“Look at me—good-looking, good-tempered. I don’t strike back when hit, don’t curse back when scolded. When there’s nothing to do, I can even tell you a joke or relieve your boredom…”

Xie Sanye praised himself without any shame.

“Simply the best choice for traveling companions—none better.”

Ding Yi on the side silently covered his ears.

Can’t listen to this anymore!

“Right, I’ll cover all expenses on the road. If you want soup, I absolutely won’t give dry rations. If you want salty, I insist on not eating sweet.”

“What’s your name?”

“Hey, how can you be like this? Is my name that hard to remember?”

Xie Sanye was displeased.

“Xie Zhifei, Xie Chengyu—which do you prefer calling? If neither works, calling me Afei is fine too. Sounds intimate.”

“Xie Zhifei.”

Yan Sanhe stepped forward and suddenly smiled charmingly.

Xie Zhifei’s heartbeat missed a beat most inappropriately.

In just that one beat, Yan Sanhe bent her leg and lifted it upward. This lift hit precisely the tender spot on Xie Sanye’s thigh.

He instinctively bent at the waist. She reached out and grabbed—the banknotes were already in Yan Sanhe’s hands.

“I wouldn’t dare trouble you!”

She coldly tossed out this sentence and turned to leave.

“Hey, how can you repay kindness with enmity!”

Xie Zhifei rubbed his thigh while shouting, his gaze somber as he watched her slender retreating figure, not half a trace of his frivolous manner remaining on his face.

Seeing his master suffer, Ding Yi quickly ran over. “Master?”

Xie Sanye waved his hand to indicate he was fine and said in a low voice, “Those two men just now are waiting at the street corner. Give them two taels of silver each as payment.”

Ding Yi: “…”

“What are you standing there stupidly for? Hurry up!”

Did he think he was willing?

That Yan woman—cold temperament and foul temper. If he didn’t do this, how could he strike up conversation with her?

Striking up conversation is also a learned skill!

Xie Sanye sighed inwardly, stretched his long legs, and went to pursue Yan Sanhe.

Yan Sanhe had already reached the South City Gate. Several lanterns hung high on the gate. When the wind blew, they swayed like ghostly fires.

She found a sheltered corner, tossed her bundle on the ground, sat on it, closed her eyes, and dozed.

Footsteps approached. Looking up, it was that frivolous dandy Xie-something-fei again.

“Tsk, so improper.”

Xie Zhifei frowned.

“How can a young lady sit on the ground? Be careful of catching a chill. When your moon water comes, your stomach will hurt.”

Yan Sanhe gritted her teeth.

“I’m a grown man—different story. I can sit wherever I want.”

He spoke while sitting down beside Yan Sanhe, licking the corner of his mouth. “I’m sitting on your outside, blocking the wind for you!”

Yan Sanhe ground her back teeth.

“Right, are you hungry?”

“…”

“Wearing just a single layer—aren’t you cold?”

“…”

“Have you hidden the banknotes well? Don’t let them get stolen again.”

“…”

“Yan Sanhe, answering others when they speak is a good quality.”

Yan Sanhe opened her eyes and gave him a cold glance. “Not disturbing others is also a quality.”

Xie Sanye’s face was probably made of city walls—and the thickest kind at that.

“I don’t disturb others, but you—who are you? You’re the granddaughter of our Xie family’s great benefactor. If I don’t take good care of you, Old Ancestress will swallow me alive.”

Xie Sanye nudged Yan Sanhe’s foot with his own.

“Come, let’s discuss—should we ride horses or take a carriage back to Yunnan Prefecture? Horses are faster but cold. How about a carriage? Not slow either, and warm.”

“…”

Answering him was dead silence.

“If you don’t speak, I’ll decide for you. We’ll take the carriage.”

Xie Sanye’s tone suddenly shifted.

“Speaking of which, who’s this expert you consulted? How does he know Grandfather Yan was thinking of a letter before he died?”

Yan Sanhe’s delicate brows knitted slightly.

A trace of imperceptible relief crossed Xie Sanye’s face. Finally found this person’s pulse point.

“By rights, experts don’t make mistakes. So how is it that when it comes to Grandfather Yan… could it be… perhaps…”

He deliberately dragged out his tone and sighed. “The person you consulted wasn’t any expert at all, but at most just a charlatan swindling money?”

“What do you understand?”

Yan Sanhe’s expression couldn’t help but change.

“Since I consulted them, there won’t be a mistake. How many people in this world can see what a dead person is thinking?”

Xie Sanye’s scalp tingled slightly.

She said “see,” not “sense” or “feel.” Could that expert have a pair of fiery golden eyes?

“But there was precisely a mistake!”

Xie Sanye deliberately coughed twice.

“Why don’t you tell me in detail? I’m not trying to pry—just afraid that you, a young lady, might have been deceived.”

Yan Sanhe turned to look at him, silent for a long time.

Xie Sanye smiled soundlessly. “I told you not to look at me like that. It really will make me blush.”

You’ve ruined the meaning of blushing.

Yan Sanhe supported herself with one hand on the ground, grabbed her bundle with the other, stood up and started walking.

“Yan Sanhe!”

Xie Sanye moved even faster than her, blocking her path and leaning close to her ear, speaking softly, “Can you never listen to what others say?”

Yan Sanhe turned her face away, avoiding his breath. “Words from someone surnamed Xie—I don’t want to hear them.”

Xie Sanye: “…”

“Move aside.”

The other party didn’t move, still blocking before her.

Yan Sanhe quickly realized this person intended to wear her down.

“Xie-something-fei.”

“Xie Zhifei!”

“Xie Zhifei.”

Yan Sanhe’s voice suppressed anger. “I’m not that magnanimous. Do you understand what that means?”

How could he not understand?

Father treated his benefactor as an enemy.

The old lady hid the truth for forty years to preserve her son’s official position.

Coincidental misunderstanding was just an excuse to comfort oneself and others. Everyone had a scale in their heart regarding the facts.

At this point, even Xie Sanye was at a loss for words. He shifted his long leg aside, yielding half a position.

Just as Yan Sanhe was about to step forward, that long leg blocked back again.

“You don’t move—I’ll go. However…”

Xie Sanye licked his lips, unwilling to add one more sentence: “You treating me like this—I’m actually quite wronged.”

What are you wronged about?

Yan Sanhe laughed coldly.

The truly wronged ones were already reunited as a family of three below. They might want to cry out their grievances—but did heaven give them that chance?

Not everything could be laughed off and grudges forgotten.

Since she didn’t need to leave, Yan Sanhe tossed down her bundle and sat back down, too lazy to watch what demon that frivolous dandy would conjure. She focused single-mindedly on pondering the matter of that letter.

What other matter would require a letter to convey, leave Grandfather unable to speak of it for so long, to the point where it became lodged in his heart and after death his obsession became a demon?

Was it about the two sons and one daughter he left behind?

After the Yan family was raided, some ancestral homes and fields still remained. The reason Grandfather left the two older sons behind was because these properties weren’t insignificant.

But three years later, a sudden plague disrupted everything. Both brothers contracted the plague. Neither survived, both dying before marriage.

His daughter had married before the Yan family troubles. When the Yan family was raided, she was already eight months pregnant. When the news arrived, her water broke on the spot.

At the critical moment, her in-laws chose to save the child over the adult.