Volume 3, Chapter 306 – One Person, Four Names; Two Shattered Hearts

The young lady’s boudoir was thick with the slow curl of incense smoke, wreathing the room in a hazy veil.

Chi Xiyan reached out to pick up the teacup on the table before her.

But the moment her fingertips brushed its surface, the cup toppled, spilling tea that ran off the edge of the table and pooled onto the floor.

Luluo, standing behind her, rushed forward at once. “Young Miss, let me take care of that!”

Chi Xiyan rose to her feet, brow furrowed. The unease coiling in her chest had reached its peak.

“Have you asked around yet? What was that commotion just now?”

Luluo began tidying the table. “It seems like a fight broke out somewhere in the servants’ quarters. The guards have already gone over, but there’s been no word back yet.”

Chi Xiyan said nothing.

The qi fluctuation that had just rippled through the air, whatever caused it, was at least a Fourth Realm cultivator, engaged in open combat.

It could even have been Fifth Realm. Or Sixth.

The qi had been robust and forceful, more like a martial cultivator than a spiritual one.

Martial cultivators differed from ordinary qi refiners; their entire strength was bound up in their blood and qi, which made it difficult to accurately gauge their realm from qi fluctuations and spiritual force alone.

So when that pulse of qi reached her, the first thing Chi Xiyan thought of was the personal maidservant at Chi Muxue’s side.

That Fifth Realm female martial cultivator.

“Where is Qingshan?” she asked. “Is she still with Little Xue’er?”

“Qingshan should still be up at the front hall,” Luluo said. “If something happened to the Second Young Miss, she would have come to notify you right away.”

“No news means no problem.”

Luluo said it easily enough. But there was not a trace of ease in Chi Xiyan’s heart.

The foreboding dread inside her only grew more intense.

She stood and moved toward the door.

“Young Miss!” Luluo called out anxiously. “It isn’t time yet!”

“I’m only going to take a look at the front hall. Just one look, then I’ll come back.”

Chi Xiyan pushed open the door, and stopped.

Qin Qingfen was standing in the courtyard.

Her brow arched. “Aunt, what are you doing here?”

Qin Qingfen looked at Chi Xiyan, her expression difficult to read. “I only came to see you.”

Chi Xiyan’s brow tightened. “To see me?”

“Of course. Xiyan, today is your engagement day. An aunt ought to come check on her niece.” Qin Qingfen added, “Where are you heading? It isn’t time yet, is it?”

“Aunt.” Chi Xiyan’s voice turned cold. “I am not a child anymore. I know my own limits.”

Without another word, she stepped out of the boudoir.

Qin Qingfen’s composure broke immediately. “Xiyan! It isn’t time, you shouldn’t be out yet!”

“Come back, this goes against propriety!”

Chi Xiyan fixed her with an icy gaze. “Aunt, you seem awfully eager to stop me. What are you hiding?”

Cold sweat seeped across Qin Qingfen’s brow. “I… I’m not hiding anything. It’s only that tonight is the engagement banquet, a matter that will determine the course of your entire life. I don’t want anything to go wrong.”

“Is that truly all?” Chi Xiyan’s eyes were cutting and cold.

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“Of course!” Qin Qingfen insisted. “I am your aunt. Why would I ever deceive you?”

Chi Xiyan said nothing. She simply stepped past Qin Qingfen and continued toward the outer courtyard.

Qin Qingfen panicked. She lunged forward, reaching for Chi Xiyan’s arm. “Xiyan, why won’t you listen to me? I truly am doing this for your sake!”

Before her fingers could close around Chi Xiyan’s sleeve, Chi Xiyan swept her arm out. A burst of force sent Qin Qingfen stumbling backward several steps.

“Aunt,” Chi Xiyan said, her voice frigid. “I have given you more than one chance.”

“Just what do you take my goodwill for?!”

Qin Qingfen stared at her, expression frozen.

Chi Xiyan had no time to spare for Qin Qingfen. Her heart was already flooded with frantic alarm.

Not a single word from that woman could she believe. Qin Qingfen would not be lurking in the courtyard without reason. Something had happened at the front hall.

And the only thing that could drive Qin Qingfen to such lengths was Chi Muxue.

Chi Muxue was in trouble.

Qin Qingfen had planted herself here precisely to prevent word from reaching Chi Xiyan’s ears.

Then where was Qingshan? Where had that girl gone?

The cold that spread across Chi Xiyan’s face sharpened to ice.

She moved swiftly to the banquet hall at the front. The place was a blur of passing servants and attendants, their faces hurried.

Luluo caught one of the maids by the arm. “What’s happened?”

“Luluo-jie.” The maid spotted Luluo and Chi Xiyan at her side, and blurted out in a rush, “It’s the young master. The young master has gone missing!”

