Chapter 65

Wait, why was she feeling guilty? She hadn’t done anything wrong.

With that thought, Cheng Ruyi immediately got her confidence back.

Seeing her still hesitating and lingering on top of the wall, Rong Mo leaped up. Before Ruyi could even register what was happening, he swept her up by the waist. With a rush of wind past her ears, she was back down on the ground inside the estate in the blink of an eye.

“Alright, where are you planning to go dressed like this?” Rong Mo asked, narrowing his eyes as he looked at her up close. Noticing the strange substance smeared all over her face, he kept his tone casually light, though his eyes told a different story.

Cheng Ruyi shrank her neck back, her gaze darting around shiftily. “I… I just wanted to sit on the wall and look at the scenery!”

It was pitch black outside. What kind of scenery was there to look at?

Liar.

“Tell the truth,” Rong Mo said, his deep voice carrying a hint of a dangerous edge.

Seeing that her beloved Ah Mo was genuinely upset, Cheng Ruyi didn’t dare hide it any longer. She squeaked out her actual plan.

“I… I just wanted to sneak into a brothel to observe and learn a few things.”

“A brothel?”

Rong Mo’s heart skipped a beat. To be fair, he didn’t have any experience either. While he understood the mechanics of intimacy between a man and a woman, the finer details were still a bit of a blur to him. Maybe… they should go observe?

But the moment he pictured his little fiancée inside a brothel looking at another man’s body, a wave of fierce possessiveness and discomfort washed over him. His handsome face immediately darkened.

“You are not allowed to go!”

Hearing his flat refusal, Cheng Ruyi completely deflated.

“Fine, I won’t go.”

In truth, she was mostly just curious. When it came to the intimacy between men and women, she frequently saw her eldest sister and brother-in-law acting all lovey-dovey, so she had a decent idea. However, Nanny Yang had mentioned that on her wedding day, her mother would give her some special “bottom-of-the-chest” educational materials.

Rong Mo knew his fiancée’s temperament; once she gave her word, she would keep it. His expression softened, and he pulled her into his arms, gently stroking her beautiful hair.

“Good girl.”

Secretly, however, he wondered if he should track down some illustrated handbooks himself to study up and gain some experience. It would be terrible if something went wrong on their wedding night. From what he knew, certain bookstores sold rather special kinds of picture books under the counter…

Just then, a patrol of estate guards passed by and noticed figures in the shadow of the wall. They rushed over, but when their lanterns illuminated the scene, they were utterly shocked to find Master Rong Mo tightly embracing another young gentleman.

“Master Rong Mo!”

Cheng Ruyi glanced at the guards, pushed Rong Mo away, and flashed a sly smile. “I’m heading back first!” With that, she vanished like a streak of smoke.

Rong Mo watched his fiancée bolt, completely speechless. Turning back to the guards, he met their furious and utterly bizarre stares. It was obvious they had severely misunderstood.

“The person just now was your Eldest Miss.”

Leaving behind that single explanation, Rong Mo turned and left as well.

So it was the Eldest Miss!

The guards stood there, completely dumbfounded.

Wow, Master Rong Mo and Eldest Miss sure know how to spice things up!

Inside the bedroom, the candlelight flickered. When Moxiang saw her mistress return so quickly after sneaking out, she was thoroughly surprised.

“Miss, aren’t you supposed to be out?”

“Don’t even ask. I ran right into Ah Mo while scaling the wall, and he forbade me from going to the brothel,” Cheng Ruyi said, looking rather disappointed.

Moxiang: “…”

Her mistress’s luck was truly atrocious.

Then again, it was a good thing she ran into Master Rong Mo. A brothel was no place for a respectable young lady anyway; it was for the best that she couldn’t go.

Being the naturally cheerful soul she was, Cheng Ruyi only lamented for a brief moment before tossing the matter to the back of her mind. She ordered Moxiang to bring over a bronze basin, wiped the disguise off her face with a towel, changed out of the men’s clothing, washed up, and went to bed with a perfectly peaceful mind.

Moxiang silently complained in her heart about how incredibly thick-skinned and carefree her mistress was.

After blowing out the candles, Moxiang stepped out of the inner chamber. Suddenly, a dark shadow materialized right in front of her. Scared out of her wits, Moxiang nearly shrieked. But looking up, she realized it was Master Rong Mo.

