When Chi Yan returned home, her steps seemed somewhat heavy.

He kept thinking about how to bring this up with Shen Tangning.

It wasn't that he deliberately acted first and then informed her. If she had known beforehand, she definitely wouldn't have agreed to it. But he had no choice but to do it, and the two of them would eventually have a conflict.

Suddenly noticing Ba Liang peeking out from the moon gate, he raised an eyebrow and walked over: "What are you doing hiding here so suspiciously?"

Upon seeing him, Ba Liang immediately knelt down with a tragic expression, holding a thin vine in his hands: "Young master, I was wrong, please punish me!"

"What happened?" Seeing his appearance, Chi Yan suddenly had a bad feeling.

Gritting his teeth, Ba Liang, looking reckless, closed his eyes, waiting to be beaten: "I was going to take the wastebasket in your study to throw it away, but the young mistress took it. I thought, 'Let her look,' since you're so open and honest, there's nothing to hide. Who knew she'd see it and then..."

Before he could finish speaking, he felt a gust of wind sweep past him, and when he opened his eyes again, his young master was nowhere to be seen.

Shen Tang sat quietly in front of the bronze mirror, her face remaining expressionless upon hearing Xue Qing's news of Chi Yan's return to the manor.

She had already understood Chi Yan's plan the moment she saw the contents of those scraps of paper.

It turns out that what he was hiding from her was such a big thing!

She knew that Chi Yan was not to blame for this. Emperor Chongde would take action against the aristocratic families sooner or later, and the Xie family was destined to suffer this calamity. But she never expected that Chi Yan would personally take the lead.

And he even planned to keep it from her.

This reminded her of her past life, where she was also deceived step by step by Chi Jingyu. He cut off her left and right arms, confined her in the inner courtyard, and shut her eyes and ears, completely isolating her from the outside world.

It wasn't until the Xie family was destroyed that she realized the shocking conspiracy, but it was too late to do anything about it!

She was met with a scene of bloodshed; the entire Xie family perished without a single survivor.

A chill gradually crept into her eyes. No one knew the bone-chilling coldness that spread throughout her body when she first learned of Chi Yan's plans!

How terrified she was of a tragedy repeating itself...

Footsteps sounded behind her. Shen Tangning composed herself and waited quietly for the person to speak.

As Chi Yan gazed at the figure bathed in candlelight, he suddenly hesitated, unsure whether to put his foot down. He couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation, similar to the feeling of returning home with trepidation.

With her intelligence, she would be able to guess the whole story immediately after seeing those things.

He didn't know how she felt about this, but it certainly wasn't good.

"Son-in-law, what are you doing standing at the door?"

Xueqing couldn't stand it any longer and spoke up to remind her.

Startled, Chi Yan forced an awkward smile and stepped inside: "You...aren't you asleep yet?"

Xueqing, being very perceptive, closed the door. Recalling her mistress's reaction during the day, she guessed that the two of them were going to argue.

Maybe she should stay away from it.

Shen Tangning didn't respond. Chi Yan forced himself to walk around to her, scratched the back of his head, feeling extremely uncomfortable. He simply asked directly, "Do you already know everything?"

Her eyes were clear and cold, black and white: "Otherwise, how much longer do you plan to keep this from me?"