Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

When Xi Yueli woke up, there were fragments of blue bricks embedded between her fingers.

The sharp edge pierced her palm, and blood seeped into her fingernails. She gasped in pain, but she had no recollection of when she had clenched the thing in her hand.

"Miss! You've had another episode..." Qingdai knelt by the bed, her eyes swollen like peaches. "You went to the ancestral hall again last night and knelt there all night, ignoring everyone who called you, just scratching at the cracks in the floor tiles with your fingernails..."

Xi Yueli looked down at the brick in her palm. There were three parallel engravings on the back, straight and powerful, as if carved by a knife or axe.

The first three horizontal strokes of the character "西".

She turned her left wrist over, and a new scratch appeared next to the old one on the inside of her sleeve, crooked and twisted, like half a character hastily carved in.

"West, Three."

When Xi Yueli uttered those two words, a sudden surge of emotion welled up in the foggy part of her mind, as if something was struggling to rise from deep water.

"Qingdai, what about the calligraphy piece I copied yesterday?"

Qingdai hurriedly rummaged through the calligraphy practice book on the table and handed it over. Xi Yueli flipped through the pages one by one to the very end, and in the corner on the back of the page, she found the same two characters: "西,三".

This time, the handwriting was sharp and steady, with an unquestionable tone of command between the strokes.

"Qingdai," she asked softly, "were you there when I was practicing calligraphy yesterday?"

"Yes, Miss, you got sleepy after an hour. I helped you to the bed to rest for half an hour, and then you went to bed for another half hour after you woke up."

Qingdai thought for a moment, "In the middle... in the middle you said you were going to the washroom, and I waited in the corridor for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea."

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

Xi Yueli clutched the calligraphy copybook tightly. She didn't know what she had done during her episode, but she was becoming increasingly certain that the lost time...

She was doing something else.

Something seemed to be churning in her mind, a hazy, indistinct mass she couldn't grasp. Her headache suddenly intensified, and her vision blurred. She had to hold onto the edge of the table to keep from collapsing.

"Miss?" Qingdai was terrified and rushed over to help her. "Have you fallen ill again? Let me help you inside to rest..."

"Don't touch me." Xi Yueli pulled her hand away, her voice trembling. "I'm fine."

She didn't know if she was alright. She would have a headache before and after each memory loss. The imperial physician said it was a sign of dissociative identity disorder, but she always had a vague feeling that something was wrong.

"Has the doctor come?" Xi Yueli asked Qingdai.

"I've been here. I just went to the pharmacy in the manor to get medicine." Qingdai took the cloak and draped it over her shoulders.

The late autumn rain pounded on the bluestone slabs, splashing mud that stained Xi Yueli's moon-white skirt. She stood under the eaves, listening to the faint conversation coming from inside, her fingertips digging into her palms.

"Dissociative identity disorder? Ha, to put it bluntly, it's just being mentally ill." A shrill female voice rang out.

"You didn't see what she was like in the ancestral hall yesterday. She was calling out 'Master' to the memorial tablet, which scared Third Aunt so much that she almost fainted."

"That's right, this morning she acted like nothing happened, and even asked, 'What's wrong with the ancestral hall?'" another voice chimed in.

"If you ask me, the Xi family is just keeping her around as a joke, but she still acts like a legitimate daughter. Doesn't she even know if she's worthy of it?"

Xi Yueli closed her eyes, and rainwater dripped down the eaves, breaking into transparent water droplets at her feet.

"Miss Xi?" The imperial physician lifted the curtain and came out. He was taken aback when he saw her, and then a look of pity appeared on his face.

"I have prepared the prescription. Please get the medicine according to the prescription, twice a day. This illness... cannot be rushed."

She took the prescription; the ink on the Xuan paper was still wet. Angelica, Poria cocos, Polygala tenuifolia... were all common medicinal materials for calming the mind and relieving anxiety.

The imperial physician hesitated for a moment, then finally sighed, "Please take care, young lady."

