Volume 3, Chapter 345 – Take Me Away- I’m the One to Blame-

“Hm?”

Wei Qingyu’s sharp brows lifted.

She was caught off guard. She hadn’t expected the girl in front of her to ask something like that.

So the nervousness and unease she had shown earlier, it was because of this?

She thought I came to arrest her, and that’s why she wasn’t giving me a warm reception?

Ha. What a child.

Wei Qingyu curved her lips slightly, her expression remaining a picture of mild warmth. Not a trace of the Demon Suppression Bureau Inspector’s edge to be found.

“What’s the matter, Little Sister Muxue?” Wei Qingyu sat down beside Lu Zhuxin. “Why would you ask that?”

The girl with the heavy look in her eyes pressed her lips together and, as Wei Qingyu sat, shifted almost imperceptibly to one side.

Wei Qingyu’s expression stiffened for just a fraction of a second.

Am I some kind of terrifying creature?

Then the girl’s quiet voice came again.

“Senior Sister Wei… I’m not deaf. I heard what that Lingxiao Sword Sect elder was saying yesterday too.”

Her voice was low and suppressed.

“Since yesterday, the entire Chi estate has been on lockdown…”

“Senior Sister disappeared early in the morning, and the Head of the family ordered the guards to seal off my courtyard. I’m not allowed to go anywhere.”

“I don’t know exactly what happened.”

“But if the one responsible for all of this is Lingxiao Sword Sect…”

“I think they’re coming because of me.”

Wei Qingyu’s brows drew together slightly.

She watched the girl’s fist curl tight inside her sleeve, her shoulders trembling faintly.

“It’s my fault…” the girl continued. “The reason Lingxiao Sword Sect is targeting the Chi family like this, it’s all because of me…”

“Why do you say that?” Wei Qingyu asked.

“Senior Sister Wei…” The girl let out a hollow, pained laugh. “Didn’t Lingxiao Sword Sect tell you?”

“Song Shixuan humiliated me. He ground my dignity into the dirt like it was nothing.”

“Senior Brother Lu used his power to oppress, threw justice aside, and stood before the Chi family elders to twist the truth and call black white.”

“What was it all for?”

“For me.”

“Everything that has happened started because of me.”

“If not for me, Sister Qingshan would never have been killed. If not for me, that guard who protected me would never have been murdered.”

“If not for me, the Chi family would never have been dragged into this disaster.”

Rеαd оn KαtRеаԁingСafе

“If not for me, Sister Xiyan would not be suffering through any of this.”

The girl’s voice broke into something thin and mournful.

“I thought that coming to the Chi family would give me a chance to repay Sister Xiyan for her kindness. I never imagined I would bring her this much trouble instead.”

“Perhaps I should never have come here at all.”

Wei Qingyu’s brows pressed together harder.

What did that mean? There was more to this than she had been shown?

Song Shixuan had been hiding something from her?

She turned it over in her mind but couldn’t find the thread.

From everything Wei Qingyu had seen, the matter of Song Shixuan assaulting Chi Muxue had been riddled with inconsistencies from the very beginning.

Song Shixuan was the Young Sect Master of Lingxiao Sword Sect. No matter how lecherous he might be, he shouldn’t have been foolish enough to assault his own fiancee’s younger sister at his own engagement banquet.

Song Shixuan was probably innocent. He might truly have been framed.

But from the way this girl was speaking now, there was something she still didn’t know.

Something that might even be connected to Senior Brother Lu’s death.

Otherwise, how could this girl be so certain?

“Little Sister Muxue, what exactly is going on?” Wei Qingyu asked. “Tell me. I might be able to help.”

Lu Zhuxin went still for a moment. She slowly turned her head and looked at Wei Qingyu.

Her eyes were rimmed red, her expression fragile and heartbreaking, like a porcelain doll that might shatter at any second.

Wei Qingyu was momentarily struck speechless.

She had never seen this girl look so fragile before.

