Chapter 10: She Is a Transmigrator

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“Why ask me? Who should I ask?”

Lu Wuwei glared at Zhouzhou.

“Wasn’t I expecting you to keep your eyes on Lu Lanxi every moment?”

Lu Zhouzhou did not dare talk back to her father, so she vented her anger on the maid Chunchan instead.

“I don’t know, my lord. Ever since Third Miss went to the Dongyang Marquis’s Residence to be married, she has never returned.”

Chunchan knelt on the floor, trembling all over.

“Married? What kind of marriage was she entering? She has disgraced the entire Lu family! You are her maid, yet you don’t even know where she has gone. Are you a pig?”

“And you, Ye Nanzhi—look at the wonderful daughter you raised. Even a dog knows to guard the gate. What use is she?”

“Eldest Young Master, I may be your elder, but I am still your senior. Isn’t it rude to address me by my given name? Besides, Xi’er is your sister. How can you compare her to a dog? When she risked her life to protect you, why didn’t you say she was useless then?”

Ye Nanzhi was not one to back down either, and immediately argued with Lu Zhouzhou.

“An elder? What are you supposed to be? Do you actually deserve to call yourself my elder? If Lu Lanxi isn’t a dog of the Lu family, then what is she? If she can protect me, that is her good fortune.”

“Eldest Young Master, mind your status!”

“Concubine Ye, Zhouzhou is the legitimate eldest son. Whatever he says to you is hardly excessive. Besides, isn’t he merely concerned about his own sister? A young woman failing to return home for the night will inevitably invite gossip.”

Li Xianyue was even more displeased to see Ye Nanzhi lecturing her son.

The person she hated most was Ye Nanzhi, that fox of a woman who had bewitched her husband with her seductive charms.

Ye Nanzhi hated Li Xianyue just as much. She considered herself above everyone else, yet was false inside and out—vicious, scheming, and utterly hypocritical.

“Exactly, Concubine Ye. You are always saying that she is merely your appendage, that she obeys your every command. But look at what she did today! She nearly got me killed. She looked as though she had been possessed.”

Lu Wanhe pouted and began to complain as well.

“I don’t care for that remark, Eldest Miss. Lu Lanxi refusing to marry is a good thing for you. How could she possibly have harmed you?”

Ye Nanzhi’s tone was mocking. How could she not know what Lu Wanhe was plotting? On the surface, Wanhe had sacrificed her own happiness for Lu Lanxi’s sake, making everyone feel guilty on her behalf. In truth, she simply did not wish to marry, yet refused to close off her escape route. She had dragged Lu Lanxi forward as a stepping stone and kept Zhuang Huaijin as a lifelong spare. A wanton woman like her was treasured only because that fool Zhuang Huaijin worshiped her as though she were a priceless jewel.

“You wretched woman! What do you mean by that? Are you daring to insult me by innuendo?”

“Eldest Miss, you are the legitimate eldest daughter, yet you speak so crudely, calling people ‘wretched woman’ at every turn. With such an incapable temper, you still dream of marrying into the imperial family?”

“Ye Nanzhi, you… I understand now. You’re simply jealous of me! Unlike your daughter, I might yet rise from the lowly branches and become a phoenix. Who would have thought you would end up bowing before a rooster? It’s absolutely laughable…”

“That is enough! All of you, be quiet.”

Lu Wuwei slapped the table and glared at Lu Wanhe.

“Concubine Li, Wanhe is straightforward and guileless. I failed to teach her properly. Rest assured, I will lecture her thoroughly when I return.”

Hearing Li Xianyue take the initiative to admit fault, Lu Wuwei’s tone softened considerably.

“Mm. You must keep a close eye on her. Don’t let some pig trample her, and don’t let her become like certain people—grow too strong in the wings and refuse all discipline.”

Li Xianyue nodded gently, deliberately casting a glance at Ye Nanzhi.

