The Double

The little maid went and returned, but she brought back news that there was no one else beside the zither.

Everyone was in an uproar, "Moon Closing" had finished playing, but the musician had vanished without a trace, and no one knew who it was. This seemed like a very poetic riddle. Someone said, "Maybe it’s some master who doesn’t like to reveal their true face, as often depicted in plays. Such masters have their own habits."

"How elegant, how elegant!"

People were saying this, but the sweat in Xiao Deyin’s palms was even more abundant.

The person had vanished? How could that be? The Top Scholar’s Mansion was such a small place, where could they hide? If they never intended to meet, why play the zither at all? Xiao Deyin had a faint feeling that the zither music was played specifically for her to hear; aside from her, no one else could recognize the familiarity of the tune. Of course, aside from her, no one else had heard Xue Fangfei play "Moon Closing."

Could it be Xue Fangfei’s ghost, coming to warn her? Xiao Deyin felt somewhat dizzy. In fact, ever since Xue Fangfei’s incident, she never once set foot in the Shen family’s home, and today was the first time. So much time had passed that Xiao Deyin thought she had long forgotten about it, that everything could be treated as if it never happened.

But she hadn’t expected that nothing had passed and that it was tormenting her even more relentlessly.

Her face was extremely pale, and the young lady beside her noticed, asking, "Mr. Xiao, what’s wrong? Why are you sweating so much?"