A dark and windy night.

Pei Yu’s face was frighteningly pale.

He’d never dreamed that as a dignified Imperial Physician, he would one day sink to digging up someone’s ancestral grave.

Such evil deeds!

Zhu Yuanmo was very calm, walking around the tomb mound with his hands behind his back, taking the opportunity to comment on the feng shui here.

Li Buyan stood by the grave holding a white lantern, illuminating the three people below.

Perhaps because they’d dug up graves and excavated tombs so many times, even the most timid Huang Qi looked quite calm, even joking with his master:

“Master, I’ve inquired—black donkey hooves don’t work well. If there really is a corpse transformation, dog blood is more effective.”

His master didn’t respond, his thoughts all on the hand holding that lantern.

This girl’s injury had just healed. Holding a lantern for a long time would make her hand sore—I need to go help her hold it.

The problem was Father was here.

With this help, given Father’s fox-like nature, he’d definitely see something. Should he take this risk?

Pei Xiao gritted his teeth.

Forget it—better to be his unfilial son.

He walked to Li Buyan’s side and snatched the lantern from her hand. “Go rest over there. I’ll handle this.”

Li Buyan folded her arms and studied him, then after a while, smiled slightly.

This person’s two legs were trembling. He was clearly terrified to death, yet still dared to come over.

“What are you smiling at?”

Pei Xiao deliberately put on a stern face for his father to see. “Middle of the night—don’t smile so eerily in a graveyard. Go over there.”

As the words fell, a click came from the coffin.

Pei Xiao’s lantern swayed, his two legs shaking even more violently, as if trembling.

“One, two, three.”

Li Buyan silently counted three numbers in her heart and discovered that not only did Pei Xiao not hide behind her, he actually stood firm.

Well, some progress!

At this moment, Zhu Qing shouted, “Third Master, we’ve reached it.”

“Open it.”

Zhu Qing and the other two exchanged glances, exerted force with their hands, and the coffin lid suddenly flew open.

Everyone crowded over.

Xie Zhifei: “Mingting, the light.”

Pei Xiao mentally recited “Amitabha Buddha” and brought the light over.

Pei Yu took the opportunity to cover his nose and lean in for a look.

Good heavens.

Want to vomit!

This was a highly decomposed corpse, rotted almost to just a skeleton, though in a few places, putrid flesh still clung to it.

Pei Yu took the lantern from his son’s hand and brought it close to the corpse, his gaze moving inch by inch from head to toe, finally settling on the throat area.

He handed the lantern to Zhu Qing, pulled out silver needles from his chest, and bit by bit pushed aside the rotted flesh stuck to the throat bone.

He pushed very slowly, very carefully.

After a moment, the entire throat bone was exposed. At a position slightly below, there was a black spot.

And at this time, the needle in his hand had also slowly turned black.

Pei Yu pointed with his finger at that black spot, then held the needle in front of the lantern so everyone could see clearly.

“The needle turned black after touching the putrid flesh, and there’s a black spot on the throat bone. Well then, this gentleman here really was poisoned to death.”

Yan Sanhe: “Imperial Physician Pei, what poison is this?”

“Miss Yan.”

Pei Yu sighed. “The poisons in this world number nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine if not more. I only understand some superficial knowledge. What poison this person was given, I truly cannot say.”

Li Buyan interjected, “But his tongue was black.”

Pei Yu climbed up from the grave and looked at Li Buyan quietly.

“Miss Li, a black tongue isn’t limited to just poisoning and severe illness. Gastrointestinal dryness-heat, damp-heat internal accumulation, damp-heat internal excess, yin deficiency, and true yin depletion can all cause a black tongue.

“Taking it further, if he drank a cup of medicine before sleeping and that medicine contained black medicinal ingredients, it could also easily cause a black tongue.”

Li Buyan: “…” No wonder the Qian family didn’t report to the authorities at the time.

Pei Yu showed Yan Sanhe the silver needle in his hand again. “I can only confirm this person was definitely murdered.”

