Chapter Ninety-Five: Worse Off Than a Dog

“You don’t actually think you are the most illustrious young lady on all of Jiangzhou’s soil, do you?”

After speaking, Qi Baiyu pulled his mouth away from Qi Rongzhi’s ear, leaned back against the corner of a table, and folded his arms. “Right now you should be thinking about how to explain this to Father. This is not like last time. So many people saw it. It is not something you can simply talk your way out of by yourself. When the time comes, the one who loses face will not be only you; Father will be disgraced as well. If the military and the authorities fall out of step, it could become a major disaster. Jiangzhou is close to the frontier!”

His voice was neither loud nor soft, but it was enough for the servants in the room to hear.

Those who had still been scheming in secret, hoping to shift the blame elsewhere, now had no choice but to face the matter squarely. In the past, whenever Qi Rongzhi had pushed responsibility onto Qin Wanru, there had been Madam Di and Qin Yuru to shield her, and nothing ever seemed serious.

But things were different now. The balance of power in the General’s household had been overturned in the inner courtyard. Qin Wanru was no longer someone her father ignored and her mother disliked. Besides, this had happened in the Quiet Heart Nunnery, and the onlookers were not people they could bribe.

If their story did not line up from beginning to end, they might end up becoming scapegoats. At the thought, the maids and old women all began to tremble, yet they also understood clearly that they must absolutely not talk nonsense.

Say only what had happened. That was the safest course.

After all, there had been so many people there that day. If they could not protect the young lady, that was not their fault!

Qi Rongzhi was stunned by the fierce edge in Qi Baiyu’s expression. When she understood what he meant, her face changed at once. “You... you know something?”

“If you want people not to know, you’d better not have done it.”

“You... how do you know?” Qi Rongzhi’s voice started to shake. Fear rose in her heart. If Qin Wanru’s face had truly been ruined, then she herself might really have ended up suffering the General’s Residence’s revenge!

The mere thought that she might have come within a hair’s breadth of being cast into the lowest and filthiest place made her unable to stay calm.

She and Qin Yuru had both, more than once, sold maidservants to houses of pleasure. But now that she imagined such a fate falling upon herself, she felt at once that death would be preferable.

She did not want to end up like that.

“Qi Rongzhi, I remember Father warned you again and again not to go to the General’s Residence and cause trouble, but you refused to listen! This time, whose slander did you believe, to bring this disaster down on yourself? You have caused Father such a huge mess, and reduced yourself to this ghostly state. If not for the abbess’s medical skill, your face would have been ruined!”

Qi Baiyu increased the pressure on her mind, then, without seeming to do so, steered the conversation toward the words “slander.”

Qin Wanru had already said that Qi Rongzhi must have been lured here by someone. Then they would simply pull the thread in that direction.

“Slander?” Qi Rongzhi’s blank gaze slowly turned toward her wet nurse. She had already been frightened into a colorless daze by Qi Baiyu’s meaning.

“You... you, who told you to say that I could come up the mountain and vent my anger on Qin Wanru?”

“Miss!” the wet nurse panicked and dropped to her knees with a thud, still trying to explain.

“Nurse, how could you lead the young lady here? Did someone give you something for this?” Chunyi was quick-witted. At a time like this, with everyone terrified of taking the blame, she instantly understood and pointed at the wet nurse, shouting in outrage.

“You say it! Why did you lure me here to deal with Qin Wanru? You said to drive Qi Baiyu away, then say a few words to Qin Wanru and pretend to make up with her. Later, you would send someone to use Qi Baiyu’s name to trick Qin Wanru to a secluded place. After knocking her unconscious, you would slash up her face, and after that none of it would have anything to do with me!”

Qi Rongzhi slapped the wet nurse hard twice across the face and cursed bitterly.

“You said that with the words I spoke to Qin Wanru before, no one would connect me to this. You also said that even if anything went wrong, people would only trace it back to Qi Baiyu. And now what is this?”

She was furious enough to tear the wet nurse apart, and kicked her viciously. The wet nurse toppled to the ground, crying loudly as she tried to grab Qi Rongzhi’s leg and explain herself.

“Miss, Miss, this old servant only wanted to help you vent your anger. In any case, in the end this matter would fall on Second Young Master, and it would have nothing to do with the young lady!”

Qi Baiyu gave a cold snort from the side and came over to kick the old woman, still babbling nonsense. The force sent her body sliding backward heavily until she struck the wall with a deafening crash. For a moment everyone in the room froze.

“Qi Rongzhi, don’t think you can keep harming people forever while always having someone protect you. For now, explain this to Father yourself. As for her... I’m sure you have enough intelligence to figure out who was stirring things up behind the scenes, right? You are nothing more than a club in someone else’s hands.”

With a chilly smile tugging at his mouth, Qi Baiyu turned and strode away. He could not be bothered to stay and watch them bite and tear at each other like dogs.

“Miss, this servant remembers now! The wet nurse has a very good relationship with Nanny Zhou from the Ningyuan General’s Residence. Just yesterday, I even saw the two of them hiding to one side and secretly speaking.”

Chunyi’s shrill voice rang out behind him. At this point she was also desperately trying to find evidence to pin the matter on the wet nurse.

“Yes, this servant saw it too!”

