Chapter 153

Chapter 153: Is She Worthy?

Du Zi Heng’s face turned a bit awkward: “She… will come as a friend.”

Yu Zhi Yi didn’t get it at first.

Then it hit her and she was shocked: “As friends?”

In a situation like theirs, could people really go back to being friends?

She had lived two lives and had never run into that.

Red Luan had mentioned that in more open places, a husband and wife who split didn’t always become enemies, and lovers who broke up didn’t always become strangers. Sometimes they kept contact as friends.

But Yu Zhi Yi herself had never seen it.

Among both farm families and great clans, if a marriage went bad, never mind the couple themselves, even the two families might become enemies.

“Mm,” Du Zi Heng said.

He tried to look calm, but the loss in his eyes wasn’t something he could hide.

It had been Bing Yue’s idea.

She had said that since he was already married, and he wouldn’t abandon his legal wife for her, and since her relationship with his family was beyond repair, then the only path left was to part.

They talked for a long time that day. He tried to win her back.

But she asked him: “I won’t accept sharing a husband with another woman. Can you change that?”

Du Zi Heng could not.

At least, not anytime soon.

He had already promised Yu Zhi Yi that in a few years he would look for a chance to dissolve their marriage, but it could not be now.

He told Bing Yue the truth. She gave a cold laugh: “A few years? I am already seventeen. Most girls in this era, at my age, might have two or three children. Waiting for you, I’ve already become an ‘older leftover girl.’”

“If I wait a few more years, I’ll be over twenty. No man will marry me then.”

“You want me to wait years? Do you hear yourself?”

Du Zi Heng had no answer.

On one side was his love and unwillingness to let go of You Bing Yue. On the other side was his responsibility to Yu Zhi Yi.

In the end, he let go.

After all, it had been his own hand that drove a sword into Yu Zhi Yi’s belly back then. He had cost her the chance to carry a child.

He did not want to mention any of that again, so he changed the subject: “In short, we have separated. From now on she won’t threaten you, and she won’t target you like before. You are the Chancellor’s Manor young madam, and you have every right to attend.”

Yu Zhi Yi found it absurd.

The two who had loved each other to the death in the last life, just broke up like that?

She didn’t buy it.

“Zhi Yi, come with me,” Du Zi Heng said. His tone was earnest.

Yu Zhi Yi could hear a faint note of pleading.

She thought it over. In his friends’ eyes, Du Zi Heng had broken up with You Bing Yue because of her. If she still refused to meet people, it would look ungrateful.

She didn’t care about gossip, but Madam Yao had always stood up for her. She couldn’t let Madam Yao lose face.

“Fine,” she said.

She also planned to enjoy the show.

There wasn’t enough time left to refine the merit golden light, so Yu Zhi Yi took out the files on Cao South Village.

She had put off the case of the female ghost from Cao South Village not because she didn’t want to handle it, but because the village was hundreds of miles from the capital, and she couldn’t visit the scene.

Even if she went, it had already been thirty years. People connected to the case might no longer be alive.

Instead of tiring herself out on a long trip, she simply asked the Ministry of Revenue for the household registrations of everyone in Cao South Village.

Cao South Village was a typical clan village. Two thirds of the households were of the same Cao clan. The other third were people who had fled from other places and finally settled there.

What was strange was that almost all the drowned were from the Cao clan. Only one was from the outsider third.

These last two days, it looked like Yu Zhi Yi hadn’t touched the case, but in truth, each day she picked three victims’ birth charts and deduced their life paths.

There were eight dead in total. By today, she had deduced six.

She had to save one deduction slot each day for other cases that came up.

Even with only six, she had found a suspicious thread.

Thinking a moment, she took up the file of the seventh victim, pulled out the record of the person’s birth time, and began to calculate.

After a short while, she closed the household register and let out a long breath.

As expected.

She already had the outline clear in her mind.

But to be rigorous, she planned to deduce the last person’s life tomorrow before making a final decision.

Seeing her miss busy, Li Rou slipped out.

She planned to fetch a bowl of tremella and lotus seed soup from the main kitchen.

Her miss had worked all day. Even though it was almost time for dinner, how much could one really eat at a banquet?

She had heard everything he said just now. That Miss You was coming again.

Her miss would probably have even less appetite then.

Better to fill up a bit first.

The small kitchen here hadn’t lit its fire yet. If she started a pot now, who knew how long it would take.

But the main kitchen often kept soup ready, so they could serve it as soon as the masters wanted it.

As she walked, she spotted the edge of a robe peeking from behind an artificial hill.

She called out in a firm voice: “Who’s behind the rockery? Come out!”

After a moment, a figure stepped out, annoyed: “Li Rou, are you sick or something? I was just looking for something behind the rocks, why are you yelling?”

Seeing who it was, Li Rou blinked: “Sister Pan’er? Did you… lose something?”

Yu Pan’er lifted her chin high: “What else? If I didn’t lose something, why would I be behind a rockery? To be a thief?”

Li Rou felt something was off, but she couldn’t figure it out. She scratched her head, embarrassed: “Is… is that so? Sorry, I misunderstood.”

All of a sudden, Yu Pan’er’s sharp eyes caught the new jade pendant at Li Rou’s waist.

The jade was of excellent quality and finely carved. A single character, “Rou,” was engraved on it. Anyone could tell it was made for Li Rou.

But Yu Pan’er clearly remembered that two days ago Li Rou hadn’t had this pendant.

Her eyes turned hard: “Where did you get that pendant?”

Li Rou looked down at the jade on her belt. She smiled, both shy and happy: “This? Miss gave it to me. She said she carved it herself.”

That morning, before they left, miss had handed it to her, saying that wearing it for a long time would strengthen the body and ward off evil.

Li Rou knew miss was amazing. If miss said so, then it must be true. She accepted it gladly.

Yu Pan’er’s jealous gaze burned: “When did she become so generous?”

First clothes and powders, now an expensive jade pendant!

How could a rough-serving maid like Li Rou deserve this? [Does she even deserve it?]

Then Yu Pan’er remembered that after tonight she would be a concubine-to-be, and maybe she would even be raised to side madam.

By then, what good things would she not have?

Why would she care about one little pendant?

Hmph.