Even with the Crown Prince’s good temperament, his expression changed at the scholar’s words.

Yan Ruxian was His Majesty’s man.

This person had begun serving at His Majesty’s side since he was about ten years old. If His Majesty wanted to preserve his life, no one could do anything about it.

But the crimes he had committed truly deserved having his family exterminated and property confiscated—a capital offense.

At this critical juncture, Zhao Yanluo could only first pacify the scholars before him. “Fellow students, please rest assured—you will eventually see that day arrive.”

The words were quite vague, but they gave people hope.

That square-faced scholar threw himself to his knees before the Crown Prince with a thud, kowtowing three times—bang, bang, bang—each one resounding.

Zhao Yanluo nodded slightly. “Where is the Commander of the Five Cities Military Commission?”

Xie Zhifei, having been named, had no choice but to step forward. “Your Highness, this subject is here!”

“Send the injured to medical halls for treatment and properly disperse the crowd. There must be no more conflicts.”

“Yes!”

“Lord Yang.”

Yang Yijie steeled himself and stepped forward. “Your Highness?”

Zhao Yanluo gave him another faint glance. “Those standing here are all future pillars of our Hua nation. In the future, Lord Yang must not act rashly when conducting affairs.”

With these words raising one side and lowering the other, the scholars looked at the Crown Prince with even more fervent eyes.

Yang Yijie concealed the trace of murderous intent in his eyes and bowed to the Crown Prince. “This subject acknowledges his error.”

A conflict that had been about to result in rivers of blood was resolved in the Crown Prince’s few words.

Just then, the Crown Prince’s Manor guards arrived. After surrounding the Crown Prince in a tight circle, they escorted him onto a carriage.

As soon as the carriage wheels began turning, Xie Zhifei searched for Yan Sanhe in the crowd.

Yan Sanhe wasn’t hard to find.

She was small and slender, and she wasn’t wearing scholar’s robes. After a few sweeps of his gaze, Xie Zhifei locked onto her.

“Brothers of the Military Commission, move quickly! Send the injured to medical halls. The rest of you, disperse and go home. Think of your parents and siblings at home, your wives and children.”

As he shouted, he pushed through the scholars and walked toward Yan Sanhe.

When Yan Sanhe saw his expression, she involuntarily stepped back, having an impulse to turn and run.

Unfortunately, where could she run?

She could only watch helplessly as he approached, watch as his hand grabbed her by the collar, then, like picking up a chicken, he hauled her before Zhu Qing.

“Watch her. Don’t let her leave even one step.”

“Xie Zhifei!”

“Shut up!”

After forcing out two words through his teeth, Xie Zhifei continued furiously, “Look at what you’ve become!”

What state—wasn’t she just like a drowned chicken?

“Where’s that troublemaking stirring stick? Where did she go?”

He couldn’t bear to scold or hit his own sister, so he had to take it out on that troublemaking stirring stick.

As Xie Zhifei’s eyes spat fire while searching for her, after sweeping around once, he couldn’t find any trace of Li Buyan. His heart filled with hatred.

“If I let her off today, I’ll gouge out my own eyes for you all to pickle in wine.”

“Fifty, Fifty, what are you going to pickle in wine?”

Another drowned chicken pushed through scholar after scholar, struggling over. “My goodness, what kind of world is this? How dare even these scholars…”

“You shut up too.”

Just thinking about that spear behind Yan Sanhe made Xie Zhifei unable to suppress his anger. “Do you see the troublemaking stirring stick?”

Young Lord Pei pointed behind him.

Xie Zhifei roughly shoved Young Lord Pei aside and strode before Li Buyan.

When Li Buyan saw him wearing an expression that acknowledged no family ties, she had a flash of inspiration.

“Miss discovered the scholars gathering and told me to immediately notify you, fearing you wouldn’t be able to keep that new official hat on your head.”

Xie Zhifei’s left foot paused.

“So I rushed to ask the Military Commission people.”

Xie Zhifei’s right foot paused.

“Then ran all the way through heavy rain back home.”

Both of Xie Zhifei’s feet stopped.

“After learning Third Master had left, I rode over again. Halfway, I met Young Lord Pei. Up to now, I haven’t caught my breath even once.”

Li Buyan looked at Xie Zhifei. “I heard Third Master was going to gouge out his own eyes to pickle in wine for us? Good, I’d just like a drink.”

In this world, it was either the east wind prevailing over the west wind, or the west wind prevailing over the east wind.

Xie Zhifei said, “Li…”

“I trouble Third Master not to speak to me.”

Li Buyan raised her head with a cold laugh. “When men speak to me, it’s inauspicious.”

Xie Zhifei: “…”

Young Lord Pei gloated on the side: My Fifty has become a pestilence god?

Yan Sanhe walked over and blocked the aggressive Li Buyan. “Everyone go back. I have something to say.”

A thought immediately jumped into Xie Zhifei’s mind. “The matter has…”

“Correct!”

One word made everyone’s hearts beat faster, especially Xie Zhifei’s.

“You all go back first. I still need to keep watch here for a while. Prepare hot water for me, prepare a set of clean clothes, achoo…”

“I’ll keep Fifty company.”

Young Lord Pei, hearing his brother sneeze, became worried again. “We came together.”

Yan Sanhe looked at Xie Zhifei, then at Young Lord Pei. She seemed to want to say something but ultimately said nothing.

“Buyan, let’s go.”

…

When they returned to the residence, it was still raining.

Yan Sanhe wrung out her hair and drank two bowls of millet porridge. Only then did Xie Zhifei and the others return.

First, they drank a bowl of thick ginger soup, then bathed, changed clothes, ate a meal…

After all this bustle, everyone sat in the small flower hall. Yan Sanhe had Tangyuan close the door and stand guard at the courtyard entrance, not allowing anyone to barge in.

In this residence, with masters and servants combined there were only a few people. Who would be so ignorant as to barge into the small flower hall?

Everyone understood: what Yan Sanhe was about to say was extremely important.

Yan Sanhe didn’t rush to speak but paced back and forth in the flower hall twice before saying, “Tang Qiling’s case was indeed wrongly decided.”

With one sentence, everyone’s expressions changed dramatically.

“Mingting.”

Yan Sanhe called on Young Lord Pei. “If you were the one setting examination questions, what would you fear most?”

“I…”

Young Lord Pei was at a loss for quite a while. “Fear the exam questions wouldn’t be up to standard, fear…”

“Also fear the questions being leaked.” Huang Qi interjected.

“Right, right, right, fear…”

Pei Xiao suddenly slapped his thigh. “I understand now—Tang Qiling wouldn’t commit theft while being the guard. He wanted face.”

“He was the Crown Prince’s Grand Tutor—already at the pinnacle of success.”

Yan Sanhe’s gaze shifted to Xie Zhifei. “Li Buyan and I went to Yan Ruxian’s residence today. We specifically went to see where Tang Zhiwei listened to opera—it was a two-story theater building.”

On one hand, Xie Zhifei felt comforted that at least she had confessed her whereabouts to him.

On the other hand, he felt a hidden anger—daring to break into a sealed residence, what if someone had seen her?

“Someone who could build a theater in their back garden wouldn’t lack silver.”

Yan Sanhe turned around, looking at the boundless night. “Tang Qiling’s original motive for the fraud doesn’t hold up.”

The night outlined Yan Sanhe’s slender neck. Xie Zhifei looked at the bruises on that neck, unable to look away.

“Then who wanted to frame him?”