At this moment, the sun was setting in the west. Crimson clouds like burning flames spread across the horizon, dyeing half of the study in red.

Yu Tang gripped the painting scroll tightly.

Half of the map that Master Qian had copied was spread out on the desk, while the other half hung suspended in midair.

Yu Wen was badly startled by Yu Tang’s sharp voice. He hurried over, asking, “What’s wrong?”

Yu Tang’s face had turned pale. All the strength in her body seemed to have been drained away. Trembling, she pointed at the map and said, “Look, look—Chunshui Hall!”

Yu Wen didn’t understand what she meant. He walked over to examine it carefully, but saw nothing at all.

Yu Tang quickly thrust the scroll into her father’s hands, saying, “Look from this angle, against the evening glow. On that mountaintop, there’s a seal stamped with the three characters ‘Chunshui Hall.'”

Yu Wen took the painting scroll from his daughter’s hands and looked from the angle Yu Tang had been viewing the painting. Sure enough, he saw in the faintly shimmering sunset light a seal carved in Qin clerical script with the three characters “Chunshui Hall.”

His brows furrowed tightly. First, he called A’Tiao inside and told him to fetch Yu Yuan, who was helping Yu Bo repair the shop. Then, with a solemn expression, he closed the door and said to Yu Tang in a low voice, “Don’t panic. This is a common trick used by those craftsmen—they make forgeries, but still arrogantly want their names to go down in history, so they stamp their seal in places ordinary people wouldn’t easily discover, so that someone might notice by accident or after a hundred years that the item was made by them.”

If Yu Wen had admired Master Qian before, he now felt equally annoyed with him.

“Who knows what other flaws he left behind besides this seal? Under what other conditions can this seal be seen besides at sunset?” Yu Wen’s expression was very unpleasant. “When A’Yuan gets here, the three of us will search carefully.”

Yu Tang nodded haphazardly, her mind already in complete chaos.

She hadn’t been mistaken. That “Chunshui Hall” seal was identical to the one stamped on the *Pine Stream Fishing in Seclusion* painting she had held in her previous life.

After her parents died, the Li family came to propose marriage, promising to help revive their family business. She had married out carrying Li Jun’s memorial tablet. The Li family had scorned her dowry as too meager and specially designated a remote, quiet place for her to store her dowry items. Then the Li family was burgled, losing only some insignificant trinkets, and Lin Shi hadn’t even reported it to the authorities…

All of this, like scattered pearls, had now been strung together by the seal reading “Chunshui Hall.”

Yu Tang seemed to suddenly understand everything, yet also seemed to understand nothing at all.

Her mind was a complete muddle. Her legs went weak, and she could no longer stand. She collapsed into the armchair behind her.

Yu Wen saw this and said, “A’Tang, don’t be afraid. With this kind of thing, if the client doesn’t notice the flaw, that’s that. But if we do notice, we can make Master Qian compensate us with silver, and we can also demand that he redo the painting for us. Fortunately, there are still some days until Uncle Lu’s forty-ninth day memorial. If your elder brother makes a trip to Hangzhou now, there’s still time.” As he spoke, he sighed with a bitter smile and said, “Who would have known such a thing would happen? I was even feeling sorry for him earlier. He’s probably done quite a few things like this.”

Most importantly, their family’s matter involved a murder case. They still didn’t know who was behind it all. If the other party was ruthless in their methods, Master Qian might even suffer calamity as well.

The hair on Yu Tang’s body was standing on end.

Master Qian!

In her previous life, the painting she had held was copied by Master Qian. That meant that back then, someone had the same idea as she did now—they had asked Master Qian to copy a fake painting and used a theft to switch out the real painting in her possession.

And Uncle Lu.

She had wrongly accused him all along.

What he sold to their family was the genuine painting he owned.

It was her.

It was her who had been handling a forgery for so many years, treating the fake as authentic, and self-righteously concluding that Uncle Lu had sold them a fake painting.

Yu Tang couldn’t stop blaming herself.

“A’Tang, A’Tang!” Seeing her guilty expression, Yu Wen quickly stepped forward and patted his daughter’s shoulder, consoling her in a low voice, “This matter isn’t your fault. All your ideas have been excellent. Father has never seen a child more clever than you. If not for you, Father would still be completely in the dark. Father will figure out a way to handle this matter. Nothing will happen.”

The more her father spoke this way, the worse Yu Tang felt inside.

She sobbed quietly. After a long while, she said, “Father, you’re not wrong. Uncle Lu is actually a decent person. Although he cheated you, he also genuinely helped you. It was wrong of me before. Isn’t his forty-ninth day memorial coming up soon? I want to go properly pay my respects to him.”

