"What grievance? I don't understand, hero. Just take the money instead, it's right over…"
Steward Qian drunkenly babbled nonsense.
Lin Ruochu grabbed him by the collar and hauled him up, delivering two vicious kicks to his chest and back that sent him staggering to the ground. Only then did he start speaking coherently.
"Tao Yuan! Miss Tao Yuan! I remember now – she was the young maid who used to serve in the Second Young Miss's courtyard!"
Second Young Miss?
Lin Ruochu sneered coldly.
In the past, to spare Jiang Ningxin's feelings, her father had ordered the entire residence to address her as Eldest Young Miss rather than Cousin Young Miss, granting her the same living standards as his own biological daughter.
Little did they know they were raising an ungrateful viper with their own hands.
Just hearing the title "Second Young Miss" now made Lin Ruochu's blood boil. She delivered two more kicks to Steward Qian's chest.
This old fool was someone Jiang Ningxin had claimed was a loyal former servant with nowhere to go, pestering their mother to purchase him from the Jiang family and appoint him as steward in charge of personnel transfers within the residence.
Now thinking back, he was nothing but a lackey Jiang Ningxin had cultivated herself!
Otherwise, as an old retainer of the General Residence, he would never have followed her orders to sell off Tao Yuan without reporting it to her parents or elder brother no matter what!
The more she thought about it, the more her hatred grew. Lin Ruochu found a towel in the room to gag him, then unleashed a flurry of punches everywhere except his face. She beat him until he rolled on the ground, tears streaming as he begged for mercy. Only then did she remove the gag and crouch down to question him:
"My patience is limited. I'll give you until the count of ten to explain everything clearly. Otherwise, I'll make even your death an agony."
Already beaten to within an inch of his life, Steward Qian was terrified out of his wits by this threat and immediately confessed everything.
"Eldest Young Miss—"
Lin Ruochu raised her leg for another kick.
He hastily corrected himself: "Cousin Young Miss! Two years ago, Cousin Young Miss had someone bring Tao Yuan to me tied up! She said as long as I sold her off quickly, where and how were entirely up to me!"
"She said we couldn't alert the other masters in the residence, had to do it secretly! But how could such a thing be easily hidden? Legitimate slave traders require servant registration contracts for buying and selling maids, and those contracts are all held by the steward matron in Madam's quarters! To avoid alerting Madam, we couldn't go through proper channels – had to sell her off secretly ourselves…"
"And it had to be fast, with no mistakes! Such an impossible task! So I asked my acquainted brothers outside the residence, who said a butcher in Ge Village on the outskirts wanted to buy a wife! I figured village folks buying wives don't need registration contracts, and once sold there, she wouldn't be able to run back. We could just tell Madam the girl ran away herself, and no one would ever find out!"So that same day, during my shopping errand, I tied up that girl in the carriage and transported her outside the city walls…"
The more Lin Ruochu heard, the colder her heart grew. By the end, grief and hatred intertwined as tears streamed down her face, her entire body trembling uncontrollably.
She had only intended to find out Tao Yuan's whereabouts, but now she wished she could slice this scoundrel into a thousand pieces!
He had actually sold Tao Yuan to a butcher!
Biting her lip until she tasted the metallic flavor of blood, she walked to the cabinet in the room, retrieved the two remaining jars of wine, opened them, and approached the half-conscious Steward Qian. Prying open his mouth, she poured the wine down his throat.
One jar wasn't enough – she poured the second one too.
After steadily consuming both jars of wine, Steward Qian rolled his eyes, clutched his stomach, and began foaming at the mouth.
Killing him now would only alert the enemy.
But keeping him alive posed a risk—if he retained any memory by the next day and mentioned Tao Yuan, Jiang Ningxin might find out and be alerted.
Most importantly, she was not yet satisfied with her revenge.
She absolutely could not let him off so easily!
She went out again and, relying on her familiarity with the residence, avoided the patrolling servants, slipping from the servants' quarters to the courtyard where Jiang Ningxin lived.
No matter how much Jiang Ningxin wished to take over the main residence, she still hadn't managed to move into Lin Ruochu's former quarters and remained in her original courtyard.
Lin Ruochu dodged the dozing maid at the entrance, used a hairpin to lift the window latch, and slipped inside without a sound.
In the dead of night, Jiang Ningxin had already returned from Jiang Lizhu's room and was fast asleep in the inner chamber.
Listening to her heavy breathing from the outer room, Lin Ruochu felt the urge to rush in, press the hairpin to her throat, and demand answers to everything.
But remembering the Female Ghost attached to her and the strange second Body Snatching incident in front of her cousin, Lin Ruochu forced herself to stay calm, despite the overwhelming hatred in her heart.
Instead, she quietly approached, carefully opened the cabinet door, randomly rummaged through some clothes and jewelry, then retraced her steps and returned to Steward Qian's room.
Steward Qian lay unconscious in his own vomit.
She scattered the items taken from Jiang Ningxin's room around him, tossing a few more outside the door, before finally letting out a long, relieved sigh. She then scaled the wall and left the General Residence.
Grabbing the reins, she mounted the horse, the sharp pain in her hand making the Female Ghost whimper.
[Wahh, it's over, System! Is the original female lead seeking revenge or something?]
[Could she have her past memories? How terrifying! She stabbed without hesitation—what if she gets tetanus? I don't want to die with her!]
[System, think of something, please! Don't just ignore me…]
Amid the sobbing in her ears, Lin Ruochu took one last, longing look at the General Residence, then spurred the horse and rode toward the city gates.
She sneered coldly. Revenge? This was only the beginning.
There were far more terrifying things to come.
They could all just wait.
…
With the marquis's token, leaving the city went smoothly.
But when she reached the mountain fork, Lin Ruochu hesitated.
Dawn was only three hours away. She didn't know the exact location of Ge Village, and with no one to ask for directions at night, blindly searching would be futile.
Moreover, villages tended to be wary of outsiders. Being unfamiliar with the area and having no one to gather information for her, acting rashly would easily draw the villagers' attention.
If the butcher noticed and went to the General Residence, it might alert Jiang Ningxin.
Yet waiting idly made her uneasy—every extra night meant another night of suffering for Tao Yuan.
Was there a better way?
Did she have anyone she could turn to for help?
Lin Ruochu thought of a few old acquaintances.
She had been lively and outgoing in the past, with many friends and companions, some of whom lived in the suburbs.
But they were also familiar with Jiang Ningxin—wherever she went before, she always brought this "good" cousin along.
Would seeking their help be too risky?
As she pondered, a scream pierced the night.
Startled, Lin Ruochu looked toward the sound and saw thick black smoke rising from a manor up ahead.
Shadows moved frantically.
Laughter and screams mingled, reaching her ears.
The smell of blood spread through the air, and her horse, spooked, reared up in panic.
Lin Ruochu quickly dismounted, soothing the horse while holding its head and leading it into the shadows of the woods. Seeing that she hadn't alerted the vicious criminals in the courtyard, she let out a sigh of relief and crept closer, hiding behind a tree to observe the situation.
It seemed like bandits were robbing the place?
The scene in the courtyard was already gruesome. Just in the outer yard visible to Lin Ruochu, five adult male corpses lay scattered in disarray.
The smell of blood grew increasingly thick.
The ones screaming and wailing were women and children.
These bandits were exceptionally brutal—not only were they looting and killing, but they were also committing acts of violation.
She watched helplessly as a woman in plain clothes, her clothes in disarray, fled through the doorway only to be dragged back by her hair.
What sent chills down her spine was that a child's crying could still be heard from inside the house!
Without a second thought, Lin Ruochu rushed toward the blazing scene!