Immediately after Bai Lou's departure, Three-Stamp Atelier contracts into a guarded, rain-muted room. Wen Jia prepares to question the hidden woman without opening the back-room door.

Wen Jia confirms the back-room door is locked and begins the conversation through the wood while using ink grinding to mask their voices.

Bai Yan is shown inside the back room for the first time this chapter, still veiled and guarded. Neither woman is willing to trust the other.

The false identity collapses. Bai Yan does not fully confess yet, but she stops insisting she is the twin.

Wen Jia frames the immediate problem: Bai Yan is alive, but a death letter sits on the desk and court is waiting.

Bai Yan begins describing the danger that drove her to stage her death, while Wen Jia keeps pushing for concrete facts.

The arranged marriage is explained plainly: Bai Yan's name and estate were being used as a bargaining instrument.

Wen Jia refuses emotional summary and demands why Bai Yan did not fight through legal channels. Bai Yan explains that the channels were already owned or watched.

Bai Yan explains what the fire destroyed: the evidence that could prove she resisted the marriage and the documents that tied her estate to real control.

Wen Jia asks whether Bai Yan is directly accusing Bai Lou of setting the fire. Bai Yan keeps the accusation careful, revealing why the letter was designed to speak after death.

Wen Jia reacts to the cost of the staged death. Bai Yan insists she chose between ugly options, not innocence.

Bai Yan clarifies that the letter was written before her disappearance as insurance, not as a suicide note.

Bai Yan states the purpose of the letter: it was meant to clear her name after death and damage Bai Lou's hold on her estate.

Bai Yan lifts the veil enough for the reader to see her more clearly, shifting from disguise toward exposed living heiress. The cost of being believed alive becomes plain.

Wen Jia explains the court's narrow question and the penalty for lying as an expert witness.

Wen Jia names the cruel elegance of the trap: the handwriting is genuine, the accusation may be true, but the situation presented by the document is false.

Bai Yan, cornered by the legal logic, asks Wen Jia to remain silent about her being alive.

Bai Yan catches the weakness of begging and offers payment, revealing that she also understands survival as bargaining.

Wen Jia rejects both tears and payment as substitutes for evidence, making clear that her profession is a trap but also a line she refuses to blur casually.

Bai Yan laughs once, bitter and bright. The two women recognize the same survival instinct in each other.

Wen Jia and Bai Yan settle into an uneasy practical understanding. Wen Jia will not promise a lie, but she will keep gathering facts before Bai Lou returns.

The chapter closes with the oath trap fully understood and Bai Lou's return approaching. Wen Jia prepares for court with no clean answer.