Seeing that Song Yifeng remained silent, Guizi ran to the main gate, first listening at the door. Hearing no more talking, he opened the door and went out.

After looking around outside and seeing that the onlookers had dispersed, he returned to report to Song Yifeng, who then left with him.

The people in the small alley had always been very respectful toward Song Yifeng, this young provincial graduate, and would bow and greet him when they met on the road. Today, they still bowed and greeted him, but their eyes no longer held respect—instead, they examined him with curiosity.

Finally leaving the alley, Song Yifeng stood at its entrance, feeling somewhat lost.

Although household matters had always been Madam Yu’s concern, Song Yifeng wasn’t completely ignorant of such affairs and naturally knew that renting a house required an agent. When they had bought this house, they had dealt with an agent named Zhao from this area.

The problem was that Agent Zhao only managed houses in this vicinity. Yet Song Yifeng couldn’t rent a house nearby, and he didn’t know any agents from other areas. At this moment, he didn’t know where to go.

“Guizi…” he was about to ask Guizi if he knew anything when suddenly he saw a pretty figure appear in his vision. The person walked closer but stopped at a distance, her gaze fixed on him, her beautiful face full of concern.

Song Yifeng felt a warmth in his heart and was about to step forward when he paused, his foot suspended in mid-air.

Cui Zi Jin lived two alleys away from his home, and he would pass by her house when going through the alleys to the prefectural school. Now, still at the entrance of his alley, if he went forward to speak with Cui Zi Jin, people would certainly see them.

He was already at the center of a storm of controversy and couldn’t afford to give people more to gossip about.

Cui Zi Jin seemed to understand this as well, which was why she had stopped at a distance.

Seeing that he had noticed her, Cui Zi Jin nodded slightly to him before turning and walking away with her elderly maid.

Song Yifeng waited until the mistress and servant had walked some distance away before following behind them. He followed them to the alley where Cui Zi Jin lived. After they entered the courtyard, Guizi looked around to make sure no one was nearby, and only then did Song Yifeng also enter the Cui family residence.

The elderly maid was waiting at the door. Seeing Song Yifeng and his servant enter, she closed the door and led the two into the hall.

Seeing Cui Zi Jin looking at him silently without speaking, Song Yifeng gave a bitter smile and asked, “Have you heard about my situation?”

Though phrased as a question, his tone was quite certain.

For someone like Song Yifeng, he could be completely filthy and full of schemes, yet he demanded that women be pure white lotuses; they could be talented and clever, but they must be pure and kind-hearted.

So before starting her plan, Ye Yaming had decided to establish a persona for Cui Zi Jin:

She was the daughter of a disgraced official. Her father had been implicated by others and imprisoned, then demoted to Jian Prefecture. While being escorted through Lin’an, he had fallen seriously ill and died there.

Her mother had passed away two years earlier, and she was her parents’ only child. After her father’s imprisonment, relatives had coveted the family property and hastily arranged a marriage for her. When news of her father’s death arrived, they became even more unrestrained. She had decisively sold the family property and came to Lin’an with an old servant to claim her father’s body.

After burying her father, she was unwilling to return to the capital, so she rented this house in Lin’an and lived peacefully with her old servant.

Coincidentally, the persona Ye Yaming had created for Cui Zi Jin closely resembled her actual experiences.

However, her father hadn’t died in Lin’an but elsewhere. After burying her father, she had come to Lin’an to seek refuge with her maternal aunt. But her luck had been poor—she had been knocked unconscious on the journey, and when she awoke, she discovered she had been sold to a brothel. The two servants who had accompanied her had either died, been sold by the bandits, or run away; in any case, she never saw them again.

She had endured three years in the brothel until finally, using a talented young man who coveted her beauty, she had redeemed herself with her own money, leaving that filthy place to become his concubine.

After marriage, she had finally contacted her aunt. Her aunt, who had never had children, lived miserably in her husband’s home. Learning of her niece’s plight, she had simply divorced her husband to make room for the fertile concubine. For this, her husband’s family had allowed her to leave with her dowry and had given her a sum of money.

Cui Zi Jin had spent three years in the pleasure quarters; having stayed in Lin’an for so long, there were always people who might recognize her, making it inconvenient to go out and do anything. Cui Zi Jin had her savings, and the aunt and niece didn’t lack money, so they wanted to leave Lin’an City.

They wanted to find a small town in the south where prices were cheap and customs simple. Even if the two couldn’t find a way to earn money, with their savings, they could live for ten or twenty years. If Cui Zi Jin met a suitable person, she could marry well and no longer be affected by her past experiences.

But having experienced being robbed before, neither dared to leave Lin’an alone. Fearing that escorts from escort agencies might harbor ill intentions, they didn’t dare travel with them either.

So Cui Zi Jin had agreed to work for the Ye family.

Before moving here, Cui Zi Jin had dressed as an unmarried woman.

Zi Jin had been only sixteen when she married her former husband, and three months later had been driven out by the principal wife. Now she was not yet seventeen, and with her pure appearance, without a hint of worldliness or the air of a married woman, fooling Song Yifeng was no problem at all.

Worried about encountering people who knew her, Cui Zi Jin rarely went out, which fit perfectly with her persona. The day she coincidentally met Song Yifeng was because she had fallen ill and needed to visit the medical clinic ahead, encountered rain without an umbrella, and received Song Yifeng’s help.

After escorting Cui Zi Jin and her servant, who were soaked by the rain, back home, Song Yifeng discovered a poetry collection on the table by a poet he greatly admired. This collection wasn’t available in the market. Cui Zi Jin, noticing his interest, had volunteered to lend it to him for copying.

When he returned the collection after copying it, Cui Zi Jin lent him another book, and they discussed poetry and songs, then moved from poetry to life aspirations, both developing romantic feelings.

In Song Yifeng’s heart, Cui Zi Jin was a chaste and quiet woman. If she hadn’t heard about his situation and wasn’t concerned for him, she would never have come near his home.

This also showed that Cui Zi Jin cared for him. Even after hearing about his engagement and its breaking, despite the public condemnation, she still thought of him.

Thinking of this, Song Yifeng’s heart felt both sweet and bitter, filled with mixed emotions.

Seeing that Cui Zi Jin had not denied it and remained silent, Song Yifeng said anxiously, “About my engagement, I didn’t intentionally hide it from you. The Ye family behaved improperly, trading in private tea, so I had to break off the engagement. I planned to tell you about this after breaking it off.”

Although they had mutual affection, they had not yet explicitly acknowledged it. Now with Song Yifeng’s words, Cui Zi Jin was deeply moved. Her beautiful eyes looked at Song Yifeng, full of emotion, before tears slowly welled up.

Song Yifeng knew she was moved by his sincerity.

Cui Zi Jin lowered her head, wiping away her tears with a handkerchief, her voice soft and tender with a crying tone: “Are you alright?”

Song Yifeng was silent for a moment before explaining his current predicament to Cui Zi Jin.

After listening, Cui Zi Jin’s face showed a hesitant expression.