Chapter 101

Chapter 101: You’re So Picky; Were You an Embroidery Needle in Your Last Life

Red Luan had a different view and laid it out clearly: “Retiring at the top is not the same as quitting halfway. If I had struggled for a year as a low-level seamstress without any results and then resigned, that would be a lack of grit.”

She tapped her chest with confidence and continued: “But I am already a Gold-Ranked Seamstress, and not just anywhere, but at the Splendid Brocade Workshop. I’ve reached the peak in this line. If my dad wants to lecture me, he should first show me embroidery better than mine and a name louder than mine.”

Yu Zhi Yi was speechless.

This idea felt fresh. People had always been taught to stick to one thing to the end, whether it was a partner or a job. Unless you truly could not survive in that field, you did not quit.

Red Luan’s view did not fit the times. But Yu Zhi Yi felt there was nothing wrong with it. Why must a person be tied to one person or one thing? If your partner doesn’t suit you, your job brings no joy, or your boss doesn’t act like a decent person, why wait for them to make the first move? Why can’t you choose to leave?

She gave her answer with a slight smile: “All right, I support you.”

She added a promise: “If you later find something else you want to do, go do it. I’ll learn to take over the work here and won’t drag you down.”

Red Luan clapped and laughed: “That’s my sister!”

Then she reassured her: “Don’t worry. Even if I leave someday, I won’t drop everything all of a sudden. I’ll arrange it well. Just like at the Splendid Brocade Workshop, before I let go, I’ll train the next Gold-Ranked Seamstress.”

Yu Zhi Yi nodded. The charity was running in good order under Red Luan. Yu Zhi Yi now had a solid picture of their progress.

Leaving the charity, Yu Zhi Yi went to stroll the street to relax and maybe bump into two people with fated ties. [The only cure for worry is a jump in cultivation base.]

When she reached the door of a shop, a basin of dirty water came crashing down from above. She moved fast and dodged most of it, but her skirt hem still got splashed. Li Rou was worse off; half of her was soaked, clothes hanging wet and heavy, a strong stink rising all around.

Yu Zhi Yi’s face went cold as she looked up and snapped: “Yu Jiao Jiao, are you crazy?”

Yes, the person on the rooftop pouring swill was Yu Jiao Jiao. The building was a restaurant, and restaurants never ran short of slop. That bucket of swill had been poured on Yu Jiao Jiao’s order.

Yu Jiao Jiao screamed back with eyes full of hate: “You’re the crazy one!”

She jabbed a finger and spat her blame: “Yu Zhi Yi, you little wretch, you got my father dismissed and turned my whole family into a joke. Are you happy now?”

It was mealtime, and the street was crowded. At the first sign of drama, people swarmed over to watch. Some sharp-eyed folks recognized the two leads as the famous true-and-fake daughters. The crowd grew more excited and called friends to come too. For those who didn’t know, they explained with great gusto: seventeen years ago, the fake daughter’s mother got greedy and switched the babies of two families so her own child could live well, then she mistreated the real daughter and left her to suffer in the countryside for ten years. Meanwhile, the fake daughter lived in Yu Manor for ten years, throwing her weight around.

Someone summed it up in a shocked voice: “So the fake daughter not only stole the real daughter’s ten good years, but after she was exposed, she shamelessly stayed in Yu Manor, played tricks against the real daughter, and tried to steal the love that belonged to the real one?”

Another onlooker gasped: “How can anyone be so vicious!”

A few still doubted: “No way. She was only ten then. How could she be that scheming?”

Someone answered with a snort: “Why not? The old saying is right. If the top beam is crooked, the lower ones slant too. With a mother like that, how could the daughter be any good?”

Hearing the whispers around her, Yu Jiao Jiao grew wilder. She raised her voice and declared to the crowd: “You’re right. This woman stole ten years of my life. At the manor she targeted me again and again. One year she almost got me killed.”

She slapped her own chest as if generous: “I endured it, because I could understand her jealousy.”

Then she twisted the knife: “But what she should never have done was cost my father his office!”

She wailed for sympathy: “Because of her, my whole family cries every day now. A proper third-rank official, demoted in one day to a commoner!”

Her eyes turned poison-sharp as she pointed at Yu Zhi Yi and shouted: “Even if my father and mother neglected you all these years, they never truly mistreated you. They even planned your marriage well. Otherwise, with your background, how could you marry into the Chancellor’s Manor?”

She piled it on: “Even when they were disappointed in you, they still planned your future. And you? You ruined my father’s lifetime of hard work. Are you even human? Doesn’t your conscience hurt?”

The onlookers, not knowing the truth, got stirred up fast, especially since the tale of the true and fake daughters was a favorite topic in the Capital. With fresh rumors like “she got her foster father dismissed” and “the foster family even helped her marry into the Chancellor’s Manor,” people heated up. They shot Yu Zhi Yi looks like she was a white-eyed wolf and scolded her openly. Someone even yelled: “What kind of beast are you!”

Another shouted: “Like mother, like daughter. Her mother would switch babies, and she would sell out the foster family. Shameless!”

Someone proposed action on the spot: “Let’s go protest at Chancellor Du’s gates. I want to see if, once they see her true colors, they’ll still want her as a daughter-in-law!”

Hearing the angry cries and the plan to protest at the Chancellor’s Manor, Yu Jiao Jiao’s eyes flashed with a crazed pride. [If I can’t live well, you won’t either, Yu Zhi Yi.]

From Yu Jiao Jiao’s first move to the point where Yu Zhi Yi was being blamed by everyone, only a short time passed. Just a few of Yu Jiao Jiao’s lines had set the crowd on fire.

Yu Zhi Yi ignored the clueless onlookers. She looked at Yu Jiao Jiao with cool mockery and said in a voice that somehow rose over the noise: “You’re so good at picking and twisting things. Were you an embroidery needle in your last life?”

She explained what she had chosen to overlook: “For the things you made up about me earlier, I owed you ten years, and I was willing to pay them back, so I couldn’t be bothered to argue.”

Then she cut to the core: “But to blame Minister Yu’s dismissal on me… do you really think His Majesty closes his eyes and ears and doesn’t hear what the people say?”

Her lips tilted in a small smile as she ignored the hateful stares. She kept her eyes on Yu Jiao Jiao and said in a clear, even tone that everyone could hear: “I’m very curious. Last time you caused trouble, Minister Yu had to bring out the immunity token just to spare your whole family from death.”

She finished with a quiet threat: “This time, you’re twisting right and wrong on purpose. When His Majesty finds out, how will he punish you, and how will he vent his anger on the Yu Clan?”