nothing to hesitate about. Tie Ci moved row after row of books to the table, looking from one end to the other.

With the lamplight shining and vision fully focused, the first time was unsuccessful.

The second time was also unsuccessful.

Tie Ci sighed inwardly. Although she had unlocked supernatural abilities, there were limitations. If she couldn’t use them when urgently needed, that would actually be a hindrance.

So she didn’t plan to rely on supernatural abilities as talents – practicing martial arts well was more reliable.

The third time, finally her vision flashed and that sensation came.

Those beams of light followed her gaze, penetrating the yellowed paper page by page. All the ink marks advanced row by row in her field of vision, flashing by like countless black snowflakes, rising from the horizon and disappearing into the earth.

Tie Ci only needed to look among the neat ink marks for any different features.

She picked out books with abnormalities and set them aside, with Rong Wei helping her flip through them.

This way, efficiency improved greatly, but the dim light was extremely taxing on her eyes. After finishing one row, tears flowed continuously.

A handkerchief was handed over, plain and unscented. She took it and smiled gratefully, pressing it to her eyes, but didn’t return it to him, putting it away to wash and return later.

Continuing this way, after finishing the third row, her temples throbbed with hidden pain.

She didn’t speak, but a pair of hands reached over. Thumbs pressed against her temples while the other four fingers gently circled around the pressure points. Rong Wei’s voice sounded beside her ear: “Come, close your eyes and think of my beauty – then your head won’t hurt.”

Tie Ci: “……”

Thanks for the invitation, but thinking of my own beauty works just as well.

The fingers pressing the pressure points had slight calluses – the subtle grinding sensation was quite comfortable. She closed her eyes, wondering when she had allowed someone to get so close to her vital points.

That faint woody leaf fragrance was surprisingly aggressive.

She slightly moved her head away and smiled: “Thank you for sir’s care. Let’s hurry up.”

Rong Wei also lowered his hands, rolling up his sleeves, looking at her with a half-smile.

Like a sensitive little beast, always instinctively becoming alert at the edge of indulgence.

They quickly finished looking through all the books, picking out several dozen, then flipping through them one by one, but still found nothing.

Most of those had annotations, but the annotations clearly showed high insight and refined language – obviously all by famous scholars, not matching Lady He’s scholarly status.

There was no feminine handwriting as imagined.

Rong Wei tossed over a book. That one wasn’t a travel account but described a utopian paradise. Inside were some dots and sketches, with lines drawn under sentences describing scenic beauty, obviously yearning for such places. At first glance nothing seemed strange, but after Tie Ci looked more closely, she noticed those underlines were particularly straight, with heavy strokes, like the handwriting of someone unfamiliar with writing but quite strong.

In the academy where conversations were all among great scholars and associates were all refined people, the only one who liked staying in the library but wasn’t highly cultured was Lady He alone.

But a few dots and lines had no reference value whatsoever.

However, Tie Ci didn’t throw the book aside. Staring at those dots and sketches, she suddenly opened a travel account she had flipped through before.

That book called itself a travel account but was more like a record of strange places and creatures, recording legendary places and mythical beasts – all the kind that couldn’t be verified in reality. The language was convoluted and obscure, using ancient and abstruse allusions – the type Lady He couldn’t understand even if she tried. But there were some illustrations of strange shapes.

Because most academy students also couldn’t understand this book, few people read it, so it was well preserved. The book also had annotations – witty and insightful, but in He Zi’s handwriting.

Tie Ci carefully examined that writing, then moved closer to the lamp light, changing angles to compare with the underline ink marks from the previous book.

Rong Wei also noticed and said: “The ink used on these two books seems different from elsewhere.”

Under different angles of light, one could see the ink marks on these two books faintly reflecting iridescent purple-blue light.

“Ink produced from Yannan Danxia, because it contains a rare mineral, reflects purple-blue light under lamplight. Called Purple Lightning and Blue Frost, it also has a faint pine fragrance. The fragrance probably can’t be smelled now, but the luster remains. This ink is extremely rare and precious. The He couple should have used this type of ink.” Tie Ci pointed to some seemingly casual dots and marks under He Zi’s annotations. “Because the ink was precious, Mr. He used it sparingly with restrained strokes. So there shouldn’t be these dots and marks – those were drawn by Lady He. He Zi said she could read, but judging from these two books, she really didn’t know many characters and didn’t like writing, so she had a habit of making dots and marks under text that moved her.”

