“Miss means…” Ji Lan pondered thoughtfully.
“She’s hiding, concealing herself, preventing others from discovering her existence,” Han Yan took a sip of tea and said, “That’s why she’s willing to stay in a small village in the east of the city, deliberately making her needlework appear crude, doing mending to supplement her household income.”
“If that’s the case, wouldn’t leaving the capital be better?” Shu Hong looked at Han Yan and asked.
Han Yan smiled slightly: “Indeed, this is where the flaw lies.”
For someone trying everything possible to hide their traces, fleeing far away would be the best course of action. A’Bi once worked in Prince Zhuang’s mansion in the capital, and after being expelled from the mansion, logically, having had her tongue removed, she should have fled from this place of heartbreak. Yet she stayed, and after staying, she hid herself. This could only mean one thing – she simply couldn’t leave.
“What kind of situation would make it impossible to leave the capital?” Han Yan deliberately asked her two maids. As her confidantes, she wanted to gradually train them to become sharp-minded guards, capable of seeing the whole picture from a glimpse.
“That’s because someone has been monitoring her!” Ji Lan made this discovery and looked excitedly at Han Yan, who nodded affirmatively at her. Shu Hong said, “But she’s still living under an alias after all these years, showing she still fears whoever is monitoring her.” She looked puzzled, “But so much time has passed, it shouldn’t be like this!”
Han Yan’s gaze deepened: “This is exactly what worries me.”
Ji Lan and Shu Hong exchanged glances, and Han Yan spoke slowly: “So many years have passed, yet A’Bi still fears this force monitoring her so much that she won’t even tell us the truth.” She lowered her eyes, “How terrifying must this force be.”
Hearing Han Yan’s words, both maids were startled. Han Yan had already seen this – the more terrifying the force behind the scenes monitoring everything was, the more disadvantageous it would be for them to investigate this past event.
Han Yan had one more thing she hadn’t said: to be able to maintain surveillance in the capital for so many years, preventing a common maid from even leaving the city, and to have handled the East Marquis affair so discreetly that it never saw the light of day – there was one possibility: it was someone from the royal family.
That was what Han Yan least wanted to see.
Competing with the royal family was like trying to pull the tiger’s whiskers. If A’Bi was this frightened, surely that force must have been extremely cruel and vicious back then. If they discovered she was investigating that matter, perhaps…
But did that force know whether she might be the East Marquis’s daughter?
At this moment, Han Yan suddenly wanted to know everything about the East Marquis – that legendary mansion that disappeared in the sea of flames, that special man who might be her father.
“Sister!” A call suddenly came from outside, and Zhuang Han Ming rushed in breathlessly. Seeing Han Yan, without taking time to sit down for tea, he panted, “I heard Xuan Qing Wang wants to take you as his Princess Consort, is this true?”
Han Yan pulled him to sit down and said, “Of course it’s true.”
Zhuang Han Ming said regretfully, “I’ve only just learned of this, I’ve let Sister down.” He looked at Han Yan, “Have you met Xuan Qing Wang… do you… like him?”
Han Yan was slightly stunned, then smiled, “What’s there to talk about liking or not liking? When the Emperor has bestowed the marriage, do we have the right to say we don’t like it?”
Zhuang Han Ming excitedly grabbed her hand: “If you don’t like him, naturally you shouldn’t marry him.” He looked at Han Yan, tears welling up in his eyes, “I only have one sister if you’re not happy…”
Han Yan felt warmth in her heart and comforted him, “How could I not be happy? Xuan Qing Wang is taking me as his Princess Consort, I’ll be most noble in the future, and no one will dare bully us anymore.” After a pause, she added, “He’s also very good – accomplished at a young age, handsome, noble in status, skilled in both civil and military arts.” Praising Fu Yun Xi for the first time made Han Yan feel somewhat awkward, but the more she spoke, the more uncertain she felt. This person’s qualities seemed truly excellent, and having such an outstanding person as her husband made her pensive.
Seeing Han Yan lost in thought as she spoke, Zhuang Han Ming quickly called out to her, pouting, “I’ve never heard Sister praise someone like this before, but hearing you speak this way, I feel relieved.”
Amused by his pretense of maturity, Han Yan asked, “Never mind about me, what about you? How’s your martial arts training at the academy these days?”
A few days ago, Zhuang Han Ming started learning martial arts from Yang Qi at Shun Chang Martial Arts Academy. Initially, Han Yan had worried whether Yang Qi would accept Zhuang Han Ming as a disciple, but fortunately, to everyone’s surprise, Yang Qi said Han Ming had a talent for martial arts and happily accepted him as a disciple. Every day after leaving the Imperial Academy, Zhuang Han Ming would go to Shun Chang Martial Arts Academy to learn martial arts for an hour. Since this was kept secret from Zhuang Shi Yang, he couldn’t stay long. With such limited time, Zhuang Han Ming seized every learning opportunity, carefully memorizing the moves and secretly practicing them back at the mansion.
Zhuang Han Ming immediately made a bitter face: “Master is extremely strict with me.” He rolled up his sleeves to show Han Yan his bruises, “My body aches every day.”
Han Yan patted his head: “Only through bitter suffering can one succeed. Didn’t you want to become a great general? If you can’t endure this little pain, how will you achieve anything in the future?”
Zhuang Han Ming immediately clenched his fists: “Of course! As a man, how could I fear such minor pain?” Then he looked at Han Yan: “I heard that Wang Ye was once a general too. If there’s a chance in the future, I must ask him to teach me some moves.”
This statement was rather arrogant, and Han Yan couldn’t help but glare at him. She wondered what expression Fu Yun Xi would make if he knew he was being challenged by a youngster.
“Oh, Sister,” Zhuang Han Ming said, “That Zhang Wei has been trying to get close to me lately… he even invited me to go drinking with him.”
Han Yan was startled – indeed! She hadn’t known about the incident between Zhang Wei and Zhuang Han Ming initially, but she knew that not long after, there was the brothel incident. Now she understood – the reason Zhuang Han Ming was falsely accused and imprisoned in his previous life, eventually dying from serious illness, was all carefully planned. Zhang Wei had already begun setting everything up at this point.
Very well, in this life, she would make those who harmed her brother pay the price!
“Just ignore him,” Han Yan said, “If he insists on dragging you along since you’ve learned martial arts now, you can fight him off properly. If anything happens and Father blames you, I’ll take responsibility.”
Zhuang Han Ming carefully took Han Yan’s words to heart and nodded.
Perhaps because of the news that Fu Yun Xi would marry her, the Zhou sisters had been much more behaved these days. Zhuang Yu Shan only occasionally mocked Han Yan when they met, and as for Concubine Mei, she sent many gifts, showing a face full of fawning.
Han Yan didn’t want to break faces with her now, and they maintained their cooperative relationship. These days, she visited Chai Jing more frequently.