After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

A flock of white pigeons cooed as they landed on the roof of Huguo Temple. In the sunlight, their snow-white wings fluttered, tracing beautiful arcs.

Lu Zhiyuan, dressed in a red dress and wrapped in a cloak, sat on the eaves of the palace. The blue silk bracelet on her wrist swayed in the wind, making a crisp tinkling sound. Her embroidered shoes matched the color of her long dress, with pink peach blossoms embroidered on the surface, the stamens of which were embroidered with gold thread, shimmering with golden light as she swayed with her feet.

Hearing the sound of pigeons taking flight, a glint of light flashed in her large, clear eyes. With a sudden stop in her footsteps, her petite figure moved like a graceful swallow, her skirt billowing as her right hand stabbed backward.

"Young Miss, it's Second Master." A hand grabbed her wrist from the side, simultaneously drawing in a sharp breath and reminding her, "It really is Second Master!"

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Lu Zhiyuan stopped, concealing the weapon in her sleeve as if no one else was there. She stood up and, when she met Xie Yubai's gaze, she obediently called out, "Second Uncle, you're so old, how come you like climbing rooftops just like me?"

Xie Yubai stared at her sleeve: "Did you make that little thing yourself?"

Lu Zhiyuan stuck out her tongue and took out the object hidden in her sleeve. It was flat and round, easy to hold. It had a mechanism that popped open, revealing a thin, cold-gleaming, specially made "dagger." The blade was already sharpened; a cut from it would be fatal or severely injured.

"This thin blade is—"

“It’s made of fine iron, so it requires a high level of craftsmanship.” Lu Zhiyuan played with the object. “I drew the sketch myself. It’s not very detailed. I just said what kind of weapon I wanted for self-defense. I asked Manager Lu to find Yin Shisan of Yongsheng Gambling House. Yin Shisan helped me find someone to make a few weapons suitable for children using the daggers that my uncle gave me.”

Yin Shisan?

Xie Yubai knew this person. On the surface, he was a gambling den owner, but in reality, he controlled multiple underground forces and was the initiator and manager of the ghost market in the capital.

Yuan'er was indeed able to forge such a weapon through him.

"Your skills are quite good, showing the talent your mother had when she was young, much better than your second uncle."

"Second Uncle, why beat around the bush? You just want to know who I learned this skill from." Lu Zhiyuan blinked. "I learned it from my beggar master. My grandmother didn't like me, and the people she placed in the other courtyard didn't like me either. They made me stand as punishment, didn't give me food, beat and scolded me at every turn, and even switched my medicine. After I met my master, he started teaching me self-defense skills, how to identify medicinal herbs, and how to recognize poisons."

"Your martial arts style is like that of the Jianghu (江湖, the martial arts world)."

"Second Uncle, you flatter me. My master's methods don't even qualify as martial arts. He was a doctor in his early years, but became a beggar after leaving his hometown. As a beggar, he was bound to be beaten and bullied by other beggars. My master didn't want to die, and if he didn't want to die, he had to fight back, so he combined his medical skills with his fighting techniques. Personally, I think my master's methods are more like those of an assassin from a storybook."

Xie Yubai nodded.

"One last question, how did you get up here?"

Lu Zhiyuan peeked down and said, "Just like Second Uncle came up here, that's how I came up."

Xie Yubai touched his nose.

Of the four siblings, the eldest brother was skilled in both literature and martial arts, the youngest brother was a peerless martial artist, and the youngest sister, though not good at literature, was a business prodigy and could also fight on the battlefield. Only he was good at literature and had no talent for martial arts. He climbed onto the roof and leaned on the guard beside him.

Lu Zhiyuan clapped her hands, and Lu Yun appeared on the steps in front of the palace gate.

Xie Yubai frowned, but before he could speak, Lu Zhiyuan had already landed steadily in Lu Yun's arms, though the position looked a little awkward.

