Li Hantai heard that someone downstairs had also taken a fancy to the girl who had just sung and said, “Since someone else has taken a liking to her, forget it. I was merely appreciating talent on a whim.” The several of them had come here to eat without revealing their identities. The proprietor downstairs also thought today was just Wu Peng hosting friends and didn’t want to make a big disturbance that would alarm others.

However, Wu Peng had never experienced having something snatched from his hands since birth. Moreover, he had bought that singing girl to please Li Hantai. Now someone was interfering, making him feel he had lost face. In front of everyone, how could he swallow this insult?

He pressed down his eyebrows and confirmed once more with the page who had entered to deliver the message, “That boy said he wants to compete with me in a sleeve auction?”

The page nodded carefully. Wu Peng asked again, “What kind of person is that boy?” The page recalled for a moment before saying, “I don’t know his status, but this humble one has never seen him before.”

Wu Peng had grown up in the capital engaging in cockfighting and dog racing. Anyone with any status had mostly encountered each other at various banquets. Since his personal page said he had never seen him, clearly he wasn’t anyone important.

“Good, this young master will take him on!”

“Wu Peng.” Li Hantai frowned in reminder. Li Hanxing, sitting to the side, didn’t mind stirring up trouble and instigated, “I don’t see it as a big deal. He said he wants a sleeve auction, so Young Master Wu can have one with him. You’re neither using your status to pressure him nor doing anything else to him. When buying something out and about, the highest bidder wins—nothing more ordinary than that. Big brother need not worry about causing any trouble.”

After he finished speaking and saw Li Hantai purse his lips in tacit agreement, he smiled and turned to Wu Peng, saying, “However, Young Master Wu, this sleeve auction determines the winner in one round. If you truly can’t outbid him, you mustn’t pester further, lest it cause unnecessary trouble.” On the surface, these words seemed harmless, but in reality, they had an inflammatory intent, putting Wu Peng in a position where he could only win and not lose. Xia Xiuyan listened from the side and sneered inwardly. Wu Peng truly took the bait, immediately patting his chest and guaranteeing, “Fourth Imperial Prince, rest assured, naturally!”

The rules of a sleeve auction were similar to sealed bidding at auction houses. If several customers fancied the same item, they would submit their bids to the auction house. The customers didn’t know each other’s bid amounts. Finally, after comparison, the auction house would give the item to the highest bidder.

Here with the broker, several customers would place banknotes or jewels into a brocade pouch and hand it to the seller. Only the broker could see the items in the pouch and would ultimately decide to whom to sell.

Since Wu Peng was determined to obtain this singing girl, naturally he couldn’t bid too low. Though he had brought plenty of money when going out, it had all been spent on the banquet, and he couldn’t produce many banknotes at the moment. After feeling around on himself, he finally took out a jade Buddha pendant from around his neck.

That jade Buddha had been auctioned at Chang’an’s jade market this year and was clearly made of superior jade material. Using such a jade Buddha, not to mention buying an orphan girl from a broker’s hands—even buying a top courtesan from a pleasure house would be more than sufficient.

Seeing this, someone at the banquet stirred things up, “Young Master Wu is truly generous—exchanging such a superior jade Buddha from the Cui Yu Pavilion without even batting an eye.”

Someone else joked, “Isn’t Young Master Wu cheating? Who can outbid you?”

Hearing this, Wu Peng’s face showed some pride. He casually placed the jade Buddha into the brocade pouch while saying to everyone, “Eldest cousin rarely celebrates a birthday. Not to mention wanting to buy a singing girl—even if he wanted to buy this entire Drunken Spring Pavilion, I’d have to make it happen for him!”

These words already carried some floating, intoxicated meaning. A few people at the table heard something amiss and smiled without speaking. Those who didn’t notice anything wrong still called out approval.

The page took the brocade pouch and left. At the banquet, drinking and games continued. No one seemed affected by this small episode. Even Li Hanxing, who was intent on watching the excitement, had to admit that using that jade Buddha to buy that orphan girl was indeed a sure thing.

After about a quarter hour, the page who had just left returned with his head lowered. Wu Peng sat with his back to him. Hearing the movement, he didn’t turn his head and said arrogantly, “Well?”

“In response to Young Master…” The page knelt to the side, holding the brocade pouch, trembling and actually not daring to speak for quite a while.

