Guan Ting had trained in martial arts since childhood and was quite skilled. Ye Yaming’s martial training, however, was from her previous life. Although this body was much healthier than when she first acquired it, even if her mind could keep up, her body couldn’t. Guan Ting quickly surpassed Ye Yaming and arrived behind Yang Chuzhi.

Seeing the two people still talking, with pink bubbles practically floating in the air around them, even though Guan Ting was from ancient times and hadn’t read modern romance novels, she could still sense the atmosphere.

She hesitated and was about to turn back to ask Ye Yaming whether they should continue, when in the next moment, the railing against which Ye Yaqing was leaning suddenly broke, and her body fell backward toward the lake.

Guan Ting was startled and rushed forward, springing off her feet. Just as Ye Yaqing was about to touch the water, she caught her in her arms.

After catching her, Guan Ting felt desperate.

If she had been alone, she could have twisted her body downward and then upward, using the turning momentum to barely make it back to shore.

But now she was holding a person. Though Ye Yaqing was petite, she still weighed a hundred or so pounds. With nothing for Guan Ting to push against with her feet, the inevitable outcome would be both of them falling into the water.

Unexpectedly, at that moment, someone grabbed her hand. Instinctively leveraging the grip, she pulled, immediately stopping their downward trajectory. With another effort, she flipped over with Ye Yaqing and landed on the shore.

Only then did she see that it was Ye Yaming who had pulled her up, while the man called Yang Chuzhi was staring at them with his mouth agape.

“Push him into the water,” Ye Yaming winked at Guan Ting, quickly pulling away the still-dazed Ye Yaqing, who hadn’t yet regained her composure.

When Ye Yaqing fell toward the lake as predicted, Yang Chuzhi showed neither panic nor urgency. He merely put on a shocked expression and made a gesture of reaching out to grab Ye Yaqing.

He had planned to wait until Ye Yaqing was completely in the water, even after she had swallowed a mouthful or two, before jumping in to save her.

But unexpectedly, two people suddenly appeared, ruining his scheme. As he was reacting, eager to express concern for Ye Yaqing and salvage the situation, the maid who had just been holding Ye Yaqing suddenly came forward and kicked him hard. With a splash, he fell into the water.

Despite being a good swimmer, he still swallowed a large mouthful of water from the sudden attack.

Moreover, it was the dead of winter. Although temperatures in the Jiangnan region weren’t as cold as in the north, the lake water was still bone-chillingly frigid.

He had intended to pretend he was drowning to gain some advantage in the awkward situation that would follow, but the icy water quickly made his entire body feel stiff. The thick, padded robe he wore pulled him down toward the bottom like the hand of death.

In his daze, he heard Ye Yaqing’s trembling voice: “Sis-sister, save him quickly.”

“He can swim; he won’t die. Let’s go find someone to settle this matter,” Ye Yaming said coldly.

This ruthless, merciless voice reminded Yang Chuzhi that his plan had failed. If he didn’t get to shore, he might die, and the situation would escalate. Escalation would do him no good.

The best solution now was to get to shore immediately, plead desperately with Ye Yaqing, reason with her, and appeal to her emotions, to minimize the incident or resolve it completely.

Though the encounter had been brief, he had seen that the two who had saved Ye Yaqing were both young women—one a lady, one a maid. That lady must be Ye Yaqing’s sister, Ye Yaming.

Two young girls would always be easier to deceive than others.

He immediately began moving his limbs to save himself.

Fortunately, he knew how to swim and was a young, strong man who, despite his slender appearance, was quite robust. The reason he dared set up such a scheme was that he was a good swimmer and had tested the waters by jumping in a few days earlier. Back then, he had taken off his thick padded robe before entering the water, and today he had also planned to remove his outer garment before rescuing Ye Yaqing.

Now, with the heavy padded robe dragging him down, he still managed to surface after a struggle and slowly swam toward the shore.

By the time he had dragged his sodden clothes to the edge, he was dismayed to see several people running over.

“Miss, Miss…”

“Over here, quickly!”

“Miss, Miss, are you all right?”

“We’re fine,” Ye Yaming said. “Quickly pull him out of the water, tie him up, and take him to the back gate. Someone will be waiting there.”

For today’s events, Ye Yaming had prepared several contingency plans. Once she discovered Yang Chuzhi’s predatory intentions, she would immediately rescue Ye Yaqing and take her away from the scene of trouble, preventing anyone from using her in their schemes.

As for this Yang Chuzhi, he would be sent to the authorities as a thief.

After speaking, Ye Yaming tried to pull Ye Yaqing away.

But unexpectedly, Ye Yaqing stood rooted to the spot as if her feet were nailed down: “Sa-save him, sister, please save him.”

This attitude made Ye Yaming want to slap her.

Even at this point, hadn’t she seen through the situation?

Meanwhile, Mother Lin and Old Woman Liu saw that Yang Chuzhi’s face was pale and his lips were turning purple, clearly severely chilled.

This man couldn’t be allowed to die. If he died, there would be serious trouble.

Just as they were about to pull Yang Chuzhi out, Su Rou suddenly ran over with a maid, asking loudly as she ran: “What happened?”

Her voice was extremely loud and full of panic, as if trying to attract attention: “Ah, Miss Ye, are you all right?” After shouting this, her gaze finally swept through the crowd, searching for Ye Yaqing.

When she saw that Ye Yaqing was standing safely beside Ye Yaming, while Yang Chuzhi was being pulled from the water like a drowned dog by two strong women, she stared with wide eyes and an open mouth, looking utterly astonished.

At this moment, a group of young girls ran over, having heard the commotion, and asked: “What happened?”

“What’s going on, what’s going on?”

Mother Lin used her body to block the crowd’s view and quickly stuffed something into Yang Chuzhi’s clothes.

By now, Yang Chuzhi was so cold that his hands and feet were stiff, and his mouth was trembling uncontrollably. Although he knew someone had put something in his clothes, his body was completely beyond his control, his limbs rigid and immobile, leaving him at the mercy of others.

Just then, he heard a female voice say: “I don’t know. We were standing here enjoying the view when we heard someone shout, ‘Catch the thief!’ Then this man rushed right past us, couldn’t stop in time, and fell into the lake.”

Old Woman Liu immediately stood up straight and announced to everyone: “This old servant saw him steal a jade pendant from a noble person at the banquet, so I chased after him. I’ve disturbed the young ladies’ enjoyment, and that’s my fault. This old servant will take him to the authorities now.”

With that, she and Mother Lin each took one of his arms and dragged Yang Chuzhi toward the back gate.

Among the group of young girls was the Chen family’s daughter. As the hostess responsible for entertaining the young ladies, she naturally needed to address the situation.

She frowned as she looked at the pale-faced Yang Chuzhi, then at Mother Lin and Old Woman Liu, realizing they weren’t servants of the Chen household. Just as she was about to question them, a gentle voice sounded beside her.

“Miss Chen, I know that during the New Year, your family certainly hopes the banquet can proceed smoothly without any mishaps, so that the coming year will be peaceful and everything will go as wished. However, with so many people around, such incidents are inevitable. Which family can guarantee that nothing will go wrong when hosting a banquet? Don’t you all agree, sisters?”

The speaker was none other than Ye Yaming.