Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

Helian Jing's lips twitched slightly, as if he had seen something interesting and couldn't help but smile.

"Okay," he said.

Xi Yueli was stunned for a moment.

Helian Jing had already reached the door. He turned his head to look at her. Sunlight cut across his shoulder, and his expression was unclear in the backlight. Only his eyes shone like two cold stars sunk to the bottom of a pool.

"Come, let me show you around."

Half an hour later, a scene appeared on the busiest street in the capital, the West Market, that drew the attention of all the vendors and passersby.

Prince Helian of the Prince Chen's mansion walked beside a slender and delicate girl, his right hand lightly protecting her waist and back. He deliberately slowed his pace by half a beat, and when he lowered his head to speak to her, he tilted his head so low that it almost touched her temple.

Xi Yueli was initially uncomfortable. She only wanted him to lead the way, using the excuse of "shopping" to walk through the streets and alleys of the western part of the city and remember the layout and landmarks.

Helian Jing walked beside her, his posture excessively intimate. When he spoke, his face was close, and the stray hairs at her temples swayed gently from his breath.

As they passed the sugar figurine stall, he suddenly reached out and shielded her forehead, saying, "Watch out for the bamboo skewers."

When they passed the silk shop, he stopped again, pointed to a piece of smoky blue fabric and asked her, "Do you like it?" His tone was so ambiguous that even the vendors next to him couldn't help but glance at him several times.

Xi Yueli glanced at him sideways. He still had that lazy expression on his face, but his gaze paused slightly for a moment when it swept over the second floor of a teahouse across the street.

In that instant, she understood who he was putting on an act for: at least four or five pairs of eyes were watching them—from the alley across the street, from behind the teahouse window, and from the peddler squatting next to the hair accessory stall in front of them.

She didn't know whose eyes they were or which faction they belonged to, but Helian Jing was using this ambiguous gesture to send a message into those eyes: Prince Chen had fallen for the eldest daughter of the Xi family.

She cursed inwardly, "What a good actress," but on the surface, she lowered her head slightly to match his rhythm, revealing just the right amount of the back of her neck, as if she was blushing from something he had said.

She saw Helian Jing's lips curve into a fleeting smile in the sunlight, as if to say, "You're quick to learn."

The two of them strolled along, stopping and starting, from one end of the West Market to the other, and then turned into the adjacent East Willow Lane for a loop.

Xi Yueli memorized all the side alleys, archways, and shops along the way, and the layout of the western part of the city slowly formed a rough sketch in her mind.

Three roads branch off west from Xishi Street, and there is a narrow street called "Xilin Lane". At the end of the street is a small, dusty door with no words on the lintel.

She walked past that small door without stopping, but her gaze swept over the old iron plaque peeking through the crack in the door. It was rusted by wind and rain, but the words "Blacksmith Shop" were still faintly discernible.

She gripped her sleeves tightly, her face remaining impassive, and continued to follow Helian Jing forward.

"Have you seen enough?" Helian Jing suddenly lowered his head and whispered in her ear, his breath brushing against her earlobe, carrying a very faint scent of cold tea.

Xi Yueli remained unfazed: "I've seen enough."

"Shall we go back?"

"good."

On the return journey in the carriage, Xi Yueli leaned against the carriage wall and closed her eyes to rest. Today she left the manor, remembered the way, and found the door, but she also owed Helian Jing a favor of "accompanying him shopping".

Moreover, she still can't understand why he had to act in the play he did in the market today with her.

……

On the third day of being confined to her home, Fang attempted suicide by hanging.

When the old women rushed in, she was standing on an embroidered stool, trying to hang the white silk on the roof beam. The stool wobbled twice and almost tipped over. Before she could even hang herself up, she was so frightened that she cried and ruined her makeup.

When the news reached the front hall, Xi Mingyuan's teacup shattered with a "crack".

When he arrived at the courtyard, Fang had already been helped down. Her hair was disheveled, and there was a red mark on her throat, which looked particularly shocking because of her delicate skin.

