chapter 2

When I found Xie Wanning with the wine, she was sitting in a corner, speaking timidly with several guests.

Someone offered her a plate of pastries. Looking overwhelmed by the kindness, she accepted it with great care.

Anyone would have taken her for a frail, shy girl.

Even my sister had misjudged her.

I walked up, set the cup directly in front of her, and said only one thing.

“My sister gave this to me. Liang Yanxiu drank the same wine.”

Xie Wanning froze, a dozen emotions passing across her face.

She was clever. She understood me almost at once.

With a gentle smile, she asked, “Why should I help you?”

I met her eyes.

“You wouldn’t be helping me. You’d be helping yourself.”

I had heard that my sister was once again searching for a husband for her, and the pressure had become relentless.

In my previous life, my sister had succeeded in marrying Xie Wanning off before she died.

Five years later, Xie Wanning was a widow.

Her husband had suffered from a private illness, a fact my sister concealed from Madam Liang.

Xie Wanning gave a soft, cold laugh.

“I have a thousand ways to marry Brother Yanxiu. Why would I resort to something so vile?”

I sighed.

“Forgive my presumption. I thought you had run out of choices.”

Her face flushed, then went pale.

Madam Liang did adore her, but the older woman was in poor health, and my sister effectively controlled the Liang household.

Now that my sister had been driven to the edge, there was no chance she would allow this beautiful cousin to remain under the Liang roof.

I rose without taking the wine.

“I won’t disturb you any longer.”

After walking a few paces, I glanced back.

Xie Wanning had not stormed away. She was staring at the wine, conflict plain in her eyes.

When I returned, my sister hurried over.

The sight of my empty hands nearly broke her composure.

She steadied herself and asked calmly, “The wine?”

“I drank it,” I replied carelessly.

Her face relaxed.

“Where did you leave the cup?”

I looked around and shrugged.

“I don’t remember. I must have left it in some corner.”

At last, she lowered her guard completely.

She led me to a guest room—the very room where I had awakened in my last life.

Without betraying a thing, she told me to rest and left a maid to watch me.

I pretended to be overcome by the wine, my gaze unfocused.

“I understand.”

Satisfied, my sister departed, her footsteps fading into the distance.

My eyes snapped open. I rose and headed for the door.

Her maid hurried to block me.

“Second Miss, the young madam ordered you to remain here.”

“Did she?”

I smiled faintly.

While the maid was distracted, I seized a vase and brought it down hard against her head.

She crumpled to the floor.

I dragged her into the adjoining room, locked the door, and hid in a secluded corner.

Before long, I saw a young servant supporting Liang Yanxiu as they approached.

Although Liang Yanxiu appeared dazed, his steps were steady. He let the servant lead him into the room without resistance.

Once the servant had settled him inside, he left.

Moments later, Xie Wanning crept up to the door.

She looked both ways. Finding no one nearby, she darted into the room.

It was not long before intimate sounds drifted out.

At the same moment, a dense rush of footsteps approached from nearby.

My sister was bringing her witnesses to catch the adulterers.

Every face in the group was familiar.

In my last life, these women had stood outside the door whispering about me while I shivered so badly that I could not utter a word in my own defense.

Now, I watched with cold eyes.

As the group drew near, I quietly joined the very back of the crowd.

My sister and the ladies had supposedly been headed elsewhere and were merely passing the guest room.

At first, none of the noblewomen noticed anything.

But the closer they came, the clearer the sounds became.

Their expressions slowly turned peculiar, and more and more of them began whispering.

“Did you hear that?”

“You heard it too? Oh, how shameless!”

“What brazen servants would dare carry on here?”

My sister deliberately lingered until every woman had heard.

Only then did she put on a look of alarm.

“Ladies, my failure to discipline the servants has embarrassed us all…”

She stopped abruptly.

No one understood why.

Without warning, my sister turned her head and stared straight through the crowd.

She had seen me.

Disbelief flashed nakedly in her eyes.

If I was standing here, then who was the woman entangled with Liang Yanxiu inside?

A familiar voice sounded from the inner room.

My sister seemed to understand.

The blood drained from her face inch by inch.