Upon hearing Yi Zichuan’s words, everyone instinctively looked at her bloodied lower body.
Yuting lay prone on the ground, her breathing as faint as a drifting thread. Were it not for the slight rise and fall of her chest, everyone present would have thought she had long since stopped breathing.
Xia Jianxi glanced at Xia Yuruo’s deathly pale face before slightly raising her eyes to look at Shu Tong. “Take a look. Is this the Yuting you spoke of?”
Shu Tong trembled uncontrollably, not daring to open his eyes wide enough to clearly see the broken body before him that resembled a torn rag doll. He kept his head lowered, stuttering, “Y-yes…”
Xia Maoshan frowned at Shu Tong’s demeanor. The next moment, under his unspoken command, someone stepped forward and forcibly lifted Shu Tong’s head, forcing him to look directly at the person before him.
That single glance terrified Shu Tong out of his wits. Breaking free from the servant’s grip, he wept bitterly and began kowtowing. “It was her! She gave me fifty taels of silver to forge a letter in the Heir’s handwriting! And she made me personally deliver it to your maid, First Miss Xia!”
“If you were the one who forged the letter, weren’t you afraid of being exposed? Wouldn’t you end up taking the blame for someone else?” Princess Yong’an, standing nearby, angrily questioned upon hearing Shu Tong’s confession. “The Heir practically grew up with you since childhood. How could you betray him for a mere fifty taels of silver?”
Shu Tong hesitated for a long time under Princess Yong’an’s interrogation. Finally, as if resolving himself, he pointed at the half-dead Yuting on the ground. “It was her! She approached me, took me out drinking and gambling with several others, and set me up to lose the Heir’s jade pendant! That pendant was worth exactly fifty taels of silver!”
“So, to get the pendant back, you accepted the fifty taels from Yuting?” Yi Zichuan propped his chin on his hand, his eyes filled with mockery.
“Yes! She also told me that as soon as First Miss Xia left the residence, she would steal and destroy those letters. And after it was done, she’d give me another fifty taels as hush money!” Shu Tong knelt there, large beads of cold sweat rolling down his forehead.
Xia Jianxi, her eyes red, looked at Xia Yuruo before her, her face full of incredulous pain. “Xia Yuruo! I’ve always treated you like my own younger sister since we were children! How could you harm me like this!”
Yuting, who had been lying as still as a corpse, slowly opened her bloodshot eyes upon hearing the name “Xia Yuruo.”
The moment Xia Yuruo saw Yuting’s eyes, she let out a terrified scream. In that instant, as if haunted by a malevolent spirit, she shrieked and scrambled backward.
A matron beside Xia Madam swiftly stepped forward and seized Xia Yuruo’s arm. “Second Miss, Wang Ye is asking you a question!”
Xia Yuruo seemed thoroughly frightened, struggling incessantly until she provoked the matron, who threw her to the ground.
Second Madam Xia immediately rose upon seeing her daughter thrown down. “Sister-in-law, what is the meaning of this?”
Xia Madam coldly eyed the furious Second Madam Xia. “If you have any issues, sister-in-law, you may answer on your daughter’s behalf!”
Just as Second Madam Xia was about to speak, Master Xia pulled her back. “Silence! With Wang Ye present, how dare you speak out of turn!”
Second Madam Xia was furious, but her husband was too timid to intervene, leaving her no choice but to watch helplessly as her daughter was humiliated.
Song Taifei watched Xia Yuruo feigning madness and grew increasingly impatient, finally setting down her teacup with a hint of irritation. “Enough of this!”
As Song Taifei lost her temper, everyone present turned their gaze to Yi Zichuan, their expressions turning peculiar.
Sure enough, Yi Zichuan spoke up the next moment. “If Second Miss Xia refuses to speak, I will have to submit this case involving rebel factions to the Dali Temple. Once it goes to public trial, Second Miss Xia…”
Before Yi Zichuan could finish, Xia Yuruo cried out, “I don’t know! I don’t know why Yuting would do such things! I truly don’t know…”
At that moment, Yuting suddenly stretched out her mangled hands, trembling as she pointed at Xia Yuruo. “Miss, save me! Please save me!”
In that instant, Xia Yuruo seemed to be struck by some shock. Her eyes widened in terror as she scrambled backward. “Stay away from me! Get away!”
Yi Zichuan rested his chin on his hand, watching the screaming Xia Yuruo with mild amusement as he raised an eyebrow. “Miss Xia, if you persist in refusing to tell the truth, I’ll have no choice but to summon the Dali Temple Minister!”
“I really don’t know!” Xia Yuruo crawled on her knees to Yi Zichuan’s side, her tear-filled eyes pitiful and charming—she looked every bit the innocent beauty. “I truly don’t know! Yuting has been by my side since childhood. She’s gentle and understanding. I really don’t know why she’s involved in these matters, Wang Ye! I genuinely don’t know!”
Yuting, who had been tortured beyond recognition, slowly lifted her head to look at Xia Yuruo before her, then raised her eyes to Yi Zichuan sitting above. She remained silent for a long while.
Until she suddenly let out a cold laugh, as if having resolved herself, she sneered and declared, “These matters have nothing to do with my mistress!”
Yi Zichuan raised an eyebrow slightly, leaning sideways to stare down at Yuting kneeling below. “Nothing to do? Then where did those dozens of silver taels in your possession come from?”
“I stole them from my mistress’s private savings!” Yuting slowly pushed herself up, seeming to have come to some realization as she firmly lifted her head.
Yi Zichuan narrowed his eyes dangerously at Yuting, who had endured all forms of torture without speaking. “Oh? Then why did you use that silver to bribe Yong’an Wang Shizi’s Shu Tong?”
“Because Xia Jianxi deserves to die!” Yuting suddenly glared fiercely at Xia Jianxi sitting nearby. “What right does she have to look down on me from her high position? Why does she get to have everything just because she was born lucky? People like her, raised in luxury since childhood—what do they know of our suffering? And yet she puts on this act of kindness, doling out her condescending charity! The very sight of her hypocritical face makes me sick!”
“Yuting!” Xia Jianxi, who had remained silent until now, suddenly spoke. “Do you know who those people who came to kidnap me were?”
Yuting sneered, “No matter who they are, as long as they can make you die, regardless of what demands they make or what they want to do, I will cooperate with them!”
Xia Jianxi watched the nearly hysterical Yuting, pressing her lips tightly together, remaining silent for a long time.
It did not surprise Xia Jianxi that Yuting would take the blame for this matter. After all, Yuting was no ordinary maid—she was someone He Lan Ci had painstakingly placed by Xia Yuruo’s side.