Chapter 69
Chapter 69: Almost Ruined
Just then, Eldest Miss Lin Yu Wan and Third Miss Lin Yu Ning from the neighboring General Manor came through the moon gate.
“Sister Xiao Man!”
Lin Yu Ning shouted from far away, voice bright as a bell.
Xiao Man set the book in her hands down and went to meet them.
“Third Miss, what is it?”
“I came with Eldest Sister to see Cousin!” Lin Yu Ning pointed at her own head, as if indicating the injury. “Is he better now?”
Xiao Man smiled. “Eldest Grandson Young Master is much better.”
Lin Yu Ning sniffed. “Cousin really isn’t as good as my Eldest Sister. Eldest Sister swings her sword in the courtyard every day and never gets hurt!”
Lin Yu Wan’s brows drew together. She reached out and tapped Lin Yu Ning lightly on the head.
“Little Sister, don’t talk nonsense. You’re always babbling.”
Then she turned to Xiao Man, voice smoothing into gentleness.
“Is Cousin here?”
Xiao Man shook her head. “He went out. There is a rain-prayer ritual that needs an eminent monk to preside. He left before dawn.”
“Even injured?” Admiration flashed in Lin Yu Wan’s eyes. “Cousin truly carries compassion. He worries for the common folk.”
Lin Yu Ning didn’t care about rituals and virtue. She leaned closer, eyes gleaming with mischief.
“Hey, Xiao Man—have you heard about the Third Princess’s flower-viewing banquet?”
She waggled her brows. “A green peony in winter. Do you believe it?”
Xiao Man shook her head honestly. “To be honest… I don’t.”
“I don’t believe it either,” Lin Yu Wan said at once, decisive.
“Peonies bloom in spring, and green peonies are even rarer. For her to claim a green peony in winter is truly abnormal.”
“If she found a gardener who can coax peonies to bloom out of season, she should present it to the palace—not invite noble ladies to come gaze at it.”
Lin Yu Ning cut in, voice dropping into a secretive hiss. “Sister Xiao Man, you don’t know. Third Princess is a terrifying madwoman. Last time she was the one who insisted I ask Cousin for scriptures.”
Lin Yu Wan’s mouth tightened. “Third Princess is indeed strange.”
“The banquets she holds are always to amuse herself at someone else’s expense. This flower-viewing banquet—she’s probably targeting a noble lady again.”
“And she made sure the invitations were known across the whole city.” Lin Yu Wan leaned closer, eyes sharp. “When something is abnormal, there is always something hiding behind it. This feels like a trap banquet.”
“I just don’t know who she intends to ruin.”
Xiao Man’s heart sank.
Her instincts had always been sharp—and every thread of this felt wrong.
In her mind flashed the scene at the courtyard gate days ago. Qiu Ru Ying’s simple, harmless face.
Lately, rumors in the capital had been thick around Qiu Ru Ying and Lin Qing Xuan.
Could it be…
“Eldest Miss,” Xiao Man said, voice turning serious, “no matter who she is trying to ruin, we must be careful. Especially Miss Qiu—she’s as pure as blank paper. I’m afraid someone could sell her and she’d still help count the money.”
Lin Yu Wan nodded hard, eyes bright with resolve.
“That’s exactly what I think. So on the day of the banquet, you must go with me.”
“Me?” Xiao Man pointed at herself, stunned. “I’m a maid. How could I go?”
“Then you’ll pretend to be my personal maid.” Lin Yu Wan’s eyes lit up, as if she’d just struck gold. “If you’re with me, I’ll feel at ease. It’s settled.”
On the day of the flower-viewing banquet, the road outside the Third Princess private residence was jammed with carriages. Perfume and powder drifted in the air like fog.
Noble ladies clustered in groups, silks shimmering, hairpins flashing, smiles bright and practiced. Every one of them carried that same expectation—eager to see the legendary green peony, eager to be seen.
Qiu Ru Ying arrived as well, along with the Lin family three sisters.
As promised, Lin Yu Wan brought Xiao Man. She dressed her in the plainest maid clothing and kept her at the back, eyes lowered, posture obedient.
But once they entered, everyone froze.
The courtyard was empty—no green peony, no buds, not even a single petal.
A noble lady with a sharper temper couldn’t hold back. “Princess Highness—where is the green peony you spoke of?”
Princess Xuan Ji lounged on a soft couch, the very picture of lazy elegance. She tapped the tabletop with painted nails, lips curving into a faint, meaningful smile.
“The green peony is immortal-grade,” she said lightly. “Naturally, only the fated one can see it.”
She lifted a slender hand and pointed toward the back courtyard.
“It is in the back courtyard. But…” Her smile deepened. “No entry without invitation.”
Murmurs rose.
Fated one?
Why did it suddenly sound like sorcery and omen?
Some noble ladies grew bored and made excuses to leave.
Those who stayed either wanted to see what this was really about—or wanted to curry favor with the princess.
Just then, an unfamiliar maidservant at Princess Xuan Ji’s side stepped forward and stopped before Qiu Ru Ying. She curtsied properly.
“Miss Qiu. Our Princess says you are the fated one. Please follow this servant to the back courtyard to view the flowers.”
In an instant, every gaze snapped onto Qiu Ru Ying.
Envy. Jealousy. Curiosity. Suspicion.
The looks sliced across her like knives.
Qiu Ru Ying went still, cheeks flushing red with surprise.
Lin Yu Jiao, thrilled as if the honor were her own, nudged her hard.
“Go, Ru Ying! You really have fate with the green peony! This is a huge blessing!”
Dazed and blushing, Qiu Ru Ying followed the maidservant toward the back courtyard.
Everyone else could only stare after her, hearts tangled with bitterness and disbelief.