Good enough that it’s confirmed.

Yan Sanhe: “Zhu Qing, close the coffin and restore it to its original state.”

“Wait!”

Young Master Pei pulled out several sheets of paper from his chest and, pinching his nose, placed them in the coffin.

Zhu Qing: “Young Master Pei, what are these?”

“Rebirth sutras—to eliminate our karmic debt and send him on his way.”

Having said this, Pei Xiao waved his hand in disgust, signaling Zhu Qing and the others to quickly close the coffin. Turning around, he discovered Li Buyan smiling at him with an examining look in her eyes.

Pei Xiao’s face suddenly burned hot. He quickly turned his head away and thought for a moment, reaching a conclusion: This girl still put him more at ease when she smiled.

“Zhu Yuanmo.”

At this moment, Yan Sanhe spoke. “I remember your second younger sister’s in-laws are the Xiang family—the Xiang family are a woodworking household, holding positions in the Ministry of Works?”

Zhu Yuanmo: “Miss Yan remembers correctly.”

Yan Sanhe: “I’d like to meet your second brother-in-law Xiang Yanrui.”

Meet him?

Zhu Yuanmo’s expression was somewhat awkward. “Miss Yan, my second brother-in-law is rather taciturn and doesn’t like meeting strangers.”

Yan Sanhe said nothing, her gaze looking at him lightly.

Zhu Yuanmo immediately changed his tune. “Alright, within three days I’ll definitely let you meet him.”

Graves were easy to dig, coffins easy to open, but restoration was difficult. The three men spent most of an hour before restoring it to its original state.

Zhu Qing planted the shovel upright in the ground. “Third Master, you take Imperial Physician Pei and Master Zhu back first. I’ll stay here overnight, and when dawn comes I’ll repair the grave before returning.”

Repairing was to prevent people from noticing.

Xie Zhifei wasn’t comfortable with him alone. “Have Ding Yi stay with you.”

Zhu Qing shook his head. “Master, I can manage alone.”

Xie Zhifei looked at him deeply, then nodded and reached out to support Pei Yu. “Uncle, let’s go down the mountain!”

Pei Yu: “Down the mountain.”

The group headed down the mountain. After walking a few steps, Yan Sanhe turned to look behind her.

Behind, Zhu Qing was bent over busying himself before the grave. Most of his body was hidden in darkness, only half his face showing deep contours because of the lantern.

She should find an opportunity to ask Xie Zhifei about Zhu Qing’s background.

A dull gourd, yet everything was handled properly. He could even distinguish whether a horse was sick or heartbroken—probably not simple at all.

…

Returning to the estate, it was already the fourth watch.

Everyone bathed and changed clothes, washing away the corpse smell, before falling into exhausted sleep.

Xie Zhifei slept very restlessly through this sleep, the past from Haitang Courtyard appearing intermittently in his mind.

Now it was Father teaching him martial arts.

Now it was Mother sewing clothes for him.

Now it was Huaiyou pestering him to climb trees.

In his daze, he saw Mother barefoot, walking step by step into Huaiyou’s room. Suddenly he jolted awake and opened his eyes.

Truly what one thinks during the day, one dreams at night.

Xie Zhifei sighed almost imperceptibly, got out of bed, and poured himself a cup of cold tea.

After drinking, with no more desire to sleep, he threw on some clothes and went to the courtyard.

Outside the courtyard wall, there was still a bit of light, probably emanating from the study.

He thought for a moment, then vaulted up onto the wall, landed lightly, and tiptoed to the study.

The window was half-open.

Under the lamplight, Yan Sanhe was holding a brush, writing something on paper.

After writing, she tapped the paper with her finger several times and talked to herself:

“The dirt on Mother’s soles is one doubtful point. She came to my room to sleep with me—she must have worn shoes when she came. Her soles shouldn’t be dirty.”

Out of nowhere, this one sentence struck Xie Zhifei like lightning, his entire person frozen.

She… remembered?