“Wenqian, you’re at that age now. You should consider taking a wife, shouldn’t you?”

He had heard such advice many times before, but none had ever given him such a heart-stopping feeling. Luo Yuan’s hand trembled slightly as he picked up chess pieces, his mind rapidly considering what Xiao Du meant by saying this and how he should respond appropriately.

Seeing his face turn pale, Xiao Du smiled with good humor and said casually, “I was just asking casually. Why does Wenqian look like he’s facing a great enemy?”

Luo Yuan quickly concealed the embarrassment on his face and smiled while looking down, “Thank you for your concern, Marquis. It’s just that I’m new to officialdom, with neither family wealth nor achievements. I really have no qualifications to presume to speak of marriage.” After speaking, he packed up the chess pieces and rose to take his leave.

Xiao Du’s gaze fell on his back as he suddenly spoke again, “You could be said to have boundless prospects now. Why be so modest? How about this—if I encounter someone suitable in the future, I’ll find a way to act as matchmaker for you?”

Luo Yuan’s steps faltered, then he turned around and bowed, “In that case, I’ll trouble the Marquis to concern himself.”

When Xiao Du returned to the Marquis residence, Yuanxi was having Nanny Li and An’he organize the trunks that had been brought back from the Chancellor’s residence.

Xiao Du walked over with his hands behind his back, and when others weren’t looking, he quickly pecked Yuanxi’s face. Receiving a fierce glare from her blushing face, he cleared his throat and smiled at the busy An’he, “Chancellor Xia didn’t make things difficult for you, did he?”

An’he sighed, “The Chancellor was very angry, saying we were useless for not watching over Miss properly. But in the end, he didn’t send anyone to stop us and let us bring everything back.”

Xiao Du’s smile deepened. Today he had deliberately sent people to the Chancellor’s residence with great fanfare, saying they were following his wife’s orders to bring back her personal maids and trunks. Xia Mingyuan, being concerned about face, naturally wouldn’t admit that Yuanxi had secretly slipped back to the Marquis residence on her own, so he could only agree on the surface.

Imagining Xia Mingyuan’s expression of having anger but nowhere to vent it must have been quite spectacular, his heart felt increasingly pleased. At this moment, however, Yuanxi was somewhat lost in thought thinking of her father. Returning to the Marquis residence through this misunderstanding still left her feeling somewhat guilty toward her father.

Seeing what she was thinking, Xiao Du sighed gently, “The room is messy. Come walk with me outside.” Yuanxi nodded and let him lead her out. Their hands clasped beneath their sleeves as they strolled through the garden stepping on fallen leaves. Though they didn’t speak the entire way, they both seemed to understand each other’s thoughts—no words were needed to convey a thousand meanings.

They walked until they reached a waterside pavilion. Seeing Yuanxi shrink her neck from the cold wind, Xiao Du gently removed his outer robe to wrap around her, then pulled her into his embrace, asking softly, “Do you regret it?”

Yuanxi buried herself in his warm embrace and sniffed, shaking her head, “No regrets. Never will.”

Xiao Du’s arms suddenly tightened, wishing he could merge her into his bones and blood. They embraced like this by the clear flowing stream for a long while before Xiao Du took a deep breath and said, “Did you see father and mother today? What did you talk about?”

This morning Yuanxi had gone early to pay respects to the Old Marquis and the Princess, then went to Xiao Zhixuan’s room to chat with her for a while. Hearing him mention it, she sighed, “Today I discovered that Master’s complexion has gotten much worse, and Xuan’er has also lost weight. She tears up after just a few words. I never expected so many things to happen in the residence after I left.”

She was referring to Concubine Cai’s suicide. When Xiao Du heard her mention it, he became serious, “Speaking of which, I have something to show you. Help me think it through.” He then led her toward the study.

When Yuanxi picked up the paper, looking at the ordinary text on it, she couldn’t make sense of it for a moment.

Xiao Du briefly explained the situation from that day, then said, “Later Xuan’er told me that on the day Concubine Cai died, she had gone to find her. According to what she said, there had always been someone behind the scenes manipulating Concubine Cai, and she seemed to have obtained some evidence against that person. She was originally planning to secretly escape from the residence, which is why she went to bid farewell to Xuan’er. But for some reason, she later returned to her room and inexplicably met with harm.”

Yuanxi frowned, “Didn’t you say she was confined by Master, with guards and maids outside her door all testifying that she never left her room that day? How did she manage to get out?”

