This question circled through Jiang Xuening’s mind for an entire night without an answer.

She didn’t know how exactly the selection process was carried out.

Thus, even though she had some suspects in mind, there was no way to verify them.

Early the next morning, more news about Grand Princess Leyang’s selection of companion readers began spreading continuously.

For instance, the preliminary companion reader list.

Naturally it included Xiao Shu, the eldest daughter of Duke Cheng’s manor who had played with Shen Zhiyi since childhood. Additionally, there were eleven other young ladies from ministers’ and nobles’ families with excellent learning and cultivation.

Among them was the “fortunate” Jiang Xuening.

At the same time, she also noticed that from the previous gathering at Count Qingyuan’s manor, Miss Fan, whom Shen Zhiyi had named as first in poetry, and You Yue, the second daughter of Count Qingyuan’s manor who was first in painting, were also among them.

For instance, the specific subjects to be studied.

The men of Great Qian studied the rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. The daughters of ordinary families at most learned a few characters, studying only dispensable things like needlework and poetry and painting.

But Shen Zhiyi was a princess, and moreover had her own requirements, so naturally it was different.

Among the six arts of a gentleman, the three subjects of rites, music, and calligraphy had to be studied. Additionally, she would learn elegant pursuits like perfume blending and painting. Beyond this, His Majesty especially favored Shen Zhiyi. Knowing she always wanted to sneak off to the Hall of Literary Glory to listen to the court lectures, he found several elderly scholars of exceptional learning from the Hanlin Academy to teach her books that only men could read.

Among them, the most astounding was perhaps that among the teachers His Majesty had engaged for her, one was actually “Master Xie”—

The current Grand Preceptor to the Crown Prince, Xie Wei!

It was said he would teach two courses: one was the zither, counted among “music”; the second would be selected from the classics, histories, philosophers, and literary collections, but which specific text had yet to be decided.

Heaven knows when Jiang Xuening heard this news from Lian’er’s chattering little mouth, she wanted nothing more than to bash her head against the ground!

For instance, the arrangements for entering the palace.

The day after tomorrow they would need to prepare to enter the palace, staying for approximately three to five days. Following the palace’s female officials, they would roughly learn palace etiquette and understand the palace’s taboos, lest they commit some error or cause some disaster.

If during this time someone truly couldn’t learn or was of too poor quality, they would be tactfully dismissed.

After that, each would return home for several days before truly entering the palace as companion readers.

They would basically all live in the palace, able to return home for one day every nine days, until they finished the coursework arranged by the teachers—estimated to take most of half a year.

This was absolutely a great opportunity.

Whenever Jiang Xuening thought about entering the palace as a companion reader, her head swelled like a drum. With His Majesty’s decree issued, she naturally didn’t dare openly refuse to go, so she must have an appropriate reason.

If she couldn’t learn the etiquette, or if her quality was too poor and she was “dismissed,” wouldn’t that suit her perfectly?

She made up her mind to “work passively”!

Afternoon.

Tang’er and Lian’er were in her room packing and arranging the things needed for her first trip into the palace, also saying that when entering the palace she would meet so many aristocratic young ladies, she’d inevitably need to bring some meeting gifts and such, best to go out and buy some later.

Jiang Xuening sat by the window reading an idle book, hearing this with a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth.

“Those who know would say she’s going to be a companion reader. Those who don’t would think she’s visiting relatives.”

Lian’er pouted. “Miss is entering the palace, of course everything must be thoroughly prepared. This time we servants can’t go in with you. Who knows what those palace maids are like? If not needed this time, they can be used next time. Moreover, our miss is the only person whose name wasn’t originally submitted yet appears on the companion reader list. Everything else can be inferior, but not the show!”

Hearing this topic made Jiang Xuening’s eyelid twitch.

Sure enough, she should still find a matchmaker to sell this girl first.

Why must she bring up precisely what shouldn’t be mentioned?

She buried her head, picked out a piece of candied fruit from the plate to eat, casually flipped through her book, and paid them no mind as they bustled about.

