Jiang Yanyi said, “It’s right next to the Protectorate.”

Today’s assassination attempt must not have been simple.

Chu Changping probably went to Feng Shuo’s place to discuss this matter.

When Chu Changping heard that Jiang Yanyi’s medical hall was next to the Protectorate, his brow furrowed instinctively.

But then he thought that perhaps it was the Prince of Liaonan who wanted to make it easier to send people to protect Jiang Yanyi, so he said nothing.

Since Jiang Yanyi couldn’t put weight on her injured foot, and there were no maidservants by her side, Chu Changping had to support his niece as they walked out. “I’ll buy you a few maidservants when we get back.”

Jiang Yanyi thought about her already cramped little courtyard and the monthly wages she had to pay to the maidservants.

She immediately felt a pang in her heart and declined, “Thank you for your kindness, Uncle, but this arrangement is just fine for now. I’ve gotten used to it, especially since the frontier is different from the capital.”

Earlier, Chu Changping had been so overjoyed to see his niece that he was momentarily dazed.

Now, as he slowly calmed down and listened to Jiang Yanyi’s words, he felt that she was vastly different from the niece he remembered.

That delicate and willful girl had been tempered into this kind of person while living on the frontier.

His niece had matured, which should have made Chu Changping happy.

Yet at this moment, he felt only heaviness in his heart.

What had she gone through to be forced to grow up so quickly?

A hint of bitterness welled up in his eyes as he said, “Ayi, as long as Uncle is here, everything will remain the same as before. Even if you’re no longer the legitimate daughter of the Jiang family, you are still my Chu family’s cousin. You don’t have to be so hard on yourself, do you understand?”

Perhaps it was blood ties at play; hearing these words made Jiang Yanyi feel a surge of emotions, and tears welled up in her eyes. “I understand, Uncle.”

Outside the medical hall, there were people around, and Jiang Yanyi didn’t want to cry in front of strangers, so she held back her tears.

Lu Linyuan had a cut on his hand and was sitting on a bamboo chair outside the medical hall while the doctor was bandaging his wound.

When Lu Linyuan had called off the engagement, Chu Changping was still in Yongzhou, thousands of miles away.

Even if he was furious, he couldn’t do anything to Lu Linyuan.

Now that he saw him, with old grievances mixing with new ones, he was ready to confront him. “How can the Lu family, who prides itself on being noble, do such a thing? What wrong did our Chu family’s young lady do to you? You want to publicly break off the engagement and ruin her reputation?”

Once a girl is jilted, regardless of whether it was her fault or not, she would be mocked, and her prospects for marriage would plummet.

It would be nearly impossible to find a good match afterward, as families of similar standing wouldn’t want to marry into a family known for jilted engagements; otherwise, it would be like picking up someone else’s discarded shoe, which would be a laughingstock.

Jiang Yanyi quickly stopped him. “Uncle, it’s all in the past.”

Now, she didn’t want to have anything to do with Lu Linyuan, nor did she want him to misunderstand that she had any lingering feelings for him.

Chu Changping saw Jiang Yanyi stopping him and thought his niece still had feelings for Lu Linyuan.

He felt both anger and sorrow, shouting, “You silly girl, why are you still protecting him at this time!”

Jiang Yanyi felt her scalp tingle with embarrassment. “I’m not! Uncle, let the past stay in the past. It was my own obsession back then!”

That engagement had originally been forced upon her, and if there was any fault on Lu Linyuan’s part, it was that he hadn’t resisted his domineering mother and had been coerced into accepting the marriage.

In a nearby carriage, Feng Shuo was watching the scene outside the medical hall through the half-raised curtain, his lips nearly pressed into a straight line.

Wasn’t she just protecting Lu Linyuan?

He knew they had been engaged.

He had his own pride, and he hadn’t sent anyone to investigate their past, but at this moment, he was overwhelmingly curious about what had transpired between them.

