The sun shone brightly overhead, and the sky stretched clear for thousands of miles, yet the banquet hall seemed as though dark clouds had gathered over it.
Yan Jingshuang might well have come here today to hurl thunderbolts.
One bombshell after another exploded, leaving everyone seeing stars.
Even Yan Shouyi looked at Yan Jingshuang in disbelief.
It was enough to show just how deeply Ning Mo’s usual image as a ‘gentleman of noble character’ had been ingrained in everyone’s minds.
Even Master Ning refused to believe it. His son was exceedingly strict about following the rules. Although he knew that Ning Mo had feelings for Ming Chuxue, given that Ning Mo was engaged to Yan Jingshuang, there was no way his son would do anything inappropriate.
Sure enough, the moment Ning Mo heard those words, his affectionate eyes widened as he stared straight at Yan Jingshuang. The grievance in his eyes grew even stronger, and he flung his sleeve indignantly.
“Jingshuang, we have known each other for so many years. I…… I never thought that one day, you would slander me like this!”
Seeing how indignant Ning Mo was, the crowd, who had already found the whole thing absurd, believed him a bit more.
They also became more convinced by Master Ning’s explanation. Could Yan Jingshuang have misunderstood something?
But Yan Jingshuang’s expression did not change in the slightest. Compared with Ning Mo’s righteous indignation, she could even be described as completely calm.
She looked at Ning Mo and said, “Three days ago. Baishui Lane. The hour of Xu[1]7:00 PM – 9:00 PM jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3414264_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3414264_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.”
“You are talking about……” Ning Mo’s indignant words abruptly stopped, as though someone had suddenly seized him by the throat.
The anger on his face froze.
Ning Mo remembered something.
Not three days ago.
But two days ago.
Two days ago, when he woke up, he had felt as though his head were splitting apart.
The previous night, he had learned that his father intended for him to publicly confirm his engagement to Yan Jingshuang and give the Yan family an explanation. He had refused, and the two of them had gotten into an argument. His father had then threatened him using Ming Chuxue’s admission into Guixu Academy.
Ning Mo had been consumed by fury. He had stormed out and drowned his sorrows in alcohol.
That night, he had no idea how much he drank, but in a daze, he remembered having a dream.
In the dream, he had carried a wine bottle and staggered into the alley where Ming Chuxue lived, coincidentally running into her as she returned home.
Under the hazy night sky, Ming Chuxue’s face was as lovely as a spring peach, her eyes as innocent as a white rabbit’s. Her skin was snowy white, her features beautiful, and her figure slender and graceful.
When she saw Ning Mo reeking of alcohol, her gentle eyes flashed with panic, and she hurried forward.
“Young Master Ning, what’s wrong?”
Ming Chuxue wanted to support Ning Mo, but she seemed to have some reservations. Her fair, delicate hands lifted slightly before she prepared to slowly lower them again.
But those fingers, fair and slender as scallion stalks, swayed right before Ning Mo’s eyes, and a surge of heat suddenly flared in his abdomen.
The next instant, he seized Ming Chuxue by the wrist and pushed her against the wall of the deep alleyway.
He heard Ming Chuxue gasp instinctively.
“Young Master Ning……”
But Ming Chuxue did not know that, to Ning Mo at that moment, her soft voice sounded like a coquettish plea that only added fuel to the fire.
Ning Mo pinned her against the wall and kissed her.
The kiss had felt real and wonderful.
The next day, Ning Mo had been shocked and ashamed that he could have dreamed of doing something so improper. Yet he could not resist recalling the wild possession in that dream. His face burning with embarrassment, he had found himself captivated by the memory, savoring it over and over again.
And now, Ning Mo’s back suddenly turned cold.
His face instantly went pale.
Could it be…… that it hadn’t been a dream after all?
Naturally, it had not been a dream.
It had been the ‘breathtaking first kiss captured from eight different camera angles’ that the comments had mentioned.
When Yan Jingshuang had seen that particular comment at the time, her pupils had suddenly contracted. That was when she had decided to follow Ning Mo and verify the matter for herself.
Ning Mo had pinned Ming Chuxue in the depths of the alley and kissed her wantonly.
Meanwhile, Yan Jingshuang had stood rigidly at the entrance, staring without blinking at the two people embracing and kissing deep inside the alley.
Her shadow stretched long across the snowy night.
