I made the villain right.

Fanhua Mansion.

In the dark study, filled with the scent of ink, Fan Hua sat at his desk, concentrating on painting.

Suddenly, Du Xuan walked in from outside, bowed and said: "Master, there is news from the Secret City. Someone bought your information today."

Fan Hua raised his head slightly, glanced at Du Xuan calmly, and said in a light tone: "Oh, who is it?"

Du Xuan's eyes turned, and after a moment's hesitation, he said, "It's the guard beside Miss Shi."

Hearing this, Fan Hua paused with his pen, and a drop of ink fell on the paper, leaving a blank space in the peach forest with an abrupt ink stain. Fan Hua calmly filled in a few strokes on the ink stain and said calmly, "Got it, you go down first."

"Yes." Du Xuan immediately left the study.

After a moment, Fan Hua put down the pen in his hand and stared at the painting on the table, his eyes deep, as if he was thinking.

The scene in the painting is a peach forest in warm springtime, with peach trees growing young and in full bloom. A flying crane is lost and wandering among them.

The place that had just been stained by ink had turned from ink into a flying crane standing on the stone, successfully saving the painting.

The next morning, dawn broke and the sky was bright.

Xiyuan.

Mottled shadows fell into the room from the window. Shi Jin sat in front of the dressing table. Zhi Lu moved her hair back and forth deftly, making a new bun for her that was different from the previous ones, Chaoyun Jinxiang bun, and picked out a few beautiful hairpins for her to put on.

After Zhilu had done her hair, Shi Jin went back and forth in the closet to choose suitable clothes, and finally chose a pomegranate red, gilded, waist-length dress that she had never worn before.

She was going out of the house to meet Fan Hua today and wanted to make her presence felt in front of him, so she had to buy some nice clothes.

After finishing breakfast, she went out alone, without even taking Zhilu with her, and headed straight for Fumengxuan.

After entering Fumengxuan, Shi Jin went directly to the counter and asked the shopkeeper, "Shopkeeper, is your master here? Please let him know. He helped me a lot a few days ago, and I haven't expressed my gratitude to him yet."

When the shopkeeper saw the fair-skinned and beautiful Shi Jin in red, he was stunned for a moment before replying, "Sorry, Miss Shi, the master is not here."

She then asked, "Do you know where he went?"

The shopkeeper shook his head and said, "I don't know."

Shi Jin didn't know where Fan Hua's home was, so she could only come to Fumengxuan to find him. But now he was not there and no one knew where he had gone. Where could she go to make her presence felt?

Just when she was worried, an idea suddenly struck her. Why not ask for his home address so that she could visit him in person. This would appear more sincere and would also facilitate future communications.

Shi Jin gave the shopkeeper a kind smile and asked, "May I ask where your master lives? I'd like to visit him in person."

The shopkeeper refused and said, "I'm sorry, I can't tell you this. If Miss Shi wants to know, it would be better for you to ask the master in person and let him tell you." The shopkeeper has his own principles and will not tell other people about his master's news.

Shi Jin suddenly felt depressed. She had dressed up in vain but didn't even see anyone. Now she was going to return empty-handed.

Shi Jin sighed in his heart and left without staying in Fumengxuan.

Shi Jin felt that she was dressed so exquisitely today and didn't want to go back home directly. She wanted to walk around outside before going back.

Shi Jin was walking on the busy street when suddenly five ferocious thugs emerged from the crowd. They surrounded her with wooden sticks in their hands and rushed towards her with a clear target. Passersby around her saw this and quickly fled. No one dared to watch the fun here.

At this moment, in the elegant room of a teahouse upstairs, a cold gaze was staring at Shi Jin.

Xu Wuchen stood in front of the window and saw Shi Jin downstairs being surrounded by thugs. He curled his lips and gloated.

The guard beside him, Dacheng, asked, "When does Your Highness plan to take action again?" These people were hired by Xu Wuchen.

Xu Wuchen said calmly: "Don't worry, just watch from the side. When they beat her with dozens of sticks, I will help.

Xu Wuchen recalled the day when she pushed him against a tree in Yue Lao Temple. When he went back to apply medicine, he found that not only was there a large bruise on his back, but his shoulder blade was also bleeding. Thinking about this, he felt a dull pain in his back. Today he came to avenge that day, so when he looked at Shi Jin, his eyes became darker instinctively.

"Yes"

Xu Wuchen suddenly thought of something and immediately asked, "There is no evidence left, right?"

"No, my face was covered and they couldn't recognize me."

Xu Wuchen felt relieved after hearing this, but he didn't know that the conversation was heard by the people next door.

Fan Hua was living next door to Xu Wuchen. He was standing at the window looking down, watching the situation below.

