Chapter 5

Chapter 5

In my younger sister’s courtyard.

The smell of blood had yet to fade.

A crowd of people was already kneeling there.

They were all old servants who had come after hearing of my return, their eyes wet with tears and fear.

“Second Miss, after you were sent to the estate, Madam took the Third Miss to a Buddhist temple to pray for blessings. On the way, they encountered mountain bandits. When they returned, they brought back a young woman.”

Obviously, that young woman was Xu Yaoyao.

And my mother liked this lifesaving benefactor very much.

Because Xu Yaoyao was docile and sensible in a way completely unlike me. When she looked at my mother, her eyes were filled with pure adoration, as if she regarded my mother as her one and only support.

So much so that when my younger sister felt it was improper to bring someone of unknown origins into the manor, my mother coldly shot her down.

“Yaoyao is all alone in the world, and she is so considerate. It is bad enough that you learned your second sister’s heartlessness, but now that someone wants to be filial to me in your place, you will not allow even that?”

Every word cut my younger sister’s heart to pieces.

I listened, took the tea a maid handed me, and asked, “What did Father say?”

At the mention of Father, my younger sister’s eyes reddened again.

“At first, Father and Eldest Brother were both rather displeased. But Xu Yaoyao never lost heart. One day, she begged Father to taste the pastries she had made. The next, she coaxed Eldest Brother into teaching her swordsmanship. After that happened a few times, when I brought it up again, they scolded me just like Mother did, saying I was cold-blooded and jealous.”

If that had been all, it would have been one thing.

Although my younger sister was hurt, at most she would have stopped meddling and stayed in her own courtyard, living her own life.

But Xu Yaoyao happened to take a liking to the jadeite head ornament set I had given my younger sister. Envy filled her eyes.

“If only I had a sister like that too.”

“I have never seen such a beautiful set of ornaments before.”

Her expression was desolate, but after she finished speaking, she lifted her head again, bright and full of life, and threw herself into my parents’ arms.

“But it is all right even if I do not. Yaoyao already has Father, Mother, and an elder brother! I do not feel envious at all!”

Those words shattered the hearts of all three of them. My mother slammed the table.

“Who says you do not have a sister? You are my daughter now. Naturally, Rongshu is your sister too. That head ornament set should rightfully have a share for you as well!”

And so, my younger sister’s belongings became hers too.

“But that was something my sister gave me. How could I just give it away to someone else?” my younger sister cried.

She argued. She made a scene. And what did she get in the end?

My father was displeased by her pettiness.

My mother sneered that she had grown bold.

Even Ye Rongfeng felt she was being childish.

Then later, Xu Yaoyao’s jewelry was found in my younger sister’s courtyard, and soon after, my younger sister ran into her-and Xu Yaoyao fell into the lake.

This household became my younger sister’s cage completely.

Every day was torment.

She wanted to escape. She thought of Xie Jingwen and secretly ran out.

But what she saw was her future brother-in-law, who in her heart should have been utterly devoted to her sister, riding the same horse as that young woman.

The young woman was arrogant and throwing a tantrum, yet his eyes held nothing but overflowing tenderness and indulgence.

My younger sister’s heart turned to ash.

She gave me a bitter smile.

“Sister, Father, Mother, all of them have changed. Now, all they can see is Xu Yaoyao.”

“You should not have come back. All these years, I thought of you recovering from your illness and did not dare tell you. Even more than that, I did not want you to come back and suffer like me.”

“No.”

I set down the teacup and said, “Perhaps they never changed at all.”

It was only that before, they had all feared me and never revealed it.