I've suppressed you for five years, don't you hate me?

It was said to be "on the way back to the manor," but upon closer questioning, it turned out Xiao Jinghong had just departed from Guangyuan in northern Shuzhou and was expected to arrive in five days.

As for the birthday gift she had prepared, it caught Chen Yi off guard—he hadn't expected her to put in as much effort as Xiao Wan'er.

Yan Hong, with great caution, had his men carry the chest into Chunhe Garden and introduced it, saying:

"This was carved from a giant tortoise shell specially sourced from Guangyue Prefecture, named 'Fu Lu Shou San Yuan Qi Hui.'"

On the back of the nearly ten-foot-long tortoise shell, three figures with distinct expressions were carved in openwork—one holding a peach, one clutching a gold ingot, and one bearing a character for "fortune."

The interior of the shell was filled with something crystalline, resembling resin.

One glance told it was priceless, and it couldn't have been carved in a day or two—it must have been a lavish gift Xiao Jinghong had prepared months or even a year in advance.

After viewing it, Chen Yi closed the chest again.

After a moment's thought, he instructed Xiao Die to go find the mounting master from before and ask about the progress of the birthday ode scroll.

After all, ten days had passed—even if it were inlaid with gold and jade, it should have been finished by now.

Then Chen Yi led Xiao Wuge back to the pavilion, took out a fishing rod, and began his daily fishing endeavor.

He refused to believe that not a single fish could be caught from this pond—was it really some kind of natural curse?

Yan Hong watched his retreating figure, stunned for a moment, then quietly asked Wang Lixing beside him:

"Is the son-in-law always like this?"

Wang Lixing didn't answer immediately; he waved his hand to indicate they should talk outside.

Once outside Chunhe Garden, meeting up with Ge Laosan and the others, Wang Lixing looked around and asked, "Where's Fourth Brother?"

Ge Laosan said, "Fourth Brother said he had to go back for something—should be back soon."

Wang Lixing frowned slightly, then relaxed, and said to Yan Hong beside him:

"The son-in-law has been much calmer lately. At first, he spent all day in the side room reading and copying the family rules."

"Later, the eldest miss let him stay in the garden, so he spent his days fishing and drinking tea, occasionally practicing calligraphy or reading, until the second miss's letter arrived, allowing him to leave the manor."

Mentioning Chen Yi's two trips out of the manor, Wang Lixing's face showed a hint of awkwardness, and he found the rest hard to say.

The first time, he went to Yanhuaxiang in the south of the city, and because he brought the young marquis along, he incurred the second master's punishment.

The second time was even stranger—he said he was going to watch the Third Place Scholar Parade.

But in the end, to help Li Huaigu and Yunniang, he pretended to be a villain forcibly seizing a woman and nearly got beaten by the Disciplinary Hall.

After hearing this, Yan Hong said thoughtfully, "The son-in-law seems to have changed a lot compared to before."

"Oh?" Wang Lixing thought back for a moment. "I almost forgot—after the son-in-law first arrived in Shuzhou, you were the one accompanying him."

Yan Hong nodded, a trace of emotion on his face. "That time the son-in-law fled the marriage nearly cost me my head."

Wang Lixing looked sympathetic. "When I heard the news of his escape, Fourth Brother and I were on guard duty in the manor—it really caught us off guard."

Yan Hong smiled bitterly. "Strange to say, that day the wedding procession set out from Fengchun Tower in the north city. Not far along, they ran into another wedding procession. While they were yielding to each other, the son-in-law slipped away."

"Luckily, the second miss later led us to find him, allowing us to redeem ourselves. Otherwise, I and several other brothers would have lost our heads."

Wang Lixing patted his shoulder, offered a few words of comfort, and asked, "Did the second miss find anything during her inspection of the three towns?"

Yan Hong glanced at him and shook his head. "Not for now."

Seeing his reticence, Wang Lixing didn't press further—matters of military affairs were often confidential.

Getting a "nothing happened" was enough.

Xiao Manor, front courtyard.

Liu Si'er, clad in full armor, with his helmet fastened tight and neck guard pulled low, nearly covering half his face.

He walked unhurriedly to the gatekeeper's room on the right side of the main gate and knocked on the innermost door.

Without waiting for the person inside to speak, he tossed in a yellowed slip of paper and said in a low voice, "Urgent matter, don't blame me for breaking the rules."

"This is the last letter for now—the second miss is about to return to the manor."

With that, Liu Si'er reached in, grabbed the gourd ladle hanging inside the door, loudly said a word of thanks, and retraced his steps.

Uncle Gui inside watched him leave expressionlessly, then opened the secret letter and glanced at it.

