“Yuanqing, please help me!” Qiu Yu took Wen Xichi’s hand and called his courtesy name excitedly.

Both the Qiu family and the Wen family were aristocratic families, and Qiu Yu’s father was on friendly terms with the Deputy Prime Minister. Although the Qiu family was also an aristocratic family, Qiu Yu was the lineal youngest son, so he was more unrestrained than his eldest brother who was about to inherit the title. His father now worked as an assistant minister in the Ministry of Justice and could be considered quite capable among the noble.

Wen Xichi and Qiu Yu had grown up together and had been friends since they were children. So Qiu Yu was excited at the sight of Wen Xichi at this moment. Wen Xichi, who had enjoyed the reputation as a genius since he was a child, must be smart enough to think of a way to help him out of the current predicament.

“What’s the matter?” Wen Xichi shook off Qiu Yu’s hand, stepped back in disgust, and then turned around to leave slowly and said, “Hearing that you’re here, I especially come over to find you after coming up the mountain!”

Wen Xichi came up the mountain today. He now worked in the Ministry of Justice. After such a great incident, the Ministry of Justice had transferred every transferrable official here and made them work in shifts every few days. Today it was Wen Xichi’s turn to come up the mountain. He, who didn’t know some details, came over to find Qiu Yu after learning that Qiu Yu was here.

Unexpectedly, he saw Qiu Yu and the First Miss of Duke Xing’s Mansion.

The Wen’s Mansion and Duke Xing’s Mansion were neighbors, and the children of the two families played together occasionally when they were young, so they naturally had a better relationship. Nevertheless, after they grew up, it was inappropriate for them to meet each other, so they gradually drifted apart from each other.

“Yuanqing, please help me. I… I like the First Miss of Duke Xing’s Mansion. I’m wondering if it is possible…” Qiu Yu felt a little embarrassed in front of his good friend, so he muttered.

“Impossible!” Wen Xichi interrupted Qiu Yu without hesitation and gave him a sidelong glance. It was inappropriate for him to make something clear to Qiu Yu, otherwise Qiu Yu would probably suspect that he tried to ruin a girl’s reputation.

When he was a child, he could tell that this First Miss Shao was a scheming and deep-minded person. At that time, his younger sister was still alive. Shao Yanru seemed to like to play with his younger sister very much, while treating his cousin coldly. Nevertheless, when there was anything wrong, she had always made his younger sister take the blame and then comforted her gently behind others.

However, his silly younger sister was ignorant and kept chasing after Shao Yanru happily after being deceived. Even though she felt wronged and knew that it was done by Shao Yanru, she immediately wiped away her tears and chased after Shao Yanru happily as usual after hearing Shao Yanru’s pleasing words in private.

“Why is it impossible? My father is Count Liyang and an assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice. Although I can’t inherit the title as the youngest son, ordinary people can’t compare with me.” Without Shao Yanru around, Qiu Yu became active, struck his chest and said proudly. He didn’t consider himself arrogant. There were numerous girls wanting to marry him. He just kept finding excuses to delay his marriage because he had no desire to get married.

“Can your father rule the country?” Wen Xichi asked coldly.

“You…” Qiu Yu was shocked and said with his face turning pale. How dare Wen Xichi say that? He looked around and felt relieved after finding no one else around. He didn’t understand why Wen Xichi, who had always been cautious, would say something like that.

“Yuanqing, stop talking nonsense!” Qiu Yu lowered his voice to say.

“Prince Yue, Prince Zhou, and even Prince Xin take a fancy to the First Miss Shao. What makes you think that you can win the First Miss Shao’s favor? All three of them are royal descendants, and one of them will even inherit the throne in the future. If you are not powerful enough to rule the country, how can you compare with them?” Wen Xichi said with a smile. It seemed that his friend was not completely stupid. At least he knew that he should be scared at this moment.

Qiu Yu took a deep breath and said, “Do you mean that all the three princes take a fancy to the First Miss Shao?”

“I suppose so. She can’t even pick one from them. Who do you think you are?” Wen Xichi frustrated him mercilessly with an indifferent smile on his handsome and gentle face.

“I… I’m nothing indeed!” Qiu Yu said with his head down. If it were someone else, he would dare to compete with him. However, he could not compare with the three princes. One among them could soar to the peak of power and stand high above the masses in the future. At this point, he was completely inferior to them.

Thinking of this, he suddenly recalled another thing and asked with his eyes suddenly opened wide, “Prince Chen… Prince Chen is on the mountain. Does he also come here for the First Miss Shao?”

Feeling nervous, Qiu Yu stammered.

Wen Xichi squinted at him lightly and said, “Prince Chen is different from you, who treat her as a treasure!”

Wen Xichi had met Prince Chen before and knew that Prince Chen looked ravishing as a man. But even so, he could only sigh that Prince Chen was destined to be a tragedy because of his origin.

Nevertheless, it had nothing to do with him. Prince Chen did not like to show up in public, so he only saw him a few times from a distance and barely had any contact with him. But it did not hinder him from hearing the rumors of Prince Chen. So he knew that Prince Chen just looked gentle but was actually cruel and merciless with no tenderness towards girls.

