Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Why me?

Why did you come to me for refuge? Why were you so certain I would take you in?

Why did you think I was the one who stole the Peach Blossom Hairpin?

Wei Ningyao froze, the pastry still in her mouth, unable to swallow it no matter how she tried. Fat tears splashed onto the table as she sobbed and confessed in a broken voice:

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I was wrong. I was wrong. I should have taken you with me. It shouldn’t have been Bitao, it should have been you. I was afraid you would steal Second Young Master from me, so…”

At last, she told the truth.

As it turned out, Concubine Xu had originally intended for me to become Wei Ningyao’s dowry maid. In Concubine Xu’s eyes, I was one of the few people in the Marquis Manor who truly protected her daughter. Once I entered the Liang Family with her, I would become Wei Ningyao’s right-hand woman.

But Bitao seized the chance to wag her tongue. She said I was good-looking enough, older, and full of schemes. I could even coax the ever-picky First Madam into beaming with joy, never mind that First Madam and Concubine Xu had always been at odds. Who knew-perhaps I would compete with my mistress for favor.

Those words planted a thorn in Wei Ningyao’s heart. So she hid the matter from me, chose Bitao instead, and secretly met Second Young Master Liang one more time to sound him out.

Who would have thought Second Young Master Liang would suddenly ask where the tall little maid who was always by her side had gone?

Wei Ningyao felt as if she had encountered a mortal enemy. After returning to the manor, she could neither eat nor drink, unable to accept the thought of sharing a husband with me.

In her mind, I must have used the opportunity of passing messages to flirt with Young Master Liang. She had always treated me well, yet I had betrayed her. It was despicable.

So she came up with a “brilliant plan”-to frame me for theft. As long as I had a stain on my record, I would no longer be qualified to become her dowry maid or step through the lofty gates of the Liang Family.

“I regretted it. I truly regretted it…” Wei Ningyao choked on her sobs. “I didn’t know thirty strokes could kill someone. I didn’t know my eldest brother would insist on driving you out of the manor…”

For a long while, I said nothing. I only found it utterly absurd.

She didn’t know. What a fine excuse-she didn’t know.

When I was being beaten with those strokes, I kept wondering who had framed me. I suspected many people. The only one I refused to believe capable of it was Wei Ningyao. I refused to believe it was her way of making an example of me.

But when I was expelled from the Marquis Manor and Wei Ningyao chased after me to shove banknotes and my indenture contract into my hands, I understood. She had known all along that I was innocent. She felt guilty.

Ten years. We spent ten full years together, day and night. She was my mistress, my young lady, and also the very heart of me, the apple of my eye.

I watched her grow up and held her carefully in the palm of my hand. She would shed tears when I fell ill. She would bristle with righteous anger when others treated me harshly. She would sweetly call me “Sister Bao’er,” sit shoulder to shoulder with me on the stone steps and share a pastry, sleep soundly on stormy nights while clutching my arm, and think of me first whenever she had anything good.

She was like a gift bestowed on me by the heavens, making me helplessly seek the shadow of “family” in her.

I had once laid my heart bare to her. I could have died for her without a moment’s hesitation.

And in the end, for a man she had only met a few times, she threw me away?

What do you expect me to do now? Think that since your life has already become miserable, you have received your retribution, and then reconcile with you, invite you warmly into my home, and continue being the little maid who serves you?

How could that be possible?

If I forgave you so easily, then my life would become even cheaper. It would be as if I were still the “money-losing burden” in my parents’ mouths, the weed that deserved to die young, the lowly maid cast aside like worn-out shoes, unworthy of the name “Bao’er.”

But that is not true. It cannot be true. I have drifted through half my life, yet I have never taken a single wrong step. All I ever wanted was to trade sincerity for sincerity.

I should not have been treated this way.