Chapter 69

Shen Yu couldn’t figure out why Xie Tingzhou was sulking, and anyway, he didn’t say another word to her until they entered the Wang Mansion. The atmosphere remained icy.

In the afternoon, Chang Liu sensed something was wrong. He stood under the eaves and grabbed Xifeng by the neck.

Chang Liu hadn’t grown much yet, only sixteen in a few months, and he was barely taller than Xifeng’s shoulders.

Xifeng bent over as Chang Liu grabbed him, lowering his voice as he growled, “What are you doing?”

Chang Liu leaned close to his ear and asked, “What’s wrong with His Highness? When we came back earlier, Shi Yu was talking to him, but he ignored her.”

“I don’t know.”

Chang Liu looked him over. “You’re lying. Something must have happened.”

At this reminder, Xifeng suddenly remembered. He had heard something on the carriage earlier.

Seeing his expression, Chang Liu knew there was something going on and immediately asked, “What’s wrong?”

Xifeng glanced towards the window and whispered, “It seems His Highness was… accosted by Shen Yu, and he’s a bit annoyed about it.”

“Good heavens!” Chang Liu shouted, but Xifeng couldn’t even cover his mouth in time.

Inside the room, Xie Tingzhou was playing a game of chess against himself, already unable to concentrate. Now, he was interrupted and asked, “You were found by me, so where would you get a mother?”

Chang Liu ran over to the window and teased, “Your Highness, you’re my real dad. When are you going to find a real mom for me?”

Xie Tingzhou didn’t even lift his head, just flicked his finger, and a chess piece flew out of the window.

Chang Liu hurriedly caught it, then shook his hand in pain, complaining, “Your Highness, that was too hard.”

Xifeng chuckled. “His Highness didn’t force you to catch it. You could have dodged it.”

Chang Liu snorted and tossed the chess piece aside before running off.

He headed straight for the Lu Mingxuan and smelled something delicious as he approached the courtyard gate.

“What are you roasting?” Chang Liu stepped inside.

Chang Liu was crouched by the fire. “We’re roasting sweet potatoes.”

Chang Lui was still a young girl, with an unpredictable temperament. Coupled with Shen Yu being easygoing, she wasn’t a difficult master to serve. Today, when Shen Yu came back, Chang Liu held several sweet potatoes and called out to her brother, asking him to roast sweet potatoes with her.

“Give me one.” Chang Liu also crouched down.

Chang Lui handed him one, complaining that it was too small. She said she wanted to save it for Shen Yu.

Shen Yu reluctantly accepted this little sister amidst the calls of “brother.”

Amidst these calls of “brother,” Shen Yu couldn’t help but wonder if she had been pretending to be a man for too long, causing her to become more and more like one. So she looked into the mirror for a while before coming out.

When she emerged, she saw the two children crouched in the courtyard nibbling on roasted sweet potatoes.

Chang Liu saw Shen Yu come out and threw something to her.

Shen Yu caught it in mid-air, looked at it, and saw that it was a chess piece. She asked, “Is Your Highness inviting me to play chess?”

It had been quite a while since Xie Tingzhou had asked her to play chess.

Chang Liu nodded vaguely with his mouth full of sweet potato.

Shen Yu thought that Xie Tingzhou was in a bad mood today and couldn’t delay. She immediately walked out of the courtyard.

Chang Liu chased after her. “Brother, you haven’t finished eating your roasted sweet potato yet.”

“Someone else will eat it,” Chang Liu snatched it back. “Don’t I have a brother? I’ll let my brother eat all of it today.”

The two of them chased and played, making the Lu Mingxuan unusually lively.

On the other hand, Qing Pu Ju was unusually quiet.

When Shen Yu arrived, she didn’t see Xifeng. There were two guards standing in the corridor, and a Sea Eastern turtle was perched on the windowsill.

Shen Yu walked into the study, where Xie Tingzhou was still playing chess against himself.

Seeing her come in, Xie Tingzhou glanced at her before lowering his head again, asking, “What’s the matter?”

“I’m here to play chess with Your Highness.” Shen Yu sat down across from him and started to clear the pieces from the board.

Xie Tingzhou’s hand hesitated over a chess piece before gently placing it back in the basket.

It was a pity. This endgame was already about to break apart.

I apologize for the mistake. Here’s the corrected translation:

“Now that Liang Jianfang has died in Dali Temple, Dali Temple will surely conduct a thorough investigation. Your arrangements in prison…”

“What are you worried about?” Xie Tingzhou interrupted her, looking at the chessboard. “What arrangements did I make?”

Shen Yu glanced at him. “Dali Temple is heavily guarded. Didn’t you bribe someone to poison him?”

Xie Tingzhou raised an eyebrow. “Who said I had someone poison him?”

Shen Yu looked at him in surprise.

If it wasn’t Xie Tingzhou who had someone poison him, then who wanted to kill Liang Jianfang?

Xie Tingzhou said lightly, “Countless pairs of eyes are watching the Dali Temple, it’s heavily guarded, and the meals are delivered by a dedicated person. There was no poison in Liang Jianfang’s food. Someone just threw a dead mouse in there to scare him.”

“No poison?”

“No.” Xie Tingzhou made his move.

Shen Yu pondered for a moment, then wanted to clap her hands.

This was such a brilliant plan. In fact, all she did that night was give Liang Jianfang a hint, and he ended up scaring himself. In the end, he was scared off by a dead mouse, so no matter how this matter was implicated, it couldn’t be pinned on Xie Tingzhou.

She always acted straightforwardly, whereas Xie Tingzhou was more adept at playing with people’s minds. First it was Zuo Zong, the Deputy of Dali Temple, and then it was Liang Jianfang, all without expending a single soldier, yet he had them both in his grasp.

If she were to really go up against Xie Tingzhou, she probably wouldn’t even know how she’d end up dead.

“Thinking of more mischief?” Xie Tingzhou asked, holding a chess piece.

“I’m thinking that I definitely can’t become Your Highness’s enemy,” Shen Yu said.

Xie Tingzhou looked at her. “Then what do you want to do?”

“An ally, of course,” Shen Yu said confidently. “Allies who support each other.”

Xie Tingzhou chuckled softly, leaning closer with his elbow on the table. “I’m not originally someone who cares about the world. This case has nothing to do with me. In the end, I’m helping you. What about you? What sincerity can you show?”

“Not necessarily,” Shen Yu said. “If you didn’t care about the world, how could the Qingyun Guard have saved Yanliang Pass?”

Whether in her past life or this one, Shen Yu was convinced that Xie Tingzhou cared about the people, because in both lives he went to Yanliang Pass to save people. It just happened earlier in this life.

Revealing one’s sharpness was originally disadvantageous for him.

With a sharp look in his eyes, Xie Tingzhou, halfway through the game, threw down a piece and said, “You mentioned earlier that you were thinking about whether Jiang Lianzhi was involved. Let me tell you, he was.”