name

Qin Lan's hair was finally saved.

A book that has been damaged by soaking cannot be restored to its original state.

After the sun set, Tao Yu could only pack up the book that had turned into a wordless book and wait to return to the sect to see if her omnipotent master could repair it.

While Qin Lan was still fixing his long hair that was pulled into a mess, Tao Yu came up to Jiang Nian and greeted her.

"How's the situation at Zuihualou going?"

Meeting Tao Yu's slightly smiling eyes, Jiang Nian nodded and responded, "It's better than I thought. All the information has been collected."

“…”

Tao Yu didn't answer, but just looked at Jiang Nian's face for a while, then suddenly smiled and said, "It seems that Miss Jiang is a little more energetic than before."

Afraid that her words might be misinterpreted, she added another sentence.

"It's the changes in your body—and your eyes."

"You are more attractive now than before. Smile more in the future."

While Xiao Yingzhu and Qin Lan weren't paying attention, Tao Yu leaned over and whispered in Jiang Nian's ear, "Earlier, I always felt like you were in a trance, a bit depressed."

"But now it's very visible to the naked eye that the situation is much better than before."

She stood up and nodded to Jiang Nian, "Keep going."

"……good."

Jiang Nian felt a little complicated when someone suddenly spoke to him with words of hope, but the feeling was not bad.

In this era, she can feel the kindness and warmth that she once felt in modern times.

In this era, she gradually began to care about people.

—

When I came out of the information room, it was already dark outside.

Tao Yu and Qin Lan walked in front, going to the side hall where they used to go to discuss things, while Jiang Nian and Xiao Yingzhu walked behind.

The moonlight in the sky was obscured by clouds, the light was hazy and unclear, and only the soft, dark sky was tinted.

Seeing Jiang Nian looking up into the sky without saying a word, immersed in her own thoughts, Xiao Yingzhu understood what she was thinking.

He slowed down his pace slightly, and when Qin Lan and Tao Yu walked forward, he spoke: "Thinking about what happened over there?"

Sometimes, even if they don’t say it out loud, you can still know what the other person is thinking through a look or a gesture.

A tacit understanding, or perhaps an absolute understanding.

Jiang Nian turned her head to look at the moon. She knew that Xiao Yingzhu couldn't see her smile from this angle, but she still suppressed it.

"Well, the moon is the same as in my hometown."

"Every time I see it, I have the illusion that I am still living there..."

She turned her head and looked directly into Xiao Yingzhu's eyes.

"And you are just a dream within my dream. When I wake up one day with clear skies, you will all have vanished into a dream I can no longer recall."

“…”

Xiao Yingzhu looked at her, just through her eyes, without any inquiry.

"So what do you think now?"

"Now……"

Jiang Nian breathed a sigh of relief and looked forward to see the young couple playing and walking ahead.

"Now it should feel a little more real."

"Everything you and I have experienced so far is real."

"Not my dream within a dream."

She pursed her lips slightly, and a faint smile appeared on her face.

Xiao Yingzhu lowered his eyes, and Jiang Nian's height just stopped below his collarbone.

In the naturally drooping arc of his eyes, they just happened to fall on her porcelain-white profile. The light cinnabar color at the corner of her eyes spread with her smile, like the traces left by peach branches.

“…”

Xiao Yingzhu withdrew his gaze, and the slightly softened expression on his face gradually faded away, becoming sparse and indifferent, hiding the unspoken thoughts in his heart.

They didn't continue the conversation. In front of them was the side hall they used to go to. While Jiang Nian was immersed in his thoughts of the past, Qin Lan had already raised his hand to open the door and invited them in.

—

The furnishings in the house were not much different from before. Familiar scenes and memories overlapped, and it seemed as if everything I had experienced in the past two weeks was just a blink of an eye.

Qin Lan pulled out a chair and kindly asked Tao Yu to sit down first.

“…”

Jiang Nian caught a glimpse of Qin Lan's servile expression, then pursed his lips, suppressed his smile, pulled out a chair and sat next to Xiao Yingzhu.

I don’t know if the mansion has undergone any major cleaning during the few days since she left Youguan Mansion, but the number of chairs has been reduced to only four.

But this also clearly divides their seats.

There are absolutely no rules in this era.

Xiao Yingzhu and Qin Lan didn't mind these things very much. Tao Yu grew up freely in a sect that didn't obey the imperial court, and he scoffed at these inexplicable rules, so he didn't think there was anything wrong with sitting like this.

As for her, who had traveled here from the modern era, she would not take the initiative to ask to sit according to the rules.

