Chapter 360

Chapter 360: Just a Cup of Aged White Tea

Jiang Yu Wei thought for a while, then shook his head: “No.”

Even if Jin’er wasn’t an Imperial Court official, she was still his niece, his second brother’s daughter. No matter how he and his second brother competed over prestige or reputation, he would never abandon family.

Chen Ruo Lan almost twisted her nose out of shape from anger, thinking: [Is he a fool?] She had spelled it out so clearly, yet he stayed stubborn!

She was about to keep persuading him when a clear, cool female voice sounded behind her: “Who exactly do you want my uncle to give up?”

Chen Ruo Lan froze and slowly turned. At some point, Yu Zhi Yi had come to stand right behind her. Not just Yu Zhi Yi-Marquis Wu’an’s heir apparent Tang Ming Xuan, along with more than a dozen guards, were also there, all of them staring at her with hard faces.

Clearly, they had heard everything.

Chen Ruo Lan tried to paste on the gentle smile she always used, but under so many fierce gazes her smile wouldn’t come. She could only say awkwardly: “Jin’er, you misunderstood. I wasn’t asking big brother to give up anyone, only to think long-term and be fully prepared before going in.”

What she didn’t know was that while she had been focused on persuading Jiang Yu Wei, Yu Zhi Yi’s group had already come out from inside. Yu Zhi Yi had raised a hand to stop her own father and the others from calling out, so all of them had listened in on the conversation.

Back then, Jiang Yu Chuan’s face had gone dark, and Xiao Qing Xuan hadn’t even tried to hide the anger on her face.

Chen Ruo Lan felt a little panicked, but she had no other way. She looked to Jiang Yu Wei for help, hoping he would cover for her a little-even if that cover would look like a bad joke. After all, she hadn’t directly said to give up Yu Zhi Yi; those “guesses” had come from Jiang Yu Wei’s own mouth. She thought: [So even if others want to blame someone, it shouldn’t land on me… right?]

However-

Xiao Qing Xuan forced the name out between her teeth: “Chen Ruo Lan!”

Before Chen Ruo Lan could react, a sweet scent rushed past, and then her face was struck left and right-pa, pa, pa-more than a dozen times in a row.

Every slap from Xiao Qing Xuan carried full strength. Ten-odd years ago, she was a famed heroine of the Martial World. Even if her mind had been clouded for years and her skills hadn’t advanced much, the inner strength she had trained remained. An ordinary person would have swollen up long ago from such blows-let alone being hit by a master of the Martial World.

Chen Ruo Lan’s face quickly puffed into a pig’s head. Her nose and mouth were squeezed by her swollen cheeks until they were just thin slits.

Xiao Qing Xuan moved too fast. With one hand she had Chen Ruo Lan by the collar, so there was no escaping; Chen Ruo Lan could only take the slaps head-on.

Her cheeks burned and went numb; tears burst from her eyes. She looked to Jiang Yu Wei for help and stammered: “Big-”

Before she could beg, Xiao Qing Xuan stopped, shoved her so she staggered, then let out a hard breath and said coldly: “If there’s a next time, it won’t be as simple as a dozen slaps.”

Chen Ruo Lan thought, [So simple?] Out of the corner of her eye, she could clearly see her own cheeks bulging high. She raged inside: [That shameless woman calls this simple?!]

More tears streamed down. She wasn’t the type to shout and make a scene; when she cried, tears always fell before she spoke. Stared at by those watery eyes, even the hardest-hearted man would go soft as wax on a warm finger.

She was very good at using her beauty.

But she had forgotten one thing: right now, she had no beauty.

Faced with the misty gaze of a woman who looked like a pig-headed ghost, Jiang Yu Wei felt not the least pity. If anything, he wanted to plant a fist and send her to meet her great-grandmother. Seeing the disgust in his eyes, Chen Ruo Lan faltered in her act and finally realized how ghastly she must look. Her heart sank.

Xiao Qing Xuan took it all in and sneered: “Stop trying to be charming; no one will pity a pig-headed woman with a vicious heart.”

“…” Chen Ruo Lan’s eyes rolled back; she fainted dead away.

Yu Zhi Yi, who had watched from start to finish, couldn’t help giving her mother a thumbs-up, saying: “Brilliant.”

Xiao Qing Xuan snorted in disdain, thinking: [Just a cup of aged white tea-trying to play both a white lotus and a green tea.]

She had suffered plenty at this woman’s hands before-though only in front of her elder brother-in-law and father-in-law. Her own husband was steady and never got bewitched. After losing out so many times, she had long since found the woman’s weak spot: [She uses frailty and looks to soften men. Take those away, and their wits come back.] Looking now, it was true.

To stop this “aged white tea” from waking up and hurrying to beg her big brother again-only for him to soften and do something foolish-she let her gaze slide to Jiang Yu Wei and said evenly: “Big brother, this woman tried to egg you on to get Marquis Wu’an’s heir apparent killed. That would put our whole Martial Alliance on the chopping block. Big brother won’t let her off lightly, right?”

Half of Jiang Yu Wei’s rosy filter for Chen Ruo Lan had already shattered when that swollen-pig face appeared. And because the matter touched the entire Martial Alliance, he didn’t dare be muddled. He said at once: “Sister-in-law, don’t worry. I will not be lenient.”

Then he cupped his fists to the heir apparent and the others and said: “Heir Apparent, my lords, please be assured. I will give you all a proper explanation.”

The heir apparent said coldly: “Will Alliance Leader Jiang only answer to us?”

Jiang Yu Wei hurriedly turned to Yu Zhi Yi. To be honest, he still hadn’t fully processed that his niece now held a third-rank office. He kept slipping into a senior’s mindset toward Yu Zhi Yi and anything involving her. Only now-seeing the heir apparent and those clearly high-status guards stand around her respectfully, ready to follow her lead-did he accept reality: his little niece was not ordinary.

He straightened at once and said solemnly: “Please rest easy, Prefect. I will punish her severely.”

Yu Zhi Yi replied coolly: “I trust you, Uncle. Don’t let me down.”

The so-called debt of gratitude from Chen Ruo Lan’s father had long tied the Jiang brothers’ hands. No matter how much they disliked her, they couldn’t go too far, or people in the Martial Alliance would brand them ungrateful. That was why, even after Xiao Qing Xuan had been schemed against, Chen Ruo Lan could still prance around the Alliance: first, there had been no solid proof she had done it on purpose; second, there was that life-saving grace.

But now that the Imperial Court’s heir apparent was involved, Jiang Yu Wei dared not handle her lightly.