This Little Sister Is So Beautiful

"Ningyan?" Xu Pingzhi froze.

Tears still hung on Li Ru's face, and her joyful expression went rigid.

"Two days ago, Xu Qi'an made a fuss in jail, demanding to see the prefect and saying he had an important lead to report. The prefect then solved the case. Under Great Feng law, you naturally came to no harm when he rendered meritorious service to atone for the crime," the clerk said.

"I-is that so?" Xu Pingzhi stammered. He had brought Xu Qi'an home and raised him when he was still no bigger than a kitten. How could he not know what his nephew was like?

Xu Pingzhi suspected the clerk was lying, but he had no proof.

It was that little bastard of a nephew? Li Ru's pretty face lost all color.

Hadn't their son pulled strings to save the family? How could it have been their ill-fated nephew? Wasn't he in jail?

Full of doubts, Xu Pingzhi led his wife and daughters out the rear gate of the prefectural office. There they saw Xu Qi'an anxiously waiting at the gate, combing his bird's-nest hair.

The moment the warrior saw his nephew, the doubts buried in his heart no longer seemed important. Warmth welled up inside him, and his eyes reddened as he strode forward. He had meant to hug his nephew, but felt it was too sentimental and couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead, he clapped him hard on the shoulder. "Ningyan, well done."

He nearly sent Xu Qi'an to an early grave on the spot.

"Second Uncle, you're at Peak Qi Refining. There's a whole rank between us," Xu Qi'an said naturally, without the slightest awkwardness.

Surprised by how natural it felt, he looked past Second Uncle Xu's shoulder at the three women behind him.

Heh, Auntie, even you have days when you look this bedraggled. The thought surfaced unbidden.

His schadenfreude didn't last long before his sister's beauty caught his attention.

The girl wore loose prison clothes, and her disheveled hair hung beside a delicate, classically beautiful, oval face. Her nose was high and shapely, giving her features, at first glance, some of the definition of a mixed-race beauty's.

She was also at the age when girls were at their freshest and purest, and the combination gave her a charm that made it impossible to look away.

Holy shit, I actually have such a fresh, otherworldly little sister. Xu Qi'an was stunned.

In the original owner's memories, his sister's appearance was quite blurry, probably because he hadn't paid her much attention. And because of his aunt, he had also let his dislike of her spill over onto her children.

He hadn't been very friendly to his younger cousins.

Noticing her elder brother's scorching gaze, Xu Lingyue timidly called him "Big Brother" and lowered her head, a little shy.

"Big Brother!" All of a sudden, he heard a little "Awoo!"

Five-year-old Xu Lingyin was just a tiny little thing. She came trotting over, skidded to a stop in front of Xu Qi'an, and tilted her head up to look at him expectantly.

Xu Qi'an waved a hand. "I don't have any candy for you. I only just got out of jail myself."

It was worth mentioning that, although the original owner didn't like his younger cousins, he had treated this youngest sister fairly well, because at last, her looks hadn't been inherited from her mother.

"What's a jail?"

"It's where you've been sleeping these past few days."

"What about my other brother? Did he bring candy?"

"He didn't come."

"Oh." The little one looked disappointed. The other brother she spoke of was Xu Xinnian, her full brother, though she didn't yet know the difference between a cousin and a brother.

This youngest sister wasn't very bright; she was a silly little child. She must have inherited that from her mother-or so the original owner had believed.

Finally, he looked at his aunt, Li Ru. This woman, who had always thrown her weight around in front of Xu Qi'an, had probably never imagined in her life that one day she would have to humble herself and thank her ill-fated nephew.

The beautiful woman stiffly turned her head away. "Th-thank you, Ningyan," she said reluctantly.

At that moment, a blurry memory surfaced in Xu Qi'an's mind.

When his aunt had driven him into the small courtyard next to the Xu Residence, Xu Qi'an's hair had bristled with fury as he pointed at the heavens and swore, "I, Xu Qi'an, will make something of myself one day. You'd better not regret this!"

Now that he thought about it, it was so embarrassing. Wasn't that the auntie version of "Don't bully a poor youth"?

Looking at the relationship between the original owner and his aunt from an objective outsider's perspective, Xu Qi'an saw that it wasn't entirely the beautiful woman's fault.

Xu Qi'an practiced martial arts, consuming over a hundred taels of silver a year. That was equivalent to twenty or thirty years' savings for an ordinary family-and a well-off one at that.

It was only natural that his aunt harbored resentment. So Xu Qi'an said sincerely, "Auntie, don't be in such a hurry to thank me. Wait until we've gone home and eaten, then say it again."