The leader of the gang suddenly asked with a fierce look on his face: "Are you the infamous Shi Jin?"

Shi Jin glanced at him calmly and said calmly, "Yes, you guys came here because of my reputation. I just came out and didn't even walk a few steps, and you guys came to my door."

Seeing that she was not afraid at all and instead started to tease them, the leading thug was very displeased and quickly retorted: "Bah, with your reputation, would anyone come here for you?"

She glanced at them and pretended to be stunned: "Why are you guys blocking me here? It's really misleading."

The thugs explained their purpose directly and said fiercely: "I heard that you are very arrogant. Today we are here to teach you a lesson."

Shi Jin pulled the corner of his mouth, revealing a nonchalant smile, and said unhappily: "That's all in the past. I'm keeping a low profile now. How about you tell me who the master behind you is, and I'll try to be gentle later."

The thug found her arrogance very irritating, so he didn't waste any more words and went straight to attack her, hitting her with a stick.

Shi Jin's eyes turned cold when she saw this. She habitually reached out her hand to touch her waist, wanting to pull out the Liuyun Whip, but found it was empty. Only then did she realize that this morning she felt that the Liuyun Whip tied around her waist did not match her outfit and affected her appearance, so she did not bring it. It seemed that she could only defeat the enemy with her bare hands.

Seeing that the stick was about to hit her, she reacted in time, turned around and dodged, then did a left kick, kicking the man in the chest, causing him to stagger back a few steps.

Seeing this, the four thugs behind her attacked her one after another. Shi Jin left her toes off the ground and flew backwards quickly. After taking a few steps back, she stood firm. She leaned back to dodge the two thugs who were rushing towards her, then straightened up and sent a palm wind to the thug who was rushing forward. The thug was hit in the chest and was immediately knocked away and hit the stall next to him, falling to the ground in pain.

The man behind her moved behind her, wanting to strike her on the head when she was unprepared, but Shi Jin had already sensed his presence and kicked him in the arm, instantly making him unable to move. Shi Jin took advantage of this opportunity to turn around and chop the thug's neck with a knife, and he instantly fell to the ground.

She turned around instantly and looked back at the remaining three thugs. A hint of coldness flashed across her beautiful eyes. The thugs instantly clenched the wooden sticks in their hands in fear, swallowed nervously, and looked at each other, neither of them dared to step forward rashly.

Among the three people, there was a bold thug who did not retreat and attacked her again. Shi Jin swept her leg and tripped her to the ground. Sun Shun twisted his arm, and he cried out in pain, and the wooden stick in his hand immediately fell. She let go only when he could not bear it anymore.

Seeing this, the two thugs suddenly dropped the sticks in their hands, knelt down and begged for mercy: "Lady, please spare our lives. I was blind and offended you. Please be merciful and spare my lives." The rest of the accomplices also stumbled together and begged for mercy.

When the passers-by around saw that Shi Jin had subdued the gangster, they all came out to watch.

When Shi Jin saw them suddenly bowing to her, she suddenly moved a few steps away and didn't face them. She didn't want them to kneel to her, as it was unlucky and could shorten her life.

Xu Wuchen felt something was wrong when he saw this, so he came down from upstairs and pretended to help, but when he saw this scene, his face turned pale instantly. He had underestimated Shi Jin's strength.

After a while, Xu Wuchen regained his composure and put on a concerned look. He walked up to her and asked, "Jin'er, are you hurt?"

When Shi Jin heard this name, she felt horrified and her stomach churned. She was nauseated. This was the first time she had seen such a shameless person. He had threatened her with her family's lives a few days ago, but now he called her Jin'er affectionately. Did he treat her as a fool or as a fish with only a seven-second memory?

Shi Jin suddenly wanted to complain about what kind of brain her best friend had given Xu Wuchen. How could he become the second male lead with that IQ? How could he compete with Xu Wusheng?

Although Shi Jin didn't want to pay attention to him, he still said, "Wait a minute, let's talk about it after we deal with them."

Then she passed Xu Wuchen and walked directly to the side of those ruffians. She frowned and patted the hem of her skirt that had just been soiled, and said angrily: "If I hadn't been dressed beautifully today and restricted my performance, you would have been in trouble."

Shi Jin's eyes seemed to glance at Xu Wuchen who was standing beside her unintentionally. Xu Wuchen's appearance was so timely that she couldn't help but wonder if this was arranged by him. He wanted to play the hero and save the beauty to win her heart.

Shi Jin saw that Xu Wuchen looked calm and collected, so she asked, "Tell me who sent you here?"

She didn't notice that there was a hint of nervousness in Xu Wuchen's eyes that she couldn't see.

The leading thug replied weakly: "The man was masked, so I couldn't see his face."

