After meeting Xiao Jinyan, Jin Zijin headed straight back to Sanqing Temple, but as he was about to enter, he saw a dark figure under a locust tree by the courtyard wall.
He stopped and looked indifferently towards it.
The shadow paused for a moment, then walked out from under the tree with a careless stride, and chuckled, "What are you doing wandering around in the middle of the night, Junior Brother, instead of sleeping?"
In a low voice, Jin Zijin replied, "Huo Li? Aren’t you also out wandering in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"
He glanced at the house inside the courtyard wall and said, "Or rather, outside my courtyard wall."
Huo Li burst into laughter and said, "I thought you were sneaking off to see a fair maiden in the city in the middle of the night, but that maiden... wasn’t she sent by you to Qi Mountain?"
Sending Gu Youyou to Qi Mountain wasn’t a secret, so Jin Zijin admitted openly, "Yes, she’s on Qi Mountain. I remember you saying that no matter where I took her, you guys would be able to find her. So now she’s on Qi Mountain, do you have the ability to take her away?"
Huo Li’s face suddenly darkened, as this statement was a clear slap in the face.
Jin Zijin snorted coldly, turned around, and entered the courtyard from outside the wall.
Huo Li, still outside the courtyard wall, looked extremely sour and cursed vehemently a few times before flinging his sleeves and leaving.
The master, for some reason, seemed to no longer care about anything these days, always locking himself away in his room.
No outsiders were allowed to enter, so nobody knew what he was up to. Once when he personally delivered food inside, he vaguely saw that his master was drawing some strange patterns. Most of these drawings were incomplete, some had been discarded right after the beginning, some were halfway done, some nearly complete, but there wasn’t a single finished drawing.
Seeing those drawings, the master got very angry, chased him out, and told him that from now on he would not meddle in any affairs concerning the successor of the State Preceptor, leaving him to handle everything himself. Whether he could beat Jin Zijin and seize the position of State Preceptor would all come down to his own ability.
He knew these were the rules of the competition for State Preceptor that had been in place for generations, but weren’t there always biases under the rules?
He had never expected that when the master said he wouldn’t interfere, he truly meant it, which was why he had been so anxious lately; he feared without his master’s support, he would truly be no match for Jin Zijin.
Time flew, and before long the examination in autumn had passed, with Lin Shenxing coming out on top, causing Lin Residence to be greatly renowned.
Also, it was nearly the grand day of the wedding between Prince Jin Xiaoran and Lin Qianqing, the eldest legitimate daughter of the Lin Family. The Lin Residence was indeed blessed with double happiness.
Gu Youyou counted the days and prepared a congratulatory gift for Lin Qianqing. Now that she was wealthy, it wasn’t impossible for her to provide a valuable gift, but for the Imperial Family and the Lin Family, Lin Qianqing really lacked nothing of value.
No matter how precious the items were, they would just be one more thing in her dowry warehouse.
To make her gift stand out, Gu Youyou had long before procured various pigments and high-quality silk to create a painting that people of this era could not have imagined.
A vast sea of stars in the pitch-black universe.
Around a fiery red sphere, magnificent in its brilliance, were nine smaller spheres of different colors.
Her painting was meticulous and grand. Ordinary people might not understand such a picture at first glance, but having told Lin Qianqing some stories about the universe beyond the sky, Gu Youyou was certain she would understand.
Having packed the completed painting into an exquisite box, Gu Youyou handed it over to Qingyang, saying, "This is it, my gift for the Prince and Miss Lin. Please deliver it for me. Remember, make the trip yourself."