“What’s wrong?” Wu Peng impatiently looked down at him. “Lost your tongue?”

The page swallowed and then held up the brocade pouch, trembling as he said, “The broker said that in this round, the boy on the other side won, and the person must go to him…” His voice grew smaller and smaller, but everyone at this table heard clearly. For a moment, the room fell deathly silent, and everyone showed expressions of disbelief.

“Tch.” Someone was the first to let out a light snort. Wu Peng’s eyes reddened from this mocking laugh. He suddenly looked up to see Xia Xiuyan sitting by the window turn his head away, a trace of a smile at the corner of his mouth. Li Hanxing to the side also waved open his fan to cover half his face, though he didn’t laugh out loud brazenly.

Seeing things had gone badly, the others came forward to console him, but didn’t realize this comfort was like adding fuel to fire, like slaps striking Wu Peng’s face one after another.

Li Hantai sighed inwardly and was about to say a few words when he saw the man opposite suddenly explode. He kicked over the page kneeling to the side and asked in fury, “Where is that boy? I want to see what he gave—whether he and that broker worked together to trick me!”

Saying this, he swept his sleeves and went out the door. Everyone couldn’t restrain him and could only follow along.

Qiu Xinran stood with Yuan Zhou in the second-floor corridor. The two of them had followed the broker upstairs, but the other party didn’t even show his face, only having his page deal with them. However, this was also good—it saved them from being resented.

Qiu Xinran didn’t have complete confidence in whether she could win, but that thing was the most valuable possession on her entire person. With a mind to try, she handed the brocade pouch to the other party.

The broker first took the brocade pouch sent out from the room. Opening it to look, his face showed a delighted expression, clearly very satisfied with the contents. Seeing this, Yuan Zhou couldn’t help but worry. He leaned close to her ear and asked, “What did you put in there? I saw you leave today and you didn’t seem to bring much money.”

Qiu Xinran was nervous and shook her head without responding to him. She watched as that weasel-faced little man opened her brocade pouch. When he saw clearly what was inside, he showed a surprised expression. He lowered his head and examined it repeatedly several times before putting the item back. Even his gaze toward her became much more respectful.

Qiu Xinran breathed a sigh of relief in her heart, knowing she had won this gamble. Sure enough, the broker turned and returned the other brocade pouch to the page, “My apologies, but in today’s sleeve auction, this Young Master Qiu has won.”

Hearing this, the page showed a shocked expression and couldn’t help but confirm repeatedly with him several times, “Look carefully—make sure you didn’t see wrong.”

“This humble one has traveled north and south for so many years and still has this bit of judgment.” The broker confirmed with him, “It’s definitely this one who won. That girl belongs to him.”

When the page took the brocade pouch back into the room, his expression still looked as if he were dreaming. Seeing that he indeed didn’t pester further, Qiu Xinran breathed a sigh of relief and said to the broker, “Then I’ll take Xiao Mei back now.”

“Please do.” The broker took out the indenture contract that Chai Da had given him from his bosom and handed it to Qiu Xinran. The two had just completed their transaction when they suddenly heard a violent shout from the room. Qiu Xinran’s hand shook. Then she heard a rush of footsteps inside. Soon the door was flung open with a “bang,” and a fierce-looking man stormed out, looking like he had come to collect a debt.

As soon as he emerged, he saw the three people in the corridor. He quickly stared at the indenture contract in Qiu Xinran’s hand and recognized her, “You’re that blind boy?”

Qiu Xinran immediately reacted. Before Yuan Zhou could remind her, she calmly bowed to him, “Greetings, Young Master Wu.” Her mind rapidly thought of several response strategies. She raised her head, about to speak, when her gaze suddenly fell on several figures who had followed out from inside: Li Hanxing, Li Hantai, Xia Xiuyan… and Li Hantai.

Since that night at the Azure Dragon Temple, this was the first time Qiu Xinran had seen Li Hantai. She had imagined many times the scene of encountering Consort Shu and her son in the palace, thinking she should already be able to maintain her composure. But the moment she saw Li Hantai, the cries for help from that night in the Guanyin Hall and the piercing sound of fingernails scraping the ground seemed to ring in her ears again, making her feel for an instant as if she had plunged into an icy cellar. This encounter was too sudden, so much so that for a moment she couldn’t speak, and even her expression revealed some panic.

