Xie Wenyuan had guessed correctly.
Xie Qingyan was very quiet. She was even somewhat at ease.
Sitting cross-legged on a prayer cushion, her mind worked rapidly. Years of business warfare had ingrained in her the instinct to analyze situations and plan strategies, as if it were written into her very bones.
Her most urgent priority was to resolve the issue with Censor Wang.
As for that father of hers, who sought shortcuts through his daughter?
Xie Qingyan had never once considered apologizing.
A man who could not even handle crisis management and could only smash things and lock up his daughter did not qualify as an opponent in her eyes, at best, he was a liability.
And yet… several days had passed since the rumors spread, and Censor Wang had made no move at all.
This was not normal. Xie Qingyan sensed danger.
Was he preparing a thunderous strike, or waiting for Xie Wenyuan to deliver himself to his door?
She tapped the wooden hairpin she used as a bookmark lightly against the Diamond Sutra.
No…
On second thought, she suddenly understood.
If the enemy does not move, I do not move. At this moment, not acting is the correct move.
Right now, everyone’s attention is on the Wang family. The claim of “incapable” that I released is an open scheme. If the Wang family tries to explain, it will look like guilt. If they retaliate against Xie Wenyuan, it will seem like anger born of shame.
Their best course is to let the matter cool down, then quietly crush Xie Wenyuan like an ant.
And what I need is the window of time before that happens.
With that thought, Xie Qingyan set the matter aside.
“Creak—”
The door of the ancestral hall opened a crack.
It was Chun Cao.
She carried a food box, as always containing a bowl of thin porridge and a coarse bun. This was by Xie Wenyuan’s order.
“Miss…” Chun Cao placed the food on the offering table, her eyes red.
“Eat.” Xie Qingyan picked up the cold bun and bit into it without changing her expression.
As she ate, her gaze fell on Chun Cao’s face. Something felt off today.
The girl was… too quiet.
She kept her head lowered, deliberately letting her hair cover the left side of her face.
“What’s wrong?” Xie Qingyan asked calmly.
“N… nothing.” Chun Cao’s body trembled ever so slightly.
Xie Qingyan set down her bowl.
“Turn your face toward me,” she said, her voice devoid of warmth.
“Miss, I’m really fine!” Chun Cao took a step back in panic. “Is the bun cold? I… I’ll go get you another one—”
Fine? That meant something was wrong.
Xie Qingyan smiled. Then she suddenly reached out—
Not to pull her closer. But with lightning speed, she seized Chun Cao’s chin.
Chun Cao let out a muffled sound as her head was forced up.
On her pale left cheek was a clear, purplish handprint, already bruising, stark and shocking.
For a moment, the air in the ancestral hall seemed to freeze.
Xie Qingyan’s gaze darkened inch by inch.
“Who?”
She asked only one word.
“Miss… no… it’s not… I fell by myself…” Chun Cao’s tears streamed down instantly as she shook her head frantically. “I fell, really!”
“Fell?” Xie Qingyan’s thumb brushed lightly over the swollen handprint.
Chun Cao hissed in pain.
“Can a fall leave five finger marks?” Xie Qingyan’s voice was soft.
“Miss!” Chun Cao dropped to her knees with a thud, clutching Xie Qingyan’s robe. “Please don’t ask! I beg you!”
Through broken sobs, she cried, “Miss, you are already being punished by the Master… if you… if you make trouble again because of me… Master won’t let you off! Chun Cao… Chun Cao is tough, it doesn’t matter! Really!”
She cried so hard. Not because she had been beaten.
But because she feared her Miss would suffer even more for standing up for her.
Xie Qingyan looked at the girl who was crying for her sake.
This was the first and only person in this world who had treated her with genuine sincerity.
She released her grip.
Taking out a handkerchief from her sleeve, she gently wiped away Chun Cao’s tears.
“Sit,” she said.
Chun Cao froze, still kneeling, not daring to move.
Xie Qingyan did not look at her. She picked up the bun again and took another bite.
“I said sit,” she spoke indistinctly while chewing, “don’t panic, wait until I finish eating.”
Five minutes later, Xie Qingyan finished the last of the porridge.
She wiped her mouth slowly with the handkerchief.
Then she stood up.
Under Chun Cao’s terrified gaze, she grabbed her hand without hesitation and strode toward the door of the ancestral hall.
“Bang—!” She kicked it open.
“Miss!!” Chun Cao was frightened out of her wits. “Miss! Master forbade you from leaving!”
Xie Qingyan acted as if she had heard nothing.
“Chun Cao, lead the way.”
“T… to where?”
“To the one who hit you.”
Back courtyard, laundry area.
Several servant women gathered together, cracking melon seeds and chatting merrily.
At their head was Madam Li, who managed the household labor. She was also Wang Shi’s personal attendant and had always acted arrogantly within the Xie family.
“That Chun Cao! That little wretch dared talk back to me! One slap from me and she didn’t even dare make a sound!” Madam Li spat a melon seed shell onto the ground smugly.
“Exactly! Just a maid, acting like she’s the mistress!”
“Her young lady can’t even protect herself now, and she still—”
“And what?”
A cold voice came from behind them.
Their laughter stopped abruptly.
They turned stiffly—
Only to see Xie Qingyan, who should have been “reflecting” in the ancestral hall, standing there with Chun Cao, her expression blank.
Sunlight lay behind her, yet it could not reach the depths of her eyes.
“E… Eldest Miss…”
Madam Li’s heart skipped a beat, but relying on her status as a senior servant and Wang Shi’s backing, she quickly adopted a mocking tone.
“Well, well, Eldest Miss, what brings you out here? Even the ancestors in the ancestral hall couldn’t keep you contained?”
Chun Cao clenched her teeth in anger, the pain in her face intensifying.
Xie Qingyan, however, smiled.
She released Chun Cao and stepped forward.
“I thought I heard a dog barking.”
She stopped in front of Madam Li, looking down at her with utter disdain.
“So,” she nodded as if reaching a conclusion, “it turns out there are always ungrateful, heartless dogs everywhere.”
The words infuriated Madam Li instantly.
“You—!” Her face flushed dark red. “You… you, a daughter abandoned by your father… How dare you insult me?!”
Having lorded over others for decades, she was used to wielding power. Toward superiors, she fawned, toward inferiors, she ruled with fists.
Seeing Xie Qingyan fall from favor and Chun Cao easy to bully, she seized the chance to assert dominance.
“I insult you?” Xie Qingyan asked calmly.
“You little wret—”
Madam Li completely lost her temper. She raised her thick, rough hand, ready to slap Xie Qingyan across the face—
She would teach this arrogant young lady a lesson.
“Smack—!”
A crisp, resounding slap echoed, silencing everyone present.
But the one who fell was not Xie Qingyan.
It was Madam Li. Xie Qingyan had been faster.
Before Madam Li’s hand could even fully rise, Xie Qingyan had already anticipated the move and delivered a fierce slap straight across her face.