“I don’t want to know about the most powerful.”

Yan Sanhe: “I only want to know what effect these few strands of red fox fur plus one peach blossom petal would have.”

At this point, what couldn’t Zhu Yuanmo say?

“The peach blossom is passion, the red fox fur is lust. It can both stimulate passion and desire, and also make someone bold and reckless, heedless of consequences, like a beast in heat thinking only of mating.”

Wasn’t this exactly the real transformation of Eldest Master Zhu Xuanguang?

Not enough!

Still not enough to convince the Zhu family members.

Yan Sanhe: “Old Steward, come see if this ring belongs to the Eldest Master?”

The old steward didn’t look at the ring but anxiously glanced at his Eldest Master.

Zhu Yuanmo weakly waved his hand at the old steward.

“This ring belongs to my eldest uncle. One year when Grandfather helped someone examine a burial site, he received five gemstones and had the old craftsman at Precious Jade Studio make five rings, which he gave to his five sons. My father’s was a sapphire, which was eventually passed to me. Eldest Uncle’s was this ruby.”

The old steward quickly added.

“Because of the missing ring, Eldest Master even dismissed a maid from his quarters, saying she was clumsy and careless. This old servant later assigned her to watch over the garden.”

“Zhu Yuanhao.”

Yan Sanhe looked at him coldly.

“This is the Peach Blossom Well the old monk spoke of. The person who set up this well was your father, with the purpose of making the Eldest Master fall into carnal desire early, ruining his spiritual gift for divination and feng shui. Do you agree?”

Agree?

Agree?

Zhu Yuanhao’s lips opened and closed, unable to speak a word for a long time, but tears in his eyes slid down uncontrollably.

His heart felt like it had been stabbed by a thousand knives, bloody and mangled.

How much pain—utterly agonizing!

Yet Yan Sanhe still had more to say.

“Old Master Zhu sensed something was wrong and had some suspicions, so using the excuse of something being lost, he sent people down the well. But…”

Yan Sanhe pointed at the three items on the table.

“These things are so small, and such a dark mass, covered by mud and sand—finding them was too difficult. Old Master sent people down the well twice with no results, so he didn’t pursue it further. Thus, the Eldest Master was ruined this way. Do you agree?”

Agree?

Agree?

Zhu Yuanhao ground his back teeth until they creaked.

His chest full of rage had nowhere to go. Like a wounded wild beast, he rushed to the courtyard and faced the vast snow, letting out howl after howl of anguish.

He was Mother’s most beloved youngest son, but the youngest son’s heart worshipped Father most.

As a concubine’s son, Father had assumed the position of Zhu family head, not only managing the Imperial Observatory impeccably but also making the family’s fortunes flourish.

Everyone in the clan respected him without exception.

Zhu Yuanhao lacked talent. His only thought in life was to become a man like Father—keeping his wife and children, living an honest life.

Because Father said: Son, I don’t expect you to achieve great things. I just hope you live peacefully and steadily. I’ll instruct your eldest brother that as long as he has food to eat, you’ll have food to eat.

So all of this was fake?

Everything was fake!

After his howling, Zhu Yuanhao roughly wiped away his tears, turned back to the main hall, and said to Yan Sanhe through gasping breaths, “You’re right!”

Before finding the Peach Blossom Well, he had protected his own father without yielding an inch, almost ready to fight her to the death.

After finding it, forcefully suppressing the pain in his heart, he decisively acknowledged it.

Yan Sanhe looked at the blood in his eyes and couldn’t help softening her voice a bit.

“The Peach Blossom Well was his doing, so the Fatal Nail was also his doing. Precisely because he did it, the first thing he did as family head was to renovate the entire residence inside and out, to erase all traces of his misdeeds. Unfortunately…”

She paused.

“Unfortunately, this well couldn’t be renovated. The well was left by your Zhu family ancestors, generation after generation. Not only couldn’t it be renovated, he couldn’t go down the well to retrieve the items, because Old Master had already searched twice. If he searched a third time, it would surely arouse others’ suspicions—what coincidence would have everything falling into the same well? So he gave this courtyard to Third Miss.”

Yan Sanhe’s tone shifted.

“Bu Yan, do you remember what Third Miss said when Second Miss liked Geng Songsheng? What did Second Miss reply?”

“I remember.”

Li Bu Yan: “Second Miss said, ‘I’m not like you, developing feelings for every good-looking man I see.'”

“These words mean Third Miss couldn’t help becoming infatuated every time she saw a man.”

Yan Sanhe sneered.

“A perfectly proper young lady in her boudoir—why would she become like this? I think we now have the answer.”

The three Zhu brothers understood this answer better than anyone.

The Eldest Master had died, but the Peach Blossom Well remained.

Third Sister living in this courtyard—one or two years would be fine, but after three or five years, the Peach Blossom Well’s power to stimulate passion and desire would gradually manifest in her.

Fortunately, because of Eldest Sister eloping with Geng Songsheng, everyone in the Zhu household watched the three young ladies closely.

Third Sister rarely saw men from outside, so she could only indulge in wild fantasies and idle infatuation by herself.

“That’s why she thought Second Miss also liked Geng Songsheng.”

Yan Sanhe narrowed her eyes slightly.

“In truth, the one secretly liking Geng Songsheng was her, but Geng Songsheng belonged to Eldest Miss. She feared her feelings would be exposed, so she threw the dirty water onto Second Miss.”

Li Bu Yan grew angrier the more she listened. “Damn it, he doesn’t harm his own son but freely harms his daughters. This Master Zhu really has great schemes!”

“It’s actually a good thing.”

Yan Sanhe said very calmly, “This proves from another angle that the one who set up the Peach Blossom Well was indeed Zhu Xuanjiu. Otherwise, how could the legitimate eldest son’s courtyard be given to Third Miss?”

The faces of the three Zhu brothers immediately looked like a dye shop had opened—each uglier than the last.

In great families, where sons lived, where daughters lived, where legitimate children lived, where concubine-born children lived—all had rules.

When Father originally gave this courtyard to Little Sister, everyone was greatly shocked.

Even if it matched Little Sister’s birth characters, it couldn’t violate the rules.

But Father insisted, and everyone took it as his favoritism toward his youngest daughter, saying nothing more.

“I have a doubt.”

Everyone looked toward Xie Zhifei.

“Master Zhu’s affair with the maid—he wasn’t yet fifteen years old.”

Xie Zhifei tried to speak louder, but lacking strength, his voice fell on others’ ears with a somewhat dying quality.

“Old Master Zhu is eight years younger than Eldest Master, meaning when he did this, he was only six or seven years old.”

“You mean…”

Yan Sanhe saw him struggling to speak and simply took over.

“A six or seven-year-old child, just beginning to learn divination and feng shui—how would he already understand such sinister dark arts to harm people?”

Xie Zhifei closed his eyes briefly.

Yan Sanhe’s gaze lifted, looking at Zhu Yuanmo.

Zhu Yuanmo was utterly drained. “Miss Yan, I don’t know.”

Yan Sanhe: “Then there are only two possibilities.”

Young Master Pei and Li Bu Yan said almost in unison: “Which two?”

Yan Sanhe: “Either he had extraordinary natural talent, or someone else taught him.”

The three Zhu masters looked at each other, the same doubt in their eyes: Who would teach him?

No one would teach him. The Zhu family ancestors had all followed the rules for generations—otherwise they couldn’t have held the Imperial Observatory for so many years.

“I also have a doubt.”

Everyone looked toward Zhu Qing.