Chapter 8 — Consequences
Three days later was the return visit.
I wore my new married clothes, held Shang Zhiyuan’s hand, and went back to the Xue residence with him.
At the gate, his expression was strained. He whispered for me to take it easy.
I tilted my head at the right time, wearing a confused, gentle look.
In the main hall, my parents’ faces were anything but happy.
When they saw me, guilt flickered across their eyes.
Under my questioning, they finally spoke.
“A Ning… your sister, she—she’s simply…”
Everything unfolded exactly as I had predicted.
Drunk on confidence, Xue Zhenzhen never questioned why there would also be lotus-seed soup in her own room.
She drank it.
Then she went to find Lin Xiangsheng—the man she had hidden in a guest room.
In her plan, once I was drugged, she would bring Lin Xiangsheng to my room and stage a “discovery.”
She would put on my wedding robes and marry into the Shang family.
I would be caught in disgrace, my reputation ruined.
But the one who lost control… was her.
Once she reached Lin Xiangsheng, the medicine took hold.
And Lin Xiangsheng wasn’t a gentleman. To him, either Xue young lady meant profit.
By the time my wedding sedan had left the manor, my parents couldn’t find Xue Zhenzhen and sent people searching.
When they finally broke in, everything that could happen had already happened.
The more they investigated, the uglier it became:
Lin Xiangsheng had been smuggled into the manor by Xue Zhenzhen.
The drug had been prepared by Xue Zhenzhen—by her own hand.
And in her half-dazed rambling, she had let slip enough for any adult to understand her intent.
My parents looked as if they had been struck.
“A Ning… what sin have we committed, to raise such a monster?” my mother sobbed.
My father slammed the table, face livid.
“Disgraceful! A stain on the family name! I locked that wretch in the ancestral hall. The scholar—I broke his leg and threw him in the woodshed. They’re yours to deal with!”
I widened my eyes as if I couldn’t believe it.
“How could this be…? How could Zhenzhen think such thoughts?”
I trembled, then leaned back against Shang Zhiyuan’s arm as if I might fall.
I stayed silent for a long moment, as though crushed by the news.
Then I lowered myself to my knees.
“Father, Mother—please don’t ruin your health with anger,” I said, voice thick with tears.
“Zhenzhen may have done wrong in every way… but she is your own flesh and blood. I can’t ignore your feelings.”
“And a woman’s reputation is everything,” I continued. “This can’t be hidden for long. If word spreads, her life will be destroyed—and the Xue family will lose face.”
I looked up with tear-wet eyes, pleading as if from the heart.
“I’m safe. Let’s pretend this never happened. Please… spare her this once.”
“As for Lin Xiangsheng—he’s at least a licentiate. Father could take him as a son-in-law. It would preserve some dignity.”
“With the Xue family behind her, that man wouldn’t dare mistreat her.”
My mother burst into sobs.
My father’s jaw clenched.
In that moment, I saw it clearly:
My “plea” had already written their choice for them.
Xue Zhenzhen would marry Lin Xiangsheng.