In any case, she didn’t plan to stay in the palace too long.

Only this couldn’t be spoken of.

If people knew she was deliberately playing tricks and scheming to avoid entering the palace, it would likely invite unnecessary trouble.

The fewer who knew, the better—ideally no one.

But after turning only two more pages, she suddenly heard a “pop” sound, as if some small object had hit the window panel.

Jiang Xuening raised her head to look. Outside was only a patch of sunlight.

Just as she was about to lower her head to continue reading, there came another soft “pop.”

This time it hit the window frame, bounced once, and rolled onto her book.

She picked it up to look—it was actually a golden pine nut with a small crack in it.

Applying pressure with her fingers, it opened.

Turned out to be roasted pine nuts.

Cooked ones.

Jiang Xuening didn’t see anyone, but already knew who had come. She couldn’t help but smile. “The courtyard walls of this manor might as well not be built. If my father knew you’d entered again without a sound, not through the main entrance, he’d probably grumble for a while.”

“But didn’t he not see me this time?”

Yan Lin’s voice came from above. Emerging from the dense shade of the tree below the wall, he leaped down in one bound. Today he wore a dark-colored long robe, a small pouch hanging at his waist, still gripping a small handful of pine nuts in his hand, smiling as he walked leisurely to her window.

“Unless you go tell on me.”

Not having seen him for some days, he actually seemed to have tanned just a little bit. On that originally handsome face, there was now also a shallow scrape. Fortunately it wasn’t deep and there weren’t many, so his appearance wasn’t truly marred. It only added a touch of toughness to his original noble young master air, making him appear even more brilliantly ardent.

Jiang Xuening asked him, “How did you get that?”

Yan Lin still cared somewhat about his appearance. Hearing this, he raised his hand to touch his cheek, coughed once, and said, “When we went to Tongzhou garrison, I drank a bit of wine and couldn’t resist competing in martial arts with some of Father’s subordinates. Fists and feet have no eyes—got injured a little. But it’s nothing serious. The army physician said it’ll heal in a couple days.”

The Fengtai garrison and Tongzhou garrison had both stationed troops through successive dynasties to defend the capital.

But ever since Prince Pingnan’s rebellion twenty years ago when his troops attacked the capital, and both Fengtai and Tongzhou were unable to react in time and couldn’t enter the capital promptly to quell the rebellion, the late Emperor established the Imperial Guards in the capital, selecting the best from both garrisons to incorporate into them to guard the capital.

In the current dynasty, after Shen Lang ascended the throne, he further strengthened the Imperial Guards.

Simply because he was a personal witness to Prince Pingnan’s rebellion back then, he harbored an extremely deep shadow regarding the danger of vassal princes rebelling and the slowness of military reinforcements. Thus the Fengtai garrison and Tongzhou garrison’s military status had fallen increasingly.

The Marquis of Yongyi’s manor was one of several noble families in the court holding military power, primarily managing the Tongzhou garrison, which was farther from the capital.

As for the Fengtai garrison, closer to the capital, it was controlled by Duke Cheng’s manor.

And the currently most important Twenty-Six Imperial Guard Divisions were jointly controlled by the Emperor himself and the Ministry of War.

From this it could be seen that although the Yan family and Xiao family were two great noble clans of equal standing in the capital, Duke Cheng’s manor, the Xiao family, was the maternal family of the current Emperor Shen Lang, and was obviously more trusted than the Yan family.

Who knew what person was pushing behind the scenes in the matter of the Marquis of Yongyi’s manor.

Jiang Xuening looked at Yan Lin and said, “How is Zhou Yinzhi?”

Yan Lin glanced at the maids busying themselves in her room, only placing the handful of pine nuts in his hand on her window-side table. Supporting himself on the window ledge, he flipped up to sit, one leg dangling outside, one leg bent on the window ledge, casually taking one of her candied fruits to eat.

Only then did he say, “This person is rather interesting.”

