Pei Yan had absolutely no intention of using his favor on scum like Li Duan, but he still found it quite astonishing that the victim could travel thousands of miles to pursue him here. He instructed Pei Man, “When is that victim setting out? Find a way to send someone to deliver a table of food to him. Sound him out on how he learned about the Li family’s situation.”

Pei Man acknowledged the order.

Pei Yan then brought up Lin Shi: “Since the Li family’s main branch has nowhere to settle her for now, just let her continue staying at Ku’an Temple. Hire someone to look after her, and when Li Jun returns, hand her over to Li Jun.”

With such a major incident occurring in the Li family, Li Jun couldn’t possibly stay in the Northwest with Li Yi. At the very least, he would have to return to properly settle Lin Shi.

Pei Man acknowledged this and arranged matters on the victim’s side, then also made a trip to Ku’an Temple.

Ku’an Temple was willing to accept Lin Shi partly out of sympathy for her plight and partly out of consideration for the Pei family’s face. The female members of the Pei household naturally learned of this very quickly.

Old Madam Pei and Nanny Chen exchanged glances, both seeing confusion in each other’s eyes. Old Madam Pei even whispered quietly to Nanny Chen when no one was around, “Has Xiaguang had a change of heart? Why has he suddenly developed such kindness? In the past, he would never let people like Lin Shi off easily.”

Nanny Chen speculated, “Could it be because he got married? Thinking that he’ll soon be a father, he’s become softhearted? Wasn’t the Old Master the same way back then?”

When she mentioned this matter, Old Madam Pei couldn’t help but think of another matter. She lowered her voice even further and said, “From the Third Madam’s side, is there any news at all?”

Nanny Chen’s heart skipped a beat, and she hastily said, “It hasn’t even been three months yet! How could it be that fast!”

“That’s true too,” Old Madam Pei sighed and asked no more.

However, the Pei family’s three young misses were somewhat indignant. They ran to Yu Tang’s place to complain, “Their family did so many bad things—they should rightfully receive such retribution. How is it that just because she’s gone mad, Third Uncle is taking care of her? Are others not people? Are other families’ lives not lives? How can he show such favoritism?”

Yu Tang’s feelings were very complicated.

She had seen Lin Shi’s domineering appearance, seen Lin Shi’s sharp and mean appearance, seen Lin Shi’s arrogant and haughty appearance—she just hadn’t seen Lin Shi’s destitute and wretched appearance.

But she had imagined it in her heart.

And not just once.

When she truly waited until this day came, it felt like a dream.

When Pei Yan told her about this matter, she didn’t come back to herself for a long time. Pei Yan seemed to understand her feelings. For the first time, he didn’t tease her—he just quietly held her, gently patting her back, coaxing her through the night as if coaxing a child to sleep.

Even now she still didn’t know what would count as having punished Lin Shi.

Because Li Duan, one of the original culprits back then, had been implicated by Li Yi and stabbed to death by someone.

Should she just let Lin Shi off like this, or should she kick her while she was down?

Yu Tang decided to go pay respects at Wei Xiaoshan’s grave.

To tell Wei Xiaoshan this news.

She didn’t hide it from Pei Yan, but she also didn’t specifically inform Pei Yan. She just brought paper money and incense candles, accompanied by Qing Yuan, and went to Wei Xiaoshan’s burial site.

There were remains of offerings before Wei Xiaoshan’s grave—it should have been the Wei family members who had come to pay their respects to him.

Yu Tang respectfully lit incense for Wei Xiaoshan and stood before the tombstone for quite a while.

Would Wei Xiaoshan blame her when he reached the Yellow Springs?

She thought of Wei Xiaoshan’s honest appearance and suddenly discovered she could no longer clearly remember his face—she only remembered the feeling he gave her.

A person, just gone like this.

Yu Tang’s tears fell.

Behind her, someone said in astonishment, “Pei Family’s Third Madam?!”

Yu Tang hastily wiped her tears and turned around.

It was people from the Wei family.

