Volume One, Chapter Two: The True Heiress Personally Welcomes Me Back to the Mansion
“You…” Nurse Li trembled with rage, yet dared not speak out.
In the past five years, Su Zhizhi had wielded power over Xuanlin Tower like a sovereign, commanding the winds and rains, nearly to the point of wanting the life of this old servant. And yet she dared to claim that her own life had been bitter?
But Su Zhizhi held too many secrets over her; Nurse Li could only bury her head like an ostrich and remain silent.
Watching Su Zhizhi smile as she recounted her past five years, Su Zhe’s heart felt as if it had been struck hard by a heavy hammer.
He found it unimaginable that his pampered and cherished younger sister had truly endured so much hardship.
Yet on second thought, his own true sister had suffered countless grievances over the past sixteen years because of Su Zhizhi’s presence!
His brows knitted tightly as he spoke coldly, “This place is no longer suitable to stay. Sister, you should return to the manor quickly.”
Su Zhizhi could plainly hear the utter lack of familial affection in that urging.
It was simply because the Duke’s residence needed her to marry in her place, to be buried alongside — that was all.
“I still have a few words to sincerely thank Nurse Li,” Su Zhizhi replied coldly.
“Don’t delay too long. The people at the Duke’s residence are all waiting for you to return,” Su Zhe said impatiently, turning around and boarding the carriage without a glance back.
Su Zhizhi’s smile faded as she took a few slow steps forward to stand beside Nurse Li. She rose on tiptoe, leaning close to the plump ear of the old woman.
“Has Nurse Li been frequently disturbed by nightmares lately? Sometimes coughing up blood, as if her heart is being torn apart?”
Su Zhizhi’s voice seemed to come from the depths of hell itself, each word like a phantom slipping into Nurse Li’s ear.
“How… how do you know this?” Nurse Li’s eyes widened in terror. She had consulted many doctors, yet her condition showed no improvement. She lived in constant fear of her inevitable death.
From her sleeve, Su Zhizhi produced a small bottle and whispered, “If Nurse Li wishes to live, then treat the girls in the tower well. Inside this bottle are thirty pills; take one each day to keep yourself safe. After thirty days, I will come for you. But if I hear that you have mistreated any of those girls, there will be no antidote left for you. You will have to rely on your own luck.”
Suddenly, Nurse Li’s eyes cleared in understanding, though she struggled to suppress her fury.
“You… you’ve poisoned me?”
She had always been cautious, drinking and eating only what trusted servants brought her. Could there be a traitor among them?
“Didn’t Nurse Li love the snow fox cotton-padded jacket I sewed for you? Has it been comfortable?”
Nurse Li’s eyes nearly popped from their sockets. “This garment? You’ve tampered with the clothes themselves?”
The old woman felt suddenly suffocated, as if the clothes had grown hands that gripped her tightly. In frustration, she tore off the jacket and threw it onto the snow.
Now clad only in a bright red undergarment, Nurse Li shivered like a plucked hen in the biting wind and snow.
“Nurse Li, take care…” Su Zhizhi dropped the bottle and turned away.
No sooner had the words left her lips than Nurse Li coughed up a mouthful of blood, staining the snow crimson.
Su Zhizhi did not look back. This was only the beginning.
She wanted far more than this.
Everything the Su family owed her from her past life, she would reclaim piece by piece.
She would make the Duke’s residence kneel and beg for mercy.
As she approached the carriage, a woman’s voice came from inside.
The person behind the curtain sensed something and lifted it.
Su Zhizhi’s face showed surprise. “You are?”
“Have you gone mad in the tower, sister? I am your elder sister, Su Wanwan.”
The woman inside the carriage wore purple robes, her smile radiant, her crescent-shaped eyebrows and lively phoenix eyes exuding a soft, watery fragility. Adorned with jade bracelets, pearl necklaces, and golden hairpins, she was the very picture of grace and nobility.
A true daughter of the family was indeed different.
“Having my elder sister personally receive me is a great honor,” Su Zhizhi said.
