“Brother!”
On the bank, Xie Hanyue’s face turned pale with shock, and the surrounding maids were thrown into chaos.
“Someone, help! People have fallen into the water!”
“The Eldest Miss and the Eldest Young Master have fallen into the water!”
The cries of alarm from the courtyard shattered the tranquility of the Xie Manor’s inner residence.
Wang Shi rushed over. Seeing her son and daughter in the pond, she was so frightened she nearly fainted on the spot. “Quick! Save them!”
She clutched her chest, her entire body trembling.
However, while the servants and maids of the inner residence rushed to the pond’s edge, none knew how to perform a rescue.
“Quick, go to the front courtyard and call for someone who can swim!” an old mammy shouted anxiously.
“No!”
Her words were cut off by Wang Shi before they could even fade.
The dignified matriarch of the Xie Family was sweating with anxiety, yet as her still-charming eyes stared at her struggling daughter in the lake, her mind was on the marriage that had just been decided.
If Xie Qingran were to be pulled out of the water by a male servant, her wet clothes would cling to her body, revealing all her curves.
With so many eyes watching, her innocence would be utterly ruined!
At that point, forget the Zhen Guo Duke Manor, what other prestigious family in the capital would be willing to marry a woman with a tarnished reputation?
“Quick! Find bamboo poles! Find ropes to save the Eldest Miss!”
Wang Shi’s voice trembled, but she didn’t forget to scan the surrounding servants and warn them sternly, “Keep an eye on the male servants in the front courtyard. Not a single one is allowed in! Zhaoye! Oh, right, Zhaoye, you pull your sister up first!”
In her panic, Wang Shi suddenly remembered that her son could swim.
But in the water, Xie Zhaoye could hardly save himself.
He had choked on several mouthfuls of water, and his loathing for Xie Qingran had reached its peak. Hearing his mother’s shout, not only did he not reach out to pull Xie Qingran, but amid the chaotic waves, a vicious thought arose in him. He secretly pushed with force, shoving Xie Qingran, who had just managed to get near the edge of the pond, back into the deep water!
“Cough…” Caught off guard, Xie Qingran choked on another mouthful of icy pond water. The bone-chilling cold and her brother’s cruelty intensified the hatred in her heart, and her eyes, as if laced with poison, fixed on Xie Zhaoye.
“Are you scared, Xie Qingran?” Xie Zhaoye moved closer to her, hissing a sinister laugh in a voice only they could hear. “If you die in this water, no one will be able to threaten Yue’er’s position.”
“Pah.”
Xie Qingran spat the pond water in her mouth fiercely at him, returning his smile with one of her own. “So sorry, but I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you.”
Holding her breath, she suddenly sank down, nimbly circling behind Xie Zhaoye. Taking advantage of his moment of shock, she used all her strength to grab his belt and yanked him viciously into the water!
“Glug, glug…” Xie Zhaoye had never expected Xie Qingran to fight back. Caught completely off guard, he was pushed completely under, swallowing large mouthfuls of water in terror.
Xie Qingran seized the opportunity to use him as leverage, kicking her legs toward the pond’s edge. She grabbed the bamboo pole a servant had hastily extended and was pulled ashore by many helping hands.
As the early spring wind blew, her soaked clothes clung to her body. Xie Qingran shivered from the cold, her lips turning purple.
A quick-witted maid handed her a cloak, covering her body.
Xie Qingran’s icy fingers tightened the cloak as she turned back impassively to glance at Xie Zhaoye, still flailing in the water. There wasn’t the slightest ripple of emotion in her eyes.
All those years in the countryside, the old mammy who had been ordered by the Noble Consort to discipline her strictly had established all sorts of strange and harsh rules to torment her.
In the summer, she was forced to learn to swim in cold river channels; in the winter, she was made to practice her deportment by walking on the frozen lake surface. It was all beautifully termed as “a lady of a great house must be capable of everything and remain unflustered in the face of danger.”
She never thought that the old mammy’s endless torment in the past would become the very thing she relied on today when she was nearly killed by her own family…
“Quick, call the men from the front courtyard to save the Eldest Young Master!” Seeing her daughter ashore first, Wang Shi was now in a complete panic, ordering the servants to find someone to save her son.
The inner residence was in an uproar.
Ignoring the chaos behind her and Xie Hanyue’s gaze, which was a mixture of fear and venomous resentment, Xie Qingran staggered step by step toward the remote and desolate Ying Xing Pavilion.
