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Inside the west wing of the Hanlin Academy, seven or eight officials dressed in blue robes sat in a circle. The Longjing tea in their cups had long since gone cold, but no one had the heart to savor it.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on the forehead of Academician Li, whose fingers kept stroking the Tianhuang stone seal given to him by Pei Dafu in his sleeve.

"Lord Zhuang, you must save us!" Lord Li's voice trembled. "Lord Fu is thoroughly investigating the Pei faction this time, and I heard that he even dug up accounts from three years ago..."

Zhuang Shiyang sat upright in the main seat, his face ashen and iron-like.

Rain pattered on the banana leaves outside the window, the "patter" sound like a death knell.

At this moment, Zhuang Shiyang's gaze swept over his colleagues sitting there. These people, who were usually so respectable, were now like stray dogs.

The most ridiculous thing is that he himself also had a gift list written by Pei Dafu in his sleeve.

Zhuang Shiyang slowly began, "Fellow colleagues, although Lord Fu and I are father-in-law and son-in-law, when the Dali Temple handles cases..."

"Brother Zhuang, why refuse?" Editor Wang suddenly stood up and took out a scroll from his robes. "I've heard that Lord Fu is a great admirer of Wu Daozi's authentic works. I happened to acquire this 'Heavenly King Sending a Child' painting, and I hope..."

Zhuang Shiyang's pupils suddenly contracted.

He had searched for this painting for half his life, and now that it was within his grasp, it felt like a hot potato.

The painting on the wall, his most cherished "Clear and Distant Streams and Mountains," seemed to be mocking him silently; it was also a gift from Pei Dafu.

As the rain intensified, Zhuang Shiyang finally sighed, "To be honest, I... was also entrusted by Pei Dafu to do favors during the imperial examinations of the Gengzi year."

The whole house was in an uproar.

The teacup in Lord Li's hand crashed to the ground, shattering into pieces.

The faces of everyone present turned extremely grim, realizing that there might be no one to save them now.

……

At 3:45 PM, Fu Yunxi was reviewing case files in his study when he suddenly heard hesitant footsteps outside the door.

Looking up, I saw Zhuang Shiyang standing under the eaves, holding a sandalwood box, his shoulders soaked with rainwater.

"Father-in-law?" Fu Yunxi put down his brush.

Zhuang Shiyang went straight inside and knelt down on the bluestone floor with a thud. The wooden box opened, revealing the painting "Clear and Distant Streams and Mountains".

"Yunxi, I am guilty." Zhuang Shiyang's voice was hoarse. "Three years ago, Pei Dafu used this painting as bait to ask me to take care of his nephew during the imperial examination..."

Fu Yunxi's eyes flickered slightly as he reached out to help his father-in-law up: "I have long suspected this. Pei Dafu appears to be honest and upright, but he has more than twenty luminous pearls from the Western Regions hidden in his home. This alone is priceless."

Zhuang Shiyang was shocked: "You already know? Then why..."

"Cast a long line to catch a big fish." Fu Yunxi gently stroked the scroll with her fingertips. "The Pei faction is deeply entrenched and must be uprooted."

Suddenly, the conversation shifted, "Father-in-law, do you still remember the baby girl that Pei Dafu took from the Zhuang family fifteen years ago?"

Outside the window, Zhuang Hanyan's hand, which was about to knock on the door, froze in mid-air.

She had come to question Fu Yunxi about his trip to Danzhou, but instead heard this earth-shattering question.

“That child…” Zhuang Shiyang’s voice trembled, “was born with a red birthmark on the sole of his foot, and was labeled a ‘barefoot ghost’ by Master Duan. Pei Dafu said that sending him to Danzhou would ensure the safety of the Zhuang family…”

"He actually used it to blackmail Madam Ruan," Fu Yunxi said coldly. "The baby girl had a crescent-shaped scar on her arm, it was..."

The study door was suddenly kicked open.

Zhuang Yushan rushed in, his face streaked with tears: "Father! How could you kneel before my brother-in-law?"

"Yushan, get out of here."

"Father……"

"Are you asking me to call in the family punishment?"

"..."

……

At midnight, Chai Jing nimbly scaled the courtyard wall like a cat, only to find Zhuang Hanyan's room brightly lit with candles.

Pushing open the door, I saw Zhuang Hanyan staring blankly at a snow-white fox fur coat.

“Miss, I saw the Second Miss’s maid slip this into your pillow.” Chai Jing handed over a sachet containing some suspicious powder.

Zhuang Hanyan picked up a little bit and sniffed it lightly, then suddenly sneered: "Bean powder? You've gone to a lot of trouble."

The smallpox virus that came from southern Xinjiang was a disfiguring weapon that noble ladies feared most.

"I'll go and destroy it right away!"

