Madam Li staggered from the blow, her ears ringing as her mind went blank.
Before she could even react—
“Ah!!!”
Xie Qingyan suddenly stepped forward, grabbed her by the hair, and yanked her down with brutal force.
“Thud!”
Madam Li’s heavy body was dragged to her knees just like that.
“Y… you dare hit me?! This is rebellion! Rebellion!!” she shrieked in pain, flailing wildly as she tried to scratch Xie Qingyan’s face.
Xie Qingyan crouched down, still gripping her hair, forcing her to lift her twisted, terrified face.
Leaning close to her ear, her voice was as cold as the ice within the ancestral hall.
“Since I dared to expose my father’s act of selling his daughter for advancement…”
With each word, she pressed Madam Li’s head harder against the ground.
“Do you think I would hesitate to expose your crime of striking your superior?”
“I… you…” Cold sweat poured down Madam Li’s face instantly.
“Tell me,” Xie Qingyan continued, her tone carrying a trace of cruel amusement, “when those outside are already eager to accuse my father of failing to manage his household…”
“And then they learn that a lowly, deceitful, heartless servant like you dares to strike your mistress…”
“What do you think my father will do to you, just to preserve what little reputation he has left?”
Boom!
It felt as if thunder had exploded in Madam Li’s mind. Fear overwhelmed the pain on her face in an instant.
The master hated nothing more than losing face right now.
If news of her defying her mistress spread as well—
He would never spare her.
He was already looking for someone to vent his anger on. His daughter was too defiant for him to act against, but a servant like her who had overstepped her bounds would not be spared.
“N… no…”
The color drained from Madam Li’s face within seconds.
She no longer dared to struggle.
Instead, she trembled and began to kowtow frantically, her head striking the stone floor with dull thuds.
“Spare me, Eldest Miss! Please spare me!!”
“I was wrong! I spoke out of turn! I am worse than a beast!!”
Xie Qingyan released her in disgust, as if she had touched something filthy.
She stood up and spoke to Chun Cao, who had been stunned into silence behind her.
“Chun Cao.”
“Y… yes, Miss!”
“Come here.” Xie Qingyan pointed at Madam Li’s face.
“Slap her.”
“W… what?!” Chun Cao’s legs nearly gave out.
“I…” Even Madam Li froze.
“You don’t want to?” Xie Qingyan turned to look at Chun Cao.
“N… no, Miss… she is a senior servant… I…” Chun Cao’s voice trembled, on the verge of tears. This was overstepping one’s station.
“If you still wish to follow me, then do it now.”
Xie Qingyan’s voice turned cold.
“No one under me suffers a beating for nothing.”
Chun Cao looked into her unwavering eyes, then at Madam Li trembling on the ground.
She remembered the cold hand that had wiped her tears in the ancestral hall.
She remembered the calm words, “Wait until I finish eating.”
Gritting her teeth, she shut her eyes, rushed forward, and used all her strength—
“Smack!” The slap landed.
“Very good.” Only then did Xie Qingyan show satisfaction.
She took Chun Cao’s hand and cast one final glance at the servants in the courtyard, all of whom stood frozen in fear.
Her voice was not loud, yet it carried clearly across the entire yard.
“If no one offends me, I will not offend them.”
“But if this happens again…”
She pointed at Madam Li, who was now so terrified she had lost control of herself.
“This will be your end.”
With that, she led Chun Cao away, walking step by step back toward the ancestral hall under the fearful and respectful gazes of all present.
She had won.
Within this cage, Xie Qingyan had reclaimed her territory through a ruthless eye for an eye.
Three days later.
Yong’an Prince’s Residence, study.
Unlike the courtyard where Zhao Chengze idled away his time, this room held no fishing pond, only shelves of military texts and dossiers reaching up to the beams.
It was the third watch of the night.
A single candle illuminated Zhao Chengze’s striking face. Gone was his usual languid indifference, his narrow phoenix eyes now fixed on a report spread across the desk.
[Leping County Dossier]
A shadow-clad guard stood silently in the darkness.
Zhao Chengze’s long fingers moved slowly over the document. Written in fine script, it recorded every detail of Xie Qingyan’s life from birth until now.
Three days earlier, upon hearing the gossip about the Wang and Xie families, Zhao Chengze had suddenly sat upright.
The priceless purple bamboo fishing rod had slipped from his hand into the pond, startling a flock of birds.
The steward had been alarmed. “Your Highness?”
But Zhao Chengze had ignored him, sitting frozen as stormy waves surged within his usually lazy eyes.
“Cutting off the firewood from beneath the cauldron… public opinion warfare… binding interests… a single fatal strike…”
How familiar these terms sounded.
He had turned sharply, his gaze no longer indifferent.
“Leping County. That Xie family. That legitimate daughter who hanged herself!”
Grabbing the steward by the collar with terrifying strength, he had commanded word by word,
“I want everything about her. Every word she has spoken, every person she has met, from birth until now.”
“Immediately. At once. Investigate!”
Now, back to the present, Zhao Chengze read each line carefully.
“… Ninth day of the tenth month, attempted hanging, unsuccessful.”
“… After regaining consciousness, temperament drastically changed.”
The moment he saw that date, his breath caught.
The ninth day of the tenth month.
Wasn’t that the exact same day he had awakened?
A shiver shot up his spine.
Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, he continued reading.
He saw how she had orchestrated everything step by step, ultimately turning the Wang family into the laughingstock of the Capital.
The more he read, the more his hands trembled, and the faster his long-silent heart began to pound.
This was not the desperate resistance of a sixteen-year-old girl.
This was her method.
The very method she excelled at, using the smallest cost to deliver a fatal blow through an open scheme.
Her techniques, her sudden change, the timing of their arrivals in this world, all the impossibilities intertwined.
“Xie… oh Xie…”
He murmured hoarsely, his voice trembling with overwhelming excitement.
“You really… came as well.”
At last, he could no longer restrain himself.
“Thirteen!”
“I am here,” the shadow responded.
“Prepare a carriage. Forge an identity.” Zhao Chengze rose abruptly, pressing the document into the candle flame and watching it burn to ashes.
“This prince,” he said slowly, his phoenix eyes fully awakened at last, “is going to Leping County.”
“Yes!” The shadow vanished.
Zhao Chengze walked to the window and pushed it open, letting the cold night wind pour in.
He needed to calm himself, yet he could not.
Only by going there himself, only by seeing those eyes with his own, would he know… whether this Xie Qingyan was truly her.