Even though Xie Zhen said she was going to learn to play heptachord, she didn’t see her learn it for once.

  Madam Leng For this reason, Madam Leng had specially bought her a heptachord, but she had only played it a few times.

  Learning to play heptachord wasn’t easy work. She needed the guidance of a teacher, and even more so, she needed to practice more.

  。


  But Xie Zhen didn’t. She spent every day as usual, doing what she had to do. She seemed to be not anxious at all.

  Even Xie Xun couldn’t bear it any longer. She asked her three times a day, ” sis, won’t you have some practice?”


  She was getting her nails dyed by Shuang Yu when she heard her words and nodded. “I will.”


  The petals of the daffodils were crushed into juice and covered with her fingernails. After a day and a night, they would be dyed in beautiful color.

  The fingernails were like peach blossoms as they wrapped around her white and tender fingers, increasingly making her hands look as white and thin as bamboo shoots in the spring.

  Judging from her expression, she really wasn’t anxious at all. It was clear that the day after tomorrow was the banquet. She hadn’t even touched her heptachord a few times!

  Xie Xun knew that she wanted to take the lead in the banquet, not only to win recognition from the Crown Princess, but also to fight for her parents.

  Right now, they weren’t going well at the Duke Dingguo’s Mansion. The Old Lady and the first madam didn’t like her family. If they wanted to be valued by others, they had to rely on their own efforts.

  But a few days ago, she was full of satisfaction, but in the blink of an eye, she was out of it.

  Not only the two of them, but also the third sister and the fourth sister paid much attention to the banquet. They all were busy with practicing heptachord and heptachord. They hadn’t been out for many days.

  Since Crown Princess personally arranged the banquet, the people who would attend must be the daughters of influential families as well as the wives of the imperial court officials. Even if the scene wasn’t big, people had to pay more attention to it.

  This was a major matter that affected one’s reputation, so no one dared to be negligent.

  Xie Xun found that Xie Zhen did not care, had to remind her: ” If sis continued to be like this, you will be at the very bottom of the list tomorrow …”


  She didn’t expect that Xie Zhen didn’t care at all, who held up a finger in a silent gesture. “Only the two of us know about this, okay?”


  “You must not tell anyone about me not practicing the heptachord. ”


  Xie Xun didn’t quite understand. “Why?”


  She walked to the heptachord and twirled it twice in her embroidered shoes, smiling mysteriously. “Ah Xun, I’ll teach you an idiom.”


  Xie Xun came over. “What is it?”


  She held up four fingers and waved them in front of her. “Make a feint to the east but attack in the west.”


  “…”


  Xie Xun thought for a long time, but she couldn’t figure out what it meant.

  But she would understand soon enough, because in the last two days, Xie Zhen had the teacher sit down in her place in the courtyard to play the heptachord, which was smooth and melodious and carried out of Jade Yard in a mesmerizing way.

  As the servants of the Duke Dingguo’s Mansion passed by, they couldn’t help but stop and listen for a good while. If asked, the servants in the courtyard would always say that it was played by the the fifth girl.

  The servants were always gossiping when they had nothing to do, so news passed in the fastest way. In less than half a day, everyone in the Duke Dingguo’s Mansion knew that the fifth girl had spent ten days to practice the heptachord.

  When these words reached Xie Ying’s ears, a string on her heptachord broke.

  The expression on Xie Ying’s face did not change. After ordering her servants to put on a new string, she calmly asked, “Who sent the message just now?”


  “Slap her face ten times.”


  The servant maids immediately knelt down to beg for mercy. Unfortunately, it was too late. She tilted her head and was hit in the face by the two biddies, causing her to feel dizzy.

  Xie Ying tried the heptachord twice, then calmly finished playing a song. She whispered a few instructions to a servant, then got up and walked back into the room.

  On the morning of the tenth day, the sun was shining outside the window, and the Jade Yard was covered in a veil of green.

  Before Xie Zhen could get up, she heard Shuang Yu’ panicked voice: “Girl, something’s wrong!”


  Xie Zhen opened her sleepy eyes and said in a deep, sleepy voice, “Huh?”


  Shuang Yu whirled around anxiously, “It’s the heptachord, the heptachord is missing!”


  This morning, after she got up, Shuang Yu did her part of the work, and thought about bringing Xie Zhen’s heptachord to the carriage first, so that she wouldn’t be in such a hurry when she went to the Crown Prince’s Palace, but she didn’t expect to find that nothing was on the table, so she didn’t know where the heptachord had gone!

  Not daring to delay, she stumbled into Xie Zhen’s room and reported to her. She didn’t expect that Xie Zhen had made a very flat sound, and after finding that it was still early, she got back to sleep again.

  Shuang Yu tugged gently at her quilt, thinking she hadn’t heard clearly. “Girl, the heptachord’s missing!”


  This was something she needed to use when she went to the Crown Prince’s Palace today. If she lost it, she wouldn’t be able to get one in a short period of time.

  The heptachord and the player needed to be running in. If she didn’t use the heptachord well, how could she play a good song?

  Shuang Yu had apparently forgotten that even if the heptachord hadn’t been lost, Xie Zhen wouldn’t have been able to play it.

  Xie Zhen didn’t wake up, but her mind was clear. She knew what was going on, so she wasn’t in a hurry. She just wanted to sleep until dawn.

  “I know.”


  “Don’t talk, let me sleep a little longer.”


  With that, she arched her head and closed her eyes, falling asleep once again.

