When Wu Peng proposed seeing what was in her brocade pouch, Li Hanfeng disagreed, frowning as he said, “There’s no precedent for making a sleeve auction public.” However, Li Hanxing was happy to see it happen. “Now that the transaction is complete, taking a look won’t affect the result. It can both make Young Master Wu lose with conviction and let us all broaden our horizons to see what kind of item could be more valuable than a superior jade Buddha from Cui Yu Pavilion. Why not?”

Yuan Zhou didn’t know what Qiu Xinran had put in the brocade pouch. He had originally thought Wu Peng had carelessly stuffed in something, not expecting that his pouch contained a jade Buddha from Cui Yu Pavilion. For a moment, he was also astonished. Qiu Xinran’s salary was basically all saved in the money house by him on her behalf—where would she have gotten something so valuable?

Only Xia Xiuyan impassively observed the woman’s expression. Seeing her lower her head with an evasive look, he suddenly recalled that night at the Azure Dragon Temple when she had mentioned the Ninth Princess had given her a white jade ring. That ring belonged to Li Hantai—could she have put that ring in the brocade pouch?

Xia Xiuyan’s heart sank. Over there, Wu Peng, hearing Li Hanxing speak in support, grew even more confident and said arrogantly, “The Fourth Young Master speaks correctly!”

Qiu Xinran pressed her lips together. “If Young Master Wu acts this way, I’m afraid it won’t sound good if word spreads.”

Wu Peng increasingly felt she was guilty and said righteously, “What reputation does this young master have? Why should I fear word spreading?”

Everyone fell silent, probably not having expected there could truly be someone who could interpret shamelessness so thoroughly.

“Though Young Master Wu doesn’t care about reputation, this matter ultimately arose from celebrating the First Young Master’s birthday.” Xia Xiuyan said lightly, “What does the First Young Master think?”

Li Hantai frowned. Usually at this point, he would have already rebuked Wu Peng for meddling. But with things having dragged on this long, Qiu Xinran’s evasive and unnatural demeanor was obvious to anyone with eyes. He finally also sensed something strange. He paused before saying casually, “Wu Peng is stubborn by nature. I think Bureau Secretary Qiu might as well humor him, lest he dwell on it day after day.”

These words truly didn’t match his usual style. Even Wu Peng was startled for a moment, then felt even more emboldened with someone backing him up. Xia Xiuyan’s brow furrowed slightly. Qiu Xinran, however, lowered her head and repeated, “There’s no such precedent.”

The atmosphere became somewhat deadlocked. Wu Peng didn’t take her seriously and sneered, “Today this young master will teach you what the rules of Chang’an City are!”

Having delivered this threat, he turned and beckoned to his attendants. Two guards stepped forward and seized the broker from both sides, fishing the brocade pouch from his bosom. Qiu Xinran was greatly shocked. She hadn’t expected that in front of so many people, he would dare to be so lawless. She couldn’t help but say angrily, “You—”

“You what?” Wu Peng took the brocade pouch from the guard’s hands and deliberately waved it in front of her. Qiu Xinran strode forward to snatch what was in his hands. Wu Peng also hadn’t expected her to dare resist and hurriedly retreated a step. Li Hanxing had originally been standing beside him. Seeing this and fearing he’d be implicated, he quickly stepped back half a step. Xia Xiuyan, however, secretly moved forward half a step. As Wu Peng retreated, he extremely quickly extended his foot—

“Ow—” Tripped by him, Wu Peng’s body fell backward and landed on his bottom, the brocade pouch in his hand also flying out.

The scene was chaotic for a moment. By the time he was helped up by his page while rubbing his bottom, he looked around again only to discover no one within half a meter of him. Everyone wore shocked expressions looking at him. Having lost such face, Wu Peng was furious and cursed several times. Xia Xiuyan bent down to pick up the brocade pouch from the ground, but someone else reached out and picked it up first. He looked up to discover it was Li Hantai.

Li Hantai picked up the pouch and weighed it, discovering the contents were somewhat heavier than the jade Buddha. Feeling through the fabric, it seemed like two uneven objects.

Everyone stared at the brocade pouch in his hands. Even Wu Peng craned his neck over with a dark face. When he untied the pouch opening and poured out the contents, his hand held a jade pendant.

