Her mind was that of a genuine cultivator, so she had no interest in any Top Scholar. Her curiosity only arose because Wen Xin often mentioned him during their chats. Wen Xin had always wanted to see the Top Scholar’s original calligraphy, yet despite the Wen family’s wealth and influence, they could not find a single authentic piece. Naturally, she became curious as well.
Now that she had learned an authentic piece had been obtained, her interest was naturally piqued. She wanted to see just how exceptional the calligraphy must be to appeal to a woman like Wen Xin.
The two women hurried straight to the study. Inside, they quickly unsealed a metal scroll case, took out the paper, and spread it across the desk.
The two women leaned in together to admire it. Wen Xin’s face showed the delight of someone who had found a treasure. Her fingertips were already extended, tracing the twists and turns of the brushstrokes in the air above the paper.
Song Pingping examined it and nodded slightly. “I do not really know about quality, but the characters look quite pleasing.” In her mind, she was actually muttering that she had expected something far more extraordinary, yet it just seemed like ordinary writing. “Hey, why do some of these sentences look a bit disjointed?”
Wen Xin said, “These are casual practice notes. His proper finished pieces are exceedingly rare, with only a handful in the entire world. Obtaining even a single draft like this is already quite difficult.”
Song Pingping gave a somewhat perfunctory “oh”. After seeing the actual piece, her interest had clearly plummeted. However, her gaze suddenly paused as she stared at the words on the paper and murmured, “Three stupid birds outside…” She raised a hand to rub her eyes, looked again carefully, and confirmed it was indeed written that way. Pointing at it, she exclaimed in surprise, “This… was this also written by that so-called Top Scholar?”
Wen Xin smiled faintly. “When practising calligraphy, one writes as the mood strikes. There might have been three birds chirping just outside the window, which probably disturbed him.”
Song Pingping looked doubtful. After pondering over it for a moment, she ventured, “Why do I get the feeling these characters are actually insulting someone?”
Wen Xin burst into a soft chuckle.
Realising she must have said something foolish that made her look silly, Song Pingping felt slightly embarrassed. “I told you, it is just a feeling, nothing reliable. You are the talented one, you know far more. Just teach me more, do not laugh at me.”
Wen Xin shook her head and said softly, “That is not it. We are both merely guessing. Who knows what he was thinking when he wrote these? Perhaps your guess is exactly right.”
Song Pingping pouted. “You are laughing at me again. Just think about it, how could such a brilliant scholar curse casually like us mountain folk?”
“Cursing does not care where a person comes from,” Wen Xin shook her head with a wry smile. Finding it hard to explain, she simply dropped the subject. Her fingertips resumed tracing the characters on the paper from a distance.
Song Pingping had completely lost interest in this so-called Top Scholar’s calligraphy. She took a step back and began to examine Wen Xin’s attire again. Her eyes held a mixture of admiration and envy. She noticed that this woman looked good in anything, radiating a refreshing sense of quiet elegance.
She knew this came from a refinement that permeated her very bones. It had already transcended external objects, making accessories and jewellery truly insignificant.
She also felt that genuinely disregarding such vulgar items was, in itself, a form of cultivation. Any trace of such desire would inevitably show in one’s demeanour.
As she watched, she gently rolled up one sleeve, adopting a similarly peaceful and gentle expression. Her fingertips traced in the air as she quietly mimicked Wen Xin’s gestures and posture.
Xiao Hong, who was tidying up nearby, occasionally glanced back. Seeing this, she could not help but press her lips together and stifle a laugh.
In fact, she had noticed long ago that this woman loved to imitate the young miss. She even copied her clothing and accessories, and her hairstyle had long been identical to the young miss’s…
They did not stay in the study for long. A servant arrived from outside to report that the welcome banquet for the Fifth Young Master was ready.
As it was a family welcome banquet, she could not afford to be absent. Wen Xin reluctantly set aside her cherished thoughts and hurried off to attend.
Before leaving, however, Wen Xin still hurriedly checked on her pet.
Inside the iron cage beneath the eaves, the little creature was sleeping on its back, sound asleep. From time to time in its sleep, it would stick out its tongue to lick its lips. One wondered if it was dreaming of eating.
“Has it still not touched any of the food I gave it?” Wen Xin asked over her shoulder as she squatted by the cage.
Xiao Hong replied in distress, “It has not eaten a bite. It refuses to take it, and if you force it down its throat, it will just vomit it back up later.”
Song Pingping, leaning forward with her hands on her knees, said, “My senior brother was right. Just let it stay hungry. Once it gets hungry enough, it will naturally eat anything. It is the same with people. When they are desperate with hunger, they stop being picky.”
Wen Xin turned her head to look at her, hesitating to speak. She felt their methods of raising a spiritual pet were rather too harsh. Using various coercive measures on a creature barely weaned was truly…
However, she also understood that these people were the ones with actual experience in taming spiritual beasts. It was unwise for her, being ignorant in this area, to speak carelessly.
“At least it is quiet now. Hey…” Wen Xin suddenly remembered something and looked at Xiao Hong to ask, “Xiao Hong, have you noticed that whenever we let it out to relax, it behaves much better when it comes back? It does not cry or make a fuss, and just sleeps soundly and obediently.”
Xiao Hong tilted her head, thought for a moment, and nodded with an “mm”. “It does seem that way.”
