“You’re just as cheap as your dead mother! From now on, I’m the real eldest young miss of Duke An’s household. As for you, go keep your cheap mother company in the underworld!”
“Oh, that’s right. Your brother too. The whole family, reunited at last. Hahahahaha.”
Su Ruoxi bit down hard on her lip. Her hands had long since clenched white inside her sleeves. Her gaze was ice as she stared fixedly at the two before her.
“What did you do to my brother?!”
Lu Jinghan stepped forward, looking down at her. “Colluding with the enemy and treason. A crime beyond forgiveness. Naturally, we sent him to hell! You should have seen how satisfying it was when your brother knelt and begged me to spare you before he died!”
“The Emperor only sentenced my brother to exile. You dared to murder a court official?!”
Lu Jinghan threw his head back and laughed. “Hahahahaha, if I weren’t bold, how would I have dared to plant those treasonous letters in Duke An’s household?”
“So it was you who forged the letters and framed my mother and brother. You’re heartless!” Su Ruoxi looked at the man before her with utter regret. The betrothed she had loved for over three years had colluded with the cousin she trusted most to kill them.
“It wasn’t just us. There’s also the man you called father for over a decade! He was the one who pushed you, mother and children alike, into the abyss with his own hands!”
Yes. The one who reported her mother and brother for treason was her father. When the imperial edict arrived at Duke An’s household, her father produced a pre-prepared severance document. Duke An’s household had sacrificed family for justice. Not only were they blameless, they were credited. How laughable.
Lu Jinghan bent down and pinched Su Ruoxi’s bloodless chin. “And we have you to thank for it. If you hadn’t been so deeply in love with me, so utterly trusting, I never would have had the chance to hide the evidence in the betrothal gifts and sneak it into your mother’s private vault. Blame only your own stupidity.”
“Ptooey.” Su Ruoxi spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm onto Lu Jinghan’s face, staring at him with a chill in her eyes that could make even the bitter winter retreat.
Lu Jinghan took a handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped the filth from his face. He spoke with disdain.
“Oh, and I don’t mind telling you. Your cheap mother didn’t take her own life out of guilt. I sent her on her way with a white silk cloth with my own hands. You should have seen how beautifully she struggled before she died.”
Su Ruoxi’s teeth bit into her lip until blood seeped through. Her pupils shrank. Her whole body trembled like a withered leaf in the wind. Her nails dug deep into her palms, blood dripping slowly between her fingers.
“Why! Why!” She screamed skyward with all her strength, but her voice was hoarse as torn silk, every word wrapped in blood and hatred.
Lu Jinghan chuckled softly and tossed the handkerchief at her feet. A flicker of pleasure crossed his eyes. “Fine. Since you were obsessed with me for so many years, I’ll let you die with clarity. Did you think we only wanted the Xie family’s fortune behind your mother? How naive. That was just the icing. What truly cost your mother her life was the Mo Yu Token. The mysterious organization behind your mother’s Xie clan! The Mo Yu Token doesn’t just command all the hidden guards in the realm. It controls the trade routes and lifelines of the nine northern and southern provinces. Even the imperial authority fears it. What we didn’t expect was that Xie Wenjun had such backbone. She would rather die than hand over the Mo Yu Token.”
The Mo Yu Token. Su Ruoxi had heard her mother mention it before. The Xie family’s business spanned the entire Chu Zhao Kingdom. It relied not only on business acumen but on a mysterious organization behind it, unfathomable in depth.
So this was the Mo Yu Token.
The Mo Yu Token was a heirloom passed down through generations of the Xie family. At the founding of the kingdom, the Xie family head had exhausted his wealth to help the newly built Chu Zhao Kingdom. The late Emperor, grateful for the Xie family’s devotion to the realm, had personally bestowed the Mo Yu Token. Its holder could command hidden guards across the land, with power enough to overturn the court.
Su Ruoxi suddenly remembered. Before the family was raided, her mother had frantically pressed a black-feathered jade pendant into her hand. It was hidden now within her undergarments.