Several crows in the alley repeatedly stepped over Yan Jingshuang’s shadow, leaving marks of varying depths in the snow.
Yan Jingshuang’s palm had clenched so tightly that her nails had left white marks. She suppressed the bitterness rising in her heart. She did not want to remember the collapse and humiliation she had suffered that night.
After nearly a month of being bombarded by those strange characters, she had gradually come to understand them.
Those passing strange characters were called ‘bullet comments’.
And she herself was a lovesick female supporting character in an old-fashioned romance novel, whose sole purpose was to advance the relationship between Ning Mo and Ming Chuxue.
Although it was an old-fashioned romance novel, Ning Mo and Ming Chuxue, as the protagonists, could not be too blatantly immoral in their behavior.
That ‘accidental first kiss’, according to the comments, had been a scene of intimacy that the author, Xuemo, had forcibly added ahead of schedule because of pressure from readers.
Judging from the surrounding plot, there were naturally some logical inconsistencies. But to readers who only cared about seeing the male and female protagonists fall in love, who cared about logic? As long as it was romantic, that was all that mattered.
But Xuemo did not want her protagonists to be branded as immoral. So she had forcibly added the setup of the male protagonist being drunk and the female protagonist being kissed against her will.
On top of that, the original novel had portrayed Yan Jingshuang as ugly and unpleasant, someone who was madly obsessed with Ning Mo and relentlessly clung to him.
When those readers had finished reading that particular part, they had not felt that there was anything wrong with the plot at all.
But as the third person involved, after witnessing that scene with her own eyes, Yan Jingshuang could not pretend that nothing was wrong.
Just like what that green bullet comment had said.
【So being drunk means you can just not remember? Screw this ridiculous plot! Besides, even if you don’t remember, does that mean you can pretend it never happened? What a damn hypocrite! Ning Mo is the one who wronged his fiancée, Yan Jingshuang!】
However, what truly made Yan Jingshuang certain that Ning Mo was deliberately avoiding the truth subconsciously was……
“Jingshuang, you…… what are you talking about? I don’t understand.” Ning Mo, who rarely lied, had beads of sweat faintly appearing on his forehead.
Ning Mo could not believe it at all. But because the time and place Yan Jingshuang had mentioned were exactly the same as those in his dream, he felt as though that dream were becoming clearer and more real by the second.
Yet his peripheral vision soon swept over his surroundings, reminding him of where he was.
Ning Mo’s eyelids trembled slightly as he tried to suppress the horrifying unease rising in his heart.
No…… it wasn’t real.
Even if that dream had been real, Yan Jingshuang…… she had no evidence. As long as he insisted that what had happened that night was only a dream— No. Not ‘insisted’. That night had been a dream!
Ning Mo gritted his teeth and repeated those words over and over in his mind.
But Yan Jingshuang merely let out a faint laugh— though calling it a laugh wasn’t quite right; she had only tugged slightly at the corner of her lips.
For no reason at all, panic seized Ning Mo’s heart.
Then Yan Jingshuang’s voice rang out in his ear.
“Ning Mo, don’t you still have three nail scratches on your right arm?”
The next day after the incident, when a servant had helped Ning Mo change his clothes, he had discovered three nail scratches on Ning Mo’s arm. The servant had just been about to ask about them when Ning Mo instinctively covered his arm, remembering that Ming Chuxue had also scratched him in the dream.
At the time, Ning Mo had frozen for a moment, but then he had shaken his head.
How could it be possible? How could he possibly have done something so improper?
It had only been a dream.
When Yan Jingshuang had seen that part in the bullet comments, she had realized that Ning Mo was deliberately avoiding the truth. Even after noticing the clues, he had still deceived himself into believing that it had only been a dream.
What a fine ‘gentleman of noble character’!
A trace of mockery surfaced in Yan Jingshuang’s dim, hazy eyes.
At this moment, Ning Mo’s face was already filled with astonishment. It was unclear whether he was recalling what had happened that day or was shocked that Yan Jingshuang knew about the nail scratches.
Yan Jingshuang continued, “And that woman also had—”
“Yan Jingshuang!” Ning Mo suddenly shouted sternly. “Don’t you think that, as a woman, discussing these things in front of everyone is rather lacking in propriety?”
To prevent Yan Jingshuang from dragging Ming Chuxue into the matter, Ning Mo had actually mustered the courage to raise his voice at her.