“It was yesterday. I happened to pass by and even heard something about the Quiet Heart Nunnery, but I did not pay much attention, so I did not listen closely.”

“It was Nanny Zhou from the Ningyuan General’s Residence, the one who follows Madam Di. I know her too!”

Voices rose one after another, and everyone was gradually coming to their senses.

Qi Baiyu stood beneath the corridor, glanced toward Qi Rongzhi’s room, and gave a cold laugh before striding outside. His attendant followed closely behind him.

At that moment, his mind was full of restless agitation, and with a dark expression he walked forward all the way until he reached the bend ahead. There, beneath a great tree, Qin Wanru was standing. Her jade-like little face was slightly raised, wearing a faint and gentle smile. Her features were delicate, her coloring vivid. With her chin lifted a little, her eyes beneath long lashes were bright as water.

Beautiful, and quiet.

It was as if something were smoothing the agitation in Qi Baiyu’s heart. After he paused, he walked slowly over to Qin Wanru.

“Did you find out who was behind this?” Qin Wanru asked gently. Earlier, while Qi Rongzhi was having her injuries tended, she had secretly sent Qingyue to see Qi Baiyu and guide his thoughts in this direction.

She was certain that Qi Rongzhi had been lured to the Quiet Heart Nunnery by someone.

“It was Madam Di from your household,” Qi Baiyu said coldly, his brow tightly furrowed and his eyes carrying a fierceness he did not usually show.

“As I thought, it was her again.” Qin Wanru was not surprised. She tilted her head and smiled, though the smile was somewhat cool.

“She wants to ruin you that badly? Even if you are not her biological daughter, she has raised you for so many years. Has she truly not developed even the least bit of affection? Even a dog, after being kept for so long, would not spend all its days thinking of how to harm you.” Qi Baiyu’s tone was dark, the line of his brows sharp.

“I am not even as good as a dog,” Qin Wanru concluded with a smile.

Seeing her, lovely and blooming like a flower, arrive at such a conclusion, Qi Baiyu only felt more and more uneasy. He subconsciously opened his mouth, wanting to say something to comfort her, but in the end all he could give was a somewhat resentful remark. “The place I grew up in is not even as good as a dog’s either.”

He was a concubine-born son.

He had known this since the day he was born. His birth mother was not someone who liked to stir up trouble; all day long she preferred to fuss over the Buddhist shrine in her own courtyard. Anyone could tell she was one who had little favor, but even so Madam Li never spared her. If there was anything at all, she dragged her out to scold her, and she was even less kind to him.

Whenever anything happened in the household, it was always pushed onto him.

When he was little and did not understand, he had cried a few times. Later, as he grew older, he gradually understood that he was simply the one who took the blame. As long as whatever wrong Qi Rongzhi committed happened while he was present, the burden would basically land on him.

When he was young, he had not escaped many beatings from Magistrate Qi because of it.

At first he had thought his elder brother was at least decent, but later he discovered that Qi Tianyu was only better at hiding it. When he framed others, he was even more lethal.

Just now, when he said Madam Di had raised Qin Wanru for so many years and that even a dog would have grown attached, he was also speaking of himself. His own mother was not one to fight for favor, and he too had once respected Madam Li deeply.

But what had the end been?

The two of them had nearly been made to shoulder a black mark that could never be washed away for the rest of their lives, on behalf of Qi Tianyu and Qin Yuru!

They were both people whom their father did not love and their mother did not cherish. If such a burden fell on them, no one would help clear it away. If they could not clear it away themselves, it would become a shadow that followed them for life.

“I want to live even better,” Qin Wanru said with a smile. The corners of her lips curved, her eyes narrowing in delight. She looked very sweet, and the coolness from before had faded. Now she seemed to glow with a kind of warmth that made people ache for her. “Brother Baiyu, you must also live even better, so that those who single-mindedly want to frame us will only find it even more unbearable to watch.”

Since they wanted to trample her into the mire, then she would live all the better and crush them all beneath her feet.

Qin Wanru was not tall, and Qi Baiyu was only slightly taller than she was. At that moment, as she looked up at him, her expression carried a few traces of childlike seriousness and a certain stubborn persistence. Yet precisely because of that, her exquisite little face looked all the more vivid and radiant, and the shimmering brightness in her clear eyes was lovelier than the scenery around them.

At that moment, one could almost forget that this little girl was still so young.

Qi Baiyu’s heart stirred. His gaze also softened before a sunny, youthful smile returned to his face. Looking up at the sky, he said, “Yes. I want to live even better, better than my elder brother. That way I will not have to keep hearing people say how wonderful my elder brother is, how he is the pillar of the household, while I, a concubine-born son, am the useless one who only drags the family down.”

“You should go back. People from our household will be coming soon. This matter has nothing to do with you, and nothing to do with the old matriarch either. As for how they argue it out, that will depend on how they choose to settle it.” Qi Baiyu waved a hand and turned back. Before the people from the household arrived, he really could not simply walk away.

“Brother Baiyu, you should be careful too,” Qin Wanru said with a nod. She had been worried that Qi Baiyu might get dragged into this, which was why she had come to check on him.

“I’m fine.” He paused after saying that, then slowly turned around. The smile of the young man carried a flash of shrewdness. “In a few days I am also going to the capital. May I go with you?”