Outside the door, Xie Jinzhao was still patiently explaining that he had not kidnapped anyone from the Zhong Family.
The next instant.
He turned and found himself facing three old serving women trussed up like rice dumplings, their mouths gagged with strips of cloth!
The scene instantly froze in awkward silence.
He forced a smile and told the servants, "How could you treat our guests like this? Untie them at once!"
The women shook their heads through their tears, letting out miserable muffled cries.
"Xie Jinzhao! You have flouted the Law, beaten commoners in the street, and kidnapped them! Now we have caught you red-handed, with the evidence right here! What do you have to say for yourself?"
Lord Qin's expression was stern. His rebuke left everyone present afraid to so much as breathe loudly.
"Lord Qin, that's not what happened! I didn't tie them up. I invited them inside to discuss things..."
"You didn't tie them up? Are you saying they tied themselves up?"
"I've been wronged..." He had a mouth, yet could not make himself understood.
"Guards, take Xie Jinzhao back to the Government Office! He will be tried another day!"
Lord Qin would not listen to him at all, and the officers seized him.
Xie Jinzhao was baffled. He clearly had not gagged those women. What on earth was going on?
Then he turned and met Qing Da's grinning face, and instantly understood.
"You lowly slave... you're getting revenge... ah, that hurts..."
Before he could finish, an officer lashed him across the back. "Get moving! Don't keep us from getting off work!"
What rotten luck. Of all the people he could have hit, he had to hit Lord Qin's son.
The boy had only come to watch the drama. Was that any reason to beat him?
Pah, what a vile man!
The farce finally ended with Xie Jinzhao being hauled away.
Several figures were hiding behind a rockery not far from the Marquis's Residence.
Liu Wan held Little Wanwan, utterly dumbfounded. Beside her legs stood Xie Zixing, barely thigh-high, poking his round little head out to watch.
The little fellow exclaimed, "Wow, that was exciting, Mother! If there's anything like this to watch again, you have to call me!"
[Mother really gave us our fill of juicy gossip.]
[But that Third Uncle really is stupid. After treating Qing Da and his daughter like that, he still expected Qing Da to help him get things done.]
[Ah, Lord Qin is a schemer too. He took the Zhong Family's money to arrest him, so Third Uncle was going to be arrested no matter what he said.]
[With enough money, you can make even ghosts turn the millstone. Hehe.]
Liu Wan suppressed the smile tugging at her lips and tapped both little ones on the forehead.
Her daughter truly knew everything.
Inside Xie Jinqiu's courtyard.
Xu Rourou was holding the child as she tended to Xie Jinqiu. Lowering her head guiltily, she said, "Fourth Master, please don't blame Eldest Madam. She has her own difficulties too. We were the ones who deceived her first, after all. All of this is my fault and Huai Shan's."
Xie Jinqiu let out a long sigh. He could not keep pretending to faint forever.
"It's not your fault. As the heir's wife, Sister-in-Law ought to shoulder responsibility for the Marquis's Residence, even if she isn't its mistress. Now that she refuses to step forward, she is bound to become the sinner of this household!"
"We absolutely cannot break off this marriage with the Zhong Family. There is no mistress managing the inner household now. If I don't take a wife, the Marquis's Residence will always be in chaos."
Xu Rourou understood.
She asked gently, "The wife Fourth Master brings home will become the mistress and shoulder the burden. That Zhong Family girl truly doesn't know what's good for her!"
She was turning down the position of mistress of the Marquis's Residence and making such a fuss.
Once she married into the family, couldn't they simply explain Huai Shan's identity to her properly?
But since Zhong Youyan was unwilling, Xu Rourou found herself somewhat tempted.
Hadn't she come to the Marquis's Residence precisely for...
Xie Jinqiu thought the same way. No matter how much of a fuss Zhong Youyan made, he would marry her first and explain afterward. Surely she would understand his difficulties.
