Chapter 29

Zhao Rouyin furrowed her delicate brows and said, “No, Xiao Changyuan is right in front of us. How can I give up so easily?”
Her tone was soft, as if she were speaking to her younger brother, yet also as if she were speaking to herself.
Zhao Mao felt that his sister’s madness was about to flare up again and desperately tried to persuade her, “Sister, that Xiao Changyuan is cold, blooded and ruthless, killing without batting an eye. We simply can’t afford to provoke him. This time, he was in a good mood and only broke your arm. Who knows? Next time, if he’s in a bad mood, he might just take both our lives. Sister, there are plenty of powerful and influential men in this world. I think we should just let it go…”
“Mao’er, why are you so timid?” Zhao Rouyin used her uninjured left hand to pinch the soft flesh on Zhao Mao’s arm fiercely, her tone filled with disappointment. “How can someone as cowardly as you ever achieve great things?!”
“Ouch, ouch, ouch! Sister, let go! I was wrong! I admit it, alright?”
Zhao Mao gasped in pain, his face turning pale as he cried out and begged for mercy. In his heart, however, he couldn’t help but think, Why didn’t Xiao Changyuan just break both of his sister’s arms? That way, she wouldn’t have a spare hand to pinch his poor, tender flesh.
Only when she heard Zhao Mao’s surrender did Zhao Rouyin release her grip. Slowly, she said, “If we had been this timid back then, we would have long become burial offerings for the Northern Yong Emperor. How could we have survived until now?”
Zhao Mao looked at the purple bruise on his arm, grimacing in pain. Hearing his sister’s words, he inwardly lamented, it wasn’t that he was cowardly, but that his sister was far too bold.
Lifting his head to look at Zhao Rouyin, he voiced his concern, “But, Sister, now that Xiao Changyuan knows we have ill intentions toward him, will he come to kill us?”
Zhao Rouyin’s face paled slightly. “If soldiers come, we’ll block them; if water flows, we’ll dam it with earth. If Xiao Changyuan truly wants to kill us, no matter where we flee, he will find us. Running away is useless. The key is whether he actually wants to kill us or not…”
Zhao Mao clutched his arm and asked, “Sister, what should we do now?”
Zhao Rouyin’s expression grew serious. “We’ll adapt to the situation and act according to the circumstances.”
They spent a sleepless night.
Zhao Rouyin waited at home all day.
Finally, as dusk fell, Xiao Changyuan and Yun Pianpian arrived.
Xiao Changyuan stood tall and graceful in the courtyard, like ice, covered snow. His cold, dark eyes fell upon her, flickering with a careless intent to kill. His icy gaze turned the mild, breezy autumn day into a bitterly cold winter.
At the sight of Xiao Changyuan, Zhao Mao trembled like a mouse spotting a cat, his face pale with fear as he hid behind Zhao Rouyin, shaking uncontrollably.
Zhao Rouyin’s charming, captivating face lost all color, and her entire body turned cold. Yet, she stood calmly in front of Zhao Mao, using her slender and fragile frame to shield her trembling younger brother.
Yun Pianpian, holding a jar of wine in her hands, got straight to the point. “Did you put something in this wine?”
Zhao Rouyin’s fingers, hidden in her sleeves, slowly clenched.
Her lips colorless, she looked at Yun Pianpian.
“Yes.”
She was gambling, betting that Xiao Changyuan did not want to kill her today, so she had to show her sincerity.
Yun Pianpian looked at Zhao Rouyin with some surprise. She had expected the young beauty to deny it, but never thought she would admit so quickly. This made Yun Pianpian view her in a new light.
She didn’t ask Zhao Rouyin why she had done it, fearing that too many questions would reveal the truth about the demonic technique to Xiao Changyuan. Instead, she simply said to Zhao Rouyin, “Since you’ve admitted it, I don’t want to make things difficult for you. This is the jar of wine you gave my husband yesterday. If you dare to finish it in front of us, we’ll consider the matter settled.”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Mao immediately grew tense. “Sis.”
He and his sister both knew what was in that jar of wine and what would happen after drinking it.
Zhao Rouyin replied, “Fine.”
Zhao Mao anxiously interjected again, “Sis.”
Zhao Rouyin’s right hand was wrapped in bandages. Using her uninjured left hand, she lifted the lid of the wine jar, grasped its rim, and took the peach blossom wine from Yun Pianpian. The jar was only half the size of a medicine pot, and the wine inside was already more than half gone, evidently, someone had drunk from it before coming to confront her. Holding the jar with one hand, Zhao Rouyin tilted her head back and finished all the peach blossom wine in one go.
