Three years ago, when Teacher Pei had just been demoted by the court to Wuzhou, she had accompanied him.

Teacher Pei had the habit of reading the court gazette daily, although by the time it reached his hands, most of it was already several days old.

The first time she saw the name “Zhu Ruomei” was on several court gazettes that had been delayed by several days.

That year was the Empress Dowager’s thousandth birthday. Prince Yan Bei’s second son, Xiao Jingxi, represented Prince Yan Bei’s mansion in going to the capital to celebrate the Empress Dowager’s birthday.

It was said that this second son of Prince Yan Bei was not only beautiful as a painting, but also exceptionally intelligent.

Teacher Pei’s evaluation of this second son of the Xiao family, whom he had met once, used eight characters: “blessed with natural beauty and talent, extraordinarily gifted.”

Hearing such high praise from the usually arrogant Teacher Pei about someone else had amazed Ren Yaoqi. After all, she had lived in Yan Bei for sixteen years, but didn’t know much about this second son, Xiao. She had heard her father mention his elder brother, Prince Yan Bei’s heir, who was held as hostage in the capital, a few times because the heir was quite good at painting.

Unfortunately, the second son, Xiao, suffered from a serious illness. It was said that even walking a few more steps would cause him to cough up blood. His health was even worse than her sickly third brother Ren Yijun – truly a case of heaven being jealous of talent.

Second son Xiao’s southern journey worried everyone greatly, fearing that a single bump of his carriage on the road would send him to meet the King of Hell. Fortunately, the second son, Xiao, finally arrived safely in the capital.

Empress Dowager Yan was very pleased when she met Xiao Jingxi. Empress Dowager Yan’s niece, eldest Miss Yan, fell in love with him at first sight and swore she would marry no one but him. Finally, the Empress Dowager issued an edict to bestow the eldest Miss Yan in marriage to the second son, Xiao, who had remained unmarried due to his poor health.

Originally, it was a happy occasion, but fate refused to cooperate.

Prince Yan Bei’s heir, Xiao Jingkang, died suddenly at this time. Simultaneously, large-scale bandit rebellions broke out in Xingzhou, Xiangzhou, and Xuzhou, shocking the court and the countryside.

The name “Zhu Ruomei” frequently appeared in court gazettes from various prefectures and counties at this time – he was the chief leader of these bandit rebellions.

When the court barely managed to suppress the rebellion and was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the second son of the Xiao family, who should have remained in the capital to replace the deceased heir and marry the eldest Miss Yan, suddenly disappeared from the capital.

There were rumors that the second son, Xiao, fearing he would meet the same fate as heir Xiao, had secretly returned to Yan Bei by taking advantage of the chaos.

Others said that the bandit “Zhu Ruomei” was actually born a coal mine worker in Yan Bei, and because he was appreciated by the perceptive second son Xiao, he became a fierce general under Prince Yan Bei’s mansion. Prince Yan Bei’s mansion had long harbored rebellious intentions – the Xiao family’s heart was punishable.

Anyway, after Xiao Jingxi escaped, Zhu Ruomei also disappeared without a trace.

Afterwards, the eldest Miss Yan took her dowry and left the capital with great fanfare to go to Yan Bei to search for her husband. As for the result, there were too many rumors to distinguish truth from falsehood.

Ren Yaoqi wasn’t very interested in inquiring about such matters, because in her eyes, she saw not some poignant and touching love story, but a clear political conspiracy and intrigue.

Prince Yan Bei’s mansion and the court had an account that could never be settled clearly. Even before Ren Yaoqi woke up and returned to the Ren family, this account had not been settled.

However, she did remember the name Zhu Ruomei.

Although Ren Yaoqi had no way to verify whether this Zhu Ruomei was that Zhu Ruomei, she had discussed those rumors from that time with Teacher Pei. Indeed, quite a few were rumors, but they weren’t entirely rumors either.

When she returned to the warm pavilion, the competition outside was at its most lively moment. Even the usually gentle and refined young ladies couldn’t help but clench their fists and cry out in excitement, cheering loudly.

Ren Yaoqi sent Xueli to take silver to give to the maidservants carrying baskets and weaving back and forth asking for prize money. She also let the several nannies around her go enjoy themselves, only beckoning one nanny who was her mother Li Shi’s confidant to stay.