The first time they had met, the girl had been bullied by a malicious servant of the Chi household, and she hadn’t looked like this.

When she had fallen into the hands of the demon wolves, she had been calm and compliant. To repay Chi Xiyan’s kindness, she had voluntarily stayed behind as a hostage and had even managed to persuade the wolves to take the servant who had wronged her in her place.

She had made that choice with the resolve of someone prepared to die.

And yet even then, even in that moment, she hadn’t worn an expression like this.

But alongside the despair, Wei Qingyu also saw something else. A flash of resolve.

Wei Qingyu’s brows knitted. “Little Sister… you don’t trust me?”

Lu Zhuxin shook her head. “It doesn’t matter anymore…”

“Even if I told Senior Sister Wei, it wouldn’t change the Chi family’s situation. It would only bring more trouble down on them.”

Neither Chi Jingwen nor Song Shutao had breathed a word about the Sword Dao Sacred Physique.

Chi Jingwen had left himself room to maneuver, unwilling to place his full trust in Wei Qingyu, who was ultimately the Human Empress’s instrument.

And Song Shutao had clearly been calculating for the Song family’s benefit as well.

They were in perfect silent agreement. Even with the two sides standing on the very edge of a total rupture, neither had chosen to reveal that secret. Which meant they still had some lingering interest in whatever this so-called Sword Dao Sacred Physique was worth.

Reаd οn ΚаtRеαⅾіnɡCаfе

They didn’t want outsiders knowing. They didn’t want more factions inserting themselves.

All of this, for the sake of some vague and unverified reincarnation of a Sword Venerable. How absurd.

If they weren’t going to say it, Lu Zhuxin certainly wasn’t going to bring it up herself.

“Senior Sister Wei, don’t ask anymore.”

The girl lowered her eyes, desolation filling her gaze.

“Colluding with demon wolves. Ha. That really is a convenient excuse.”

“I’m the only person in the Chi family who can be clearly linked to any contact with the wolf clan.”

“That the Demon Suppression Bureau would take me away for questioning, Lingxiao Sword Sect must have anticipated that too.”

“Ha…”

A bitter laugh slipped out.

“When it comes to this point, perhaps it really is the only choice left…”

She raised her head, expression hardened with a particular kind of determination, and looked directly at Wei Qingyu.

“Senior Sister Wei. Take me away. Take me out of the Chi family and lock me in the Demon Suppression Bureau’s cells.”

Her almond-shaped eyes were wide open, red veins threaded through the whites.

“I admit it. I colluded with the demon wolves. I ordered them to attack Lingxiao Sword Sect’s people.”

“And that night, I was the one who drugged Young Sect Master Song. He was the victim!”

“Everything was done by me. It has nothing to do with the Chi family!”

Wei Qingyu was silent.

She watched the girl before her, face set with absolute resolve, bite down hard on her lower lip until that pale skin bloomed with a desperate shade of red.

Wei Qingyu asked quietly, “Do you think… that as long as you leave the Chi family, everything will be over?”

The girl tightened her fist.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“But I am the origin of all of it.”

“I am… the one to blame for the Chi family’s troubles…”

“This is the only way I can think of to save them…”

Wei Qingyu let out a soft breath. “I’m not taking you anywhere. I didn’t come today to arrest you.”

“I really did just come to see how you were.”

And to sound out how much you’re hiding.

Wei Qingyu paused. “The matter between the Chi family and Lingxiao Sword Sect has no conclusion yet. Even I cannot convict the Chi family without evidence.”

Even if every thread of evidence currently pointed at them.

Rеаd on КαtRеаdіnɡCαfe

“In any case, Little Sister Muxue, stop letting your thoughts run away with you.”

“Trust me. Trust the Demon Suppression Bureau.”

“The Demon Suppression Bureau represents Her Majesty the Human Empress.”

“No matter how arrogant Lingxiao Sword Sect may be, they would not dare defy Her Majesty.”

Wei Qingyu reached out and gave Lu Zhuxin’s cheek a gentle pat.