“When the time came, there was no sign of him. The master sent someone to fetch him, but when they got to his room, it was empty!”

“Everyone’s out looking for him now!”

Chi Xiyan’s expression tightened.

Song Shixuan had disappeared too? How could the timing be such a coincidence?

Qin Qingfen… what exactly had she done?

Chi Xiyan swept the front hall with her gaze, searching. No sign of Chi Muxue. No sign of Qingshan either.

Her heart began to sink.

Something had truly gone wrong.

She drew a deep breath.

Calm. The more dire the moment, the more essential it was to stay calm. Perhaps things had not yet reached the point of no return.

However depraved Qin Qingfen might be, she had not yet gone so mad as to commit murder on the night of an engagement banquet.

Chi Xiyan had never been an impulsive person. She had always known how to make the clearest judgment in the most critical moments.

And the foundation of all of that was keeping herself calm, no matter the circumstances.

She steadied herself, then she and Luluo began asking around for Chi Muxue and Qingshan.

Someone had seen Chi Muxue drinking here earlier. A serving girl had accidentally spilled wine on her.

After that, Chi Muxue had left with two guards to go change her clothes, and never came back.

As for Qingshan, no one had thought to keep track of a maidservant’s comings and goings.

“First Young Miss, please don’t panic.” Luluo spoke gently. “The Chi family guards are completely loyal to the family. With guards watching over her inside Chi Mansion, the Second Young Miss should be safe.”

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Chi Xiyan heard the words, but her heart did not loosen by even a fraction.

If there were truly nothing to worry about, Qin Qingfen would not have been that anxious.

And Qingshan would not have simply vanished without a trace.

Where had Chi Muxue been taken?

It was then that Chi Xiyan caught sight of a figure moving quickly through the crowd.

“Lanshuang’er!!”

Bu Lianshuang heard someone calling for her. She turned and saw Chi Xiyan walking toward her with quick, sharp steps.

“First Young Miss…” She responded with a heavy note in her voice.

Chi Xiyan confronted her, face cold. “What are you doing here? Where is Muxue? Was she not with you?”

“I…” Bu Lianshuang hesitated. “The Second Young Miss had too much to drink. I went to fetch her a hangover remedy. By the time I came back, she was already gone.”

“I’m looking for her too…”

“You are her personal maidservant,” Chi Xiyan said, fury simmering beneath every word. “Your duty is to stay by her side at every moment. Do you not even understand that?”

Bu Lianshuang lowered her head slightly.

She had nothing to say to Chi Xiyan’s reproach.

It had been the Fox Lady herself who had sent her away, deliberately, so that Bu Lianshuang could go after the powerful figure hidden among the Chi family’s servants.

She had succeeded.

The person carried a scent mark left by the Fox Lady, so tracking them had been no difficulty for Bu Lianshuang.

He had been strong. Stronger than her. But he seemed to have some reservation, some hesitation that kept him from fighting her at full strength.

Following Lu Zhuxin’s instructions, Bu Lianshuang had forced him to reveal his qi, traded two exchanges with him, then slipped away.

He had apparently been wary of the Chi family’s own powerful cultivators and had not pressed the pursuit.

In the end, Bu Lianshuang had gotten away clean.

When she came back to find Lu Zhuxin, the Fox Lady was no longer at the front hall. Instead, she had run straight into Chi Xiyan.

“I’m sorry, First Young Miss. It was my mistake.” Bu Lianshuang said. “I should not have left the Second Young Miss alone.”

“What good does knowing your mistake do?” Chi Xiyan said. “Do you know who took Muxue? Do you know where she is?”

“She could be in danger right now!”

Bu Lianshuang did not know where the Fox Lady had gone, nor did she recognize the scent that had been on her. But she could track the general direction through that scent.

However, the Fox Lady had given her no instruction. She did not know whether she ought to lead Chi Xiyan there.

What if the Fox Lady was in the middle of something important?

So under Chi Xiyan’s interrogation, Bu Lianshuang only stood still, head lowered, and endured in silence.

The sight of it only deepened Chi Xiyan’s fury.

This is the person Muxue chose to trust? Looking like this? Is she truly worthy of that child’s faith?

At that moment, a voice nearby cut through the cold silence growing between the two of them.

“First Young Miss? Are you looking for the Second Young Miss?”

Chi Xiyan turned her head, surprise flickering in her eyes. “She Liu?”

She recognized him as one of the guards assigned to watch over Chi Muxue.

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Something was deeply wrong here.

The personal maidservant had gone off to fetch a hangover remedy. The very guard assigned to protect Chi Muxue was wandering around the hall with no sense of urgency.

How could everything align so conveniently?

Alarm surged deep in Chi Xiyan’s chest. “You know where she is?” she said sharply. “Lead the way, now!”