“Master Rong Mo, you’re here? Miss has already fallen asleep.”

Rong Mo simply nodded and left without a word.

Moxiang was entirely bewildered. What on earth was Master Rong Mo doing?

Inside the inner room, Cheng Ruyi snuggled into her blanket, letting out a few disgruntled grunts. She had actually noticed Ah Mo coming over just now, but he hadn’t even come in to see her. She was not happy.

The next day, yielding to Luo Fei’s eager anticipation, Rong Susu met with Lady Liu, the wife of Commander Wang, and officially finalized the marriage alliance between Luo Fei and Wang Ying. The moment the betrothal was set, the hearts of all the young noble ladies who had designs on Luo Fei shattered into pieces.

How could they have been a step too late?

Thinking about how the brilliant, breathtakingly handsome Top Graduate Luo Fei was now engaged to the daughter of a mere military commander, they couldn’t help but burn with envy over Wang Ying’s sheer luck.

Yan Zixuan took the hardest blow. Everyone knew she had just blocked Cheng Ruyi the day before to threaten her, yet today, Luo Fei was officially betrothed. She had effectively become the laughingstock of the city.

Right now, she was crying her eyes out and venting her grievances to the Marquis of Huaiyang.

Unfortunately, due to the previously broken betrothal, the relationship between the Huaiyang Marquis Estate and the Changle Marquis Estate was incredibly strained. Furthermore, Luo Fei was the biological nephew of the Marchioness of Changle. Of all the men Yan Zixuan could have set her eyes on, she just had to pick Luo Fei.

The Marquis of Huaiyang had a massive headache.

Yan Zixuan was a concubine’s daughter. Setting family background aside, Luo Fei was genuinely an excellent match. Even if one branch of the Rong family had been wiped out, there were still other branches across various provinces sharing the same ancestral line. His pedigree wasn’t bad at all, not to mention that Luo Fei himself was exceptionally talented and capable.

The Marquis of Huaiyang had originally been happy to see it happen, but he never expected Commander Wang to swoop in out of nowhere and snatch the prize.

Cheng Ruyi was absolutely thrilled when she heard the good news. Now that Cousin Luo Fei’s marriage was set, that crazy woman Yan Zixuan was entirely out of the picture. Plus, whenever she got bored in the future, she could just invite Wang Ying out to play.

But while she was celebrating, someone else was absolutely miserable—and plotting to utterly destroy her fiancé.

After being dumped by the Princess Consort of Wei, Cheng Qingyao had been kept under house arrest by the Marchioness of Jian’an. All external news came strictly through her maid, Qiulan.

Hearing that rumors of her being a vicious, malicious woman who framed her own cousin were spreading everywhere, Cheng Qingyao’s face turned a horrifying, ghostly pale. Her eyes were bloodshot and her fists tightly clenched. She loathed her parents’ incompetence for failing to suppress the rumors, but she hated Cheng Ruyi even more. She wanted nothing more than to tear the girl next door at the Changle Marquis Estate to shreds.

If someone was going to ruin her life, she would make sure they suffered a hundred times worse.

“Qiulan, find someone to spread a rumor,” Cheng Qingyao said darkly, her eyes swimming with madness. “Say that this winter will only last for forty days, and after that, not a single drop of rain will fall for an entire year. And tell them the root cause of this calamity is because the son of the Calamity Star is still alive.”

What noble status? At the end of the day, he was nothing but the son of a jinx.

She hadn’t touched him before out of fear because he was Prince Rong’s son. But now… humph!

As long as she ruined Rong Mo, let’s see what Cheng Ruyi would have left to be smug about.

Cheng Qingyao was completely throwing caution to the wind. Originally, she had planned to keep the secret that this winter would be exceptionally short to herself, intending to hoard ice in advance to make a massive fortune quietly. But now that her reputation was completely dragged through the mud, her dream of rising above everyone else was shattered.

Even if she tried to rebuild a pristine reputation later on, this stain would follow her forever. With this blotch on her name, she could forget about marrying into the imperial family. Even if she somehow managed to luck her way in, her path to promotion would be completely blocked.

