Chapter 8: Breathtaking

Ling Lan knelt down and bowed deeply to Yun Ruoyan once more. “Miss, I’ve been wronged! I don’t know anything about this poison!”

“No?” Yun Ruoyan raised her voice. “Peony saw everything that you did the last few days!”

This was of course a lie, meant to trick Ling Lan into saying something incriminating. In her panic, Ling Lan knocked her head a few times against the ground, making a few resounding thumps as she yelled out, “Miss, Ling Lan’s made a mistake! Ling Lan understands what she did wrong! Miss, please forgive Ling Lan!”

“Forgive you?” Yun Ruoyan laughed coldly. “Where did you get the poison from?”

“That...” Ling Lan stammered, seemingly unable to get the words out of her mouth.

“Even at this point, you won’t say?!” Xi Lan raised her voice and interrogated Ling Lan.

“I... I don’t dare...” Ling Lan was almost sobbing as she spoke, clearly terrified of the direction the conversation was heading.

“It was from Madam An, wasn’t it?” Yun Ruoyan got to the heart of the matter. Actually, this wasn’t hard to guess. Although Yi Qianying would later turn out to be a vicious enemy, she was currently little more than an outsider in the Yun household with neither the authority nor boldness to do something of this nature. Her father doted on his second concubine, and Yun Ruoyu wasn’t the scheming type, so there was only one possible culprit.

“You can’t stay here any longer. I can consider refraining from revealing everything, but you have to leave the Yun household tonight,” spoke Yun Ruoyan with a tone of finality.

Ling Lan finally started crying. “Miss, please, no! I can’t leave the Yun family! Miss, I, I won’t do anything so stupid anymore! Miss... please let Ling Lan stay, let Ling Lan stay...”

The usually silent yard was filled with thumping sounds as Ling Lan continued to hit her head against the ground.

When Yun Ruoyan saw Ling Lan hitting her head harder and harder, she finally relented. “I can let you stay, but you have to promise me one thing.”

“Anything, miss! Ling Lan will do anything!”

“I want you to pretend that nothing has happened.” Yun Ruoyan’s eyes glinted. “Including taking poison from Madam An.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Ling Lan raised her head in shock. Peony and Xi Lan also looked towards Yun Ruoyan with surprised expressions on their face. What she meant by this was... to let Ling Lan defect to her side and spy on Madam An for her!

“Yes, Ling Lan understands!”

Mentally and physically tired, Yun Ruoyan sat in front of her dresser and rested for a little. Peony walked up to her. “Miss, today, why did you...”

Xi Lan went over too. “That’s right, miss, now that everyone’s gone, Peony and I will have to do all the work! And you even gave them so much silver...that’s all the money we have!”

Yun Ruoyan smiled a little and took out her own dressing case, removing two jade hairpins and handing one each to Peony and Xi Lan. “These ornaments are worth far more than those three taels of silver.”

Xi Lan was clearly easy to please, because she immediately smiled happily. “Thank you, Miss!”

But Peony clutched Xi Lan’s hand tightly. “Miss, these ornaments were left for you by your mother. We can’t take them!”

Yun Ruoyan smiled. “I’m giving them to you; take them.”

At this time, a bright, clear voice rang out from outside the yard. “Sister, we’re here to apologize to you!”

Yun Ruoyan frowned. By the time she reacted, Yun Ruoyan and Yi Qianying had already brought Yun Ruoyu over to her side, and even her cousin, Yun Moyuan, had followed them here.

She really couldn’t catch a break today, could she?

“I heard that Ruoyu hurt you today, sister, so I specially brought her over to apologize. Sister, is your face injured?” As Yun Ruoyao chattered away, she looked at Yun Ruoyan’s wounds. “Ah, my goodness! Ruoyu, how could you hurt your sister like that? Don’t you know that she’s not even a third-rank blademaster yet?”

Trying to hide her smile, Yun Ruoyu replied simperingly, “Yes, I’ll keep that in mind for the future.”

“Who cares about her face? No one would be willing to look at it even if she weren’t injured.” Yun Moyuan looked on disdainfully, turning towards Yi Qianying. “Qianying, you’re so kind-hearted, even caring for someone who got you punished!”

Yun Ruoyan’s gaze then landed on Yi Qianying. Ha, this was another of her ploys!

Yi Qianying wrinkled her brows slightly, clutching at Yun Moyuan’s arm. “Cousin, don’t say this. I’m sure Sister doesn’t feel good about getting wounded.”

“Che,” Yun Moyuan scoffed, “Who cares how she feels? No one would care about such an ugly girl even if she were to die on the streets!”

And in that moment, Yun Ruoyan clenched her fists tightly. “Cousin, you’re not wrong. No one would care about someone like me even if I died on the streets. Sisters, you’d better return.”

Yun Ruoyan’s tone was equal parts mocking, grudging, and truthful. In her past life, she had truly been force-fed poison and thrown onto the streets. At the time, only an unknown man had come to see her...

“We came over specially to see you, sister. Why would you throw us out like that?” Yun Ruoyao smiled. “Don’t you welcome us?”

Yun Moyuan gave Yun Ruoyan a supercilious glance. “You really think you’re as important as all that, don’t you?”

Yun Ruoyan didn’t know how she’d offended him to make him detest her so. Was it all because she was ugly and talentless?

“Yun Moyuan, don’t be too excessive!”

“What can you do to me, even if I am?”

“Brother, sister! Calm down, don’t start a fight!” Even at this time, Yi Qianying was fanning the flames of conflict between them.

“Fight? Her?!” Yun Moyuan sneered, throwing out a punch at Yun Ruoyan. The fist contained such power that, when it hit Yun Ruoyan’s shoulder, she was thrown back almost two meters. Peony and Xi Lan came up, wanting to help her up, but Yun Ruoyan stopped them. “Stay out of this!”

She would deal with people who bothered her herself! Yun Ruoyan clutched her shoulder as she forced herself up, anger evident in her eyes. “Yun Moyuan, if you want to fight, I’m right here!”

She’d held back once and again, but since they kept pushing and pushing, she had no reason to relent anymore!

Clearly, the group didn’t expect that someone as weak as Yun Ruoyan would dare to challenge Yun Moyuan to a fight, and they even felt a little guilty. Yun Ruoyao calmed down before whispering, “Cousin, don’t worry, she’s not even a third-rank blademaster yet, so she’s no match for you.”

Only then was Yun Moyuan reminded of this fact. He quickly regained confidence, throwing out three punches at once, each striking at Yun Ruoyan’s vitals. Although she tried to dodge or defend, her lack of cultivation meant that she was too slow, her defense too ineffective. A few blows had left Yun Ruoyan teetering at the edge of defeat.

With a final blow, Yun Ruoyan was forced back three steps, and she coughed as she clutched at her chest.

“Alright, alright! We have to stop!” Peony quickly rushed forward.

Xi Lan was also flustered. “There’s no way our mistress can win! If this match doesn’t stop, she might get seriously hurt!”

“That’s none of your business! Scram!” Yun Ruoyu’s temper flared up once more, and she even dropped her pretense of being apologetic.

Yun Ruoyan knelt on the ground, a drop of blood trailing down the corner of her lips, landing on the silver bracelet. Suddenly, her silver bracelet gleamed, and a torrent of strength and spiritual energy flowed into Yun Ruoyan’s battered body.