Feng Zhiwei very naturally picked up the walnuts and began shelling, starting with the smaller one. “Do you remember when the princes came to my mansion to drink? When the Fifth Prince showed off his pen monkeys, those monkeys had golden fur. At the celebration, their fur had become dull. The Imperial Palace has enough food, so it’s unlikely to be a lack of nutrition, and I suspect that there was never anything wrong with the brush or ink. At the time, the brush and ink were used by everyone and nothing happened; and so the problem has to be with the monkeys, but too many people came into contact with them.”


  “Ning Yi.” Young Master Gu took the shelled, peeled walnut and ate it. One could not tell from his words if he was saying that Ning Yi was the man behind everything or if he wanted to eat the walnut named Ning Yi.

  “Or it could be the Emperor himself.” Feng Zhiwei continued, grabbing the big walnut. “He may have planned this to understand the true heart of his sons. If we judge simply from Ning Yi’s reaction, this seems more likely. Everyone else is already planning their moves, but he is still playing the dutiful son. Why is he acting? For whom? Only the Tian Sheng Emperor. But I cannot believe that the Tian Sheng Emperor would be willing to sacrifice himself to test his sons. He has many better ways to test them, why bring suffering on himself? Then why is Ning Yi acting?”


  “If Ning Yi planned this, it was definitely with great cost and effort. Would he waste this opportunity? Why?” Feng Zhiwei asked herself, unconsciously putting the walnut in her mouth.

  But a hand immediately reached over and pinched her jaw, while fingers came forward to grab the walnut meat.

  Feng Zhiwei’s calculations and deductions flew out of her mind and she could only watch in stunned amazement as the saliva covered walnut flew into Young Master Gu’s mouth.

  “Mine.” Young Master Gu announced with great satisfaction.

  No one could tell what he was referring.

  Feng Zhiwei: “.……”


  After finally conquering her flush, she patted Young Master Gu and earnestly said: “Young Master, listen to me, you cannot do this, that is not clean.”


  “You are not clean?” Young Master Gu asked.

  Feng Zhiwei: “.……”


  “I am not clean?” Young Master Gu asked again.

  There is no one under heaven cleaner than you! I know! I wash your underwear every day! Feng Zhiwei silently lamented, tears in her eyes: “.……”


  “Walnuts not clean?” Young Master Gu asked, his voice becoming serious as the gravity of the question deepened.

  Feng Zhiwei took a deep breath “.……”


  “What is not clean?” Young Master Gu asked, his straightforward mind confused.

  “It’s like this,” Feng Zhiwei began to explain, “taking things out of the mouth is not clean……”


  Young Master Gu suddenly moved forward.

  He always kept a three feet distance from other and never initiated close contact, and Feng Zhiwei was so shocked by his first, sudden move that she could not react. She only saw his snow-white veil drifting in the wind and his half-hidden face nearing. A brightness filled her gaze and Feng Zhiwei shut her eyes.

  A slightly cool finger carrying the fragrance of walnuts gently touched her lips.

  The finger gently brushed against her skin, moving lightly at first, and then investigating more deeply as if surprised by the smoothness.]

  Feng Zhiwei quivered and hurriedly turned away. When she opened her eyes, Young Master Gu was in his original spot, his head cocked as he examined the finger that had touched her lips as if looking for dust.

  Feng Zhiwei did not know whether to laugh or cry, but just as she was about to change the subject, this man managed an even more terrifying move. After he had made sure there was no dust on his finger, he brought it to his lips.

  His snow-white finger gently touched his red, fiery lips, balanced over his jade jaw.

  He touched his finger to his lips, his head cocked and tilted with mild confusion, his entire person gleaming with a sweet, innocent radiance in a natural seduction.

  Feng Zhiwei immediately shot to her feet, unable to take another look at that finger as she fled.

  She had decided!

  She would never eat walnuts ever again!

  After Feng Zhiwei had returned to the Qiu Mansion from the Imperial Banquet, Madam Qiu had given Madam Feng and Feng Hao a new residence. Feng Zhiwei had dazzled the nobility and many invitations were already flying into her door — if it were not for the turmoil of the moment quenching any mood for tea and poetry, the invitations would have filled her whole house.

  Dijing’s Most Talented Young Lady was no longer Hua Gongmei, but the newly minted champion still had not attended any other social gatherings — Feng Zhiwei was sick.

  Not just sick; Feng Zhiwei was even considering having Feng Zhiwei die from illness.

  If she wanted to keep the Wei Zhi identity then Feng Zhiwei could not keep attracting attention. She had been set up by Ning Yi and accidentally stepped into fame, but she did not want this. If she did not keep a low profile, trouble would come to her door.

  And so she planned on faking sickness for a while and refuse all visitors before finally using the excuse of recuperation to leave Dijing, gradually fading away the Feng Zhiwei persona.

  But before she had closed her doors, she had gone to Madam Feng’s residence to pass on Wet Nurse Chen’s words.

  “I understand.” Madam Feng said, nodding from the shadows, her expression indistinct in the dusty light.

  Feng Zhiwei heard weariness and disappointment in her voice.

  “You did well.” Madam Feng lifted her eyes and smiled at Feng Zhiwei. “I heard what happened at the feast.

  Feng Zhiwei cleared her through, suddenly wordless. Her mother rarely praised her. Ever since she could remember, Madam Feng had strictly forced her to learn and study, teaching her Confucian Classics, history, philosophy, music, and literature, but also astronomy, geography, military strategy, and all sorts of other useful studies. Her mother had even brought out thick history books from previous dynasties to hold up history as a mirror to the present, to teach her how to not go astray by understanding the past.

  Her mother had never taught her embroidery or needle-craft, and once upon a time Feng Zhiwei had thought that her mother did not know these arts, but before she had taken up her armor and rode out to battle, she had been the Qiu Mansion’s only Young Madam. How could a Young Madam from a lofty noble family not have learned these things?

  Now, at her mother’s praise, Feng Zhiwei flushed with happiness.

  “But…… you should not have done this.” Madam Feng’s voice dropped.

  Feng Zhiwei looked at her mother with stunned eyes as Madam Feng stood and peered sadly in the direction of the palace.

  “I’ve always told you not to be too ambitious, not to show off, not to fight for honor …… but then you went and forgot it all……”