But before Yan Jingshuang could say anything, Ning Mo received a condemning glare from his father. His heart became even more frantic as he realized that he had lost his composure and behaved inappropriately.
Besides, this was not the time to anger Yan Jingshuang. He should have calmed her down first, then had the two families discuss the matter privately.
Ning Mo’s scalp went numb, but one thing was perfectly clear in his heart.
No matter what happened, Ming Chuxue’s reputation could not be ruined.
But Yan Jingshuang seemed unwilling to give Ning Mo even the chance to placate her.
She slightly raised her eyelids and suddenly said, “Thank you for the reminder.”
Ning Mo was stunned, but then he saw Yan Jingshuang walk over to Yan Shouyi. She then lowered herself slightly and whispered a few words into his ear.
Yan Shouyi’s gaze had already become terrifying when he first heard that Ning Mo had betrayed Yan Jingshuang. Now, after hearing Yan Jingshuang’s whispered words, his expression became even more frightening.
Even without looking, Ning Mo could feel the sensation of sharp blades cutting into his back, the pain almost unbearable.
It did not take long before Yan Shouyi rose and walked to the center of the banquet hall. He put away his usual careless expression, and his solemn voice rang out.
“Such filthy matters would only sully my sister if she were to speak of them herself. It would be better for me, as her elder brother, to handle this in her place.
Ning Mo, three days ago at the hour of Xu, you were in Baishui Lane with Ming Chuxue, and the two of you had intimate contact. My sister witnessed it with her own eyes. There are three nail scratches on your right arm, while Ming Chuxue has three kiss marks left by you on her neck. They are here, here, and here.”
Yan Shouyi pointed to three places on his own neck.
After saying that, his handsome fox-like eyes narrowed slightly. His gaze swept across the hall before landing on the table where Ning Bi was seated.
“Miss Ming, since you are also one of the people involved and happen to be here today, why don’t you come over and let us all discuss this together?”
At Yan Shouyi’s words, everyone’s eyes turned toward Ning Bi’s table.
Sitting beside Ning Bi was a beautiful young woman with an apricot-shaped face and peach-like cheeks. Her appearance was indeed striking enough to catch one’s eye. In Hangzhou, she could be considered exceptionally beautiful. Astonishment flashed in the eyes of several of the men present.
At that moment, however, her delicate body was trembling violently. Under the gazes of so many people, a rosy flush spread across her cheeks, while the corners of her eyes reddened as well, as though crystalline tears might fall at any moment.
She looked exceedingly pitiful.
Unfortunately, the person confronting her was Yan Shouyi, who regarded Ming Chuxue as nothing more than an ordinary person.
“Miss Ming, why aren’t you coming over? Do you want me to go over and personally escort you?”
Ming Chuxue’s eyes reddened even further. Instinctively, she pulled the white fur scarf around her neck tighter.
Beside her, Ning Bi’s eyelid twitched. The room had been so warm earlier that she had asked Ming Chuxue to take off her scarf, but Ming Chuxue had politely refused.
Could it really be as Yan Jingshuang had said?
That suspicion seemed to spread slowly through everyone’s hearts as they watched Ming Chuxue hesitate.
Ning Mo watched helplessly. His clenched palm had reddened, as though it were being repeatedly scorched by tongues of flame. But suddenly, his mind cleared for an instant. He pressed his lips together and hurriedly turned the accusation toward Yan Jingshuang.
“Yan Jingshuang, what you said just now cannot be considered evidence. The scratches on my arm were merely caused by a cat some time ago. As for your claim that you saw me that day, that could just as easily be your accusation against me.”
That’s right. Even if Yan Jingshuang had grasped the traces on him and Ming Chuxue, none of them constituted solid evidence. He could refute every one of them.
Ning Mo tightened his hands, suppressing the flash of guilt that had surfaced in his heart.
No matter what, Ming Chuxue’s reputation could not be ruined. Even if it meant becoming a hypocrite who told lie after lie, he would do it.
Yet without realizing it, Ning Mo’s gaze toward Yan Jingshuang carried even more resentment.
It was one thing for her to blame him, but Ming Chuxue was innocent. Why did Yan Jingshuang have to drag her into this?
Yan Jingshuang knew Ning Mo very well. At a glance, she understood exactly what his eyes conveyed.