“There now. Don’t be sad. Something this large can’t possibly fall on the shoulders of a little thing like you.”

The girl blinked, lips murmuring the name Wei Qingyu had just spoken.

“Her Majesty… the Human Empress…?”

“Mm.” Wei Qingyu nodded. “No matter how powerful Lingxiao Sword Sect is, they cannot touch the Demon Suppression Bureau. I won’t let an innocent person bear false blame.”

The girl looked up at Wei Qingyu. Her eyes filled with moisture.

Little teardrops spilled down, one after another.

“Thank you! Senior Sister Wei! Thank you!”

Wei Qingyu gently patted her on the back, offering one reassurance after another.

***

Wei Qingyu didn’t linger in Lu Zhuxin’s courtyard for long. After comforting her for a while, she asked a few simple questions.

The girl sniffled softly throughout, answering every one of Wei Qingyu’s questions without leaving a single opening.

Wei Qingyu didn’t get anything useful out of her. The girl’s emotions were in poor shape right now, and it wasn’t the right time to press further.

After all, she had come for a visit, not an interrogation. Pushing any harder would have reflected badly on her.

So, having concluded that nothing productive was coming of it, Wei Qingyu rose and said her goodbyes.

“Little Sister Muxue, I’ll come see you again next time.”

Lu Zhuxin watched Wei Qingyu until she was gone.

She let out a quiet click of her tongue.

Just came to see how I was doing?

Laughable.

Wei Qingyu’s purpose had been perfectly transparent.

She had come specifically for Lu Zhuxin. Her aim was clear.

Under normal circumstances, Wei Qingyu, Inspector of the Demon Suppression Bureau, should never have turned her suspicions toward Chi Muxue, a second daughter of a merchant family with no cultivation and no connections, this quickly.

“Behind Wei Qingyu, there must be the Human Empress.”

“Qu Qingtang Number Two.”

Lu Zhuxin’s gaze turned cold and heavy.

“I can’t stay in the Chi family much longer.”

Rеаԁ оո ΚαtRеаԁіnɡСаfe

***

On the other side of the estate, Wei Qingyu departed from the Chi residence.

She pressed her fingers to her temple, fine brows creased.

“Something’s off…”

She stopped in the street and turned to look back.

The tightly shut gates of the Chi estate met her eyes.

Wei Qingyu’s gaze went cold. She finally understood where that sense of wrongness had been coming from.

“I think I was just led around by the nose.”

“That girl…”

“From the very beginning, she never gave me a real opening to question her on my own terms.”

Wei Qingyu gave a quiet laugh.

If Her Majesty the Human Empress hadn’t flagged that girl as suspicious so early on, Wei Qingyu might genuinely have let all those oddities slide past her without a second thought.

“Strike first to seize the initiative. Take control of the conversation. Then appear to retreat in order to advance.”

“She was guiding me from the start, pulling my thinking along at her own pace.”

“She was the one in control, from beginning to end.”

If Wei Qingyu’s current assessment was correct, then that girl was a genuinely dangerous opponent.

Her performance had been flawless.

Every word she had spoken had rung with sincerity.

“How did the Chi family end up with someone like this on their hands.”

Wei Qingyu let out a long, quiet sigh.

Though, at this point, it was no longer her concern.

She was only carrying out the Human Empress’s orders. As for the Chi family, all she could do was wish them luck fending for themselves.

“Still, this visit to the Chi estate wasn’t entirely without gain.”

***

Back on her side, Lu Zhuxin returned to her room.

She hadn’t managed to see Chi Xiyan today, and she hadn’t been allowed to leave the estate.

Dealing with Wei Qingyu, Inspector of the Demon Suppression Bureau, had been its own particular kind of exhausting.

She rubbed her tired face and decided to rest for a while first, then slip into the linked dreamscape to see if there was any new intelligence waiting for her.

But the moment she stepped into the linked dreamscape, a figure in blazing red came flying at her with a look of barely-contained panic.

“Your Majesty! Something has happened!”