Shi Jin lowered his eyes and thought silently. Today's incident was a scheme by others to kill someone with a borrowed knife. Those thugs were just a group of fools who were used by others. Shi Jin raised his eyes and inadvertently caught a glimpse of the stall behind him that was smashed by them. His eyes flashed and he thought of how to punish these thugs.

She cleared her throat and said, "You got my skirt dirty during the fight just now, delayed my shopping time, and broke other people's stalls. Take out all the silver you have and use it to pay for the crime." She enumerated their crimes one by one, beckoned with her finger, and motioned for them to put the silver in her hand, just like a female bandit.

Seeing that Shi Jin didn't want to kill them and only wanted silver, the thugs handed over the silver obediently. It was all small change, a total of three taels of silver.

Seeing that they were cooperating well, Shi Jinsong said, "Get out of my sight quickly."

Upon hearing this, the thugs supported each other and immediately fled to the alley in panic, crawling and scrambling.

The eyes of the onlookers were focused on Shi Jin, cheering her for fighting off the thugs. Her eyes were a little vague and she seemed a little uncomfortable.

Soon the crowd dispersed, but the owner of the stall did not leave. She was tidying up her damaged stall.

Shi Jin walked over to the owner of the stall, handed the silver to her, and said, "This is the silver they paid for the compensation. Take it."

She quickly thanked him: "Thank you, young lady."

Xu Wuchen, who was standing by, saw this and his eyes flashed with an ambiguous expression. Seeing that Shi Jin had finished her work, he quickly stepped forward and said, "Jin'er, since we are done, why don't we go to Fumengxuan to have tea together?"

Shi Jin replied coldly: "Your Highness and I are just casual acquaintances. Please call me Miss Shi. Thank you."

Xu Wuchen's face froze when he heard this. After a pause, he said with a somewhat cold tone: "So Miss Shi, please go with me."

Shi Jin politely refused: "Thank you for your kindness, Second Prince, but I have something else to do, so I'm sorry I can't accompany you."

While the two were talking, Shi Jin saw Fan Hua coming down from the teahouse. Her expression suddenly changed, and her attitude made a 180-degree turn. She smiled and waved, saying, "Fan Hua..."

Upon hearing the voice, Fan Hua looked up and met her eyes as clear as autumn water. Shi Jin was wearing a red dress that made her skin look whiter than snow and her face was extremely beautiful. The most eye-catching thing was the smile at the corners of her lips, just like the peach blossoms blooming in spring, with a touch of tranquil poetry in the bright color.

Xu Wuchen was furious when he saw Shi Jin treating him differently. When Shi Jin was about to go to Fan Hua, he immediately grabbed her wrist and said in a harsh voice, "Are you really going to treat me like this?"

Fan Hua, who was not far away, saw this scene and frowned slightly.

Shi Jin raised the corner of her mouth, and the sarcasm in her lips was very obvious. She moved closer to him and said in a cold voice: "Otherwise, if you want some dignity and face as a prince, you can let me go."

When Fan Hua saw Shi Jin calling him, but did not say anything, he just struggled with Xu Wuchen to the limit, getting very close to him, and then he left.

Shi Jin's words shocked his heart, his face turned cold, and he felt very uncomfortable. He subconsciously loosened the hand that was holding her.

Without Xu Wuchen's restraint, Shi Jin quickly caught up with Fan Hua, "Fan Hua, wait for me."

When Fan Hua heard Shi Jin's voice coming from behind him, he paused and waited for her.

Seeing Jin's joy at this moment, she quickly walked to his side and said with a smile: "Fanhua, long time no see"

Fan Hua looked at her and said calmly, "Long time no see. What do you want to see me for, Miss Shi?"

Shi Jin said: "To thank you for helping me last time, I plan to invite you to dinner today. Would you please come?"

Fan Hua coughed twice and said expressionlessly: "Sorry, I have something else to do."

Shi Jin was not discouraged and continued to follow her, saying warmly: "What's the matter? Then I'll go with you, maybe I can help you."

"Thank you for your kindness, Miss Shi. It's not necessary." The tone was polite yet distant.

Shi Jin said shamelessly: "I have nothing to do now, so I'd better go with you. It's a good chance for me to burn off my energy." In order to stay with him longer, she threw her face to the ground.

Seeing that she was determined to follow him, Fan Hua kept silent and let her follow.

Xu Wuchen, who was left behind, was already angry. Seeing Shi Jin trying hard to please Fan Hua and following Fan Hua, he became even angrier. He would rather follow an ordinary man than stay with him.

He said coldly: "Dacheng, find out the identity of the man next to her."

Dacheng said respectfully: "Yes"

Xu Wuchen looked at the two people's gradually shrinking figures, his eyes dark, like a pool of bottomless well water.

He wanted to remove any obstacles that might hinder his plans.