Pei Xiao led his uncle Ji Lingchuan into Quiet Contemplation Residence.

Xie Zhifei hurried forward. “Uncle Ji, she just returned from outside and hasn’t eaten dinner yet. You…”

“The aggrieved party has arrived?”

Li Buyan somehow stood under the eaves. “Hurry inside!”

Xie Zhifei: “Uncle Ji, I’ll accompany you inside.”

“Unrelated people wait outside.”

Ji Lingchuan looked at Xie Zhifei with some suspicion. Xie Zhifei quickly reassured him, “Don’t worry—that expert is extremely good.”

Ji Lingchuan cupped his fists toward Xie Zhifei and stepped inside.

Li Buyan waited until he entered, then closed the door behind him with her hand, stretched out her long legs, folded her arms, and became a door guardian.

No sounds emerged from inside the room.

Pei Xiao coughed once, then coughed again…

By the fifth cough, Xie Zhifei, fearing he’d cough up his lungs, could only steel himself and walk to Li Buyan’s side.

Li Buyan didn’t even lift an eyelid.

Xie Zhifei: “Is Miss hungry?”

Li Buyan: “Mm!”

Xie Zhifei: “Food is already prepared. Would you like to eat something first?”

Li Buyan: “Uh-huh!”

Xie Zhifei: “Go eat in the side room. I’ll watch here for Miss.”

Li Buyan: “Hey!”

Xie Zhifei: “What ‘hey’?”

Li Buyan: “Tch!”

Xie Zhifei: “I’m being kind, worried Miss will get too hungry.”

Li Buyan: “Oh!”

Xie Zhifei: “Really no other meaning.”

Li Buyan finally lifted her eyelids, pointing at her own face, and finally spoke a complete sentence. “Do I have ‘naive fool’ written on my face?”

Xie Zhifei turned to look at Pei Xiao: What does “naive fool” mean?

Pei Xiao: Who knows?

Xie Zhifei: Doesn’t sound like something good!

Pei Xiao: Agreed!

Xie Zhifei: What next?

Pei Xiao: Continue.

“Don’t try your ‘lure the tiger from the mountain’ trick on me!”

Li Buyan hated people making eyes at each other in front of her, especially two men. “Haven’t you heard that saying—the more you know, the faster you die!”

Xie Zhifei: “…”

Pei Xiao: “…”

…

Inside the room.

Ji Lingchuan’s face showed utter disbelief.

Before coming to the Xie family, he’d wondered all along what the expert would be like.

A monk?

A Daoist priest?

A spirit medium?

Or some strange person with unusual abilities?

But he could never have imagined it would be such a young girl, whose face even retained traces of childish innocence.

Could this be a mistake?

How could someone like this possibly…

As he scrutinized Yan Sanhe, she was also scrutinizing him.

About fifty years old, well-maintained, slightly plump—clearly his previous days had been excellent.

His face bore some resemblance to Pei Xiao, but his印堂 was darkened, his eyes swollen and lifeless—not an auspicious sign.

She spoke slowly.

“The wake was seven days. The coffin cracked at the hour of the rat on the fourth day. You used nails to nail the coffin shut, then buried her.”

Ji Lingchuan’s scalp immediately exploded. “How do you know this?”

Besides a few who kept vigil at the Ji family, even the old madam’s beloved grandson didn’t know half of it.

“Eighteen nails were used—one nail for one layer of sin. Are you trying to send her to the eighteenth level of hell?”

Ji Lingchuan was shocked, his heart pounding wildly, and quickly denied it.

“It’s not like that. With one nail fewer, the coffin wouldn’t hold. With one more nail, it would fall out.”

At the time they thought it was just coincidence and paid no mind.

But a coffin cracking was never a good thing, so he had his nephew Pei Xiao invite eighteen high monks from the Monastery of Buddhist Records to chant rebirth sutras at home for three days.

