Xiliya had overlooked one thing—Malisi was just a child, and children’s curiosity was always strong, especially for a real troublemaker like Malisi.
Xiliya had originally thought that Malisi would leave if she couldn’t find Masha, but Malisi’s first reaction upon seeing the empty study was to glance back at the corridor—no one was there. Thus, the little troublemaker eagerly entered the room.
Masha rarely allowed Malisi into the study on normal days, and for a child, the more adults forbade something, the more curious she became. Now that Masha was away, this was Malisi’s best chance to explore the study.
However, hearing the footsteps drawing closer inside the room, Xiliya cursed the little troublemaker inwardly in her heart. Though she couldn’t see, she could tell from the sounds that Malisi was inching toward her bit by bit.
Whether it was the decorative items on the bookshelves or the files on the desk, everything held a novel allure for Malisi. As the footsteps grew nearer, Xiliya racked her brain for countermeasures.
She absolutely could not let anyone discover she was in the study. Not only would it directly impact her revenge plan, but it might also affect Ximo…
At that thought, Xiliya suddenly let out a silent, self-mocking smile. Had she known, wouldn’t it have been more reliable to leave infiltrating and investigating to an assassin like Ximo?
No, better not. Xiliya didn’t believe that clumsy little maidservant could handle something like this.
Xiliya was confident that if she acted quickly, she could knock Malisi out before the girl got a clear look at her face. Now she just needed Malisi to come a little closer…
But just as Xiliya clenched her fist, ready to strike at any moment, Annaer’s voice suddenly came from the corridor.
“Second Miss? What are you doing here?”
At the door of the unclosed room, Annaer, who had been on her way to clean Masha’s room, unexpectedly saw the scene. Malisi had been tiptoeing to reach a decorative item on the bookshelf, but upon spotting Annaer, she nervously hid a keychain behind her back.
“Second Miss, this isn’t a place for you to play.” Annaer advised patiently and gently.
“I… I came to find Mama.”
“Madam Masha isn’t here. She’s having tea with the eldest miss in the Rear Garden right now. Come on, I’ll take you to her.”
Annaer took Malisi’s little hand and led her out of the room. Before leaving, she casually scanned the study, saw nothing amiss, and closed the door behind her.
“Hoo—”
Xiliya exhaled, crawling out from under the desk. She truly hadn’t expected that little imp Malisi to come here, and with a key to the study no less—it was her miscalculation.
The space under the desk wasn’t large, and Xiliya had curled up entirely inside earlier. Now her limbs were numb, and she had to carefully stretch them out in the cramped area.
Even so, she inevitably bumped into the desk. When her right elbow pressed against the side of the desk, Xiliya suddenly sensed something off about the texture.
Applying a slight pressure with her elbow, that spot depressed inward with a “click,” and Xiliya saw a hidden compartment pop open on the side of the desk.
The compartment wasn’t big, just large enough to hold a single book. Xiliya was momentarily stunned. Had she stumbled upon this by accident?
She quickly retrieved the item inside—it was another ledger. But this time, what Xiliya saw within were records absent from the ledger on the desk.
This was… the ledger for Masha’s smuggling operations?
Xiliya’s eyes lit up. Though she had guessed Masha would have a private ledger for her smuggling, she hadn’t expected to stumble upon it like this.
Xiliya skimmed through the contents briefly. The merchant guilds involved were all ones she remembered from Camberlan City. After a rough flip-through, she carefully returned the ledger to its original position.
She wasn’t yet sure if the contents were genuine, but this would definitely come in handy when it was time to report and expose Masha.
However, Xiliya had no intention of taking the ledger. For one, it would alert the enemy too easily. For another, a single ledger alone wasn’t ironclad proof of Masha’s smuggling.
After all, a ledger was merely corroborating evidence. If Masha stubbornly claimed the entries were fabricated and there was no other proof, they couldn’t pin the crime on her definitively.
She needed to gather more evidence and then use it all to crush Masha at once.
Xiliya pushed the hidden compartment back into place, quietly observed the corridor to confirm no one was around, and then swiftly left.
Meanwhile, in the Rear Garden, Ximo was chatting with Masha.
Masha gazed at the garden behind Ximo, a hint of sentiment in her tone. “Xiliya, your mother and I were always on good terms. She loved jasmine flowers the most in her lifetime…”
In the somewhat desolate Rear Garden of winter, only that expanse of blooming blue jasmine flowers stood out prominently, a striking baby blue amid the monotonous grays and whites.
“So after she passed away, I planted this patch of jasmine flowers in the garden.”
Ximo nodded and took a sip of tea. “Auntie Masha, you’ve gone to great trouble.”
Whether Xiliya’s mother had actually liked jasmine flowers, Ximo didn’t know. But in moments like this, simply agreeing with Masha was enough.
Just then, Ximo spotted Annaer approaching from afar over Masha’s shoulder.
“Madam Masha,” Annaer said with a slight bow, “Second Miss said she wanted to find you, so I brought her over.”
“Hm?” Masha immediately noticed the unease and tension on Malisi’s face, as well as her hands clasped behind her back.
Masha extended a hand toward Malisi. “What’s in your hands? Show Mama.”
Malisi hesitated for a moment but eventually brought her hands forward, revealing a keychain in front of Masha.
“You little rascal,” Masha’s expression shifted slightly. “Didn’t I tell you not to go into the study? How did you sneak off with Mama’s keys?”
“I wanted to play with Mama…”
“Alright, Mama will play with you in a bit. I need to head back to the study first, okay?”
With that, Ximo ended her conversation with Masha, and the two parted ways with different objectives in mind.
As soon as Ximo returned to the room, she saw Xiliya, who had been waiting for her for quite some time.
“How did it go?” Xiliya asked. “What did Masha say to you?”
Ximo didn’t notice the concern in Xiliya’s eyes and assumed she was simply curious about the conversation, so she dutifully repeated it all.
“Heh, on good terms with my mother?”
When Ximo recounted the part about the jasmine flowers, Xiliya let out a cold laugh.
Ximo might not have picked up on it, but Xiliya knew full well that with direct approaches failing, Masha was resorting to playing the emotional card.
Planting jasmine flowers in the Rear Garden for her mother?
Xiliya naturally didn’t believe Masha was so kindhearted. More likely, those words were for outsiders’ ears—to showcase Masha’s magnanimity and generosity.
