Most of the servants in the Tang household were originally left by Xiao Yan, and the ones added later by Tang Ning were all bound by death contracts.
The master is honored, and the servant dies for their master.
Almost everyone in the Tang household knew about the events involving the Song family, so their attitude toward Song Jinxiu was far from friendly.
After Song Jinxiu was led into the front hall, Tang Ning casually placed tea by her side, while he stood stiffly. Tang Ning neither invited him to sit nor asked him why he was there. Instead, she turned and ordered Hua Wu to take the imperial decree away and set it aside, then asked the kitchen to prepare some roasted lamb, as she suddenly felt like eating it.
After Hua Wu, carrying the imperial decree, left with the little tufts of hair on her head swaying, Tang Ning seemed to suddenly remember someone was standing in front of her. She looked up and asked, "Song Daren, you've come all the way to find me. Is there something you want?"
Song Jinxiu, with a grim expression, glared at her: "Is the matter with the Second Prince your doing?"
Tang Ning propped her chin, tilting her head as she looked at him. "What matter?"
"You know what I'm talking about!" Song Jinxiu’s voice was low and hoarse.
"On the night of the Qixi Festival, you deliberately told me about the Princess Leyang's plot, about the Fourth Prince developing an inappropriate interest in you. You led me to investigate the Fourth Prince’s wife, and even the incident at Lingyun Temple last night was all part of your plan."
"You used yourself as bait to provoke Princess Leyang and the Fourth Prince’s wife into action. The Fourth Prince’s wife fainted and had her purity violated, and even the Second Prince was framed, all of this was your doing!"
Tang Ning, looking at the handprint still on Song Jinxiu’s face, and his excited expression as he interrogated her, smiled lightly.
"Song Daren, without evidence, don't slander me. What happened last night was a consequence of Princess Leyang’s actions. Wasn't it the Second Prince who caused harm to the Fourth Prince’s wife?"
Song Jinxiu angrily retorted, "The Second Prince didn’t do anything. Madam Bai and Madam Pei didn’t harm the Fourth Prince’s wife. They were clearly set up by someone!"
Tang Ning raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How does Song Daren know so much?"
Song Jinxiu paused, his anger faltering.
Tang Ning smiled faintly, "Song Daren sent his own sister to the bed of the Fourth Prince's subordinates, but he knows a lot about the Second Prince's affairs. And you have always been clean, but I didn't expect that you are so familiar with the women of the Bai and Pei families. You even know what they did in Lingyun Temple?"
Song Jinxiu’s face turned ashen, his glare at her intense. He spoke through clenched teeth, "You used me! You set up the Second Prince and the others!"
Tang Ning tilted her head, gazing at him with a look of mockery. "Wasn’t it you who used me first?"
Song Jinxiu, frustrated, denied it, "I didn’t!"
"Didn’t?" Tang Ning raised her head slightly. "If you didn’t, then why did the Second Prince send people to Lingyun Temple yesterday?"
Song Jinxiu, desperate, explained, "I told the Second Prince about the Fourth Prince’s interest in you because I was worried about your safety. The Song family has no one left by my side, so I had to use the Second Prince’s people to stop the Fourth Prince and protect you. I only wanted to protect you!"
Tang Ning laughed. "Your so-called protection means you knew that the Fourth Prince’s wife wanted to take action during the Yulan Pan Festival, but you didn’t warn me. Or you knew that the Second Prince wanted to ruin the Fourth Prince and would never miss the chance to pull him down, but you chose to send someone who didn’t care if I lived or died to protect me?"
"You knew who the Second Prince had sent to Lingyun Temple. Didn’t you consider that the women from the Bai and Pei families couldn’t possibly stop the Fourth Prince’s plan to defile me? What the Second Prince wanted was only for the Fourth Prince’s mansion to fall from grace, for the Empress and the Fourth Prince’s faction to break with Xiao Yan completely."
"Song Daren, you’re so clever and adept at scheming, and it only took a short time for the Second Prince to trust you. Don’t tell me you didn’t know who the Second Prince really is."
"Or did you already know the outcome, but pretended not to, letting the Second Prince mess things up in the temple and then reaping the benefits of the situation?"
Song Jinxiu’s face was full of disbelief, his lips trembling. "I didn’t… I never thought of it that way, Tang Ning, I’m your brother! I really just wanted to use the Second Prince to protect you…"
"Then why didn’t you go to Lingyun Temple yourself? Why didn’t you tell me beforehand?"
"I…"
"What?" Tang Ning cut him off, growing impatient with his repeated useless words. She was well aware of his impure motives, yet he still looked as though he had been betrayed.
"On the night of the Qixi Festival, when you knew the Fourth Prince had developed an interest in me, what was the first thing that crossed your mind?"
"And when you told the Second Prince about it, and realized Princess Leyang’s plans, what were you thinking?"
Although Tang Ning was sitting, much shorter than Song Jinxiu, her words were so forceful that they had him on the defensive.