Li Ru immediately widened her big, doll-like eyes and glared at her ill-fated nephew.

Xu Pingzhi's scalp tingled. "Let's go home first!" he said sternly.

Carrying a wine flask, Xu Xinnian staggered back to the Xu Residence, the home where he had lived for nineteen years. Now the gate was plastered with official seals, and the place was deserted and desolate.

Xu Xinnian kicked the gate open, stepped over the threshold, and walked unsteadily a few paces inside before turning back to close it.

Hanging himself was nothing to be proud of, much less a dignified act for a scholar like him. So he couldn't draw the authorities' attention.

He had his pride to consider.

He walked from the outer courtyard to the inner courtyard, as though traversing a long life.

He had learned to read at three, recited poetry at five, and was already well versed in the Sage's classics by ten. At fourteen, he had entered Cloud Deer Academy to study. At eighteen, he had become a provincial graduate.

It was no exaggeration to call him exceptionally gifted.

His intelligence and extensive learning had shaped his proud character.

Before his family, he had always been proud, promising, and distinguished-the future pillar of the Xu Household.

As a grown man, he would rather die a glorious death than live in humiliation.

At that thought, Xu Xinnian drained the wine flask in his hand and smashed it on the ground.

Buoyed by the wine, he rushed into his room, ground ink, took up his brush, and wrote the finest farewell poem of his life.

Xu Xinnian laughed loudly three times, snatched up the sheet of rice paper, and burst out the door. He took out the hemp rope he had prepared and hung it from the ginkgo tree in the inner courtyard.

He was surprised to find that, facing death, he wasn't afraid at all. He only felt a freedom he had never known before.

Suddenly, he understood those wild, unrestrained scholars a little. Only when one's heart knew no fear could one look down upon the world.

If he wasn't even afraid of death, what was there in the world to fear?

The Capital was prosperous, renowned as the foremost city under heaven.

Xu Qi'an made his way slowly through the bustling ancient city. Carriages flowed like water and horses like dragons; shops lined both sides of the street, their banners and streamers snapping fiercely in the wind.

A verse came unbidden to his mind: Misty willows and painted bridges, wind-stirred curtains and emerald drapes, a hundred thousand homes rising in uneven rows.

In fact, the Capital was even more prosperous than the Qiantang of the verse. The Geographical Records of Great Feng recorded: "In the early years of Yuanjing's reign, the Capital had a population of over 1.96 million."

It was now the thirty-sixth year of Yuanjing's reign.

The Capital's population had probably already exceeded two million.

The Xu Residence was a compound with three courtyards, where seven or eight maids and servants had once been kept. Now the servants and maids had long since been dismissed, the gate was locked, and the place was deserted.

Auntie glanced at the plaque above the gate, a jumble of emotions in her heart. "I wonder how Nian'er is. He must be so worried about us. That child said before we were imprisoned that he would definitely get us out."

She walked inside as she spoke.

Housing in the Capital was expensive. A compound with three courtyards like this would cost at least five thousand taels of silver. A thirty-percent down payment would be fifteen hundred taels-Pah! Why am I still thinking about housing prices when I'm in another world?

Xu Qi'an grimaced.

Xu Pingzhi comforted her. "Nian'er is well read in the works of the sages, steady and reliable. He must still be running around on our behalf. We'll give him a surprise when he gets back."

Oh no. Xu Qi'an's expression changed. He knew Xu Xinnian intended to take his own life.

In Second Uncle and Auntie's eyes, Xu Erlang was a strong-willed man of few smiles, steady and reliable, an unyielding scholar.

"Hahaha! I, Xu Xinnian, am a carefree man in life and an untamed ghost in death!"

"Xu Xinnian is overflowing with talent, but alas, the Heavenly Dao is unjust!"

"Had heaven not brought forth me, Xu Xinnian, all the ages of Great Feng would be a long night!"

Beneath the ginkgo tree, the scholar standing on the chair suddenly removed his hair crown and flung it away, then shook his head hard, sending his hair flying loose.

He was wild and arrogant, free and unrestrained. He slipped his head into the noose-and saw his family, their expressions stiff and their gazes blank.

I, Xu Xinnian, have been wild and unrestrained all my life, loving freedom. Xu Xinnian overflows with talent, but the Heavenly Dao is unjust. Had heaven not brought forth me, Xu Xinnian, all the ages of Great Feng would be a long night. Looking at his unexpectedly returned family, Xu Xinnian felt he was a moment too late to die.

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