Just a handful of words — and yet they struck like a thunderclap shattering the sky.
Ling Ting was, after all, still a young man who had seen little of the world. Even with some measure of guile, he was far from the point where he could mask his thoughts at will. His eyes now were filled with shock — and the guilty panic of someone whose hidden feelings had been laid bare. He did not have the courage to meet Ling Jingshu’s bright, piercing gaze and instinctively dropped his head.
After delivering that one line, Ling Jingshu said nothing more. She only watched him with a smile that was not quite a smile.
The room fell into silence.
Only the faint sound of the candle flame burning drifted through the air, wrapping softly around them.
Ling Ting’s heart flickered like the candlelight — uncertain, wavering between brightness and shadow. After a moment, he forced himself to speak with a semblance of calm. “Did Sister call me here in the middle of the night just to say these useless things?”
Ling Jingshu looked at him steadily. “These are not useless words at all — they are intimately bound to elder brother’s future. Has elder brother never given any serious thought to planning ahead?”
Of course he had.
This question surfaced in his thoughts again and again. But wishing for something did not make it so.
Ling Ting gave a self-deprecating laugh and spoke plainly. “Every person has pride and ambition — no one is willing to live in submission to others. But I was born a concubine’s son. My birth mother died early. No one protects me. You and A’Xiao at least have Grandmother’s particular fondness, and A’Fou is Father and Mother’s most treasured child. I am only an illegitimate son, with no exceptional ability in my studies. Earning the title of a licentiate would be considered a decent enough outcome for me. The chance of passing the provincial examinations is slim indeed.”
“If I could secure a useful marriage alliance, perhaps I might have a chance to rise with the support of my wife’s family. I am sixteen already, yet Father and Mother have made no arrangement for my marriage — clearly, they have not taken me, their concubine-born son, to heart. Even if they were to arrange a match for me in the future, they would hardly seek out a good one.”
At this, a trace of resentment seeped into Ling Ting’s voice.
Perhaps years of suppression had built up too much pressure — even knowing that Ling Jingshu was not the most ideal confidante, he found himself unable to stop and continued. “I have no one in this household who cares for me or favors me. What right do I have to plan and scheme for a future? Does asking me this not amount to mocking and ridiculing me?”
On that last line, there was a bitterness in his tone, like a man gritting his teeth over an exposed wound. His upright, handsome features twisted slightly.
Ling Ting did indeed have cause for pity.
A child without his mother is like a blade of grass. Ling Jingshu and her brother had been born of the legal wife and had the old matriarch’s care — their life in the Ling estate was tolerable. Ling Ting had no such luck. Ling Wuye bore a residual grudge over the matter of Xia Yinniang and had displaced that resentment onto his eldest son, treating him with exceptional coldness.
Li Shi — cunning and ruthless at heart — had not only set her sights on the siblings but had not forgotten to deal with Ling Ting either. She had deliberately arranged what she called a “fine” marriage for him.
The girl was a military general’s daughter — legitimate, from the legal wife, with a handsome dowry. By all appearances, everything was satisfactory. But this woman’s nature was wanton and dissolute. She had not been chaste before marriage and was not faithful after it. On top of that, she had some martial skill and was exceedingly fierce. Poor Ling Ting had endured his humiliation in silence, living with the mark of a cuckold he could barely lift his head from in public.
Now that she had been reborn, Ling Jingshu intended to alter not only her own fate and Ling Xiao’s — the fates of those around her would also shift, bearing no resemblance to what had come before.
“I have no intention of mocking or ridiculing you.” Ling Jingshu cast down another thunderbolt in the same light, offhand manner. “I am here to offer elder brother a brilliant and glorious future. It only depends on whether elder brother has the courage to take it.”
A brilliant and glorious future?
Ling Ting’s eyes flickered repeatedly — it was clear his heart was in great turmoil. Even so, he did not rush to probe further. He held himself in patience and listened on.
But Ling Jingshu deliberately kept him in suspense, steering the topic elsewhere. “Elder brother, do you still remember how Xia Yinniang died?”
Ling Ting pressed his lips together.
How could he ever forget?
