Yong’an City, after a snow, the sky cleared, and the winter market was bustling with lanterns, Spring Festival couplets, fireworks, and firecrackers, all signaling the approaching New Year’s festivities.
"Candied haws~ Delicious candied haws~"
"Shopkeeper, a bowl of wonton, please."
"Co and see, co and look, watch a stone shattered on the chest; those with money pay with it, those without make so noise."
"Dear, later let’s get so malt candy for the kids."
The streets of Yong’an City were filled with carriages and people, hawkers shouted, and stears by the roadside were uncovered, sending out hot steam and the savory sll of dumplings.
People in coarse cloth clothes drove donkey carts to the market, while finely dressed young n and won poked their heads out of carriages.
Jiang Yuebai was dressed like a wandering martial artist, in coarse blue clothes, with thick eyebrows and big eyes drawn, with an ordinary appearance.
Having little money, she saw a crowded bun stall ahead, where soone was skillfully twirling a sharp knife, intending to pickpocket but hadn’t succeeded yet.
Jiang Yuebai walked over, bumped lightly, and that thief’s money bag ended up in her hand, and his belt broke, making him publicly... hmm!
"Make a sugar painting, I want the one with a dragon."
"Alright～ Nine Dragons welco the New Year, may you have great prospects and a peaceful new year."
Jiang Yuebai took the sugar painting, and just for that blessing, she directly gave a piece of silver, since the money wasn’t hers anyway.
Following the path in her mory, Jiang Yuebai passed through the bustling market and headed to the secluded Huaihua Lane in the west of the city.
Passersby on the road avoided people from afar, pulling their children close.
"It’s already past noon, we must hurry out of the city and go back, careful not to encounter the child-snatching monsters."
"They’re not just snatching children now; I heard from the arrest officer in the city that recently those missing are mostly girls and won aged fifteen to twenty-five to twenty-six, as if kidnapped by monsters out of thin air without a trace."
Jiang Yuebai frowned while biting the sugar painting, wondering if there was indeed a problem. She decided to check again at night, as most supernatural beings in the mortal world act when the Yin Qi is strong at night.
Upon reaching Huaihua Lane, Jiang Yuebai stopped a woman returning ho from buying vegetables, inquiring about Shen Jinghao’s residence.
Back at the Lin Mansion, all she knew of this female tutor was that her ancestors had been a scholar, and she was an orphan who went around major families in Yong’an City to enlighten and teach won characters.
Beyond that, she only rembered that the female tutor had said her life’s ambition was to go to the Yun Country Capital, advance through the imperial examination, and beco a female official in the court.
Therefore, Jiang Yuebai hoped she was no longer living there.
"Who are you to Shen Jinghao? What do you want with that disgrace of a woman?"
The middle-aged woman in front was sharp-tongued, and Jiang Yuebai’s face instantly fell.
"What happened to her?"
The middle-aged woman, holding her vegetable basket, was interested when Jiang Yuebai asked and wasn’t in a hurry to go inside; she began to tell her more.
"That disgrace of a woman had only been married into the Lin Family for half a year before her husband died of illness. She didn’t mourn for him but imdiately got involved with a passing poor scholar, wanting to elope. The Lin Family discovered this and not drowning her in a pig cage was already rciful. Now she’s locked inside the old house, and she deserves this fate for being unfaithful—if I were her mother, I would have beaten her to death on the spot."
"You old hag, what nonsense are you spouting!"
A brightly dressed woman suddenly kicked the door open.
"Why can’t a woman remarry once her husband is dead? Our Yun Country doesn’t have such rules, you bully Lady Jinghao just because she’s literate and well-mannered."
"You’re just like her, ssing around after your husband died, how unlucky."
"I’m going to tear your mouth apart!"
The two suddenly started fighting, scratching faces and pulling hair, a scene so chaotic that Jiang Yuebai stepped back repeatedly.
"Murder! Wang Family’s widow is committing murder, aye!"