"Ah, it's been a long time, Miss Jiang."

After being scolded by Tao Yu for the entire afternoon, Qin Lan finally had the chance to sit down and have a few words with Jiang Nian.

"Something happened just now, sorry for the laughter."

After being glanced at calmly by Tao Yu, Qin Lan picked up the teacup from the table with trembling hands, took a sip, and then continued:

"The most important thing right now is the matter of the mine. If there is nothing else to discuss, let's get straight to the point."

Seeing that everyone was meaningless, Qin Lan, who had taken over the mine investigation rights (verbally) from Xiao Yingzhu, immediately said: "First, let me tell you why Tao Yu is here today."

"The relationship between the sect and the imperial court is still at a stalemate, but Tao Yu has already tested her master, so this frozen relationship can gradually be restored to its original state."

He paused for a moment, then turned his gaze to Tao Yu. Seeing that his girlfriend had no objection, he continued, "So Tao Yu came this time, besides because of Miss Jiang's injury—"

"Besides treatment, there's another thing we need to do. Let Tao Yu pretend to be a doctor and use herbs to heal Cang County. Once he builds a reputation, he can then bring up this sensitive topic within the sect and let Meng Zheng know."

Jiang Nian subconsciously wanted to take out a notebook from her bag to take notes. When she lowered her eyes to her waist, she suddenly remembered that she had given the notebook to Xiao Yingzhu, and she didn't bring a bag today.

Qin Lan did not stop talking. Perhaps he was beaten by Tao Yu in the afternoon, and now Tao Yu was sitting next to him, which was a pressure, so his voice was a little tense.

"——Meng Zheng, because he has to deal with the eldest princess's death, he will stay in Cang County for a while."

"We plan to draw Tao Yu's attention to what he will do before he leaves Cang County, so that he can realize it himself. When he returns to the capital to report to Emperor Changde, he will naturally tell him what he saw in Cang County and the affairs of the sect."

The late emperor and Emperor Changde did not have the same temperament. Emperor Changde might have different opinions on things that the late emperor disliked. If he listened to what Meng Zheng said, he would have weighed it in his heart.

After all, Meng Zheng was the one chosen by Emperor Changde to be the future heir to the throne.

"I see."

Jiang Nian nodded, and then thought of another thing.

"But isn't the Fourth Prince in poor health? Can he..."

When talking with Meng Zheng before, Jiang Nian clearly saw the dead silence in Meng Zheng's eyes.

It seems like I have lost interest in everything.

The throne was once his escape from everything and the thing on which he pinned all his hopes.

But now, he realized that the throne could not bring him what he wanted.

What he wanted was contradictory and tangled. If the disease continued to haunt him, he would never be able to get rid of the emotions that seemed to be draining and hollowing out his body.

He has always lived in his own world.

Jiang Nian's hesitation caught Xiao Yingzhu's attention. While Tao Yu turned his head to talk to Qin Lan, he turned his eyes slightly and glanced at Jiang Nian.

Feeling the gaze coming from the side, Jiang Nian turned his head slightly and looked into his eyes, even seeing the question that Xiao Yingzhu wanted to express in his eyes.

【What's wrong? 】

“…”

Jiang Nian was a little hesitant about whether to tell Xiao Yingzhu about the feelings she felt from Meng Zheng. It was not polite to tell others about one's deeply hidden emotions.

What's more, Meng Zheng still had some trust in her, otherwise he would not have taken the initiative to invite her to join the investigation of the eldest princess's death.

She shouldn't tell Xiao Yingzhu about her doubts at this time.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Nian shook his head.

"nothing."

Xiao Yingzhu's eyes were dark, as if she knew what Jiang Nian was thinking, but she didn't point it out directly, just nodded slightly.

After Qin Lan finished talking to Tao Yu, he cleared his throat again, showing an attitude of listening to his wife and doing things for her.

"There's another point, that's what Tao Yu just said—"

Suddenly, a hand stretched out from the left twisted his waist hard. Qin Lan almost jumped up from his seat, but the next sentence he said "Ouch" was glared back by Tao Yu.

“————”

He cleared his throat again, clenched his hand into a fist, and coughed against his lips.

"Nothing, nothing."

"I just have another idea, which is—"

"Isn't Miss Jiang working with Meng Zheng now?"

When his name was called, Jiang Nian looked at Qin Lan cooperatively, then nodded: "Yes."

"So." Qin Lan glanced at Tao Yu, only to be stared back coldly by Tao Yu. His tone instantly weakened. "Can I talk to Meng Zheng about the sect's affairs?"

