Xie Xianyu wasn't surprised. He simply said to Wanruo, "Mother likes An Shou's mother. Whatever she asks, just push it onto me. Act honest, you're good at it."

Wanruo frowned. This sounded really unpleasant to her.

Wanruo placed the medicine bowl beside the bed and stood up to leave.

Xie Xianyu then spoke up: "Come back immediately after you're gone."

Wanruo turned around and looked at him, with a hint of anger in her eyes. Was she his maid?!

He looked at her, his face pale and his voice indifferent: "Come back and change the medicine for me."

Wanruo glanced at the crimson gauze on his chest. The words of refusal were on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed them back. Whether it was guilt or something else, she swallowed her anger and said, "I understand."

Xie Xianyu looked at Wan Ruoli until her figure disappeared from his sight.

"Sir, Lord Wang from the Dali Temple is here." Qing'an came in and announced.

"Please come in."

Lord Wang hurried in and bowed, "Thank you, sir."

Xie Xianyu nodded: "Have you found anything?"

"We interrogated those two survivors all night yesterday and finally got them to confess. The person behind the scenes offered them three thousand taels of silver as a reward and asked them to capture someone at the Lantern Festival on the day of the Flower Festival."

"Who is making the deal?" Xie Xianyu's eyes were cold.

"It's said that the man behind the scenes was extremely cautious and didn't reveal his identity. He even wore a mask while making a deal with the bandit. He gave him a deposit of one thousand taels of silver in advance and promised to pay the remaining two thousand taels of silver after the deal was done. But the bandit confessed that even though the man was masked, he didn't sound like he had a Beijing accent. Instead, he sounded like someone from Cangzhou..."

Xie Xianyu narrowed his eyes slightly: "Cangzhou, border?"

Xie Xianyu said coldly, "In the capital, any high-ranking family with influence roaming around the border should be investigated."

Anyone who could offer such a large sum of money and target the female members of the Xie family must not be an ordinary petty thief, but a powerful person in the capital, and he would never let them go.

"Yes, I will investigate thoroughly!"

-

Wanruo was taken directly to the eldest lady's courtyard, Qingshuixuan.

"Madam." Wanruo bowed.

The eldest lady nodded: "Please sit down."

The little maid brought a stool and asked Wanruo to sit down.

For the first time, the eldest lady took a serious look at this cousin who had been living in the Xie family for a year. During the year Xu Wanruo was in the Xie family, she was like an invisible person. The only impression she had of her was that she cooked medicinal food that the old lady loved to eat.

The eldest lady looked solemn and asked her, "What's going on between you and Xian'er?"

Wanruo curled the corners of her lips. She and Xie Xianyu?

A year ago, Wanruo brought her brother to the Xie family to seek refuge with the Third Madam. The Third Madam only took them in for one night and wanted to drive them away the next day.

It rained heavily that day, and Wanruo braved the rain and broke into Xie Xianyu's study.

Xie Xianyu was setting up the chessboard, holding a translucent red chess piece between his slender fingers and dropping it gently on the board. When he looked up at her, his clear eyes seemed to be able to see through her.

The moment she met his gaze, Wanruo suddenly regretted it. She felt that he was not someone who was easy to mess with.

But the show had already begun, so she had to sing the rest of the song. She was soaked to the skin, a few strands of hair clinging to her pale cheeks, her whole body trembling with cold, her wet eyes looking at him weakly and helplessly.

"I accidentally lost my way. Sir, could you give me shelter from the rain?"

Xie Xianyu looked at her calmly without saying a word, but it made her feel cold in her heart, as if he had seen through her tricks.

The two breaths of silence seemed like half a lifetime.