Volume 3, Chapter 296 – Just a Little Helping Hand

“Miss Muxue?” Luluo thought for a moment. “Miss Muxue should be in the front hall right now.”

“What is she doing in the front hall? Receiving guests?” Chi Xiyan was quiet for a moment. “Never mind. As long as she doesn’t cause trouble, it’s fine.”

“Miss, are you worried about Miss Muxue?” Luluo asked.

Chi Xiyan lowered her gaze slightly, mulling it over before slowly saying, “I’m just… worried that girl might do something irrational.”

Luluo looked at her in confusion. “Irrational?”

Chi Xiyan didn’t explain any further. A faint worry lingered between her brows.

It was supposed to be her engagement banquet, yet she felt not even a shred of joy. Only a vague, creeping unease gnawed at the back of her mind.

There was a premonition that something bad might happen tonight.

She didn’t know where this feeling came from. But the one she worried about most right now was Chi Muxue.

She was worried that girl might do something reckless for her sake again—just like last time.

“Where is Qingshan?” Chi Xiyan asked.

“Miss, Qingshan is keeping watch outside,” Luluo said.

“Have Qingshan keep an eye on that girl. Tell her not to do anything reckless,” Chi Xiyan said.

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Luluo didn’t quite understand, but she nodded. “Understood, Miss.”

***

Meanwhile, the very person Chi Xiyan was so concerned about—Lu Zhuxin—was sitting in the front hall, a spread of pastries and fruit arranged on the table beside her.

Her current status was anything but ordinary; she held tremendous significance to the Chi family, and Chi Jingwen naturally wouldn’t have her doing something as trivial as greeting guests.

Lu Zhuxin was perfectly happy with the arrangement.

Bu Lianshuang performed her role as a personal attendant with quiet diligence, standing guard at Lu Zhuxin’s side without a word. Every pastry Lu Zhuxin ate had been inspected beforehand. At a gathering this crowded with unfamiliar faces, the threat of poison couldn’t be ignored.

Many of the guests around them had noticed Lu Zhuxin. Most were unfamiliar with this second young lady of the Chi family.

A few young masters from prominent families had even worked up the nerve to approach and strike up conversation, only to be sent retreating by Bu Lianshuang’s murderous glare.

Most of these pampered young masters were little more than hothouse flowers, the sort who wouldn’t even qualify as cannon fodder in a novel.

Bu Lianshuang, a fearsome Wolf Clan princess, needed only to let slip the faintest trace of a wolf’s killing intent to send these pampered little lords into a cold sweat, trembling from head to toe.

Before long, a wide berth had cleared around Lu Zhuxin, and no one dared come close.

Lu Zhuxin welcomed the peace. She had no interest in dealing with irrelevant passersby.

Besides, she was now a Sword Dao Sacred Body destined to become a Venerable Saint. With that standing, as long as she didn’t do anything too outrageous, she could more or less do as she pleased within the Chi family.

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There was simply no reason for her to lower herself to dealing with small fry.

With Bu Lianshuang faithfully standing guard, Lu Zhuxin was free to turn her full attention to observing everything around her.

In the inner workings of aristocratic families, the method for ruining a young lady was simple: destroy her reputation.

And to maximize the effect, as many people as possible needed to witness it firsthand.

Spreading rumors through outside channels was the least efficient and least reliable method. The best approach was to have a sufficient number of important people serve as witnesses at a sufficiently important occasion.

So for anyone looking to strike at Chi Muxue, who had now officially become the second young lady of the Chi family, this was the perfect opportunity.

Lu Zhuxin knew that no matter how foolish Qin Qingfen was, she wouldn’t let a chance like this slip by.

Lu Zhuxin waited, watching for the fish to take the bait.

Of course, she wasn’t in any rush.

It was Qin Qingfen who needed to be in a hurry, not her.

For Qin Qingfen, there were three key obstacles to overcome in order to trap Chi Muxue. The first: how to administer the poison. The second: how to bring the poisoned Chi Muxue to the designated location. The third: how to maneuver the right people into position as witnesses.

In truth, now that Lu Zhuxin had become a Sword Dao Sacred Body, the first two points were far beyond what someone like Qin Qingfen could accomplish on her own.

These minor villains still needed a little help from a bigger villain.

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At that thought, Lu Zhuxin glanced toward the entrance.

***

In one corner of the Chi residence, Chi Zhong had gathered with a few companions.

The faces of the young men were etched with hesitation.

“Chi Zhong, are you sure you want to go through with this?”

“That girl is already the second young lady of the Chi family. She has powerful protectors at her side. If what we’re doing gets discovered, none of us will be able to bear the consequences!”

“Of course I know that. It’s obvious!” Chi Zhong said. “But this is our best chance!”

“I already made an enemy of her at the recognition ceremony. There’s no going back now. That country bumpkin is no generous soul. Just look at what happened to Chi Xiyan’s nanny. She didn’t even spare Chi Xiyan’s own nanny, so what chance do we have? If she ever gets a real grip on the Chi family’s power, things will only get harder for us. This is our best opportunity!”

“But…” The others still hesitated.

“Give me a straight answer. Are you in or not?” Chi Zhong said, his patience thinning. “Let me be clear: I am an outer disciple of Lingxiao Sword Sect. Even if Chi Muxue turns completely against me, I have the sect at my back. But you don’t have that safety net. We’re brothers, and I don’t want something like this to come between us.”

A chill ran through the group at his words. They hesitated a moment longer, before a hard, venomous look settled into their eyes.

“Fine. We’ll do it! Who does some country girl think she is, lording over us?”

“Now that’s what I call brothers!” Chi Zhong said, satisfied.

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He pulled a small vial from his robes. “This is the poison my ally provided.”

“Apparently, it was refined by a descendant of the Bliss Demon Sect. There’s only one vial like this in the entire world. Colorless, odorless, and completely untraceable. Not even a high-level alchemist can produce an antidote, let alone some farmgirl with no cultivation. On top of that, it leaves absolutely no trace afterward. Handle things right, and no one will ever know she was poisoned.”

“Heh… Once that girl takes the poison, she’ll have no choice but to be at our mercy.”

***

Lu Zhuxin sat in the front hall eating her pastries, her spiritual consciousness stretched out to listen to the Chi family youths’ scheming, a quiet laugh forming in her heart.

These little fools couldn’t really think their meager abilities would be enough to take a poisoned Chi Muxue anywhere, could they?

The entire Chi residence was under the watch of the family’s strongest guards, and at an occasion as important as an engagement banquet, security was airtight from top to bottom. Even if they managed to poison her by some stroke of luck, they couldn’t spirit Chi Muxue away under the eyes of so many guards.

They had severely underestimated just how important Chi Muxue was.

With so many people coming and going at the engagement banquet and such a mixed crowd of guests, it was a perfect opportunity for unsavory characters to stir up trouble. If Chi Zhong and Qin Qingfen could think of it, did they really believe no one else could? At an occasion this important, a future prodigy like Chi Muxue would be one of the most heavily guarded individuals present.

So for Qin Qingfen and Chi Zhong’s plan to succeed, relying on themselves alone was far from enough.

They needed a little bit of help from Lu Zhuxin.

‘It should be about time.’