At the villa, everyone waited with bated breath.

Just as they grew anxiously impatient, two black shadows descended.

“They’re back.”

Young Master Pei called out: “Hero, quickly, come in and warm yourself by the fire. It’s cold outside.”

Li Buyan pulled down the black cloth covering her face, rubbed her hands, and asked: “Is there hot tea? Let me have a sip.”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

Pei Xiao rushed into the room, brought out a cup of tea. Li Buyan took it, drank it all in one gulp, then casually handed it back to him.

No one else noticed anything about this scene, but only Yan Sanhe’s gaze circled several times between Li Buyan and Pei Xiao.

Entering the room, they closed the door.

Li Buyan’s voice carried the moistness of water.

“Yan Sanhe, that booklet has records. Up front are all these heavenly stems and earthly branches, year pillars, month pillars, day pillars, hour pillars, and the day’s…”

“The day’s Twelve Construction Stars, Yellow Path and Black Path Twelve Gods, Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions, daily oppositions and inauspicious directions, plus the Taiyin, Taiyang, Rahu, Ketu, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Ketu nine-square formation diagrams—all written there.”

Zhu Yuanmo interjected: “There should be a full two or three pages.”

“Right, right, right!”

Li Buyan looked at Zhu Yuanmo with admiration, thinking to herself that this bowl of rice truly could only be eaten by clever people. She found it all headache-inducing anyway.

Zhu Yuanmo: “Miss Li, there should also be a concluding statement at the end.”

“I memorized the concluding statement.”

Li Buyan: “Yuanfeng twenty-six, eighth month, twenty-seventh day, the Crown Prince traveled far to Jinling. Divination auspicious, departed at the second quarter of the chen hour.”

As the words fell, not only did Yan Sanhe’s complexion change—everyone’s expressions turned wrong.

The former Crown Prince went to Jinling on the twenty-seventh of the eighth month in Yuanfeng twenty-six.

Dong Chengfeng disappeared in Jinling Prefecture in the autumn of Yuanfeng twenty-six.

The timing matched.

The location matched.

It also matched the rumor of being kept by a noble.

“Could it be…”

Young Master Pei stammered with trepidation: “I actually guessed right?”

Li Buyan glanced at him: “Mm, your mouth has been blessed.”

Young Master Pei: “……”

Yan Sanhe suddenly felt her whole body grow feverish. Unable to sit still, she paced back and forth in the room several times before stopping in front of Xie Zhifei.

“If we assume this person was kept by the former Crown Prince, where would the former Crown Prince keep him?”

Xie Zhifei met her eyes: “Only two places—one is a villa, the other is the Crown Prince’s estate.”

Yan Sanhe: “Did the former Crown Prince have a villa?”

“This…”

Xie Zhifei shook his head.

How could he know about something from so long ago?

Yan Sanhe, seeing he couldn’t answer, walked over to Young Master Pei.

“If you were kept by someone, became a caged bird, a canary, unable to see the light of day—what would you do?”

What would I do?

Young Master Pei said thoughtfully: “I would naturally be melancholy, depressed in my heart, fall ill from frustration.”

Yan Sanhe’s heart stirred. She stared at Pei Xiao for a long moment, then suddenly smiled: “Young Master Pei’s mouth has indeed been blessed.”

What does that mean?

Pei Xiao touched his lips. What did I guess correctly this time?

Yan Sanhe returned to the grand master’s chair, picked up her teacup, took a large gulp, then under everyone’s watchful gaze, finally spoke:

“People eat grains and cereals, inevitably they fall ill. If he were housed separately in a villa, there would always come a day when medical consultation and medicine were needed.”

Xie Zhifei immediately continued: “So we only need to find the imperial physicians who treated patients for the former Crown Prince’s estate and inquire.”

Li Buyan interjected: “What if he was housed in the Crown Prince’s estate?”

“Stupid. Everyone shits the same, everyone falls ill the same.”

The blessed-mouthed Young Master Pei glared at her: “I’ll go back right now and pressure my father into revealing who took pulses at the former Crown Prince’s estate.”

Li Buyan: “Wasn’t it Shen Duruo?”

Young Master Pei: “Female physicians only treat women’s illnesses.”

Tch, who are you looking down on!

Li Buyan shot up, walked over to Pei Xiao, and gently pressed him into his chair.

“You don’t go. Zhu Qing and I will go ask. We haven’t even taken off our night-walking clothes yet.”

You just got back and haven’t even caught your breath!

Pei Xiao’s words didn’t match his thoughts: “Well, my father’s temper…”

“Just hold a blade to his throat!”

Li Buyan raised her eyebrows high at Zhu Qing: “Let’s go!”

From the corner of his eye, Zhu Qing saw Third Master give a slight nod and immediately followed.

Pei Xiao watched the two disappear outside the door and covered his face in shame.

Father, forgive your unfilial son!

At that moment, Xie Zhifei called out softly: “Ding Yi.”

“Master?”

“Ask Han Yong to find out whether the former Crown Prince had a villa. Where was the villa?”

“Yes!”

Xie Zhifei’s gaze moved slightly, glancing at Zhu Yuanmo. His head of white hair was particularly striking under the lamplight.

“Elder Brother Zhu, they’ll need at least half an hour for a round trip. Go to my courtyard…”

“No need, I can endure.”

Zhu Yuanmo leaned forward: “Miss Yan, we’re making such enormous efforts to investigate Dong Chengfeng—is it useful for resolving the heart demon?”

“Everyone in the Crown Prince’s estate is dead. Those related to the Crown Prince are no longer in this world. Shen Duruo and Consort Xia are both merely our speculation.”

Yan Sanhe stood and walked to the window, reaching out to push it open.

The night was vast and boundless.

All human joys and sorrows, separations and reunions were submerged in this vastness.

“Dong Chengfeng is our only hope.”

She said softly: “I’d rather he favored men, rather Dong Chengfeng was kept by him. That way, Dong Chengfeng would be the only person still living in this world who was closest to him.”

Zhu Yuanmo nodded but developed another doubt: “Then how did he survive? Why did he end up beside the Han Prince as a strategist?”

I also want to know these things.

Could he be a second Lu Shi?

Yan Sanhe turned around, looking at Zhu Yuanmo’s head full of white hair. “I think only he knows the answer to that question.”

“Yan Sanhe, there’s something I don’t think I’ve told you.”

Xie Zhifei walked to her side, looking down: “From the day you were injured by Dong Chengfeng, I arranged for Little Beggar to loiter around the Han Prince’s estate.”

Yan Sanhe: “No one has seen Dong Chengfeng leave the prince’s estate?”

“How did you know?”

“Who is Xie Third Master? There’s no one under heaven you can’t befriend. Even you couldn’t find information about this person—naturally, he’s hidden very deep.”

Yan Sanhe gave him a faint smile, the corners of her lips curving upward.

“Tell me, would a person hidden so deep easily walk out the gates of the Han Prince’s estate?”

Xie Zhifei gazed at her intently.

Ordinarily, this person was no different from common women of the world—just somewhat better-looking, with a somewhat worse temper, a somewhat prouder disposition.

But as soon as she discussed heart demons, the bright light in her eyes, the radiance on her face, made one reluctant to look away.

Xie Zhifei raised his hand to tousle her hair, saying softly: “With you here, no matter how deeply someone is hidden, we can dig them out.”

Yan Sanhe said nothing, then after a long moment, made a sound of acknowledgment.

Her face slowly reddened.