Chapter 38 Wenren Yi, catch me!
Her voice was low and soft, like the unyielding cold of a winter lake, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.
Wen Jinli was utterly stunned.
He almost didn’t recognize the expressionless young woman. The chilling gaze in her calm eyes made him feel guilty and dare not meet her gaze.
Wen Xueling said indifferently, “Throw him out.”
Yan Ze performed a sword flourish, knocking the long sword from Wen Jinli’s hand, and forcefully kicked him out of the Small Building in the North Courtyard.
His chest aching from the kick, Wen Jinli looked at his biological mother inside the house, who consistently stood by his sister, his stubborn eyes filled with indignation.
She was always biased. Even though Wen Xueling was the one who was wrong, she still protected her!
“Mother, you will regret treating me like this someday.”
Seeing her Fourth Brother so stubbornly blind, Wen Xueling felt a chill in her heart for her mother.
From a young age, her four brothers had believed their grandmother’s divisive words and were not close to their biological mother. Now, to be so reproachful, she wished she could sew Wen Jinli’s mouth shut.
“The one who should regret it is you.”
Wen Xueling walked to the steps of the courtyard gate, looking down at the young man on the ground clutching his chest, and said coldly, “You were the first to betray Mother, acknowledging someone else as your mother!”
“Wen Jinli, when you knelt before your stepmother showing filial piety, did you ever consider that your biological mother, who raised you for over ten years, was also bedridden?”
The young man’s face flushed upon hearing this. He wanted to retort but didn’t know where to begin.
After a long thought, he finally blurted out words of righteous indignation.
He shouted loudly, “She is the daughter of the illustrious Xie family. Her early life was spent serving the country and the people, leaving her with illnesses. Now that she has married into the Wen family, what is wrong with me, as a Wen family descendant, showing her more filial piety!”
“Then what is wrong with Mother and me?”
Wen Xueling’s tone was calm, yet it carried the sharp precision of an arrow piercing the air, striking directly at Wen Jinli’s heart, leaving him at a loss for a retort.
“……Is the fault that she gave birth to you? Is the fault that I am your sister? Must we suffer for the sake of those ‘reasons’ you speak of?”
Her face was utterly cold, and she tugged at the corners of her lips, forming a mocking arc.
It was like this in her previous life, and it was like this again in this one.
“I never ask you, brother, to side with kin over reason, but......do your ‘reasons’ hold water? Search your heart, is it truly my fault, and not Wen Jin’An’s?”
Two consecutive questions caused Wen Jinli’s face to instantly turn pale, his lips trembling. He wanted to speak, but didn’t know what to say.
Wen Xueling, in front of him, expressionlessly closed the courtyard gate.
In this life, no one would dare to stand on the high ground of false morality, forcing them to pay for their selfishness!
The pageboy quickly ran to help Wen Jinli up, but saw his eyes red-rimmed, grinding his teeth, staring fixedly at the closed courtyard gate.
“I’m not wrong!” Wen Jinli left these three words and stormed off.
Worried that her mother would be hurt by her Fourth Brother’s foolish and thoughtless words, Wen Xueling hurried back into the room. Just as she was about to comfort her, she saw Mu Qingyu shake her head.
“Mother is fine.”
Dinner was already cold, and neither mother nor daughter had an appetite.
After returning to the room, Mu Qingyu pressed the back of her hand against her eyes, trying hard to hold back the tears that threatened to overflow.
But in the end, she couldn’t suppress them.
Wen Xueling stood outside the door for a long time, watching the sorrowful silhouette inside the room, half her face hidden in the night, dark and cold.
She looked up at the bright moon hanging high above, silently repeating her scoundrel father’s name and the others’, her ambition for supreme power growing steadily in her eyes.
Like a matchstick dropped on dry grass, the wind blew, igniting a raging fire across the mountains.
She returned to her room, looking at the half-finished refined portrait, and immediately had another idea.
This time, Wen Xueling didn’t have Yan Ze secretly deliver it. Instead, she changed into a more light and nimble silk dress and personally went to the back gate of the Imperial Preceptor’s residence.
