Ji Shuhan wouldn’t give up.

“Your Highness, I beg you—considering this official has served for many years, please show leniency.”

“Ji Shuhan, oh Ji Shuhan, this prince truly underestimated you. You can even say such words. It seems the household discipline of your Ji estate needs this prince to come and rectify it.”

After speaking, he addressed his subordinates. “What are you waiting for? Take him to the yamen.”

The guards dragged the continuously struggling Ji Yuanzhi through the fine drizzle and took him to the yamen.

The Ji family was now in complete chaos.

Those crying cried!

Those kneeling knelt!

Those shocked were shocked!

Ji Shuhan pounded the ground in fury!

Angry at himself for fathering such a son, and resentful that the prince showed no mercy! His daughter showed no mercy!

Finally, Ji Muqing couldn’t bear it anymore. Stubbornly with tearful eyes, sniffling and slightly raising her chin—

She choked while glaring at Ji Yinshu. “Luan’er was just a lowly servant. Dead is dead. She originally sold herself into my Ji estate. Whether she lives or dies is for us to decide. Though Third Brother was foolish, he didn’t personally kill her. She hanged herself—it has nothing to do with anyone else.”

There’s a type of person who stirs up trouble unnecessarily, seeking their own sense of presence and thinking their performance is excellent.

But everyone despises this type of person.

And this person was Ji Muqing.

At this moment, she was exactly like a clownish fool—if she didn’t jump out for a performance, it seemed she’d itch unbearably.

But these words only earned a contemptuous glance from Ji Yinshu.

She said, “Must one personally kill someone with a knife in hand for it to count as taking a life?”

“But he did this for you. If not for this, you’d still be a murderer now.”

“He didn’t do it for me, but for all of you—for the Ji family’s reputation, and for you to peacefully become Crown Princess.”

“…”

Ji Muqing had no words to respond!

Then Ji Wanxin gently pulled her and spoke a sentence from her small lips.

“Elder Sister, in this matter, Third Brother was truly in the wrong.”

“…You!”

Ji Muqing grew furious. Turning, she raised her hand to strike Ji Wanxin.

Her hand had just risen when Jingrong beside her grabbed it and flung it forcefully. Her body fell onto the pear blossom chair behind her.

“Elder Sister.”

Ji Wanxin’s expression showed worry as she stepped forward in concern. Her hand had just touched Ji Muqing’s sleeve when she swept it away with her own sleeve, rebuking, “Get away.”

Perhaps because her body was already weak, with this sweep, Ji Wanxin retreated, her feet went soft, and she fell into Jingrong’s embrace.

He steadied her!

She raised her head and met Jingrong’s ice-cold eyes.

She bit her lip, her face reddening!

When the large hands at her back slowly began pushing her away, she sensibly sprang back and lowered her brows.

Silent!

This small interlude seemed to draw no one’s attention.

The dark fire in Ji Yinshu’s heart, after Ji Yuanzhi was sent to the yamen, finally ignited.

Burning freely.

Luan’er, I will obtain justice for you.

At this moment, the grandmother beating her chest and crying—

She repeatedly shouted at Ji Yinshu, “Yuanzhi is your third brother! How can you be so heartless?”

Heartless?

Why should she be heartless?

That gaze of sorrow swept over them as her pale lips parted lightly. “When I saw Luan’er’s corpse, I was even more distressed than you all are now. Five years ago, I starved to death in the west courtyard—no one inquired, no one knew. When I awoke, only Luan’er was by my side. She was only eleven years old then. At that time, in the depths of winter, she wore only a thin garment but gave me everything that could provide warmth. These years, only Luan’er and I have depended on each other for survival. I’ve long regarded her as my own younger sister. Yet you, who share the same blood flowing in your veins as mine, treated me as a bastard child, leaving me to live or die on my own. This is your kinship—truly like the eighth day of the twelfth month, cold to the extreme!”

Word by word, deeply chiseled into the chests of the Ji family members.

Jingrong’s heart ached even more!

He hadn’t known that Ji Yinshu’s past days had been so difficult!

Ji Shuhan, angry yet helpless, shook his head. “So you’ve held hatred in your heart all along.”

“Yes, I resent everything you’ve done to me.”

She had no need to hide it!

Looking at her own father, her brow peak suddenly became like a sharp blade.

She asked him, “Back then, when Ji Pei was given thirty lashes by you, do you still remember what he said when he lay in that pool of blood?”

Ji Shuhan’s entire person froze, and with these words, everyone instantly stilled.

That name—for two years, no one had mentioned it in front of everyone!

They couldn’t mention it, didn’t dare mention it!

“Shut up! Don’t speak anymore!” Ji Shuhan rebuked.

Ji Yinshu slowly uttered several words from her mouth. “He said: People are close, blood is not thick. Today a father, tomorrow a slave.”

“Shut up!” This time it was Old Madam Ji shouting loudly, “He’s already dead, dead.”

A pair of hands forcefully pounded the table!

Dead?

Yes, that night, Ji Pei died.

The corpse was carried out of the Ji estate before her eyes. She watched him die with her own eyes!

Thirty lashes in total, beaten beyond recognition!

She parted her lips in a smile, carrying a trace of bitterness. “He’s not dead. He definitely didn’t die. At the mass grave, I turned over every single corpse and couldn’t find him. He once said to let me wait two years for him—he would definitely return.”

Her tone was extremely firm. That firmness made everyone find it hard to believe.

But between Ji Yinshu’s brows, the cold and indifferent expression slowly returned.

She turned around, no longer looking back even once, lifting her steps and leaving step by step.

That thin figure, in the fine drizzle, was exceptionally resolute!

This time, she still departed through the Ji estate’s main gate.

At some point, Jingrong had caught up to her steps. In his hand, at some point, appeared an umbrella, silently held above her head. Accompanying her without saying a word or asking anything.

Even though he was extremely curious in his heart—Ji Pei? Who was Ji Pei?

And with this walk, Ji Yinshu went to Yi Zhuang again.

Fu Bo had placed Luan’er’s body into an old, broken coffin, saying he’d found a good feng shui location and was preparing to bury her.

Ji Yinshu’s eyes seemed somewhat vacant. She nodded and said a word of thanks!

She removed a hairpin from her head and placed it in the coffin.

“Luan’er, go peacefully. In your next life, be reborn into a good family and don’t suffer anymore.”

Finally, the coffin was covered. She offered a stick of incense, sending Luan’er off!

Standing under the eaves outside Yi Zhuang’s entrance, she slightly raised her head, looking at the rainwater on the distant corner eaves, like an hourglass of time.

Jingrong silently accompanied her at her side. Watching her gradually relaxing brow, the worry in his heart also seemed to slowly ease.

But at this moment, he truly couldn’t bear to disturb her.

Ji Yinshu like this—quiet—should be like a painting, like rainwater that hasn’t yet fallen, clear and clean.

He even had a moment where he hoped he wasn’t born into an imperial family but into an ordinary common household.

Not needing to participate in power struggles, not needing to enter into the machinations of deceit and scheming.

With the person he liked, working when the sun rises! Resting when the sun sets!

After a long while, Ji Yinshu’s gaze moved from the corner eaves to the distant misty drizzle.

With a melancholy, slightly heavy tone, she said, “His name was Ji Pei. Five years ago, my second brother brought him back from the battlefield—an orphan!”