So her mother had already given her the Mo Yu Token, hoping she might one day use it to uncover the truth of their murders. But she had been too lost in love to grasp its deeper meaning.
Only now did she understand. In her mother’s gaze that day had been a final farewell and a trust bestowed.
Lu Jinghan looked at Su Ruoxi, barely clinging to life, and paused. “We couldn’t find the Mo Yu Token on your mother. It wouldn’t happen to be on you, would it, you wretch?”
“Search her!”
Two servants thrust their filthy hands into Su Ruoxi’s clothes, roughly ransacking her.
A black-feathered jade pendant was pulled out. “It really is the Mo Yu Token!”
“Hahahahaha… We searched everywhere and found it without effort!”
“Rest easy now. When the Mo Yu Token is activated, a new political order will rise. And I will be the Fourth Prince’s foremost merit in his ascension. Then I will stand above all but one, above ten thousand…”
With that, Lu Jinghan turned and swept away laughing, leaving only a cold silhouette melting into the pale snow.
The Fourth Prince. So the one behind all of this was the Fourth Prince!
Su Ruoxi curled in the snow, blood pouring endlessly from her mouth. She was at her limit. Her only regret was that she could not kill her enemies with her own hands.
Even so, Su Ruolan did not let her go. She kicked Su Ruoxi in the chest and ground her foot hard into the wound, grinning savagely. “Sister, I’ve waited far too long for this day…”
Su Ruoxi bit her tongue to stay conscious and looked at the cousin who had once called her “Sister.”
Su Ruolan suddenly leaned close to her ear and laughed smugly. “Sister, do you know why those forged treasonous letters were so convincing? Because the treason was real. Only the traitor was someone else. I simply had someone copy your mother’s handwriting. Your mother was a fool too. Her handwriting was imitated daily by someone close to her and she never noticed…”
Then Su Ruolan pressed down harder. Su Ruoxi nearly fainted from the pain.
So everything behind this was also connected to someone close to her mother.
Who was the real traitor? Who had imitated her mother’s handwriting?
Su Ruoxi clung to her last breath and, with all her strength, forced out two words. “Who… was it…”
Su Ruolan sneered. “You want to know? Next life.”
Su Ruolan glanced at Lu Jinghan, who had walked off into the distance. She lifted her foot and said to the two servants beside her, “She’s not dead yet. While she’s still warm, Duke An’s legitimate eldest young miss. She’s yours.”
With that, Su Ruolan lifted her skirts, turned, and walked away through the snow, leaving only a few contemptuous laughs echoing in the wind.
The two servants lunged at Su Ruoxi with savage grins, their expressions utterly lewd. Su Ruoxi fought with the last shred of her strength, but it was a futile struggle.
Her clothes were torn apart by the servants. She was stripped bare and exposed in the barren, snow-covered wasteland. Her body had long since lost all feeling.
The cold wind cut like a knife, slicing through her remaining consciousness.
Heaven and earth were silent. Only the wind and snow sobbed.
Blood stained the snow, soaking through her torn silk dress, but it could not extinguish the raging fire of hatred in her heart. She swore, if she had another life, she would trample her enemies one by one into the mud. She would make them pay blood for blood.
This towering hatred would never fade, not through reincarnation itself.
Thankfully, heaven had eyes. She truly had been given another life. She had opened her eyes to the moment of her betrothal a year ago.
Everything was still in time.
After the sound of Grandmother and the others’ footsteps faded at the end of the corridor, Su Ruoxi suddenly rose. She quickly took a peony-patterned jade pendant from her dressing case. Her fingertips brushed the fine carvings on the jade. Her eyes flickered.
“Qingdai, go yourself. Give this jade pendant to the shopkeeper of Huichun Hall in the south of the city. Remember, you must place it in his hands personally. No mistakes.”
Qingdai solemnly accepted the jade pendant. Seeing her young miss’s grave expression, she knew this matter was no small thing. She curtsied silently and withdrew.
This jade pendant was what her mother had given her before leaving the capital. She had instructed her that if she ever faced grave danger, she could use it to contact the shopkeeper of Huichun Hall.