To make amends to him.

Yu Wen laughed despite himself and said, “What’s gotten into you? Suddenly speaking well of Uncle Lu. If he has knowledge in the underworld, he’ll definitely be very happy.”

Lu Xin wasn’t stupid. He knew that the other members of the Yu family looked down on him.

Yu Tang took out her handkerchief to wipe her face, nodding.

Yu Yuan arrived breathlessly. After greeting Yu Wen and Yu Tang, he called for Chen Pozi to bring him a cup of tea and said to Yu Wen and Yu Tang, “I’m dying of thirst. That Pei Man really talks a lot. Questions about this, questions about that. But this person is quite capable too, at least more capable than the previous head steward. Everything he says hits the mark. Just in this one day, everyone’s looking at him differently. He’s firmly established himself as head steward.”

Yu Wen quickly asked, “What happened?”

Yu Yuan said, “The Pei family’s head steward Pei Man went to Changxing Street to see how the shop construction is going. He went door to door asking those of us who don’t own Pei family shops what materials we’re using, whether we’re building according to the style previously agreed upon with the Pei family, how much open drainage we’ve left, whether we’ve left covered drainage… Tell me, after such a huge fire, who would dare not leave drainage channels? This time, Third Master Pei was compassionate and willing to lend us silver to rebuild our shops. If we encounter such a thing next time and the Pei family washes their hands of it, the only option left for our few families besides selling our land plots is nothing.”

Yu Wen smiled and said, “Well, of course he should ask! If our few families cause another fire, the Pei family shops will be implicated too!”

The two men discussed matters concerning Changxing Street, but Yu Tang didn’t hear a single word.

She was thinking about the Li family’s sudden wealth.

It had happened after the Li family was burgled.

Afterward, they had used Lin Shi’s maternal family connections to enter the maritime shipping business.

Could this map hidden in the *Pine Stream Fishing in Seclusion* painting’s interlayer be a nautical chart?

After she married into the Li family, she would occasionally see those descendants of Lin Shi’s maternal family visit the Li family. She still remembered hearing one of Lin Shi’s nephews boasting very proudly, saying that this maritime business wasn’t something any family could do just because they wanted to. Not only did you need ships, capable and reliable helmsmen and sailors, you also had to know the route… which meant you needed a nautical chart.

And this nautical chart was a priceless treasure.

Forget everything else—just consider the person who could draw such a chart. They would not only need to know how to sail a ship, but also how to identify directions, understand tidal patterns, be literate, and know geomancy. Such a talented person might not emerge even in decades or centuries. And even if such a talented person did emerge, who wouldn’t spend decades taking the imperial examinations to become a jinshi and serve as a high official, rather than hanging their head on their belt, with no fame or profit, spending a lifetime drifting at sea?

At this point, even if you were the emperor, you could only stare helplessly.

Those who knew the sea routes relied on several generations, or even over a dozen generations, accumulating this knowledge bit by bit with their lives and experience. Any family with such ability was like holding a treasure bowl to their chest, just waiting to lie atop mountains of gold and silver, eating delicacies and drinking fine wines.

Yu Tang still remembered that after Lin Shi’s nephew said all this, she never saw this person at the Li family again.

She had thought it was because of her widowhood and not seeing many outsiders. Now thinking back, it was clearly another matter she hadn’t known about.

That map must be a nautical chart.

Behind all this must be the Li family.

The more Yu Tang thought about it, the more she felt as if the mist had been blown away from a mountain forest by a strong wind, revealing many aspects she hadn’t previously noticed.

This would also explain why Li Jun didn’t recognize her, yet Lin Shi had lied.

It would also explain why the Li family, disregarding their reputation, had desperately sought to marry her.

But at the same time, Yu Tang felt a surge of panic—since the Li family also knew about Master Qian, their scheme could be discovered by the Li family at any moment.

This panic was something she couldn’t tell her father and brother about.

Yu Tang paced back and forth in the study like a trapped beast in a cage.

“A’Tang!” Yu Wen was the first to notice his daughter’s abnormality. He called out worriedly and said, “Your pacing is making me dizzy. Sit down and rest! I’ve already told A’Yuan. A’Yuan will set out for Hangzhou first thing tomorrow morning. As for Master Qian, don’t worry. Since he’s in this line of work, he naturally knows the dangers of this profession. For such matters, he should have been prepared long ago.”

Yu Tang stopped pacing but couldn’t stop the fear in her heart. She said, “Father, someone has already died over this painting. Though Master Qian often walks by the river and surely gets his shoes wet sometimes, we can’t control if something happens to him, but he can’t lose his life because of our family’s matter.”