Ye Nanzhi’s expression remained impassive. She was hardly foolish; how could she fail to understand Lu Wuwei’s meaning? Still, she blamed Lu Lanxi for not consulting her beforehand and leaving her in such a passive position.

A moment later, Lu Wuwei shouted toward the doorway.

“Steward! Has Third Miss still not returned?”

“My lord, no one has seen Third Miss.”

“That good-for-nothing girl!”

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“My lord, I suspect Lu Lanxi may have slipped beyond our control.”

Li Xianyue shook out her sleeves and continued, “She used to be timid and obedient. If told to go left, she would never dare go right. But today she fought and killed with such ferocity—it was as though she had become an entirely different person.”

Lu Wuwei had noticed it as well.

Everything Lu Lanxi had done that day was completely unlike her usual behavior. She seemed like another person altogether.

Could she truly have been possessed?

Lu Lanxi only displayed such extraordinary skill when she appeared beside Lu Zhouzhou disguised as a man.

Normally, even though she was highly accomplished in martial arts, she would never lay a hand on anyone in the residence. She submitted absolutely to every command.

“Nanzhi, what do you have to say?”

Ye Nanzhi was slow to realize what they meant. Only then did she finally understand the change they were discussing in Lu Lanxi.

“My lord, Xi’er merely followed the words of the Lu family. That does not mean she has no temper. The Dongyang Marquis’s Residence humiliated her so openly today—was that not an unmistakable slap in your face? Xi’er was defending your dignity and protecting the reputation of the Lu family.”

Lu Wanning was seething. She glared at Ye Nanzhi.

“Even if she was defending the Lu family’s honor, she should not have embarrassed Eldest Sister in public. That wretched girl must be punished severely today. Otherwise, she will think herself untouchable. How are we supposed to control her in the future?”

“Exactly. If we do not torment her properly and cut down her arrogance, she may become a disaster later on.”

Hearing her second daughter Lu Wanning, Li Xianyue hastily agreed.

Ye Nanzhi frowned from the side. She knew perfectly well that their desire to torment Lu Lanxi had nothing to do with discipline. They merely wanted to humiliate her as Lanxi’s mother.

Li Xianyue was nothing but a jealous shrew—a despicable, shameless wretch.

“Mother, since Lu Lanxi is no longer getting married, can she remain by my side and continue protecting me?”

Lu Zhouzhou’s train of thought was truly extraordinary.

“Of course. She was born for you. Her life exists for your sake.”

Li Xianyue spoke smugly, not forgetting to glance at Ye Nanzhi’s face.

Ye Nanzhi’s expression grew extremely ugly.

If not for the need to please Lu Wuwei, she would never have been willing to let the dog she had painstakingly trained guard the home of that bastard Lu Zhouzhou.

Li Xianyue was a vile woman. She could not raise a piece of jade herself, yet spent every day plotting how to destroy the treasure Ye Nanzhi had raised.

“That will do. Enough talk. Chunchan, stop kneeling and go wait at the main gate. If she returns, send her to the ancestral hall to kneel. The rest of you may leave.”

Concubine Liu and Lu Wanyu had remained silent from beginning to end, watching the spectacle as though it were a play.

Concubine Liu, whose given name was Liu Ruyin, was also one of Lu Wuwei’s wives. She had entered the household three months before Ye Nanzhi.

Lu Wanyu was her daughter, two months younger than Lu Lanxi.

The Lu family also had an old madam, who had gone to the temple to burn incense and had yet to return.

She was no harmless old woman either. Her heart was as venomous as a snake’s, and she had no respect for her own age or station.

In short, the Lu family was rotten from root to branch.

Begonia Court.

Lu Wanhe sent her personal maid, Moonfang, to the Glazed Pavilion to see whether Lu Lanxi had returned.

That Chunchan was so careless in carrying out her duties. Lu Wanhe would make certain to deal with her properly tomorrow.

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“Mother, I think Ye Nanzhi has become more outrageous by the day.”

