“During the eight years at the Jiaofang Bureau, she didn’t know.”

“Why not let her know?”

Yan Sanhe lowered her gaze. “If she’d known, it would have given her the will to live!”

“You’re wrong, child.”

Frost formed in Lu Shi’s eyes.

“If she’d known, she couldn’t have survived. Either she’d dash her head against something, hang herself with a rope, or swallow gold in the night.”

Yan Sanhe was speechless for a long time before finding her voice.

“Because she wouldn’t want to implicate you?”

“I remember the Ninth Miss of the Ji household committed suicide in prison.”

Yan Sanhe glanced at Pei Xiao coolly. “Yes.”

“Why couldn’t she go on living?”

Lu Shi sneered coldly. “Just because a man took liberties with her, some people said a few cutting remarks, her own mother scolded her a few times?”

Young Master Pei’s eyelid twitched. “Then why?”

Lu Shi enunciated each word: “No love, no hate, no hope, no ties—and still having to endure humiliation. Better to die.”

Yan Sanhe caught the deep meaning in these words. “You mean she hated you, which sustained her until eight years later?”

“Miss Yan, if you were originally someone at the pinnacle, able to touch anything with a stretch of your hand, then fell into the Jiaofang Bureau, forced to sell smiles at the door…”

Lu Shi looked at her solemnly. “Could you survive?”

“I…”

Yan Sanhe: “For deep vengeance and great hatred, perhaps I could grit my teeth and survive.”

“How many years could you survive?”

Lu Shi said calmly, “One year, two years, three years, four years, five years…”

Yan Sanhe was shocked by this string of numbers, suddenly understanding—

She was a person without memory.

Her memories were found through dreams after each resolution of heart demons.

She looked forward to each heart demon’s arrival. She broke through them, closing coffins for one dead person after another…

Heart demons gave her hope to live. Finding her roots gave her hope to live. Investigating that fire gave her hope to live.

Without these…

She couldn’t have persisted year after year.

And to sustain someone who’d fallen from the clouds to become a prostitute, relying solely on the slim hope of the former Crown Prince ascending the throne wasn’t enough.

She could last one year, two years… but definitely not eight years.

It required adding the beloved’s betrayal.

Lu Shi—a poor scholar who climbed step by step relying on the Tang family, who spent time with her beneath flowers and moon, who personally built an opera house for her, who promised “to find one heart and never part until hair turns white”…

In the end, not only did he not save her or the Tang family, but like a cowardly turtle he avoided them from afar, not a single word—who could accept that?

Who wouldn’t hate?

So Yan Sanhe answered Lu Shi’s earlier question.

“The Tang family case was the unwillingness of dying with eyes unclosed. My lord’s betrayal was bone-deep hatred. Add to that the hope of the Crown Prince being heir apparent—these three things could sustain Tang Zhiwei in surviving, barely clinging to life in a place like the Jiaofang Bureau.”

Lu Shi’s gaze was unfathomably deep. “Child, you’re truly very clever.”

Yan Sanhe felt little joy at being praised.

Because of Yan Xing, she’d always felt that romantic love between men and women was full of calculation and exploitation—everyone taking what they needed, each with their own agenda.

She’d never imagined there could be someone like Lu Shi in this world.

“So when did she learn of your painstaking efforts? Was it at Water Moon Convent?”

“If I guessed she knew in the sixth year at the Jiaofang Bureau, would you believe me?”

Young Master Pei couldn’t wait to ask, “Why?”

“Because he didn’t marry.”

Yan Sanhe: “Others only knew he didn’t marry because his private parts were damaged. Only Tang Zhiwei knew his private parts weren’t damaged.”

Young Master Pei’s face reddened. “Ah, but they weren’t yet married, yet they’d already…”

“Pei Mingting.”

Yan Sanhe felt every additional word from this fellow was an insult to the old lord.

“If his private parts were damaged, would her teacher feel at ease letting him marry into the family?”

Young Master Pei stole a glance at Lu Shi and obediently closed his mouth.

No matter how this world changed, that bit of nonsense men’s lower halves obsessed over would never change.

Six years later, Lu Shi was thirty-five, with no wife or children, still alone—with Tang Zhiwei’s intelligence, she must have figured something out.

And by that time, she no longer wanted to die. Outside the Jiaofang Bureau, someone was waiting bitterly for her. If she died, what would become of that person?

Once a person develops attachments, they cannot die either.

At this moment, Yan Sanhe asked again, “Old lord, during those years away from the capital, besides serving as censor, were you also secretly investigating Tang Qiling’s case?”

Lu Shi admitted frankly, “Yes!”

Yan Sanhe: “What did you discover?”

Lu Shi replied with two words: “Much.”

Yan Sanhe: “Could you be specific?”

Lu Shi: “You don’t need to know the specifics.”

Yan Sanhe: “Does Lord Lu want to protect us again?”

Lu Shi: “Yes.”

Seeing he wouldn’t speak, Yan Sanhe could only ask this: “So Yan Ruxian and Li Xing were both among those who framed Tang Qiling?”

Lu Shi: “Regarding this matter, I can only tell you: Li Xing was Yan Ruxian’s dog. Back then he lodged in the Tang family’s rear courtyard. Because he slandered me, the young miss drove him out.”

Yan Sanhe quickly turned her face to look at Xie Zhifei.

Xie Zhifei’s eyelid twitched inexplicably, then he nodded slightly at Yan Sanhe.

Li Xing was Yan Ruxian’s dog. Whose dog was Yan Ruxian?

No need to ask further—the answer was already obvious.

“Old lord.”

But Yan Sanhe still had questions.

“I won’t ask about Yan Ruxian, Li Xing, or the person behind them. I only ask—within the Tang family’s inner household, who was the traitor?”

Lu Shi’s gaze turned cold. “How do you know there was a traitor in the Tang family?”

“That person said the evidence was conclusive, it was iron-clad—meaning the examination questions really did leak from Tang Qiling’s hands.”

Yan Sanhe sneered coldly. “Without an insider, how could the questions leak? This required inside and outside cooperation.”

Lu Shi suddenly asked back, “Guess?”

Yan Sanhe shook her head.

“Can’t guess. Regarding the Tang family, I only know Tang Qiling and his daughter, your three senior brothers, and Lin Bi.”

Lu Shi snorted coldly. “It’s among these people.”

Young Master Pei was shocked. “What?”

Xie Zhifei exclaimed, “How is that possible?”

Yan Sanhe’s heart gave a heavy thud. “Is, is it Lin Bi?”

Lu Shi looked at Yan Sanhe coldly. “Why do you think it’s her?”

“Don’t know.”

Yan Sanhe was dazed for a moment. “Just feel her death wasn’t quite right.”

Lu Shi suddenly stood up, walked to Yan Sanhe’s side, pressed his large hand on her shoulder, and asked, “What wasn’t right about it?”

Yan Sanhe could feel his hand trembling. She thought: Did I guess correctly?

“Tang Jianxi said she didn’t even marry Chu Yanting immediately to care for Tang Zhiwei. She protected Tang Zhiwei so fiercely—doesn’t seem like she’d seek death easily.

Moreover, she was going to the Jiaofang Bureau in the future too. The outcome would be the same—being defiled. What difference would it make?”

If this fell on her and Li Buyan, neither could possibly abandon the other, even with just one breath left.