Qiulan’s heart seized. Terrified by the sheer insanity in Cheng Qingyao’s eyes, a cold shiver ran up from the soles of her feet. Her mistress was truly losing her mind this time; she actually dared to manufacture such a treasonous rumor.

Swallowing hard, Qiulan replied tremulously, “Y-yes, Miss. This servant will go right away.”

Just as she was about to leave, Cheng Qingyao added one last chilling directive.

“Make sure your hands are clean.”

After all, this involved the honor of the imperial family. Cheng Qingyao didn’t want to die just yet, so the operation naturally had to be as covert as possible.

Qiulan gritted her teeth, nodded, and left in a frantic rush.

Left alone in the room, Cheng Qingyao let out a sudden, jarring laugh. It was a hair-raising, unhinged laugh born from having absolutely nothing left to lose.

An intentional plot will always catch the unsuspecting off guard. The Imperial Clan and Old Master Lin had been keeping a paranoid eye on Prince Rong this whole time, terrified that he would lose his mind and expose the old royal scandal to the public. One side wanted to protect the dignity of the throne at all costs, while the other was terrified of dragging the Lin family into eternal damnation.

No matter how many disciples Old Master Lin had or how massive his political foundation was, compared to the millions of commoners in the empire, it was a mere drop in the bucket. Thus, Old Master Lin was far more terrified of Prince Rong ruining things than the royal family itself was.

Little did they know, a woman driven mad by jealousy and black-hearted malice was about to blow the lid off everything.

The rumor Cheng Qingyao had Qiulan spread swept across the entire capital overnight, and it was already showing signs of rippling outward to neighboring regions.

In the blink of an eye, Rong Mo went from a tragic figure whom everyone pitied to the prime target of the public’s furious curses and vitriol. There were even angry mobs screaming to burn Rong Mo alive to stave off the impending natural disaster.

Even if people were mentally prepared for the massive droughts predicted for the next two years, for commoners who relied entirely on the weather to eat, no amount of preparation guaranteed survival.

Now, a sudden “solution” had presented itself. It would be a miracle if they didn’t riot.

Cheng Qingyao was truly ruthless.

The rumor spread far too fast, catching everyone completely off guard. Prince Rong couldn’t suppress it even if he tried, not to mention there were other hidden players maliciously fanning the flames from the shadows.

When Cheng Ruyi heard the rumor, she nearly exploded with rage.

She didn’t even need to think to know this was Cheng Qingyao’s handiwork. Only a reborn female lead would know ahead of time that this winter would be incredibly short. If not for this rumor breaking out, Cheng Ruyi herself wouldn’t have even recalled that the original book mentioned this detail.

“Miss! Oh no! Master Rong Mo and the Young Master are surrounded by a massive mob at the city gates! They’re calling Master Rong Mo the son of the Calamity Star and demanding to burn him alive!” a maid panted out, rushing into the room in a desperate panic.

Cheng Ruyi leaped up instantly, a raging fire of fury igniting on her breathtakingly beautiful face.

“Move! Take me there right now!”

In her heart, she utterly loathed the imperial family and Old Master Lin for refusing to publish the truth just to protect their precious reputation. If not for their cowardice, how could such a dangerous crisis have erupted?

Straping her massive broadsword to her back, Cheng Ruyi mounted her stallion and tore out of the Changle Marquis Estate like a vengeful deity.

Along the way, she crossed paths with her frantic father, Prince Rong leading a squad of elite guards, and a desperately rushing Luo Fei…

~

At the city gates, Rong Mo, who is surrounded and shielded by a tight circle of guards, calmly protected Cheng Yu while keeping a cold eye on the crazed, agitated mob brandishing clubs and sticks all around them. Even the soldiers brought by the Governor of the Capital could not halt the frenzy of the panicked citizens.

“Everyone calm down! Calm down! Do not do anything reckless!” the Governor screamed, drenched in sweat.

Dammit! The natural disaster hadn’t even arrived yet, and these citizens were already being rioted into a frenzy by instigators. Master Rong Mo was Prince Rong’s eldest son; if he were to be harmed by these rioters, the Governor’s political career would be officially dead.

“He is the son of the Calamity Star! Kill him, and the disaster won’t come! Kill him! Kill him!” someone hidden deep within the crowd suddenly shrieked.

“That’s right, kill him!”

“Kill him!”

