The Han Xing Residence was brightly lit, having been rented out for a private event. Behind a screen, two shadowy figures could be seen.
Yan Seventh Young Master recounted the situation in detail.
"Last autumn and winter, there was a major case of treason involving the illegal sale of high-quality weapons from the Ministry of War. It led to a joint trial by three ministries. The case was extremely serious, threatening national security, and enraged the Emperor. The Eleventh Young Master, trusted by the Emperor, was temporarily appointed as the chief judge from the Ministry of Justice to lead the investigation of this major case, given his status as a royal prince."
"The Eleventh Young Master and I have been close friends for many years. When he entrusted me with this important matter, I couldn't refuse. I also became involved in this case, and at the beginning of the year, we captured a key witness... which led to the drunken assault incident in early spring."
Ying Xiaoman listened in shock.
Key witness... she had some impression of this, seeming to recall Sui Miao mentioning it.
[An innocent person died in a place they shouldn't have]
"Is this the key witness who died suddenly a few days ago?"
Yan Seventh Young Master nodded in confirmation.
"After I returned to the Yan family, someone was secretly tracking my movements. I lured them out and caught two of them. You were there that night and saw it."
"Just as we caught the trackers, the Eleventh Young Master happened to be interrogating the key witness alone. Given his status, he promised to spare the witness's life if they revealed the mastermind behind it all. The witness said they would think about it."
"That night, the key witness suddenly died in prison. The Eleventh Young Master faced significant repercussions because of this. I urgently entered the palace to personally explain the situation to the Emperor. Afterwards, I worked day and night to break the trackers and investigate relevant officials and clerks, attempting to uncover the hidden hand behind the silencing."
"The Eleventh Young Master has been frequenting the Ministry of Justice recently because he's the chief judge from the Ministry of Justice for the joint trial. He is not Yan Rongshi, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Justice."
Ying Xiaoman listened in shock, her mouth slightly agape. After a long moment, she finally said, "Really?"
"Every word is true. Do you want me to swear an oath?"
Ying Xiaoman shook her head, looking dazed.
Thinking carefully, the Eleventh Young Master's grand manner and travel escorts indeed didn't seem like those of an ordinary noble. If Yan Seventh Young Master was telling the truth, the Eleventh Young Master was indeed surnamed Zhao, a royal prince raised in the palace, the Emperor's direct nephew...
Then she had been tracking the wrong person for months!
"The Eleventh Young Master isn't my enemy. He's from the Zhao family, not the Yan family. Then... where is my enemy?"
Ying Xiaoman asked in confusion, "Who exactly is the head of the Yan family in Changle Alley, my enemy Yan Rongshi?"
Yan Seventh Young Master looked at her with complex emotions: "Yan Rongshi, of course, is someone else. If he were to appear before you in person, he would be someone you never expected. Xiaoman, would you—"
"Wait!" Ying Xiaoman suddenly remembered something.
The night she disguised herself as "Qingping" and infiltrated the Yan family, several stewards had said in unison, in front of many servants: "The Young Master has returned, and there's an honored guest." She had been there that night!
"I know now." A flash of insight crossed her mind, and Ying Xiaoman slapped the table in realization:
"That cunning official Yan Rongshi, hiding himself so deeply."
Her enemy rarely appeared in public. That night in the Yan family mansion, she had finally seen her enemy face to face.
["The Young Master has returned, and there's an honored guest"]
She had misunderstood this statement.
It turned out that the Eleventh Young Master, Zhao Qizhen, wearing a purple robe and being a royal prince, was the honored guest mentioned by the stewards that night.
It turned out that the unfamiliar man in a vermilion narrow-sleeved robe accompanying the honored guest, the Eleventh Young Master, was actually the head of the Yan family, Yan Rongshi!
That night, her attention had been entirely focused on the "enemy" who strode in and Yan Seventh Young Master who went out to greet him. She hadn't paid much attention to the man in the vermilion robe accompanying the Eleventh Young Master.
Now, no matter how hard she tried to recall, she only remembered that the man had an ordinary appearance, was half a head shorter than the Eleventh Young Master, with only a pair of sharp, hawk-like eyes that flashed with intelligence, leaving a slight impression on her.
