Xie Wei truly looked at her for a long time.

Jiang Xuening felt his gaze was somewhat cold.

Xie Wei actually asked: “Does Yan Lin know?”

Though he had never asked directly, Jiang Xuening could roughly guess that Xie Wei knew about her relationship with Yan Lin, or rather, Yan Lin’s feelings toward her. Originally she felt this person was being somewhat too meddlesome, but thinking of the speculation You Fangying had mentioned to her in the previous life, she felt that if that speculation were true, Xie Wei’s concern over this matter was understandable.

As for Yan Lin…

He shouldn’t know that she liked Zhang Zhe. After all, how long had it been since she was reborn? But that day at Cengxiao Tower, even though those words weren’t spoken aloud, Yan Lin understood. Only he didn’t want to personally hear her speak the words, so he told her not to say them.

Xie Wei pulled at the corner of his lips, his smile slightly cool: “If I were Yan Lin, I would skin you alive and pull out all these rebellious bones of yours. I’ve never heard of you knowing Zhang Zhe previously. Even if you secretly admired him in the past and today fell for him at first sight, it’s still most likely one-sided wishful thinking. You like him all you want, but he may not be able to reach high enough for you.”

Hearing the first half of that sentence, Jiang Xuening only felt alarmed.

But hearing the latter part, she nearly jumped up, somewhat embarrassed and angry: “You’re the one reaching high! What nonsense are you spouting!”

This appearance was like someone had stepped on her tail, somewhat fierce.

Xie Wei found her disagreeable.

His gaze grew profoundly deeper, becoming silent as a cold pool: “I merely said one sentence about Zhang Zhe and you’re already jumping. So unable to contain yourself—with three words or two you expose your weakness. Does Miss Ning Two think I, Xie Wei, am a good person worthy of trust, or do you think all people in the world are good and you don’t guard against anyone?”

Jiang Xuening suddenly shivered.

Xie Wei said calmly: “If I were you, I would forever bury whoever I liked deep in my heart, neither speaking it aloud nor letting others know. Today you encountered me—I temporarily won’t do anything to you. In the future when you encounter others, if they want to deal with you or control you, they’ll first go make things difficult for Zhang Zhe. Then you can see how the four characters ‘harming others and harming yourself’ are written. Indeed worthy of playing around with Yan Lin—equally stupid.”

He had never spoken so impolitely before.

Jiang Xuening hadn’t even expected that scolding her would be enough, but he even cursed Yan Lin together. For a moment she only stared at him blankly, yet felt that truly not a single word he said was wrong: she had become confused with happiness and actually revealed her heart before Xie Wei?

But thinking back, it was clearly Xie Wei who saw through it first, and only then did she admit it.

Her heart suddenly filled with belated fear.

Xie Wei was only trying to scare her so she would seriously learn a lesson for once. Seeing she was finally afraid, he knew she had taken his words to heart. Though he didn’t know why he felt increasingly displeased, there was no time to waste here.

He directly handed over that lantern, placing it in her hands.

Only saying: “It’s too late, go back.”

Jiang Xuening took the palace lantern, but there was only this one lamp. She instinctively wanted to ask “what about you,” but Xie Wei had already turned his back with hands clasped behind him, walking along that high palace wall toward the direction of leaving the palace.

The surrounding darkness pressed down on him.

This person was different from Zhang Zhe.

Even walking in the night, Zhang Zhe made people feel he carried light on his person. After Xie Wei left the range of this lamp’s light and entered the darkness, he merged with the darkness, as if he had originally come from within it.

Having just experienced the search of Yangzhi Studio, everyone returned with lingering fear and some trepidation. None dared simply return to their rooms, but instead gathered together, sitting in the Flowing Water Pavilion drinking hot tea to calm their nerves.

Because it was discovered a palace maid had framed someone, at this moment no one dared have palace maids attend them.

Inside the pavilion, excluding Jiang Xuening who hadn’t returned yet, there were seven people in total.

Chen Shuyi said in a detached manner: “Her luck was good, her courage great. She actually dared directly contradict the Empress Dowager and even dared say she was a minister’s daughter, not a palace maid, and should be investigated by the Embroidered Uniform Guard or Ministry of Justice. Only then did she narrowly wait for Officials Chen and Zhang to arrive and escape disaster. Otherwise we’d probably not see her alive.”

But Yao Rongrong somehow recalled that detail.