He recalled for a moment, actually revealing an expression of considerable appreciation. “I saw him before leaving the capital. Neither servile nor overbearing, able to maintain composure. Probably because he was originally from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he understands both major and minor court matters very well. Should be someone who can get things done. But I think this person is useful not merely because of this. Recently there was a matter related to him—I don’t know if you’ve heard about it?”

Jiang Xuening was curious. “Recently the capital had an assassin incident and wasn’t peaceful. I haven’t gone out or paid attention to outside matters. What matter?”

Yan Lin then said, “This person raised a fine horse and was extremely fond of it, personally feeding it himself every day. The capital doesn’t have any open areas, so if he had time he’d take it to the outskirts to ride. But not long ago when he was handling official business at the Guard station, a servant boy suddenly came from home with urgent word that his horse was ill and looked about to die. This person immediately requested leave from his superior, and after returning home to look at the horse, he actually drew his own saber and personally killed the horse.”

Jiang Xuening suddenly froze.

But Yan Lin laughed. “The next day when he went to the Provincial Administration Office, his superior asked him, ‘Is your horse well?’ He said, ‘The horse is dead. I killed it.’ The superior was greatly shocked and asked him the reason. He actually said that he’d raised this horse for over two years, regarding it as his own kin. But the horse fell ill, and he truly couldn’t bear to see it suffer, so he simply gave it a quick end, sparing it torment, which could be considered repaying the horse for its companionship over two years.”

That horse…

How could Jiang Xuening not know?

When she went to find Zhou Yinzhi that day, this horse was still perfectly fine. How could it have fallen ill to the point of dying and being in “unbearable pain”?

At this moment, the only thing she could think of was the excuse she’d casually made up for that servant boy to go to the Guard station to bring him back: Lord Zhou’s beloved horse is ill and about to die…

A chill immediately spread from the soles of her feet throughout her entire body.

The fingers Jiang Xuening had been using to press down the book page suddenly lost their grip, trembling lightly.

Yan Lin continued, “Whether these words were true or false is hard to say, but the matter of killing the horse is true. This person’s decisiveness and efficiency in handling matters can be clearly seen. Recently His Majesty has intended to hand over criminal justice matters to the Embroidered Uniform Guard to handle, but the Ministry of Justice, Court of Judicial Review, and Censorate—these Three Judicial Offices originally in charge of criminal justice—all have strong objections. This time the Supervising Secretary of Justice impeached Company Commander Zhou, giving the Three Judicial Offices precisely the opportunity to make an issue of it. His Majesty also couldn’t withstand the clamor of all mouths, and several days ago already removed Company Commander Zhou’s official rank. I had people make arrangements in the court, and this vacancy falling to Zhou Yinzhi is just right.”

Zhou Yinzhi wouldn’t cast his hawk until he saw the rabbit.

That Yan Lin handled matters efficiently was also good.

Though Jiang Xuening was reborn, in her previous life when experiencing these events she was still completely ignorant of court politics. She only knew the final results, but how matters occurred, what specific inside information there was in between, and how many forces were struggling—she knew none of it.

If she rashly warned them, who knew whose eyes it would fall into.

She feared that instead of helping the Marquis of Yongyi’s manor, she’d harm herself. But if the warning came through Zhou Yinzhi, first it could conceal herself, and second, Zhou Yinzhi was a “hidden piece” the Embroidered Uniform Guard had sent to investigate the Marquis of Yongyi’s manor’s relationship with Prince Pingnan’s rebel faction. He knew more about this matter than she did and could produce actual information, which could attract sufficient attention from the Marquis of Yongyi’s manor.

Even if disaster couldn’t be avoided, if preparations and precautions could be made early, they could avoid what happened in her previous life—

Though some died when the house was raided, more people actually died during the journey of exile.

Some due to old age and frailty, some due to encountering bandits, and some due to poverty and illness combined…

Among them was Yan Lin’s father.

Jiang Xuening’s heart felt heavy again, only thinking that in her previous life she’d been thoroughly used by Zhou Yinzhi. Though she was still using this person in this life, she must also maintain strict vigilance.

