The Grand Secretary has no heir? His concubine gives birth to triplets.

"That's the twenty-eighth one."

Granny Li whispered nervously in Old Madam Pei's ear.

Behind the beaded curtain, Pei Yan sat upright in an official's hat chair, his black brocade robe covering the ground and enveloping him completely.

His pure and serene face was untouched by any worldly desires, like a jade Buddha.

Today, the Pei family is holding a plum blossom appreciation banquet, and all the eligible young ladies from the capital have come.

It was supposed to be about appreciating plum blossoms, but in reality, everyone was required to be blindfolded and touch a piece of brocade in a brocade box.

No one knew that inside the brocade was a silk doll that Old Madam Pei had specially "invited" from a reclusive master.

Pei Yan's fate was connected to this doll's, and they shared a similar connection.

Whenever the destined woman touches it, his withered body will surely feel something.

However, after touching all twenty-eight of his concubines, he felt nothing.

Old Madam Pei clutched the Buddhist prayer beads, the veins on the back of her hand bulging.

"continue."

Granny Li's throat tightened. "Old Madam, only the last two girls are left."

"Let them touch!"

Under the eaves, the eldest daughter of the Marquis of Zhongyong was stamping her feet from the cold, and even her fox fur coat could not hide the impatience on her face.

"The Pei family has quite the airs, summoning us here in this snowy weather just to touch a piece of cloth?"

The daughter of a Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion next to her hurriedly tugged at her sleeve.

"Shh, sister, watch your mouth! That's Minister Pei sitting inside!"

The eldest daughter of the Marquis of Zhongyong froze, and finally dared not cause any more trouble. She covered her eyes and reached into the brocade box.

A moment later, she withdrew her hand in disgust.

"It's just a piece of ordinary material, isn't it? Why make such a fuss!"

Granny Li sighed inwardly and called out to the next person.

The daughter of a Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion touched it with her fingertips, murmured "So cool," and then withdrew.

With a forceful flick of her fingertips, the Buddhist prayer beads on Old Madam Pei snapped in two.

The sandalwood beads clattered and rolled all over the ground, making one's heart tremble.

"Thirty," Old Madam Pei sighed sadly, "a full thirty, and not a single one of them."

Granny Li hurriedly knelt down to pick up the beads.

"Please take care of yourself, Madam. Perhaps the destined woman is not among these people today..."

Old Madam Pei angrily slammed her hand on the flower stand.

"All the noble ladies of the capital are here! Those born of principal wives, those born of concubines, daughters of civil officials, daughters of military generals, even daughters of imperial merchants—I've invited them all!"

This spectacle has turned the capital upside down.

But fate still refused to give the Pei family a way out.

The beaded curtain swayed gently, and Pei Yan got up and came out.

He was extremely tall, standing like a jade orchid in the hall, with a pair of cold, star-like eyes beneath his deep-set brows.

"Grandmother, let's disperse."

Grandma Pei looked up at her only grandson, and two streams of tears welled up in her eyes.

"Yan'er, shall we try again another day? Grandmother will send someone to search. If we can't find it in the capital, we'll go to Jiangnan, to Shu, to the borderlands..."

Pei Yan lowered his eyes, his tone calm to the point of being cruel.

"No need."

The old lady grabbed his wrist and burst into tears.

"The imperial physician examined your pulse yesterday and said that your pulse showed signs of weakening."

"No male member of the Pei family has lived past thirty. You will be twenty-nine after the New Year, with less than a year left..."

"If you leave without any offspring, how can I face the ancestors of the Pei family in the afterlife?!"

Pei Yan gently wiped away the old lady's tears, his movements soft, his eyes still reflecting a vast snowfield.

"That means the Pei family's fate has run its course."

Old Madam Pei felt a sharp pain in her chest, and her face turned ashen.

He grabbed the silk doll from the brocade box and smashed it out the window.

"What reclusive master, what destined woman—it's all a load of rubbish!"

The palm-sized doll fell into the snow and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Pei Yan turned his head to look out the window.

The vast expanse of white snow mirrored his 29 years of quiet, uneventful life.