Not far from them, Chi Chun had shrunk into a corner, hand pressed over her mouth, watching Chi Xiyan leave with wide, stricken eyes.

Only after Chi Xiyan had completely disappeared from sight did she dare let out a breath.

“It’s over, it’s over!” she kept muttering under her breath.

After slipping out from the inner quarters, she had made straight for the front hall, meaning to find Chi Zhong and explain what had happened.

But when she arrived, Chi Zhong was already gone.

According to their plan, at this point Chi Zhong was supposed to be bringing a carefully selected group of important guests to witness the scandalous scene.

But now everything had gone sideways. Chi Zhong had no idea the country girl would have guards accompanying her.

And at this rate, Chi Zhong was bound to collide with Chi Xiyan.

“It’s over. Nothing is going the way we planned!”

***

Chi Xiyan and Bu Lianshuang followed She Liu into the inner courtyard.

“First Young Miss, it’s right through here…” She Liu’s words died in his throat. He stared at the scene before him, unable to believe his eyes.

In the middle of the courtyard, a guard dressed in fitted combat attire lay face-down in a pool of blood, his life or death uncertain.

“Long Wu!” She Liu shouted, fury and dread crashing through him as he bolted forward.

Bu Lianshuang’s beast pupils contracted sharply.

Here, beneath the Fox Lady’s scent, she detected something else woven into it.

Another smell, tangled together with hers.

It made her stomach turn.

Beside her, Chi Xiyan had gone pale as iron. She had no time to spare a glance for the fallen guard. Every last thread of her attention was locked onto the wooden door ahead of her.

Through it, she could dimly make out sounds that should not be heard.

Something dark and overwhelming began rising furiously from the bottom of her heart, like the first breath before a storm breaks.

She clenched her jaw, strode forward, drew back her foot, and drove it into the wooden door with every ounce of force she had.

Boom!

The door shattered into pieces.

A scent that could not be put into words spilled out from inside the room.

Chi Xiyan looked up. Her gaze landed on two figures, tangled together on the bed.

Bu Lianshuang, following just behind her, came to an abrupt, rigid halt in the doorway.

Her beast eyes trembled.

In her chest, the beating of her heart grew dim and dull, a strange, aching breathlessness pressing in from all sides.

Bu Lianshuang’s feet felt as though they had been filled with lead.

Another one…

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Besides Chi Xiyan, there was another…

Fox Lady. What are you doing?

What purpose could the Fox Clan possibly have, that it demands you debase yourself like this?!

Bu Lianshuang stood frozen in the doorway, her nails cutting into her palms.

The proud Wolf Clan princess felt something she had rarely felt before. A reluctance, a cowardice. She found she did not have the courage to step across that threshold alongside Chi Xiyan.

The violent crash had jolted the two figures on the bed back to the present.

Song Shutao was still adrift, lingering in the pleasant haze of what had just passed, slow to return to herself.

Then she felt it. A murderous intent, cold enough to cut through bone.

“What…” Chi Xiyan’s voice came through, low and hoarse, “…is going on here?”

It was raw. Beneath every word, a towering rage was packed down and barely held in check.

A sword appeared in her hand.

“Let go of her. Now!!”

“Song Shixuan!!”

Her eyes were ice. But the tip of her sword trembled, just slightly.

“Me?” Song Shutao jolted, thoroughly confused. She looked down at the girl she had been holding, flushed cheeks, dazed eyes, still lost in a fog, and the truth of it crashed down on her all at once.

So what just happened was not a dream.

Cold sweat soaked through Song Shutao completely, as if a bucket of ice water had been upended over her head, drowning every last ember of heat stone dead.

“No! It wasn’t me!” She kept repeating it, frantically pushing the girl in her arms away.

And just then, voices came from outside.

“There’s the smell of blood over here!”

“What happened?! Is someone hurt?!”

Lu Gu led several Lingxiao Sword Sect disciples into the courtyard.

And behind him, Chi Zhong crept along, eyes darting shiftily toward the room.

“What sort of intruder would dare run wild inside Chi Mansion?!”

Chi Xiyan’s expression changed in an instant. She sheathed her sword and flew forward.

Before Lu Zhuxin’s figure could fall into anyone’s line of sight, she snatched a large cloak and swept it around Lu Zhuxin’s shoulders.

Every trace of what should not be seen was covered, completely.

Lu Guan appeared in the doorway.

When he caught sight of Song Shutao, his face filled with shock.

Song Shutao was still wearing Song Shixuan’s face.

She sat on the bed, disheveled, looking exactly as someone would after a tryst in the sheets.

The air in the room was thick with things no one needed to say. Anyone who entered could tell at a glance what had just taken place inside.

Chi Zhong followed in behind Lu Guan. He looked at the scene before him, and his eyes went wide with genuine, unfeigned shock.

“First Young Miss, how are you… what is the meaning of this?!”