Chapter 241

The sun shone over the earth, making the room inside the yamen appear exceptionally bright. The door curtain inside the room was left unpulled, allowing the brilliant light to spill across the desk, falling upon scroll after scroll of books. On the chair facing west, Jian Xin looked at the books on the table with a melancholic expression. Beside her sat Liang Yu, rebellion and frustration written all over her little face. She occasionally glanced around, and finding no one else about, she would give Jian Xin a tiny, mischievous nudge. To the east, Master Ye sat upright in his chair, holding a book. Before him stood a simple incense burner from which a single stick of incense was burning. It was already half consumed. To the left of this stick lay the ash of another that had burned down completely; the moment one stick burned out, the next would ignite on its own. A short while ago, Jian Xin had cast all else aside, using every ounce of her strength to pull Xiaoyu back, followed by a long ordeal as Shi Wei coaxed the little girl into a good mood. By the time all of this was settled, less than an hour remained before noon. Jian Xin had hurried as fast as she could to the yamen, walking into the document archive. True to expectation, Master Ye was already there from the east.