“No rush.” Zhuang Hanyan’s eyes flickered. “Grandmother’s birthday is approaching, didn’t Second Sister buy a fox fur coat at a high price? You can go now…”

After whispering for a moment, Chai Jing's eyes widened: "The young lady wants to deliberately contract the disease? That's too dangerous!"

"We must fight to the death to survive." Zhuang Hanyan stroked the scar on her arm. "Now that Fu Yunxi has become suspicious, I must act quickly..."

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly coughed violently, and there were traces of blood on his handkerchief.

Chai Jing was shocked: "When did you fall ill, young lady?"

“It’s fake.” Zhuang Hanyan wiped the rouge from her lips, her eyes gleaming. “But it will soon become real.”

……

On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Zhuang family mansion was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations

Today is the birthday of Madam Wei, the matriarch of the Zhuang family, and Su Ning, as the Zhuang family's prospective son-in-law, has also come.

When Suning delivered a century-old ginseng, Wei was overjoyed.

"Lord Zhongqin is very kind!"

"Grandmother, you're too kind! Once Hanyan comes of age, I will marry her and bring her home. Then our two families will be one family."

"Haha, good! Good!"

Then, the old lady looked at the snow-white fox fur coat that Zhuang Yushan presented, and smiled from ear to ear: "Good child, it's not easy for you to find such a rare item."

Zhuang Yushan glanced smugly at Zhuang Hanyan in the corner.

Ever since that night in the study, Father has been paying more and more attention to this little slut, even Fu Yunxi...

Zhuang Hanyan suddenly stepped forward, "Grandmother, I dare to ask for a reward."

The old lady's smile froze slightly: "What does Yan'er want?"

“This fox fur coat.” Zhuang Hanyan stared directly at Zhuang Yushan’s face, which had turned deathly pale. “My granddaughter has heard that fox fur coats can suppress the evil spirits of the ‘barefoot ghost’.”

The whole hall was silent.

The old woman's prayer beads snapped with a "crack," and the sandalwood beads rolled to the ground.

"Very well! This fox fur coat is yours for the taking."

"Thank you."

In the end, the fox fur coat still ended up in Zhuang Hanyan's hands.

That night, Chai Jing swapped the sick pillow with the fox fur coat as planned.

Zhuang Hanyan put on a fox fur coat and stood in the courtyard all night, letting the cold dew soak through her clothes.

Three days later, news of Zhuang Hanyan's persistent high fever spread throughout the entire mansion.

After taking his pulse, Dr. Wu from the South Hospital's expression changed drastically: "This is...smallpox!"

"How is that possible?" Zhuang Shiyang said sternly, "Yan'er hasn't even left the courtyard gate recently!"

Doctor Wu's gaze swept across the furnishings in the room, then suddenly fixed on the fox fur coat: "This...this fur seems to have traces of bean powder!"

The old lady's teacup shattered with a "crack".

Zhuang Yushan turned pale and stumbled backward, knocking over the screen.

"Father! Your daughter is innocent!" Zhuang Yushan knelt on the ground and cried out, "It must have been Zhuang Hanyan herself..."

"Shut up!" Zhuang Shiyang slapped her to the ground. "I should have realized it long ago. It was you who introduced Master Duan to the manor back then!"

Zhuang Hanyan said weakly in the tent, "It's not Second Sister's fault... it was my granddaughter who insisted on the fox fur coat..."

She fainted before she could finish speaking, her acting skills so superb that even Chai Jing was secretly amazed.

The old woman cried out, tears streaming down her face, "Quickly, call Dr. Hu! Use the best medicine!"

……

At midnight, Zhuang Hanyan was awakened by a ringing bell.

Ruan Xiwen sat upright in front of the bed, with Granny Chen holding a gilded medicine box beside her.

"Have you had enough fun?" Ruan Xiwen's voice was icy. "Back when I was feigning illness to win favor, you were still eating chaff and wild vegetables in Danzhou."

Zhuang Hanyan's heart trembled violently.

Her mother saw right through her trick?
“This medicine can cure the poison of the bean curd.” Ruan Xiwen gestured for Chen Mama to step forward. “The condition is that he must marry Su Ning within three days and leave the capital.”

Zhuang Hanyan suddenly laughed: "What is Mother afraid I'll reveal? The truth about Master Duan? Or... your relationship with Uncle Yuwen?"

Ruan Xiwen's pupils suddenly contracted.

Granny Chen shouted sternly, "How dare you!"

He raised his hand to slap her, but Zhuang Hanyan grabbed his wrist.

“My daughter is fourteen this year, and according to the law, she is not allowed to marry.” Zhuang Hanyan looked directly at her mother. “Moreover…”

She pulled down her collar, revealing scabbed pimples on her shoulder. "We have to wait until I'm fully recovered, right?"

