Madam An’s tear-stained face made her look the very picture of misery. “Master, I’ve been with you for decades, and Yao’er grew up receiving your care and affection! Can you bear to leave her death uninvestigated? Can you bear to see me bullied?!”

However, Madam An’s emotional appeal failed to move Yun Lan. He instructed the gathered servants to bring her away and for a physician to be summoned on her behalf.

“The passing of the eldest miss has left Madam An greatly distraught. Her words, spoken in grief and bereavement, are not to be considered fact,” Yun Lan announced, after Madam An had been sent away. “If I hear rumors about the eldest miss’s death, all those responsible will be harshly punished.”

The gathered crowd immediately looked down and murmured their assent as they left the scene of the commotion. Yi Qianying was shocked at Yun Lan’s attitude toward Yun Ruoyan: everyone in the Yun family knew that Yun Lan didn’t favor Yun Ruoyan. Even after Yun Ruoyan’s dramatic change over the last few months, Yun Lan’s attitude toward Yun Ruoyan had barely improved.

Yi Qianying intended to make use of Madam An to deal with Yun Ruoyan, but she didn’t expect how firmly Yun Lan would defend her. Unable to interfere further, Yi Qianying could only leave with the crowd.

“Father, I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Yun Lan looked at Yun Ruoyan, who had remained calm and unperturbed throughout the entire affair.

“Father, Master will be bringing me on a few trips for cultivation in these two days. May I be dismissed?” Yun Ruoyan asked again. This time, she brought out Li Mo.

Only then did Yun Lan seem to react. “Visit your grandmother after you’ve had some time to rest. She’s been worried sick because of your sister’s death.”

Yun Ruoyan nodded and turned to leave, Yun Lan’s eyes on her back all the while.

When Xi Lan and Peony found out that their mistress had returned, they were naturally quite excited. On the other hand, Yun Ruoyan was rather surprised that her brother was still nowhere to be seen.

When she asked about him, Xi Lan quickly jumped in. “The young master’s the general of the garrisoned troops at the capital now, and he has to get to his post at dawn every morning. However, he should be coming back pretty shortly.”

As soon as Xi Lan finished speaking, Yun Moxiao entered Yun Ruoyan’s cottage. He was dressed in bright silver armor, accentuating his stature and handsome appearance.

“Brother, you look dashing!” Yun Ruoyan praised, causing Yun Moxiao to chuckle. He patted Yun Ruoyan’s shoulders and commented that she had grown thin again.

“I told you to wait for my good news—and I didn’t disappoint you, did I?” Yun Ruoyan asked proudly.

Yun Moxiao had always thought the best of his sister, but he rarely praised her to her face. This time, however, he complimented her effusively.

“There’s something that Grandfather didn’t tell you, so let me keep you updated,” Yun Ruoyan said as soon as they entered her rooms.

“What’s the matter, Brother?” When Yun Moxiao became serious, so too did Yun Ruoyan. “Is there more news regarding Mother?”

Yun Moxiao told Yun Ruoyan that, not long after he had sent her to the Kongming Mountains, he visited the temple that Lin Bo had been investigating. To his surprise, the temple had been deserted when he arrived.

“How could this be? Could someone have informed them of our investigations?”

“It’s very likely, but who could it be?”

Yun Moxiao had been eliminating each of the potential suspects, and he had come to a chilling conclusion.

“No, it can’t be Lin Bo!” Yun Ruoyan could guess her brother’s thoughts. “Lin Bo watched me, Qingchen, and Qingxue grow up. He’s a loyal servant of the Lin family, through and through! He would never betray the Lins!”

“That’s what Grandfather said, too.” Yun Moxiao sighed. “We’re the only ones aware of the investigation. If it wasn’t you, me, or Grandfather, the only possible suspect must be Lin Bo.”

“No! Someone else must have found out about the investigation without our knowledge!”

Just then, Peony knocked on the door and announced that the third madam, Qin Jianmei, had come to visit with the third miss, Yun Ruoyu. Yun Ruoyan was surprised by the sudden visit; after all, the third madam rarely left her abode. The last time she had sought out Yun Ruoyan was to beg for clemency for her daughter.

Why would Madam Qin come to visit?

Yun Ruoyan and Yun Moxiao received them together.

“Second Miss, you’ve grown so thin!” Qin Jianmei tugged at Yun Ruoyan’s hand as soon as she entered. Before leaving for Kongming Academy, Yun Ruoyan had indeed filled out a little, but the recent trial had thinned her once more.

“In the evening, I’ll have Ruoyu bring you some tonics.”

“Thank you, Madam Qin.” Although Yun Ruoyan was unused to how intimate Madam Qin was, she didn’t much mind. At least within the Yun family, Qin Jianmei was a rare font of reason and logic.

“Sister Ruoyan,” Yun Ruoyu began. “Could you tell me what Kongming Academy’s like?

