“Does Eunuch feel something is wrong?”

“No.”

Song Wan only felt he was truly strange today, not knowing if the Eastern Palace had developed some misunderstanding toward the Song family.

Just as she was secretly speculating about the Crown Prince’s thoughts, the courtyard gate was suddenly knocked upon.

Old Woman Lang moved forward to inquire which manor and which person it was. After a moment’s pause outside the gate, a male voice sounded: “My master, the Marquis of Chengyang, has come in person. Please open the gate, Madam.”

Old Woman Lang was startled and quickly had Luanjian at her side go notify Song Wan.

“Jiang Xingjian? What is he doing here?”

Song Wan furrowed her brows, a trace of irritation rising in her heart. However, she never showed her emotions on her face. Turning around, she still spoke to Shen Qianyu with a gentle attitude: “It’s inconvenient for Eunuch to appear here. Would Eunuch mind taking shelter in the kitchen for a moment?”

Shen Qianyu raised an eyebrow. He actually had no problem appearing before Jiang Xingjian, but he didn’t want to make things difficult for Song Wan.

Striding into the small kitchen behind the main hall, Shen Qianyu pulled over a small wooden stool and sat directly down.

The courtyard gate opened. Jiang Xingjian sat in a bamboo chair being carried in by several old women.

His injuries still hadn’t healed. He’d lost most of his weight and appeared haggard, yet Song Wan noticed that when he entered, his gaze swept lightly over the vegetable-laden wooden cart at the entrance.

Song Wan lowered her eyes, concealing a trace of faint mockery.

After being carried to the front of the main hall, Jiang Xingjian looked at Song Wan, feeling quite uncomfortable.

It was evident she was living very well here—carefree and leisurely, not to mention she wasn’t as tense as she had been in the marquis manor.

Today she wore a pink-based apricot-yellow flowered front-fastening jacket, with a silver kingfisher-feather flower hairpin in her hair—small and delicate, appearing quite lively and pretty.

When she was at the marquis manor, he had never seen her dress this way.

Seeing this, Jiang Xingjian smiled faintly: “You’re quite beautiful dressed like this. I like it very much.”

Sitting in the kitchen, Shen Qianyu let out a cold laugh.

“What is your purpose in coming today?”

Jiang Xingjian said: “I came to take you back to the manor.”

He originally wasn’t in a hurry to bring Song Wan back to the marquis manor. From his understanding of Song Wan, even if Steward Qi’s wife saw a man entering and leaving this place, he didn’t believe she would do anything that violated wifely virtue.

So Jiang Xingjian had been waiting—waiting for Song Lan’an to send Song Wan back in grand style.

But yesterday’s changes at the Eastern Palace made him feel a sense of crisis.

“The Third Prince and Fifth Prince… now it can no longer be said who owes whom. I promise you that from now on, whether Imperial Concubine Jiang or the marquis manor, neither will move against the Third Prince or Imperial Concubine Yun.”

“Wan’er, come back with me. From now on, I will certainly treat you with the propriety due a legitimate wife. We’ll be a harmonious couple.”

Song Wan lowered her eyes: “Although I’m a weak woman, I still know what it means to keep one’s word and be consistent. Since you and I have severed all ties, there is absolutely no room for reconciliation.”

“Go back. There’s no need to say these things.”

“Severed ties…”

Jiang Xingjian said softly: “Without the agreement of both clan heads, and as long as I don’t pursue the matter of you killing and injuring me, how can it be called severed ties?”

“Wan’er, stop being angry with me. Return to the manor with me.”

“I won’t go back with you. Rather than spending this time pestering me, you’d be better off treating the other two concubines in the manor well.”

“Jiang Xingjian, wouldn’t it be better if we let each other go?”

“You and I are husband and wife. You are the wife of my Chengyang Marquis Manor, properly married with matchmaker’s approval, who bowed to ancestors and heaven and earth. What do you mean by ‘let go’? Wan’er, you are my wife, in life and death.”

“Even if you and I live a hundred years in the future, you must still enter my Chengyang Marquis Manor’s ancestral tomb and receive incense offerings from my Chengyang Marquis Manor. What talk of letting go?”

Jiang Xingjian pressed his chest, easing the dull pain throughout his body from sitting too long, and continued: “Now the overall situation is settled. Returning to the manor with me now is better than being sent back by your father-in-law. If you end up being sent back by your maternal clan, how will you maintain the dignity of the marquis manor’s mistress in the future?”

Song Wan gripped her handkerchief, so angry she clenched her teeth.