After drinking, she turned the jar upside down.
A few drops of wine fell to the ground, leaving faint stains.
Zhao Rouyin lifted her dark lashes and looked calmly at Yun Pianpian.
“Is this acceptable?”
Seeing Zhao Rouyin’s actions, a flicker of admiration crossed Yun Pianpian’s clear, almond, shaped eyes.
In Zhao Rouyin’s frail and delicate figure, she unexpectedly caught a glimpse of a roguish, chivalrous spirit.
Yun Pianpian curved her eyes into a smile. “Yes, we’re even now.”
Zhao Rouyin breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.”
Satisfied, Yun Pianpian left with Xiao Changyuan.
After the two had departed, Zhao Rouyin swayed unsteadily and nearly collapsed to the ground. Zhao Mao quickly reached out to support her, his pale, plump face filled with panic. “Sis, what do we do now? That wine was clearly laced with an aphrodisiac.”
Zhao Rouyin gritted her teeth and said, “Quick, help me to the pond. You stay on the shore and make sure no men come near me.”
Now, they could only pray they wouldn’t encounter any other men in the woods later, or else they would be at their mercy.
Zhao Mao nodded repeatedly. “Yes, Sis!”
He fetched a change of clothes for Zhao Rouyin from the wardrobe and hurriedly supported her as they made their way into the forest.
Halfway there, Zhao Rouyin suddenly furrowed her delicate brows. From the moment she finished the peach blossom wine until now, she hadn’t felt the slightest bit of warmth in her body. Instead, the churning sensation in her stomach grew increasingly intense, it felt more like…
Mao'er, something’s wrong. Hurry, help me back home.”
Zhao Mao grew tense. “Sister, what's wrong? Weren't we going to the pond?”
Zhao Rouyin furrowed her delicate brows. “They actually replaced the aphrodisiac with laxatives. Quick, help me to the outhouse.”
Zhao Mao was utterly shocked. “What?!”
Zhao Rouyin returned home and made dozens of trips to the outhouse. Her legs grew weak, her face turned ashen, and finally, the effects of the medicine wore off.
Early that morning, Yun Pianpian had taken Xiao Changyuan to the county town. She purchased a dose of laxative from the pharmacy, bought a new jar of peach blossom wine from the tavern, poured out most of the wine, added the laxative, and stirred it thoroughly with chopsticks.
Xiao Changyuan lifted his dark, profound eyes and looked at Yun Pianpian speechlessly.
“Is this what you call an evil method?”
Yun Pianpian stopped stirring, raised her eyelashes to look at him, her almond, shaped eyes filled with confusion.
“Isn't this evil enough?”
Xiao Changyuan stared at her for a long moment, then finally turned his handsome face away and said against his conscience, “It's absolutely evil.”
His wife knew how to seek revenge, that was already quite impressive.
As for his conscience…Xiao Changyuan's face remained as cold and expressionless as an iceberg.
He already had a wife, what use did he have for a conscience?
The next day, while Yun Pianpian was hanging laundry in the yard, she heard noisy, chaotic sounds coming from the far end of the village.
It seemed like someone was having a loud argument.
Her home was located at the village entrance, quite far from the village end, so she couldn't clearly make out what they were arguing about.
She didn't pay much attention to it.
Just as she finished hanging the clothes and was about to carry the laundry basin back inside, a young boy's crying suddenly came from behind her.
“Sister Pianpian, please! Save my sister!”
Yun Pianpian turned around and saw that the boy was the younger brother of the pretty girl from the day before.
She was taken aback and asked, “What happened to your sister?”
Zhao Mao said through tears, “They're falsely accusing my sister of adultery and say they're going to drown her and the adulterer in a pig cage!”
Yun Pianpian said blankly, “But I switched the medicine to laxatives yesterday.”
Zhao Mao cried, “It's not your fault, Sister Pianpian. The adulterer found my sister's handkerchief and, to protect the woman he was actually having an affair with, falsely accused my sister of being his lover. But my sister doesn't even know that man, she's never even spoken to him.”
Zhao Mao wiped the tears from his face, his eyes red. “My sister and I have no relatives in Jiangjia Village. No one will speak up for us. They're all slandering her, trying to force her to her death. Please, Sister Pianpian, save us!”
After saying this, Zhao Mao immediately knelt on the ground and began kowtowing repeatedly to Yun Pianpian.
“Please, Sister Pianpian, save my sister!”