Xia Yinniang had died of illness five years ago. He had already been eleven years old then — old enough to remember. He had watched with his own eyes as his mother, whose face had once been as lovely as a flower, grew weaker and more hollow day by day, weeping without cease, her whole being fixed on the hope that Father might come to see her just once.
But Ling Wuye’s heart had turned to iron after Ling Xiao’s accident had left him blinded — he never came to see Xia Yinniang again. She wasted away in grief, dying of a broken spirit.
In her final moments, only he had been kneeling at her bedside. He had wept until his eyes were swollen, until his voice was gone…
Remembering the scene of that day, Ling Ting’s eyes quietly reddened at their rims.
Ling Jingshu’s voice reached him then. “When one traces it back, this is actually a muddled, unjust account. A’Xiao lost his sight, but Father never found the true culprit behind it and instead displaced his anger onto Xia Yinniang. Poor Xia Yinniang died with a hundred grievances and no one to speak for her…”
Ling Ting’s whole body shook. He snapped his head up. “What did you say?”
“Elder brother heard me perfectly clearly.”
Ling Jingshu spoke slowly and precisely. “The incident of A’Xiao’s fall and injury all those years ago had nothing whatsoever to do with Xia Yinniang. Every part of what happened was Li Shi’s doing, working behind the scenes. She had someone secretly make the ground near the rockery slippery so it would be easy to fall, then sent someone to lure A’Xiao over. A’Xiao fell, his head struck the rockery, and he was injured — all of it within her calculations. At the time, it was Xia Yinniang who was in charge of overseeing things, while Li Shi was confined to her quarters during her pregnancy and not going out. No one would think to suspect her.”
“She harmed A’Xiao, framed Xia Yinniang, and eliminated a rival to her position in one stroke. After that, she bore a son to capture all of Father’s affection, and stepped naturally into control of the Fifth Branch. A single move — and she gained everything.”
Ling Ting’s chest rose and fell unevenly. A flush of rage swept across his face. He barely managed to hold himself together. “This is nothing but your speculation. You have no concrete evidence to prove that it was Li Shi who harmed A’Xiao and then shifted the blame to Xia Yinniang.”
Ling Jingshu curved the corner of her lips. “It is true — I have no evidence. Everything I have said is speculation. But think it through: who stood to gain the most from what happened? Whoever gained the most is the one behind it. Following that line of reasoning, it could only have been Li Shi.”
“Think about it further — what benefit could Xia Yinniang possibly have gained from harming A’Xiao? Li Shi had already entered the household by then. A son born to the legal wife would automatically be considered legitimate. Even if Xia Yinniang had harmed A’Xiao, you — a concubine’s son — would not have become a son of the legal wife. And stepping back even further: suppose Xia Yinniang had truly harbored such intentions. She was the one in charge at the time — any accident that occurred would immediately fall under suspicion of her. Even with only modest intelligence, she would not have chosen that moment to act.”
“All these years, I have turned the events of that time over and over in my mind, and I have finally reasoned out what truly lay beneath. Elder brother has surely gone over it many times himself. In your heart, you may well have already suspected Li Shi. But lacking evidence, you never dared to let it show — afraid she would notice and move against you.”
Ling Ting: “…”
Ling Ting clamped his jaw shut, eyes blazing with hatred.
There was no need for further words — his expression said everything.
Ling Jingshu had been watching Ling Ting’s every shift of expression closely, and now she continued in a measured voice. “Li Shi has a cruel and ruthless heart. She has already captured Father’s affections and has a favored youngest son. You and A’Xiao and I are thorns in her eye, to be sure — but you, as a concubine-born son, are no less a thorn in her flesh. If she wanted to deal with you, it would be enough for her to arrange something in the matter of your marriage.”
These words struck directly at the deepest and most secret fear in Ling Ting’s heart.
Ling Jingshu looked at him unflinchingly. “Elder brother, do you not wish to avenge Xia Yinniang? Do you not wish to become the pillar of the Fifth Branch? There is an exceptional opportunity before you right now.”
Ling Ting drew a slow, deep breath and collected himself. “There is no need to keep speaking in circles. Tell me directly — what is it that you want me to do?”