Chapter 6 — The Inn Behind the Screen
Xue Zhenzhen began to move more often.
She left the manor under excuses, met people in secret, and returned with eyes that avoided mine.
I arranged for someone to follow her discreetly.
One afternoon, my servant came back pale-faced.
“Miss… the Second Miss is meeting a man. In an inn.”
I went.
Behind a half-closed door, I heard Xue Zhenzhen’s soft voice.
“If you still want money,” she said, “do what I told you.”
“She can’t marry into the Shang family.”
A man laughed—greasy, self-satisfied.
“Don’t worry, Miss. If I’m paid, I’ll do the job. A young lady like that… her reputation is easy to ruin.”
My fingers went cold.
That voice.
I had heard it too many times in my last life.
Lin Xiangsheng.
So that was it.
In my last life, after I stormed out of the Xue residence, I had “happened” to be saved from thugs by a poor scholar with upright words and gentle manners—
a man who knew exactly what to say to a girl who had just lost her identity.
It hadn’t been fate.
It had been a trap.
Xue Zhenzhen wanted to destroy me before I could become Shang Zhiyuan’s wife.
I backed away without making a sound.
Then I returned home and made my decision.
If she wanted to play dirty…
I would make sure the result she wanted landed on her instead.