Behind Lin Yu Wan, Xiao Man watched Qiu Ru Ying’s figure vanish beyond the moon gate and felt her stomach drop.
Third Princess’s madness. Qiu Ru Ying’s innocence. The rumors. The eerie fated one.
All of it twisted together into something ominous, tightening like a rope around her throat.
No.
Something was about to happen.
She grabbed Lin Yu Wan’s sleeve, eyes urgent enough to spark flame.
Lin Yu Wan understood immediately. She gave Lin Yu Ning and Lin Yu Jiao a quick look—stay calm—then pulled Xiao Man close and whispered, “Come.”
She didn’t take the main path to the back courtyard. Too obvious. Too many eyes.
Instead, she led Xiao Man behind a rockery, crouched low, and moved along the shadow of dense holly bushes, slipping toward the back like thieves.
The back courtyard was quiet. Too quiet.
There was no green peony. No flowers at all.
Only a separate little yard, and inside it, a lone side room with the door tightly shut.
A sweet, cloying scent seeped through the cracks—thick enough to make the skin prickle.
And beneath it, faint but unmistakable, came a man’s lewd laughter, oily and vile.
“Little beauty… don’t hide…”
“Let your lord take a good look…”
Xiao Man and Lin Yu Wan exchanged one glance. Horror struck them both at once.
“No—” Lin Yu Wan’s face tightened. “That scent… it’s a potent lust incense.”
Her voice turned cold with disgust. “Third Princess… she’s truly filthy.”
Lin Yu Wan pushed at the door. It didn’t budge.
Bolted from the inside.
She pressed her ear to it. The filthy words within grew worse, slurring and eager.
“There’s no time.”
Lin Yu Wan stepped back, gathered herself, and kicked the door with everything she had.
The wood cracked with a thunderous bang.
The door flew open.
The scene inside split their eyes with fury.
A thick-faced man, clothes half-undone, was grinning as he tore at Qiu Ru Ying’s garments.
Qiu Ru Ying lay limp on the floor, eyes shut, face flushed red, already unconscious.
“Beast!”
Xiao Man roared.
She snatched up a vase by the door and smashed it into the back of the man’s head without hesitation.
He grunted, eyes rolling white, and collapsed in a heap. Blood bloomed at his scalp.
“Xiao Man—cover your mouth and nose!” Lin Yu Wan snapped, already lifting her sleeve to block the scent as she rushed to Qiu Ru Ying.
Xiao Man copied her at once. Together, they hauled Qiu Ru Ying up—deadweight in their arms—and staggered out.
They had barely dragged her beyond the yard when noise surged from the front courtyard—Princess Xuan Ji’s sharp, artificial laughter and a crush of footsteps.
“This way!” Lin Yu Wan hissed.
She yanked Xiao Man and Qiu Ru Ying into the narrow gap of a tall rockery, wedging themselves into shadow and stone.
Almost instantly, Princess Xuan Ji swept past with a group of noble ladies, chatter and laughter trailing like perfume.
“Sisters,” Princess Xuan Ji said brightly, “this princess will take you to see the real show now! I guarantee it’s a hundred times more exciting than a green peony.”
Xiao Man’s heart hammered so hard she could taste it.
She didn’t dare breathe.
They stayed pressed into stone as the group opened the side room door.
A burst of shocked cries erupted.
“Third Princess—what is the meaning of this?!”
“You brought us to see a half-naked man?”
Noble ladies stumbled backward, horrified and furious, retreating as if the air itself had turned poisonous.
In their minds, a shared thought flared, loud and unanimous: Never again. Better to avoid her banquets entirely than risk becoming the next victim of her amusement.
Princess Xuan Ji’s face turned black, dark as the bottom of a pot.
Where was she?
Where was Qiu Ru Ying?
The leading lady of her carefully arranged show had vanished.
Who ruined it?
Who dared?
Rage tore through her, but she could only force a stiff smile and soothe the bewildered noble ladies.
Elsewhere, Lin Yu Wan and Xiao Man managed to get Qiu Ru Ying into a carriage outside.
Lin Yu Wan immediately sent her maid to call Lin Yu Ning and Lin Yu Jiao out of the banquet, and then told them everything—every ugly detail of the princess’s trap.
When Lin Yu Jiao and Lin Yu Ning arrived and saw Qiu Ru Ying unconscious, clothing disordered, Lin Yu Jiao’s face drained white.
Her whole body trembled. Tears surged up instantly.
“How—how could this happen? I should have gone with her… I should have stayed with her…”
She turned on Lin Yu Wan, eyes blazing with fear and rage. “It was Third Princess, wasn’t it? She arranged this?”
Lin Yu Wan nodded, jaw tight. “That poisonous woman… how dare she?”
Lin Yu Jiao’s eyes reddened to blood.
Thankfully, the sisters were used to being prepared. They always brought spare clothing to banquets. With shaking hands, they changed Qiu Ru Ying into clean garments.
But Qiu Ru Ying still didn’t wake.
Her breathing quickened, ragged and urgent, face flushing deeper and deeper red.
“No,” Lin Yu Wan said, decisive. “We must take her to a clinic—now.”
The carriage tore down the road toward the nearest clinic.
Old Eldest, the physician, checked her pulse. His expression tightened into something grave.
He prescribed an antidote at once and had it forced down.
A large bowl of pitch-black medicine went into her. Time crawled.
Finally, Qiu Ru Ying coughed hard, body shuddering, and her eyes fluttered open.
She stared blankly at the faces around the bed. Her memory was still trapped at the moment the maidservant led her into the back courtyard.
“I… where am I?”
Looking at her pale, bewildered face, the Lin family sisters and Xiao Man felt their fear surge after the fact—cold water down the spine.
If they had been even one step late today, the consequences would have been unimaginable.