Gu Xi couldn’t help but smile faintly.

Her smile was modest and gentle.

The more such moments arose, the more low-key and composed she would appear, making people feel she was trustworthy, able to keep her composure—someone capable of great things.

This was the correct attitude.

Yu Tang was also smiling.

She knew that when she said this, everyone would assume she wanted to invite Gu Xi to take charge. This way, she had come up with the idea, yet let Gu Xi gain a virtuous reputation—her heart would seem far too honest. If the Pei young ladies were all people who went with the flow and muddled through, that would be one thing. She would suffer a loss and others might even think her too foolish. But the Pei young ladies were all upright and kind people who certainly wouldn’t so easily erase her contribution.

Speaking of which, she had discovered this by carefully observing Gu Xi’s behavior in the past.

She had learned it from Gu Xi.

As expected, after hearing this news, Gu Xi couldn’t contain the delight in her heart. She pretended to maintain silence, waiting for others to push her forward so she could demur modestly a few times before taking over to manage this matter. But the Pei young ladies simultaneously widened their eyes.

So after the gazes of the Pei young ladies all fell on Gu Xi, and after Gu Xi had briefly avoided Yu Tang’s eyes again, Yu Tang’s heart laughed even more cheerfully. She said unhurriedly, “How could I trouble Miss Gu? When I used to study with my father, I saw several ancient formulas for making Buddhist incense. It’s just that I had no interest in such things before and didn’t pay much attention. This time, suddenly remembering it, I thought—could we research and create Buddhist incense based on those ancient formulas for making Buddhist incense, then teach the nuns and lay practitioners at the temple to make it? This could both better improve the daily provisions of those at the temple and give them something to pass the time during their leisure from cultivation.”

Before Yu Tang’s words fell, both Gu Xi and the Pei young ladies were dumbstruck.

Fifth Miss even jumped up. “Sister Yu, are your incense-making formulas reliable? My maternal grandfather said that many learned scholars will share their knowledge with everyone, but private family recipes are never casually shown to others. What if those ancient formulas were just written down randomly by the author?”

Fourth Miss thought completely differently, but spoke as directly as Fifth Miss. “Sister Yu, have you made this kind of incense before? What if it doesn’t turn out well? Wouldn’t that waste both manpower and resources? Sister Gu has at least made incense herself—she certainly has experience. I think we might as well entrust Sister Gu to help teach those nuns and lay practitioners to make incense. Why go to so much trouble?”

Third Miss frowned.

She felt that if this was really the case, Yu Tang’s heart was a bit petty.

Yu Tang saw clearly but before she could refute, Second Miss had already jumped out and said sincerely, “Miss Yu, I think you and Sister Gu should manage this matter together—Sister Gu will be responsible for teaching those nuns and lay practitioners to make Buddhist incense, while Miss Yu will be responsible for explaining to the two Ladies Pei and discussing how best to sell the Buddhist incense. Good wine fears a deep alley—relying on Ku’an Temple to sell Buddhist incense themselves, I’m afraid they won’t be able to support themselves. Our family alone probably can’t use so much Buddhist incense.”

Yu Tang smiled gently.

She truly liked the Pei young ladies.

Even though Second Miss favored Gu Xi, she would still be reasonable.

Unfortunately, she was targeting Gu Xi and wouldn’t let Gu Xi escape.

“It’s not that I don’t want Miss Gu to help!” Yu Tang deliberately put on a troubled expression. “Do you know why I feel having Miss Gu teach the people at Ku’an Temple to make incense isn’t quite appropriate?”

The Pei young ladies all shook their heads, and Gu Xi also leaned in to listen, looking ready to catch her making a mistake.

Yu Tang said, “The incense Miss Gu makes is indeed fragrant. I’ve also received gifts from Miss Gu and know she’s skilled at making incense. However, the incense Miss Gu makes is, after all, boudoir entertainment. It’s already improper for it to circulate outside. If we teach the nuns and lay practitioners at the temple to make it in large quantities… I always feel somewhat uneasy. How about we find a different incense formula instead? Or Miss Gu could provide another suitable incense formula, but we must keep it secret here—no one is allowed to speak of it.”

If good deeds were to be done anonymously, why do them at all?!

Gu Xi instinctively wanted to object. Fortunately, the words reached her lips when she suddenly realized this and didn’t say them.

After the Pei young ladies heard Yu Tang’s concerns, they all nodded. Even Second Miss, who didn’t particularly like Yu Tang, said somewhat embarrassedly, “Sister Yu is more composed than all of us. Indeed, we can’t let Sister Gu bear such a reputation for this matter.”

Gu Xi was furious but couldn’t find words to refute Yu Tang. Her gaze at Yu Tang became sharp, and she pondered inwardly—if Yu Tang really wanted her to contribute effort without gaining fame, she would find some excuse to decline this matter no matter what, letting Yu Tang and the Pei family people busy themselves, so they would also know that doing good deeds wasn’t so easy.

Yu Tang looked at Gu Xi’s angry appearance and felt secretly delighted inside. She smiled with pressed lips, then said magnanimously in a clear voice, “Thank you for Second Miss’s praise. However, I’m still too young after all. For such a major matter, we should consult our elders. I think—should we first inform Second Madam and see if she thinks it’s feasible?”

Though the Pei young ladies were first stunned upon hearing this, they immediately let out a cheer and chattered away expressing that this was exactly how things should be done.

