"I uncovered the truth behind Sang-sang's disappearance all those years ago. You were the one who had someone carry her away, keeping our family apart for over a decade."
Ning Xiaotian stared at Little Lin, his face stern and his voice icy.
Ning Sang-sang raised her eyebrows at his words.
[Coming home really switched on my family's brains, huh? Dad actually uncovered the truth ahead of time.]
Little Lin was horrified. Her hands clenched beneath her sleeves as she struggled to remain calm. Looking at Ning Xiaotian as though she had suffered the greatest injustice in the world, she said plaintively, "Cousin-in-law, what are you talking about? What do you mean, I had someone carry Sang-sang away and kept your family apart for over a decade? My cousin and I have been close since childhood. I've always treated her as my own sister, from the bottom of my heart. I could never do anything so vicious."
Ning Sang-sang snarked inwardly:
[This blackhearted aunt is quite the actress. Look at that utterly wronged, aggrieved expression. You'd almost believe it. First, she'll pour out her grievances to Dad, then she'll cry to Mom: Cousin, you have to believe me! We grew up together. Don't you know what sort of person I am? I've always treated you as my own sister, from the bottom of my heart. I could never hurt you. You have to believe me, Cousin.]
[Once my blackhearted aunt says that, Mom, who has always treated her as her own little sister, will see how terribly wronged she looks and definitely speak up for her, saying she doesn't believe my blackhearted aunt could do such a thing.]
Hearing Ning Sang-sang's thoughts, everyone stared at Little Lin's mouth. The next moment, they heard her sob to Madam Jiang, "Cousin, you have to believe me! We grew up together. Don't you know what sort of person I am? I've always treated you as my own sister, from the bottom of my heart. I could never hurt you. You have to believe me, Cousin."
Madam Jiang: "..."
Ning Xiaotian: "..."
Ning Hui: "..."
Sure enough, she had said exactly what Ning Sang-sang had thought. Now they all believed Ning Sang-sang's words without a shred of doubt.
"I've treated you as my own little sister all these years. Whenever I had anything good, I always shared it with you. Yet you had someone take my child away. How could your heart be so vicious?"
Madam Jiang glared at Little Lin, her face full of anger, and berated her furiously.
[Now that Mom has said that, my blackhearted aunt will sob: Cousin, I really didn't do anything like that. You have to believe me.]
"Cousin, I really didn't do anything like that. You have to believe me." Looking as though she had suffered the greatest injustice imaginable, Little Lin sobbed her grievances to Little Lin.
Ning Sang-sang watched her performance with relish, narrating the plot inwardly:
[Hearing my blackhearted aunt's sobbing pleas, Mom will start wavering, thinking she really might have wronged her. Then, seeing Mom stay silent, my blackhearted aunt will put on a self-sacrifice act right on the spot and say: Cousin, since you don't believe me, I'll prove my innocence with my death. Then she'll try to ram her head into a pillar. Mom will be so frightened that she'll immediately order someone to stop her, saying she believes her and begging her not to do anything foolish. No matter what Dad tells her, she won't believe my blackhearted aunt could do something like this.]
[Dad won't find any evidence of my aunt's crimes, so the matter will just fizzle out.]
[When my blackhearted aunt tries to smash her head against the wall, I'm definitely holding Mom back. Let her bash herself to death, damn it.]
Seeing that Madam Jiang remained silent, Little Lin wept like pear blossoms drenched in rain. "Cousin, since you don't believe me, I'll prove my innocence with my death."
With that, she put on a look of desperate resolve and ran toward a pillar.
No one in the hall moved to stop her.
Seeing that no one was stopping her, Little Lin had no idea what to do next. She simply went limp and pretended to faint onto the floor.
Ning Sang-sang hurried over and pinched the spot above her upper lip as hard as she could, shouting, "Blackhearted Aunt, what's wrong? Don't scare me!"
She howled with laughter inside. [Hahaha! My turn to put on a show. You dare pretend to faint? Watch me torment you to death.]
Hearing Ning Sang-sang's thoughts, Madam Jiang, her husband, and Jiang Qingyuan wore peculiar expressions.
Meanwhile, Ning Hui watched with sparkling eyes, thinking that his big sister's temperament suited him perfectly.
Little Lin screamed in agony inside as Ning Sang-sang pinched her. But to look pitiful and win Madam Jiang's sympathy, she endured the pain and refused to wake up. She thought that everyone she had arranged to harm Madam Jiang back then had been disposed of, so Ning Xiaotian certainly couldn't find any evidence. As long as she insisted she hadn't harmed Madam Jiang's daughter and acted wronged before them, putting on this show of suffering, Madam Jiang and Xiaotian might abandon their suspicions. After all, Ning Xiaotian had found no proof.
Seeing her endure the pain without waking, Ning Sang-sang turned to Ning Hui, who was watching her with shining eyes, and said solemnly, "Little brother, I heard dog shit can cure fainting. Tell the servants to get some and feed it to our blackhearted aunt."
"Okay!" Ning Hui answered happily.
Little Lin's expression changed drastically. Terrified that Ning Sang-sang and that little brat Ning Hui would feed her dog shit, she no longer dared pretend. She promptly woke up, got to her feet, and looked at Ning Xiaotian with an aggrieved expression. "Cousin-in-law, you say I had Sang-sang taken away. Do you have any proof?"
Ning Xiaotian frowned deeply. What proof could he have? He had learned all this from his daughter's thoughts.
Had he not been able to hear them, he would never have known that this seemingly delicate, pitiful woman had such a vicious heart.
