The bell for the evening meal had already rung. Bai Zhu’s fingers trembled, and he suppressed the instinct to stand up. He did not move but only raised his eyes to examine the Third Miss Yuan in front of him.

What was wrapped under the heavy blanket with a sickly appearance? Were the healthy sisters not doing well simply because of bad luck or something else?

The pale-faced Third Miss Yuan raised her head and looked at him. She opened her mouth and was about to speak when she started to cough violently.

The coughs sounded so heart-wrenching. The two maids beside her were busy helping her to calm her down. While they were comforting her by saying “Miss, take it slow,” they could not help but look up at him with some complaints in their eyes.

“Your Excellency may not know that our young lady is not in good health!”

Bai Zhu nodded, looked at Third Miss Yuan who was coughing violently in front of him, and said calmly: “I know!”

Most people in the world have compassion and will pity the weak, and Third Miss Yuan, who was born with a serious illness, was a so-called born weak person.

To outsiders, it seemed like he, a normal, healthy man, was bullying the weak Third Miss Yuan!

A well-timed interruption, a well-timed cough, the serious illness she was born with became the most powerful knife in the hands of Third Miss Yuan, stabbing others with success!

Seeing Bai Zhu’s unmoved expression, Third Miss Yuan coughed even more violently. The maid’s face became more and more complaining. She couldn’t help but say, “Our Miss is in poor health and kind-hearted. She wouldn’t even step on an ant to death. Why is Your Excellency forcing her like this?”

Bai Zhu looked at the two maids who were being used as swordsmen in front of him with a cold expression: “Are you two teaching me how to do things?”

The stern and majestic question startled the two maids. When they realized what they had done, they were so scared that they knelt on the ground.

The young man in front of them, who looked kind and gentle, was not an ordinary person, but a Sicheng of the Dali Temple. They were not ordinary people at this time, but suspects who were being interrogated.

The fact that they could still sit in this hall and be interrogated now was a sign of his generosity and compassion. If they had followed the rules, they would be being interrogated in prison right now.

The two maids who had just come to their senses were trembling with fear. Just now… just now they actually complained and scolded the master? If the Bai Sicheng in front of them insisted on not giving in, being beaten with a stick would be a small matter. They might even be thrown into prison for the crime of “disrespect”.

In fact, it was not that they didn’t understand these things, but… every time they saw the young lady coughing heartbreakingly, they couldn’t help but stand up. It had become so much of a habit that they forgot that they were not in the Yuan family, but in the capital; not in an ordinary street inn, but in the Dali Temple!

Ignoring the two trembling maids, Bai Zhu looked at Third Miss Yuan who was still coughing in front of him, and said, “Third Miss Yuan, just cough slowly. I can wait!” After a pause, he continued, “If Third Miss Yuan also ate crabs or other irritating foods before coming here like last time, there is a street outside the Dali Temple, and it is a few steps to the clinic. I can wait until the doctor cures Third Miss Yuan before interrogating her!”

Third Miss Yuan, who was coughing with her hands covering her mouth, raised her head towards him and said incoherently: “Master… cough cough… Master has misunderstood. I… cough cough… I…”

Before she could finish his words, Bai Zhu interrupted her: “However, in order to prevent Miss Yuan from accidentally eating something she shouldn’t eat again, I think we should send Miss Yuan to prison and not let her go back!”

The coughing sound in the ears continued, becoming more and more heartbreaking. The two maids kneeling on the ground couldn’t help but look back at their own lady with worry on their faces.

Bai Zhu rolled up the file in his hand, half-closed his eyes, and showed no pity on his face: “I have always followed the rules, and the laws of Great Yong are my witness. Even if Third Miss Yuan really has something wrong, at most I will be scolded and criticized! I am not afraid!”

The heart-wrenching cough gradually subsided.

Looking at the frail young lady opposite with a startlingly pale face, Bai Zhu sneered in his heart: Although Third Miss Yuan dared to use her body as a raft to avoid interrogation, she looked like she was not afraid of death! But if she really didn’t care about her life, how could she plan so hard?

This didn’t look like someone who was determined to die!

Third Miss Yuan covered her mouth and her cough gradually subsided. When the coughing stopped completely, she looked at Bai Zhu and said, “Mr. Bai Sicheng misunderstood. This Miss is fine.”

The voice was still as soft, but the look in her eyes when she looked at Bai Zhu was no longer innocent, but alert.

Dare to look at Bai Zhu so openly, he thought the Third Miss Yuan in front of her also knew that her tricks that had always worked in the past would not work in front of him. But despite this, it was still not easy to get the truth from her!

“I grew up in the back house since I was a child, and rarely went to the government office. People have three urgent things. When I entered the government office, I was nervous and wanted to go to the Gongfang. Don’t you even allow me to go to the Gongfang?” Third Miss Yuan smiled and completely tore off the weak and boneless mask, revealing her cunning true face under the mask.

Even if the officials of the Dali Temple suspected her, what could they do to her without evidence?

Looking at the indifferent Third Miss Yuan in front of him, Bai Zhu lowered his eyes and said, “You can go to the Gongfang naturally! It’s not a big secret that the abbot of Linyuan Temple is looking for a woman. It’s not hard to guess that your brother is stupid and will be manipulated by the abbot to find a young lady for him…”

The lecherous Taoist priest at Lin Yuan Temple had been imprisoned for questioning. He was just a lecherous man and had nothing to do with this matter. Over the years, even if no one reported him to the authorities, it would not be difficult to find out about the lecherous Taoist priest and use him.

“But those villains who robbed young ladies were all engaged in shady business. No matter how generous your brother was, the money he spent on buying people was just the money for buying a slave. How could it compare to the money earned from those shady businesses?” Bai Zhu said, “One must be cautious when doing such business. Your stupid brother just randomly looked for these people on the street and easily bought people from them. How could that be?”

Third Miss Yuan’s expression remained indifferent, not even raising her eyelids: “How should I know why?”

This Dali Temple official was really not a good-for-nothing. He guessed almost everything right! But so what? Was there any evidence?

“I have been admonishing my brother from the beginning to the end, even when my brother bought someone.” Third Miss Yuan said this and sneered, “What does all this have to do with me?”

Everything had nothing to do with her. She had always been a weak, innocent, poor person tortured by illness!

Bai Zhu looked at the sickly young lady in front of him and narrowed his eyes slightly: Sure enough… she was not easy to deal with!

…

The time for the evening meal had arrived.

Most of the seats in the Dali Temple’s public kitchen were already occupied. Liu Yuan, who was usually the most active in eating dinner, had not yet entered the public kitchen. Instead, he was in Lin Fei’s room, flipping through a pile of letters with Lin Fei.

These were the letters that had been returned to the post station in recent days.

“If this girl is really related to these things, she must have contacted those people, otherwise how can she set a trap for her brother?” Lin Fei, who was standing aside, put down the letter in his hand and said lightly, “She likes to pretend, doesn’t trust the people around her, and even deceives her personal maid. If she doesn’t want to reveal her true face in front of them, there are not many ways to pass on the message!”

After Third Miss Yuan escaped the last interrogation, the Dali Temple allowed Miss Yuan to roam outside, but they had been sending people to secretly monitor the movements of this group of masters and servants. Third Miss Yuan was usually accompanied by maids, stayed in the inn, and seldom went out.

Except… when sending letters home!

(End of this chapter)

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