"You said you wanted to protect me, but you never thought about the dangers that would come if I stepped into it without knowing anything. You also never thought that since the Second Prince wanted to kill the Fourth Prince, he must have irrefutable evidence. If I didn't lose my innocence, how could the Second Prince get what he wanted?"
"The royal family is heartless. Who would care about me, a mere pawn in their schemes?"
"You only thought about your own career and how to use this situation to gain the Second Prince’s trust, not once considering how to keep me safe. Instead, you treated me as a pawn in your game with the Second Prince. If you had remembered me even a little bit, and warned me beforehand, the Second Prince would never have been able to play his game."
Tang Ning’s words left Song Jinxiu reeling. His façade of righteousness crumbled, revealing the selfishness he had hidden all along.
His face was pale, his eyes filled with confusion and disbelief, unable to accept the truth.
Tang Ning coldly continued, "Song Jinxiu, if you're selfish and hypocritical, you should at least admit it."
"You want power and to scheme your way into the court. That’s natural. I have things I want too, and I would go to any lengths to get them. But you hide your cold-heartedness and selfishness behind the mask of being a righteous man and a loving brother, repeatedly disgusting me with your actions."
"I used you. And what about you?"
Tang Ning stared at him, her gaze icy. "If it had been me whose purity was compromised, you’d be celebrating the downfall of the Empress and the Fourth Prince, and telling me, 'Don’t worry, I’ll protect you,’ or 'The innocent will stay innocent, I’ll protect you for the rest of your life,' right?"
"I’m sick of hearing it! And Song Jinxiu, what gives you the confidence to question me, when you used my life as a pawn while hiding in the capital untouched?"
"Have you been pretending to be a righteous man for so long that you’ve forgotten your own selfish, hypocritical nature?"
Song Jinxiu staggered back a step, his lips moving as if to say something, but Tang Ning’s cold, cutting gaze left him frozen, as if he had been cast into an ice-cold pit.
He was a picture of embarrassment, struggling to form words, finally muttering her name, "Tang Ning…"
Tang Ning, completely uninterested in his plight, didn’t care to respond. She could hardly understand why, even after so much time had passed, he kept coming back to drag up the past.
Even if he had been cruel and scheming, planning and seeking revenge, she could at least respect him for doing it openly. But he couldn’t let go of the past, clinging to their "sibling bond" as though it were still something meaningful, continuously trying to manipulate her, brainwashing himself into believing that he was the loving, righteous brother.
Who would care about a sister if they were willing to use her purity as a pawn?
Tang Ning calmly picked up her tea. "If Song Daren has come to ask about last night's events, I too am a victim. Once the Privy Council investigates, whether it’s the Second Prince or the Fourth Prince, His Majesty will deal with it."
"As for anything else..."
"I have nothing to say."
She turned to her servant, "Yue Jian, escort Song Daren out."
Song Jinxiu, in a daze, found all his questions and words blocked by her indifference. As he was roughly pushed out by Yue Jian, he could still hear Tang Ning’s cold voice behind him.
"From now on, don’t let just anyone into the house. If anyone causes a scene at the door, throw them out immediately."
Song Jinxiu, now standing in front of the Tang household with a pale face, felt completely humiliated.
...
Tang Ning couldn’t help but feel that Song Jinxiu was mentally unstable. He had firmly chosen others over her in the past, yet now he was desperately trying to return, knowing full well that things could never go back to how they were, but still relentlessly clinging to the past, doing all sorts of despicable things, only to regret it after the fact.
It truly was as Sister Yue had said—he was being cheap.
Tang Ning decided to have the flower hall cleaned again.
What a hassle!
Feeling upset, she went to the nearby He Li Hall, curling up on the large chaise longue that Xiao Yan had placed by the Yu Li Terrace.
The cool lake breeze helped her settle her emotions, and as she looked at the sparkling water under the sunlight, her mind wandered back to the events after returning from Lingyun Temple that day.
At the time, Qian Qiyue had been causing a stir, and as she and Qian Qiyue chatted, old Madam Fu had remarked that they didn’t seem like recent acquaintances but rather like long-time friends.
Then Fu Laiqing blurted out, "Who said they just met?"
At the time, Qian Qiyue had, for some reason, kicked Fu Laiqing in the leg, and Madam Qian had said that they were very compatible.
But Tang Ning still felt something strange about Qian Qiyue’s expression.
She rubbed her forehead as she thought about how, on the night of the Qixi Festival when Qian Qiyue fell into the water, an inexplicable thought had popped into her head, as if a voice was telling her that Qian Qiyue couldn’t swim. But she had never asked Qian Qiyue about it. Why did she know that Qian Qiyue couldn’t swim, when the Qian family’s ancestral home was in a watery area in Lingnan?
Tang Ning rubbed her brows, thinking that she should ask Sister Yue about it later, but for now, she focused on the letter in her hand, her gaze softening.
As she opened the letter, a bracelet fell out.
The bracelet was hollowed out, with white jade as its base, exquisitely crafted. Golden threads adorned the edge, with two delicate little bells hanging from it.
Shaking it, the bells jingled.
===============
You can read ahead to chapterr 470 (100+ extra chapters) here
Comments
Post a Comment