The carriage was warm inside; all she wanted was to board quickly.
But just as her left foot stepped up, she heard a ripping sound.
Su Wanwan’s pure white cloak had torn.
“Second brother, please don’t blame Sister Zhizhi. She must still harbor resentment towards me. She never meant to tear my cloak,” Su Wanwan said softly, feigning injury.
Was this the extent of a green tea’s schemes in the ancient world?
Su Zhizhi stood dumbfounded, her hands never touching the cloak. Was it made of paper? How could she have torn it?
“Su Zhizhi, I thought you had repented your ways. I never imagined your heart remained so wicked. Not a trace of kindness like my Wanwan,” Su Zhe scolded without even looking at her. “If you refuse to sit with Wanwan, then you can walk home yourself.”
“Wait!” Su Zhizhi raised her hand.
Seeing her blind second brother about to abandon her to walk back in this snowstorm was no different from running naked in the cold.
“Second brother, look closely at my hands. Only calluses and charcoal stains remain. If I had accidentally touched Sister Wanwan’s cloak, there should be some stain on this snowy white fabric. But you see, there isn’t a single mark. Surely the servants in the sister’s household, thinking her beautiful and kind, deliberately tried to embarrass her.”
Upon closer inspection, the cloak was indeed spotless.
As Su Zhe hesitated, Su Zhizhi suddenly knelt down.
“Second brother, Sister Wanwan is the most beautiful woman under heaven. She surely wouldn’t bear to let me freeze outside in the northwest wind!”
Turning her head, her eyes sparkled like stars, filled with pitiable innocence.
Seeing her plan thwarted, and to save face, Su Wanwan nodded and feigned pleading with their brother to allow Su Zhizhi to ride inside the carriage.
Given a way out, Su Zhe let Su Zhizhi sit beside him.
The carriage was filled with lingering smoke, warm and cozy.
Su Zhizhi rubbed her hands together and took a deep breath.
“Little sister Zhizhi, are you cold? How about I give you this cloak to wear?”
Su Zhizhi shook her head quickly, wary of what ill intentions Su Wanwan might conceal.
“No, no, my life is humble and my face is ugly. If I wore sister’s clothes, I’d only soil them. It’s warm enough in the carriage; I’m not cold.”
At first, Su Wanwan had feared Su Zhizhi’s peerless beauty.
But seeing the centipede-like scar on Su Zhizhi’s left cheek, she thought that even if the King of Brocade were still alive, he would surely despise her.
That thought comforted Su Wanwan’s heart greatly, and she no longer wished to speak with this fake daughter whom the entire household despised.
The carriage’s tracks in the snow faded gradually as they arrived at Jingyang Street, the busiest in the capital.
The Duke’s residence lay to the east of this street, and the King of Brocade’s mansion to the far south, only a few dozen miles apart.
Not long ago, the Emperor had issued an edict arranging a marriage between the Duke’s true daughter and the King of Brocade, making her the ninth princess consort.
But the Duke looked down upon the King of Brocade, a man who had spent years at war and lacked any stable foundation.
The King had fallen gravely ill and was near death; the Duke could not bear the thought of his true daughter marrying a dying man, much less being buried alive.
Su Wanwan was destined to marry the Crown Prince — only he was worthy of the Duke’s true daughter.
This was the consensus within the Duke’s household.
Hence, they had resorted to all measures to bring Su Zhizhi back, forcing the fake daughter to marry the dying man, to be buried alive.
The carriage stopped before the gates of the Duke’s residence. Su Zhizhi stepped down first.
Su Wanwan, supported by their brother, stepped down and feigned the intention to link arms with Su Zhizhi, but Su Zhizhi instinctively avoided her.
“My clothes are dirty and foul; I wouldn’t want to soil sister’s hands,” she said.
Su Zhizhi had no wish to have any physical contact with Su Wanwan, the beautiful as a goddess but venomous as a serpent, lest the sister concoct another scheme to frame her.
A cold smile curled at the corner of Su Wanwan’s lips.
Once through this gate, she was ready to see Su Zhizhi’s downfall.