Back in her courtyard.
She soaked in hot water for a long time before the bone-deep chill gradually dissipated.
But the cold in her heart remained, layer upon layer, impossible to dispel.
It’s alright… Just endure a little longer.
Soon, she would have nothing to do with the Xie Family.
Xie Qingran suppressed the pathetic and pitiful sorrow in her heart, changed into clean clothes, and leaned against the couch to recover. From outside the courtyard came Xie Zhaoye’s furious roars and the maids’ attempts to stop him.
“Xie Qingran! You venomous woman! Get the hell out here! I’ll kill you today!”
“Eldest Young Master, you can’t go in. The Eldest Miss has just changed and is lying down.”
“Eldest Young Master, the Eldest Miss is already resting.”
“…”
Xie Qingran slowly opened her eyes, a flash of annoyance flickering past.
That thing actually got rescued?!
The wicked truly do live long.
She just listened quietly to the commotion outside, not even lifting a finger.
Creak—
Suddenly, the door opened.
Wang Shi, dressed in fine clothes, walked in with a look of sorrow and hurt, questioning her in a grief-stricken voice, “Ran’er, is what your brother said true? You pulled him down in the water?! You two are biological siblings!”
Xie Qingran had thought she could be completely indifferent, but she had still underestimated Wang Shi’s favoritism. A derisive smile touched her colorless lips. “Did you not see him push me under the water?”
Wang Shi looked awkward and argued forcefully, “Your brother was just in a panic. He didn’t do it on purpose. Besides, why didn’t you say earlier that you could swim? Your brother almost lost his life, don’t you know?”
“His life is a life, but mine is not.”
Xie Qingran lay on the couch, her pale and weak face making her phoenix eyes appear even darker and sharper, so piercing that one dared not look directly at them. “Has Mother come to seek justice for Brother? In that case, I’ll just lie here and pay for his life with mine.”
“You… Why must you be so stubborn!” Wang Shi’s fingers trembled, her indignant tone filled with disappointment in Xie Qingran.
Xie Qingran remained unmoved.
“Xie Qingran! If you want to die, I can certainly grant your wish!”
At that moment, Xie Zhaoye burst in.
Ignoring the servants’ attempts to block him, he looked at Xie Qingran, his features twisted with rage. “Mother, why are you still biased toward her? She was about to kill me! Am I your biological son or not!”
“Mother, it’s not Sister’s fault, it’s all my fault.” Xie Hanyue followed closely behind, her beautiful eyes filled with tears as she nestled pitifully into Wang Shi’s arms.
Wang Shi looked at her well-behaved younger daughter, then at her furious elder son. She couldn’t help but close her eyes, making a painful decision. “Men, bring the Family Law!”
“Yes!”
Two burly servant women immediately rushed in from outside and pinned down Xie Qingran’s hands and feet in a few swift movements.
Xie Qingran had just exhausted her strength in the lake and had no energy to resist. They dragged her to a long bench in the courtyard. She wasn’t even able to put on a cloak, and her thin frame ached from being pressed against the bench.
Two other burly servant women stood on either side of the bench, holding punishment rods as thick as an adult man’s arm.
“Don’t blame me. It’s just that you are too vicious, to the point of harming your own flesh and blood! You’ve disappointed me too much!”
Supported by Xie Hanyue, Wang Shi walked out of the room and stood on the steps, looking at Xie Qingran with a heartbroken expression.
Xie Qingran’s chin rested on the hard surface of the bench, forcing her to look up at the three people before her.
Xie Zhaoye’s face was a mask of sinister cruelty, filled with satisfaction at seeing her about to be punished.
Xie Hanyue, by Wang Shi’s side, persistently pleaded for Xie Qingran, earning a rather gratified look from Wang Shi.
A storm brewed in Xie Qingran’s eyes, and a cold sneer escaped her lips. “If Mother wants to beat me, then beat me. Why bother with such nonsensical drivel?”
“You…” Wang Shi was both angry and hurt.
Her adopted daughter knew the depth of sisterly affection and pleaded for her sister who had made a mistake.
But her biological daughter…
Wang Shi’s heart hardened. “Beat her!”
Hearing the order, the servant women raised the punishment rods. In the instant they were about to fall—
“Stop!” Xie Yankang, who had just rushed back from the imperial palace, witnessed the scene and roared in shock.
“What are you doing!”