Chapter 58: Calling on the Household

Suddenly, the wooden door was battered with violent thuds, shaking the small cottage as if an earthquake were striking. In the blink of an eye, the wooden latch rattled and nearly broke loose.

Taohong and Qinglian both rushed forward, leaning against the door to hold it shut, but they could only stall for a moment before the door was shoved wide open by the government soldiers.

The man who had stirred up the trouble, whose surname was Zhang, rushed in at the very front. His tiger-like eyes bulged wide as he made a bee-line for Yan Xi, pointing straight at her while shouting to the crowd of soldiers:

"It's her, officers! It's her! It's her!"

The leading soldier shifted his gaze toward Yan Xi and was momentarily stunned by her beauty. However, having come on official orders, he had to carry out his duty. He turned back to his subordinates: "What are you staring for? Take her away at once!"

Just as his voice fell, Qinglian and Taohong instantly stepped in front of their young mistress.

The soldiers drew closer, stepping ever nearer.

Qinglian’s hands trembled, her face drained of color. The moment the men were an arm's length away, she squeezed her eyes shut and shouted furiously, "Audacious! My young mistress is the junior wife of Commissioner Lu! Try taking one more step if you dare!"

The two soldiers ordered to step forward immediately halted, trembling inwardly as they exchanged glances with the leader.

The leading soldier's expression and mood shifted in an instant, matching theirs entirely, as did the man surnamed Zhang.

None of them dared to take another step forward.

Her heart pounding wildly, Qinglian opened her eyes.

Though her face was deathly pale, she had already spoken the words and had no choice but to brace herself and see it through. With reddened eye rims, she said with absolute finality, "Believe it if you wish; if not, go ahead and arrest my young mistress! Come on then!"

Naturally, none of them moved.

The head soldier looked at the man surnamed Zhang, remaining silent, but his eyes were filled with silent questioning.

How could the man surnamed Zhang possibly know? Yet, seeing Dr. Shen's true face for the first time today, he was indeed deeply shocked.

Seeing him hesitate, the soldier in charge dared even less to make a move. With a cold snort, he flicked his sleeve and turned to leave.

The two soldiers who had entered followed him out.

The man surnamed Zhang crouched low and hurried right behind them, pleading, "Officer, officer..."

The soldier in charge glared at him angrily. "You even dare to file a complaint against the Commissioner's junior wife! Damn it, you must have tired of living!"

The man surnamed Zhang shook his head repeatedly. "No, no, officer, she... she isn't... how could the Commissioner's junior wife ever end up practicing medicine among commoners?"

The head soldier snapped, "You ask me, but who do I ask? Find out the truth! If it's true, withdraw the complaint immediately—don't drag the prefect down with your damn actions!"

"Ah... ah..."

The moment the crowd left, Taohong hurried over to shut the door.

Yan Xi had already been helped down into a chair by Qinglian.

With tears welling in her eyes and her chest heaving slightly, she was clearly terrified.

Qinglian gently stroked her back.

Taohong also returned, hurrying to her young mistress's side.

All three of them had naturally overheard the parting words of the men just moments ago.

For now, they had managed to evade disaster, but no doubt that man surnamed Zhang would surely go investigate. Once he found out that she and Lu Zhi were no longer connected, he would send people back...

Unless...

Taohong broke the silence. "Young mistress, what should we do now?"

Qinglian also looked at her, slowly tightening her grip on the handkerchief in her hand.

After a brief moment to catch her breath, Yan Xi gradually regained her composure.

In the heat of the moment, Qinglian had used that excuse to scare the crowd away—she certainly couldn't allow her mistress to be dragged off—but it also pushed Yan Xi into an inescapable predicament.

She had no choice left except to go in person and see Lu Zhi.

Now that things had reached this point, how could she possibly believe he had nothing to do with it?

The young girl gently bit her lower lip and slowly stood up.

"I will go."

Qinglian and Taohong both lowered their heads. After a brief silence without another word, they busied themselves attending to their mistress, helping her dress and veiling her face.

Half an hour later, dusk was approaching.

Yan Xi and her two maids stepped out, boarded a carriage, and headed straight for the Commissioner's residence.

