Page 1285

Seeing her daughter’s pitiful little appearance, Su Zhe felt guilty and heartbroken.

Su Tianyou hesitated, then said lightly, "I heard that Lin Yuan has a villa in He family village outside the city, but it seems that the villa is not under her name."

"Is there a problem with this villa?" Su Qiuyu, still just a young girl, didn’t understand why her elder brother suddenly brought this up.

Su Zhe, being the sly fox he was, immediately understood and asked somewhat eagerly, "That villa, is there something fishy about it?"

Su Tianyou smiled faintly, "Yes, I heard there are martial arts experts seen around the villa, they seem to be guarding it day and night, their way of doing things is even similar to the Xia family’s hidden guard."

Su Tianrui, who had been peeling oranges for Su Qiuyu, suddenly paused, his eyes rolling around in thought.

Su Zhe pondered, "Just a villa, why go to the trouble of having an expert guard it so closely? Could it be that there’s something shady going on there?"

Su Tianyou nodded, smiling. Wasn’t that obvious?

Looking at her elder brother and then her father, Su Qiuyu felt quite confused, like a monk who could not reach enlightenment: "Dad, brother, what are you talking about? Weren’t we discussing mirrors? Why did we suddenly start talking about a villa? Could there be mirrors in that villa?"

Su Tianyou glanced at his na?ve sister; compared with Su Zhe and Su Tianrui, he didn’t have much special affection for her, and did not feel the same level of indulgence toward her as the others did.

However, Su Zhe indulgently patted his daughter’s hand and laughed, "What’s inside, we’ll know if we send someone to check, won’t we?"

Before Su Tianyou could reply, Su Tianrui was the first to disagree, "Dad, this doesn’t seem right. After all, Lin Yuan is the woman Xia Zheng is fond of. Even if we disregard Lin Yuan’s face, we should consider Xia Zheng’s feelings, right?"

"Second brother!"

"Ruirui!"

Su Zhe and Su Qiuyu simultaneously voiced their discontent with Su Tianrui.

Su Tianrui furrowed his brows, dropped the half-peeled orange for Su Qiuyu, and headed towards the door, "I don’t care what you want to do, but you can’t harm Lin Yuan. No matter what, I am friends with Xia Zheng. I must help protect his woman."

"Second brother, how could you be also bewitched by that little hussy! I am the one who will be Xia Zheng’s wife, I am!" Su Qiuyu fumed as she watched Su Tianrui’s departing figure, reemphasizing her relationship with Xia Zheng.

Su Tianrui turned back and looked at her deeply but said nothing. He left without any reluctance—what more was there to say? Everything that needed to be said had been said, yet this lovesick younger sister just couldn’t see clearly; what else could he do?

Just as he was about to leave the room, Su Tianrui suddenly stopped and looked towards Su Tianyou: "Big brother, how do you know that there are martial arts experts guarding the He family village’s villa?"

Su Tianyou silently cursed internally, knowing this astute second brother of his was usually too playful but could be extremely sharp if he put his mind to it, sometimes even sharper than himself.

Facing the equally suspicious gaze of Su Zhe, Su Tianyou laughed it off, "Oh, it’s nothing much. The other day when I was out with a few friends, we happened to pass by that villa. Among my friends, there are those skilled in martial arts who noticed it."

"Which friend is big brother talking about? You are usually so absorbed in state affairs, and you rarely have friends. I don’t remember any of them being particularly skilled in martial arts." Su Tianrui obviously remained unconvinced.

Su Tianyou grew impatient, frowning.

At his second son’s somewhat unfriendly tone, Su Zhe humphed with a stern face, "Do you know all of your elder brother’s friends? Enough, go do what you need to do. If you don’t want to help your sister win Xia Zheng’s heart, then just scat and stop bothering us here!"

"Father!" Su Tianrui wanted to say something else, but a stern glance from Su Zhe immediately shut him down. After thinking it through, he still decided to leave.

However, on his way out, he still glanced back at his elder brother, thinking it would be better to inform Xia Zheng.

Soon after, the butler came knocking on the door, "Master, the second young master has sneaked out."

Although he didn’t mention where the second young master went, combined with what had just happened, everyone naturally guessed that he had gone to find Xia Zheng.

Su Zhe slammed his fist on the table and cursed, "Ungrateful wretch!"

Su Tianyou’s thoughts turned quickly, "Father, my brother is a sensitive person and rarely has such a friend..."

"Friend? Which is more important, a friend or your own sister?" Su Zhe interrupted him without any mercy.

Su Qiuyu was also deeply disappointed and both anxious and angry, "I even liked my second brother so much, but he actually helped that little wench instead of me! Father, you must stand up for me! My second brother is really too detestable!"

If Su Tianyou were here at this moment, he would surely feel heartbroken and devastated upon hearing his sister’s words.

He had always doted on this sister since they were children, even more than Su Zhe and Madam Su did.

Yet now, to think that the sister he had given so much to would call him detestable!

Su Tianyou lifted his eyelids slightly, looking at his sister with a cold smile in his heart.

Su Zhe consoled his daughter with a few comforting words and then said sternly to the butler, "Go, bring people to fetch the second young master back! If he refuses to come, bind him and bring him here! Remember, without my permission, he is not to set foot outside the door!"

The butler bowed respectfully and quickly went out to gather people.

It was unknown whether Su Tianrui was just unlucky or if the butler’s men were particularly efficient, for on his way there, he was caught and brought back by the butler.

As soon as he returned home, Su Zhe locked him in his room and grounded him.

It was the first time he had been grounded in his more than twenty years of life!

He used to watch Xia Zheng being grounded, even feeling schadenfreude, but now that he was grounded himself, he realized how sad a topic this was.

Su Tianrui was grounded, and indeed, as Su Tianyou had said, Su Zhe had someone investigate the manor, confirming strong guards — not so much guarding it as protecting it.

Although they couldn’t see the mirror inside, they were now certain that the mirror was in this manor.

Repeated probes by persons of unidentified identity made Lin Yi realize the seriousness of the situation, so he immediately sent a message to Xia Zheng.

Lin Yuan decided to secretly send all the unused glaze left in the cellar to the Xia Family Barracks, as she now had no need for mirrors, just some specially shaped craft pieces.

The Xia Family Barracks were not a place just anyone could enter. In addition to the glaze, Lin Yuan also sent over several days’ worth of drawings she had made, asking the Xia family’s hidden guard who knew how to cut to help her make glazed products.

Holding these bundles of drawings, Lin Yi’s mouth twitched, feeling that once again, he had been schemed against by the crafty Lin Yuan.

To terminate the thoughts of those unidentified persons, Lin Yuan even intentionally had Lin Yi send out the glaze in a very high-profile manner.

As expected, that very afternoon, after another wave of black-clothed people came to probe for information, the manor finally settled down again, undisturbed by any further intrusions.

In mid-March, the final two sessions of the imperial examination took place. Ma Junying unsurprisingly emerged as the top scorer in the palace examination, while the Emperor himself presided over the hall examination, and thus the rankings for the top three scholars could be decided.

And in Dong Tian, the various preparations were almost complete, and the new shopkeeper whom Xia Zheng had introduced to Lin Yuan had finally arrived in the capital city.