Jia Rui's gaze turned cold in an instant.
He immediately held his breath, pressed close beneath the window, and peered inside through the gaps in the window lattice.
The lamplight in the room was dim and yellow.
A young woman was continuously retreating backward.
The woman had a slender, graceful figure, a face like a spring blossom, and skin like congealed cream.
A pair of lovely, affectionate eyes were now brimming with tears, and two delicate brows were tightly knit; even amid her alarm and fear, that natural allure could not be concealed.
She wore only a thin sleeping garment, her black lustrous hair loosely spread over her shoulders, which only made her seem more delicate and helpless.
She truly looked like a pear blossom bathed in rain, enough to make anyone's heart ache at the sight.
What was even more striking was the way the woman's body trembled softly as she retreated.
Beneath that thin, light covering of soft smoke gauze, the great mounds at her chest quivered and swayed.
As if they were proud snow mountains, a heavenly thing in the mortal world.
Who else could it be but that peerless beauty, Qin Keqing?
And before her stood a middle-aged man in a brocade robe.
The man's eyes were puffy, his face bore the marks of wine and lust, and his two thin mustaches were greasy and shiny.
His gaze roamed back and forth over Qin Keqing, revealing an unconcealable lewdness and greed.
It was none other than the Family Head of Ningguo Mansion.
Jia Zhen.
By this time, Qin Keqing had already been forced to the edge of the bed.
Behind her was that ivory and gilded canopy bed; there was not half a step left to retreat.
With one hand she clutched tightly at the front of her garment, and with the other she braced herself against the bedpost.
Her face was deathly pale, and her eyes brimmed with tears.
She said in a trembling voice: "Father-in-law... you are the master of this entire mansion, and you are my elder. How could you do such a thing?"
"If Lord Rong and Granny were to find out, I... what face would I have left to live in this world?"
Her voice was naturally soft and gentle, and now with the sound of weeping in it, she seemed all the more pitiful and desolate.
But Jia Zhen had long since been consumed by lust, and could not listen to a single word of reason.
He saw Qin Keqing's face covered in tear stains, her temple hair slightly disheveled.
Instead, he found her even more moving than when she was normally dignified and self-possessed, and the fire of desire in his eyes blazed even stronger.
He immediately gave a cold, sinister laugh: "You just put your mind at ease."
"Even if that woman truly knew, she would never dare make a fuss. As for Rong'er..."
When he said this, a look of contempt appeared on his face.
"He's nothing but a silver spearhead made of wax, good to look at but useless."
"You think you've been married half a year, so why doesn't he dare touch you? Isn't it because I long ago instructed him not to ruin my good business?"
When Qin Keqing heard this, her body gave a violent shudder.
She had originally assumed that Jia Rong was simply frail, or else young and fond of play, and paid no mind to matters of the bedchamber.
She had never in her wildest dreams imagined that her nominal husband had already, under the pressure of his father's authority, half-reluctantly given her away.
For a moment she felt as if her heart had been viciously gouged with a knife.
Seeing her dazed expression, Jia Zhen grew even more smug.
He took a step closer.
With a lewd smile he said: "Rest assured, as long as you obediently submit to me tonight, then from now on in this Ningguo Mansion, though you may have no open title, in secret it will be you who calls the shots."
"Even that woman will have to yield to you by three parts."
"But if you don't know what's good for you, and dare to breathe a single word outside..."
His face suddenly darkened.
"That petty official father of yours who serves as a Construction Officer, and that sickly brother of yours—with one word from me, I can have their family destroyed and its people dead."
"Don't blame me then for being ruthless."
These words struck Qin Keqing's head like a thunderbolt.
Her husband was heartless, her father-in-law shameless.
And now even the lives of her aged father and weak younger brother were being held in someone's palm.
She was naturally gentle by nature, and in the face of trouble she mostly yielded and endured. How could she have ever endured such coercion?
In an instant, she felt the world spinning around her, and all hope turned to ashes.
Her body went limp, and she collapsed onto the edge of the bed.
Seeing this, Jia Zhen took it that she had already resigned herself to her fate.
He also saw that her cloud-like hair was slightly loose, and tear stains hung on her snow-white cheeks.
The thin sleeping garment outlined her graceful figure, and he could no longer hold himself back.
He immediately lunged like a starving tiger pouncing on its prey, spreading both arms to throw himself at her.
At this most critical moment.
"Bang!"
A tremendous crash.
That Huanghuali Wood door was forcibly kicked open from the outside.
The door panel shattered with a roar, and splinters flew in all directions.
Jia Zhen was greatly startled, and before he could even turn his head, he felt a fierce wind suddenly rise behind him.
The next instant, a foot had already kicked him viciously in the groin.
There was only a dull, muffled sound.
The color drained from Jia Zhen's face in an instant.
His eyes bulged out violently, and before he could even let out a scream, only a strange sound was squeezed from deep in his throat.
His whole body curled into a ball, and he toppled stiffly to the ground.
Qin Keqing was still in shock.
Leaning by the bedside, she stared blankly at the doorway.
She saw that the newcomer was about twenty or so.
Tall and slender in build, with handsome features.
A pair of eyes bright as stars.
Though he wore only ordinary cloth clothes, there was a sharp, awe-inspiring edge between his brows and eyes.
Standing amid the shattered wood all over the floor, with the moonlight like frost behind him, he actually seemed to possess a touch of heroic bearing, as if descended from the heavens.
Qin Keqing said in a daze: "You... who are you?"