The jade pendant was carved with phoenixes and auspicious clouds, lifelike—clearly the work of an extremely skilled craftsman. Not to mention the lustrous quality of the jade itself, which was clearly fine jade. Compared to this jade pendant, whether in material or craftsmanship, the jade Buddha paled somewhat in comparison. But unfortunately, probably because of Wu Peng’s fall just now, this jade pendant had now broken into two pieces.

“This jade pendant… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.” Li Hanfeng frowned and took half a piece from his hand to examine it carefully. At his words, Li Hantai also held the other half of the jade and said, “This jade should be from the palace.”

Hearing this, Wu Peng seemed to have caught some weakness and turned to Qiu Xinran. “Good! How would you have a jade pendant from the palace?”

Before Qiu Xinran could answer, Li Hanfeng’s gaze happened to fall on the man beside him, and he said doubtfully, “Wait, isn’t this the jade pendant Xiuyan used to carry with him?”

At these words, everyone’s eyes fell on Xia Xiuyan.

Xia Xiuyan paused, took the broken jade from his hand to look at it, examined it for quite a while before nodding. “It’s my jade pendant.”

“Then how…”

Qiu Xinran saw a group of people’s gazes return to her. Momentarily nervous, she stammered, “Um… this actually…” She hemmed and hawed, then carefully raised her head to glance at the man in the crowd holding half the broken jade. She saw Xia Xiuyan suddenly turn cold-faced. “Why is this jade pendant in your possession?”

Qiu Xinran paused. She had expected Xia Xiuyan might get angry with her, but how was there also this act of turning his face and denying her?

Finally, she scratched her head. “This jade pendant was given to me by the Heir.”

“I gave it to you?” Xia Xiuyan laughed coldly. “When did I give it to you?”

“On the Shangsi Festival, the Heir pawned this jade pendant to me.”

“I didn’t encounter you at all on Shangsi.” Xia Xiuyan said decisively. “That day, I only pawned the jade pendant to a fortune-telling master at a divination stall…” He said this, then his words suddenly stopped, his gaze dangerously looking at her. “You deliberately disguised yourself as a fortune-teller to deceive me?”

Having reached this point in the conversation, Qiu Xinran finally tasted his meaning. She quickly knelt down with a “thump,” trembling as she said, “I wouldn’t dare, I… I didn’t know the Heir didn’t recognize me that day.” In others’ eyes, she looked utterly guilty.

Yuan Zhou also remembered that day’s events. With a shocked expression, he looked at the person kneeling on the ground. Suddenly breaking out in cold sweat, he hadn’t expected Qiu Xinran to be so bold as to even dare deceive Xia Xiuyan’s jade pendant. He shook his robe and quickly knelt down as well, pleading with Xia Xiuyan, “Heir, please calm your anger. Senior sister is naturally mischievous and probably didn’t intend to deceive deliberately.”

Li Hanfeng also recalled the events of Shangsi and couldn’t help but laugh in amazement. “Bureau Secretary Qiu has such great audacity—even daring to deceive Xiuyan. No wonder seeing us today was like a mouse seeing a cat.”

Taking a jade pendant obtained through deception to compete in an auction, only to be caught by the rightful owner—put this way, many of her abnormal behaviors today made sense.

Though the others didn’t know the specific details, from the few exchanges they roughly understood the general situation.

Li Hantai dismissed his previous suspicions, his tone also becoming lighter. “Do you know the rule that officials of this dynasty cannot engage in commerce?” Li Hanxing added, “I think Bureau Secretary Qiu came to this pavilion today to fence stolen goods.”

The others wanted to laugh upon hearing this, but seeing Xia Xiuyan’s icy expression, they held back. Li Hanfeng tried to smooth things over from the side. “Bureau Secretary Qiu is still young—why not forgive her this once?”

Xia Xiuyan laughed coldly. “This jade pendant was my mother’s relic. If she can restore this jade to its original state, I won’t hold her accountable for what came before.”

Everyone hadn’t expected this jade pendant to be Princess Mingyang’s relic and couldn’t help but exchange glances, their hearts also becoming uneasy. Though Qiu Xinran deceiving him of his jade pendant was certainly the root of this matter, listening to Xia Xiuyan’s previous meaning, the jade breaking was what truly angered him. And the reason this jade broke, fundamentally speaking, was Wu Peng’s fault…

Wu Peng naturally also thought of this. Breaking Princess Mingyang’s relic left him somewhat guilty, though he didn’t show it on his face. Craning his neck, he asked, “Then what do you say should be done?”

