Without needing to establish seniority, Yu Tang already knew Gu Xi was one year older than her.

But she still smiled faintly and stated the year of her birth.

Gu Xi smiled with pursed lips, turning to the Old Mistress Pei and Madam Shen: “She’s my younger sister then!”

Thinking of their grievances from her previous life, thinking of those faces Gu Xi had shown her, Yu Tang had no desire to make things difficult for herself by calling Gu Xi sister.

“Miss Gu!” She called out to Gu Xi with a smile, her distant attitude plain to see.

Gu Xi’s face showed nothing, but her eyes contracted. Her smile remained lively as she said: “Don’t be upset, younger sister. I’m not usually like this—it’s just that seeing you so beautiful, I truly like you and couldn’t help losing my composure a bit. This older sister apologizes to you.” After speaking, she reached out to grasp Yu Tang’s arm.

Hearing this, Yu Tang sneered inwardly.

Was this accusing her of having a bad temper?

The Gu Xi from her previous life hadn’t been this petty, had she?

Was it because she wasn’t as destitute as when they first met in the previous life?

This showed how false Gu Xi’s previous life kindness and magnanimity had been!

However, who couldn’t apply eye drops?

She looked toward the Old Mistress.

The Old Mistress gave a subtle nod, thinking to herself that though this Miss Yu from the Yu family had various minor faults, her core wasn’t bad. Although she had introduced Miss Yu to Madam Shen and the others as her relative, Miss Yu wasn’t actually related. Gu Xi’s enthusiasm toward Yu Tang was clearly for her sake. Calling each other sisters seemed simple, but if they truly began associating, it would involve quite deep entanglements. That Yu Tang could seek her opinion at this critical moment showed she still had a sense of measure in her heart and could distinguish priorities.

“She’s quite timid,” the Old Mistress said with a smile, immediately protecting Yu Tang. “Since you’re the elder sister, don’t hold it against her.” After finishing, she turned to ask Madam Shen about her purpose in coming: “I remember you said you had young grandchildren to care for. Teacher Shen has been in Lin’an for five or six years and I’ve never seen you come. This time, what brings you? Are you visiting Teacher Shen? Or is there something at home? If there’s anything I can help with, feel free to speak. Setting aside Teacher Shen’s relationship with our second son, even when our Old Master was alive, the person he admired most was Teacher Shen. The two often drank and traveled together. Since you’ve come to Lin’an, don’t treat us as outsiders.”

She didn’t mention a single word about the matter of Yu Tang and Gu Xi establishing seniority.

The implication was clear—she opposed Gu Xi and Yu Tang becoming sisters.

Gu Xi bit her lip, glancing quickly at Yu Tang.

Outstanding appearance, graceful in every gesture—clearly not from a humble family. So what exactly was her relationship with the Old Mistress?

Why wouldn’t the Old Mistress let her establish seniority with this Miss Yu?

Could it be that her calling Miss Yu “younger sister” was inappropriate?

As soon as this thought arose, Gu Xi gave herself quite a fright, and her heart began pounding wildly.

Madam Shen was a generation younger than the Old Mistress, and she had come with Madam Shen, appearing to be Madam Shen’s junior, which made her of the Old Mistress’s granddaughter generation… Could this Miss Yu be the… fiancée the Old Mistress had prepared for Third Master Pei!

Gu Xi couldn’t help but glance at Yu Tang again.

Yu Tang was quietly listening to the Old Mistress speak and hadn’t noticed Gu Xi’s scrutiny. And even if she had noticed Gu Xi’s observation, she wouldn’t have cared.

In her previous life, they were sisters-in-law living under one roof. She had nowhere else to go—there was no helping it then. In this life, both her parents were alive, and she had her older brother and sister-in-law to support her. Even if Gu Xi found her disagreeable, what right did she have to touch her!

As for Madam Shen’s side, Yu Tang had discovered some interesting things.

According to Madam Shen, she had come to Lin’an City at Gu Chao’s request to accompany Gu Xi. Pei Yan’s maternal aunt learned of this and asked her to bring some things over—and these items included not just food and medicinal herbs, but also some story books popular in Jiangnan these past few years.

But Gu Xi was someone who had been engaged to Li Duan—was it appropriate for her to come to Lin’an City like this?

What matter couldn’t Gu Chao have a trusted servant or aide handle, that he needed to ask Madam Shen to accompany Gu Xi to Lin’an City? And when Madam Shen visited the Pei family, why did she need to bring Gu Xi along?

No matter how Yu Tang thought about it, this matter seemed somewhat suspicious.

But as long as Gu Xi’s arrival didn’t threaten the Yu family’s safety, it had nothing to do with her.

Yu Tang had no intention of prying further and continued sitting quietly beside them, listening to the Old Mistress and Madam Shen talk.

But Gu Xi’s mind was in turmoil.

Her coming to Lin’an to visit Shen Shanyan was merely an excuse. In reality, she had come to meet the Old Mistress, and ideally to make a good impression on her.

Thinking of this, her face grew somewhat hot.

The Li family was of no use anymore. According to her brother, if they could successfully form a marriage alliance with the Pei family, that would be the best choice. She had initially felt that since she’d broken off the engagement with the Li family, it would be best not to get involved with Lin’an people again. But Gu Chao had described all the young masters of prominent families in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and there really was no one more suitable than Pei Yan.

Gu Chao had also learned that the Pei family had previously placed high hopes on Pei Yan, intending for him to marry only the daughter of an official of third rank or higher. Even their previous engagement with the family of Li Xun, Minister of Rites and Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion, had been real. But before the two families could finalize the engagement, Old Master Pei passed away, and Pei Yan’s engagement with the Li family was shelved.