“If you return to the manor this time, I absolutely won’t treat you as I did before.”

Jiang Xingjian’s face was sincere. He forcefully pressed on the small sedan chair beneath him and struggled to stand up. Song Wan dodged backward. Jiang Xingjian said: “Wan’er, if you reach out your hand again of your own accord, I absolutely won’t let go.”

Hearing this, Song Wan was both furious and embarrassed. She glared at Jiang Xingjian angrily, pressing her lips together without speaking.

Just as Jiang Xingjian was about to step forward to embrace Song Wan, a loud crashing sound came from the kitchen.

Shen Qianyu had smashed the porcelain bowls on the cabinet and was holding a spatula in his hand, comparing each one individually.

He truly couldn’t bear to listen anymore. His irritation and anger accumulated more and more. If not for a remaining trace of rationality, he only wanted to rush out and break each of Jiang Xingjian’s other unbroken bones one by one, making him unable to get out of bed for the rest of his life.

This commotion startled everyone in the courtyard. Jiang Xingjian lowered his eyes and said: “Steward Qi’s wife said you were secretly meeting a man here. I don’t…”

As soon as the words “secret meeting” emerged, Song Wan’s eyes widened. She glared at Jiang Xingjian furiously, her eyes full of anger at being slandered.

“Jinshu, see the guest out!”

Jinshu, who had been standing to the side, instantly raised her head. Seeing Jiang Xingjian standing with difficulty before her young miss, she stepped forward and said “Excuse me,” then wrapped one arm around Jiang Xingjian’s waist, tucking him under her arm. Walking to the bamboo sedan chair, she extended her other hand to drag the small bamboo sedan chair out.

“My lord, my lord…”

Several rough servant women were shocked by Jinshu’s actions and didn’t know what to do. They knew Jiang Xingjian had injuries and didn’t dare act rashly.

And Jiang Xingjian, despite possessing martial skills, was in such pain at this moment that he couldn’t move at all. He could only be carried out of the residence by Jinshu.

Outside the courtyard gate, Jinshu gently set Jiang Xingjian down. Looking at the sedan chair that was still half inside the gate, she raised her foot and kicked it outside. With a thud, she closed the large gate.

“My lord, are you alright?”

Tao Hong only saw that Jiang Xingjian’s face was deathly pale and quite frightening. He quickly stepped forward to carry him on his back into the carriage.

Jiang Xingjian lay in the carriage for a long while before he could endure the severe pain throughout his body.

He covered his eyes with his hand, somewhat irritably saying: “There’s an outsider in the residence. The breathing is heavy—definitely not a woman.”

“Given Wan’er’s temperament, she absolutely couldn’t possibly shelter a man in the residence. The person in the kitchen should be a eunuch.”

“Song Yuning’s alliance with the Eastern Palace isn’t a smokescreen used by the Song family.”

“Who could have thought that the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace was hiding this deeply…”

Jiang Xingjian frowned, forcefully enduring the pain and said: “Notify Her Ladyship to have her guard against the Eastern Palace’s Crown Prince. Additionally, we must protect Qianshu at all costs, especially be careful of palace maids and eunuchs in the palace.”

The First Prince had suddenly died suddenly. The imperial physicians said he died from untreated severe injuries.

But Jiang Xingjian didn’t believe it could be such a coincidence. Just as the Eastern Palace had activity, the First Prince who had old grievances with him suddenly died?

That this person had gone undetected for so many years could only mean that the Eastern Palace’s Crown Prince had secret methods in his hands far more formidable than they imagined.

Jiang Xingjian felt irritated and inexplicably uneasy.

Just after he left, Shen Qianyu walked out with a gloomy expression. Seeing Song Wan’s dazed appearance, his heart grew even more resentful.

“That truly wronged Eunuch.”

“Miss Song speaks too much.”

Shen Qianyu frowned. At this moment, he suddenly disliked Song Wan’s appearance somewhat.

The worry in her eyes hadn’t dispersed, yet her face still wore a gentle smile, as if she had never taken Jiang Xingjian’s insults to heart.

She was accustomed to glossing over discord, neither competing nor resenting, neither angry nor wrathful, and even always maintaining that gentle and soft appearance—lowering her hands and voice, moving lightly and stepping slowly.

“You…”

Shen Qianyu frowned deeply. When he saw Song Wan looking at him with a faint smile, he swallowed his words back.

Speaking too deeply would be too impolite.

After a moment of silence, Shen Qianyu said: “Regarding the Chengyang Marquis Manor, is there anywhere the Crown Prince can help?”