Chapter 14
Chapter 14
I looked at Yin He’s innocent, tear-streaked face, and my smile deepened.
“Haha, Yin He, of course you respect me.”
“Because you know very well that without me, the legitimate daughter, standing in front to bear the pressure, how could you peacefully learn from Mother how to manage the household?”
“You talk freely with the young men at the academy, become sworn confidantes with Yin Rui, and roam together by candlelight at night. Even my own little brother is closer to you. And what about me?”
I swept my gaze over every face in the ancestral hall.
“What exactly am I, this so-called legitimate daughter, in all of your eyes?”
“A bright and beautiful tool? Or merchandise waiting to be sold to the highest bidder?”
“But I am a living, breathing person! If you want me bright and beautiful, then I will cover myself in mud. If you want to weigh my worth and sell me, then I will smash the scales myself!”
Father was so furious that he slapped me again.
“Rebellious daughter! You are narrow-minded and full of resentment. You have lost the bearing and vision a daughter of an aristocratic house ought to have.”
He turned to the clan chief and bowed deeply. “Clan Chief, it is I, Yin Boheng, who failed in my teachings and raised such a disloyal, unfilial disgrace.”
“Please take up the brush and write the severance document. From this day onward, the main branch of the Yin Clan no longer has a daughter named Yin Fei. Between her and my Yin family, all ties of affection and duty are cut!”
“Father! Don’t!” Ah He and Mother cried out at the same time.
Father no longer looked at me. He turned and knelt before the ancestral tablets.
“To think that I, Yin Boheng, lived my whole life with an untarnished name, only for it to be ruined by a mere commoner. If not for my love of fishing, I would never have become acquainted with that Lu Family Boy, and I would never have given you an excuse to meet him in secret again and again!”
“Today, before our ancestors, I, Yin Boheng, swear that I will never fish again in this life. If the ancestors wish to lay blame, let it fall on me alone.”
Father’s voice was hollow. Powerlessly, he waved me away. “Go. Sign the severance document. The man surnamed Lu outside is still kneeling there, waiting for you.”
“Whether the two of you cling to each other through life and death, or drown yourselves in love and hatred, from now on, you have nothing whatsoever to do with my Yin family.”
I watched Father resolutely sign his name on the severance document. Pain stabbed through my heart, and bright red blood spilled from the corner of my mouth.
With a trembling hand, I reached out. The brush tip fell, and without the slightest hesitation, I wrote the two words: Yin Fei.
After I finished, I flung the brush aside and had to try twice before I could barely stand straight.
I did not look at anyone. I turned and walked, step by step, out of the ancestral hall.
Outside, below the steps, Lu Qi knelt ramrod straight, blood seeping from his forehead.
Sunlight pierced through the clouds and fell upon his dust-covered shoulders.
When he saw me appear, he nearly staggered as he crawled toward me.
“Ah Fei!”
I ran straight into his arms.
“Lu Qi, take me away.”
He nodded heavily, stepped forward, and swept me up into his arms.
“All right.”
The wind blew across my face, carrying the coolness of release.
I tilted my head against his shoulder and took one last look behind me at the four words, “A Family That Passes Down Poetry and Rites.”
What Luo Xiang wanted was the century-old reputation of the Yin family as pure and upright scholars, to wash clean his bloodstained blades.
What Han Yan wanted was the Yin Clan’s deeply rooted web of connections, to help him stabilize the throne he had seized.
What Zhou Sui wanted was to borrow the Yin Clan’s status and pedigree, to cleanse himself of the stink of money and force his way into the scholar-official class.
And what I wanted was the rightful order this world should have had all along, but which had been overturned for far too long.