"Bah! You better watch your tongue from now on, dare say anything behind my back again, and I’ll beat your husband and son together! What are you looking at? Get lost!"
Startled by the shout from the bright woman, Jiang Yuebai flinched, turned, and hurried into the depths of the lane.
This aura was formidable, even a Foundation Establishnt Immortal would fear it!
After not walking far, Jiang Yuebai saw a dilapidated courtyard, surrounded by overgrown weeds, sitting isolated in the depths of the alley, with two small servants at the entrance holding long poles, chatting idly.
"I say, this Lady Jinghao is also pitiful, her talent unmatched in Yong’an City, and the tutors at private schools couldn’t out-debate her. Last ti, when the Right Minister passed by our city, he even praised her."
"It all went wrong with that bit of praise, making her famous in Qingzhou. Our old madam has already asked soone to petition for her to be awarded a chastity morial arch. My son is studying alongside the third young master and told that the higher-ups always wanted to abolish the policy allowing won into the court; with the timing, the decree for a chastity arch would be easy to obtain."
"I heard she was forced to marry into the Lin Family... Hmm? Did you just see a figure dash past?"
Jiang Yuebai silently climbed onto the roof and saw a courtyard differing from the outside, everywhere tidy and orderly, without a speck of dust.
Smoke curled from the incense burner, and a small woman in white with loose hair sat quietly by the window, holding a book, her eyebrows soft, reading silently.
"Tutor, do you still rember ?"
Shen Jinghao looked up upon hearing the voice, seeing the youthful girl suddenly appearing before her, her expression startled.
Jiang Yuebai had already wiped away the traces of disguise on her face, revealing her original appearance. Shen Jinghao stared at her for a long while, then shook her head slightly.
Jiang Yuebai also looked at Shen Jinghao for a mont; when they first t at the Lin Mansion, Shen Jinghao was but sixteen, now twenty-five, shedding her youthful immaturity and becoming more mature.
If it wasn’t for Yun Country’s enlightened policy towards won back then, she, an unmarried woman, couldn’t have taught at the Lin Mansion on a friend’s introduction.
Jiang Yuebai smiled, "The skies are clear, the river’s bright moon, the heart is quiet, the seagull knows. You should rember this verse, right?"
Shen Jinghao’s eyes suddenly widened, and she spoke hoarsely, her body slightly trembling as she stood.
Jiang Yuebai was startled, "What’s wrong with your throat? Could it be... they poisoned you to silence?"
Shen Jinghao rushed from the desk to Jiang Yuebai, grabbing her hands, closely examining her, for so reason her eyes filled with tears of guilt.
She hurried to the writing desk, pinching her trembling hand, picked up a pen to write.
The small delicate script, as beautiful as ever.
[I thought you were already gone. How did you escape that day...]
The words were unfinished when Jiang Yuebai interrupted Shen Jinghao, her two fingers pressed against her throat, feeling it carefully.
She then took out a piece of the lowest-grade Detoxification Pill, pinched off a piece smaller than a sesa seed, and dissolved it into a teacup.
"Drink it, and you should be able to speak."
Shen Jinghao was stunned and took the teacup under Jiang Yuebai’s determined gaze, slowly drinking behind her sleeve.
As soon as the water went down, the dicine’s effect spread, and Shen Jinghao’s eyes widened more and more.
"I..."
Just one word, a weak sound, and Shen Jinghao couldn’t believe she covered her mouth, tears flowing endlessly.
"I... can speak... I can really speak now..."
At the sa ti, the look in Shen Jinghao’s eyes towards Jiang Yuebai added a tinge of awe as if gazing at a divine being. Her poison had lasted over a year, and Lady Wang had been secretly seeking dicine for her, yet it couldn’t be resolved.
But Jiang Yuebai’s tiny bit of dicine smaller than a sesa seed allowed her to speak, and her body followed with ease and comfort, feeling like lingering ailnts of many years dissipated.
This miraculous power couldn’t belong to an ordinary person.
"Could it be that you are... an Immortal?"
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