Yun Pianpian had never been knelt to like this in her life and hurriedly tried to help Zhao Mao up.
“Get up quickly.”
Zhao Mao lifted his head, his fair forehead bleeding from the kowtowing, a glimmer of hope flashing in his dark, moist eyes.
“Then. does Sister Pianpian agree to save my sister?”
Yun Pianpian pulled him up. “I'll save her. I will definitely save her.”
Hearing this, Zhao Mao suddenly burst into loud sobs. “Thank you, Sister Pianpian! Thank you, Sister Pianpian!”
Zhao Rouyin often pinched Zhao Mao, and he frequently wished she would fall ill so she wouldn't have the strength to hit him.
But when the villagers stormed into their home and took Zhao Rouyin away, Zhao Mao felt as if his entire world had collapsed.
He and his elder sister had grown up relying on each other in the cold palace since childhood.
The cold palace was filled with maddened concubines.
He often feared that his sister would go mad too.
But not only did his sister not go mad, she also led him out of the cold palace.
Later, their father sent his sister to marry the Northern Yong in a political alliance.
Driven by that same madness, his sister did what no other woman in the world dared to do.
She seduced the general escorting the bridal procession and fled with him, arriving at the remote Jiangjia Village.
As a child in the cold palace, he never had enough to eat or wear, growing as thin as a monkey.
After arriving at Jiangjia Village, his sister fed him until he became chubby, all to make up for his deprived childhood.
When the villagers stormed their home today, he was so terrified he lost all composure and didn’t know what to do.
But his sister calmly grabbed his hand and told him to quickly find Yun Pianpian. He thought his sister’s madness had flared up again. Just two days ago, they had drugged Xiao Changyuan with an aphrodisiac, and yesterday they had confronted him, how could Yun Pianpian possibly come to their rescue?
The villagers took his sister away, and her last words to him were still, “Go find Yun Pianpian!”
With no other options, Zhao Mao went to find Yun Pianpian. He had expected her to refuse to help, but to his surprise, she agreed so readily. Zhao Mao burst into loud sobs. Only now did he realize that his sister wasn’t mad…
His sister was the smartest woman in the world!
She could always find a way to break through any encirclement!
Sister, you must wait for Mao’er to come and save you!
Weeping loudly, Zhao Mao led Yun Pianpian to the villagers who had taken Zhao Rouyin away.
Xiao Changyuan followed behind them, his handsome face cold and stern.
The three arrived at the pond at the end of the village, its banks crowded with villagers watching the spectacle.
Zhao Rouyin and her illicit lover had been stuffed into a bamboo pig cage. The villagers carried the cage toward the pond, while the lover’s wife followed alongside, kicking and punching Zhao Rouyin, cursing loudly, “You shameless wretch! How dare you seduce my husband! Today, I’ll kill you and send you and that adulterous pair to meet in the underworld!”
The lover, lying in the cage, pleaded incessantly, “Qiao’er, spare me, I’ll never do it again…”
In contrast to the lover’s agitation, Zhao Rouyin remained exceptionally calm. Aside from defending herself with a few words back at home, she hadn’t spoken since. From beginning to end, she never begged for mercy. She could see that these enraged villagers had lost their reason, the more she spoke, the more excited they became, the more eager they were to carry out her execution.
Zhao Rouyin lay in the pig cage, clutching her injured arm, her hair disheveled, clothes loose, and face pale.
Her clear, enchanting eyes were like a stagnant pool of water, calmly awaiting her death.
Her only hope now was that Mao'er would quickly bring Yun Pianpian and Xiao Changyuan to her.
“Stop right there!”
Zhao Rouyin heard a clear, angry shout.
It was a young girl's voice.
Zhao Rouyin felt her lifeless heart stir back to life. Her dim eyes gradually brightened as she ignored her injured arm, stretched her hand out of the pig cage, and desperately waved, shouting with all her might.
“Yun Pianpian! I'm here! Come save me!”
After the age of nine, the timid Zhao Rouyin had never shed another tear.
Her tears had all been spent the year she turned nine, when her mother died of illness in the cold palace.
From then on, she had no one to rely on, no one to trust.
She could only depend on herself.
Zhao Rouyin had traded a lifetime of tears for an indestructible body, she became wild and brave from that day on.
But now, hearing Yun Pianpian's voice coming to her rescue, Tears streamed from Zhao Rouyin's eyes.
She had known Yun Pianpian would come to save her.
From the moment the girl had swapped her aphrodisiac for a laxative, she had known Yun Pianpian would surely come to her rescue!