She cried so hard she could hardly breathe, kneeling on the ground and clutching the hem of Xi Mingyuan's robe, saying, "I can't go on living. Sixteen years of marriage, and you didn't even give me a chance to explain. That girl made up a few lies and confined me to my quarters. I'd rather be dead."

Looking at the bruise on her forehead and her swollen eyes from crying, Xi Mingyuan felt a surge of anger, fueled by her secret affair with another man and her embezzlement of the family's funds. Suddenly, most of the anger he felt dissipated.

After all, they had shared a bed for over a decade. He hadn't investigated the matter in Willow Lane yet, and he wouldn't be able to find anything out in a short time.

Fang's confinement was lifted that very night.

The next morning, as Xi Yueli was sitting by the window flipping through her diary, the courtyard gate was pushed open from the outside.

Fang was dressed in a pomegranate-colored embroidered gold jacket, her hair was neatly combed, and a red gold hairpin inlaid with agate was inserted in her temple. She was dressed in a splendid and respectable manner, and there was no trace of the struggle she had undergone under the white silk the day before.

She stepped into the courtyard with a gentle smile on her face, just like every time she came to Jinxian Courtyard before. A maid followed behind her, carrying a food box.

"Li'er," Madam Fang stopped in the corridor, "your mother has come to see you."

Xi Yueli closed her diary and turned around from the window.

She looked at Fang's face, which had been repainted with makeup. Under the sunlight, all traces of makeup could be hidden, except for the thin, translucent smile in her eyes.

"Mother, please sit down," Xi Yueli said.

Madam Fang sat down in the main room. A maid opened the food box and brought out a bowl of white porcelain soup. The lid was lifted, and the aroma of sweet pear soup wafted out.

"My mother made this pear and lily bulb soup herself; it's good for the lungs. Li'er has been working hard these past few days, so have a bowl to replenish your energy."

Xi Yueli looked at the bowl of soup but didn't reach for it. "Mother, please speak plainly. The pear soup is too sweet; I find it cloying."

Fang's hand, holding the bowl, hovered in mid-air, her smile freezing for a moment. She placed the bowl back on the table, her fingertips gently circling the rim of the porcelain.

"Li'er, I've thought about what you said in the ancestral hall that day." Madam Fang raised her head, her smile still gentle, but the light in her eyes had sharpened.

"You said that your mother was pregnant with a child and had an abortion in Willow Lane. Whether your father believed you or not, your mother doesn't know, but your mother wants to tell you something."

She paused, leaned forward slightly, and lowered her voice an inch: "My master forced me into marriage."

Xi Yueli's face remained expressionless; she merely raised her eyelashes and glanced at her.

Fang pronounced the word "forced" clearly, as if she wanted to squeeze out that bit of resentment from between her teeth.

"He sent someone to find out about my background and learned that I was from a respectable family. He then sent a matchmaker to propose marriage, but I refused to become a second wife. So he had the matchmaker deliver a message."

"If Miss Fang thinks the betrothal gifts are too meager, we'll double them." What do you take this for? Compassion? Pity? Love?

She chuckled softly, a delicate laugh that was somewhat sharp. "He forced me into marriage, doted on me for a few years, then when the novelty wore off, he took two more concubines. But I gave birth to Xi Yuefu. Your mother has been dead for many years, and that's how long I've held this position."

"Li-jie, do you think you can bring me down with something from sixteen years ago?"

"Yes, I've been pregnant and had an abortion, so what? Does your father care that I carried someone else's child? What he cares about is that this will embarrass him, Xi Mingyuan, if word gets out."

"So, Sister Li," she picked up the bowl of pear soup again and slammed it down in front of Xi Yue Li.

"Let me give you some advice: knowing too much about certain things won't do you any good. Your father is protective of me, and even if your grandmother trusts you, she's still my mother-in-law. Do you really think you can do anything to me?"