Chapter 16 Confrontation and Confinement
Scenes from the storybook flashed through my mind.
Everyone abandoned me.
Every path was cut off.
I died miserably in filth because I refused to give up.
Mother told me to yield.
I yielded.
I knew everything, avoided conflict, gave up everything—yet still they suspected me, blocked me, ruined my future.
She told me to wait.
But I couldn’t wait anymore.
I had to escape.
I turned, stumbled a few steps—and someone grabbed my arm hard.
Wang Shaoheng.
He had appeared out of nowhere.
“Yaohua, your father and brother are right. Women belong in the inner quarters, raising children and serving husbands. Becoming officials? Disgraceful.”
Panic surged through me.
Why was he here?
Was this the “inevitable force” of the plot?
The men inside heard and stepped out.
Xie Yunting frowned. “You heard everything?”
“Yaohua, don’t think the Women's Examination is good for you.”
“Women marry. If you rise above men, no one will dare wed you. You’ll ruin your life.”
I bit my lip until I tasted blood, stared at the three looming figures, and suddenly laughed.
“What are you really afraid of?”
“That the Long Princess will lose power later and our house will suffer for my success?”
“That I’ll draw too much attention and invite criticism?”
“Or that I might place high and overshadow a certain someone in the mansion?”
Xie Chengzong had stayed silent out of pride, but now he broke.
“Wretch! Silence! You’re delirious—spouting nonsense!”
“Guards! Lock the eldest miss in the woodshed. Without my order, no one releases her.”