  Shuang Yu could do nothing. Since she was not in a hurry, so then she didn’t want to make too much of a fuss, so she had to have the morning meal ready, and then she had to wait for her before helping her put on her clothes and wash up.

  When she woke up, she was still calm. She didn’t even ask about the heptachord, so much Shuang Yu wondered if she had forgotten.

  Wearing a wide-sleeved fairy dress and a double-ringed bun hairstyle, Xie Zhen ate two mouthfuls of almond cheese before leaving with Xie Xun.

  When they were on the way, Shuang Yu could not help but ask, “Miss, aren’t we looking for the heptachord?”


  Her steps were light, probably because she was in a good mood. She hopped in front and asked, “Why should we look for the heptachord?”


  “Then the Crown Princess’s banquet…”


  She let out an “oh” and seemed to finally remember something. She squinted her eyes and smiled happily. “It doesn’t matter. I didn’t intend to play the heptachord anyway.”


  She knew very well that she was not the sort of person to learn to play the heptachord. Even if she could learn it well enough, it would be impossible for her to learn anything within ten days.

  The reason why she said she wanted to learn to play the heptachord was because she was using it as a cover. She wanted to test if Xie Ying would make any moves, and as expected, she had guessed right.

  That heptachord was most likely taken by Xie Ying’s servants. She didn’t care about the heptachord, what she cared about was how many people of the first branch there were in her courtyard.

  Even Xie Ying’s servants could freely come to and go out of her courtyard. It was enough to see the servants of the Jade Yard really needed a proper reorganization.

  When she returned from the banquet, she would take advantage of this opportunity to find out who was creating difficulties and warned all of the servants.

  After this, Xie Xun got to know what did “making a feint to the east but attacking in the west” mean.

  Still, Xie Xun was worried about her sister. She asked her on the way, “Then what will sister use for the competition?”


  She said “don’t worry”, and then she fished a dark green flute out from the back of the wagon. “Nothing else, I can play the flute.”


  This was one of her rare strengths. Xie Liqing loved playing flute and had taught the three children how to play the flute since he was young.

  Xie Xun and Xie Rong were not interested, and Xie Zhen was the only one who did well, so when she was young she kept pestering Li Yu to ask him to play the flute.

  It was a pity that Li Yu didn’t want to learn, otherwise she would have taught him well.

  When she arrived at the crown prince’s palace, she realized that she didn’t even need a flute.

  The Crown Princess set the banquet in the Peony Courtyard. When Xie Zhen and Xie Xun arrived, only Ling Xiangwu and a few ladies were sitting at the table.

  Xie Zhen and Xie Xun stepped forward to pay their respects, and Ling Xiangwu introduced the two of them to the others.

  One of them was the hussar general’s wife, Madam Liu. Madam Liu had a kind smile on her face as she greeted them. She wholeheartedly praised the sisters’ well-proportioned appearance.

  Not long after that, people arrived, including Ling Xiangyun and the other families’ daughters, as well as some girls from the court officials’ families, some of whom Xie Zhen had seen before, some of whom Xie Zhen hadn’t seen before.

  From Ling Xiangyun’s introduction, Xie Zhen got to know a lot of young ladies of similar age. When they gathered together, there would be a lot of words that could not be finished. Soon, they got to know each other very well.

  Only after asking did she realize that they had prepared talents, such as poem, song, heptachord, and flute.

  Most of them didn’t care who won or lost, they just had nothing to do and joined in on the fun.

  However, when they were all gathered, they realized that what they had prepared was completely useless.

  The Crown Princess asked the servant maids to give each of them a piece of silk and a basket of needles. She told them to embroider something as they wished. Whoever had exquisite embroidery skills would be rewarded.

  Time is limited. They do not need to embroider too complex patterns. A flower or a leaf would be good enough.

  As Xie Zhen thoughtfully held the needle and thread in her hand, she had the feeling that the Crown Princess was holding this banquet with some ulterior motive.

  None of the girls beside her noticed anything was wrong. Either they had already started embroidery, or they were still thinking about it. Only she had yet to make a move.

  Seeing this, the Crown Princess walked up to her and asked, “What is the fifth girl wondering?”


  She raised her head and met Ling Xiangwu’s eyes with a gentle smile. “Empress, I was wondering what patten I should embroider.”


  Ling Xiangwu also smiled. “Do as you wish.”


  Then she turned away and went to look at the other girls.

  She pursed her lips, still feeling that something was wrong.

  But she couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

  All the other girls were immersed in embroidery, and it was not good for her not to move at all, so she thought back to the jasminum flower days ago when she had finished, and she began to stitch up the embroidery.

  On the other side, the crown prince was entertaining guests in the front courtyard.

  After waiting for a while, the sixth prince was still nowhere to be seen.

  When Yan Tao asked him where he was, Yan Ren, the Seventh Prince replied, “Sixth Brother has been busy building his mansion outside and has been missing for quite some time. I believe he will be here soon.”


  When Yan Tao heard this, he could not help but raise his eyebrows, “Build a mansion?”


  Yan Ren nodded. He was also confused. “Sixth Brother asked our father to build a mansion outside the palace. Father agreed to build the mansion, which is said to be located south of Beining Street.”


  “That place is elegant and beautiful. Sixth Brother surely knows how to choose a place.”


  His tone was a little sour. His father doted on his sixth brother and tried everything he could to make up for his lost fatherly love. Although he didn’t meet all his requirements, he could still agree to most of them.

  Such as building a mansion. Usually, when a prince had his own family, he would set up his own mansion outside the palace. Before the sixth brother even had his own family, he only told his father to do so and his father agreed.