It didn't matter. As long as she knew who her enemy was, she could slowly search and eventually find the right person.
Ying Xiaoman's mood lightened. She folded the drawing paper on the table back to its original form and returned it to Yan Seventh Young Master: "Thank you for telling me. Now I finally know who Yan Rongshi is."
Yan Seventh Young Master: "..."
"No, Xiaoman, look at this drawing again, think carefully."
Yan Seventh Young Master unfolded the drawing and handed it back to her, "I think you've probably misunderstood again..."
"This time it can't be wrong." Ying Xiaoman counted on her fingers as she explained to him.
"The night I looked for you in the East Garden, I had actually snuck into the Yan family early. That night at lamp-lighting time, the Yan family had guests. Several stewards were shouting, 'The Young Master has returned, and there's an honored guest.' Shortly after, the Eleventh Young Master in a purple robe and Yan Rongshi in a red robe appeared. I saw it with my own eyes. You were also there that night."
Yan Seventh Young Master was indeed there that night. After a brief thought, he realized that Xiaoman had mistaken Wu Xun, the Military Police Commander who was escorting the Eleventh Young Master that night, for Yan Rongshi!
He silently took a sip of tea.
Having just cleared up the misunderstanding about the Eleventh Young Master, and with Xiaoman likely to stop attempting to assassinate him, would she now start targeting Military Police Commander Wu?
Wu Xun was one of the most skilled fighters among the tens of thousands of imperial guards protecting the imperial city!
Even the finest Dragon Phoenix tea lost its flavor in his mouth.
Yan Seventh Young Master drank half a cup of tea, put down the empty cup, cut out a foot-long blank section from the Eleventh Young Master's portrait paper, turning one sheet into two, dipped his brush in ink, and continued drawing.
He used a freehand style for his portraits, capturing the most precise essence of the person. With a few strokes, a man with sharp eyes and a lean, fit build appeared on the paper.
Ying Xiaoman was pouring tea into the empty cups on both sides. After putting down the teapot, she leaned in to look closely for a few moments, "It's him, Yan Rongshi. Yan Seventh Young Master, you draw so well. Now I remember his appearance."
But Yan Seventh Young Master shook his head: "He's not Yan Rongshi either."
Ying Xiaoman: ...?
Under her astonished gaze, Yan Seventh Young Master picked up his brush and continued to write an inscription in the blank space of the portrait:
[Military Police Commander Wu Xun]
He handed both portrait papers, with the drawn likeness and the written inscription, to Ying Xiaoman:
"Do you recognize all the characters? This man's surname is Wu, he works in the imperial guards, and has no connection to the Yan family. He came with the Eleventh Young Master that night."
"..."
Ying Xiaoman sat under the lamp, holding the two portraits in her hands, comparing them back and forth.
Yan Seventh Young Master held a small copper pick and stood up to brighten each lamp wick in the illuminated lamp stand.
The young woman under the lamp stared at the two drawings in a daze.
At lamp-lighting time, the Yan family had guests. Several stewards were all shouting, "The Young Master has returned, and there's an honored guest."
According to Yan Seventh Young Master's explanation, the one who strode in was the royal prince, the honored guest Eleventh Young Master Zhao. The man in the red robe walking beside him was Wu Xun, a military official of the imperial guards. The one who came out to greet them from the side corridor was Yan Seventh Young Master himself.
None of the three that night was Yan Rongshi. Then where was Yan Rongshi, the head of the Yan family, the Young Master who the Yan family stewards unanimously shouted had "returned"?
Ying Xiaoman's head was buzzing.
She unconsciously tightened her grip on the papers, crumpling them into balls in her hands.
Either Yan Seventh Young Master was lying to her, or all those Yan family stewards had lied to her face that night.
When she crossed Dongming Bridge in the afternoon, she had been thinking that although Yan Seventh Young Master had stopped her from taking action in the dark alley, she had killed his brother in front of him. Even if the brothers didn't have a good relationship, perhaps she had still put Yan Seventh Young Master in a difficult position.
