Grace pretended to be busy and said to Sean Sun, "How about this: let's meet again in the back garden tomorrow afternoon. I'll tell you then."
"Why wait until tomorrow afternoon?" Sean Sun asked anxiously.
"The General is at home recovering from his injuries and rarely goes out. I'm only free in the afternoons!"
"Then come find me tonight!"
"I'm on night duty tonight."
Sean Sun frowned.
"Don't worry! Tomorrow afternoon, come alone! I have to go now!" Grace said, acting busy as she hurried off to serve the General.
Sean Sun smoothed his hair and smiled with satisfaction.
The next morning, Grace went to find Tenner again.
Tenner glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then handed her a box containing a thousand fine needles.
Grace slipped it into her sleeve and discreetly stored it away in her space.
Of course, she was only pretending to buy candied hawthorn, and Tenner even handed her a skewer.
Grace strolled back to the General's manor, eating the candied hawthorn as she walked.
"Lily Bai." A gloomy voice suddenly called out.
Grace froze mid-bite and rolled her eyes toward the big tree outside the manor gate, where Evan Xiao was standing.
He sat on his horse, back straight, radiating nobility and looking dangerously handsome—except for that icy expression.
"General!" Grace quickly hid the candied hawthorn behind her back. "What are you doing here? Heading out?"
Evan Xiao dismounted and walked up to her, his gaze unfriendly. "Hand it over."
Hand it over?
Grace blinked her big, innocent eyes, thinking, Is the mighty General actually trying to rob me of a candied hawthorn?
Surely not, right?
Or maybe, is there a rule in the General's Manor that maids aren't allowed to buy snacks?
That seems much more likely.
Seeing her hesitate, Evan Xiao reached out and threatened, "Hand. It. Over!"
Grace took the candied hawthorn from behind her back and placed it in his hand.
Evan Xiao's gaze lingered on the candied hawthorn, then shifted to her face, his eyes deep and unreadable. "Playing dumb?"
"Huh?" Grace wasn't pretending to be clueless—she really was. She had no idea what he meant.
"The candy seller gave you something." Evan Xiao said firmly.
Grace's eyebrows twitched slightly.
He actually saw that!
Just now, she had clearly looked around, but hadn't seen him anywhere!
She swallowed nervously and said, "General, the candy seller only gave me candied hawthorn. What else could there be?"
"I saw everything," Evan Xiao replied. "A metal box."
Grace's heart tightened, but she laughed, "General, what metal box? His candied hawthorn was six coins a skewer, I bargained it down to five. I'm lucky he gave me the candy, let alone a metal box!"
She absolutely couldn't take out that metal box of needles.
Those needles were sharp at both ends, not like regular sewing needles with an eye at the end.
With his experience, he'd immediately recognize them as needles used for covert weapons.
If he accused her of being a spy or something, she'd be in real trouble.
"Looks like you want a body search?" Evan Xiao's voice was low, full of threat.
"Go ahead and search me," Grace said nonchalantly. "General, please do."
Not that he'd find anything anyway—the stuff was in her space!
Evan Xiao's eyes grew cold as he grabbed her left hand.
He'd just seen her slip that little metal box into her left sleeve.
He squeezed from top to bottom, then shook her arm, but found nothing except a few bits of silver.