But the Zhong Family had made such a scene that there was no graceful way to back down anymore. How could he get her to marry him?
Just then, a servant entered and handed Xie Jinqiu a letter.
"Fourth Master, Third Master has been arrested by the Government Office. This is a family letter he paid to have sent out. He says that if you follow his instructions, your marriage will definitely go smoothly."
Xie Jinqiu raised an eyebrow and unhurriedly opened the envelope.
After reading its contents, his expression darkened considerably.
Third Brother was right. If Xu Rourou went to explain with the child in her arms, she would only smear things darker the more she tried to paint them clear. And if Eldest Sister-in-Law found out...
The only way was to cook the raw rice into a finished meal!
Two days later.
Xie Jinqiu met Zhong Youyan at the Emerald Mist House.
The woman before him was bold and spirited, with undisguised disdain in her eyes.
Zhong Youyan scoffed and stopped her attendants from following her inside. The door closed. She did not take Xie Jinqiu seriously at all as she said, "Tell me, what will it take for your Marquis's Residence to agree to break off the engagement? Will fifty thousand taels of silver be enough?"
This pathetically weak man was nothing like the sort she liked.
Every Hidden Guard she kept was a powerful, sturdy, nine-foot-tall man with eight-pack abs.
With a single word from her, each of her sisters could have two of them.
Xie Jinqiu brewed a pot of tea with gentle composure. "Miss Zhong, I understand how you must feel after hearing that rumor, but I have my reasons. That child isn't of my blood, and I have never kept a mistress."
Zhong Youyan sat on a stool to one side, resting one hand on her knee.
"Oh, and? What are these reasons of yours? You took in a child who wasn't even yours?"
She did not believe a man would sacrifice his own reputation and that of his entire family for someone else's child.
Xie Jinqiu said, "If you're willing to drink this cup of tea, I'll tell you!"
Zhong Youyan sighed impatiently, stood up, and kicked over the stool she had just been sitting on.
"Say it or don't! I'm not forcing you! Hand over the marriage contract!"
Xie Jinqiu's face paled. Just as he had expected, she was unwilling to hear his explanation.
He said, "The marriage contract is in that box."
He pointed at a box to one side, and Zhong Youyan walked over.
The instant she opened it, a cloud of powder puffed into her face. Zhong Youyan's eyes widened before she slowly collapsed.
Xie Jinqiu promptly rose and caught her.
A smile curled his lips as he reached out to undo her sash.
Before long, Little Lucky Star knocked on the door outside the private room. "Miss, it's time for us to go home!"
But no one inside answered her.
A sudden foreboding seized her. She pounded on the door and tried to push it open, but it had been locked from inside and would not budge.
She stamped her feet in panic and could only shout downstairs, "Something's wrong! Something's happened to my miss!"
The manager and all the waiters downstairs immediately rushed up.
A group of grown men broke down the door. Then Little Lucky Star tearfully sent someone to the Zhong Family to fetch her master and mistress to take charge.
The two on the bed were already tangled together, their clothes disheveled.
After a physician revived Zhong Youyan, she stared at Xie Jinqiu with bloodshot eyes.
By then, the Zhong Family had arrived as well. They sealed off the place and took the two back to the Zhong Family estate.
As she walked out of the private room, Zhong Youyan's gaze fell on a tall, straight-backed Hidden Guard, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.
That Hidden Guard, however, had had his pressure points struck. His entire body was rigid, and he could not move!
That night, the Hidden Guard came in person to beg forgiveness.
Zhong Youyan discovered that her own clansmen had plotted against her! At last, she gritted her teeth and made her decision, laughing and crying at once.
"Hah, fine! You just want to force me to marry, don't you? Then I'll marry!"
Little Lucky Star watched her miss from the side, not daring to speak. It was the first time she had ever seen her miss looking so pitiful, yet so terrifying.
The Jing'an Marquis Manor was probably in for disaster.
Before you continue