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

Xi Yuefu held the paper and looked at it three times, her fingertips leaving deep creases on the surface.

She stood up, wiped her face, crumpled the note into a ball and stuffed it into her sleeve. She walked to the dressing table and looked at herself in the mirror again. The scar under the gauze was hideous, making her originally beautiful face look terrible.

She raised her hand and touched the scar. The new flesh under her fingertip was tender and soft, but the moment she touched it, a needle-like pain shot up from under her skin.

She unfolded the paper strip, folded it again, and tucked it into the crevice under the dressing table. Then she sat down, picked up a comb, and slowly combed her hair, one stroke at a time, very steadily.

The expression on the face in the mirror slowly changed, from collapse to ferocity, from calm to a thin smile.

Before long, Xi Yuefu rushed into Jinxian Courtyard, the door panel slamming against the wall with a dull thud.

Qingdai ran out from under the corridor carrying a teacup, nearly knocked over by her, and took two steps back to steady herself.

"Second Miss! What's wrong—"

"Get out of my way." Xi Yuefu shoved Qingdai aside and barged into the main room. Her eyes swept quickly around the room. Her movements were hurried and chaotic, like a startled bird fluttering in a cage.

Xi Yueli sat behind the desk, flipping through the account books in her hand, without even lifting her eyelids.

In the past, she might have panicked at Xi Yuefu's behavior and stood up to ask "What are you doing?", but now she simply turned a page of the account book and waited for Xi Yuefu to finish her commotion before speaking.

"Xi Yueli!" Xi Yuefu rushed to the desk, placed her hands on the table, and leaned close to her face.

"What right do you have to take my mother's control of the household?! What right do you have to lock my mother in the Buddhist hall?! Have you no shame?!

She was cursing fiercely, but Xi Yueli noticed that her gaze swept around the table, passing over the paperweight, pen holder, open account book, and teacup.

She paused for a fleeting moment at the cuff of her sleeve.

Xi Yueli had casually stuffed the black iron token into her sleeve this morning, and now a section of its dark edge was showing.

Xi Yueli closed the ledger, leaned back in her chair, and looked up at her.

Xi Yuefu's face was still half-covered with gauze, and the exposed eye was red and swollen, with tear stains that hadn't dried completely. However, the gauze on the sleeve of that eye was touched and then removed.

"Whether I care about my appearance or not is none of your concern, sister." Xi Yueli slowly picked up her teacup and took a sip.

"Your mother was confined to her quarters because she was lax in managing her subordinates. There is solid evidence that Granny Zhang hired someone to commit murder. If you feel wronged, why don't you go to the county government to plead for Granny Zhang? What's the use of making a scene here?"

Xi Yuefu's knuckles clenched white on the table, but her gaze was drawn to that sleeve again.

Xi Yueli saw this and her heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled. She was looking for the thing in her sleeve.

She put the teacup back on the table, stood up and stretched, her sleeves falling down with the movement, and the black iron token was unintentionally left in the pile of books.

She turned and walked to the window, her back to Xi Yuefu, as if she were looking at the flowers in the yard.

"If you don't have anything else to say, please go back. I'm tired and need to rest for a while." She faced the window, glancing at the movement behind her out of the corner of her eye.

Xi Yuefu hesitated for three breaths by the table. Her hand quickly reached to the edge of the desk, grabbed the black iron token that had rolled from her sleeve onto the pile of books, and took a half step back to tuck it into her sleeve.

Xi Yueli pretended not to see it until Xi Yuefu turned around and rushed out the door, her footsteps disappearing behind the moon gate. Only then did she slowly turn around.

Qingdai ran in and whispered, "Miss, it seems the Second Miss took something from you?"

"Let her take it." Xi Yueli sat down again. "She'll take my things and do things for me. Just wait and see."

Three days later, the invitation from Prince Chen's residence was delivered to the Xi residence.