The one who left the palace to fetch someone from the Ministry of Justice happened to be precisely the eunuch who had knelt outside Kunning Palace that day.

She murmured softly to herself: “Was it truly just luck…”

Xiao Shu glanced at her but didn’t interject.

Zhou Baoying blinked repeatedly, constantly looking toward the door: “Sister Ning went to give thanks—shouldn’t one or two sentences be enough? How is she still not back?”

Yao Xi’s expression darkened somewhat.

You Yue was skilled at reading expressions. She almost immediately noticed this small abnormality. Her mind turned, recalling the relationship between Yao Xi and Zhang Zhe, and suddenly understood what Yao Xi minded.

She had never been afraid of adding fuel to the fire.

Immediately she covered her lips and smiled: “Life-saving grace, moreover sending charcoal in snowy weather—naturally one must say more. However, I hadn’t expected this legendary Zhang Zhe, though appearing cold, is actually a talented gentleman of upright character. Sister Yao Xi is truly blessed.”

Even knowing You Yue was exactly this kind of fanning flames and stirring up trouble everywhere, and having been warned by Xiao Shu and Chen Shuyi that this person couldn’t be trusted—even if not distancing themselves, they shouldn’t believe her or become close—who could remain calm hearing such words?

Zhang Zhe was her future husband.

In matters of propriety, Jiang Xuening should by all means avoid suspicion! Truly a wild girl raised in the countryside without proper manners!

Yao Xi heavily set down the teacup in her hand.

Chen Shuyi naturally also knew what sort You Yue was, but the enemy of one’s enemy was a friend. She rarely echoed: “Indeed, Sister Yao Xi is blessed. But Jiang Xuening is unlucky. Though she escaped disaster this time, she severely offended the Empress Dowager. Now with everyone watching under public scrutiny, the Empress Dowager may not necessarily do anything to her, but going forward she must remain in the palace. Even if Her Highness the Grand Princess protects her, I fear her days will be difficult, unlikely to be as pleasant as now.”

How many in the palace didn’t kick those who were down and fawn over those above?

If one knew the Empress Dowager disliked someone yet still rushed to curry favor, that was seeking death.

Once Chen Shuyi said this, some gloated while others felt somewhat worried.

Only such gossip about people behind their backs was after all feared to be overheard.

After all, it wasn’t as if they hadn’t been caught by Jiang Xuening before. With the current timing especially particular, if she heard and mistakenly thought they had framed her, that would be truly wrongful. So they quickly changed the topic.

You Yue thought that having entered the palace for several days now, in two more days they could leave the palace for their rest period. She then recalled matters she had arranged at the manor before entering the palace, suddenly feeling this was an excellent opportunity.

She herself didn’t know, but these people in the palace were well-informed.

Hearing them just discussing Yangzhou scenery and customs, she interjected: “I hear Yangzhou’s salt merchants are each wealthy enough to rival nations, living extremely extravagantly, probably no worse off than us.”

Xiao Shu said: “Salt trade spans the realm—anyone whose business grows somewhat large has money. Moreover, the Jianghuai salt fields are the premier salt fields among all prefectures, producing abundant salt. Naturally salt merchants gather there, competing with each other, never tiring of fine food and delicate cuisine. Not to mention compared to us—even compared to the palace they may not be inferior.”

None of them had been to Yangzhou. Hearing this, they couldn’t help exclaiming in wonder.

But You Yue’s eyes flashed as she said: “But I hear the Sichuan Ziliujing salt fields are also very famous. Why do we rarely hear of salt merchants there being wealthy?”

This time there was no need for Xiao Shu to speak. Chen Shuyi had already glanced at her coolly, saying: “The Shu roads are natural barriers, always difficult to traverse. Since ancient times it’s been isolated with poor information transmission. The Ziliujing salt fields can’t be considered any first-rate major salt field. How can they compare with Yangzhou?”

It seemed no one yet knew of Ren Weizhi.

You Yue secretly pondered that legendary “tube well drilling technique.” If true, Ziliujing could also leap to become a first-rate salt field. If she could get a share of that…

Just as she was about to inquire more carefully about salt matters under heaven, Jiang Xuening returned.

Fang Miao saw her first and called out.

Chen Shuyi smiled with implication: “Why was Second Miss Jiang gone so long?”

Jiang Xuening still held a lantern in her hand. Stopping under the eaves, she only lowered her eyelids to extinguish it, then looked back at her with a glance, saying coolly: “I encountered Teacher Xie on the way. He stopped me to ask a few questions.”

