A Maid's Survival Story in a Noble Family Mansion? Rich Landlords Are More Appealing.

Inside Jufulou, the Lantern Festival banquet was drawing to a close, but the noise had not subsided.

In the quiet room, Wang Yanning had been sitting alone in front of the chess score for a long time. The tea on the table had been changed twice and had long since gone cold. He seemed calm, but his fingertips unconsciously traced lines on the chessboard, revealing a hint of waiting that was not easily detected.

Much later, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door. A waiter rushed in, his forehead still damp with the light sweat from his work: "Please forgive me, sir, the restaurant has been incredibly busy. I just managed to find a moment of free time..."

"It's alright." Wang Yanning interrupted him, raising her eyes to ask, "How is it? Have you managed to get the address of the guest who guessed the riddle of the Lantern of the Moon-Viewing Pavilion?"

"I found out, I found out!" the waiter said hurriedly. "It's the eldest daughter of the Lin family in the west of the city." He respectfully presented a slip of paper.

Wang Yanning took it, her gaze sweeping over the address of the Lin residence, her brows furrowing almost imperceptibly.

The Lin family...

He remembered chatting with Uncle Qian and Brother Wenbai and mentioning that the Lin family did indeed have a young lady who had been fostered away from home since childhood and had just returned home, but it seemed that she would return after... the year?

But the last time, when we first met at Moxianzhai, when I talked to Uncle Qian about how she brought her younger siblings to buy the first volume of Night Rain Picking Puppet Records, it was clearly the beginning of the twelfth lunar month before the new year.

If the person in Lan Yue Pavilion is Miss Lin, then did she already return to Ruyang at that time? No, that's not right, the timing doesn't match.

A trace of doubt brushed past his mind like a feather. He looked at the waiter in front of him: "When you went there, besides Miss Lin, was there anyone else in that private room? Who was she with?"

The waiter thought carefully for a moment and said, "Young master, at that time, only Miss Lin was in Lan Yue Pavilion. Apart from the servants standing guard at the door, there was no one else."

He's only accompanied by servants?

That's true. Just now at the riddle-solving area, she did seem to be accompanied by only one servant.

However, his doubts were not dispelled; instead, they spread like a pebble thrown into a still lake, creating even more ripples.

The figure chatting quietly under the lamp, embracing youthful days, created a subtle overlap and sense of dislocation in his heart with the identity of "the eldest daughter of the Lin family returning home after the New Year."

He suddenly realized that he might have made a preconceived mistake; the one who guessed the riddle and ascended to the Moon-Viewing Pavilion might not necessarily be her.

Reason told him there was no need to delve into it; it was just a brief encounter. But the intense curiosity and inexplicable concern that had been stirred within him prevented him from letting it go.

As the banquet drew to a close, the noise downstairs began to drift towards the entrance. Wang Yanning stood up and paced back and forth inside. In the end, the urge to confirm things won out.

"I'm going out for a walk," he said to his waiter, his tone returning to calm, and walked straight outside.

Meanwhile, inside the Lan Yue Pavilion, Chen Wanxing and Lin Wei had finished their dinner. Although Lin Wei was still in high spirits, seeing that Chen Wanxing was determined to leave, she did not insist on keeping her and personally saw her out.

Lin Wei escorted Chen Wanxing to the door of the private room and then stopped. Although she was reluctant to part with her, she knew proper etiquette. More importantly, her brother Lin Lang had just sent a servant to tell her that he and Zhou Wenbo would come to pick her up later to return to the mansion together.

"Sister Wanxing, thank you so much for today, and I'm so glad you could come." Lin Wei held Chen Wanxing's hand and said sincerely, "I won't see you off any further, my brother and the others will be here soon."

But we promised each other we'd stay in touch; you're the first good friend I made in Ruyang County.

Chen Wanxing smiled and agreed, but politely declined Lin Wei's offer to have her maid Xing'er continue to escort her. She then took Han Feng with her, and the two of them walked along the thickly carpeted corridor toward the stairs.

The corridor on the third floor of Jufulou is ingeniously designed. It is not straight and unobstructed, but slightly winding. Tall glazed vases or screens are placed between the columns as partitions and decorations.

Just around a corner, a floor-to-ceiling screen painted with landscape paintings partially obscures the corridor space. The light here is dimmed by the screen, creating a small, relatively independent corner where the noise from downstairs and other private rooms seems somewhat blurred.

Chen Wanxing turned around and went around the screen. Wang Yanning didn't have time to dodge and bumped into him directly. He suddenly stopped in his tracks, and both of them were stunned.

A flicker of surprise crossed Chen Wanxing's eyes, and he nodded slightly: "Young Master."

Wang Yanning was even more surprised. He had originally intended to "accidentally" run into the person who came out of Lanyue Pavilion to confirm, but he did not expect to run into the person in question directly.

Judging from the direction she was coming from, she was coming from the Lan Yue Pavilion, and she was alone. He didn't have time to dwell on the remaining doubts in his mind; he forced himself to maintain his refined and gentle demeanor and returned the greeting with a cupped hand.

"Miss Lin, we meet again. Have you... finished your meal?"

Miss Lin? What does that mean? Lin Wei?

She remembered that he had said earlier that he was not there for the banquet, so his appearance in the private room area on the third floor was somewhat unexpected, and he even addressed her as "Miss Lin" right away.

Chen Wanxing frowned slightly. She raised her eyes, her gaze clear and sharp as she looked at Wang Yanning. Instead of immediately correcting his form of address, she asked directly, "Why are you here, young master? If I remember correctly, you just said that you didn't come here for this purpose?"

Her tone was calm, yet clearly inquisitive.

Wang Yanning was taken aback by her question, and then realized that his appearance did indeed contradict what he had said before, so he simply said frankly, "Please forgive me, young lady, I did not make it clear before."

To be honest, I have a long-standing relationship with the owner of Jufulou Restaurant. Today, I was entrusted with some matters related to the lantern riddles, and I did my part to help out. As I said before, I really had some trivial matters to attend to in the back and couldn't dine in the front hall.

He paused, looked at Chen Wanxing, and added, "The lantern festival is over now, and there's nothing else to do, so I came out for a stroll."

"We only had a brief meeting downstairs and didn't have time for a proper conversation. I haven't even had a chance to congratulate you on winning first place and taking the crown at Lan Yue Pavilion. Our most magnificent revolving lantern will be delivered to your residence by our servant tomorrow."

After hearing this, Chen Wanxing's doubts were somewhat relieved. As for the gift of the lantern, she was not the one who guessed correctly, so this prize would not fall into her lap.

"I see. But you misunderstand, young master. I am not the one who guessed the riddle of the Lan Yue Pavilion poem. The Miss Lin you mentioned is someone else. I was just invited by Miss Lin to dine with her."

What?

Wang Yanning's gentle expression froze instantly, and a hint of astonishment flashed in his eyes.

Not her? The riddle has been solved; the person currently at Lan Yue Pavilion is indeed another Miss Lin?

In a flash, he suddenly understood, but at the same time, a deeper sense of embarrassment and urgency welled up inside him.

The awkward thing was that he had mistaken the person for someone else, but the urgent thing was that the person he really wanted to ask for his name and address was right in front of him, but he didn't know what reason to use.