Hearing these words, Tang Jianxi inexplicably thought of Tao Qiao’er.

“Cousin, why are you so smart while I’m so stupid?”

“Cousin, what does this section of the opera mean? I don’t understand.”

“It’s over, it’s over—Father and Mother are going to scold me. Cousin, what should I do? Quick, help me think of something…”

Tao Qiao’er had been slow-witted since childhood. Reading was difficult for her, needlework was difficult, even having her brew a pot of tea could result in her burning herself.

She also had no opinions of her own. Whenever she encountered any problem, she’d come to him with a worried face. After he coaxed her with a few words, she’d start grinning foolishly again without a care.

He found her both exasperating and endearing, constantly worried someone might bully her…

A chill crept up to the crown of his head. Tang Jianxi’s hand gripping Yan Ting’s arm slowly loosened.

Men actually all preferred women inferior to themselves, because they could be looked up to, worshipped, and depended upon.

But Junior Martial Sister…

They could only look up to her.

That night, he watched over a drunkard, thinking over and over about what his teacher had said, savoring it again and again, then spent the entire night worrying for Junior Martial Sister.

Tang Jianxi sighed deeply and nodded at Xie Zhifei.

A young master from an aristocratic family falling for a maidservant—why does this story seem so similar to mine?

Young Master Pei asked anxiously, “Master Tang, did those two achieve their heart’s desire?”

Master Tang shook his head.

“Why not?”

“Young Master Pei, take a guess.”

“What’s there to guess? Their families weren’t well-matched.”

Master Tang shook his head.

“Ah, the Chu family actually agreed?”

Tang Jianxi shook his head again.

The Chu family didn’t agree, yet the two achieved their heart’s desire…

Young Master Pei blurted out, “Don’t tell me they eloped?”

“Young Master Pei!”

Tang Jianxi’s voice grew heavy. “If that were true, all those books Chu Yanting read would have gone into a dog’s belly. He wouldn’t deserve to be called human.”

“Each gave up something, and only then could they achieve their heart’s desire.”

Yan Sanhe pondered. “It should be that the Chu family agreed to take the maidservant as a concubine while simultaneously arranging a well-matched marriage for their son, then asked Tang Qiling to help counsel him.”

Even though Tang Jianxi had grown accustomed to Yan Sanhe’s intelligence, he was still startled by these words.

Her guess was correct to the last detail.

When Lady Chu learned her son had fallen for the Tang family’s maidservant, she didn’t rush to break them apart with a stick. Instead, she very quickly arranged a marriage for her son. After three of the six rites had been completed, she brought her household servants to the capital.

Upon arriving in the capital, she directly sought an audience with the teacher, first explaining the Chu family’s difficulties, then proposing to take Lin Bi as a concubine.

The teacher was moved by Lady Chu and immediately had a conversation with Chu Yanting through the night. At dawn, Chu Yanting nodded and agreed to his family’s arrangement.

“Miss Yan, why don’t you guess whether that maidservant was willing to accept the Chu family’s arrangement?”

“If she was willing, Master Tang wouldn’t need me to guess. If she wasn’t willing, you wouldn’t have used the phrase ‘achieved their heart’s desire.'”

Yan Sanhe’s eyes shifted. “I guess she was willing, but because of Lady Tang’s deathbed instructions, she didn’t immediately go to the Chu family. Instead, she stayed at the Tang residence for several more years.”

Xie Zhifei interjected, “It’s also possible she wanted to finish arranging Tang Zhiwei’s marriage before leaving the Tang family.”

Tang Jianxi nodded at them both while sighing deeply.

This sigh carried countless twists and turns, making everyone’s hearts skip a beat.

At this moment, Tang Jianxi suddenly spoke.

“Living in this world, one cannot escape the word ‘affection’—parental affection, sibling affection, friendship, romantic affection, master-servant affection. There’s always some form of affection waiting for you to plunge headlong into.”

When he said this, his expression was cold and stern, his voice dry and powerless. His originally straight back seemed to bear a heavy weight, slowly bending down.

When does a person’s spine bend?

When they can no longer bear the burden.

So many years had passed, yet when Master Tang brought up Chu Yanting’s past, he still couldn’t bear it… Then there was only one possibility.

Yan Sanhe: “The maidservant met with misfortune.”

Tang Jianxi gently closed his eyes.

Yan Sanhe: “Because the Tang family had problems, she was implicated?”

Tang Jianxi closed his eyes again.

Yan Sanhe: “Before the truth was uncovered, the female family members should have been locked in prison. Did something happen to her in prison?”

Tang Jianxi stared at Yan Sanhe in a daze for a long while, then finally nodded.

The study suddenly fell silent.

When a woman met with misfortune in prison, aside from being violated and defiled, there would be nothing else.

Tang Zhiwei was the Crown Prince’s junior martial sister. While the Crown Prince still held power, the jailers wouldn’t dare lay hands on her. But a small maidservant…

Yan Sanhe’s hands resting on her knees clenched into fists then loosened, loosened then clenched into fists. After several cycles, she took a deep breath. “Did she take her own life?”

Lin Bi died in Junior Martial Sister’s arms. Her last words were for Chu Yanting.

“Miss, tell Yanting that he must live to a hundred years, have children and grandchildren filling the house, live better than anyone. You must tell him.”

Several years later, when Tang Jianxi first saw Junior Martial Sister dressed in gaudy colors at the Jiaofang Bureau, after the maidservant closed the door and left, he wept like rain.

Junior Martial Sister, how did you become a prostitute selling smiles at the door?

If Teacher and Teacher’s Wife knew this in the afterlife, how devastated would they be?

“Martial Brother.”

She poured him a cup of tea and took out a handkerchief, pressing it into his hand.

“That year in prison, they dragged Lin Bi away. Lin Bi turned back and called to me, ‘Miss, I’ll be back soon. Wait for me…’

I was terrified. I knew what was going to happen, but I didn’t dare cry out. I could only curl up in the corner like a dog, trembling.

When I thought I’d run out of tears, she came back. She didn’t speak, didn’t cry, just held me tightly.

Martial Brother, you know—Mother died early. It was she who raised me with her own hands. I didn’t dare comfort her. I could only beg her.

‘Lin Bi, don’t leave me. You’re all I have.’ She agreed so readily, but in the dead of night, I only dozed off for a moment…”

At this point, she suddenly smiled bleakly.

“Her body grew cold in my arms, little by little. I actually had ten thousand thoughts of wanting to go with her, but thinking I hadn’t yet delivered her words to Martial Brother Chu, I forcibly cut off those ten thousand thoughts.

Martial Brother, do you know? She deliberately used her death to force me to live on, because she felt only by living would there be any hope.”

Her eyes were moist, yet no tears fell. In her pupils was only deep stubbornness.

“These past years, whenever I’ve had thoughts of death, it’s as if I’m holding Lin Bi in my arms. So I don’t dare die, cannot die. Even fallen to my current state, I must grit my teeth and live on.

But Martial Brother, how could Lin Bi know—swallowing a piece of gold is but an instant, while living is day after day, night after night.”

These words pierced Tang Jianxi’s heart like ten thousand arrows.

“The night I won the title of top courtesan, I finally told Martial Brother Chu these words. After hearing them, Martial Brother Chu opened his mouth but couldn’t say anything.”

She sighed deeply.

“The two of us looked at each other, sitting in withered silence through the night. At dawn, Martial Brother Chu said, ‘Junior Martial Sister, live on well—not for Lin Bi, but because your surname is Tang.’

So Martial Brother, don’t cry for me. What kind of person my father was, what kind of family the Tangs were—you should know best. We must smile, smile for those bastards to see.”