Inside Shihua Pavilion.

Mu Yunjin had just finished bathing and was lazily leaning against the headboard, occasionally sipping the white fungus porridge that Zixiang had prepared for her.

“Young Miss, you were incredible today! Fortunately, you threw away that jewelry box, otherwise, you would have been charged with theft and attempted murder,” Zixiang said, still shaken by what had happened earlier in Bilo Courtyard.

“Both Big Madam and Second Madam wanted to use me to achieve their own goals. How could I make it easy for them? Mu Yiyang’s excessive gambling is a fact. Father only needs to do a simple investigation to find evidence. Tomorrow, Second Madam won’t be able to escape.”

Zixiang nodded, then softly asked, “What about Big Madam? After today’s events, I’m afraid the mother-daughter relationship between Young Miss and Big Madam will have another crack.”

“Mother-daughter relationship? When have we ever had a mother-daughter relationship?” Mu Yunjin spoke coldly, her pupils contracting.

She always repaid grudges. As for this mother and daughter pair, she was merely sparing them temporarily. Sooner or later, she would make them see her true colors.

This Minister’s household would never be peaceful again.

…

…

Hearing this, Zixiang sighed slightly and stopped mentioning the matter. She checked the time and began tidying up Mu Yunjin’s changed clothes.

A moment later, Zixiang made a curious sound and picked up Mu Yunjin’s clothes, carefully feeling through them.

“Young Miss, your jade pendant—how has it disappeared?”

Mu Yunjin was startled, her brows furrowing slightly. Personal jade pendant? Did she have such a thing?

After a while, Mu Yunjin did recall that she seemed to have a moon-white jade pendant with her name carved on it.

Now that Zixiang mentioned it, she realized she hadn’t seen the pendant for several days.

“I don’t know either. Maybe I left it somewhere,” Mu Yunjin responded without much concern for the jade pendant.

But Zixiang became anxious, “Young Miss, that’s something you’ve carried with you since childhood! How can it just disappear?”

After speaking, Zixiang suddenly walked to the candlestick and extinguished the candle.

The previously bright bedroom was suddenly plunged into darkness.

“Zixiang, what are you doing?” Mu Yunjin closed her eyes briefly; everything before her was pitch black, and she couldn’t see anything.

“That jade pendant glows, especially noticeable in the dark. Extinguishing the candle will make it easier to find,” Zixiang explained as she squatted down, carefully feeling around.

Mu Yunjin sighed slightly and simply lay down, pulling the blanket over her head.

After some time, the candle was lit again, and Zixiang had a dejected expression. “Young Miss, what should we do if the jade pendant is truly lost? If someone sells it, that would be terrible.”

“Forget it, it’s just a jade pendant. Don’t overthink it. You should go rest early,” Mu Yunjin turned over and yawned.

“Young Miss!” Zixiang suddenly raised her voice, “That jade pendant is made from extremely rare white jade! They say it takes almost a hundred years to polish one jade pendant, requiring tremendous effort. Moreover, it has your name carved on it.”

“White jade—approximately how much is it worth?” Mu Yunjin asked.

“I’m foolish, but I remember Aunt Zhang mentioning when I was young that this jade pendant is very precious and could be worth tens of thousands of gold.”

Mu Yunjin immediately sat up and looked at Zixiang with astonishment. “Tens of thousands of gold? This jade pendant is so valuable?”

Zixiang nodded dumbly.

“Zixiang, stop teasing me. How could I possibly have something so valuable? Aunt Zhang must have been talking nonsense. Go out now and rest early.”

After Zixiang left, Mu Yunjin stretched out her fingers, gently bending them as she muttered to herself, “Tens of thousands of gold? Really that valuable?”

After pondering, Mu Yunjin scratched her head, desperately trying to recall the last time she saw the jade pendant, but she couldn’t remember. Instead, Chu Li’s face suddenly flashed in her mind.

“Tsk, why am I thinking of that ice-faced expressionless man?”

……

The next day, Mu Yunjin rose early, expecting Minister Mu to summon her to confront Second Madam after discovering the results of his investigation.

However, she waited from early morning until noon, and no one came to Shihua Pavilion to find her.

It wasn’t until Zixiang returned with lunch that Mu Yunjin received some news from the outside.

“Young Miss, Second Madam, and Second Young Master have been driven out of the household. The master announced that from now on, Second Young Master is no longer part of the Mu family, and he also wrote a divorce letter for Second Madam.”

“So I guessed correctly?” Mu Yunjin raised her eyebrows slightly, not showing much reaction to this news.

Zixiang nodded, looked around, and then whispered in Mu Yunjin’s ear, “I heard that Second Young Master was gambling excessively outside and owed a lot of debt. He even secretly pawned the master’s private residence in Zhangzhou. This morning, the master had to take silver to the pawnshop to redeem the property deed.”

“I just happened to meet the master on my way back. His face was ashen—he was extremely angry.”

Hearing this, Mu Yunjin’s eyes immediately filled with amusement, and she couldn’t help but smile, “Do you think when Mu Yiyang wakes up, he’ll rush to the front gate of the Minister’s household and accuse me of kicking him?”

“Young Miss, who would believe that you, a frail woman, could kick Second Young Master into such a state?” A rare hint of cunning flashed in Zixiang’s eyes.

This made Mu Yunjin even more delighted. She reached out and poked Zixiang’s forehead. “You girl, if you were always like this, wouldn’t I be even happier?”

