CHAPTER 423: CHAPTER 391: FORESIGHT EQUALS DIVULGING THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN

Song Wei quickly instructed Wei Qian to arrange for a few people to investigate.

Lying in bed at night, Wen Wan tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Fearing she might disturb Song Wei, she simply threw off the covers, bent over to put on her embroidered shoes, and quietly made her way outside.

The tea in the teapot on the table was still warm. Wen Wan sat down and poured herself a cup, but drinking more than half of it couldn’t calm her restless mind.

Looking at the eerie, cold moonlight outside the window, she thought of her visit to Fahua Temple during the day.

The unease she felt in front of the Buddha statue, as if being watched, once again rose to her mind.

Wen Wan had never experienced such a strange sensation before.

She had always believed that she possessed abilities beyond ordinary people, a gift from heaven. But upon seeing Buddha’s golden image today, she suddenly felt that perhaps heaven had mistakenly given her this ability and forgotten to take it back. Visiting the temple seemed less like worshipping and more like walking into a trap.

"I noticed you seemed a bit distracted today, there’s definitely something you’re hiding from me."

A gentle male voice came from behind her.

Wen Wan’s spine stiffened for a moment, then she slowly turned her head to see that sometime unbeknownst to her, Song Wei had woken up. He was now lowering his head, lifting the lid of the incense burner with one hand, while holding the burner with the other, and pouring the remaining incense into the spittoon. Then he replaced it with new incense, carefully burying the unfinished piece of red charcoal in the middle of the incense.

Not long after, the room was filled with the calm and elegant scent of Concentration Incense, which helped calm one’s mind while also inducing sleepiness.

Wen Wan obligingly yawned and didn’t forget to ask the man, "Weren’t you already asleep? Why did you suddenly get up?"

Song Wei slowly stirred the incense inside with a poker, closed the lid of the burner, and looked up at her.

Afraid the light might be too harsh, Wen Wan only lit the floor lamp beside the Eight Immortals Table, and the man’s features appeared even deeper in the dim light.

Meeting his eyes, Wen Wan suddenly felt guilty and stammered, "Did I wake you up?"

As she spoke, Song Wei had already stepped over and sat down next to her, "I couldn’t sleep by myself."

He spoke while deliberately looking into Wen Wan’s eyes.

Wen Wan wasn’t adept at lying in front of him. Surrounded by his gaze, she felt exposed and didn’t dare to look up.

Seeing her remain silent for a long time, Song Wei spoke patiently, "There should be honesty between spouses."

This sentence, Wen Wan remembered deeply, she had said herself not too long ago.

Now finding herself as the one hiding something from the other seemed to give her a deeper understanding of how difficult it must have been for Song Wei to keep things from her back then.

Seeing her hands nervously clutching the tea cup, Song Wei reached out, took the cup from her hands and placed it on the table, softly instructing, "Don’t drink too much tea at night, it can cause insomnia."

Without anything to hold, Wen Wan seemed very tense and didn’t know how to answer him.

Song Wei said, "It’s okay if you don’t want to talk, but at least try to ensure you get enough sleep and mental rest."

...

When brought back to the inner room, just as he was about to turn off the light, Wen Wan suddenly spoke, "Today, when I stood in front of the Buddha’s golden image in the Great Hall, I felt very scared."

Song Wei instantly understood the reason and didn’t hurry to extinguish the light. He sat on the edge of the bed, pulled her hand over, and gently rubbed the slightly cool fingertips, "Is it because of the premonition?"

"I’m not quite sure," Wen Wan said. "When I walked in, I looked up, and for a moment, I felt that the gilded figure inside wasn’t a statue but a living Buddha. He watched me as if condemning a sham who reveals heavens’ secrets every now and then, expecting me to pay the price for it."

After speaking, she looked at Song Wei, "Husband, do you think that every time I reveal these premonitions, it’s equivalent to revealing the heavens’ secrets?"

Those fortune-tellers in Jianghu usually stroke their beards after a prediction and say, "Heaven’s secrets cannot be divulged." They claim that divulging such secrets would shorten their lives, then deceive na�ve folks into spending lots of silver money to ward off disaster and change their fate.

Regardless of whether those old charlatans truly have the power to change destiny, the notion that "revealing heaven’s secrets shortens life" alarmed Wen Wan deeply.

The more she thought about it, the more frightened she became. "If divulging these secrets requires a lifespan in exchange, does that mean I’ll..."

Before she could finish the second half of her sentence, Song Wei stopped her with his hand, "Don’t make random assumptions, it’s impossible."

Wen Wan’s heart pounded, she pushed Song Wei’s hand away, "But I can foresee many bad things about to happen, and that’s a fact. Fortune-tellers might not even know as much as I do."

Before getting married, all her premonitions were only related to herself, and back then she couldn’t speak or reveal them to anyone.