Xia Xiuyan said unhurriedly, “Years ago, Hetian presented tribute of a raw jade. His Majesty commanded the palace’s skilled craftsmen to polish and create a set of jewelry as my mother’s dowry—this jade pendant was one of them. After my mother passed away, my father kept this jade pendant by his side as a keepsake. When I was brought back to Chang’an, at our parting my father gave me this jade pendant.”

The more Wu Peng listened to him speak, the more panicked he became, though he still tried to maintain a questioning tone. “Since it’s such an important item, how could you casually pawn it?”

“That’s a question for Bureau Secretary Qiu.” Xia Xiuyan cast a sideways glance at Qiu Xinran kneeling on the ground and said coldly, “After we parted at the river, I immediately sent someone to redeem the jade pendant upon returning home, but that person had long since vanished without a trace. Little did I know that person was far away in the heavens yet close before my eyes.”

A wrongful case descended from the heavens upon Qiu Xinran, but at this moment, she could only swallow her grievances and follow his words. “I originally intended to return the jade pendant to the Heir upon my return, but I left Chang’an shortly after and thus couldn’t return it in time.”

Xia Xiuyan snorted coldly. “More words are useless. Now this jade is broken—what do you say should be done?”

Qiu Xinran hesitated before saying, “Though I didn’t break this jade, the cause lies with me. I submit to whatever punishment the Heir decrees.”

Xia Xiuyan said lightly, “Chang’an City is at the foot of the Son of Heaven—the rules weren’t set by me. I’m merely a small princess’s son. How would I dare to casually punish you? I think this matter should be reported to the court to ask how officials of this dynasty engaging in private commerce should be dealt with.”

The two of them played good cop and bad cop with a hint of sarcasm when listened to carefully. Wu Peng’s face turned alternately green and white, but he couldn’t find words to retort.

Reaching Li Hantai’s ears, this also gave rise to some hidden worries. After all, if this matter was examined carefully, it also had some connection to him. If truly reported, it would inevitably implicate him as well. He could only speak at an opportune moment. “I think this matter was also a misunderstanding. How about this—officials of this dynasty engaging in private commerce are punished by law with one year’s salary forfeiture. Now that the jade pendant is broken, though Bureau Secretary Qiu cannot compensate for it, forfeiting one year’s salary can be considered a small punishment and major warning. Wu Peng also erred in this matter, but the cause lies with me. I’ll apologize to Xiuyan on his behalf and hope you’ll forgive him this once for my sake.”

Hearing this, Wu Peng exclaimed in shock, “Eldest cousin!”

Li Hantai glared at him fiercely, signaling him to shut up, then continued, “This jade was broken by Wu Peng. Bureau Secretary Qiu has already been fined her salary. The money for buying that singing girl tonight should come from him. This boy has grown accustomed to lawlessness. Through this incident, he can also learn a lesson and know that every profession has its rules—one cannot abuse power to bully others. What does Xiuyan think?”

Xia Xiuyan glanced at Wu Peng standing to the side and saw his face full of unwillingness. Lowering his eyes, he said, “Naturally I must give the First Young Master face, but if Young Master Wu buys that singing girl, who does she belong to?”

Li Hantai paused. If Wu Peng spent money and that singing girl ended up in his household, it could hardly count as punishment—it would still amount to doing him a service. He had always heard this Heir Xia was petty. From the looks of it, having broken his jade pendant this time, he himself had been remembered with resentment. Li Hantai didn’t take offense at this, only finding that the other party was indeed still of youthful temperament. Laughing inwardly, he proposed, “If Xiuyan is interested in keeping that singing girl, she can be sent to your household.”

Xia Xiuyan gave a mirthless smile and light snort. “I don’t understand music—what would I do keeping her?”

Li Hantai then said, “In that case, she’ll still count as purchased by Bureau Secretary Qiu, which can also be considered a good deed. What does Xiuyan think?”

After he finished speaking, he glanced at Xia Xiuyan’s expression. Seeing his face bland and inscrutable, after a while he finally said, “Since the First Young Master intercedes, let’s proceed as the First Young Master says.” The implication was that he was still giving him three parts of face.