Knowing that the Rong Family head was the key figure who held the truth about her origins, Lang Jiuchuan grew agitated. She itched to run straight to the Rong Family, drag him out, and scour his soul to find out what had really happened.

A’Piao, seeing her like this, immediately said, “Do not act on impulse. The Xuanzu clan’s ancestral grounds are surrounded by great arrays. If you go barging in recklessly, you could suffer a tremendous loss — and it’s said those arrays are reinforced by the will of the ancestral elders of past generations.”

“What about ordinary guests visiting?”

“Of course that’s different. With an invitation, you wouldn’t be treated as an invader.”

Lang Jiuchuan’s eyes shifted, and she said, “But what if this body of mine is a member of the Rong Family? That great array — surely it wouldn’t attack Rong Family bloodline, would it?”

Well — that did seem to make sense.

“Still, betting small against big — if things go wrong, you could lose everything. The Rong Family head’s cultivation is at Foundation Establishment, and it would be on his home ground. If you fight him there, you wouldn’t have much of an advantage. And if the entire clan turned against you together, even the most capable fighter can be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. You’d be depleting your own energy and vital force.” A’Piao said, “I know you’re anxious, but don’t take reckless risks. There’s a better way.”

“Oh?”

“Rong Fourth Master.”

Lang Jiuchuan paused. She had heard of Rong Fourth Master — a genius, by all accounts — but only by reputation. Now that A’Piao mentioned him, she turned the name over in her mind and quickly began to taste the implication.

“You want to use Rong Fourth Master to stir up internal conflict within the Rong Family?” She looked at A’Piao. “But he’s a member of the Rong Family. Would he help us?”

“Not help us — help himself.” A’Piao said lightly. “Even if the child was swapped, this body of yours has lived perfectly well all these years. It was only last year that someone made a move against her. Which means that before you took over this body, aside from Cui Shi, very few people had harbored suspicions about her identity — she was kept well-hidden. If your conjecture is correct, this body of yours is the child of Rong Fourth Master and Ren Yao. Did he know this child existed? If he did — would a father truly be completely unmoved? Unless he didn’t know at all.”

Lang Jiuchuan fell silent for a long moment before letting out a cold, amused hum. “How muddleheaded would a person have to be not to remember what they themselves had done?”

“Do you know your own past?” A’Piao shot back.

Lang Jiuchuan narrowed her eyes. “That’s because my soul was lost.”

“And what if his memory was also tampered with? Just like the people around Cui Shi — why do they all firmly believe that this body was born of Cui Shi?”

Lang Jiuchuan said nothing, only sank into thought once more. She couldn’t understand it: to obtain a child, why go to such elaborate lengths? You could simply use a technique to fake the child’s death, produce a dead infant’s corpse, and steal the child away under the pretense of a stillbirth.

Especially when Cui Shi was nothing more than an ordinary noblewoman — and had gone into early labor upon hearing of her husband’s death. In such circumstances, a stillbirth would be the most unremarkable outcome imaginable. Who would trouble themselves over whether a newborn child had lived or died in a noble household?

Yet whoever was behind it chose not to do it that way. Instead, they made an enormous production of the swap — casting illusions over everyone’s memories, and harming so many people in the process. Were they not afraid that the accumulated weight of that karmic killing would one day rebound upon themselves?

The act was foolish and made no sense.

She voiced this question aloud.

A’Piao was, for once, stumped. He thought for a moment and said, “The Xuanzu clan thinks themselves a cut above everyone else and has always been arrogant. Perhaps they believed that what they did would never be discovered?”

Lang Jiuchuan shook her head. Too far-fetched.

“Then it can only mean that something in this whole affair went wrong somewhere — one misstep, and every step after it became a misstep.”

That explanation, at least, felt a little more plausible.

