Chapter 3: A Confession and a Quick Escape

The content of the letter was brief and straightforward, easy to understand at a glance. 

It was clearly not an accusation letter. 

Duan Ling remained calm. 

“When did you receive this letter?”

The Tiqi (Embroidered Guard messenger), thinking the letter was related to a case, quickly responded, “As soon as I received it, I delivered it to you, my lord. The beggar who brought it is still being held outside and can be brought in for questioning at any time.”

The Jinyiwei always exercised caution in their work—they would never release the beggar so easily.

Scattered rays of morning sunlight spilled over the eaves, illuminating the intricate embroidery on Duan Ling’s Feiyu (Flying Fish) uniform. 

Up close, the patterns appeared almost unnervingly lifelike, exuding a subtle, eerie charm.

He folded the letter, the fragrance from the paper lingering on his fingertips. 

“No need. He wouldn’t dare deceive the Jinyiwei. He likely truly doesn’t know who sent the letter. Let him go.”

“Understood.” 

The Tiqi bowed.

Duan Ling raised the letter and held it out to him, asking in a gentle voice, “Do you smell anything?”

Although he didn’t understand why paper would need to be smelled, the Tiqi obeyed without hesitation. 

He dared not be careless in front of Duan Ling. 

Leaning in, he took a deep sniff, and sure enough, he caught a clean, elegant fragrance. 

“The letter has a scent.”

Duan Ling’s long, narrow eyes lowered slightly as he spoke at an unhurried pace. 

“That’s right. The letter has a scent, and it’s of high-quality fragrance—something ordinary families could never afford. Go to the incense and perfume shops and find out what kind of scent this is.”

***

Lin Ting sneezed. 

After sleeping in the ancestral hall all night, had she caught a cold?

Early in the morning, before heading to the government office for roll call, Lin Third Master came to check on her—not out of concern, but to see if she had yielded. 

When he saw her still kneeling before the ancestral tablets, his anger flared up again. 

Just as he was about to lash out, she suddenly collapsed.

Tao Zhu immediately pushed past Lin Third Master and rushed to Lin Ting’s side, shouting, “Someone, come quickly! The Seventh Miss has fainted!”

Poor Lin Third Master, nearly knocked off balance by a mere maid. 

He wanted to scold her but couldn’t find the words.

No matter how cold-hearted he was, Lin Ting was still his daughter. 

Even if he disapproved of her going out to do business and ruining the family’s reputation, he couldn’t just stand by and watch her faint without doing anything.

Out of his line of sight, Lin Ting cracked open an eye and signaled to Tao Zhu. 

Tao Zhu understood instantly, playing along by squeezing out a few tears and wailing about how unfortunate the Seventh Miss was.

The servants rushed in, helping Lin Ting up and carrying her back to her courtyard.

Her mother, Madam Li, arrived late but immediately joined the commotion. 

Crying and making a scene, she indirectly accused Lin Third Master of favoring his concubine’s daughter while treating his legitimate daughter harshly.

Lin Third Master, unable to restrain her, was even scratched a few times. 

With a stiff expression, he said, “Calm yourself! What kind of behavior is this?”

Madam Li finally felt a little satisfied.

The uproar even reached the ears of the Lin family’s matriarch, who sent people to inquire about it. 

However, Lin Third Master suppressed the matter.

Lin Ting’s plan had succeeded. 

She almost couldn’t stop herself from smirking while pretending to be unconscious. 

Only after everyone had left did she allow herself to laugh in relief.

Her timing had been impeccable. 

Yesterday, Lin Ting hadn’t been kneeling for long, and Lin Third Master had been too angry for her to feign illness. 

But after “kneeling” all night, his fury had cooled, making it the perfect moment to pretend to faint.

Her joy didn’t last long.

A mechanical notification sounded in her mind: 

“Mission failed.”

This confirmed that the voice she had heard yesterday wasn’t an illusion—the system was real.

Did she really have to confess to him face-to-face?

Confessing to Duan Ling… how would she get out of it afterward?

But between handling the aftermath of a confession and being erased by the system, the latter was undoubtedly the greater threat. 

The former, at least, could be dealt with somehow—no matter how bad it got, it wouldn’t be worse than total erasure.

Lin Ting weighed her options.

The laughter in the room abruptly stopped. 

Dark clouds loomed over her expression as she crawled up from the bed, her face full of resentment.

Tao Zhu, seeing her sudden change in mood, was confused. 

Just a moment ago, she had been so happy—why was she suddenly frowning?