The gold-embossed cover bears the two powerful characters "Prince Chen," and the invitation to the entire Xi family to a flower-viewing banquet in the palace three days later is accompanied by a handwritten note: "If Miss Xi is unwell, there is no need for her to force herself."

Xi Mingyuan held the invitation and walked around the study three times.

The invitation was personally sent by Prince Chen, who even specifically mentioned Xi Yueli. When did this prince become so attentive to the young ladies in his household?

When the matriarch was in the ancestral hall, the two women were injured, and Xi Mingyuan himself hid in the mansion, sending Xi Yueli on behalf of the whole family.

On the day of the banquet, Xi Yueli was made to look her eyebrows for half an hour by Qingdai in front of the dressing table. She was used to going out without makeup, but now that rouge was swept on her cheeks and a thin layer of lipstick was applied, the person in the mirror suddenly had a more vibrant color.

Qingdai took out the smoky blue fabric from the wardrobe again and had the embroiderer make a narrow-sleeved long dress overnight. The satin surface shimmered with fine silver patterns in the sunlight, making her look like a bamboo plant bathed in moonlight.

"Girl, you'd look amazing in this!"

Looking at the smoky blue color in the mirror, Xi Yueli recalled the warmth of his fingertips brushing against the back of her hand in the carriage that day, and her ears burned again. She quickly stood up and straightened her cuffs: "Let's go."

The flower-viewing banquet was held at Qinfang Pavilion, next to the Imperial Garden in the palace.

The noble ladies of the capital gathered together, their eyes adorned with jewels and their clothes fragrant and elegant. Xi Yueli, dressed in a smoky blue, stood out against the backdrop of crimson and green willows. Her face, set against the cool tone of the satin, appeared even clearer, like a crescent moon hidden behind the clouds, only half of it visible.

Xi Yueli arrived rather late, and Qingdai helped her adjust her cloak before retreating to the corridor.

As she walked through the moon gate alone, she felt several gazes falling on her from different directions. They felt like needles on her back, not painful, but impossible to ignore.

She sat down at the very end of the table, with three plates of pastries and a cup of hot tea in front of her. She drank her tea with her eyes downcast, and the sounds of conversations around her drifted in intermittently.

"...Is it her? The eldest daughter of the Xi family? She doesn't seem crazy..."

"You'll see when she has an episode. I've heard that sometimes she'll suddenly not recognize people while walking and will kneel down and call out 'Master.'"

"Tsk, what's wrong with His Highness Prince Chen...?"

"Who knows? Maybe he's just looking for something new. You get tired of these crazy people after a while."

Xi Yueli stared at the water in the teacup without changing her expression. She was used to it. In the past, these words were said loudly in front of her, but now at least she knew to lower her voice, which was an improvement.

When Helian Jing entered Qinfang Pavilion, all the women in the garden stopped talking, half-covering their faces with fans, and dozens of pairs of eyes followed his figure.

But his gaze never lingered on any face for even a moment, like a breeze passing through a garden full of flowers.

The dark blue brocade robe was tailored to fit him perfectly, with straight, sculpted shoulder lines. A dark leather belt with subtle patterns cinched at the waist made his figure resemble a sheathed, narrow-bladed longsword.

Her hair was tied up with a silver hairpin, her black hair neatly gathered, revealing the contours of her entire face.

His brow bones were so high and straight they looked like sharp ridges, and the corners of his eyes were slightly upturned. When he looked at people, his eyes were half-closed, and his pupils were extremely dark and deep, like two frozen deep pools.

Helian Jing walked slowly through the flower path, his boots landing silently on the bluestone slabs. His stride was even, his back straight, and he exuded a natural aloofness.

The stares and whispers directed at him were of no concern to him.

His gaze remained fixed straight ahead, not even glancing at the corner of his eye, as if those faces and clothes that had been meticulously made up for half an hour were nothing more than superfluous decorations in the garden.