When Ming Yuhe arrived, the crowd had already dispersed, and the doors and windows were shut. Inside, only Fan Ning and two maids remained with Luo Xinci.
Luo Xinci sat clutching a cup of hot tea. At the sound of footsteps, she lifted her head, revealing tear-reddened eyes and a pale face streaked with tears. Seeing that it was Ming Yuhe, she turned her face away in embarrassment. He noticed how her fine strands of hair were damp with tears, clinging messily to her cheek. This was no feigned crying.
“Yes, I struck Jiang Liyang!” Fan Ning stepped forward to shield Luo Xinci, craning her neck as she admitted it to Ming Yuhe.
This girl was unusually forthright. In just a few months in the capital, she had already offended many, spared only because her father was the Protector of the Northern Frontier and favored by the emperor. Otherwise, she would have been punished long ago.
Ming Yuhe had once told Luo Xinci that if she retaliated against Jiang Liyang, so long as no blood was shed, it would be considered mere squabbling. The same principle applied to Jiang Liyang and Fan Ning.
Ming Yuhe said calmly, “Liyang did wrong—he deserved the beating.”
He did not take sides, leaving Fan Ning’s prepared accusations unsaid. After all, this was another family’s affair. For her, an outsider, to intervene was already improper. Since they bore her no grudge, she ought to return to her own residence.
But Fan Ning was born with a strong sense of justice. Thinking of how “Ming Niansheng” had lost her mother, traveled thousands of miles to the capital to see her father, only to be humiliated publicly by a cousin—it was far too pitiful.
People often said that when the younger generation misbehaved, it was usually because their elders indulged them.
What if Ming Yuhe’s courteous demeanor was only for show, and in private he revealed his true nature—harshly venting Jiang Liyang’s anger on her instead?
After all, everyone outside said that Ming Niansheng was merely a concubine-born daughter raised in the countryside of Linzhou under the Marquis’s household. It was obvious her status could never compare with that of a young lord from the Prince’s residence.
Fan Ning glanced twice at Ming Yuhe, then turned to Luo Xinci and said, “I’ll head back now. In a few days, may I come to your residence to see you?”
Luo Xinci gave a soft “mm” in reply.
Fan Ning departed.
With no outsiders left in the room, Ming Yuhe stepped up to Luo Xinci and said, “Raise your head.”
She kept her head bowed, unmoving. A hand reached to her chin, slender pale fingers lifting upward, forcing her to look up.
That day, upon suddenly learning the reason for her family’s downfall, Luo Xinci’s heart collapsed. Months of pent-up grief and the fear of entering the capital alone burst forth all at once, like a mountain flood, overwhelming her until she lost control, sobbing uncontrollably. By the time reason subdued her emotions again, the matter had already spread far and wide. Everyone was blaming Jiang Liyang for roughing up a young lady.
Luo Xinci tried to explain through tears, but no one believed her. She was filled with regret. The business with Grand Tutor Chang was hearsay; her suspicion that her father had ordered the extermination of the Luo family was only conjecture, with no solid evidence linking the two. Perhaps she had overthought it?
She felt both ashamed for losing composure before so many eyes, and guilty for inadvertently ruining Jiang Liyang’s reputation. Seeing Ming Yuhe, she was struck by the realization that her plan to use another’s hand to take revenge on Jiang Liyang had failed, and she hadn’t even managed to encounter Wang Jiqiu or Wang Linghao. In short, she had accomplished nothing—only angered Jiang Liyang, ruined the day’s contest, and disgraced herself before the noble sons and daughters of the capital!
The ruthlessness, coldness, and greed she had shown before Ming Yuhe would all be exposed. She had been deceiving him all along. In truth, she was nothing more than an ordinary, incompetent fraud.
Ming Yuhe would surely exact harsh revenge. All her efforts had come to nothing. She could never compare to that resolute, resourceful Miss Sun, never protect her family or herself. She was nothing but a world-class fool!
Sinking deep into inferiority, guilt, and shame, when her face was forced upward she felt Ming Yuhe’s gaze unbearably piercing, leaving her nowhere to hide. Tears once again streamed down her cheeks. The wet strands of hair clinging to her face caught the tears for a moment, before they dropped onto Ming Yuhe’s fingertips—damp and sticky.