“Tang Xia, hold steady. Your young miss’s marriage is in your hands.”
“Don’t worry, Miss, this servant will hold the ladder steady even if it costs my life!”
Tang Xia looked up at her young miss, who was trying hard to climb the wall, and wondered, “Miss, why don’t you send a calling card and use the main entrance?”
She replied as she climbed the wall, “What do you know? This is a secret rendezvous, something that can’t see the light of day.”
Compared to Tang Chun’s caution, Tang Xia had a bit more childlike innocence. After asking, she used all her strength to hold the ladder, terrified that something might go wrong with her young miss’s marriage.
Under the night sky, Wen Xueling noticed the gaze gathering on her from the shadows. She tugged at the corner of her lips, feigning ignorance.
From the moment they appeared at the back gate of the Imperial Preceptor’s residence, hidden guards had already delivered the news into the mansion.
Their conversation was overheard by the man and the hidden guards.
Wenren Yi watched her climb the Imperial Preceptor’s residence wall and sit at the top, lost in thought.
She turned to her maid and sighed, “Tang Xia, I miscalculated.”
“Ah?” Tang Xia looked up, confused.
Wen Xueling gestured at the height of the wall, looking up helplessly, “…...There's no ladder inside.”
“Jump down?”
This just proves why bringing Tang Xia was more effective. Look at how she set up the conversation, truly brought the right person.
She feigned hesitation, “In storybooks, young ladies always jump into their beloved's arms. But this is empty space below, your young miss would only break herself.”
“Forget it, let’s go back to the residence first, we’ll come back another day.”
For the next two nights.
The same thing continued to happen at the back gate of the Imperial Preceptor’s residence, yet Wen Xueling still repeated it with great delight.
If you ask why she would do this when she knew she couldn’t get in?
Of course, it was because......she was deliberately putting on a show for Wenren Yi.
One had to test a man’s bottom line, didn’t one?
But an accident still happened.
Seeing Tang Xia huffing and puffing as she climbed the wall, easily moving another ladder inside, her starry eyes blinked at her.
As if saying: Miss, praise me quickly. Aren’t I especially capable?
Wen Xueling’s lips twitched. She hadn’t expected Tang Xia to bring two ladders tonight, and with such strength.
“Miss, go and meet your beloved with peace of mind. This servant will guard for you and ensure the ladder is still here when you return!”
“No need for that......”
Under her maid’s eager gaze, Wen Xueling had no choice but to climb down the ladder from the other side.
Late at night, the silver glow of the bright moon illuminated the path ahead.
She had never been to the Imperial Preceptor’s residence and curiously looked around.
Compared to the Prime Minister’s residence, with its many maids and attendants both inside and outside the courtyard, there were hardly any people visible here.
More than half of the courtyards were completely dark.
Wen Xueling came to a high point, looking at the brightly lit courtyard not far away. She estimated it must be Wenren Yi’s courtyard.
As she walked towards that courtyard, her mind also pondered Wenren Yi.
What she could confirm was that the gaze from the first night came from him.
It hadn’t appeared the next two nights.
But in the heavily guarded Imperial Preceptor’s residence, no guards came out to drive them away. Did that mean......he was condoning it?
Or......her eyes flickered, and she vaguely gained a bit of interest in testing that conjecture.
Wen Xueling stood in the shadows, distantly observing the brightly lit courtyard gate. The three characters “Ink Bamboo Courtyard” were as cold and solitary as the man himself.
Since she had already climbed the outer wall, she didn’t mind climbing the inner wall either.
The moment she was about to jump down from the tree, her eyes met a pair of cold, deep eyes like a dark pool, startling her into slipping.
“Quick......”
The word “get out of the way” that was almost blurted out, lingered on her lips, and changed into......
“Catch me—“
The tree wasn’t tall; even if she fell to the ground, it wouldn’t hurt much.
Seeing him about to retreat, Wen Xueling spread her arms and lunged towards him, calling out nervously, “Wenren Yi!”
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