Lu Wanhe was furious.

“Exactly, Mother. What does Ye Nanzhi think she is? She merely relies on a little beauty, yet carries herself as though her eyes were fixed on the heavens. If she had not viciously used Lu Lanxi to curry favor with Father, would a woman from outside the family ever have found a place in the Lu household?”

Lu Wanning chimed in as well. She had always been jealous of Lu Lanxi’s face. Why should someone as lowly as Lanxi possess such perfect features?

“Enough. Do not ruin your health over her. You two are both the apples of your mother’s eye. Wanhe, especially you—you are the legitimate eldest daughter and the face of the Lu family. Your goal is not merely to become a princess consort, but the future crown princess, perhaps even the empress. As for Zhuang Huaijin, we can pressure him so that he learns to cherish you. But you must not disregard him completely. Whatever you do, leave yourself a way out. Even if you do not marry him in the future, you can still make him a loyal dog at your side.”

“Mother, Wanhe understands. Tomorrow I will arrange a private meeting with him. I will act as though I have no choice, appear pitiful and wronged, and keep him hanging on so that he feels guilty.”

“Good. It is just as well that Lu Lanxi is not marrying him. Anything my daughter does not want, I would rather destroy than let that girl have it.”

Standing to one side, Lu Wanning’s expression turned somewhat grim. Why should they all be daughters of the Lu family, yet merely because Lu Wanhe was the legitimate eldest daughter, she could become a princess consort while Wanning could not? Lu Lanxi was more beautiful than she was, and Lu Wanhe possessed a nobler status. Why was she forced to stand between them as an invisible nobody?

She was unwilling to accept it.

Spring Breeze Court.

“Auntie, don’t you think something was strange about what happened today?”

Lu Wanyu sat on the table, asking Concubine Liu thoughtfully.

“What do you think, Wanyu?”

Concubine Liu remained unhurried. She lifted her teacup and took a sip.

“I cannot put it into words. I simply feel that something is wrong. Third Sister has never liked associating with us. She is usually quiet and withdrawn, always keeping to herself. She would never have behaved as she did today.”

“People change. Even a dog will leap over a wall when cornered, and even a rabbit will bite when desperate.”

Concubine Liu pressed her lips together and gave a disdainful smile.

“But she accepted this marriage in the first place. Why would she suddenly change her mind at the wedding banquet?”

“Heh. If she could swallow such humiliation, she would never be able to raise her head again in the Dongyang Marquis’s Residence.”

“Indeed. The Dongyang Marquis’s Residence went too far. Auntie, I have thought myself half to death and still cannot understand it. Concubine Ye is Third Sister’s birth mother—how could she treat her own daughter that way?”

“You are still too naïve. In this world, not everyone deserves to be a parent. Giving birth to a child does not automatically make one a mother.”

Liu Ruyin had personally witnessed how Ye Nanzhi tortured Lu Lanxi. It was like seeing the all-powerful Monkey King forced to wear a tightening circlet: whenever the Tang monk recited the spell, Sun Wukong would writhe in agony across the ground.

“Auntie, what should we do, then? With Third Sister’s abilities, once she loses her temper, there is probably no one in this residence—apart from Concubine Ye—who could defeat her.”

“Why would you fight her? If people do not offend me, I will not offend them.”

“But can Third Sister truly let go of the Young Marquis Zhuang?”

“Heh. In this world, one can strive for almost anything. Love alone is partly ordained by Heaven.”

“If it is forced, the only person who will be hurt is oneself. The things people obtain too easily are never cherished, and that includes love.”

“Wanyu, always remember this: the most terrifying thing in this world is the human heart. And something just as terrifying as the human heart is love. If you encounter true love in this life, your aunt will naturally bless you. If you do not, then you must hold power and wealth tightly in your own hands.”

Liu Ruyin was no ordinary woman of the inner household. More than a decade ago, she had transmigrated into the body of this unfortunate original owner.

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