Whenever Lin Ting was upset, she liked to touch the gold and silver she had painstakingly saved.

Tao Zhu, used to this, thoughtfully picked up a gold ingot and held it up for her to feel. 

“Seventh Miss, is there something else bothering you?” 

After the morning’s ordeal, Lin Third Master wouldn’t trouble her again anytime soon.

Lin Ting hadn’t fully sorted out her thoughts yet. 

Withdrawing her hand from the gold, she avoided answering directly. 

Instead, she said, “I need to sneak out of the estate.”

Tao Zhu was caught off guard. 

“You want to leave the estate?”

“Yes.” 

She bent down to put on her shoes.

Tao Zhu disapproved. 

“You’re currently supposed to be ill. If the Third Master finds out you left, he’ll punish you even more. Why not wait a few days if it’s not urgent?”

Lin Ting opened her wardrobe and pulled out a different outfit. 

Standing before the mirror, she adjusted her disguise. 

She had her own twisted logic. 

“He won’t find out if I do it right. No problem.”

Realizing she couldn’t change her mind, Tao Zhu sighed in resignation. 

All she could do now was cover for her.

Still worried, she warned, “Seventh Miss, you must be back before nightfall. I heard that rebel spies have infiltrated the city recently, and the curfew has become stricter. If you’re caught, the consequences will be serious.”

Lin Ting had been running her business for over a year now. 

Ever since then, she had frequently left the estate, claiming she needed to personally oversee affairs. 

Tao Zhu had long been instructed to stay behind and not question too much.

“You still don’t trust me? It’s not my first time sneaking out. I know what I’m doing.”

Seeing Tao Zhu’s glum expression, Lin Ting reached out to pinch her face. 

She momentarily set aside the stress of her mission and teased her with a grin. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll come back safely—and I’ll bring you some sweet pastries.”

Tao Zhu pouted. 

“I don’t want pastries. I just want you to return early.”

“Got it.” 

Lin Ting pushed open the door and stepped out.

She was intimately familiar with the layout of the Lin estate, making it easy for her to evade the servants and sneak out unnoticed.

At midday, the scorching sun blazed overhead, but the streets of the imperial city remained bustling with people and carriages.

Dressed in a simple linen dress with a single long braid, Lin Ting moved swiftly through the crowd.

The Linji Cloth Store, located at the center of Qipan Street, was teeming with customers. 

The shop assistants were so busy that they barely had a moment to breathe.

Lin Ting glanced inside as she passed. 

The sight of the thriving business somewhat eased the disappointment from her failed mission.

Linji Cloth Store was her business—the one Lin Third Master had discovered.

But it wasn’t her only venture. 

Her primary source of income came from another shop, one tucked away in a less conspicuous corner of Qipan Street—a bookstore.

Instead of entering through the front door, Lin Ting took a familiar detour to the back entrance.

As soon as she stepped inside, she spotted a young man sitting on a ceiling beam, his high ponytail swaying slightly.

Perched above, he looked down at her like she was a thief.

Unwilling to be outdone, she met his gaze head-on.

His jet-black ponytail rested against his slender waist, a grayish xun (a type of ancient Chinese ocarina) hanging from his Diexie belt. 

He wore a menacing mask, but the exposed portion of his face revealed sharp, cool eyes and slightly tinted lips.

“You’re here.” 

His voice was calm.

Lin Ting flipped open the ledger he had left on the desk. 

“Didn’t you say business was booming and you were too busy? How do you still have time to climb up there?”

He ignored her teasing. 

“I’m leaving for Suzhou tomorrow.”

She dropped the ledger. 

“Tomorrow?”

He nodded.

Lin Ting jumped up excitedly. 

“Why didn’t you say so earlier? What about the business we’ve already taken? We can’t just cancel everything!” 

The breach-of-contract fees would be costly!

A year ago, she had saved the boy’s life, and the two of them secretly partnered to open this bookstore.

On the surface, they ran a normal bookshop, selling books. 

In reality, they took on underworld jobs—gathering intelligence, helping people find lost items or missing persons, and other discreet work. 

The boy was highly skilled in martial arts and had strong connections in the Jianghu (martial world), so they never lacked for opportunities.

Originally, he also took assassination contracts, but Lin Ting had vetoed that.

Before meeting Lin Ting, he had always worked alone. 

When she expressed interest in joining, he was surprised—was she really that desperate for money? 

But, out of gratitude for saving his life, he agreed.

Lin Ting was desperate for money.