Having said this, it became clear. The two split up again to examine those travel accounts, specifically looking for sections with dots and marks below.

Many people also liked to add circles and emphasis, but Lady He used different ink – you could tell by the color.

This time they found three books and extracted the characters that had dots underneath.

“…fall…rocky…wild goose…three…left…storehouse…ugly…three…martial…moment…guard…change…thousand…handle…under…ground…time…”

Comparing them yielded a bunch of nonsensical characters that didn’t look like combinations for confiding feelings.

Tie Ci copied down these characters, planning to research them after returning. It would be dawn soon.

Suddenly a breeze passed, rustling through that travel account with He Zi’s annotations. The various colored maps and mythical beast illustrations flipped rapidly, with the black marks and lines above forming continuous sheets… Tie Ci suddenly reached out and pressed the book down.

Her hand folded the book, connecting two illustrations front and back. Two edge lines directly connected, and there was a black shadow along those edge lines.

Tie Ci flipped several more pages, found the previous image, held it down – three images still connected, with that black shadow above the images, its outline becoming clear.

Tie Ci stared at that image, her expression slightly changing.

Then she put away these few books, packed them in the bag she brought, and said: “I’ll go back to research slowly.”

Rong Wei glanced at her, clearly knowing she had gained something but didn’t plan to say. He didn’t ask either, standing up to stretch lazily.

The two randomly found a few books from the basket to stuff in the shelf gaps, refilling the bookshelf before going downstairs.

Once outside, when the wind blew and her attention shifted, Tie Ci suddenly felt her head itching. Then she remembered the embarrassing incident while bathing in her quarters that evening. Because of the awkward door guards, she had hurriedly gotten up without completely rinsing her hair.

Seeing a pool of water downstairs, the itching became even more intense. Tie Ci restrained her hands that wanted to constantly scratch, planning to wash her hair at Lingering Fragrance Lake on the way.

Rong Wei suddenly raised his hand to touch her hair. Tie Ci dodged, but Rong Wei had already taken something from her hair. Looking at it, he laughed in amazement: “What’s this… saving soap as a midnight snack?”

Tie Ci looked – it was actually a hardened soap flake!

She couldn’t take it anymore!

Tie Ci raised her leg and ran outside, rushing straight to Lingering Fragrance Lake, undoing her hair and dunking it in the water.

Rong Wei followed behind, laughing: “Although it’s gotten hot, washing your hair in such cold water – aren’t you afraid of catching cold?”

Tie Ci crouched by the lake, washing her long hair in the water like washing vegetables. Suddenly someone crouched beside her and grabbed her hair, saying: “Be gentler with your hair, or while you’re still young, it will leave you. When wind blows over bare hills, it’s quite desolate.”

Tie Ci snorted with laughter.

Wind swept across the lake surface. On the opposite shore, lotus leaves spread out like jade plates, flowers sleeping beneath green discs, stems and vines graceful in the clear water. Mandarin ducks intertwined necks above the water and beneath the vines. Swans buried their heads, deep red long beaks emerging between snow-white feathers – in their peaceful sleep, surely not one dreamed of iron pots.

The person beside her gently washed her long hair. Snow-white fingers and palms entered the crystal-clear water, spreading a piece of black silk between fingers and palms.

Heaven and earth were quiet, with only the soft sound of water – tiny splashing sounds like gentle waves against the heart’s embankment, moist and crystalline, slowly blooming tender flower buds within, swaying in the wind with pearl-like water droplets rolling everywhere.

Tie Ci lowered her head, staring at a naive fish wagging its tail in the water.

Rong Wei also stopped talking. The long hair between his fingers was as smooth as swimming fish, floating here and there, his heart seeming to sway along with it, circles of ripples spreading endlessly.

In the early morning, everyone at the academy was sleeping. Only these two washing hair by the lake, their thoughts like mist rising above the green lake and forest trees, slowly covering the vast mountain forest.

Not knowing how much time passed – perhaps a century – a ray of dawn light penetrated the clear lake water and reached Tie Ci’s eyes. Only then did she suddenly jump up, saying: “It’s getting late! The wake-up bell will ring soon!”

As she stood up, her hair dripped water. She grabbed her hair to squeeze it dry like a towel, but Rong Wei intercepted: “Didn’t I just tell you to be gentler with your hair?”

Speaking, he grabbed her hair with one hand and untied his belt with the other.

Tie Ci: “……???”