Today he could kill his beloved horse to maintain a flawless lie.

Tomorrow he could also raise his butcher’s knife toward her for his own official career and prospects.

She couldn’t help but remind Yan Lin. “I rather think this person loved his horse, yet killed it just like that. Though certainly decisive, he’s also ruthless in his methods.”

Yan Lin’s brows and eyes relaxed. Knowing she was concerned for him, he only said, “I know.”

Jiang Xuening couldn’t really say anything more, only lowering her brows to peel the handful of pine nuts he’d put down earlier.

The pine nut kernels were tiny little things—peeling them wasn’t quick and required some effort.

As she peeled, she began to furrow her brows.

Yan Lin watched with a smile. Only then did he untie the bulging pouch from his waist and toss it to her. “I knew you’d find peeling them tiresome. Open it and look.”

She caught the pouch, only feeling it was quite heavy.

Opening it to look, it was all already-peeled pine nut kernels, golden and gathered together.

Though the item wasn’t valuable, peeling them all would truly take considerable effort.

Just looking at this bulging pouch, one could imagine how the youth sitting on her window ledge had used those hands meant only for gripping swords to bit by bit, carefully peel the pine nut kernels from their shells.

Then gathered them together.

And casually tossed them to her like this.

Seeing her not speak, Yan Lin thought she didn’t like them. “Don’t you want to eat them?”

Jiang Xuening shook her head. “No, I like them very much.”

Yan Lin found it strange. “Then why aren’t you eating them?”

Jiang Xuening didn’t know how to explain. Though the gift was small, the sentiment was too heavy. She feared she couldn’t repay it.

Before the window, the slightly cool autumn wind blew. September was almost over, and even the osmanthus fragrance was gradually fading.

Not hearing her speak for a long time, Yan Lin somehow recalled the strange words she’d said to him that evening. Raising his eyes, he saw her maid gathering some more books to ask her, “Miss, do you want to bring a few books to read when entering the palace tomorrow?”

Jiang Xuening didn’t even turn her head. “Not bringing any.”

Only then did Yan Lin remember about entering the palace. Taking another candied fruit from her, he smiled. “You’re about to enter the palace to be the Princess’s companion reader, and you can even receive instruction from Master Xie. How is it? Are you happy?”

As if Jiang Xuening could possibly be happy.

She opened her mouth wanting to say she didn’t want to go at all.

But before the words left her mouth, raising her head she actually saw Yan Lin’s face full of smiles. Thinking again, she felt his words seemed to reveal some pride, and her heart immediately had an ominous premonition.

Jiang Xuening’s eyelid twitched. “You just returned two days ago and already knew about the companion reader matter?”

Yan Lin made an “ah” sound, blinking at her. In his pair of dark eyes, brilliance sparkled magnificently, and that smug look between his brows became even more obvious. “I knew early on that the Princess wanted to select companion readers. I mentioned you to her long ago, telling her she must add you in no matter what. You always say you want to go see places you’ve never been. Haven’t you always been curious about matters in the imperial palace? With such a wonderful opportunity, of course I couldn’t forget my Ningning. How about it? Didn’t I handle this matter beautifully?”

Jiang Xuening: “…”

After all this fuss, you’re the one plotting against me!!!

She forcibly suppressed the impulse to push this brat off the window ledge. The corner of her mouth twitched. Seeming to smile while actually grinding her back teeth in the shadows, she only said, “Beautiful! Handled truly beautifully, such a ‘surprise’!”

Yan Lin somehow felt the back of his neck getting somewhat cold.

But if Ningning was happy, then he was happy too.

Thus he said, “Though we don’t yet know what books Master Xie will teach you, learning the zither has been decided and is certain to happen. In recent days I’ve already had people search for some fine zithers. Several are even ancient zithers from hundreds of years ago. Master Xie loves the zither. If you enter the palace to learn zither and bring a good one, even if the master’s requirements are strict, seeing the zither’s face he’ll be lenient with you by a few degrees. Today is just right—there’s still some time. Come on, I’ll take you to select a zither!”