Wei Xiaoyuan bringing Wei Xiaochuan and several other brothers.

Everyone held either offerings in their hands or carried paper money.

Yu Tang couldn’t help but look back at the remnants before Wei Xiaoshan’s grave.

Weren’t they from the Wei family?

Then who was it?

Before she could think further, Wei Xiaoyuan was already saying with a face full of gratitude, “I didn’t expect you would come to pay respects to Xiao’er…”

If he knew this in the afterlife, he would also be very comforted.

But he couldn’t say these words out loud.

After all, Yu Tang was now married. No matter what had happened before, the living were most important. All the Wei family members hoped that Yu Tang could have a smooth life, peaceful and blessed.

He hastily handed the offerings in his hands to the Wei family’s third son, saying, “You lead them first to burn paper money and set out offerings for Xiao’er.” Then turning around, he pointed to the stone bench under a large tree not far from the burial site and said to Yu Tang, “Third Madam, rest here for a bit. This place is quite far from the city—coming all this way, you must be tired.”

The other Wei family members all followed Wei Xiaoyuan’s words and began arranging offerings. Only Wei Xiaochuan came forward to bow to Yu Tang and called out “Elder Sister.”

Yu Tang had last seen him before her marriage. Looking at him now, she felt he seemed to have grown a bit taller.

She couldn’t help but gently pat Wei Xiaochuan’s shoulder and ask him, “After Master Shen left, who’s managing affairs at the school? How is this person’s scholarship? Has it affected your studies?”

Master Shen had gone to the capital—it was people moving to higher places, and everyone couldn’t keep him.

Wei Xiaochuan seemed even more silent than when she had last seen him. He said in a deep voice, “I’m keeping up with my studies. The teachers at the school are all quite good too. However, I plan to take the examination next year. If I can successfully pass the xiucai examination, Father says he’ll send me to Hangzhou to study. I want to go study in Hangzhou.”

Even if he passed the xiucai examination, he would still only be a fifteen or sixteen-year-old youth.

Yu Tang felt somewhat heartbroken and said, “If you’re going to Hangzhou City, let me know. I’ll see if I can regularly send people to check on you then.”

Actually, fifteen or sixteen-year-old xiucai scholars were quite rare, but in families like the Peis, it wasn’t unheard of. Only because this person was Wei Xiaochuan, someone Yu Tang treated like a younger brother, did she feel especially heartbroken.

Unusually, Wei Xiaochuan didn’t stand on ceremony with her but smiled and said, “Then I’ll thank Elder Sister in advance.”

Yu Tang thought that next year Yu Yuan would be going to Hangzhou City to open a shop, so he would definitely be able to look after him then.

She also smiled, and even reached out to pat his head.

He yelped and jumped away, saying, “Sister, you can’t pat my head—I’m an adult now.”

“What adult!” Wei Xiaoyuan laughed and scolded, then also patted Wei Xiaochuan’s head, earning a loud shout from Wei Xiaochuan.

Everyone laughed.

Not far away at the edge of the woods, a black lacquered flat-topped carriage had stopped at some unknown time.

Pei Yan sat inside the carriage, looking through the window at Yu Tang talking and laughing with the Wei brothers. His hands clenched tightly into fists.

Zhao Zhen, his heart pounding with anxiety, steeled himself and came forward to ask, “Should I go fetch the Third Madam?”

“No need!” Pei Yan said through gritted teeth. “We’re leaving!”

Zhao Zhen didn’t dare delay and immediately drove the carriage away at a gallop.

Pei Yan snorted lightly.

He wasn’t stupid! Going to fetch Yu Tang at this moment—she would think he had followed her here. Wouldn’t that make her feel he didn’t trust her? He wouldn’t do such a thing!

Thinking of the dead Li Duan, he snorted coldly again.

He really deserved to be stabbed to death.

If he had continued living, he would truly have been a disaster.

Thinking of these things, Pei Yan stroked his chin.

That victim had actually been instigated by Peng Shiyi—this really was a bit unexpected!