Tsk tsk tsk, after all that practice, this young lady's body is still so delicate. She pouted, hopped on one foot, picked up her fallen embroidered shoe, and patted the leaves off her feet.

Lu Yun supported her with one hand and took the embroidered shoes from her hand with the other, helping her put them on.

After stopping, he said to Xie Yubai, "The abbot has left the temple. It was around midnight. He was alone, dressed in plain clothes, and went to Xinghua Village in a carriage."

"The middle of the night?" Xie Yubai frowned. "Firefly followed? You kids are getting bolder and bolder."

"On the way, I told Lu Yun I had prepared a carriage, very similar to the abbot's." Lu Zhiyuan tugged at Xie Yubai's sleeve. "I knew what you were going to say. I didn't stay up all night, nor did Liuying and Lu Yun. After hearing Wen Liangyu's stories and considering the questions you asked him, I guessed that the man surnamed Cheng was the abbot. After leaving the cave, I chatted with a young monk in the temple. He told me the abbot was from Tingzhou and seemed to be an old acquaintance of the Empress Dowager. He also had an old friend who lived in Xinghua Village at the foot of the mountain. Every so often, he would send something to the village."

"Mei Niang!"

"As expected of my uncle, Lu Zhiyuan, he's really smart." Lu Zhiyuan gave a thumbs up: "Although the little monk doesn't know who that old friend is, he does know that she is a woman, and a beautiful woman with a lot of charm and still retains her beauty. Although Huguo Temple is a royal temple, it has an open day every year."

Xie Yubai asked, "What is an open day?"

Lu Zhiyuan pursed her lips: "It's a day when ordinary people, regardless of wealth, can go to the temple to burn incense. On that day, women would come to the temple to burn incense and ask to see the abbot. The abbot never saw her, but she didn't cry or make a fuss. She would stand guard at the entrance of the courtyard for three hours straight, regardless of wind, frost, heat, or cold, and she never missed a day, even when she was sick. Apart from Meiniang, I can't think of anyone else who could do that."

"So, it seems that Mei Niang wasn't entirely without feelings for Cheng Xiao'an."

As she spoke, they were already seated in the carriage. Lu Zhiyuan pulled a cloth bag from under the carriage seat; inside were chestnuts that Liu Ying had roasted for her that morning. The chestnuts were still warm, emitting a sweet chestnut aroma. She took out a few and handed them to Xie Yubai, then took out a few more and gave them to Lu Yun and Xie Yubai's guard.

The guard was about the same age as Lu Yun and called himself the seventh brother, so Lu Zhiyuan called him Brother Xie the Seventh.

Xie Qi peeled chestnuts, his eyes narrowed into slits.

"Humans are not plants or trees, and besides, Mei Niang has no one to rely on except Cheng Xiao'an after leaving Tingzhou. If the two of them have children... In short, everything will be answered in Xinghua Village."

Xie Yubai peeled the chestnuts in his hands, and his gaze towards Lu Zhiyuan held something more. His intuition as a member of the Xie family told him that the little girl in front of him was definitely not his niece, Lu Zhiyuan.

Lu Zhiyuan was sent to Chaoyun Villa, but that doesn't mean the Xie family was unaware of her situation. Raised in the villa since childhood, she was gentle and weak, bearing no resemblance to her mother. While the Xie family couldn't interfere in the Lu family's affairs, they exerted pressure through various means to ensure Xie Chaoyun and Yuan'er's safety within the Lu family.

Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, an incident occurred at Chaoyun Villa.

In that upheaval, the steward of Chaoyun Villa, Yuan'er's wet nurse, and her personal maid all disappeared without a trace. Only Lu Yun, this unheard-of and unknown young man, stood out that night and became the new steward of the villa and Yuan'er's loyal servant.

He had suspected Yuan'er's identity and ordered a secret investigation, which revealed that she was indeed his niece and could not possibly have been replaced.

It wasn't an imposter, but overnight it changed into a different person... No, it wasn't a different person, it was a different soul. He couldn't think of any other explanation besides possession.