Seeing no one speak, Mei Niang pointed at the embroidered shoes and asked.

“Miss Yan, should I examine these shoes too?”

“Please do look at them.”

Mei Niang picked up the shoes, turning them over and back.

“The craftsmanship goes without saying—just looking at these dense stitches shows their quality. Most importantly, though these shoes are old, they’ve been worn at most five times.”

She pointed at the soles. “Miss Yan, look at these soles—not the slightest wear. They’re practically new.”

Yan Sanhe nodded.

“This embroidery…” Mei Niang’s brow, which had just relaxed, knitted together again.

“What about the embroidery?”

“It’s truly beautiful, looks so festive.”

Mei Niang, being a woman who loved beauty, couldn’t help standing and holding the garment against herself.

“Such a pity—I’ve gotten fat now and can’t fit into it. If I were ten-some years younger, wearing this outfit, tsk tsk tsk…”

At her words, Yan Sanhe suddenly thought of a question.

“Jingchen was in her early forties but could still fit into this outfit at death, showing her figure was maintained excellently, like a young maiden’s.”

“This isn’t easy to achieve. Though nunneries serve vegetarian food, sitting in meditation chanting sutras all day without movement causes the lower body to expand.”

Li Buyan recalled very seriously.

“I observed—of Water Moon Nunnery’s nearly fifty nuns, only a few young nuns under twenty maintain slender lower bodies. The rest all have thin upper bodies but slightly thick lower limbs.”

Yan Sanhe’s eyes carried hooks. “Would you say Jingchen was naturally thin, or deliberately maintained her figure?”

Li Buyan spread her hands. “Who could know?”

“Wait, wait, wait!”

Mei Niang’s teeth trembled, her whole body shaking. “Miss Yan, th-th-this… this outfit you, you, you… where did you get it?”

Li Buyan replied, “From a dead person!”

“Ahhh—”

Mei Niang was so frightened she threw the clothing aside, rushing straight into Young Master Pei’s embrace, clutching his waist tightly.

Get away—my wife is still here!

Where could he push her away?

Young Master Pei panicked, quickly raising his hands, turning himself into a rigid stick. “Sanhe, I didn’t touch her.”

Why are you telling me whether you touched her or not?

Yan Sanhe saw Mei Niang’s ashen face, her body shaking like a sieve, and consoled, “She was joking with you. This clothing is just old, not stripped from a corpse.”

Li Buyan: “…” Lying!

Pei Xiao: “…” The spirit medium lies too?

Xie Zhifei: “…” Why can’t spirit mediums lie?

“You scared me to death.”

Mei Niang released Young Master Pei, patting her chest with a lingering expression of fear, glaring at Li Buyan.

“Miss looks quite kind—how is your heart so vicious? People scaring people can scare them to death.”

Li Buyan thought: “…” Me vicious?

Yan Sanhe coughed guiltily. “Mei Niang, once you leave this door, treat what we just discussed as entering your left ear and exiting your right—as if you heard nothing. Agreed?”

Oh my!

This Miss Yan probably doesn’t know my true relationship with Lord Pei and Third Master!

If I, Mei Niang, dare leak half a word, tomorrow I’ll have to kowtow and apologize to Young Master Pei and Third Master.

“Miss Yan can rest assured—I have no other abilities, but my mouth is tightest.”

Just as the words fell, Zhu Qing suddenly pushed the door open. “Master, Madam is outside and insists on seeing you before she’ll leave.”

The smile that had just risen at Xie Zhifei’s mouth slowly sank.

…

Courtyard gate—opened.

Pei Xiao emerged fanning himself, sauntering leisurely. “Why has Madam come?”

Seeing him, Lady Wu forced a smile. “To check on Third Son.”

“Madam, Chengyu has already retired. Madam should come again tomorrow!”

Lady Wu felt displeased.

First Zhu Qing blocked her, now Young Master Pei blocked her—what was this? As a mother checking how her own son’s injuries were healing, was that not allowed?

“I heard someone came to Third Son’s courtyard?”

“Not hiding it from Madam—called from outside.”

“What do you mean ‘called from outside’?”

“That is… Ai-ya, Madam, please don’t ask. Anyway, Chengyu won’t take it seriously—just called over to play.”

Lady Wu’s old face flushed red with embarrassment. She pushed Pei Xiao aside and charged straight ahead.

This child—why play now instead of any other time? If he ruins his health playing, what then?

“Oh my—”

Mei Niang leaned against the door. “Even in high-ranking households, there’s no such thing as one’s own mother running to her son’s courtyard deep into the night. If word of this spreads, it wouldn’t sound good, Madam!”

Seeing Mei Niang’s wanton appearance, Lady Wu’s anger flared.

Thinking of her son’s reputation, she ground her silver teeth to dust. “Third Son, your health is important—don’t overdo it day and night.”

After speaking, too embarrassed herself, she turned and left.

Inside the room.

On the luohan bed.

Xie Zhifei half-reclined, half-lay with black hair tied with a ribbon, his entire person appearing dissolute—exactly like a veteran of pleasure quarters.

Seeing him like this, though Yan Sanhe felt contempt in her heart, she still found it somewhat incomprehensible that he would use such a base excuse with his own mother.

When children did bad things, didn’t they all hide from elders? Who was like him, not caring at all, wishing he could anger his own mother to death?

Wrong!

Yan Sanhe’s gaze suddenly grew heavy.

Only then did Xie Zhifei speak lazily. “Mei Niang runs gambling dens—she’s the manager of the gambling establishment.”

Gambling den?

Yan Sanhe found it somewhat hard to believe, turning her head to look at Li Buyan beside her.

Li Buyan’s expression showed even greater shock.

A gambling den’s manager was female?

And a beautiful, alluring woman?

Before they could exhale, Xie Zhifei’s fingertip tapped twice on the luohan bed’s armrest.

“Mei Niang is my person. I opened the gambling establishment—she manages all the affairs for me, inside and out.”

Boom!

Even Yan Sanhe, normally so cool and detached, was now shocked speechless, staring fixedly at Xie Zhifei without blinking.

The man quite enjoyed Yan Sanhe’s current focused gaze. “I thought nothing in this world could surprise Miss Yan.”

Miss Yan laughed self-deprecatingly. “Third Master Xie, exactly how many faces do you have?”

“You’ve seen most of them.”

Ghost would believe that!

Since he was so frank, Yan Sanhe simply asked openly, “You opened the gambling den for…”

“For him.”

“Then you deliberately let Mei Niang enter the Xie residence openly, deliberately let your mother misunderstand—it was for…”

“Being dissolute and frivolous requires looking dissolute and frivolous. Tomorrow people will know that though Third Master Xie was beaten half to death, he’s still someone who visits brothels and loves gambling.”

Xie Zhifei raised his chin. “Otherwise, Third Master would become everyone’s target.”

“It’s not Third Master who has such great ability—it’s the Xie family, right?” Yan Sanhe sneered coldly.

With Xie Zhifei’s move, the Xie family was instantly pushed to the forefront. Shouldn’t they keep their tails between their legs?

Third Master lifted his eyes, landing on her, then suddenly smiled lightly.

“Third Master is the Xie family’s Third Master. The Xie family is Third Master’s Xie family. Is there any difference?”

“There is!”

Yan Sanhe said quietly, “Third Master blocks in front of the Xie family, the Xie family stands behind Third Master—the positioning is quite clever.”

“Still clever? Didn’t you see through it?”

The aggrieved tone, paired with those innocent large eyes, plus the shallow dimples at his mouth corners…

Yan Sanhe suddenly felt her eyes had nowhere to rest.