She clearly remembered a plotline from the original novel: soon, Lin Third Master would sacrifice her to clean up a mess caused by his only son.

His son had beaten someone up. 

The victim’s parents were officials as well and wouldn’t take the insult lying down. 

They demanded 3,000 taels in compensation—otherwise, they would take the matter to court.

Even a first-rank official only earned 180 taels of silver per year, let alone someone like Lin Third Master.

He didn’t have the courage to embezzle funds, and his meager salary wasn’t even enough to cover the expenses of his household’s third branch—Madam Li, Lin Ting’s mother, often had to supplement it.

There was no way he could afford to clean up after his concubine’s son, but he also couldn’t just let his son go to prison. 

So, he set his sights on Lin Ting, his yet-unmarried daughter.

Lin Third Master planned to arrange a marriage for Lin Ting and use her dowry to solve the problem. 

After all, she would have to marry sooner or later—why not now, if it could help her younger brother? 

That was his reasoning.

According to the original story, it was Madam Li who had sold her dowry to prevent this from happening.

But Lin Ting refused to let things play out that way.

She wanted to earn the 3,000 taels herself—not just to protect her freedom, but to buy herself out of whatever little father-daughter bond existed between them. 

She would force Lin Third Master to sign a contract, legally binding under the laws of the Great Yan dynasty, stating that after taking the money, he would no longer have any control over her.

The Emperor of Great Yan was deeply in love with the Empress, and for her, he had amended several laws.

One such law protected women’s rights: as long as both the woman and her parents agreed, they could sign a contract allowing her to live independently, free from family restrictions.

This was Lin Ting’s opportunity.

Instead of stopping the incident from happening, she would let it play out—and then use money to sever ties with Lin Third Master.

She needed a fast way to earn money.

Even if her cloth store did well for an entire year, it would only bring in a little over a hundred taels—not nearly enough.

Partnering with the boy for underworld jobs was her best hope. 

Each successful case earned anywhere from dozens to hundreds of taels.

By taking on a few such jobs each month, she could make as much as an ordinary shop would in several years.

For now, she couldn’t find a business that was faster or more profitable. 

Of course, high rewards came with high risks—these tasks were dangerous.

But she was willing to take that risk.

They divided the work. 

She used her status as a noblewoman to gather information from the aristocratic circles in the capital—information that commoners couldn’t access.

He, in turn, acted on that information. 

They split the earnings evenly.

Once the bookstore became profitable, they never considered hiring outsiders. 

While Great Yan’s laws didn’t explicitly forbid their work, it was still an illicit trade—being exposed would bring them endless trouble.

So, in the past, present, and future, this bookstore would only ever have two members.

Herself.

And him.

Lin Ting had grown used to working with him. 

Hearing him suddenly say he was leaving for Suzhou, she panicked and pressed, “So how are you handling the cases we already took?”

The boy was silent for a moment, his sharp gaze sweeping over her. 

“Isn’t there still you? The next case is a missing person search. I believe you’re more than capable of handling it.”

Lin Ting immediately rejected the idea.

“No way. I forbid you from going to Suzhou. You can go after we finish the current jobs—otherwise, don’t even…”

Before she could finish, a hidden weapon embedded itself in the chair next to her, slicing past her hair.

The last word got stuck in her throat.

She swallowed hard and changed her tune: 

“…Fine, go.”

Choosing a business partner requires caution—otherwise, they might threaten you.

In the blink of an eye, the boy had leapt to the window overlooking the alley. 

Half of his face, visible beneath his mask, was strikingly sharp. 

“I’ll be back in half a month. You can keep all the earnings from the upcoming jobs.”

Lin Ting waved him off impatiently. 

“Since I’m doing all the work alone, I wasn’t planning on giving you a single coin anyway.”

Not long after the boy left, Lin Ting also departed.

Following Tao Zhu’s advice, she decided to return to the Lin estate early.

But fate had other plans.

In the mere time it took to buy some pastries, she ran into Duan Ling.

He wasn’t wearing his Feiyu (Flying Fish) uniform today. 

Instead, he stood in front of a perfume shop, dressed in a low-key blue robe, looking more like a young scholar preparing for the imperial exams than a Jinyiwei officer.

She had to say it sooner or later.

No time like the present.

A sudden idea struck Lin Ting. 

She made a detour to buy a veiled hat, wrapped herself up tightly, and then hurried over to Duan Ling.

Without giving herself time to hesitate, she blurted out, “I like you.”

And then—

She turned and ran for her life.