“What are we doing here on the Lantern Festival night?” Jiang Yuancheng tightened his clothes against the cold.

He had been about to go to bed when his younger sister dragged him outside.

“To pick up money,” Jiang Yuanxi whispered.

Pick up money?

Was there really such a good thing?

He had once found 150 taels before, but it was soon lost again.

Luckily, it wasn’t his money; otherwise, he would’ve been sick with regret.

This place looked remote, and the deeper they walked, the colder his back felt.

Jiang Yuancheng cautiously followed along.

Jiang Yuanxi pushed open a door, and the two of them slipped inside.

It was pitch dark; nothing could be seen.

“Don’t worry, brother. There’s no one here.”

Jiang Yuancheng fumbled around and found a candlestick.

In the process, he tripped over something and nearly fell.

The candlelight flickered to life.

Three corpses lay on the ground, all having met violent deaths.

A swift sword stroke—each one killed in a single blow.

Jiang Yuanxi sighed with regret. They were still too late.

Jiang Yuancheng turned his head and—

“Ah!”

The corpses stared lifelessly, their eyes wide open.

And not just one.

All three of them.

He clamped both hands over his mouth, barely suppressing his scream.

Jiang Yuancheng slowly shuffled backward, hiding behind Jiang Yuanxi.

“Yuanxi, we need to go! Someone’s been killed,” he trembled, his legs shaking.

But they had come here to find money, so there was no way Jiang Yuanxi would leave so easily.

She searched through Wang San’s house from top to bottom but found nothing.

Jiang Yuancheng, trembling like a frightened quail, stayed behind her the entire time.

Finally, Jiang Yuanxi’s gaze landed on the corpses.

She slowly stepped forward, while Jiang Yuancheng shrank into a corner in fear.

At last, she fished out some silver notes from Wang San’s chest and quickly stuffed them into her own pocket.

Jiang Yuancheng saw a flash of white light—his sister had found something and hidden it away.

“Let’s go home.”

Under the cover of night, they climbed back over the wall.

Jiang Yuanxi squatted down under a large tree and started digging.

When she saw the familiar little mound of earth, Jiang Yuancheng suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu.

Wait…

Wasn’t this the same place where he had once buried money?

Could it be…

“Ah!”

A sharp scream in the middle of the night startled the entire household awake.

Madam Chen hurriedly dressed and rushed over, only to find her daughter crying bitterly while clutching a small wooden box.

“What happened?”

Jiang Fengyuan pulled his daughter into his arms to comfort her.

Jiang Yuanxi opened the wooden box and sobbed, “It’s gone! The money is all gone!”

All the money she had saved for so long—gone!

[That thief! They stole my money! One hundred and fifty taels—completely gone!]

Jiang Yuancheng guiltily stood off to the side.

“Someone actually stole my daughter’s money? We must investigate thoroughly,” Jiang Fengyuan said angrily.

Jiang Yuancheng tugged at his father’s sleeve and whispered, “Dad… can we not investigate?”

“Not investigate?”

“Why? Do you know who stole it?”

Jiang Fengyuan’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was enough for everyone to hear.

Jiang Yuanxi stared at her fourth brother without blinking.

“I—I don’t know!” Jiang Yuancheng quickly waved his hands in denial.

What a joke—if he admitted it, his sister would curse him!

But as parents, Madam Chen and Jiang Fengyuan could easily see through their son’s guilty conscience.

“I’ll make it up to you, alright?” Madam Chen took out 200 taels from her pocket.

Jiang Yuanxi glanced at her mother, then threw herself into Jiang Fengyuan’s arms, still sobbing.

[Mom still owes me 3,000 taels! That was my money! Given to me, so it’s mine!]

Jiang Yuanxi cried with such grievance that it took Madam Chen and Jiang Fengyuan a long time to soothe her to sleep.

The next morning, as compensation, Madam Chen personally cooked a braised pork knuckle.

Jiang Yuancheng, tempted, reached out with his chopsticks, only for his mother’s sharp glare to force his hand back.

“After breakfast, go train at the military camp for a whole day,” Jiang Fengyuan ordered, frustrated with his useless fourth son.

“Dad, I have to study!”

Madam Chen said casually, “I’ve already asked for leave on your behalf.”

Jiang Yuancheng’s heart nearly collapsed.

Training under Dad’s supervision? That was a death sentence!

“Dad, Mom…” No one responded.

“Yuanxi, help me!” Jiang Yuancheng pleaded.

Jiang Yuanxi, still munching on the pork knuckle, looked up, her mouth covered in sauce.

“Help? Have you found my money yet?” Jiang Yuanxi blinked.

“Uh…” Jiang Yuancheng gritted his teeth. “Fine, I’ll go!”

That night, a carriage slowly entered Shengjing.

Under Madam Chen’s arrangements, the Chen family moved into a small courtyard in the city.

Hearing the news from her parents, Jiang Yuanxi was overjoyed.

“Grandfather and Grandmother are back! I want to see them!”

Madam Chen tapped her daughter’s nose lightly.

“Not yet.”

She, too, wanted to see her parents and brothers, but now wasn’t the time.

Too many people were watching the Jiang family. Too many people wanted the Chen family dead.

At this critical moment, she couldn’t reveal their existence.

Madam Chen changed into a new outfit and dressed her daughter beautifully.

“Come on, today is your godmother’s wedding banquet. We’re going to attend.”

..

Han Qianhua was remarrying in a short period of time, sparking much gossip in Shengjing.

“A divorced woman can marry again?”

“She’s actually taking a husband. The Han family is wealthy; they need an heir.”

“But isn’t she infertile?”

“So what? He can take a concubine and have a child. They can just register the child under her name.”

Inside a quiet room, Han Qianhua, wearing a phoenix crown, looked sorrowful.

Once her maids finished dressing her, they all left.

“You got divorced so recently, and now you’re already remarrying? You shameless woman.”

A familiar voice came from behind.

Han Qianhua turned around abruptly.

“You?! What are you doing here?” she gasped in shock.

She had never sent an invitation to Yan Song.

After not seeing her for days, the woman before him looked even more dazzling than before.

Yan Song froze, then sneered coldly. “For years, Wu Jiping has been by your side. Were you two secretly together all along?”

Han Qianhua stood up, her beautiful face filled with hatred.

“Yan Song, thinking back on all those years with you disgusts me!”

Yan Song’s gaze darkened, and he grabbed her by the throat.

“Tell me! Were you two together behind my back?”

Han Qianhua sneered. “Before our divorce, I never crossed the line with him.”

“But from now on—I belong to him.”

Yan Song laughed coldly. “You think he’ll want a woman like you? Infertile, destined to be discarded sooner or later.”

He himself wasn’t sure whether his feelings for her were love, habit, or mere possession.

And because of that, even after the divorce, he refused to let another man have what was once his.

His grip tightened.

Han Qianhua realized something was wrong.

“Yan Song, if you kill me today, have you thought of the consequences?”

“Who cares? No one will know it was me.”

His grip tightened further.

Struggling, Han Qianhua blindly grabbed a golden hairpin and stabbed it into his chest.

Yan Song recoiled in pain.

Seizing the chance, Han Qianhua rushed out the door.

“Help!”