Having good intentions was good, but good intentions didn’t necessarily lead to good deeds.

The Yu family young ladies began heatedly discussing whether this matter was feasible.

One asked Yu Tang if the ancient incense formula was reliable, another asked if the materials for making incense were easy to buy, and another asked who from the household should be sent to manage Ku’an Temple… Before they even knew if the matter was feasible, after just a short while, several people were already imagining Ku’an Temple’s Buddhist incense becoming famous throughout Lin’an City, with people from Hangzhou coming specifically for it.

Gu Xi sat there with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, not participating in the discussion, watching from the sidelines.

Yu Tang, however, was overjoyed.

Even if she had read about incense formulas in books while studying, she couldn’t possibly have paid attention.

She had never liked such things since childhood.

The incense formula she would write for the Pei family women later was one that Gu Xi had contributed five years hence to raise charitable funds for Zhaoming Temple.

Zhaoming Temple had such excellent incense offerings that the thousand taels of charitable funds Gu Xi raised that time were merely icing on the cake. Surely if she gave it to the more needy Ku’an Temple instead, Buddha wouldn’t blame her.

She quietly recited “Amitabha” several times in her heart.

Nanny Chen walked in, smiling as she stopped them. “Keep your voices down—I could hear you as soon as I left the main hall. I’m here on orders from the two Ladies Pei to bring Young Master Yang over.”

Second Miss’s face flushed red.

Third Miss, Fourth Miss, and Fifth Miss all said “Ooh!” at Second Miss in unison.

Second Miss was so embarrassed she wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground. Only then did the three Pei residence young ladies let Second Miss off.

Gu Xi watched and pulled at the corners of her mouth.

Yu Tang, however, found it interesting. She seized the position by the window lattice first, opening a crack to see clearly what Yang Yan looked like.

Fifth Miss and Fourth Miss, relying on being the youngest, laughingly draped themselves over her back and wouldn’t get up, competing with Yu Tang for the window lattice position.

Yu Tang had no choice but to say, “Then each of us will only look for two breaths. The rest of the time belongs to Second Miss. What do you think?”

Second Miss said with both embarrassment and irritation, “I don’t even want to know what he looks like!”

“Is that so!” Yu Tang teased her. “Second Miss can enter the hall to serve tea later. We can only watch from here.”

The three Pei young ladies smiled at Second Miss again.

Second Miss’s face turned so red it could drip blood. Fourth Miss quickly said, “Stop talking—Young Master Yang is coming in.”

Yu Tang couldn’t be bothered to talk with the Pei young ladies anymore. She stood on tiptoe and looked out the window.

She saw Nanny Chen leading in a young man wearing a sapphire blue robe with five bats and floral patterns in Hangzhou silk.

He was tall with proper features, an elegant scholarly bearing, looking just over twenty years old, with composure in his every movement.

Yu Tang thought this person should be quite good.

But having lived two lives, she had never seen a man more handsome than Pei Yan.

After looking twice, she stepped aside and said to Third Miss, who wanted to see but couldn’t squeeze in, “You should come look quickly too. Otherwise Young Master Yang will enter the main hall.”

Third Miss smiled silently and squeezed together with Fourth Miss and Fifth Miss.

Yu Tang smiled with curved eyebrows. When she looked up, her eyes met Gu Xi’s somewhat cold gaze.

She didn’t avoid it.

She hadn’t done anything wrong and wasn’t afraid of Gu Xi’s scrutiny.

Gu Xi was surprised.

She thought of when Yu Tang had just arrived at the Pei residence… When had Yu Tang’s courage grown so great? Was it because of Pei Yan?

Gu Xi sneered coldly.

Yu Tang looked at her composedly with a calm expression, until Fourth Miss’s long sigh echoed through the tea room, finally drawing her attention away.

“What’s wrong?” Second Miss hadn’t seen anyone, but hearing the slightest disturbance made her anxious.

Fourth Miss sighed long again. “Second Sister will be getting married soon…”

A seemingly random statement that was indirectly praising Yang Yan.

Second Miss, concerned and confused, hadn’t reacted yet, but Yu Tang and the others had already understood and were all laughing. By the time Second Miss finally understood, Nanny Chen came in to invite Second Miss to serve tea. Second Miss hurriedly followed Nanny Chen and fled as if escaping, causing Yu Tang and the others to laugh again.

Yu Tang still had her maternal aunt’s cousin on her mind. Seeing things could disperse here, she wanted to return to her room first. “I’ll go write down the incense formula. When we go to see Second Madam later, I’ll have something to present, and it won’t make the elders think we’re acting on a momentary whim.”

Third Miss very much agreed and even unprecedentedly said, “Sister Yu, I’ll accompany you back to your room.”

Fourth Miss and Fifth Miss also clamored to go.

Gu Xi couldn’t stand seeing everyone revolve around Yu Tang, and also meant to avoid this matter somewhat. She thought—aren’t you formidable, Yu Tang? Then I just won’t say a word and will see what kind of Buddhist incense you can make. Anyway, if things went well it had nothing to do with her, and if things went badly it couldn’t be blamed on her either.

She said, “I didn’t rest well at noon. I won’t go over. When you go to see Second Madam later, just call me.”

Gu Xi very much wanted to know the Pei family elders’ attitude.