A beauty was probably just a gaily dressed skeleton in his eyes. Besides, he was so handsome that there would probably be no one in the world that could match him. In fact, the so-called first beauty was not good enough in front of him.

He inexplicably thought of a slim figure belonging to a girl who was young but delicate and gorgeous. She was still young at that time, but she should have grown up into an exceedingly pretty girl now.

He reached out to rub his eyebrows and inexplicably thought of those dreams. Those messy dreams had not disturbed for a long time. However, at the thought of her at this moment, he recalled those dreams.

In those dreams, he seemed to be very close to her!

Nevertheless, those were dreams and not real after all. He kept thinking of her after meeting her, so he dreamed of her at night. Later, after she went up the mountain, those dreams slowly became less and less.

“Do the First Miss Shao and the Fifth Miss Shao both live there?” Putting down his hands and looking at Qiu Yu, who felt frustrated, Wen Xichi asked lightly.

Thinking that he was asking about the situation on the mountain, Qiu Yu said feebly at once, “Yes. The First Miss Shao used to live in this courtyard when learning painting from Pushan Nun on the mountain before. Later, the Fifth Miss Shao came up the mountain. Seeing that this courtyard was empty, she occupied it. Now the First Miss Shao also lives on the mountain, but the Fifth Miss Shao does not intend to return it. So they now share it, while the Fifth Miss Shao’s own courtyard is empty!”

He disliked Shao Wanru from the bottom of his heart and thought that what had happened that night seemed to be fishy and the Fifth Miss Shao was very likely the one setting the First Miss Shao up.

What had happened that night was obviously started by the Fifth Miss Shao and Qi Tianyu, but it ended up with the First Miss Shao being suspected. Just because of this, Qiu Yu considered Shao Wanru very annoying and showed his bias against her in his words.

“What’s wrong? Did anything happen?” On hearing Qiu Yu’s tone, Wen Xichi, who knew well about him, realized that something had happened and asked with a composed smile.

“It’s true that something happened. Judge for yourself…” Qiu Yu had to keep it a secret in front of others for the sake of Shao Yanru’s reputation, but it was different when it came to Wen Xichi, his good buddy growing up with him. What was more, he greatly admired his buddy who had cleaned up plenty of messes created by him, so he trusted Wen Xichi.

He told the whole story of that night and the conversation between him and Qi Tianyu, and then said angrily, “Qi Tianyu said that the lady was not the First Miss Shao, but when I asked him to explain it to others, he refused to do that. I don’t know what he intended to do. Could it be possible that he’s fascinated by the First Miss Shao, so he intended to make use of this matter to ruin her reputation and thus to marry her?”

After falling silent for a moment and rolling his eyes, Wen Xichi had figured out the rough situation. At that time, because Qin Huaiyong seemed to intend to marry Shao Wanru to him, he specially investigated into the past of Shao Wanru. Although he was not completely sure about what happened in Jiangzhou, he had a general idea of it.

Did Qi Tianyu and Shao Wanru have an affair?

It was absolutely impossible. He just didn’t expect that the two of them bore life long grudges against each other. He frowned and inexplicably felt displeased with Qi Tianyu.

At that time, Qi Tianyu was an adult man who was going to get married, while Shao Wanru was still an ignorant child. Wen Xichi could tell that she knew nothing about the love between a man and a woman from her innocent look when she came to the capital city. It was obvious that the eldest daughter of General Qin disobeyed the instructions for unmarried girls and had an affair with Di Yan, so she dumped Qi Tianyu.

Speaking of this matter, Qi Tianyu was a victim, and so was Shao Wanru.

Qi Tianyu vented his anger on Shao Wanru, who was ignorant, instead of the First Miss of the Qin’s Mansion, and claimed to bear life long grudges against Shao Wanru. He was so despicable.

As a man, how could he have the nerve to bully a little girl?

“Don’t believe Qi Tianyu’s words. If he explains it as you ask, he will be despised as a man meeting a lady in secret. No matter who this lady is, it will do harm to his reputation. He, who has not got married during these years, must intend to marry a lady from a noble family. If you ruin his plan, be careful that he will take revenge on you!”

Wen Xichi said lightly. He was the Number One Scholar in the imperial exam, while Qi Tianyu was the Number Three Scholar. So they inevitably had contact. Nevertheless, Wen Xichi was more perceptive than others, so he would not be deceived by Qi Tianyu’s appearance.

“His moral conduct is indeed dishonorable. No matter who the lady is, he did meet a lady in secret. How dare he even think about marrying a noble lady!” Qiu Yu said with a snort. Of course, compared with Qi Tianyu, he trusted Wen Xichi more.

“You should be careful! Don’t interfere in private concerns! Find out the investigation files of these days and give them to me. I want to have a look!” Wen Xichi said inadvertently. It was indeed other people’s business, and it had nothing to do with him. If he had not come into contact with Shao Wanru before, he would not even ask about it.

The two of them turned around and left as they spoke.

Shao Yanru had just returned to her yard when suddenly hearing someone knocking on the door. She walked to the corridor and saw Qing’er go to open the door. Seeing Chu Liuchen standing at the door, she blushed in surprise, pulled a strand of hair on her face backward and was about to walk over, while thinking complacently, “As I expected, even Prince Chen could not escape from my honey trap…”