Originally thinking everything was fine, unexpectedly…

At this moment, what doubts could Ji Lingchuan still have? His legs buckled as he cried out, “Please, Master, save the Ji family!”

Yan Sanhe walked before him. Without warning, her finger touched his forehead.

Ji Lingchuan only felt a coolness at his brow. His vision suddenly seemed covered by something—pitch darkness.

Slowly, a beam of light fell with a “pa,” landing on a person with graying hair, a face full of wrinkles, struggling step by step through wind and snow.

The snow was thick and deep, endless to the eye. She fell and rose again, walking a few steps before falling again—it was his old mother.

What shattered his soul even more was blood flowing from her eye sockets.

One drop, two drops…

The coolness at his brow suddenly vanished. Ji Lingchuan snapped back to reality, collapsing to the ground in shock, unable to recover for a long time.

“Did you see clearly?”

Ji Lingchuan gave a violent start, immediately coming to his senses, hastily kowtowing to Yan Sanhe.

Just as his forehead touched the ground, Yan Sanhe’s icy voice sounded overhead.

“No rush to kowtow. Old Madam Ji’s spirit won’t be easy to pacify. Dutiful son, what price are you willing to pay?”

Ji Lingchuan’s head shot up, his eyes wide with shock, but he answered without hesitation, “Whatever I can—even if it means bankruptcy, I’m willing.”

“Then I’ll await your sincerity!”

Yan Sanhe said coldly, “Go!”

…

The vermillion-painted wooden door creaked open. Ji Lingchuan stumbled out.

Seeing his face even paler than a dead person’s, Xie Zhifei and Pei Xiao rushed over simultaneously, supporting him from left and right.

“Uncle?”

“Uncle Ji?”

Ji Lingchuan looked at them both, finally feeling some warmth return to his body, as if returning to the mortal realm. “Find somewhere to talk.”

Xie Zhifei quickly said, “Mingting, take Uncle Ji to my study first.”

Pei Xiao glared at him. “What about you?”

Xie Zhifei: “I’ll have a few words with Miss Yan and come right away.”

What’s there to say?

Pei Xiao looked apprehensively at the room. Best to stay far away from this kind of woman.

“You’d better be quick.”

“Immediately!”

Xie Zhifei turned to look at Li Buyan. “May I enter?”

Li Buyan made an inviting gesture.

…

Inside, incense burned.

This incense was neither sandalwood nor Buddhist incense—faint and very calming to the heart.

Yan Sanhe had already changed out of her blood-stained clothes into a new concubine-colored shirt sent by the Xie manor’s sewing room.

The new shirt completely replaced her usual indifference, leaving three parts weakness, two parts gentleness, and one part childishness.

Only her face still wore that ice-cold expression.

Xie Zhifei approached, pressed his lips together—this usually silver-tongued man found himself at a loss for words for the first time.

Say thank you? She doesn’t want your thanks at all.

Say sorry? She’ll think you’re being hypocritical.

After a long while, Third Master Xie’s mouth finally produced: “Do your wounds hurt?”

Yan Sanhe glanced at him. “No problem.”

Xie Zhifei: “…”

What kind of answer is that?

Complete nonsense!

He was silent for a moment. “If you encounter this kind of thing again, don’t be stubborn, and don’t stay behind alone to fight.”

“What should I do then? Does Third Master have a good suggestion?”

“Turn and run, then find a way to report to officials.”

Yan Sanhe’s eyes showed mockery. “Your Xie family are the officials.”

“…”

Xie Zhifei choked, unable to refute. “In any case, one thing—protecting yourself is what matters!”

Yan Sanhe asked in a calm tone, “Then watch your sister being harassed?”

“…”

Xie Zhifei felt his brain hurt, his chest hurt, his whole body hurt—needed to recover.

This person was good in every way, except this temper was like a latrine stone—stinking and hard, insisting on arguing with people.

“Thank you for saving me.”

The words fell, and the air seemed frozen.