Because she had fallen gravely ill, Yun Ruoyu had missed the opportunity to travel to Kongming Academy and take part in the trial. She had only recently recovered, and her face still carried traces of her pallor. However, her personality seemed to be far more demure and gentle than before.

“You’re still young, so there’ll be plenty of opportunities for you in the future,” Yun Ruoyan advised, her tone more gentle to her than it had been for a long while.

However, Yun Ruoyu shook her head. With her cultivation, it would be difficult for her to survive—if even her older sister had ended up dead, what reason did she think she could live? It would be preferable to remain safely by her mother’s side.

Perhaps because Yun Ruoyu had been traumatized by Yun Ruoyao’s death, she even began to tremble when Yun Ruoyan brought up the trial.

Yun Ruoyan sighed, thinking about how dramatically her sister had changed after leaving Yun Ruoyao and Yi Qianying’s unhealthy influence. They exchanged a few pleasantries before heading to their grandmother’s cottage to be with her after Yun Ruoyao’s death.

The next day, Yun Moxiao had to take a morning shift, so Yun Ruoyan headed to the Lin manor on her own. When she arrived, Lin Zainan was performing his daily dawn cultivation. Instead of disturbing him, she headed to the small bamboo garden in search of Lin Qingchen.

As soon as she walked into the small garden, she saw Lin Qingchen stooping beside the pond.

“Qingchen!”

Lin Qingchen turned around and waved. “Sister Ruoyan!”

Yun Ruoyan noted her weary expression. “Qingchen, what’s the matter? Was the trip tiring?”

The Lin siblings and Zhuo Yifeng had returned riding flamesteeds from Kongming Academy, and the journey had taken them three days.

Lin Qingchen shook her head. “For some reason, Whitey’s been jumping up and down all day ever since I returned. He made a big fuss last night, scaring my catfish in the other pond half to death.”

Yun Ruoyan turned to the other pond and found it empty. “Where’s the catfish now?”

“It was crying so loudly after Whitey scared it that Qingxue had to bring it away.”

“How’s Whitey now?” Yun Ruoyan glanced at Whitey, who was recumbent at the bottom of the pond. By now, it had grown to the size of a large python. “Why isn’t it moving?”

“After making a fuss all last night, I bet it’s tired now.”

“Ah!” Suddenly, Zhuo Lin’er cried out in the distance, within the bamboo forest where many of Lin Qingchen’s creatures resided.

Before Lin Qingchen and Yun Ruoyan could run up to her, she ran out of the bamboo forest in fright, chased by a fiery-red chicken-type beast. That beast squawked and flapped its wings as it chased after Zhuo Lin’er, somehow jumping up into the air, raking her with its claws, and messing up her hair.

Yun Ruoyan picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it at the plump chicken. With a cluck, the chicken dropped to the ground, paralyzed.

“Where did this chicken come from?”

“I saved it from a restaurant, since it looked as though it could understand human speech.” Zhuo Lin’er bent down, panting. Sweat trickled down her forehead, and her face was white from shock.

Yun Ruoyan inspected the chicken carefully, but she couldn’t identify anything particularly unusual about the chicken. “Given how fierce it was, do you really think it understands human speech? It is quite plump, though, so why don’t you have your brother roast it for dinner instead?”

The fat chicken squawked, jumping up and pouncing toward Yun Ruoyan. The action was so sudden that even Yun Ruoyan couldn’t dodge in time, and the chicken’s claws raked her palm.

Yun Ruoyan caught the chicken by its wings and stared into its beady eyes. “So it can understand me! But it’s still too fierce.”

Such beasts who could understand human speech but didn’t have sufficient cultivation to cause much trouble or injury were very desirable as pets, but this plump chicken was so fierce that Yun Ruoyan doubted anyone would want it.

Lin Qingchen took over the chicken from Yun Ruoyan’s hands and thwacked its head to knock it unconscious. Then, she handed it over to Zhuo Lin’er.

“Sister Ruoyan, your hand’s bleeding,” Lin Qingchen remarked.

There were three small scratches on Yun Ruoyan’s hand. Although they weren’t particularly deep, a fair amount of blood still seeped out.

“Come inside my cottage, and I’ll help you bandage your palm.” Lin Qingchen tugged on her cousin’s hand, pulling her inside. The blood on Yun Ruoyan’s hand slid down her fingers and coincidentally landed on Lin Qingchen’s snake ring.

Neither of them would have noticed it, but Lin Qingchen found the ring on her hand suddenly getting hotter and hotter. Soon, it felt as though the ring were scorching hot.

Lin Qingchen had to stop, release Yun Ruoyan’s hand, and inspect the ring on her finger.

“What’s the matter?”

“Sister Ruoyan, look!” Lin Qingchen passed the ring to Yun Ruoyan, looking at the snake carving’s glowing red eyes in shock.