He stared silently at the tear stains between his fingers. After a pause, he released her and ordered, “Bring a veil.”
The veil was placed over Luo Xinci’s head, and the group descended the stairs. She did not understand his intent, but in that moment she was grateful—grateful that he had covered her, shielding her from curious or pitying stares, sparing her further humiliation.
They walked back in silence. At the Marquis’s residence, Luo Xinci was escorted by maids back to Yunshang Pavilion, where she met Lianxing.
That day, Lianxing had accompanied her but slipped away halfway under a pretext, secretly going to the marketplace to investigate.
The events of the day had struck Luo Xinci heavily. Since exchanging identities with Ming Niansheng, for the first time she doubted herself—believing she could do nothing right, that she should never have come to the capital in the first place.
“I’ve ruined everything.” Recalling her disgrace that day, then thinking of her mother and uncle’s family back in Linzhou, grief overwhelmed her. She collapsed onto the bed, sobbing, “I can’t do it…”
Lianxing, puzzled for a moment, checked that the doors and windows were shut and no one was listening. Then she said, “Miss, you don’t need to pretend—there’s no one outside.”
Luo Xinci forced herself to stop crying, lifted her head, and said, “The day you followed me to the capital, it was to repay Niansheng for saving your life. But you saw what happened today—I don’t have the ability. I’m nothing but useless…”
“How could that be?” Lianxing interrupted in astonishment. “Miss, you’re clever and quick-witted. Today’s move of retreating to advance was even more perfect than the young marquis’s scheme of killing with a borrowed knife. How could you be useless?”
Luo Xinci blinked, her tear-stained lashes fluttering. She murmured blankly, “Retreating to advance?”
“Exactly!” Lian Xing briskly repeated the gossip spreading outside.
“Jiang Liyang humiliated you in public. To preserve the dignity of both the Marquis’s and Prince’s households, you endured it. He then went too far and laid hands on you—now the whole city knows! Everyone says he deserved that lash from Fan Ning.”
“He was beaten, yet no one blames you for it. Miss, this was foresight itself!”
As she spoke, she saw Luo Xinci’s expression shift—from dazed, to astonished, to slowly enlightened. At last she realized it had all been pure coincidence, not Luo Xinci’s careful design.
She was about to say more, but Luo Xinci wiped her tears and cut her off: “Wait—let me… let me think again.”
Her thoughts had been consumed ever since learning Grand Tutor Chang had retired home, and by her father’s mercilessness. She had been too grief-stricken to consider how the matter appeared to outsiders.
Awakened by Lian Xing’s words, Luo Xinci calmed herself and reviewed everything, weighing it against the reactions of the onlookers. At last she understood. She might not be able to scheme with precision, but fate favored her. By sheer accident, she had gained much from the day’s events.
When she had steadied herself, Lianxing asked, “Miss, have you thought it through?”
The situation was not as dire as she had imagined. After reflection, Luo Xinci regained her spirit. She had come to uncover the true culprit. Progress had been made—she could not retreat now. Resolute once more, she wiped away her tears and rallied herself. “I’ve thought it through… Today’s affair was a trap I set deliberately. I took revenge on Jiang Liyang and paved the way for the future.”
That was what she would tell Ming Yuhe, so he would look at her with new respect!
Meanwhile, Ming Yuhe was frowning, pondering the day’s events. From what he knew of Jiang Liyang, the boy would never roughhouse with a young lady. Yet Luo Xinci’s reaction had clearly not been feigned. What exactly had happened?
As he was mulling it over, a guard reported: “Young Marquis, Yunxiu has arrived.”
Yunxiu was the maid who had accompanied Luo Xinci all day, never leaving her side. Everything Luo Xinci had seen and heard, Yunxiu knew perfectly well.
Just as he had someone admitted, another guard reported: “Young Marquis, the men sent to investigate Linzhou have returned.”
The study doors closed, and only after half an hour did they open again.
Ming Yuhe stepped out, his face dark and stormy. After exhausting himself pondering this matter, he realized he had been nothing but a fool. He resolved to give Luo Xinci one final chance. If she confessed everything, he could spare both her and Ming Niansheng’s lives. Otherwise, he would make the two of them pay the most terrible price.