Upon arrival, the young girl was helped down, and Qinglian stepped forward to knock on the main gate.

The doorkeeper opened it and looked quite surprised to see her.

"Junior Mistress!"

Yan Xi remained silent, so Qinglian spoke up in her stead, "Is the master at home?"

"Yes, he is, he is."

Qinglian said, "Please announce our visit."

"Right away, right away!"

The doorkeeper hurried off at once.

Within a quarter of an hour, he returned, bowing deeply as he invited Yan Xi inside.

"Junior Mistress, the master invites you in..."

Yan Xi stepped across the threshold, guided by a young pageboy straight toward Lu Zhi's living quarters.

Before long, they arrived.

Qinglian and Taohong were left outside the beaded curtain, and the maidservant invited only Yan Xi to enter.

Through a layer of ink-colored beaded curtains, the man could be vaguely yet clearly seen sitting on a low couch, sipping tea. Every movement he made was unhurried and leisurely.

The maidservant brushed the beaded curtain aside for her, a crisp sound of jade beads colliding echoing in the air.

Yan Xi stepped inside.

Once inside, her gaze immediately landed on Lu Zhi.

The man met her eyes. His well-defined fingers were holding a teacup to his lips, and he took a small sip. Only after setting the cup down did he raise those deep, peach-blossom eyes of his to look at her with a half-smile.

"Miss Shen... what brings you to see me?"

Yan Xi clenched her fists, cutting straight to the point.

"Was this your doing?"

Lu Zhi lowered his brows slightly, uttered an "Oh?", but wore an expression of complete incomprehension.

Yan Xi's voice choked slightly, though she tried hard not to show it, her gaze resolute.

"Lu Zhi, a true man dares to act and take responsibility!"

Lu Zhi still looked thoroughly perplexed. At that moment, Dongfu, who had been standing guard by the door, took two steps forward, leaned close to Lu Zhi's ear, and murmured what had happened.

A flash of understanding crossed Lu Zhi's face, and his gaze shifted back to Yan Xi's face.

He stood up, picked up a string of prayer beads from the table, looped them around his wrist, and strolled leisurely toward her.

"Such a thing actually happened! Who on earth is so audacious as to dare bully my Wanwan!"

By the time he finished speaking, he was already standing right in front of her, separated by only the distance of two palms, looking down at her with eyes burning like fire.

Yan Xi tilted her head back higher and higher to meet his gaze, her sparkling, beautiful eyes already shimmering with rippling waves and welling tears.

The calmer his attitude, the more it proved he was the mastermind.

Unable to endure it any longer, Yan Xi snapped, "Are you still going to pretend? You feigned letting me go, thinking that since I had no means of survival, I would have no choice but to crawl back to me within days and beg for mercy. You didn't expect me to open a medical clinic, and that its business would flourish day by day. Seeing your plan fail, you ruined my clinic and framed me with a lawsuit, driving me completely into a dead end. How can you be so despicable?!"

As she spoke, consumed by anger, she raised her delicate hand to strike Lu Zhi across the face, but Lu Zhi caught it mid-air, gripping her wrist tightly.

The man took another step forward, his tall frame pressing in on her.

Yan Xi struggled, "Let go of me..."

The man's eyes smiled faintly as he clenched his jaw and spoke, "I ruined your clinic? Didn't I send people to bring you silver?"

Yan Xi struggled again, "Sending money was just a cover! You wanted that scholar surnamed Zhao to find out about our past relationship! You wanted to scare him away!"

Lu Zhi let out a laugh. "Oh, he ran away... How can your judgment of people be so poor? He ran away just because he knew about our relationship? Such a coward? Can a man who is that much of a coward be any good? Is it possible he really did dispense the wrong medicine, and you're pinning the blame on me?"

Yan Xi lifted her chin, staring fiercely at him. With one wrist restrained, her other soft, delicate hand tightly grabbed the lapel of his robe, and she said with absolute conviction, "It was you! It was definitely you!"

The man allowed her to grip him like that. After listening to her accusations, he gave a dry chuckle.

"Shen Yanxi, you are far too naive. You only see me as malicious, but do you think everyone else is a saint? A helpless young girl like you sets up a business within half a month, attracts so many daily visitors, draws away so much clientele, and builds such a resounding reputation—do you think the other medical clinics are run by fools? Did you really think no one was watching you?"

