Once a woman of the clouds, bullied, locked in a woodshed, starved for three whole days, then feverish all night after being released.

Having fallen to such depths, the words she cried out must have come from her heart.

“Live until the day of clear skies and bright moon”—what did this mean?

It meant the sky wasn’t clear, the moon wasn’t bright.

It meant in her eyes, the Tang family’s case was wrongful.

It meant she hadn’t smashed her head and died, but endured humiliation at the Music Bureau, waiting for the day when the Tang family case would be resolved.

So then, who had the ability to resolve the Tang family case?

The former Crown Prince!

From another angle, she was waiting for the former Crown Prince to ascend to high position.

Or perhaps, maybe, possibly—the Tang Qiling spring examination fraud case had irregularities.

Round and round, it still couldn’t avoid Tang Qiling’s case. How could Third Master’s expression not be grave?

Yan Sanhe looked at him without saying much, still calmly asking, “Guihua, after this, Shishui must have been reborn, right?”

“Miss guessed it again.”

After that night, Shishui seemed to become a different person, no longer yielding in everything.

Xia Yu slapped her once; she’d slap Xia Yu back. Xia Yu framed her; she’d loudly expose it on the spot. Xia Yu gave her a hard time; she’d throw the shoe directly at Xia Yu’s face.

People were all base creatures, bullying the soft and fearing the hard.

After several rounds, Xia Yu not only gained no advantage but ended up thoroughly disgraced, restraining herself considerably.

Besides returning tooth for tooth and eye for eye, she also shed her former aloof pride and gradually integrated with the other young ladies.

The young ladies also judged the situation.

Behind Shishui stood the current Crown Prince at least. What stood behind Xia Yu? Not a damn thing.

“On the day of the courtesan queen competition, even without Shishui’s poem and slender gold script, Xia Yu couldn’t have been Shishui’s match.”

Guihua’s eyelids lifted. “The poems she wrote were too terrible—so terrible the scholars below booed her. Bah, serves her right!”

Yan Sanhe carefully probed, “I know that day, a scholar calling himself ‘Three Friends of Winter’ accompanied Shishui to the water room. Guihua, do you know who that ‘Three Friends of Winter’ was?”

“I know.”

Guihua: “That person was her father’s student. They didn’t consummate that night—talked all night instead. That blood was from the scholar biting his finger and smearing it on.”

Yan Sanhe pressed, “How do you know?”

“Three months before she competed for courtesan queen, she requested me from the Music Bureau management. On the night at the water room, I was guarding the outer chamber—heard every sound inside clearly.”

So that’s how it was.

Yan Sanhe looked up at the pitch-black sky: Tang Zhiwei, was my encounter with Guihua tonight your blessing from the afterlife, helping me find her?

“What was that scholar’s name?”

“I only know his surname was Zhu. We called him Young Master Zhu.”

“Zhu?”

Yan Sanhe turned her face slightly toward those behind her. “That’s quite a rare surname!”

“Indeed uncommon.”

Xie Zhifei exchanged a very subtle glance with Zhuqing.

With a surname, being Tang Qiling’s student, and calling himself “Three Friends of Winter”—the scope narrowed considerably, making him much easier to find.

“Did Young Master Zhu visit the Music Bureau often?”

“Not often—once every two or three months.”

“For how many years?”

“About three or four years.”

“After three or four years, he never came again?”

Guihua thought for a moment. “He still came—every year on Shishui’s birthday, he’d come sit.”

Yan Sanhe: “When was her birthday?”

Guihua: “The second day of the second month.”

The second of the second month—when the dragon raises its head.

Shishui’s birthday fell on such an auspicious day.

Yan Sanhe felt genuinely wistful. “Besides Young Master Zhu, who else visited regularly?”

“No one else.”

Guihua’s expression suddenly paused, as if suddenly remembering something. “Wait—later there was also a Master Tang.”

Yan Sanhe: “Who was Master Tang?”

Guihua: “He also seemed to be Shishui’s father’s student. Once I heard Shishui call him senior martial brother.”

The Tang family?

Master Tang?

Even their surnames matched.

Besides being Tang Qiling’s student, this Master Tang might have other connections to the Tang family.

Yan Sanhe: “When Master Tang came, what would they generally do in the room?”

Guihua: “Same as Young Master Zhu—just drink tea and chat.”

Yan Sanhe: “What did they chat about?”

Guihua scratched her face. “Miss, if I said I don’t know a single thing about what they discussed, would you believe me?”

Yan Sanhe nodded without hesitation. “I believe you!”

“It’s truly unknown!”

Guihua recalled, “Shishui wouldn’t let me know either. Every time they came, she’d send me away. Once I really couldn’t help asking—we’re so close, why don’t you trust me?”

“Shishui didn’t distrust you. She didn’t want you to know too much, fearing it would implicate you.”

“Miss, how do you know everything?”

Guihua was amazed, her eyes reddening again.

“That’s exactly what she told me. At first I didn’t believe it and sulked for several days. Only after a few days did I understand—so stupid!”

You weren’t stupid. You grew up in the Music Bureau, never developing a vigilant heart toward political situations.

Young Master Zhu and Master Tang were both Tang Qiling’s students, likely also Crown Prince partisans. When they came to the Music Bureau to look after their junior martial sister, they must have brought news from outside.

How the Crown Prince fared, how the political situation developed—one night was enough for Shishui to learn about the outside world.

Living in a quagmire wasn’t frightening. What was frightening was having no hope of rising. The arrival of Zhu and Tang should have been both Shishui’s motivation and courage to hope for clear skies and bright moon, and what they urgently wanted to give her to encourage their junior martial sister to live on.

A chord in Yan Sanhe’s heart suddenly stirred lightly. “Guihua, after Shishui became courtesan queen, was she ever bullied by clients?”

This time Guihua didn’t even think, answering very decisively, “No.”

This time, Young Master Pei couldn’t help interjecting, “Guihua, which young lady at the Music Bureau doesn’t get bullied? You must be misremembering.”

Xie Zhifei sneered coldly. “Even a courtesan queen only has two or three years at her peak. When she’s no longer popular, who takes her seriously?”

Guihua’s expression changed. “I’m not lying! She… she just wasn’t bullied. Who could bear to bully someone like her?”

Xie Zhifei: “Not even one instance of mistreatment?”

Guihua blinked. “The clients she received were all scholars. Scholars are refined—they wouldn’t mistreat people.”

“Right, they wouldn’t mistreat her.”

Yan Sanhe patted Guihua’s hand very gently, saying meaningfully, “She was a good person. Even Buddha protected her.”

As the words fell, both masters’ pupils contracted sharply, almost simultaneously.

In pleasure quarters, Buddha’s protection was useless. The suffering and bullying that should come would come all the same.

For nine years at the Music Bureau, entertaining clients and selling smiles, yet not one instance of mistreatment from clients…

What protected her wasn’t Buddha, but an invisible hand.

That hand was very likely the former Crown Prince!