Jia Rui glanced down at the unconscious Jia Zhen, then looked toward Qin Keqing by the bed.
Under the lamplight, the other's face was like a peach blossom, her eyes held autumn waters.
Though alarmed and bedraggled, she still could not conceal that innate, peerless elegance.
As his thoughts turned, a notion suddenly flashed through his mind.
"Now that Jia Rong is dead."
"And Jia Zhen has been crippled by my kick."
"This vast Ningguo Mansion..."
Jia Rui reined in his thoughts and gave a faint smile.
"Madam Rong was frightened."
"I am Jia Rui."
...
"Jia Rui?"
Qin Keqing was slightly taken aback when she heard this.
Then she seemed to recall something.
She said hesitantly: "You are Lord Rui from the north side of Ning and Rong Street?"
"I once heard Lord Rong mention that you once harassed that Second Aunt Lian..."
The words had just reached her lips when she suddenly felt it was improper, and hurriedly swallowed them back.
A faint blush rose unbidden to her face.
When Jia Rong usually brought up Jia Rui, naturally he had nothing good to say.
It was nothing more than saying that he was a good-for-nothing in the Clan School, and that he harbored foolish delusions, having once developed improper thoughts toward the Rong Mansion's Second Mistress Lian.
Thinking of this, Qin Keqing could not help but add a few more degrees of wariness in her heart.
Though the man before her had struck down Jia Zhen and saved her.
If he too were a lecherous womanizer, would it not be a case of just escaping the tiger's den only to enter the wolf's lair?
She instinctively drew tight the thin sleeping garment around her, covering the springtime beauty at her chest.
Jia Rui took in her expression fully, but did not point it out.
He only looked coldly at Jia Zhen on the ground.
"This old scoundrel ignored all human morals, and even intended to commit the act of a lecherous father-in-law. He is truly worse than a beast."
"After tonight's events, what plans does Madam Rong have for the future?"
With one sentence, he immediately struck again at the most painful place in Qin Keqing's heart.
She bit her cherry lips with her pearl-white teeth, and teardrops rolled down one by one.
After a long while she finally said in grief: "With things as they are now, what plans could I possibly have?"
"My husband does not protect me, and my father-in-law threatens me with the lives of my father and brother. This Ningguo Mansion may look rich and glorious, but to me it is no different from a man-eating prison."
"In the end, it is nothing more than death."
When she said this, her voice grew even more choked.
"It is only that my aged father and young brother have always relied on me somewhat. If I truly died, they would have no one to care for them, and even underground I could not close my eyes in peace."
Having said this, she covered her face and wept softly.
Though she tried desperately to suppress that crying, it only made one's heart ache all the more.
Seeing this, Jia Rui already had a measure of the situation.
What she truly could not let go of, in the end, was still her family.
As long as Qin Ye and Qin Zhong could be protected.
Then Qin Keqing could be made to regain the will to live, and even a sense of reliance.
He stepped forward and said: "I do have a way."
"Not only can it free you from Jia Zhen forever, it can also keep your father and brother safe."
When Qin Keqing heard this, she slowly raised her tearful eyes.
But there was still a trace of disbelief in her gaze.
She had heard Jia Rui's name, and knew he was only a down-and-out member of a collateral branch of the Jia Family.
Usually he idled about in the Clan School, and even Jia Rong might not have taken him seriously.
How could such a person contend with the Family Head of Ningguo Mansion?
And how could he protect her father and brother?
Jia Rui did not explain either. He only took out that gilded jade token from his bosom and casually tossed it over.
"The Waist Token of the Western Depot Lord."
Qin Keqing hurriedly reached out to catch it.
When she looked down, she saw that the front of the jade token was carved with the Western Depot's flying eagle, and on the back was a sharply striking character "Yu."
Though the jade token was small, it emanated a stern, awe-inspiring authority.
"This really is..."
Qin Keqing's expression changed drastically.
Living in a noble and powerful house like Ningguo Mansion, she had naturally heard of the Western Depot's fearsome reputation over the past half year.
Jia Zhen and his son Jia Rong had cursed them privately more times than she could count.
Saying that those newly risen Western Depot Agents were like wolves and tigers, conducting investigations of court officials everywhere.
They even dared to provoke the people of the Eastern Depot and the Dragon Guard.
And that Commander Yu Huatian, Commander Yu, was even more of a great figure whose name made all of Shenjing pale at the mention.
Now such a personal waist token was actually in Jia Rui's hand.
The doubt in Qin Keqing's eyes gradually turned to astonishment.
Like a drowning person who suddenly grasped the last floating log.
She no longer hesitated, and hurriedly rose from the bedside, straightened her garments, and bowed.
"This concubine was blind and failed to recognize that Lord Rui is actually entrusted with important duties by the Western Depot."
"If Lord is willing to take pity and save us, and keep my father and brother safe, this concubine will never forget it as long as she lives."
Seeing that he had overawed Qin Keqing, Jia Rui felt reassured.
He bent down and leaned close to her fragrance-laden ear.
He said in a low voice: "Jia Zhen has secretly colluded with the Jiedushi of the border provinces, intending rebellion. The Western Depot has already set its sights on him; the confiscation of his property and extermination of his family are only a matter of days."
These words were half true and half false, a bluff using borrowed authority, yet they were the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Qin Keqing only felt a rush of hot breath against her ear.
It made her face flush red and her whole body go numb and tingly.
And hearing such shocking secret news of property confiscation and family extermination, she was even more frightened out of her wits.
Her body went limp, and she actually collapsed into Jia Rui's arms.
...