“I understand!” Yu Yuan’s expression gradually grew serious as he listened. He said, “I’ll tell him about this and see if he has any means of self-protection, or have him temporarily avoid the spotlight for a while.”

Yu Tang had no better solution for the moment!

She wearily rubbed her temples.

There was also the matter of the Li family—she needed to find a way to extricate herself as quickly as possible.

Yu Tang now felt she somewhat understood the Li family’s methods.

They were measuring a gentleman’s heart with a petty person’s yardstick. They believed this map was so precious that anyone who knew its value would never let it go, so they struck from the shadows, preferring to cause some thievery rather than directly buying this painting from their family.

However, there were major differences between her previous life and this life.

She now also knew who was behind it all.

But how could the Li family ensure this painting would become part of her dowry like in her previous life?

In her previous life, both her parents had died. The belongings her parents left behind would naturally accompany her. But in this life…

Thinking of this, Yu Tang’s body stiffened.

She thought of her betrothal to the Wei family.

It couldn’t be?!

The Li family only wanted this painting—could they possibly manipulate her marriage as well?

Yu Tang thought this to herself, but a voice in her mind kept saying: Having already killed one person, would they care about killing another?

Yu Tang found it difficult to breathe. She could no longer stay in this study.

She needed to know whether Wei Xiaoshan’s death was related to the Li family.

She needed to see Wei Xiaochuan and ask him what exactly had happened before Wei Xiaoshan died.

She hoped she was being overly suspicious, that she was imagining things.

Yu Tang hurried out of the study.

“A’Tang!” Yu Wen and Yu Yuan both called out worriedly, chasing after her.

The summer heat had dissipated. Among the lush, verdant leaves of the osmanthus tree in the courtyard, yellow petals were already showing. The evening breeze blew past, occasionally scattering rich fragrance.

Yu Tang took a deep breath. When she turned around, her face bore a faint smile: “I’m fine. I smelled the flower fragrance in the study and came out to look.”

Yu Wen and Yu Yuan’s expressions relaxed.

Yu Yuan smiled and said, “You didn’t get to properly tour Hangzhou either. Is there anything you want me to bring back for you?”

“I just want Elder Brother to return safely.” After what had happened, Yu Tang increasingly felt that having the whole family together safe and sound was better than anything. She lowered her voice and said, “Elder Brother, you must urge Master Qian not to be careless. If I’m not mistaken, this map might very well be a nautical chart.”

Yu Yuan was stunned.

Yu Wen said urgently, “Did you discover something else?”

Yu Tang couldn’t explain her speculation, so she could only say, “When I went to buy hairpin materials, I encountered someone selling imported goods. I seemed to overhear something by chance. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but now it suddenly came to mind. I feel our map is very similar to those nautical charts.”

Yu Wen and Yu Yuan didn’t know how precious nautical charts were, but they knew how fierce the fighting over maritime business was in Fujian. Murders and arson occurred every few years. There had been several massacres grave enough to reach the emperor’s ears.

Ordinary families caught up in such matters had few who survived.

Both men drew in sharp breaths.

Yu Wen grabbed Yu Tang’s hand and said, “You, you really think this is a nautical chart?”

“I’m not completely certain.” Yu Tang didn’t dare speak with absolute confidence. She said, “The more I think about it, the more it seems like one. Think about it—what did Lord Zuo do in the past? What did Uncle Lu’s father do in the past? Even if it’s just a regular map, it’s not like the court is pursuing it or confiscating property if it can’t be recovered. Why would someone be so relentless in trying to obtain it?”

“Lord Zuo fought against Japanese pirates in the past,” Yu Wen murmured. “Brother Lu’s father once served as Lord Zuo’s advisor. Only a map that can generate enormous wealth would be constantly coveted. Ordinary maps are only useful during wartime. Even if a court official held one, what use would it be? Brother Lu probably also didn’t know what secrets lay within this painting. Was it because Brother Lu’s father also didn’t know? Or did his father know, but like us, didn’t know what to do, so he simply let it remain hidden in the painting?”

Yu Yuan listened with an ashen face, saying uneasily, “Uncle, then, then what do we do?”

Before, they only thought they could toss out this hot potato and be done with it. But now it was uncertain whether the potato could even be tossed out.

Yu Wen was also at a loss.

At least Lu Xin’s father had known someone like Lord Zuo. He was just an ordinary rural scholar—could he possibly have more resources than Lu Xin’s father?

Now it was Yu Wen’s turn to pace circles in the courtyard.

Chen Shi, who had come to call them for dinner, saw this and couldn’t help asking in puzzlement, “What are you all discussing now? All mysterious like this. Are you eating or not?”