"Just to test Meng Zheng's attitude."

What he said does make sense.

If all the above things were done, but Meng Zheng still had a bad attitude towards the sect, then everything would be in vain.

Jiang Nian thought about it for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, I'll mention this when I write back to him later."

Feeling Tao Yu's gaze, Jiang Nian smiled and said, "I won't say it directly, I'll just mention it briefly."

"after all..."

Recalling the information he had obtained from Meng Zheng's letters, Jiang Nian hesitated for a moment, then said concisely, "The sect and the princess are also inextricably linked."

"Then the Third Prince's recent findings regarding the eldest princess's death are related to Shou Zan."

"I'm not sure what Meng Zheng's attitude is towards the sect."

Jiang Nian spoke in a hesitant tone, as if she was struggling with something. From her tone, one could tell that what she was struggling with was not a good thing.

Tao Yu was stunned for a moment, then shook his head.

"It's okay, Miss Jiang. This matter should have been discussed between the sect and the court. If you get any bad news, please don't blame yourself."

"You just made it easier for us to understand Meng Zheng's attitude, not the court's."

After separating Meng Zheng and the imperial court, Jiang Nian felt slightly relieved.

"Well, this is not a trivial matter after all. I will ask later."

He answered twice in a row, which means he was nervous.

Xiao Yingzhu calmly put down the teacup in her hand and looked at Qin Lan.

Qin Lan received the eye command from the opposite side and was startled.

"Well, let's move on to the next topic."

He lowered his head and flipped through the key words scribbled on the paper, then continued, "Miss Jiang, could you please tell me in detail the information you got from the goddess?"

"These days, the troops will go to the mine again—but it's different from before. This time, they will go deep into the mine to conduct an exploration."

"So we need to understand what the situation is like inside the mine."

Jiang Nian had joined the meeting for this matter, so naturally he had no reason to hide it. He simply said, "Well, then I'll tell you what I heard from Lu and the Goddess."

After recounting the conversation she had heard through the door while hiding in the cubicle a few days ago, Jiang Nian picked out the key points she thought and told them again.

"In short, the people in the mines can work without eating or drinking."

"But although their labor is endless, they need someone to control them. If they are not controlled by someone—"

At that time, Lu did not tell Jiang Nian the consequences of not controlling those "people", so Jiang Nian hesitated for a moment and shook his head slightly.

"I'm sorry, he didn't explain this explicitly, so I don't know what the situation is with those 'people' in the mine now that Lu has escaped."

Qin Lan nodded thoughtfully.

"I understand."

"In other words, those 'people' are lifeless or thoughtless things that need to be looked after."

"And the group of people who pretended to be Lu may have given some instructions to the 'people' in the mine, so those 'people' will work tirelessly to dig the mine and open up the mine so that they can collect the medicinal herbs."

"Lu, who had just arrived in Cang County, discovered something in the mines. He wanted to change the previous orders and use those 'people' for his own purposes. Therefore, he spent some time looking for a way to control them."

"Now I've found it, so—"

Qin Lan paused and met Xiao Yingzhu's gaze.

Jiang Nian noticed that during her visit to Zuihualou, there seemed to be new discoveries about the mine. After a moment of silence, he asked, "So?"

Xiao Yingzhu turned away and said to her, "Those 'people' haven't been mining these days."

Has the mine been opened up, or are there enough herbs to create the plague, so those people have to move to other mines?

Jiang Nian frowned: "Is there any new action from Ru?"

Xiao Yingzhu shook her head slightly: "That depends on what's happening in the mine right now."

“…”

I originally thought that I could get up and go to Pingzhou immediately, but I didn’t expect that I would have to spend some time on this.

As if seeing Jiang Nian's worry, Qin Lan spoke to comfort her, "It's okay, Miss Jiang, your mission this time is actually over."

"Now that we've received the information you got from Zuihualou, we have a clue. We'll have our troops collect herbs from the mine in a few days."

"As for the potion—"

Qin Lan glanced at Tao Yu cautiously, then said softly, "Just leave it to Tao Yu."

His body tensed for a moment, but the expected pain did not come, and Qin Lan breathed a sigh of relief.

Who knew that the next moment, the pair of extremely strong hands reached out again and twisted his waist hard. The pain quickly spread through his nerves and transmitted to Qin Lan's entire body.

When Qin Lan jumped up in pain, Tao Yu's calm words came to his ears in a sinister voice.

"Who told you to call me by my first name?"