“Come on, Young Miss, eat quickly, or the food will get cold,” Zixiang said with a laugh, placing the dishes she had just brought from the small kitchen on the table.

When Mu Yunjin saw it was the same plain porridge and simple dishes again, she immediately lost her appetite. Propping up her head, she sighed slightly, “Since coming here, I haven’t had a single meal with meat.”

“Young Miss, don’t be sad. Once you marry into the Sixth Prince’s household, won’t eating meat be a simple matter?” Zixiang spoke with complete sincerity.

Hearing this, Mu Yunjin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Having such a maid by her side was truly her blessing; otherwise, she would have no one to amuse her.

After a simple meal, Mu Yunjin moved a chair outside the door, leisurely basking in the sun with her eyes narrowed, looking completely relaxed.

Half-awake and half-dozing, she heard footsteps heading toward Shihua Pavilion.

Mu Yunjin opened her eyes, waiting for the person to enter.

In a moment, the main door of Shihua Pavilion was pushed open, and Minister Mu stood at the entrance, walking in step by step.

“Father,” Mu Yunjin sat up and bowed slightly to Minister Mu.

Minister Mu nodded, looking at Mu Yunjin with a somewhat unnatural expression. He glanced around, then cleared his throat and said, “Yesterday’s matter has been clarified.”

“Yunjin has heard,” Mu Yunjin replied.

“Hmm, you were wronged,” Minister Mu said somewhat awkwardly, paused, then continued, “I haven’t come here for a long time. I didn’t know it had become so dilapidated.”

“Why don’t you move to the vacant Tinghua Pavilion starting today? I’ll have people renovate this place. How does that sound?”

Minister Mu’s sudden change in attitude made Mu Yunjin feel ‘pleasantly surprised,’ but since he had offered, she wasn’t foolish enough to decline.

Moving to a better place would be more comfortable. Perhaps she might even get to eat meat!

“Yunjin thanks Father for his kindness,” Mu Yunjin pretended to be modest, with a faint smile.

“Well, I’ll be going now. In the future, when you live in Tinghua Pavilion, you can freely walk around the surroundings. You don’t need to be as restricted as you were here,” Minister Mu said before leaving.

After Minister Mu left, Zixiang was even more excited than Mu Yunjin. “Young Miss, that’s wonderful! We finally don’t have to stay here anymore, and you’re no longer confined. From now on, you’ll be the rightful Third Miss of this household, and nobody will bully you anymore.”

Hearing this, Mu Yunjin nodded and snapped her fingers. “Let’s go pack our things!”

“Alright!”

……

Mu Yunjin had many belongings. She and Zixiang made several trips to move everything.

However, despite turning Shihua Pavilion upside down, Mu Yunjin couldn’t find her jade pendant and had to accept that it was truly lost.

She felt regret in her heart for a while, but the joy of moving into the new pavilion soon made her forget about the jade pendant.

Busy until dusk, Mu Yunjin finally settled herself in Tinghua Pavilion. Just as she was about to ask Zixiang to prepare dinner, a servant walked in from outside and politely addressed Mu Yunjin.

“Third Miss, the master invites you to dine together in the front hall.”

“The front hall? Who else will be there?” Mu Yunjin was somewhat surprised. Had Minister Mu suddenly changed his nature?

First, letting her move to a new pavilion, now inviting her to dine at the table.

“Big Madam and Fourth Miss, also Third Madam and Fifth Miss,” the servant replied.

Mu Yunjin nodded, tidied herself up briefly, and then walked toward the front hall.

When Mu Yunjin arrived at the front hall, everyone was already seated. The scars on Su Biqing’s face had faded considerably, and she graciously came out to dine together.

Mu Lingzhu glanced lightly at Mu Yunjin, then shifted her gaze away. Although her face showed no expression, the coldness in her eyes was not to be underestimated.

Third Madam Luo Ningyu sat with Mu Xiarou. As soon as Mu Xiarou saw Mu Yunjin, she glared at her. Only after the Third Madam pinched Mu Xiarou’s thigh did Mu Xiarou reluctantly offer Mu Yunjin a smile.

“Yunjin is here. Sit down and let’s eat together,” Minister Mu pointed to the empty seat across.

Mu Yunjin nodded and sat down gracefully. The table before her was piled with chicken, duck, fish, and meat, but in this environment, she felt that these dishes were not as good as her plain porridge and simple vegetables.

Mu Yunjin picked up her chopsticks and was about to lift her rice bowl when someone put a chicken neck on her plate. The chicken neck was almost all bone with only a few scattered bits of meat.

“Sister, I’m truly sorry about yesterday’s incident. Zhu is apologizing to you,” Mu Lingzhu said to Mu Yunjin with a smiling face.

Mu Yunjin glanced at the chicken neck, then looked up at Mu Lingzhu with a harmless smile. “Thank you, younger sister, but your older sister is used to vegetarian food. This—you should keep it for yourself.”

After speaking, she tossed the chicken neck back into Mu Lingzhu’s bowl with her chopsticks.

Just as Mu Lingzhu was about to lose her temper and scold her, she saw that Mu Yunjin had already picked up some vegetables and was eating them with relish, completely ignoring her.

Su Biqing had been observing Mu Yunjin from the beginning, feeling that something about this daughter had changed, but she couldn’t pinpoint what.

It must be just a coincidence—she was being too suspicious.