After marriage, unable to speak, she used sign language or even written words. When her voice returned, she blurted out anything she wanted to say without thinking about any taboos.

"Husband, maybe the reason I suddenly gained this foresight when my voice was lost is because it was heaven’s deliberate arrangement. The precondition for this special ability might be that I must remain mute and keep everything to myself?"

Song Wei wanted to tell her not to worry about such baseless matters, but he couldn’t come up with a convincing pretext.

If Wen Wan didn’t have this foresight, he might be able to persuade her otherwise.

But her ability to foretell the future was very real, and he had even grown accustomed to it, used to asking her if she had any bad premonitions every day before going out.

Scholars generally do not believe in supernatural forces, but when such events happen to one’s loved ones, Song Wei finds himself at a loss for words and ends up in silence.

After a long time, he looked at Wen Wan: "You should sleep first. Another day, I’ll accompany you to Fahua Temple to meet Master Xu Yun."

"Is it necessary to go?" Whenever Wen Wan thinks of that feeling, her body involuntarily shudders.

Noting her fear, Song Wei said, "This time, no need to pray to Buddha, we’ll directly meet the Master."

"Oh, okay."

Perhaps because the man’s tone was overly calm and steady, it gave her a sense of reliance. Wen Wan quickly calms down, and with the effect of Concentration Incense, she soon feels her eyelids grow heavy and falls asleep.

When she wakes up the next day, the space beside her is empty. The man has already gone to the Hanlin Academy, leaving her a note, suggesting that if she’s still feeling bad, she could climb the high tower and shout down from the top, letting all her inner emotions out.

Not far from their home is an abandoned pagoda, seldom visited by anyone.

Reading the note with the man’s familiar handwriting, Wen Wan couldn’t help but laugh.

Climb the tower? He really has a knack for ideas.

If she did shout downward, and someone happened to pass by, they’d most likely think there was a madwoman standing on the tower.

She tucked the note into her frequently-read book and asked Yun Cai to bring water inside.

After washing, Yun Cai went to the kitchen to get breakfast.

On her return, following her through the door, was Jinbao, fully dressed and looking spirited.

The little fellow had walked down the mountain yesterday and arrived back utterly exhausted, but after a good night’s sleep, now he was jumping around energetically again.

Seeing her son, Wen Wan felt a sense of comfort.

After breakfast, she didn’t follow Song Wei’s suggestion to climb the tower.

Being inherently introverted and conservative, Wen Wan couldn’t bring herself to shout loudly even if she were in a place with no people.

She put on a smart and tidy dress and asked the gardener for a watering can and flower scissors, solemnly taking on the role of a flower farmer.

The morning air was refreshing, with birdsong accompanied by a gentle breeze, providing a sense of tranquility.

After pruning the roses, she turned around only to see the once bright and pink petals scattered all over by some "flower lover."

He was currently sitting on the lawn, busy sorting the petals he had plucked, stuffing the freshest and tenderest into his mouth.

...

Fifteen minutes later, the garden of the Song Mansion echoed with the cries of the "flower lover," akin to the sound of a slaughtered pig.

——

The Hidden Guard acted swiftly and within a few days, discovered the origins of the fifth miss of Kangding Bo Mansion.

"She is not Lady Kang Ding’s biological daughter."

In the pavilion in the garden, Wei Qian reported the findings to Wen Wan in a low voice.

"According to the clues, before the earthquake in Ningzhou last year, the Kangding Bo couple had returned for ancestral worship with their son. When they returned after the New Year, they had acquired a fifth miss."

Wen Wan squinted, "So, that fifth miss, Li Huairu, could indeed be Sanyang?"

When Wei Qian and others went to Ningzhou last year to fetch the Song Erlang family, Sanyang had already disappeared. He hadn’t seen what she looked like, so he didn’t directly conclude as the master suggested. He simply asked Wen Wan what the next step should be.

For a moment, Wen Wan couldn’t decide and waved her hand, "You may leave for now, I’ll ponder on it further."

After Wei Qian left, Wen Wan fell into deep thought.

She recalled the scene they encountered at the foot of Mile Mountain.

When Li Huairu saw her, she showed no reaction whatsoever. Was it because, when she left home, Sanyang was still young and didn’t remember her third aunt, or was it that she truly mistook her identity?

In the evening, Wen Wan discussed this matter with Song Wei, whose suggestion was to find an opportunity to meet the fifth miss, preferably with someone familiar with Sanyang. Wen Wan decided to choose between Song Jiao and Song Qi.

Wen Wan decided to take Song Jiao.

Song Qi had a noisy and boisterous nature. If she went, upon truly seeing the person, she’d surely say a few words and ruin the atmosphere.

With her mind made up, Wen Wan personally went to Song Erlang’s house the next day.