[My blackhearted aunt had Chen Ping, her personal guard who was deeply in love with her, kill everyone who knew the truth back then. To keep the matter from coming to light, she even tricked Chen Ping into going to the mass burial ground. When he wasn't expecting it, she stabbed him in the heart with a dagger. Assuming he was certain to die, she left without a shred of mercy.]
[Little did she know that Chen Ping's heart was on the right. That stab didn't kill him. A young novice from the Mercy Convent rescued him. Afterward, Chen Ping hid his identity and became a sweeping monk at the Mercy Convent.]
[Finding Chen Ping will reveal all the wicked things my blackhearted aunt did back then. I'll have to find some time to visit the Mercy Convent and look for him.]
Little Melon reminded her, [Host, you can't actively interfere with the main plot's development. Your job is to enjoy the drama, nothing else. Tug one strand and the whole body moves. If you actively interfere with the plot, you might cause this world, which sprang from a novel, to collapse.]
Ning Sang-sang frowned. [So I can only sit and watch?]
Little Melon said, [That's right, Host. Just enjoy the drama. Don't actively interfere with the plot's development. Let it unfold on its own.]
Ning Sang-sang: "..."
What a rotten deal.
Hearing Ning Nuannuan's thoughts, Ning Xiaotian said coldly, "Do you remember Chen Ping?"
At the name Chen Ping, a flicker of panic crossed Little Lin's eyes, but she quickly concealed it. Forcing herself to remain calm, she said, "Cousin-in-law, who is Chen Ping? I don't know him."
Ning Xiaotian caught that flash of panic and knew that everything his daughter had thought was true. His expression darkened. Seeing Little Lin remain stubborn as a dead duck with a stiff beak, refusing to shed tears until she saw the coffin, he said gravely, "You didn't kill Chen Ping back then. He told me everything that happened."
Ning Sang-sang's eyes lit up, and she couldn't help praising him inwardly:
[My dad's pretty impressive! He actually found Chen Ping.]
Wait, that wasn't right. In the plot, her dad hadn't found Chen Ping this quickly. Had her arrival changed the story? And there was her second brother, too. In the original plot, he had ended up taking on another man's mess. Yet now that she had returned home, the book's plot seemed to be changing everywhere. She couldn't help asking Little Melon in her sea of consciousness, [Little Melon, my coming home seems to be changing the plot without me doing anything. Will that have any harmful effects?]
Little Melon replied, [Host, changes to the plot are normal. There won't be any harmful effects. As long as you aren't actively interfering with its development to change it, there won't be any negative consequences.]
Ning Sang-sang was reassured.
Chen Ping hadn't died at her hands back then, and he had even told Ning Xiaotian what had happened. Little Lin was so shocked that she was almost speechless.
But she soon decided Ning Xiaotian must be lying. She had driven the dagger hard into Chen Ping's heart and pierced it. There was absolutely no way he could have survived. She opened her mouth, about to say something, only to hear Ning Xiaotian say, "Chen Ping's heart is different from most people's. His heart is on the right. Your stab didn't kill him. He was lucky enough to be rescued and survived."
What? Chen Ping's heart was on the right?!
Little Lin's expression instantly turned ugly, and storm-tossed waves surged through her heart. She had stabbed the left side of Chen Ping's chest, where his heart should have been... Had he really survived...?
While she was still reeling in horror, Ning Xiaotian said coldly, "Chen Ping told me everything. You repaid kindness with hatred and always wanted to poison my father-in-law and mother-in-law. Jingshu treated you as her own little sister, yet you envied her for living better than you did. All these years, you've been secretly harming her.
"Before she gave birth to Sang-sang, she went to a temple to pray for blessings. You had people lie in ambush along the route she had to take and frighten her, causing her to go into premature labor and give birth to Sang-sang. Wanting us to spend the rest of our lives in the agony of losing our child, you then ordered someone to bury Sang-sang."
Those icy words drained the color from Little Lin's lovely face. She looked up, still wanting to argue, but when her gaze met Ning Xiaotian's murderous eyes, her body began trembling involuntarily with fear. She could barely speak.
"After committing such evil, you venomous woman, I will never let you off. Guards, take this venomous woman to the Dali Temple," Ning Xiaotian ordered coldly.
Little Lin's face instantly blanched with terror. She hurriedly sobbed to Madam Jiang, who had remained silent beside them. "Cousin, I never did those things! I've been wronged! You..."
Smack!
Before she could finish, Madam Jiang stepped forward and slapped her hard across the face.
"I thought I'd treated you well all these years, yet you..."
Madam Jiang was so furious that words failed her. She rubbed her brow, her head aching. After collecting herself, she told Ning Xiaotian, "Husband, have someone take her to the Dali Temple. Have Chen Ping sent there too. I won't spare a single person who harmed my daughter."
[Stop wasting words on her. Hurry and send her to the Dali Temple. Have her exiled to the desert to grow watermelons.]
Ning Sang-sang urged them inwardly.
Hearing Ning Sang-sang's thoughts, Ning Xiaotian stopped wasting words on Little Lin and immediately ordered people to take her to the Dali Temple.
Next, he sent people to seize Chen Ping. After comforting his wife, whose heart had been wounded by Little Lin, he set off for the Dali Temple.
Ning Hui and Ning Sang-sang, both fond of watching a good spectacle, went along to the Dali Temple. Sitting in the carriage, Ning Sang-sang leaned lazily against its wall and enjoyed the gossip about the deputy chief of the Dali Temple.
[This deputy chief of the Dali Temple is so pitiful.]
Ning Xiaotian: "???"
Ning Hui: "???"
What was so pitiful about the deputy chief of the Dali Temple? Big sister, come on, give us the details!
Before you continue