When she walked into the teahouse, she had still been thinking that even if Yan Seventh Young Master had indeed deceived her before, and there was no deep blood feud between him and Yan Rongshi, but on the contrary, the brothers had a good relationship, which was why he protected his own brother... as long as he told the truth, she could accept it.
But now, what kind of explanation had he given her face to face?
She had been tracking the wrong person, none of them was her enemy Yan Rongshi, so where was Yan Rongshi? How could such a big person just vanish into thin air?!
A loud bang of a fist hitting the table echoed through the quiet teahouse.
The young man by the window who was trimming the candle wicks with a copper pick turned his head in response, looking over.
Ying Xiaoman angrily slammed the two crumpled drawings onto the table:
"From now on, don't speak! I'll ask one question, you answer one. And when you answer, don't open your mouth to say long sentences! Just say yes or no."
Yan Seventh Young Master was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly.
In Ying Xiaoman's eyes was reflected the tall, pine-and-bamboo-like figure of Yan Seventh Young Master, with the room full of candlelight at his side.
Her eyes also flickered with fire — sparks of anger rising.
Her first question was direct: "Your relationship with Yan Rongshi isn't at all the 'deep blood feud' you said it was, you've been lying to me from the beginning, right?"
Yan Seventh Young Master looked at her deeply for a moment, then answered: "Yes."
Ying Xiaoman held her breath in her chest, unable to exhale for a long time.
It was indeed so.
She pressed with a second question, "You two actually have a very good relationship, don't you? That's why you keep covering for him."
Yan Seventh Young Master thought for a long while, his head aching. He opened his mouth, only to answer, "Yes, and no."
Ying Xiaoman: ?
"I told you to answer only yes or no, why are you being difficult?"
Yan Seventh Young Master: "I'm answering truthfully, with absolutely no intention of being difficult..."
"Shut up," Ying Xiaoman said angrily. "I told you not to speak."
Yan Seventh Young Master obediently closed his mouth.
While he fell silent, she hadn't figured out how to ask questions to extract information bit by bit from this clam shell.
Ying Xiaoman lowered her head and pondered for a while. Unable to come up with a good strategy for questioning, her heart, which had been burning with anger, gradually calmed down a bit.
It was still that sudden realization she had that night in the East Garden:
Revenge is revenge, but Seventh Young Master is Seventh Young Master.
No matter how complicated the revenge business became, she didn't want to be separated from Seventh Young Master.
She had actually already guessed that Seventh Young Master and Yan Rongshi were extremely close brothers. When she didn't know this before, asking Seventh Young Master to help kill his own brother had indeed put him in a difficult position.
Since Seventh Young Master was caught in the middle, it was better not to involve him at all.
"I know you're in a difficult position," she said, calming herself down and turning to Seventh Young Master:
"Forget it, you don't need to explain anything. I figured it out that night in the East Garden – revenge is revenge, you are you. From now on, I'll seek revenge against Yan Rongshi on my own. Seventh Young Master, I just have one last thing to ask you—"
She wore an extremely solemn expression in the lamplight: "This is crucial. Seventh Young Master, I need you to answer honestly."
Yan Seventh Young Master turned to look at her in the lamplight.
Noticing her serious expression, he thought for a moment, walked over to the square tea table, sat down beside her again, and held her hand.
Ying Xiaoman gripped his hand in return. Her emotions were turbulent, her feelings fluctuating, and her palm unconsciously started to sweat.
Seventh Young Master's warm palm patted hers reassuringly.
Their hands clasped each other, their gazes met, and Yan Seventh Young Master nodded once.
Ying Xiaoman then solemnly uttered words that were of utmost importance to her: "I care for you, Seventh Young Master."
"The feud between the Ying family and the Yan family will end after I kill the Yan family head, Yan Rongshi. After the revenge is complete, I'm willing to be with you, to take my mother and Azhi with us, whether we stay in the capital or go elsewhere, to spend our lives together."
"But I will have killed your close brother. Will you still want to be with me? Will you report me to the authorities? Will you testify against me? Seventh Young Master, answer me honestly. Just say yes or no."