Ruan Xiwen suddenly stood up and took out a string of silver bells from her sleeve: "In that case, wear these! They'll ring with every step you take, so your mother will know where you are."

The moment the bell clasped her ankle, Zhuang Hanyan remembered her aunt's words: "You're just like your mother when she was young, a stubborn mule who refuses to bow her head." "Don't worry, Mother," she said, gently stroking the demonic rune on her wrist, a dark fire igniting in her eyes, "I will take good care of myself, after all..."

She looked up with an innocent smile, "There's plenty of time in the future."

Outside the window, Fu Yunxi stood quietly under the plum tree, listening to the faint sound of bells, a subtle, enigmatic smile curving her lips.

……

Su Ning had naturally heard about Zhuang Hanyan's illness, and as her fiancé, he naturally wanted to visit her.

Zhuang Hanyan was genuinely happy to see Su Ning arrive, as it was a resonance from the soul.

"Owner……"

"Han Yan, why bother? If you want to know the secrets of the dealer, I can tell you."

"Master, do you know about the dealers?"

"Your mother suspects that your father, Zhuang Shiyang, orchestrated the destruction of the Ruan family, so she has been searching for evidence with Yuwen Chang'an. She is prepared to fight to the death, which is why she has been trying to get rid of you."

“So that’s how it is.”

"Your family's situation is very complicated! It's impossible to reconcile as you wish. Besides, your father, Zhuang Shiyang, is the most deeply hidden devil."

"what?"

"Stop making a fuss! How about I leave with you?"

"No! I want to stay. Please grant my request, Master."

"Hanyan, you've become more and more beautiful these past two years. Looking at your pitiful appearance, I can't bear to see you like this."

Zhuang Hanyan looked at Su Ning with a pleading expression and said, "Master, as long as the Zhuang family's affairs are settled, Hanyan will definitely serve you well."

Su Ning couldn't help but pinch Zhuang Hanyan's cheek, "What a smart girl."

"..."

……

Inside the main hall, the celadon plates and cups on the octagonal table reflected the candlelight, making Azhi's little face shine brightly.

Zhuang Yushan placed the crystal shrimp dumplings into the girl's bowl for the fifth time, and the small mountain of dumplings he placed there knocked over the spoon.

"Ah Zhi, try this. Second Aunt specially asked the kitchen to make it." Zhuang Yushan's voice was sickeningly sweet, but his eyes kept glancing at Fu Yunxi, who was sitting in the main seat.

Zhuang Yuqin's knuckles turned white as she gripped the ivory chopsticks.

Since her third sister was imprisoned, Fu Yunxi's gaze towards her has become increasingly cold, and now she even allows her half-sister to fawn over Azhi in front of her.

"Second Sister," Zhuang Yuqin suddenly spoke, "I remember you were supposed to be reflecting on your mistakes in the ancestral hall?"

The shrimp dumpling fell "plop" onto the brocade tablecloth.

Zhuang Yushan forced a smile and said, "Elder sister is joking. Father already gave me permission..."

"Escape from confinement and deceiving one's elders." Fu Yunxi slowly wiped her hands. "Does the Second Miss think the Dali Temple's case files aren't thick enough?"

The whole house was silent.

Ah Zhi took the opportunity to push the shrimp dumplings to the ground, where they were snatched away by Xue Tuan, who had been waiting for a long time.

The old women seemed to emerge from the ground, supporting Zhuang Yushan from both sides.

"Lord Fu!" she cried out, struggling, "I only envied my eldest sister and third sister for being beautiful, I..."

"Take them away." Fu Yunxi didn't even lift her eyelids. "Tell the guards that if they let anyone escape again, they'll be the ones going to jail."

……

The aroma of cured meat wafted from the kitchen courtyard, where Zhuang Shiyang was directing the servants to hang up the cured deer legs.

Aunt Zhou, holding a handkerchief, leaned closer and suddenly exclaimed, "Ouch!"

“Master, Yushan loves steamed rice with preserved meat, but unfortunately…” She looked meaningfully toward the ancestral hall, “I wonder how Hanyan’s illness is going, I’m always worried about her.”

Zhuang Shiyang's iron hook clattered against the bluestone slab.

Ever since Ruan Xiwen took her third daughter away, even when the old lady sent people to visit her in the hospital, they were turned away outside the hospital.

Thinking of Fu Yunxi's inscrutable expression after he confessed in the study that day, his heart pounded.

"Keep an eye on your daughter," Zhuang Shiyang said coldly. "Don't let her be like her mother, always asking about things she shouldn't be asking about."

Aunt Zhou's face turned deathly pale instantly.

Could it be that ten years ago she bribed the midwife to switch Ruan Xiwen's pregnancy-preserving medicine...

……

In Ruan Xiwen's inner room, Zhuang Hanyan stared at the three portraits in front of her, her Adam's apple bobbing.