Song Pingping sighed. “I really cannot stand you lot. What do you mean letting it out to relax? How would it know what relaxation is? It clearly just ran around until it was exhausted. When a creature that young gets tired, it naturally sleeps.”
Both Wen Xin and Xiao Hong suddenly looked as though a light bulb had gone off in their heads.
“Oh, stop dawdling. Your fifth brother’s welcome banquet is waiting.”
Song Pingping urged them on. The mistress and maid were startled, nearly forgetting the time. They quickly stood up and hurried off…
In the dining hall, Yu Qing ran into Mu Aotie. Yu Qing deliberately sought an opportunity to ask him, enquiring about what reward Nan Zhu had received for finding the puppy again.
Mu Aotie said it was just more money. He had been given two taels of silver this time.
It did not bring the further advancement Nan Zhu had imagined.
After returning to the utility courtyard, Yu Qing sat in the yard and waited for nightfall.
Once it was dark, he locked the door from the inside. Not rushing to act immediately, he first returned to his room and sat cross-legged in meditation.
He was biding his time, waiting.
He waited until the watchman’s drum struck the Hai hour. Estimating that no one would come looking for him anymore, he immediately slipped out of the room in the dark. The moonlight outside flowed like water.
Some of Nan Zhu’s advice did make sense. He had followed it, finding a stone and quietly placing it on the courtyard wall beneath the eaves.
Afterwards, he slipped into the storeroom, lit an oil lamp, and lightly climbed atop a pile of sundries. He began carefully moving items stacked in the corner one by one, piling them on top of other goods.
Once he had dug out the iron plate hidden beneath the floor bricks again, he did not rush to open it. Instead, he leapt lightly over the piled items and out of the way.
He returned to the courtyard, walked quietly to the back of the main gate, and gently slid the door bolt open.
Squatting down, he propped a pre-cut dry branch under the door. This prevented the wind from blowing it open, yet still allowed someone to push it from the outside.
He had planned this during the day.
Even if someone pushed the door in and found him absent, seeing the door unbolted, they would simply assume he had gone out for a stroll. Not finding him outside would not cause much trouble.
Anyone looking for him would not be a high-ranking Wen family official, but merely a servant like Liu Gui. Such people were easy to deal with, and he had enough courage and adaptability to handle it.
Initially, he had considered setting up some kind of alarm mechanism, such as running a warning string into the tunnel. He later realised that was a bad idea, as it might allow others to follow the trail and discover where he had gone. Whoever they were, once they knew he had entered the Wen family’s secret passage, things would become complicated.
After finishing his work at the door, he listened carefully to the sounds outside. He then quickly slipped back into the storeroom, reached the tunnel entrance, gripped the iron plate handle, blew out the oil lamp with a puff, and slowly lifted the heavy plate in the darkness.
Leaning the iron plate gently against the wall, he descended step by step in the dark, taking care not to make a single sound.
Down there, it was truly pitch black. One could not see one’s hand in front of one’s face.
After reaching the flat ground at the bottom of the stairs, he pressed against the wall in silence for a while. Holding his breath and concentrating, he listened carefully.
Only after confirming the tunnel was completely silent, devoid of any sound or light, did he take out a tinder stick, light the oil lamp, and quietly make his way forward, using it to see.
This stretch was not long, ending after roughly three zhang.
A tunnel crossed before him. Should he go left or right?
Yu Qing silently calculated the tunnel’s direction from the storeroom entrance. Going left should lead deeper into the Wen family’s inner courtyards.
As for the path to the right, he found it rather strange. The utility courtyard was already at the edge of the Wen family’s high walls. Going further right would surely lead outside the estate.
He shone the oil lamp on the wall, took out a small bamboo splint he had folded from a broom brush handle, and slipped it into a crack in the bricks. Only then did he turn left. Whenever he needed a marker to remember the route, he would insert another splint into the wall cracks. He had stuffed many of these into his clothes, prepared during idle moments in the day.
The ground was damp. After quietly advancing for about ten zhang, the tunnel route began to branch out like tree limbs.
Which way should he go? He paused to think it over.
Realising he still knew very little about the Wen family’s internal layout, and that this was his first time infiltrating the secret passage, he dared not linger too long.
After considering the tunnel’s directional alignment and the likely location of the Wen family’s core areas, he decided to head straight for the vital section. He abandoned the idea of checking every single branch.
Just as he had lost track of his exact location within the estate, he suddenly spotted a set of stairs leading upwards along the path.
He immediately crept up them on tiptoe.
At the top of the stairs, he found the path ended. A solid wall blocked the way, which struck him as odd.
Looking back, it was clearly a staircase meant for going up and down. Why build stairs that lead nowhere?
He immediately realised the wall before him was suspicious. Shining the lamp to inspect it, he quickly noticed the wall-mounted oil lamp bracket looked out of place. He grabbed the bracket and tried shaking it. Finding the loose direction, he pulled the handle downwards. A faint click echoed from within the wall.
The wall before him shifted, quietly pivoting aside.
He gave it a gentle push with his hand. To his surprise, the wall rotated silently on its central axis and swung open.
Holding the wall to keep it from closing, he discovered a narrow, cramped space behind it. Unsure of what it was, he noted the walls inside were uneven, with two faint points of light visible.
Yu Qing soon realised what the space was. It seemed he was standing directly behind some kind of statue.
Those two points of light appeared to be the statue’s eyes.
Slightly startled, he immediately raised his hand and pinched out the flame on the wick between his thumb and forefinger.