The crowd’s emotions boiled over as they roared in unison. Raising their clubs, they surged forward in a chaotic wave, clashing violently with the guards and soldiers. Under the deliberate agitation of malicious instigators, the commoners genuinely believed that if the jinx’s son died, the impending two-year catastrophe might miraculously vanish.

Looking at the chaotic, violent mob brawling all around them, Cheng Yu’s little face turned deathly pale from terror. He clutched Rong Mo’s sleeve tightly.

“Brother Mo, I’m scared!”

Rong Mo frowned at the rioting crowd and patted the boy’s head gently. “Don’t be scared. Nothing will happen to you.”

Seeing more and more people gathering from all directions, the Governor trembled with sheer rage. “Stop! All of you stop this instant!”

But the crowd, completely consumed by mass hysteria, could no longer hear his voice. Seeing that the situation had spiraled completely out of control, the Governor frantically ordered his remaining soldiers to prioritize protecting Rong Mo and Cheng Yu.

Kill Master Rong Mo to stop a natural disaster? Utterly ridiculous!

“STOP RIGHT THERE!”

A crisp, thunderous shout suddenly echoed from the distance.

Immediately after, a stunning young girl carrying a massive broadsword came tearing through on a galloping stallion.

The sheer psychological force laced into that roar instantly stunned both sides of the brawl. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, entirely against their own volition.

Seeing his little fiancée riding to his rescue, Rong Mo’s heart skipped a violent beat.

Cheng Yu, realizing his sister had arrived to save them, instantly lost all his fear. He waved his hands at Cheng Ruyi in sheer delight. “Sister! Over here, over here!…”

Dressed in striking red, Cheng Ruyi reined in her horse, exuding an aura of absolute dominance. Looking down upon the crowd temporarily paralyzed by her mental pressure, she cleanly drew the massive broadsword from her back. Her eyes flashed with a chilling light as a suffocating, overwhelming wave of killing intent crashed down upon the masses.

“Who wants to kill my Ah Mo? Step forward!”

Terrified by this immense, crushing aura, everyone’s legs turned to jelly. With a series of thuds, the mob dropped to their knees. The bloodshot frenzy in their eyes was instantly replaced by a deep, paralyzing horror. A few people were literally scared to the point of wetting themselves on the spot.

In an instant, the entire plaza became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

“He… He is the son of the Calamity Star! He deserves to die!” suddenly, a particularly stubborn rioter yelled out, straining his neck to defy her.

Cheng Ruyi let out a cold laugh. Her sharp eyes locked onto him, and she unleashed a targeted blast of spiritual pressure. The stubborn man instantly coughed up a massive mouthful of blood and collapsed, completely unconscious.

The crowd shuddered violently. Cold sweat poured down their faces like beads as they stared in absolute horror at the Eldest Miss of the Changle Marquis Estate, who looked exactly like a god of slaughter descended to earth.

Causing someone to vomit blood with just a glance… how terrifying!

The Governor’s face went white, his legs shaking uncontrollably.

Rong Mo’s lips curled up into a slight smile, his eyes brimming with absolute pride. My little fiancée is simply magnificent!

The onlookers who had gathered to watch the chaos felt the suffocating killing intent in the air and scrambled backward into safer territory, a deep-seated fear of this Eldest Miss taking root in their hearts.

By this time, the Marquis of Changle, Prince Rong, Luo Fei, and the others had finally arrived on horseback. Seeing his daughter/his future daughter-in-law/his cousin standing there in magnificent, terrifying glory—reducing a rioting mob to a flock of silent, trembling chickens—they all froze in utter shock.

His daughter was way too fierce!

One person alone could hold back an entire army!

“Who said Ah Mo is the son of that Calamity Star? Ah Mo’s biological mother died twenty years ago! That Calamity Star is actually the murderer who killed Ah Mo’s mother!”

“You bunch of brainless fools, you’ve been played like a fiddle by someone else and you don’t even know it!”

At this point, Cheng Ruyi didn’t give a single damn about the so-called honor of the imperial family. She blew the truth wide open. Why should Ah Mo and his deceased mother carry a disgusting scapegoat tax forever just to save the face of some royal bastards? Not a chance!

The crowd was completely stunned.

The sheer amount of scandalous information in that single statement left everyone completely speechless.

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