“Fifth Miss, what are your instructions?” the nanny asked respectfully.

Only Ren Yaoqi was still sitting in the corner of the warm pavilion. Everyone was focused on the competition outside and hadn’t noticed her. Ren Yaoqi took out a hundred-tael silver note that Ren Shimin had given her earlier from the pouch at her waist and handed it to the nanny.

“Before leaving, Father instructed me to give rewards on his behalf. Take this to the coal mine worker called ‘Zhu Ruomei’ we encountered earlier, and tell him his skills are good – this is Third Master’s reward for him.”

The nanny looked down at the silver note and was startled, “Fifth Miss, this… isn’t this too much?”

Ren Yaoqi looked helpless, “I also think it’s a bit much, but this is Father’s intention. He said I should find someone with real ability to reward. I can’t secretly keep the reward silver he gave me, can I?”

Upon hearing this, the nanny immediately had nothing more to say. The Third Master never played by conventional rules, and they didn’t dare disobey him.

“By the way, deliver it quietly, and tell Zhu Ruomei not to make it public either, or he’ll have to hand over most of the silver.”

The nanny had also heard the earlier conversation between Zhu Ruomei and Yuan Dayong, so she immediately said, “Fifth Miss, please rest assured. This servant understands.”

Ren Yaoqi nodded, and the nanny bowed and withdrew.

Before the ice ball competition outside ended, the nanny returned.

“Miss, after he received your silver, he was incredibly grateful and said he wanted to set up longevity memorial tablets for you and Third Master.” Everyone likes doing good deeds, so the nanny reported back very happily.

Ren Yaoqi was startled and smiled bitterly, “What memorial tablets does he want to set up for me? Nonsense!”

The nanny covered her mouth and laughed, “Country folk have such customs – they set up longevity memorial tablets for great benefactors who save their lives. But this servant also felt it was inappropriate, especially since you’re still an unmarried young lady and we don’t practice such customs, so I declined on your behalf. He then insisted on kneeling to kowtow several times to you and the master. This person is really honest – he kowtowed quite loudly. It’s just… It’s just that the one called Yuan Dayong seemed to have overheard this servant’s conversation with Zhu Ruomei.” The nanny looked at Ren Yaoqi somewhat uneasily.

Ren Yaoqi thought for a moment and shook her head, “No matter. Do you know what kind of person this Yuan Dayong is? It sounds like his father might be a steward in our mansion?”

The nanny hurried to say, “This servant just went to inquire. Yuan Dayong is the son of a steward in our Ren mansion’s outer courtyard. Steward Yuan mainly manages some social relations in the outer courtyard. Because Steward Yuan is literate, Yuan Dayong also learned reading and writing from his father. He now works as an accountant at a coal depot in Yunyang City.”

As expected of a useful nanny by Li Shi’s side, she had investigated the situation clearly without needing instructions. Ren Yaoqi smiled and said, “Thank you for your trouble, Nanny.”

The nanny quickly said she didn’t dare accept such thanks.

At this moment, the cheering outside was thunderous, and Ren Yaoqi couldn’t help but look up toward the entrance.

Ren Yaoyu was so excited she lost her composure, clapping her hands and saying, “We won, we won, we won!”

Ren Yaoying laughed lightly, “Eighth Sister, who do you mean by ‘we’? We didn’t see you competing.”

Ren Yaoyu looked at the contemptuous and amused glances cast her way from around her. Her face reddened, and she gritted her teeth and said in a low voice, “Ren Yaoying, didn’t you also bet on the green team! Hmph! Just a bastard born of a concubine – simply delusional!”

Ren Yaoying was shocked to hear this and looked at Ren Yaoyu. Tears swirled in her eyes, and she then turned to look at Ren Yaohua, “Third Sister! What kind of words are these from Eighth Sister? She’s cursing me, calling me a…”

Ren Yaohua’s face darkened, and she interrupted with disgust, “All of you shut up! Do you want to make fools of yourselves!”

The Eldest Young Madam noticed something was wrong and also came to smooth things over.

Fortunately, the cheering outside was too loud and drowned out their not-too-loud quarrel. Plus, besides a few masters, only personal attendants were around them, so it didn’t attract attention.