Yan Xi continued to glare at him, her fingers clenched tightly in his clothes.

Her worldly experience was indeed shallow, and the things he mentioned were beyond what she had considered. Yet, even knowing there was logic to his words, she remained certain that he was the one who had harmed her!

"Don't think that just because I've been driven to this state, I will surrender to you or come back to beg for you! If I am truly forced into a corner, I'd rather seek out another man than ever turn to you!"

The moment those words left her lips, Lu Zhi grabbed her by the chin.

The man's gaze burned fiercely, deep and dark as a ravine, and he muttered in a hoarse voice, "Say that again!"

Yan Xi let out a soft gasp, startled by him. Her vibrant lips trembled slightly, and she didn't dare repeat it—after all, it had just been words spoken in anger.

Yet she saw the man slowly lean closer, his pitch-black eyes fixed intently on her.

"Go ahead, try it. Let's see what kind of death he meets..."

Yan Xi gave him a shove.

Whether it was because she used all her strength or because he deliberately loosened his grip, in that split second of desperate struggling, she actually broke free from his hold.

Yan Xi stumbled back two steps.

Meanwhile, the man remained standing firmly in place.

Unable to bear spending even another second in his presence, Yan Xi met his gaze, breathed heavily, and turned away. She fled his room, hurried out of his living quarters, and rushed all the way out of the estate.

Qinglian and Taohong followed closely behind her.

Before long, the three of them exited the mansion.

They boarded their carriage and returned to their dwelling.

Along the way, Qinglian asked tentatively, "Did the young mistress not speak to him about..."

By "speak to him," the maidservant meant begging for his help.

Naturally, she hadn't begged him—after all, her purpose in going there hadn't been to plead with him in the first place!

Before she could even reply, the carriage suddenly lurched with a loud whinny. The bodies of Yan Xi and the two maids were thrown off balance, nearly colliding before the maids steadied her.

Immediately after, sounds of an argument erupted outside—to be precise, the sound of a man fiercely cursing out the coachman.

"Blind dog! You've got no eyes! You almost hit your young master!"

Having regained her balance, Taohong yanked back the carriage curtain, and all three of them instinctively looked outside.

They saw that their carriage driver had been dragged down by a young man clad in luxurious brocade and silk, who had already slapped the driver twice.

The young man planted his feet apart and pointed downward, yelling, "Crawl under for your grandpa right now!"

Just as he was shouting, Taohong happened to pull back the curtain.

The young man instinctively glanced over. Though he still wore an arrogant, dissolute expression, he froze instantly. Stunned as if his soul had left his body, his eyes locked directly onto Yan Xi sitting behind the maid, completely lost in a trance for a moment.

His pageboy called out to him beside him.

"Fifth Young Master..."

Only then did he snap back to his senses. He blinked his gaze away momentarily, but when he looked back, the carriage curtain had already been dropped.

The "Fifth Young Master" immediately looked down at the coachman he was holding by the collar, realizing it was indeed the driver of the carriage carrying that beauty. He promptly let the man go, tapped his palm with his folding fan, and urged impatiently, "Go, go, go!"

Scrambling and scrambling, the coachman immediately drove off.

Moments later, the wheels began to roll again. Like a man possessed, the "Fifth Young Master" stared intently at the moving carriage, then grabbed his personal attendant, muttered a couple of instructions into his ear, and gave him a smack on the rear.

"Hurry, go on!"

The pageboy immediately set off in pursuit.

********

After the carriage had dashed another three streets away, Yan Xi and her maids finally lifted the curtain again to look outside.

Qinglian comforted her, "Young mistress, don't be afraid. We've left them far behind."

Yan Xi acknowledged her with a murmur, but for some reason, an ominous premonition suddenly welled up inside her heart.

Upon returning home, the three of them bolted the door shut.

With dusk falling and night fast approaching, she figured neither the man surnamed Zhao nor the officials would come knocking anymore today.

"Let's pack."

After a moment of contemplation, Yan Xi issued the instruction to her maids.

Qinglian and Taohong had long since understood their mistress's intent.

They were going to leave first thing tomorrow morning.