However, the several people who came out immediately recognized her upon raising their eyes, and their expressions were quite surprised. Li Hanfeng asked, “Why are Bureau Secretary Qiu and Watchman Yuan here?”

The originally empty second-floor corridor suddenly had a circle of people standing there. Yuan Zhou’s head was also somewhat dizzy, but he still knew to immediately bow in greeting. However, after a long while, he didn’t see Qiu Xinran move. He couldn’t help but secretly glance at the person beside him and discovered her face had gone pale, her gaze unfocused. His heart grew anxious, and he forcefully tugged at her sleeve. Only then did Qiu Xinran come to her senses and quickly bend at the waist. Since Li Hantai and the others had come here without revealing their identities, and there were outsiders present, the two only addressed them as “Young Master” in their greeting.

As soon as Xia Xiuyan came out, his gaze fell on Qiu Xinran. Not having seen her for over a month, he had heard she had fallen ill after returning. Seeing her today, she had indeed become much thinner. The little Daoist was dressed as a young man, cupping her hands and bowing to everyone, but her small face was tightly drawn, as if afraid others couldn’t see her guilty conscience. He sighed inwardly, probably not having expected that incident to affect her so deeply that just seeing Li Hantai would make her lose her composure.

Though Li Hantai noticed some of Qiu Xinran’s abnormality, he hadn’t had much interaction with this little Daoist rumored to be extraordinarily accurate at divination. He only assumed her courage was naturally small and thus paid no further attention.

Wu Peng hadn’t expected them to know each other and asked suspiciously, “Sixth Young Master knows them?”

Li Hanxing found tonight’s events truly interesting and teased, “Who doesn’t know Qiu Xinran of ‘not one divination wrong’?”

Wu Peng suddenly understood. In these two years, a little Daoist had come to the palace who, because of accurate divination and calculation skills, had gained considerable imperial favor. He had also heard of this matter but hadn’t expected it to be this very boy before him. Thinking of this, he finally restrained some of his resentful expression, though his tone was still quite harsh, “Why would a Bureau Secretary living in official quarters buy a singing girl back? Why not yield to the First Young Master?”

Qiu Xinran had originally thought it was Wu Peng who wanted to buy Xiao Mei back. Now discovering it was actually Li Hantai, her mind buzzed, and her first thought was: Could he know Xiao Mei’s identity? Thinking of this, her first reaction was to raise her head and look toward Xia Xiuyan.

Xia Xiuyan watched her face grow three shades paler. Though he didn’t know the details, he still spoke lightly, “The First Young Master happened to hear the girl’s singing voice downstairs and developed some appreciation for talent. How did it become, in Young Master Wu’s mouth, that the First Young Master was determined to obtain this woman?”

Qiu Xinran’s heart stirred. She breathed a sigh of relief, and three shades of color returned to her face. Seeing this, Xia Xiuyan laughed inwardly. Looking at her appearance was somewhat pitiful, but within that pitifulness there was also a bit of secret cuteness. Wu Peng still remembered the grievance from inside the room. Now he had been undermined in front of everyone again, so he said in a yin-yang tone, “Which side is the Heir exactly on? Why do you keep siding with outsiders?”

Xia Xiuyan said with a half-smile, “I didn’t realize when I became family with Young Master Wu?”

Wu Peng’s expression changed. Fortunately, Li Hanfeng spoke up in time and asked Qiu Xinran, “Why would Bureau Secretary Qiu think to buy a singing girl back?”

Seeing Qiu Xinran’s unusual behavior today, Yuan Zhou answered for her, “We were dining downstairs earlier, and the gentleman at our table was a zither master. The old gentleman had no sons or daughters. Seeing that singing girl’s excellent aptitude, he wanted to take her as a disciple. Senior sister also couldn’t bear to see the old gentleman disappointed, so she couldn’t help but intervene to help. She didn’t know the guests upstairs were the young masters.”

“I see. So it seems we were both acting out of good intentions.” Li Hantai smiled. “Since Bureau Secretary Qiu won earlier, this girl should rightfully be taken back by you.”

Qiu Xinran hadn’t expected him to relent so easily. Wu Peng to the side was also startled and said unwillingly, “No, how do I know whether she and that broker worked together to deceive me? Unless you let me see what she put in her brocade pouch, only then will I be convinced.”