She had said she had hidden many things from him and needed to think clearly before deciding whether to accept his feelings.

Did that include Lu Linyuan?

Having been out for a while, the cold wind pierced through him. Even though he was wrapped in a fox fur coat, the injury on his back still throbbed with pain.

Feng Shuo coughed softly into his hand.

Xing Yao, outside the carriage, heard Feng Shuo cough and said with concern, “Your Highness, let’s head back to the manor.”

Feng Shuo’s gaze lingered on that graceful figure for a long time before he lowered the curtain. “Investigate everything about her and Lu Linyuan’s past, and don’t miss a single detail.”

His cold voice made Xing Yao’s heart tremble.

Jiang Yanyi felt a sharp gaze land on her, and she looked around, spotting a grand carriage slowly driving away at the corner of the street.

From too far away, she couldn’t see the insignia on the carriage, but she inexplicably felt that the gaze she had just sensed came from within it.

At that moment, the doctor finished bandaging Lu Linyuan’s arm.

To Lu Linyuan, Jiang Yanyi’s words about being “obsessed and unaware” sounded inexplicably harsh.

She had indeed been “obsessed and unaware” in the past, and one could even say it was shameless.

But now that these words came from her own mouth, Lu Linyuan suddenly felt that her previous affections for him had become insubstantial, like fine sand creating an illusion that, when struck by the phrase “obsessed and unaware,” scattered everywhere, making it impossible to find again.

He suppressed his inexplicable emotions, stood up, and bowed to Chu Changping. “Regarding the breaking of the engagement, I owe Miss Jiang an apology. But matters of the heart cannot be forced.”

Chu Changping held back his anger and looked at the young man bowing in front of him. “You think saying ‘I’m sorry’ is enough? What she lost is almost a lifetime.”

If not for that engagement, there wouldn’t have been any unwarranted joy, and after the engagement was broken, there wouldn’t have been such an unmerited disaster.

Chu Changping was a rough man, but he understood his niece’s character; she wouldn’t act recklessly unless she was at her wits’ end.

He had long witnessed the favoritism of Jiang Shangshu.

He remembered a New Year’s celebration at the Jiang family when Jiang Yanyi was only five years old.

Jiang Shangshu brought his illegitimate daughter to greet guests, ignoring his legitimate daughter.

If guests didn’t ask, they would think that the illegitimate daughter was the true daughter of the Jiang family.

The five-year-old girl had hidden in the backyard, crying secretly.

Chu Changping had carried his little niece out to the street to see the lanterns, buying her a pile of little toys to cheer her up.

But when he returned her home, the little girl was still pouting and crying, her tears rolling down like beads: “Uncle, Daddy doesn’t like me. No one likes me…”

From that moment on, Chu Changping resolved that his Chu family’s cousin would be cherished by him and the Chu family.

What others had, his niece would not lack.

He knew that the child had always been sensitive and that his sister, Madam Jiang, was overly indulgent.

She often verbally abused the illegitimate daughters and concubines in front of the child.

He had talked to Madam Jiang many times, but she never learned from her mistakes.

The hatred instilled by her mother and the unfair treatment from her father made his niece spoiled and willful from a young age.

Whenever she had the chance, she would target her half-sister.

After years of minor skirmishes, the girl ultimately developed thoughts that could ruin her reputation, likely because she knew her engagement had been annulled, and Lu Linyuan was threatening to marry the concubine’s daughter.

It was at that point that she truly went down the wrong path.

Chu Changping’s words weighed heavily on Lu Linyuan’s heart.

He wanted to say something, but Chu Changping had already stopped a bullock cart and took Jiang Yanyi away.

Next to the medical clinic stood a locust tree.

In the late autumn and early winter, the withered leaves fell to the ground. Lu Linyuan watched the girl sitting on the cart gradually receding into the distance.

As the wind blew, more dried leaves spun down from the locust tree and landed at his feet.