The rain intensified. Xi Yueli walked back to Jinxian Courtyard without an umbrella, her skirt soaked and clinging to her legs, making her shiver with cold.

She had just sat down in her room when Qingdai suddenly entered. "Miss, the Second Miss is here."

The courtyard gate was pushed open, and Xi Yuefu walked in holding an oil-paper umbrella, followed by two old women.

She wore a brand-new pomegranate-red jacket, and the gold hairpins at her temples swayed gently with her steps, making her face even more beautiful.

Just three days ago, this younger sister was crying in front of me, complaining about being bullied by the manager. Now, she's come in aggressively with her old woman.

"Why are you standing in the rain, sister?" Xi Yuefu closed her umbrella and smiled gently. "Oh, right, I forgot that you have a bad memory, sister. Perhaps you don't remember what day it is today?"

She truly didn't remember, and Xi Yueli waited for Xi Yuefu to continue.

"Today is the day Mother has set for checking the household affairs." Xi Yuefu walked to the stone table, her fingertips brushing over the calligraphy scrolls.

"As the eldest daughter, elder sister should be in charge of the overall situation, but Mother said that elder sister is ill and should not be overworked, so..." She took out a bunch of keys from her sleeve and waved them in front of Xi Yueli.

"From this day forward, I will be in charge of the household affairs."

The old women stepped forward to take the storeroom ledgers, but Xi Yueli stopped them, saying, "Who gave you permission to touch them?"

"Mother approved it." Xi Yuefu raised an eyebrow. "Does Sister not even listen to Mother?"

Xi Yuefu smiled and said, "Sister, you're delirious from your illness. You should rest well. I'll take care of the household affairs for you."

While she was distracted, the old women snatched the account book. Xi Yuefu triumphantly waved the key and turned to leave.

She leaned closer and lowered her voice, "Sister, I advise you to behave yourself. Father said that if your illness relapses, he'll send you to the estate. Once you're there, no one will care whether you live or die."

The rain was still falling. Xi Yueli, clutching the calligraphy copybook, watched her half-sister strut out of the courtyard. Suddenly, the meaning of the two characters "west, San" vaguely surfaced in her mind.

"Miss?" Qingdai took her arm. "You look terrible. Let me help you inside to rest..."

"No." Xi Yueli raised her head, a resolute look flashing across her pale face. "Do me a favor. Under the west wall of my courtyard, on the third blue brick, turn it over and take a look when no one is looking."

Qingdai was stunned: "The third brick? Miss, those bricks were all laid down..."

"Go," Xi Yueli said softly but with a commanding tone. "Take a small shovel and pry it open. If you can't pry it open, tell me, and I'll go myself."

She didn't know why she said that; her mouth moved before her brain did, as if someone else had spoken it for her.

But after she finished speaking, a crack suddenly appeared in the foggy place in her mind, and a cold, sharp light shone in through the crack. She saw a pair of hands holding a knife, blood dripping from the fingertips, and a red rope tied around the wrist.

The image flashed for only a moment, as fast as a needle prick and then it was gone.

Xi Yueli steadied herself by holding onto the door frame, her palms covered in cold sweat.

"Go," she said again.

Qingdai bit her lip, grabbed a small shovel for planting flowers from under the eaves, and ran out.

Xi Yueli turned around and walked into the house. As soon as she stepped onto the first step, her knees suddenly buckled and she fell forward.

She braced herself against the door frame, her fingernails scraping into the wood chips, before she could barely keep her balance.

She leaned against the door frame, closed her eyes, and took a few breaths. The image resurfaced in her mind—the red rope on the wrist holding the knife was exactly the same as the one that had flashed through her mind just now.

Those hands were her hands.

When she woke up, she was so ill that she couldn't even remember yesterday. But when she was having an attack, she would hold a knife, hide things in the cracks between bricks, and leave notes for herself.

"The third brick at the base of the west wall." Xi Yueli slowly raised her head, staring at the west wall in the rain. There was a dark flame in her eyes, which was blown away by the wind for a moment and then suppressed.

What's inside?