Yan Seventh Young Master gazed at her in the lamplight.
As he listened, his eyes once again revealed that complex expression from the night of the attack in the East Garden, seeming to hold both joy and sorrow.
"I cannot answer your questions with just 'yes' or 'no'. Some answers are 'yes', some are 'no'."
Ying Xiaoman: ...?
Ying Xiaoman's fingers unconsciously tightened.
"You mean, you're willing to be with me, but you'll report me to the authorities?"
"No."
"You won't report me to the authorities, but you're no longer willing to be with me?"
"No." Yan Seventh Young Master felt a bit of a headache. The current situation absolutely could not be explained clearly with just 'yes' and 'no', so he had to speak in longer sentences.
"Of course I won't report you to the authorities. But if you want to successfully take your revenge in the next ten days or half a month, then I can't be with you. It's not that I'm unwilling, but that I can't."
"In the current situation, Xiaoman, your wish to avenge your father and your wish to spend a long life together with me cannot be achieved simultaneously. You need to think clearly and choose one of the two. Unless..."
Regarding the Ying family's revenge, he had been pondering for a long time. The key to unraveling this deadlock lay in the root cause of the "family feud".
Xiaoman was seeking revenge for her adoptive father's main family, not for her adoptive father himself, which left much room for negotiation.
— What if it could be proven that this revenge was unnecessary in the first place?
But investigation would take time. Xiaoman had found new helpers. After the flying claw incident, she wanted to take revenge as soon as possible.
The snow piled on the mountaintop was already teetering, ready to crash down at any moment.
Ying Xiaoman sat before him, asking with frustration and confusion, "...Why can't both be achieved? Why must I choose only one of the two?"
Another question difficult to explain.
Yan Seventh Young Master stood up and stepped out from behind the screen.
He went to ask the tea master for a sheet of white paper.
Under Ying Xiaoman's unwavering gaze, he spread the white paper on the table and, with just a few strokes, sketched out a new portrait.
His brush moved without hesitation, drawing extremely quickly, outlining the figure clearly.
A full forehead, refined features, and a pair of slightly upturned phoenix eyes that were gentle and bright.
After drawing the last stroke, he dipped his brush in ink, the tip hovering over the blank space, and looked at the young woman before him.
Ying Xiaoman guessed he was about to write a title and smiled, saying, "Seventh Young Master."
Yan Seventh Young Master wrote down the two characters for "Seventh Young Master", then added the character "Yan" in front.
"The Seventh Young Master of the Yan family," he said, handing the third portrait to Ying Xiaoman.
"Now I'm giving you these portraits, and it's up to you to decide. Either we delay the revenge and investigate the root cause thoroughly. Or if you insist on taking revenge quickly... I'll arrange for you to leave the capital, and after it's done, you can take your mother and Azhi to live somewhere safe."
"Why?" Ying Xiaoman clutched the third portrait, confused and conflicted, with a hint of hurt in her confusion.
"So if I take revenge quickly and kill your brother... you won't want anything to do with me anymore, is that it?"
"No," Yan Seventh Young Master denied. His expression was complex, showing both joy and a hint of sadness as he looked at the young woman whose eyes were starting to redden:
"I was very happy to hear you say you care for me just now. Xiaoman, I care for you too."
"The night you snuck into the Yan residence, an honored guest arrived, and Young Master Yan Rongshi went out to greet them. There were only three people present that day, and you saw them with your own eyes. They were Eleventh Young Master, Wu Xun, and me."
Under the bright lights of the tea house, the three portraits were laid out in front of Ying Xiaoman.
Yan Seventh Young Master said softly, "At this point, can you still not guess which of these three portraits is Yan Rongshi?"
"..." Ying Xiaoman sat at the tea table, her head starting to buzz again.
Now, three portraits were arranged side by side in front of her.
One of them was clearly the enemy she had been tracking for months, yet Seventh Young Master insisted it wasn't, saying it was his friend Eleventh Young Master;
The high-ranking official in the red robe whom the Yan family's stewards had unanimously called "Young Master is back" and whom she had deduced to be Yan Rongshi, Seventh Young Master again said wasn't him, but a temporary visitor from the Imperial Guard.