Everyone saw her somewhat spiritless appearance. Thinking again of how she was always being scolded by Xie Wei, they assumed she once again hadn’t gotten off easily.

This somehow brought inexplicable satisfaction.

Zhou Baoying opened her large eyes wide, somewhat softly asking: “Did Teacher Xie scold you again?”

Jiang Xuening, seeing everyone sitting inside with the air of a tea gathering, didn’t much want to participate. So she told a small lie: “It was fine. He just told me to come learn the qin as usual tomorrow.”

Several people absolutely didn’t believe it was truly this easy, all scoffing inwardly.

But Jiang Xuening only said: “Today was truly frightening and exhausting. I also implicated all of you in suffering a scare together with me—truly I’m sorry. I’m somewhat tired and will return to my room to sleep first. Everyone else should also rest early.”

Having said this, she casually hung that lantern under the corridor and followed the covered walkway back to her own room.

The room that had been ransacked earlier had been tidied properly.

Only when Jiang Xuening sat again on that seemingly orderly bed, she still felt chilled to the bone, as if placed in a cold prison cell.

The following two days were strangely quiet within the palace.

Jiang Xuening heard no more gossip or rumors.

Or perhaps they still circulated, but not a single one could reach Yangzhi Studio anymore. The entire world seemed as if nothing had happened. Only when walking along the long palace paths and occasionally catching curious glances from palace attendants did she glimpse the undercurrents hidden beneath this calm.

That chance encounter that night didn’t seem to have changed her relationship with Xie Wei.

As usual it was classes every three days, qin practice not neglected.

Only her heart found it very difficult to be calm.

Xie Wei kept having her sit before that qin for several days, but couldn’t wear down her restlessness. Later he simply stopped bothering, only having her sit to the side while he sat at the desk, burying himself in documents, handling those piles of official papers, even speaking less.

Sometimes Jiang Xuening would think, perhaps this was Xie Wei’s usual manner.

Until the day before leaving the palace for rest, she finally encountered Zheng Bao in a corner of the Imperial Garden.

Zheng Bao quietly told her that Her Highness the Grand Princess and His Highness Prince Linzi had gone to Cining Palace that night to plead for the Yongyi Marquis household, angering His Majesty and the Empress Dowager. One was punished with confinement so couldn’t come to study these past days, and the other was severely scolded by His Majesty and punished to kneel at the Imperial Ancestral Temple for three hours.

She couldn’t help being stunned.

Zheng Bao then raised his eyes to look at her. A trace of sighing flashed through his eyes as he told her that the palace maid who had framed her died under unclear circumstances on the very day she was confined to the Office of Careful Punishment. Nothing was extracted from her.

Jiang Xuening didn’t know how she arrived at the side hall of Fengchen Hall.

She had already come late today.

Yet Xie Wei unexpectedly still hadn’t arrived.

She waited a long time without seeing anyone. Sitting before that Jiaoyan ancient qin, though the room was filled with warm air, her hands and feet were all completely cold.

Two carved window panels were opened slightly.

Wind moaned and blew in from outside.

Xie Wei’s desk was always tidied neatly, brushes all washed clean and suspended on their rack. Used or unused paper was all pressed down with rulers or paperweights. Even when wind came, it only turned a few pages.

Yet there happened to be one page lightly placed at the corner of the desk.

With just one brush of wind, it fell to the floor.

Jiang Xuening’s gaze couldn’t help but fall there. After a moment passed without Xie Wei appearing, she rose and walked over, picking it up and lowering her eyes to look at the writing on it.

It actually wasn’t any letter but rather a gazette from two days ago!

In this instant, her heart sank into an icy abyss!

—The Yongyi Marquis household, suspected of colluding with rebels. Until investigation is clear, heavy troops surround the manor. Without permission, none may leave!

“Knock knock knock.”

Just then, someone knocked on the hall door.

The young eunuch attending outside spoke through the door panels: “Someone from the Grand Tutor’s side came with a message—he’s busy with matters today and cannot come. He’s troubled Second Miss Jiang to wait in vain. Since tomorrow is the rest day leaving the palace, please also rest well for a few days, Miss.”

Jiang Xuening looked toward the window. Without realizing it, year’s end had brought deep cold.

From that young man’s coming-of-age ceremony, only fifteen days remained.