“Pavilion Master,” said Honglian suddenly, appearing at the door of the private room, her gaze carrying a certain apprehension as she looked at Lang Jiuchuan. The young lady’s aura was even more intimidating to ghosts than before, and she did not dare draw near. “The water ghost sent a small ghost back with a message — the Lang Family has been surrounded by official soldiers. They’re demanding the family hand over the young lady.”

Lang Jiuchuan’s expression darkened. “They’ve been surrounded?”

Well. Forget going to stir up trouble at the Rong Family — right now, someone had stirred up trouble at her own nest.

A’Piao quickly said, “After the rumors of you being a demon first began to spread, I had the water ghost keep watch near the Lang Family to prevent anything from happening that might drag you down.”

“Put out a word that the Lang Family is under your Tongtian Pavilion’s protection — that’ll count for more than anything else. I’ll head back and take a look first.” Lang Jiuchuan rose and left.

At that moment, the entire Lang household was in a state of panic, with a strong sense that disaster had descended upon them without any warning.

They were clearly in the middle of their mourning period, and not even a full month had passed since they had received the imperial edict conferring posthumous honors and commendations. How had their manor ended up under siege? The whole scene looked as if they were being accused of mounting a rebellion.

No — actually, the charge against them now was harboring a demon?

Lang Zhengping’s vision went dark. From the moment rumors had started circulating that his elder niece was a demon, his eyelids had never stopped twitching. He’d had an unshakable premonition that calamity was coming. Now, the last of his lingering hope had died.

That elder niece of his may have been something of a jinx with her words — but how on earth could she be a demon? And capable of throwing the Great Dan into turmoil on top of it? What had she done to deserve that kind of credit?

Bah!

He paced back and forth in the main hall, so anxious his lips had broken out in sores. Seeing Gaoping come running in from outside, he quickly asked, “Any news of the ninth young lady? Has someone been sent out? The moment anyone sees her, they must tell her not to come back — no matter what!”

Gaoping shook his head. “My lord, every gate has been blocked. Our people cannot get out at all. The Commander Huang said he was following orders — and he wouldn’t take our red envelopes either.”

Lang Zhengping’s expression changed completely.

This was a serious problem.

At that moment, Cui Shi — her face bearing the pallor of illness, wan and drawn — was helped in by two maidservants.

Lang Zhengping frowned and said, “Sister-in-law, why have you gotten up? Go back and rest — you’re not well yet.”

Cui Shi asked weakly, “Elder Brother, what is the situation outside?”

“It doesn’t look good. I could easily claim that the ninth young lady has gone traveling and they won’t find her if they search the estate. What I’m afraid of is that she’ll hear the news and come running back on her own — wouldn’t that be walking straight into their trap?” Lang Zhengping blurted out, then felt the phrasing was wrong and quickly tried to smooth it over. “No, that’s not right — I mean walking straight into the trap those malicious people have set.”

He gave a strained twitch of his lips and said, “No — I need to go negotiate with Commander Huang. How can they surround a marquis’s residence on nothing more than hearsay and rumor? This is a gross injustice and an outrage.”

He turned to stride out, but Cui Shi called after him. “Elder Brother — perhaps this is the moment to publicly announce that our branch has been separated from the main family.”

Lang Zhengping stopped in his tracks, spun around, and snapped, “Nonsense! The moment trouble strikes, you want to claim you’ve been separated to save yourselves? In your eyes, is this elder uncle of theirs truly so useless and worthless? What would outsiders think of our Lang Family then? Or — have you too started believing those rumors? Do you think the ninth young lady is really a demon? That child is wonderful in every way. Even if she were a demon, I would accept it!”

He stormed out in a fury — and had barely made it through the door before a servant came rushing in with urgent news: “My lord, there are several Daoist priests outside the estate.”

Lang Zhengping staggered. This was too much. Were they truly going to treat his elder niece like a demon and drag her off?

Before he could even speak, his youngest son came barreling toward him at full speed, shouting at the top of his lungs: “Father, it’s terrible — Ninth Sister is back! I just saw her when I was squeezing through the dog door trying to get to that shop to find her!”