Volume 3, Chapter 370 – Seniority Has Its Order

Lu Zhuxin looked at Chi Xiyan and smiled faintly.

Even though they were living under someone else’s roof now, Chi Xiyan’s temper had not softened one bit.

They were using the Cheng family as a stepping stone. They had not come here to be pushed around.

Besides, Lu Zhuxin already knew there was no one inside the room.

“Sister, I am with you.”

Chi Xiyan gave a small nod. She stepped forward, raised her hand, and pushed the wooden door.

Suddenly, a flash of talisman light burst from the door. A streak of pale blue current shot straight toward Chi Xiyan’s hand.

Chi Xiyan’s expression did not change. She gave a light flick of her finger. There was a sharp crack, and the talisman light shattered on impact.

“Oh?” Chi Xiyan smiled. “They even put a talisman on the door.”

“Madam Qian certainly has quite a few tricks up her sleeve.”

Had Chi Xiyan been without cultivation, that would have given her quite a nasty shock.

“What a shame. Only a second-rank talisman.”

A low-grade talisman like that was not even worth using as scrap paper to Chi Xiyan.

With a creak, she pushed the door open.

Chi Xiyan stood at the threshold and swept a glance around the room.

Empty.

Not a hint of surprise crossed her face.

“It seems the mistress is not here after all.”

Lu Zhuxin said, “But Sister, did that housekeeper not say the mistress was already home?”

“Was she deliberately lying to us?”

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Her expression sharpened as the thought took hold.

“Sister! What if that housekeeper used the mistress’s absence on purpose to bring us here, then stole something from the room and planned to pin it on us?”

“If that is the case, we are in real danger right now.”

“After all, we have just arrived. We have no allies in this household. If those treacherous servants band together against us, it will be nearly impossible to defend ourselves in front of the master…”

“Sister! We should catch that housekeeper right now. If we let that wretched servant get to the master first and file a complaint, we will be in serious trouble!”

Listening to Lu Zhuxin, Chi Xiyan could not help but let a smile tug at the corner of her mouth.

Her little sister, who always wore such a well-behaved, docile expression on the outside, had quite a devious mind working underneath.

Not far off, the housekeeper who had been lurking in the shadows watching them broke into a cold sweat.

Bringing the two misses here had been the mistress’s idea, naturally.

But no one had expected these two stepdaughters to have the audacity to force their way through the mistress’s door.

Had they lost their minds?

What kind of noble family daughters behaved like this? They were more like bandits.

Lu Zhuxin’s counter-accusation made the housekeeper’s legs go weak.

After all, she was the one who had said the mistress was inside waiting for them.

Now that the mistress clearly was not there, someone had told a lie. And even if the mistress were present, she would never openly admit she was trying to put her two stepdaughters in their place.

With the Shuyuan Commandery selection just around the corner, no household wanted a reputation like that spreading around.

So the only ones who would end up punished would be the servants.

Just as the housekeeper stood there trembling, she saw the girl at the doorway suddenly turn around, lift her gaze, and smile at her.

The smile was sweet. And somehow utterly terrifying.

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“Oh Sister, look! Hiding over there watching us, isn’t that the housekeeper who brought us here?”

“Sister! She must be waiting for us to go inside so she can find a chance to frame us!”

The housekeeper nearly leapt out of her own skin.

These two girls were not to be trifled with. She had to tell the mistress immediately.

She had barely turned to go when her foot caught on something. She lost her balance and crashed to the ground.

By the time she had stumbled back to her feet in a daze, she noticed a golden chain coiled around her leg.

A spirit tool. One she had never seen anywhere in the Cheng household.

These two girls had cultivation?!

“Sister, we caught her!” Lu Zhuxin called out. “Bring this wicked servant before the master right away!”

The housekeeper was shaking with dread. The mistress had only just promised the master she would not make things difficult for the two misses. If this blew up in front of the master now, no one would come out well.

What on earth was she supposed to do?

Just then, a young girl in a red skirt stepped into the courtyard.

She frowned at the two girls standing there. “Who are you? What are you doing in my mother’s courtyard?”

Lu Zhuxin looked toward the voice.

The girl was roughly the same age as her, bright and brash, with the unmistakable air of someone who had been pampered and indulged from birth.

This was almost certainly Madam Qian’s own daughter. Cheng Yinyin.

Quite the fiery one.

Cheng Yinyin looked at the housekeeper sprawled on the ground, and her beautiful eyes went sharp.

“What kind of thieves are you? How dare you treat a servant of my household this way?”

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Faced with the girl’s accusations, Chi Xiyan smiled pleasantly.

“You must be little Yin, my younger sister.”

“I am your eldest sister.”

“The housekeeper on the ground told us the mistress was here waiting for us.”

“When we arrived, we found no one inside.”

“My sister Lixue and I suspected this person had lied to us with malicious intent, trying to stir up trouble between us and the mistress.”

“So we detained her to bring before the master for questioning.”

As she spoke, Chi Xiyan stepped back and opened the door behind her.

“How fortunate that you have arrived, little Yin. Please come and serve as our witness. Check whether anything inside is missing.”

“That way, we can also protect ourselves should any petty person try to use this against us.”

Chi Xiyan’s words were airtight.

Cheng Yinyin’s brows twisted upward.

She looked at Chi Xiyan.

This tall woman gave her an unsettling feeling.

She had already heard from her mother that her father had quietly brought two older sisters she had never met back to the Cheng household. But Cheng Yinyin had not given it much thought.

Two wild girls who had turned up from nowhere, without anyone to raise them properly. They probably could not even read. What standing did they have to compete with her, a pampered and well-bred daughter of the family?

But now, face to face with this eldest sister for the first time, Cheng Yinyin found the reality completely unlike anything she had imagined.

The woman before her had clear, bright eyes and fine features, a refined bearing and impeccable poise.

She simply stood there, and yet she drew every eye toward her effortlessly.

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Composed and dignified, with not a trace of affected coyness.

She looked every bit the natural-born eldest daughter of a noble family.

Standing before her, Cheng Yinyin felt a sudden, unaccountable wave of shame rise in her chest.

Damn it all.

Was this really one of those girls who had been driven out of the household long ago?

The thought that a woman like this was going to enter the Shuyuan Commandery selection alongside her sent alarm bells crashing through Cheng Yinyin’s mind.

“Do I know you? You say you are my eldest sister. Does that make it so?” Cheng Yinyin snapped. “That woman on the ground is my mother’s personal servant. You grabbed her without asking a single question. If you ask me, I suspect you two are the ones who stole something, and now you are trying to turn it around on us!”

As she spoke, Cheng Yinyin glared at the two girls with undisguised hostility.

“Someone come! Seize these two thieves who appeared out of nowhere!”

“Strip their clothes, mark their faces, and throw them out of the compound!”

The moment Cheng Yinyin’s words fell, several armed household guards came charging out from behind her.

Chi Xiyan looked at the scene and gave a small, resigned smile.

“Little Yin has been so thoroughly spoiled by the mistress.”

“How can she be this lacking in propriety?”

“Seniority has its order. That is the rule.”

“Even among girls, it must be observed without exception.”

“Little Yin, it is one thing to be willful at home. But if you carry this reckless and rude manner into the consort selection, how could you ever hope to catch the eye of Her Majesty?”

With that, Chi Xiyan let out a sigh and shook her head with the air of someone grieved by a hopeless case.