Shen Qiyuan felt the scene before him was too absurd.

He had seen many situations where hostages were used as leverage, and had seen many faces of young ladies crying in grief, but he had never seen anything like this.

Among the kidnappers, there was one survivor, but his hand and foot tendons were all severed. When being carried onto the cart, he was still shouting: “Stay away from her! I don’t want to ride in the same carriage as her!”

The surrounding guards immediately looked at Liu Ruyi with eyes full of awe.

Ruyi supported the jade hairpin on her head with one hand and lightly gathered her skirt with the other, looking very innocent: “If he won’t sit with me, then I can only share a ride with my lord.”

Shen Qiyuan raised his hand to block her movement of mounting the horse.

“You killed these people?” He stared at her intently.

Ruyi’s eyebrows moved slightly as she turned to face him: “Is my lord accusing me?”

“No…”

“It had better not be.” She smiled without warmth. “This little woman was implicated because of my lord. Being able to escape unharmed is already fortunate, otherwise, my lord would have a life on his conscience.”

Shen Qiyuan fell silent, allowing her to mount his horse while he held the reins for her.

“My lord isn’t getting on?” She looked down at him from her elevated position.

He answered indifferently: “It wouldn’t be proper.”

“The journey back to the city is over ten li. You can get on first and dismount when we return to the city.”

Shen Qiyuan ignored her and only asked: “How did you do it?”

She shouldn’t have been able to kill people.

Ruyi snorted with laughter, looking at her clean fingers: “They all wanted to have their way with me, but they couldn’t agree on who should go first.”

When people are incited to turn on each other, they die quite quickly.

Only with the last person did she move her hand slightly, but she didn’t take his life, so it wasn’t overstepping bounds.

The hand holding the reins tightened, then loosened. Shen Qiyuan let out a soft breath and said nothing more.

A gentle breeze swept through the loose hair on his forehead, falling across his high, straight nose bridge, creating several strands of shadow.

Ruyi suddenly felt strange: “I hadn’t been kidnapped for long, and they hadn’t even sent out a message yet. How did my lord know I was here?”

Shen Qiyuan glanced at the sky: “We need to return to the city before dusk.”

If he didn’t want to answer, he didn’t have to, but this change of subject was rather stiff.

Ruyi chuckled, leaning forward to rest against the horse’s neck, tilting her head to look at him: “After all my previous presumptions, I thought my lord would be angry with me. I didn’t expect my lord to care about me quite a bit.”

His expression darkened. Shen Qiyuan said coldly, “Miss, you’re overthinking. Today, no matter who was in trouble, I would have come. This is the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice.”

“Oh, is that so?” Ruyi lazily lifted her eyes. “I thought my lord had special feelings for me.”

He looked over with cold eyes, meeting her gaze.

In the moment their eyes met, he was silent and gloomy while she was gentle as a spring breeze; he carried a hint of killing intent while she was innocently playful.

After a moment, Shen Qiyuan was the first to turn his head away, sneering: “What makes you think I’d be interested in something the Ningyuan Marquis doesn’t want?”

Those words were quite harsh.

She clicked her tongue and drew out a long “Oh” sound with an affected tone.

They spoke no more for the rest of the journey.

By the time they returned to the city, the sun had already set behind the western mountains. The two parted at the city gate, and Liu Ruyi returned to Liu Manor alone.

However, before she could even enter the door, she saw two people carrying out a bloodied maid and throwing her aside.

“What are you doing?” Ruyi quickly stepped forward to support Jian Deng.

Seeing it was her, the manor’s servant woman pressed her lips together but still waved her hand: “The master said that Jian Deng failed to properly care for the eldest miss, causing the eldest miss to contract a cold and die. So he had her beaten twenty times with the rod and thrown out.”

Ruyi looked completely confused: “But I’m perfectly fine right here?”

“This old woman doesn’t recognize who you are. This old woman only remembers what the master said—tomorrow we’ll hold the eldest miss’s funeral.” After speaking, she stepped directly over the threshold and slammed the door shut.