Between Li Duan and Peng Shiyi, or rather, between the Li family and the Peng family, could there be some unspeakable relationship?

Interesting! Interesting!

Pei Yan snorted coldly twice more in succession and met with the Qu brothers at Zhaoming Temple.

“Help me investigate what connection the Li family and Peng family have,” he said coldly and arrogantly to the Qu brothers. “If you’re afraid of trouble, after the truth comes to light, you can go to Jiangxi or you can go to the capital.”

The Qu brothers were overjoyed.

Previously, although Pei Yan had shown intentions of recruiting them, he hadn’t specifically assigned them any concrete tasks. Now that they had received an assignment, their anxious hearts finally settled. Only now did they feel like they were truly working for the Pei family, working for Pei Yan.

The brothers both bowed to Pei Yan and said respectfully, “Third Master, rest assured. Just watch us brothers handle this matter. If we don’t do it well, we brothers won’t have the face to seek your protection anymore.”

Pei Yan didn’t speak. He tossed them a small bag of silver, lowered the carriage curtain, and left.

The Qu brothers both breathed a sigh of relief. The eldest said to the second, “This matter must be very important to Master Pei, otherwise Master Pei wouldn’t have personally come to see us. We must be careful.”

The second Qu brother’s thoughts were more meticulous. He hesitated and said, “Will the Pei family silence us?”

The eldest Qu brother laughed heartily at his younger brother twice and said, “If they wanted to silence us, Third Master wouldn’t have personally made an appearance.”

The second Qu brother embarrassedly touched his head.

They didn’t know that Pei Yan had originally intended to go to Ku’an Temple to see Lin Shi, but on the road had inadvertently discovered Yu Tang’s carriage. Only then did he realize that Yu Tang had left the city today to pay respects to that Wei Xiaoshan of the Wei family, which was why he had temporarily changed his mind and gone to meet the Qu brothers.

Dead people always had an advantage over living people!

Forever living in people’s hearts, forever better than living people!

Pei Yan was very unconvinced and decided that starting today, he had to make Yu Tang know his good qualities!

As a result, when Yu Tang returned home, she discovered that the master craftsman from the Pei family silver shop who made jewelry for her had come again. He had even brought a whole hu of South Sea pearls, each grain as large as a lotus seed, and took out several design patterns. Frowning, he asked for her instructions, “These are all the new styles our shop can produce. Even if we make a pair of each of these styles, we still won’t use up this hu of pearls! Look, do you have any other ideas? Our craftsmen can also make jewelry according to your wishes—it doesn’t have to be limited to the patterns from our shop.”

After asking for quite a while, Yu Tang finally learned that Pei Yan had ordered someone to give them a hu of South Sea pearls and told them to make it all into jewelry.

She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

She didn’t know what new idea Pei Yan had now.

She could only have the silver shop master leave the hu of South Sea pearls behind and contact them again after deciding on the styles.

The silver shop master’s expression became much more relaxed. He repeatedly apologized and withdrew.

Yu Tang fiddled with that pile of pearls—ding ding dang dang—the sound clear and pleasant. They felt cool and smooth in her hands, their lustrous brilliance making them impossible to put down. When Pei Yan returned, she said coquettishly with mock reproach, “Such fine pearls—why must they all be made into jewelry?”

Wouldn’t it be better to keep some for the children?

Make pearl flower headbands—wouldn’t that be nice?

As long as she was happy, Pei Yan smiled and said, “Then just keep them.”

Taking them out to play with when there’s nothing to do would also be a pastime.

Yu Tang didn’t understand this kind of pastime of his. Instead, she carefully and preciously placed the hu of South Sea pearls in the storage room.

Pei Yan had originally wanted to remind her a few words, but on second thought, perhaps she just liked keeping them stored in the storage room? His goal was to make her happy, and since she was happy this way, then this was fine.

The two didn’t have another chance to bring up this hu of South Sea pearls, because Yu Tang brought up the matter of Lin Shi.