Originally they wouldn’t have dared compete with the Li family, as the Li family and Pei family had a prior agreement. But just last month, they heard that the Li family’s only unmarried Third Miss had become engaged to the son of Yang Shoudao, Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy. This showed that something had changed with the Li and Pei families’ agreement.

The problem was that good sons-in-law were hard to find. With someone like Pei Yan, everyone had previously thought he had a verbal agreement with the Li family and hadn’t pursued him. Now that he was free, once the news spread, who knew how many families would target him? By then, not only their Gu family, but probably all the various relatives of his mentor Zhang Ying would be rushing to hook this golden son-in-law for their families.

Gu Xi pondered this, sighing quietly to herself.

Comparing the two, their Gu family was slightly stronger than the Qian family. But the problem was that the Gu family had no relationship with the Pei family, especially among the women—there was simply no one who could speak intimately with the Pei family women. If they entrusted their stepmother with this matter, even if she didn’t make Pei Yan her natal family’s nephew’s son-in-law, she would ruin the whole thing. As for others, they were even less reliable.

After much consideration, Gu Chao had set his sights on Madam Shen.

Of course, given Madam Shen’s personality, she wasn’t the best choice for this task either, but she could bring Gu Xi to the Pei residence for a visit. If Gu Xi could leave a good impression in the Old Mistress’s heart, compared to other girls known only by hearsay, Gu Xi would have a much better chance.

Gu Xi’s thoughts were simpler than Gu Chao’s.

If Pei Yan wasn’t as good as her brother claimed, even if her brother strongly advocated it, she wouldn’t agree to this match.

Rather than marry someone useless and have to deal with both the inner chambers and the front hall after marriage, she’d prefer to stay home forever as a high-and-mighty maiden aunt, living freely and comfortably at home.

However, she was competitive by nature. Although she didn’t know if she and Pei Yan had any fate together, since she had appeared before the Old Mistress, before the Pei family, she would be her best self, displaying her finest aspects so that others would give her a thumbs up and praise her unanimously when speaking of her.

Therefore, leaving a good impression before Old Mistress Pei and Second Madam Pei was especially important.

Gu Xi drank her tea with dignified and elegant bearing, secretly pondering how to discover Yu Tang’s background and origins.

As Yu Tang listened to Madam Shen’s words, she found them increasingly strange.

Madam Shen wanted to lodge at the Pei residence with Gu Xi for a few days. Her reason was that Shen Shanyan hadn’t rented his own house in Lin’an but lived at the county school. The county school had too many scholars, and Shen Shanyan hadn’t established separate inner and outer quarters. Given the distinction between men and women, it was inconvenient for her and Gu Xi to stay there.

Yu Tang couldn’t help herself and looked at Madam Shen with considerable surprise.

After not seeing her husband for so long, shouldn’t she be overjoyed, creating opportunities to be with her husband even if none existed? How was it that when it came to Madam Shen, she was keeping him at a respectful distance instead?

No matter how slow Yu Tang was, she could see that Teacher Shen and Madam Shen were on bad terms.

Could this be one of the reasons Teacher Shen had come to Lin’an without bringing his family?

She had no way of knowing the answer, but she could clearly see that the Old Mistress disliked Madam Shen.

“You’re the teacher’s wife—what’s inconvenient about it?” When the Old Mistress said this, she was even somewhat stern. “I think you’re just too concerned with propriety sometimes. At this age, it’s better to relax when you can.”

Madam Shen clearly didn’t like hearing the Old Mistress say this either. She said: “If it’s inconvenient here at the Old Mistress’s residence, I’ll stay at an inn for a few days. It’s just that I’m uneasy about Miss Gu following me—I ask the Old Mistress to take her in for a few days.”

That made sense.

No matter how good the inn, one feared encountering scoundrels.

The Old Mistress frowned but ultimately took a step back: “I’m just concerned it would be inconvenient for you to go back and forth to the county school. Since you feel there’s no problem with that, it’s fine by me. You might as well move in now. I don’t have much else here, but I have plenty of guest rooms. You can stay in whichever room you like.”

Thus Madam Shen and Gu Xi moved in.

As they were leaving, Yu Tang asked Steward Chen who was seeing her out: “Does Heming Hall have many rooms?”

She’d observed that Heming Hall was merely a five-section, three-courtyard compound.

Steward Chen had become increasingly familiar with her these days, so her speech was more casual.

“The five-courtyard compound next door is also part of Heming Hall,” she told Yu Tang in a low voice. “Heming Hall used to be where the Pei family’s widowed old mistresses and madams lived, so naturally it has many rooms. However, in recent years the Pei family has had many who enjoyed both longevity and good fortune. There are few like Old Master who passed away so early, and without any concubines or secondary wives, the rooms have been left empty.”

Yu Tang shivered.

She inexplicably felt Heming Hall was somewhat eerie.

Seeing this, Steward Chen just laughed: “You also came to pay respects to Old Master last time. The Pei family is a great household—they’re very particular about such things. When someone in the family is dying, there’s a special compound for that. How could Heming Hall be eerie?”

Yu Tang smiled embarrassedly.

Steward Chen said: “Besides, if one hasn’t done anything wrong in life, one needn’t fear ghosts knocking at midnight. What’s there to be afraid of!”

Wasn’t it because her own experiences were so incredible that she believed deeply in certain things?

Yu Tang muttered this to herself as she boarded the sedan chair home.