He then found a script booklet, rewrote a secret letter based on it, destroyed the one Liu Si'er had provided, and slowly walked out of Xiao Manor.

An hour later, a carrier pigeon flew out from the Tailor Shop in East Market.

A day later, the pigeon landed in a certain courtyard in the small city called "Guangyuan" in northern Shuzhou.

Within less than an incense stick's time, an eagle falcon, several times larger than the pigeon, spread its wings from that courtyard and soared straight into the clouds.

Two more days passed.

The eagle falcon, rising and falling along the way, crossed tens of thousands of miles, flying from Shuzhou to the Capital Prefecture.

The majestic and vast Capital Prefecture was like a floating cloud in its eyes. It flew straight north toward the Imperial City, landing atop a five-story cloud tower called "Fengyue Tower" south of the Imperial City.

It was clearly not its first visit. After landing, it helped itself to the insects and snakes in the food box, gulping them down whole.

Soon, a man in black robes with a plain white mask covering his face, only his eyes visible, hurried over.

He untied the letter box from the eagle falcon's leg, then swiftly went downstairs, pushed open a redwood door, ignored the similarly masked figure sitting upright and silent at a desk inside, and went straight to a side bookshelf to retrieve a volume of Capital Tune.

After carefully decoding and verifying there were no errors, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, took the translation, and handed it to a Red Robe figure already waiting outside the door.

"Sir, a letter from Shuzhou, Grade B Top."

"Wait here."

The man in Red Robe also wore a mask, but his had more markings than the black-robed man's, like tiger stripes.

Holding the decoded letter, he went to the deepest part of the third floor and lightly knocked twice on a wooden door with grilles.

"Pavilion Master, a letter from Shuzhou."

Hearing no response from inside, he didn't speak again, maintaining a slightly bowed posture, motionless as a Wooden Man.

After about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, a slightly hoarse voice came from within: "Enter."

The Red Robe bowed once more, gently pushed the door open, closed it, and then knelt on the ground without lifting his head.

This was an extremely spacious room, open from north to south, with sunlight and a breeze streaming through the windows onto the gold-red floor, illuminating everything inside.

Yet the surroundings were empty, with only a desk, a chair, and a figure seated upright before the desk.

He wore a set of plain white robes, the loose garment making his back and waist appear broad and thick. His face was covered with a white mask bearing black patterns, the "king" character on the forehead clearly visible—it was unmistakably a White Tiger Head Pattern.

"Read it."

The Red Robe gently opened the paper in his hand. "Xiao Jinghong will soon return to Shuzhou to celebrate the Marquis Dingyuan's birthday. His Majesty's gift of a cup to the Marquis Dingyuan has been broken. The Fledgling has befriended the Tanhua, Li Huaigu."

After reading, he folded the paper and knelt again.

The White Robe figure before the desk gazed at a sheet of paper on the table. On the right side were the words Shui Diao Ge Tou: Celebrating Marquis Xiao, and the signature in the lower left corner read—Year 21 of Anhe, Chen Qingzhou congratulates the Marquis Dingyuan on his sixtieth birthday.

Looking at it, the White Robe figure spoke softly, "Have you found out who helped the Fledgling flee the marriage that day?"

The Red Robe hesitated. "No news yet. The Harrier Eagle only said someone set it up."

The White Robe figure hummed in acknowledgment, then said unhurriedly, "It's nothing more than a few prominent families in Shuzhou, unwilling to see the Xiao Family rise again."

"Does the Pavilion Master mean the Liu Family?"

"Who it is doesn't matter. Send word to the Harrier Eagle to add some bait for the Fledgling. It's time to let him taste the flavor of power."

"Also, send someone to the palace to report and ask His Majesty if he intends to bestow another Seven-Colored Glass Cup on the Old Marquis as a birthday gift."

"Yes."

The Red Robe dared not say more, bent at the waist as he withdrew from the room, closed the door, and then straightened up and hurried away.

After a long while.

The White Robe figure raised the sheet of Yunsong Paper before him and carefully scanned it.

"The brush strokes penetrate the paper, the lines follow the heart, the artistic conception drifts far... Good calligraphy, good calligraphy."

After two consecutive "good calligraphy," he let out a sigh. "Pity the ambition and resentment between the lines are gone."

With that, he pinched the Yunsong Paper between his fingers and gently shook it twice.

The entire sheet of Yunsong Paper turned into fine fragments, drifting out the window with a breeze from an unknown source.

The White Robe figure rubbed his fingers together, a faint glimmer passing through his calm, unruffled eyes as he murmured to himself:

"I suppressed you for five years. Don't you hate it?"