Chapter 12
Chapter 12
When a person has a weakness, they are easily manipulated.
But I have none.
I fear nothing.
When Xie Yijue burst in, I was leaning against the couch reading a volume of an old book.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his robes fluttered with the force of his movement as he struck the scrolls from my hand.
The bamboo slips scattered across the floor with a loud clatter.
“You venomous woman!”
His teeth were clenched, every word laced with ice. “That was my own flesh and blood! How could you bring yourself to do it?!”
I looked up.
That veneer of a refined gentleman had been torn to shreds, revealing the hideous nature beneath.
He looked like a cracked statue in a temple.
“My younger sister was careless and took a fall this morning, which led to the miscarriage,”
I said softly and slowly. “What does that have to do with me?”
“She said it was you!”
His chest heaved violently as he grabbed my wrist, his grip so tight it felt as if he might crush the bone.
“She said so herself!”
“Where is the evidence?”
I let him hold me, offering no struggle.
“Can the Main Wife be framed based on nothing but empty words?”
He abruptly flung my hand away and barked toward the door, “Bring them in!”
The old servant woman who guarded Ji Zhi’s courtyard and the maids responsible for sweeping all knelt on the floor, trembling.
Xie Yijue pointed at them, his voice cold and hard.
“Speak! How did your Concubine lose the child today? If there is a single lie, you will be sold off immediately!”
The head servant woman pressed her forehead to the ground, her voice shaking, yet the words she spoke were identical to mine:
“The Concubine… the Concubine was admiring flowers in the courtyard this morning when her foot slipped and she fell… We failed to catch her in time, and that… that is what caused this disaster…”
Xie Yijue stared at them in disbelief.
The rest of the servants and maids kowtowed in agreement, their stories eerily consistent.
I gently rubbed the red marks on my wrist where he had squeezed me.
This was the benefit of managing the household.
Life, death, honor, and disgrace-sometimes they all depend on a single thought.
It depends on who holds more paths to survival in their hands.
Supported by others, Ji Zhi stumbled into the room.
Her face was deathly pale, her voice filled with misery.
“Lord Heir! It was her! She harmed our child!”
“You must seek justice for us, mother and son!”
Xie Yijue looked at Ji Zhi, who was on the verge of fainting from her weeping.
Then he looked at me, sitting peacefully on the couch with a calm expression.
Finally, his gaze fell upon the group of servants, who were as quiet as cicadas in winter.
After a long silence, he suddenly let out a low laugh.
There was not a hint of warmth in that laughter.
“Good, good, good.”
He repeated the word three times, his eyes turning cold inch by inch. “Even if you did not harm the child directly, the Main Wife’s oversight and failure to care for the child in her womb is a dereliction of duty.”
He flicked his sleeves, his voice decisive.
“From this day forward, your power to manage the household is revoked. You are confined to this courtyard. Without my permission, you shall not take a single step outside!”