After all that talk, in the end—
The missing Yan Rongshi had been pinned on Seventh Young Master himself?
Was she really that easy to fool?!
She glared at the young man before her. Sure enough, Yan Seventh Young Master began to dip his brush in ink, continuing to write after the three characters "Yan Seventh Young Master" on the portrait, adding the character "Rong".
He had just written the "sun" radical of the next character when, plop, a large teardrop splashed onto the wooden tea table.
His gaze, which had been focused on writing, shifted over. Seventh Young Master reached out to wipe away her tears, but Ying Xiaoman swatted his hand away with a smack.
"You don't need to do this!"
Ying Xiaoman stood up abruptly, shouting angrily, "After all that talk, going round and round, saying none of them is the one, you end up pinning it on yourself?!"
The anger she had been suppressing in her heart surged upwards, rushing straight to the top of her head.
She pointed furiously at the three portraits in front of her:
"No wonder you wanted to draw portraits! You were afraid just writing names wouldn't be enough to confuse me, weren't you? You really are the Seventh Young Master of the Yan family, willing to risk even your own life to save your brother?!"
Yan Seventh Young Master was stunned for a moment, then showed an expression caught between laughing and crying. "Xiaoman, don't be angry, let's talk calmly."
Ying Xiaoman couldn't calm down.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became, her temper flaring.
That night, there were three people present from the Yan family.
One high-ranking official in a purple robe, one in a red robe, and Seventh Young Master.
Among the three, one was an honored guest, and one was the family head Yan Rongshi.
Seventh Young Master, taking advantage of her not knowing the identities of the other two, blatantly lied, pinning one with the name of his good friend Eleventh Young Master, and the other with the name of an unrelated person.
To stop her from taking revenge, he forcibly pinned Yan Rongshi's identity on himself, arguing about "cannot be achieved simultaneously" and "choose one of the two"...
"Bullshit!" Ying Xiaoman was so angry her voice trembled:
"You can't bear to sacrifice your brother's life, so you use your own life to force me to give up avenging my father? Dream on!"
After a moment of stunned silence between them, Ying Xiaoman angrily slammed the table and stood up. "Yan Seventh, you liar! You're deceiving me again!"
Yan Seventh Young Master: "..."
"Xiaoman, calm down, sit down and let's talk slowly." Seeing the situation wasn't good, Yan Seventh Young Master stood up to take her hand, but Ying Xiaoman shook it off and walked away, wiping her eyes fiercely as she left.
She was crying from anger.
The tea master stood guard at the edge of the tea pavilion, ready to attend to the distinguished guest at any moment. Hearing a rapid series of footsteps, he barely had time to turn his head before the young lady he had become familiar with over the past few months swept past the pavilion like a violent storm, leaving the dumbfounded tea master behind and vanishing in an instant.
To think that the young lady, as vibrant as spring blossoms on March branches, could run so fast while holding up her skirts!
Another set of footsteps sounded as the distinguished guest who had reserved the tea house emerged, stopping at the edge of the pavilion. In the dim starlight of the night, he gazed at the young lady's silhouette as she raced down the long street like a whirlwind.
Several attendants gathered around him. Sui Miao asked in a low voice, "Still couldn't explain clearly?"
"I did," Yan Seventh Young Master sighed softly. "She doesn't believe me."
The tea master, showing great perceptiveness, brought over a horse and a cloak. As the distinguished guest mounted, he eagerly suggested: "The young lady is usually very even-tempered. It's rare for her to lose her temper today. Would the esteemed guest like to reserve the place again to continue the conversation next time?"
The young nobleman shook his head.
Before leaving, however, he handed over a full string of coins as a reward and instructed the tea master:
"You chat well with her usually. The next time she comes to stand outside the pavilion to shelter from the rain, continue to make small talk with her as before. She's new to the capital and unfamiliar with many things here. If she asks about anything, answer her truthfully. There's no need to mention me in the conversation; it would only upset her."