Xiao Du said, “I’ve already investigated this matter. Xuan’er told me that Concubine Cai was dressed as a maid at the time, so I immediately seized her personal maid Gui He for questioning. That girl was frightened enough that she confessed everything without much questioning. According to her, that day Concubine Cai deliberately had her come in alone to deliver food, then knocked her unconscious and disguised herself as her to secretly slip out. It was noon then, and the maids and guards outside were sluggish and eager for their meal, so they didn’t notice such a small detail. Gui He also said that when she woke up that day, she found herself tied to the bed. She had already given up hope, thinking she would surely be charged with colluding with Concubine Cai to help her escape. But unexpectedly, Concubine Cai returned after a while. After untying her, Concubine Cai instructed her not to tell anyone about this, then had her act as if nothing had happened when she returned outside. Later when Concubine Cai died in the room, Gui He was afraid of getting into trouble, so she deliberately concealed this matter.”

Yuanxi thought for a moment, “This is strange indeed. Since Concubine Cai had made thorough plans to escape, why would she return to her room? Who could have entered her room to harm her? And that Gui He you mentioned—is she truly above suspicion?”

Xiao Du shook his head, “I suspected her initially, but that maid is very timid. Just a few threatening words scared her into telling everything. I don’t think she was pretending. Also, according to the coroner’s autopsy results, Concubine Cai died around the hour of the Monkey. At that time, Gui He and several other maids were all in the outer room, with others who could testify.”

He picked up the paper again, “Besides this suspicious point, this letter is also very strange. Look at these ink dots—I think they were all deliberately made by Concubine Cai to tell us something. I just can’t figure out what they represent.”

Yuanxi pondered for a moment, then suddenly said, “You mentioned earlier that Concubine Cai told Xuan’er to carefully preserve the calligraphy practice sheets she had copied over the years?”

Xiao Du nodded, “So I suspect she knew some things and secretly hid them in those practice sheets, which is why she was killed. But when we entered the room, those practice sheets were already missing. The crucial pages must have been taken by the murderer.”

Yuanxi said, “Since Concubine Cai was accustomed to hiding all secrets in those practice sheets, have you considered whether the message these ink marks are trying to convey might also be related to those practice sheets?”

Xiao Du’s heart stirred. He quickly retrieved from the cabinet the pile of practice sheets he had specially preserved that day. Examining them carefully with Yuanxi, they indeed discovered that among the dense writing, there were also several small ink dots mixed in. If one wasn’t paying attention, they would be very hard to notice. Moreover, the color of those ink dots was clearly different from the original ink, obviously added later.

Xiao Du and Yuanxi looked at each other, both seeing excitement in the other’s eyes. It seemed they were on the right track. However, when they spread out a sheet of rice paper and connected the characters near those ink dots, they found that these characters still formed a meaningless jumble. Yuanxi held her brush and bit her lip in thought, “Perhaps we need to put these practice sheets in order so we can know how to combine these characters.”

But the practice sheets showed no chronological order. Fortunately, they soon discovered that Concubine Cai had been copying a book called the “Lotus Sutra.” By comparing it with the content of the sutra, they could determine the correct sequence.

Though this sounded simple, it wasn’t easy to accomplish. The two worked together until dinner time to number each page in order. The sutra had twenty-one chapters total, with several chapters missing some pages—these must be the ones that were stolen. The remaining thick stack was numbered and organized by the two of them. They then circled and recorded the characters marked with ink dots on each page in sequence. The final result was greatly disappointing—those characters still couldn’t form meaningful sentences. Had they gone in the wrong direction?

Seeing Yuanxi’s disappointed expression, Xiao Du couldn’t help but rub her face comfortingly, “Don’t worry, we’ll think of a solution.”

Yuanxi sighed, staring directly at the large pile of sutras before her, “But I feel like we’re just a little bit off. If we miss this opportunity, it would be truly regrettable. Besides, Xuan’er did help me once—I don’t want to see her continue to be so sad.”

Xiao Du let her head rest on his shoulder while rubbing her temples, “You just returned, and I don’t want to see you looking troubled. Don’t worry—I promised Xuan’er I would help her investigate this clearly, and I will definitely do it. You just need to stay by my side.”

But Yuanxi sat up straight, saying stubbornly, “How can that be? Since I’m your wife and Xuan’er’s sister-in-law, I must shoulder the responsibilities I should bear. I must find a way to figure out this matter.”

Seeing her determined expression of not giving up until she found the truth, Xiao Du couldn’t help but smile, “Alright, alright, then you investigate. From now on, everyone in the entire Marquis residence, including myself, will be at your disposal. Is that acceptable?”

