As soon as Zhu Ling came out, Yan Shian immediately received the news and personally went to inform Miss Shi.

“Then let him go in for the third time,” Shi Buyu smiled. “I want to see how many people become curious about his background if he goes in and out like this three times. When many people get curious, it becomes harder to keep things hidden.”

Yan Shian nodded slightly and mentioned another matter: “Zeng Zheng is investigating me.”

Zeng Zheng?

Shi Buyu was somewhat surprised. With Yan Shian’s abilities, there shouldn’t be any loose ends to expose, so why would suspicion fall on him?

“As expected of Lord Zeng, who controls the Dali Court—he’s truly capable. That dog emperor doesn’t deserve such a good official,” Shi Buyu cursed the emperor and then looked at Yan Shian. Compared to Zeng Zheng, Yan Shian seemed incomparably better.

“Let him investigate. Let’s see how much he can find.”

Shi Buyu got up and took down a piece of xuan paper with Zeng Zheng’s name on it. “During those extra two days in Qingping County, Brother Ah and I inquired about several people. The one mentioned most was this Zeng Zheng. Brother Ah has a somewhat complicated relationship with him—if you say it’s good, they still dislike each other; if you say it’s bad, whenever one is in trouble, the other will definitely help. They aren’t exactly friends, but they trust each other more than ordinary friends.”

Spreading the paper flat, Shi Buyu added a line of characters on it: “A debt of a meal will surely be repaid; a grudge as small as a eyelash will definitely be avenged.”

“Brother Ah said he’s a man who never forgets a kindness and never lets even a tiny grudge go. This time the emperor is targeting him so fiercely—if it weren’t for your help, the entire Zeng family would have been lost. Even though he’s now safe, his only son Zeng Xian has no future. He must be deeply resentful. Let’s try to win him over.”

Yan Shian’s heart stirred. “Win him over without revealing my identity?”

“No telling,” Shi Buyu shook her head. “The fewer people know your identity, the better. Truly smart people don’t have to reveal everything before they dare to take risks. I think Zeng Zheng is truly smart. Before knowing your identity, he won’t openly surrender to you. Even if he were stripped of office, he would never taint himself with the name of a traitor. But who says the relationship must be concretely established? If there’s mutual benefit, I’m sure he won’t refuse to lend a hand. How does Zeng Xian treat you now?”

“He treats me as a close friend.” Yan Shian smiled a little at this. “He compares everything with Zhuang Nan and Yuan Chen.”

Shi Buyu pondered, “With less attention on the case, has the Floating Life Gathering become lively again?”

Yan Shian nodded. “Yes, recently I’ve received many invitations to elegant gatherings.”

“Go then. This matter still needs time to ferment. Invite those people; it’ll boost your reputation even more.”

“The long winter has no green grass to walk on and few places to go, so leisure is mostly around the stove, cooking snow, brewing tea, and drinking,” Yan Shian laughed. “Now at the Floating Life Gathering, every morning at least ten people have to go fetch snow. There are so many people boiling snow that they had to buy more stoves.”

“…So idle.” Shi Buyu didn’t think much of such refined pleasures. To her, snow was better used to build snowmen.

She clapped her hands. “I knew something was missing in my courtyard! Come on, let’s go build snowmen.”

Snowmen? Yan Shian followed her outside, watching Miss Shi call for Auntie and Yi Sheng. Soon there was the bustling feeling of chickens flying and dogs barking. He thought about the two snow-related activities—brewing tea with snow and building snowmen—and if brewing tea was idle, then building snowmen must be…

“Lord Yan,” Wan Xia was about to come over, saw him standing near the door, and said, “Could you please bring the lady’s cloak along?”

Yan Shian agreed and turned to see the red fox fur cloak hanging there—the very one Miss Shi had been wearing these days, which made her look even livelier.

Shi Buyu obediently stood still for Auntie to tie the cloak but kept chatting nonstop: “Yan Shian, go to the other courtyard and roll a snowball. No one lives there, so the snow should be especially good. Make it this big.”

Wan Xia finished tying and moved aside to give her space.

Shi Buyu gestured a big full hug shape.

Yan Shian pointed to Yi Sheng who was rolling a snowball: “Roll it like that?”

“You don’t know? Oh, right, you’ve never played anything before.” Shi Buyu answered herself without waiting for him to speak, wrapping the cloak tighter. “Come, I’ll teach you.”

Though Shi Buyu wasn’t good at many things—even pruning bougainvillea left the whole patch bare—when it came to play, she was an expert. She first taught Yan Shian to roll a small snowball, then pushed it to roll and roll, watching it get bigger and bigger. Even when it fell into the snow, she laughed happily.

Yan Shian didn’t care that his snowball had gotten smaller after a few rolls; he quickly stepped forward, reached out to help her up, letting her use his strength.

“Did you fall?”

“My clothes hurt.” Shi Buyu patted her arm. “I don’t even know how many layers Auntie dressed me in—didn’t even feel it when I fell.”

Yan Shian heard the sound of her patting and thought, indeed… it was quite thick.

“Hurry and roll.”

Seeing him hesitate, Shi Buyu laughed. “Not ‘hurry and roll’ yourself—roll the snowball!”

Yan Shian understood, but that earlier phrase made his heart sink a little.

“Still don’t know how?” Seeing him lower his head, Shi Buyu thought he was embarrassed, so she squatted and pushed the snowball a bit. “Not bad at all—solid, doesn’t fall apart. Just roll it bigger like this.”

Yan Shian saw she was about to push the snowball again and worried she might fall, so he quickly took over and pushed the snowball continuously until it was much bigger than Shi Buyu’s.

Shi Buyu then taught him to pack the snowball tight and smooth it out, shaping it into a big round belly.

Together they carried the big snowball back to Hongmei Residence and, with Yi Sheng, made a huge snowman—but its belly was just too big, round like she was carrying eight babies, making the short little legs look pitiful.

Yi Sheng, who had also built snowmen at home, had never seen one this funny. He suggested fixing it up a bit, since snow was easy to shape and wouldn’t take much effort.

“No, no, it has to be like this! It looks good!” Shi Buyu hugged the snowman but couldn’t hold on. Seeing that big belly, she squatted down laughing and slapping the ground. How did she end up making such a uniquely different snowman?

Yan Ze, Qing Shan, and others who had wanted to hold back their laughter saw their master laughing first and couldn’t help but laugh out loud too. This snowman looked like it was teasing you—what on earth was Miss Shi thinking?!

After playing happily, Shi Buyu was made to drink three bowls of ginger-sugar water by Auntie and then covered with blankets until she sweated before being released. But when she got to the door and looked at the snowman, she laughed again.

This snowman—how did it end up looking like this? Ha ha ha ha!

Yan Shian returned to his room and smilingly sketched the scene from earlier.

Next to the comically shaped snowman, Yi Sheng stared blankly at it, the fiery red-clad young lady laughed while slapping the ground, Auntie carried steaming ginger-sugar water, and not far off Yan Ze, Qing Shan, and Zhai Zhi smiled in various expressions.

The hand holding the brush paused, then he painted his own deep blue silhouette behind that splash of red.