Chapter 62: Huh? Wasn't it you, Grandfather, who proposed this?

Jiang Yunchu silently gave Ningguang a thumbs-up on the other side, sipping tea with a blank expression, as if that thumbs-up weren't hers.

Kang Mengxian was tall, taller than both of them, so he naturally saw Jiang Yunchu's action clearly.

He said nothing, calmly saying, "Old Ningguang, after all these years, you're still scheming against me!"

"If I didn't come to the Wang Fu, I wouldn't have stepped inside today."

His unsolicited arrival today meant he had already made his choice.

Jiang Yunchu's tea-drinking motion paused, the corners of her mouth slightly turning up, her whole face showing a puzzled smile.

She looked innocent and naive.

But Kang Mengxian wasn't so easily fooled, especially since his eldest son and daughter-in-law had told him everything that happened in the Wang Fu.

Especially that Life-Death Contract, and the system of two semesters a year.

He naturally saw that his own granddaughter wanted to do something bigger.

"You all leave."

Kang Mengxian glanced at the people behind him; there weren't many—just Zi Su and a young gentleman.

Just…

Neither of these two is from his Kang Clan.

Jiang Yunchu raised her hand; Zi Su bowed slightly, "I'll wait outside."

The young gentleman stepped back a few paces, then went to the Study.

Jiang Yunchu, for this Study, had knocked through two walls, merging three rooms into one, and had the carpenter build large bookshelves—five shelves total—and had the young gentlemen organize the categories, labeling each shelf.

With this arrangement, the Study became bright and made finding books easy, facilitating many things.

Ningguang, eyeing it with envy, had a small bookshelf placed in her own bedroom, arranged exactly like the Study.

"Your stall is set up so large—what are you planning?" Kang Mengxian looked at his granddaughter; though he had long been prepared, the family constantly updated her portrait, but how could a painting compare to the real person?

Seeing is believing.

This look, identical to Ying Ying's, made him lose himself for a moment at first sight.

No matter what others say, it's not as good as seeing it yourself.

Jiang Yunchu drank a cup of tea, and only when she set the cup down did she look toward her grandfather.

"Huh? Wasn't it you, Grandfather, who proposed this?"

On her palm-sized face, she smiled faintly, eyes curved like crescent moons, not like the mistress of the Wang Fu but like a mischievous child.

"Me?" Kang Mengxian burst into laughter.

His aura suddenly changed, no longer that of a frail scholar, nor of a prime minister of over thirty years.

He is the Kang Clan's stabilizing pillar, Ningguang's old friend, and moreover Jiang Yunchu's grandfather.

"Go on."

After the laughter subsided, Kang Mengxian lifted his teacup and looked at Jiang Yunchu.

"Was it you who decided to let the Kang Clan's children come to the Wang Fu?"

"And it was you who specially marked Ningguang's status, as well as her address and initiation gift."

"It was you who arranged all of this step by step."

Jiang Yunchu smiled; before she hadn't been so certain, but this time her grandfather himself came.

Then…

And she could be sure that her earlier guesses were all correct.

"So…"

"What is your plan, Grandfather? After laying this scheme for so long, there should be an answer by now."

For a moment, her confident, arrogant demeanor left both Ningguang and Kang Mengxian staring.

This person!

Called Jiang Yunchu!

In their impression, she was no longer merely Kang Ying's daughter, not the Kang Clan's granddaughter, nor the Princess Consort of the Regent Prince's Manor.

She, just herself.

Jiang Yunchu!

Kang Mengxian and Ningguang merely froze for an instant, exchanged a glance, then looked away.

They and Qing Feng were fellow students of the same cohort, and moreover close friends; a single glance sufficed to understand each other's thoughts.

"Since Yun chu is so smart, why don't you keep guessing?" Kang Mengxian wanted to see how much she could figure out.

Jiang Yunchu lowered her head, looking helpless; in her previous life, although her grades were good and she always ranked at the top, but…

She doesn't like exams!

"Me or the Wang Fu—whose eyes are we offending?"

"Both, I suppose."

Jiang Yunchu thought: the Cao clan have always been fleas on the surface, but secretly they are bedbugs, and stuffing people into the Wang Fu one by one isn't that the best proof?

As for herself…

"... Is it because the Kang Fu has, for all these years, not kept in touch with me?"

As Jiang Yunchu speculated, she also voiced her inner doubt.

From the last time her great-uncle and great-aunt came, to everything her grandfather arranged, if the Kang Clan didn't care about her, that wouldn't make sense.

But they do care about her.

For eighteen years, they've ignored her, never showing such concern.

There must be a reason; she had guessed all along on her way back from Ningguang's place, but in the end she still had no answer.

Pa-pa-pa—

The sound of applause came from beside.

Jiang Yunchu saw her maternal grandfather, his face showing appreciation; she knew she had guessed many things correctly, but the question in her heart remained unanswered.

"You are smart, but you are too smart." An ambiguous remark.

Jiang Yunchu smiled and said, "Smart, isn't that good?"

Kang Mengxian's gaze toward her was unique and strange, as if he weren't looking at her but rather looking past her at someone else.

She knew he was looking at Kang Ying, her mother.

"Being smart is good, but you are too clever, surpassing even your mother."

"Child, things taken to an extreme will reverse!"

His voice was somewhat heavy; even Ningguang and everyone else silently drank two cups of tea to calm their feelings.

I'm afraid this matter involves the mother.

Otherwise, the atmosphere wouldn't have suddenly become so heavy.

"I have taken three disciples in my life: the eldest is the current His Majesty, the second is the great general, and the third is your mother, Yingmei Zan Hua."

"Back when your mother went up the mountain to become my disciple, she brought only a pair of straw sandals, a bottle of hemostatic medicine, a piece of pork, a jin of yellow wine, a tael of silver, a sheet of straw mat, a kettle of mountain spring water, and... a plate of peach blossom cake."

"However..."

"Your skill is much better than Ying Ying's."

Thinking of the third disciple's dry, bland, uncooked peach blossom cake, she can still recall the taste—see how awful it is!

"So, when I gave the initiation gift, you would have known it was me?"

So that's how it is...

She just said, how could there be such a peculiar initiation gift, and she had thought Ningguang had some special hobby.

She never expected...

It was her own mother who had a special hobby!

I really want to know what she was thinking back then.

"Yes, such an initiation gift is rare in the world; only the eldest and second disciples know of it, but..."

They are all busy, and with their positions, they cannot run off to Ningguang Peak.

They also know that this initiation gift is her heart's knot, a knot she cannot undo in her lifetime.