After being comforted by him, Yuanxi’s mood relaxed considerably. They had dinner sent to their room, but because of their preoccupations, neither ate with much appetite. After the meal, Yuanxi picked up the paper that had been crumpled with many creases and read it repeatedly. Suddenly she called to Xiao Du, “Come look—does this letter contain exactly twenty-one characters total?”

Hearing this, Xiao Du also had a flash of inspiration. He quickly took the paper to count, and indeed all the characters added up to exactly twenty-one. The two looked at each other in pleasant surprise, simultaneously remembering that the “Lotus Sutra” had exactly twenty-one chapters. Looking at the ink dots on the paper again, they seemed to correspond to several of the characters.

So it wasn’t that all the text in the practice sheets was useful—what Concubine Cai wanted to tell them was only certain characters from certain chapters and pages. Having finally found the correct clue, the two felt incredibly excited. They quickly spread out rice paper and, following the characters marked with ink dots on the paper, found the correct chapters. Using the number of ink dots, they circled the corresponding page numbers and recorded the marked characters on the rice paper.

After much sweating and searching, they finally recorded a sentence on the paper—this should be what Concubine Cai truly wanted to tell them. But this line of characters made their previous joy vanish completely. They stared with wide eyes, feeling somewhat chilled, as the rice paper clearly read: “Nanny Yu harmed me.”

Nanny Yu was the Princess’s most trusted person. If Concubine Cai’s final message was true, then even the Princess might not be able to escape involvement in this matter. Yuanxi felt her throat go dry and turned to look at Xiao Du tentatively, “Now… what should we do?”

Xiao Du’s face was ashen. After a long while, he exhaled and said, “You don’t need to worry about it. Tomorrow morning, I’ll go ask for clarification.”

The next morning, the Princess’s room was still filled with medicinal fragrance. The Princess’s face was buried behind the misty vapor, appearing somewhat distant. Xiao Du sat in the lower seat, looked up to observe the Princess’s expression, and said, “Mother’s complexion has been getting better lately. Your mood must be quite good.”

The Princess pulled at the corners of her mouth, “With so many things happening in the residence, how could my mood be good? It’s just that I’ve changed to a new medicine that suits my condition very well.”

Xiao Du smiled. Regardless, he felt somewhat comforted that his mother’s health was improving. After chatting about family matters for a while, Xiao Du finally made up his mind and said, “I have something I’d like to ask Nanny Yu privately. I wonder if mother would allow her to come with me?”

Nanny Yu, who was pouring tea for the Princess, suddenly trembled, spilling some tea water that splashed onto the Princess’s skirt. The Princess glared at her, “At such an advanced age, how can you still be so careless?” Nanny Yu repeatedly apologized and instructed the maids outside to bring clean clothes for the Princess to change into. The Princess shook her head and said to Xiao Du, “Although Nanny Yu is getting old, she has followed me for so many years. I can’t do without her in this room for even a moment. Whatever you want to ask, ask it now. Surely you don’t have anything to say that you need to hide from your mother?”

Xiao Du hesitated for a moment, then fixed his piercing gaze on Nanny Yu and asked, “On the day Concubine Cai died, during the hour of the Monkey, where were you, Nanny Yu?”

Nanny Yu opened her mouth but before she could speak, the Princess had already widened her eyes, “What do you mean by that? Are you suspecting the people around me?”

Xiao Du, afraid she might become agitated, quickly shook his head, “Mother, please don’t get upset. It’s just that there’s some evidence that happens to relate to her, so I wanted to ask for clarification.”

Before he finished speaking, Nanny Yu had already fallen to her knees with a thud, “This servant stays in the Princess’s room every day to serve. The hour of the Monkey is when the Princess takes her medicine. This servant fears the young maids might be negligent, so I always personally brew the medicine and serve it to her. I dare not leave her side for even a step! Please investigate thoroughly, my lord!”

Xiao Du frowned, and before he could speak, the Princess had already covered her chest, “You heard clearly—Nanny Yu never left my room that day. Whatever you investigated, someone must be deliberately framing her. Unless… you no longer trust even your mother now.”

Seeing her face turn pale, Xiao Du feared she might trigger her old illness. Feeling somewhat helpless, he could only step forward to comfort her gently, not daring to ask further.

Meanwhile, Yuanxi sat in her room, repeatedly thinking about all the details Xiao Du had described about Concubine Cai’s room at the time of death. Just then, Nanny Li brought in a charcoal brazier, saying, “It’s getting colder and colder. We should start burning charcoal.” Yuanxi stared at the brazier for a long time, and something unusual quickly flashed through her mind. She suddenly understood how Concubine Cai had been killed in that sealed room that day, and how the murderer had escaped…