He had always felt that Jiang Yanyi’s current predicament was entirely self-inflicted and had nothing to do with him. Yet, at this moment, he inexplicably felt a pang of guilt and unease.

---

By the time Jiang Yanyi returned to the shop, it was already afternoon.

After Chu Changping dropped her off, he headed to the neighboring Feng residence.

Although he looked travel-worn, his demeanor was impressive, and a few confidants accompanied him, giving him an imposing presence.

As soon as Chu Changping left, the neighbors, under the pretext of showing concern for Jiang Yanyi, entered the shop to inquire about her.

“Manager Jiang, that nobleman who personally helped you into the shop—is he your relative?”

Jiang Yanyi smiled and nodded, saying, “He’s my uncle, here from the capital to visit me.”

Upon hearing he was from the capital, the crowd regarded him with even more awe.

“I knew Manager Jiang’s demeanor was not something ordinary people could have; your uncle must be quite capable!”

“Manager Jiang, is your uncle married? I have a niece, although she’s just turned ten, but she’s quite talented and beautiful…”

“Your niece is just a common girl; how could she be worthy of him?”

“You, a widowed tofu seller, my niece is still a virgin and is even better than you!”

…

Even though her uncle was a handsome man, Jiang Yanyi did not expect people to inquire about marriage so quickly.

She awkwardly chuckled, “Neighbors, I’m feeling unwell today, so I can’t entertain you. I’ll invite you over another day.”

The news of the assassination in the southern part of the city had already spread like wildfire.

Upon hearing Jiang Yanyi’s words and noticing the bandages on her feet, the neighbors exchanged a few comforting words before leaving.

Only then did Jiang Yanyi let out a sigh of relief, closing the shop door and heading to the backyard.

Aunt Guo seemed to have recognized her identity and was likely worried that Jiang Yanyi would overthink things, so she returned to report to Feng Shuo and didn’t come back to the shop.

Jiang Yanyi, however, hadn’t thought that much; she wanted to thank Aunt Guo in person.

If it weren’t for her today, her situation could have been dire.

She planned to mention Aunt Guo when she brought herbal dishes to Feng Shuo tomorrow.

But thinking of Feng Shuo made Jiang Yanyi feel chaotic; she hadn’t figured out how to face him.

How to describe this feeling? It was as if an adult were reviewing their embarrassing childhood stories.

She previously hadn’t realized that Feng Shuo had long seen through her identity, and now she had been pretending…

Just thinking about it made Jiang Yanyi feel suffocated.

She temporarily pushed these thoughts aside and began to assess the vegetables stored in the backyard.

Although business at the shop had been slow today, the ingredients had been ordered a day in advance.

The yard was piled with lamb and various vegetables, and Jiang Yanyi felt quite troubled by it.

Fortunately, most of the vegetables at this time of year were hardy ones like greens and radishes, but the freshly slaughtered lambs were more challenging to deal with.

Standing in the yard, she put her hands on her hips and looked for a moment, saying to the okra, “Let’s roast a whole lamb, then make a lamb hot pot. As for the lamb chops… let’s make smoked lamb chops. If we can’t finish the leftover lamb, we can set up a shed to smoke it into cured lamb.”

She had to host a welcoming feast for her uncle tonight.

There were about ten confidants who had come to Xizhou with Chu Changping, which was just enough to help her deal with the ingredients that hadn’t sold today.

Later, she would also send someone to the butcher and other suppliers to inform them that they needn’t send ingredients to her shop for the next couple of days.

The Hu family had tarnished her shop’s reputation.

Now, even if she continued to operate, business would still be poor.

Two of the three big men were dead, and the remaining one was captured by Feng Shuo.

Once he was interrogated about what he knew regarding today’s assassination, she would also find out whether the dead cat at her shop entrance had anything to do with the Hu family.

Once everything was clarified, her hot pot restaurant could continue to operate.

For the next two days, she could take a break and let her foot heal.