Desolate, boring... utterly tasteless...

Outside the clean room in the inner courtyard.

Jiang Guo'er, holding a long, fine cotton towel, had been standing under the eaves for a full half hour.

She knew it wouldn't be easy to get close to Pei Yan, but she never expected that after a month, she still hadn't even touched the hem of his clothes.

In the Pei household, there were countless young and beautiful concubines of all shapes and sizes, and not just anyone could serve Pei Yan.

It took Granny Liu in the kitchen ten days to teach her just the task of preparing bath water.

She used to complain about her brother's fussy bathing habits, but now it seems utterly insignificant.

Jiang Guo'er breathed on her hands, which were covered in chilblains.

Suddenly, the head maid Cuiping walked over from the other end of the corridor, glanced at the things in Jiang Guo'er's arms, and raised her eyebrows slightly.

"Why is it you today?"

Jiang Guo'er glanced at her quickly, took three steps back, and lowered her eyes.

"In response to Sister Cuiping, Lianhua was supposed to be on duty today, but she caught a cold last night..."

Cuiping adjusted her temple expressionlessly. "You're quite clever."

A thin layer of sweat immediately seeped out from Jiang Guo'er's back.

Cuiping was the head maid in the inner courtyard, and she held the highest position among the concubines.

He has always been low-key, steady, and respectable.

Today, however, she was unusually wearing a pearl hairpin and a bright crimson jacket and skirt.

Jiang Guo'er immediately understood why she was there, and said happily, "Thank goodness you came, sister!"

"The old nanny just informed us that a lot of firewood was used up at the plum blossom viewing banquet today, and we need people to chop more!"

She hurriedly stuffed the long, fine cotton handkerchief into Cuiping's arms.

"I'll leave this to you, sister. I'll go help out over there!"

Cuiping watched her retreating figure and gave a faint scoff.

Jiang Guo'er is said to be a member of the Wu Jiang tribe who is very fertile, and she has a restless appearance.

Therefore, she removed her from the list of those to serve in bed early on.

Looking back now, he seems to have the desire to steal but not the courage.

Jiang Guo'er arrived at Songhe Garden as quickly as possible and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

He turned around, picked up the rusty axe, and chopped at the wood, each blow more ferocious than the last.

Before long, his hand cracked open, and a splinter pierced his flesh, spurting out blood droplets that froze before they could fall.

In the past, she would cry for half a day in her mother's arms even if she got a minor scrape.

Now?

Pull the splinter out forcefully, and that's it.

Six months ago, my father and brother were falsely accused of treason and colluding with the enemy, and the emperor ordered the execution of their entire family.

Father, mother, elder brother, uncle, aunt, cousin, cousin, all 108 people in the Dingyuan Marquis's mansion... all gone.

She was the only one who survived, having been replaced by the maid Chunxiang.

Do you want revenge? Do you want to find out the truth?

of course!

But that's on the condition that she survives.

After months of hiding, she finally made a decision.

He earned money by washing and mending clothes for wealthy families and bought a household registration certificate for people from other places on the black market.

She changed her name and identity, impersonated a member of the Wu Jiang clan, and deliberately fainted in the back alley of the Pei residence, where she was bought by the chief minister's steward!

Now that she is no longer the daughter of a noble family, she would rather take things slowly than make a single wrong step.

Half an hour later, after the last bundle of firewood was stacked, she walked back stiffly.

As I passed under a window, I was suddenly tripped by a hard object.

This thing was half-buried in snow, and it faintly shimmered with a silky sheen.

Jiang Guo'er bent down, picked it up, and shook it clean.

It turned out to be a palm-sized doll, made of silk, wearing a miniature version of a black brocade robe, without facial features.

How could something like this appear in Songhe Garden?

Could someone be practicing witchcraft?!

Jiang Guo'er's heart skipped a beat, and she glanced around fearfully.

If someone finds out she's carrying something like that, she'll never be able to clear her name, no matter what.

Just as I was about to throw it back, my fingertips became strangely warm.

—This thing is actually hot!