The young girls in the paintings, whether playing the zither or holding a scroll, are all typical young ladies, if one ignores their strikingly similar features.

"The three young ladies of the Su family," said Granny Chen with a stern face, "are to choose any of their identities and be married off in three days."

Zhuang Hanyan struggled to get up from her sickbed, the runes on her thin, protruding wrist bones looking ferocious.

After days of surviving on rice gruel, her vision blurred, but she still forced herself to kneel upright.

Footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.

Chunxing, who was in the old lady's room, was carrying a food box, but was stopped by Granny Chen in the corridor.

"This old servant will examine it first..."

"Get out of the way!" Zhuang Hanyan, with strength she didn't know she possessed, rushed out barefoot to snatch the food box.

In the struggle, the rice was spilled all over the ground, and several koi carp fought for it in the pond, their tails splashing water.

Ruan Xiwen arrived upon hearing the noise, saw the mess on the ground, and immediately slapped the person across the face.

"Why?" Blood seeped from the corner of Zhuang Hanyan's mouth, but she didn't wipe it away. "Just because I was born with a red birthmark? Because Master Duan said I would bring bad luck to my family?"

She suddenly burst into laughter, "But the first one to die from this curse is himself!"

"Shut up!" Ruan Xiwen trembled all over. "Granny Chen, lock the door! Put on the chains!"

As the iron chain rattled onto the door knocker, Zhuang Hanyan said softly, "Mother, do you know how cold the winters are in Danzhou? My aunt locked me in the woodshed, and it was the old lady next door who slipped hot porridge through the crack in the door..."

She touched the scar on her wrist, "Back then, I always thought, if only my mother were here..."

Ruan Xiwen paused, but ultimately did not turn around.

……

After the third beat of the midnight drum, Zhuang Hanyan untied the silver bells from her ankles.

Hunger made her movements somewhat unsteady, but her mind remained unusually clear.

She stuffed a pillow into the blankets to disguise herself as a human, then let out a piercing scream.

The moment Granny Chen pushed open the door, Zhuang Hanyan delivered a karate chop to the side of her neck.

The old woman groaned and fell to the ground, her keychain jingling.

The moonlight shone like water under the eaves. Zhuang Hanyan walked barefoot across the blue bricks when she suddenly heard the sound of horses' hooves coming from outside the wall.

She slipped into the shadow of the artificial hill, and saw Yuwen Chang'an, draped in a dark cloak, ghost-like as he slipped into Ruan Xiwen's inner room.

"...We have Pei Dafu's account books in hand." Yuwen Chang'an's voice came through the window screen. "Adding the testimony of the Danzhou Chamber of Commerce, it is enough to convict Zhuang Shiyang of bribery."

“That’s not enough.” Ruan Xiwen’s voice was icy. “Back then, he used Master Duan to send Yan’er away. That grudge…”

Zhuang Hanyan's blood seemed to freeze.

So all these years, my mother has been planning this?
"Who's there!" Granny Chen's scream pierced the night sky.

Zhuang Hanyan turned to run away, but was caught red-handed by Granny Chen.

At this moment, Aunt Zhou also heard about Ruan Xiwen and Yuwen Chang'an's secret meeting, and immediately came up with a wicked plan.

Soon, the main courtyard of the Zhuang family mansion was in complete chaos.

Because Aunt Zhou screamed that the official seal had been stolen, she led her servants to lock all the doors and windows.

Yuwen Chang'an was trapped in Ruan Xiwen's inner room, while outside the window, torches blazed like dragons.

"Go through the secret passage." Ruan Xiwen lifted the hidden door behind the landscape painting.

Granny Chen stopped her, saying, "Please think it over, Madam! What if someone discovers that there's a secret passage in your boudoir..."

"I'll go." Zhuang Hanyan stepped out from behind the curtain. "I'll have Uncle Yuwen dress up as my maid."

Ruan Xiwen's pupils suddenly contracted.

Her daughter's reputation and the safety of her family were teetering on the edge of a scale, and the veins on her hand, which was gripping the handkerchief, bulged.

“No need.” She suddenly straightened her back. “Granny Chen, bring me my official robes.”

As Zhuang Hanyan watched her mother put on the Nine-Phoenix Crown, she suddenly understood why the pirates in Danzhou would turn pale at the mention of "Madam Ruan".

As the woman walked alone toward the courtyard gate, her silhouette resembled a sword drawn from its sheath.

“Mother!” Zhuang Hanyan took a few steps to catch up and pushed Yuwen Chang’an into her room. “You have protected me for fourteen years, now it’s my turn…”

The moment Ruan Xiwen turned around, Zhuang Hanyan seemed to see a tear glistening in the corner of her eye.

But the next second, the mother had already pushed open the door and was shouting at the swarming servants:
"I'd like to see who dares to search my courtyard!"

……

(End of this chapter)