Innocent?
Yan Jingshuang narrowed her eyes slightly.
That night, she had also wanted to verify whether Ming Chuxue was really as innocent as the comments claimed.
She had restrained her trembling body. No matter how painful it was to witness, she had still walked toward the two people kissing.
Yan Jingshuang had tossed a small pebble over, sealing Ning Mo’s acupoints.
As long as Ming Chuxue wanted to, she could have easily broken free of Ning Mo and escaped.
Yan Jingshuang had thought that if Ming Chuxue fled, she would only target Ning Mo and would absolutely not implicate Ming Chuxue.
But then, what had she seen?
Ming Chuxue had not only failed to escape. Instead, her arms had instinctively wrapped around Ning Mo’s back, and she had tilted her head up to deepen the kiss.
Those soft, rabbit-like eyes had been filled with the dark haze of infatuation and desire.
She had known she should not do it, yet she had done it anyway.
Now, watching Ning Mo still absurdly refuse to admit what had happened while Ming Chuxue avoided the matter out of guilt, Yan Jingshuang’s exhaustion grew increasingly apparent.
She no longer wanted to continue acting out this ridiculous farce with the two of them.
Just then, a figure carefully slipped in through a side door.
Yan Jingshuang raised her eyes and met that person’s gaze.
The person was clearly startled. In the next instant, his eyes darted away.
Yan Jingshuang paid it no attention. She looked at Ning Mo, the corners of her lips slowly curving upward.
“There is solid evidence, of course. After all, I wasn’t the only one who witnessed it that day.”
Ning Mo panicked, but in the next instant, he assumed Yan Jingshuang was referring to her maid or someone from the Yan family. If it were any of those people, they could not provide solid evidence. He could simply claim that they were biased in Yan Jingshuang’s favor.
Besides, as far as he knew, Baishui Lane was secluded and deserted late at night, with few people passing through. Yan Jingshuang had no friends in Hangzhou either.
And it had been so dark that night. Unless someone had gotten close, it would have been difficult to tell who the two people kissing were.
Ning Mo was certain that Yan Jingshuang could not produce any solid evidence.
But Yan Jingshuang suddenly smiled at him. That smile seemed to mock Ning Mo’s desperate attempt to cover up the truth.
Ning Mo’s heart jolted.
Yan Jingshuang had already spoken.
“Young Master Li, Li Cheng. He saw it that day as well.”
At those words, Ning Mo’s pupils widened, and his entire body stiffened.
Li Cheng— or rather, the Li family— was exceedingly famous throughout the entire Great Liang. In earlier generations, nearly every member of the family had managed to become an outspoken minister or imperial censor.
It was because, regardless of whether the things the Li family said were right or wrong, they were always the truth.
The Li family suffered from an extremely strange illness.
Whenever a member of the Li family lied, within the time it took to draw a single breath, rashes would break out all over their body. In severe cases, it could even be fatal.
The members of the Li family never lied. And even if they did, everyone would immediately be able to tell.
In an instant, Ning Mo’s face turned ashen.
────ρя
Two quarters of an hour later, an elegant and luxurious carriage with an antique design slowly made its way toward Ning Manor. A bronze crane-shaped ornament decorated its roof.
Under the brilliant winter sunlight, the purple gemstones set into the crane’s eyes reflected a mesmerizing brilliance that was impossible to look away from.
The servants clearing snow hurriedly moved farther away from the carriage. At a glance, it was clearly a vehicle used by some wealthy aristocratic family. If they accidentally scratched or damaged it, even ten lives would not be enough to pay for it.
The carriage stopped at the main gate of Ning Manor, yet no one got out.
Seeing how extravagantly expensive the carriage was, the gatekeeper hurried over and exchanged a few greetings with the coachman, hoping he might be able to obtain a reward.
But before long, disappointment appeared in the gatekeeper’s eyes.
The person inside the carriage still had not come out.
Through the black sandalwood carriage door, the coachman respectfully addressed the person inside.
“Steward Lin, Miss Yan has broken off her engagement with Young Master Ning. Quite a few of the guests’ carriages are leaving now, so this road may be somewhat congested. Should we take another route?”
After waiting for a moment, Steward Lin did not answer. Instead, another calm, clear voice rang out.
“Say that again.”
It was like the sound of jade, echoing through a secluded, empty alley.
References[+]