Lan Yan accompanied Jun Ye Lan to the Jun family's storeroom. Upon opening it with the key, they discovered very little remained.
"This Minister Jun, who is the head of the Ministry of Justice, actually used her own husband's dowry. Don't worry, I'll go find her now and make her spit it all out," she said, rushing towards the door in anger, only to be stopped by a hand on her wrist.
Jun Ye Lan looked at Lan Yan helplessly. She was too impetuous, but his heart felt warm. "No hurry, she's already in prison and can't escape." He held Lan Yan's hand and looked at the items in the storeroom, picking out a few ancestral heirlooms.
Although he was now Lan Yan's secondary consort, he had never sent a dowry.
Lan Yan didn't know which items were precious, so she watched Jun Ye Lan choose, only responsible for throwing them into the box. Before long, the box was full, and there was nothing valuable left in the entire storeroom.
Jun Ye Lan said, "You go out of the manor first. I need to visit Minister Jun's room. My father's belongings are still there." With that, he headed off, and Lan Yan walked in the opposite direction.
He opened a cabinet in the room and took out a small box, a hint of reluctance in his eyes. These were his father's former ornaments. He had thought they were all with Jun Jiu's father, but it turned out Minister Jun had taken them.
As he was about to close the cabinet, his peripheral vision caught sight of a letter placed on the top shelf, and his eyes darkened. Minister Jun was colluding with others! He took all the items and left.
Lan Yan was crossing the Jun family's garden, the usual path to leave the manor. She saw the Jun family members standing nearby. They had been staying there since Minister Jun was arrested.
The Jun family members all kept their heads down, afraid to incur Lan Yan's displeasure. They had spoken ill of Jun Ye Lan before and were terrified of being discovered.
As Lan Yan passed them, she stopped and glanced at them.
They all knelt down and cried, "Your Majesty, spare us! We knew nothing of Minister Jun's actions. We were merely following her orders in the manor."
"You're just sycophants," Lan Yan shouted coldly. "Mei Dong, have those among them who bullied Jun Ye Lan beaten twenty times. No, fifty times. This task is yours."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Mei Dong replied. Knowing that the Empress was seeking justice for her secondary consort, she was determined to complete the task well and punish them severely.
The Jun family members immediately fell to the ground in a panic, filled with regret. They shouldn't have bullied Jun Ye Lan when he was alone; now it was their turn.
Lan Yan walked away feeling refreshed and got into the carriage waiting at the gate.
As soon as she sat down, Jun Ye Lan climbed in. When he had left, he had still heard the sound of the beatings but hadn't paid it any mind, only thinking that he couldn't keep Lan Yan waiting too long.
Lan Yan smiled and asked, "Is it all resolved?"
"Yes, I won't be coming back," Jun Ye Lan said, lifting the curtain of the carriage. He took one last look at the vast Jun manor, the place he had lived for twenty years, but where he had never felt like home.
He couldn't help but look at Lan Yan, feeling a faint sense of belonging only in his presence.
Lan Yan smiled, thinking it was for the best, as it wasn't a good place anyway. She leaned by the window and drifted off to sleep, having not slept at all the previous night.
Seeing this, Jun Ye Lan picked up the box he had obtained from his father's portrait yesterday. He looked at the lock on the box, recalling his father's teachings, and his fingers skillfully manipulated the tumblers.
With a click, the lock opened.
He took out the jade pendant inside and examined it closely, noticing the unique patterns that indicated it was specially made. His father had come from a military family, and when the family was convicted, the entire Shen clan was imprisoned.
However, there was a special unit in the Shen family that had never been found. Could it be related to this jade pendant? He tightened his grip on the pendant, heard Lan Yan's muffled sounds, and put away his thoughts, placing the pendant in his懷.
Lan Yan coughed but continued to sleep.
Jun Ye Lan then took off his outer coat and draped it over Lan Yan. He pulled the coat up to her shoulders, and when he looked up, he could see Lan Yan's beautiful lips.
His Adam's apple bobbed, and he was about to leave when the carriage suddenly hit a large pothole, causing him to lunge forward. He braced himself against the carriage wall, his lips now only inches from Lan Yan's.
His pupils trembled. Seeing Lan Yan's eyelashes flutter, he quickly moved back to his seat and picked up a book.
Lan Yan was woken by the jolting of the carriage. She turned her head and saw Jun Ye Lan's strange expression, his ears so red. "Jun Ye Lan, did something happen just now?"
Jun Ye Lan said calmly, "No."
"Then why are you holding your book upside down?"
Jun Ye Lan looked down, a flicker of helplessness in his eyes, and put the book aside. He met Lan Yan's gaze, his eyes involuntarily drifting downwards, and the heat in his ears did not subside.
"I was just..."
"What a fragrant smell." Lan Yan lifted the curtain, saw a wonton stall by the roadside, and shouted, "Stop." She hadn't eaten breakfast yet. After getting out of the carriage, she looked at Jun Ye Lan and asked, "What were you going to say?"
Seeing that Lan Yan's attention was captivated by the wontons, Jun Ye Lan smiled helplessly. "Nothing."
"Alright, then I'm eating," Lan Yan said, sitting down and ordering two bowls of wontons.
Jun Ye Lan also sat beside her, looking like a refined gentleman, drawing the attention of many people nearby.
Combined with Lan Yan's appearance and attire, they immediately became the focus of the crowd.
Lan Yan, however, paid no attention and focused on eating her wontons. After finishing one bite, she called out, "Jun Ye Lan, they're really delicious. Try them quickly." Seeing Jun Ye Lan eating slowly, she almost wanted to feed him herself.
Jun Ye Lan picked up a spoon and took a bite. The taste was quite palatable. He turned his head and saw soup stains on Lan Yan's lips, so he reached out to wipe them away.
Lan Yan froze, her face instantly flushing red. Even her wonton-eating motion stopped.
The smile on Jun Ye Lan's lips widened, and he playfully remarked, "Your face?"
"It's just that the wontons are too hot," Lan Yan said, quickly diverting her gaze and lowering her head to continue eating.
The curve of Jun Ye Lan's lips rose further. It seemed he wasn't the only one experiencing such feelings. His mood improved somewhat. Seeing Lan Yan eating quickly, he ate another wonton with good appetite.
Lan Yan wanted to distract herself, but her heart was beating faster. Lan Yan, you're here to complete a mission; you're supposed to make Jun Ye Lan's heart race, not your own.
Meanwhile, not far from the wonton stall, Xi Chen watched this scene unfold. Such a grand display was hard to ignore. He gritted his teeth and exclaimed, "Lan Yan, you're living so prosperously, yet you're the one who caused me to be imprisoned!"
"Just you wait, I'll make you suffer miserably," he snorted and sent the latest news from his imperial sister to Prime Minister Lin.
Prime Minister Lin, having just learned of Minister Jun's situation, feared that Minister Jun would implicate her. Now, upon receiving this news, she immediately assured him, "Don't worry, someone will bring it up at tomorrow's morning court. The Empress will not have an easy time."