Ruyi had no time to argue with her. Seeing that Jian Deng was barely breathing, she hurriedly carried her on her back to find a medical clinic.

All along the way, people pointed and whispered about her.

Ruyi tried several medical clinics, but none would take them in. Finally, she could only hire a carriage to go to Worship God Street, to seek a doctor at the medical clinic under her name.

“It’s good that Miss has returned.” The clinic’s doctor settled Jian Deng in the back hall, then came out through the curtain to speak with her. “Shortly after you were kidnapped, rumors began flying throughout the city. None of us could stop them, and the talk reached the Grand Preceptor’s ears.”

Women of the Great Qian especially valued their chastity. Being kidnapped in broad daylight for several hours—how could the Grand Preceptor’s Manor maintain face?

Ruyi understood.

The funeral was to tell all of Lin’an that the Grand Preceptor’s Manor had severed ties with her, so that this daughter with a ruined reputation wouldn’t taint the Grand Preceptor’s Manor’s reputation?

Worthy of being Grand Preceptor Liu—what a brilliant idea.

“Miss shouldn’t be too heartbroken. You have the shops your lady mother left behind to support you, so you won’t worry about having food to eat.” The doctor sighed. “It’s just that you’ll probably have to move somewhere else to live. In Lin’an, rumors can kill people.”

Rumors killing people weren’t false, but Ruyi couldn’t understand: “How could the news spread so quickly?”

“Wasn’t that because your younger sister was too worried about her older sister?” Someone stepped through the doorway.

Ruyi turned around to see Wen Zhenxue approaching with her hands clasped, curtsying to her: “Learning that elder sister was kidnapped by bandits, younger sister ran to several important government offices in succession, informed the neighbors to help search, and went to the Grand Preceptor’s Manor to report the situation. Only then did I manage to seek rescue for my elder sister—is my elder sister all right?”

She blinked innocently, looking like nothing more than a naive fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl.

If it were the previous Liu Ruyi, she would have been infuriated by this appearance to the point of apoplexy. But looking at her, Ruyi only found it amusing.

“You wanted to ruin my reputation so I’d have no choice but to bring my shops into the Marquis’ Manor as a concubine?”

Wen Zhenxue hadn’t expected her to still be able to laugh in such circumstances. Her expression inevitably turned ugly: “Do you have any other path to choose? Leave Lin’an and marry far away? Wherever you go, I’ll spread word of your affairs there. Let’s see who dares marry you.”

The way she put it made it sound as if women of Great Qian had only one path to marriage to survive.

Ruyi patted her shoulder earnestly: “Even mountains can collapse, let alone men. Those things are just for playing with—how can you depend on them for survival?”

After speaking, she waved her hand: “Go back early. Staying here is quite bothersome.”

Wen Zhenxue looked at her in disbelief. Before she could say anything else, the medicine shop’s assistant came out to help escort her away.

“Liu Ruyi, there will come a day when you beg me! I’ll be sitting in the main hall of Ningyuan Marquis’ Manor, waiting for you to serve me tea with respect!”

Her voice carried gnashing teeth, gradually growing distant until it could no longer be heard.

Ruyi didn’t turn back, only calculating that since she had left the Grand Preceptor’s Manor, she should quickly reclaim the shop properties. There would be many expenses in the future.

…

“I, He Zeyou, swear to heaven that if I betray you, may I be struck by lightning.”

“Ruyi, I won’t forget your kindness to me. Meeting when we were both humble, we can accompany each other until our hair turns white.”

“You’re renting these shops to me without taking any rent money? You fool, what if I get rich and don’t want you anymore?”

“Don’t cry. How could I not want you? In this lifetime, the one He Zeyou loves most is Liu Ruyi. As soon as the imperial decree for my ennoblement comes down, I’ll go to the Liu Manor to propose marriage.”

…

Wind arose outside, making the entire street even more dim. The banners outside the shops whimpered and wailed like someone crying.