Hearing the three words “Master Xie” made Jiang Xuening’s whole body bristle. Hearing “zither” made her head swell even more. She wanted to say she’d go once and return with a “dismissal,” so really didn’t need such things.

But she couldn’t withstand Yan Lin’s domineering nature.

Before long, she was forcibly brought onto his carriage and left the manor to select a zither.

At this time, fourteen days had passed since the Double Ninth Festival.

You Fangyin didn’t know how many times she’d entered this trading house. After inquiring about today’s market price for raw silk, she furrowed her brows. Ignoring how many eye-rolls the shop clerk gave her, she still sincerely and honestly expressed her thanks.

For over ten consecutive days burning the midnight oil learning to read account books and practice bookkeeping, her eyes were bloodshot.

When walking out of the trading house, she only felt her head heavy and feet light.

Outside on the street market, crowds thronged and carriages came and went in an endless stream.

Recently the manor’s supervision had become increasingly strict. Always sneaking out—if discovered by her two elder sisters, especially Second Sister, another round of torment awaited.

Second Sister had just been selected as the Grand Princess’s companion reader. No one in the manor dared offend her.

You Fangyin thought she should return early today.

Moreover, last night she’d only slept for two hours. She truly couldn’t endure anymore.

But walking along, she saw the small stall by the roadside displaying many exquisitely embroidered handkerchiefs and sachets, along with various embroidery patterns. Among them was a sachet embroidered with green-calyx orchids, using stitching techniques she’d never seen before. For a moment her gaze stopped, and her footsteps also halted.

You Fangyin thought of that white peony she’d soiled.

Thus she reached out and picked up this sachet to examine it closely.

Unexpectedly, someone passing by bumped into her unintentionally. She was already dazed and could barely stand steady. In that moment she was knocked forward in a stumble. Panicking, her sleeve swept along and actually knocked more than half of the originally neatly arranged handkerchiefs and sachets onto the ground.

The vendor also ran a small business. He immediately cried out, “What’s wrong with you, girl? Are you deliberately trying to ruin my business!”

You Fangyin immediately felt guilty. “I’m sorry, I only wanted to look at the sachet, I didn’t mean to…”

Gazes from all around fell upon her, making her extremely embarrassed. She quickly lowered her head, helping the vendor pick up the items that had fallen on the ground one by one, apologizing repeatedly.

The commotion on the street was considerable. People couldn’t help but point and gossip about her.

Jiang Xuening had just followed Yan Lin up to this elegantly arranged Youhuang Pavilion on the upper floor. Before even entering, hearing the sound, she turned her head. Following the sound to look, she immediately saw that girl in the crowd looking utterly flustered and distressed.

Picking up one sachet only to knock over more, becoming increasingly frantic and disorganized.

She recognized it was You Fangyin, and her heart couldn’t help but slightly constrict.

It seemed nothing had changed.

How clumsy she was before, so clumsy she remained now.

Looking again at that small stall—it sold sachets and handkerchiefs…

She suddenly laughed at herself mockingly.

What exactly was she hoping for?

Didn’t she already know long ago that a young lady from the inner quarters who had never learned household management probably couldn’t even read account books, could barely write a few characters, and was still bound by family constraints? Even if she had money in hand, at most she’d purchase some farmland. Could she really hope she’d take money to take risks, buy raw silk, and do business?

The bold and unconventional You Fangyin of her previous life—there was ultimately only one.

Yan Lin followed her gaze to look, recognizing that secondary daughter of the You family she’d saved that day. For a moment he furrowed his brows. “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Xuening withdrew her gaze, lowering her eyelids, only saying, “You can save someone from illness, but not from fate. Sometimes you clearly know something is impossible, yet when you truly see with your own eyes that it’s impossible, you’ll still feel a little disappointed…”

Yan Lin turned his eyes to gaze at her, somewhat puzzled.

She slowly smiled. “It’s nothing. Only a little bit.”