She wanted to say that she merely intended to give Qin Shuying a scare, but was that really all she had in mind? That so-called scare was nothing less than an attempt to ruin someone’s innocence.

  Smack!

  Qin Yongtao spped Qin Yunyun hard across the face. She spun on the ground from the force of it, nding heavily against the wall.

  A burning pain, sharp as a bde, seared across her cheek!

  Qin Yunyun was too frightened to utter a word. She stared at Qin Yongtao in terror—this was her father, her own father—yet the look in his eyes was no better than that of an enemy.

  If looks could kill, she would have been torn to pieces a thousand times over!

  Seeing the fresh mark on his beloved daughter’s already disheveled face, Qin Yongtao’s heart clenched slightly. But when he thought of all the effort he had poured into his pns, and how this foolish act of hers had thrown everything into disarray, when he thought about that position slipping away from him, Qin Yongtao felt nothing but hatred—hatred that he had ever fathered such a useless daughter.

  “Speak! Tell me exactly what you’ve done, every st detail!”

  In an instant, he made up his mind. He had to know the whole truth from Qin Yunyun’s mouth and see if there was any chance left to remedy the situation.

  “I… I…”

  Qin Yunyun’s mind was a mess; she didn’t know where to begin.

  “You wanted to harm the Seventh Girl, but time and again she struck back! And when trouble came, you were completely unprepared. I ask you a question, and you can’t even speak. With this bit of brains and courage, you thought you could outmaneuver the Seventh Girl? Fool! Fool!”

  Seventh Girl?

  Qin Yunyun froze.

  It was as if she had found an outlet for all her rage. Thinking that the man before her was, after all, her father while Qin Shuying was an outsider, Qin Yunyun steeled herself and cried, “Father, why is her luck so good? I refuse to accept it! I refuse!”

  “You refuse? You resent me, your father, for being useless and unable to arrange a good marriage for you, is that it?”

  “No, no… it’s not that, not that…”

  “Not that? As if you’d dare! Someone like Liu Junqing—do you know how rare a man like him is? Just today the results of the metropolitan examination were released. Liu Junqing ranked third! He’s poised to become the youngest Tanhua in Great Zhou history! If your third uncle hadn’t already arranged his marriage early on, he could easily marry a princess. You think someone like him would have looked at you?”

  “Wh-what…”

  Qin Yunyun’s tear-streaked face turned bnk with shock.

  He was that good… and now that she had lost her innocence, she would never have anything to do with him again.

  News of the exam results spread quickly throughout the capital.

  Liu Junqing ranked third, Xu Zhiyang ranked 260th, Lu Changsong failed outright.

  When Nanny Fu heard about what had happened earlier that day, she practically wanted to eat Qin Yunyun’s flesh and drink Madam Xu’s blood. When she shared the exam results with Qin Shuying, she couldn’t hide the satisfaction in her tone: “Now that Young Master Liu has achieved this result, with his appearance and bearing, the neighbors are all saying the Tanhua title is as good as his. Let’s see if she still dares to touch Miss! And as for that old woman Lu and her son Lu Changsong, now that he’s failed, let’s see what face she has left. As for the Xu family, they don’t deserve this good fortune.”

  Qin Shuying calmly swirled the tea in her cup, her expression pcid without a trace of joy.

  Nanny Fu recalled what Qin Shuying had previously said about the Liu family not being interested in marriage and hesitated: “Miss, I’ve already prepared the congratutory gift since I heard the news this morning. I was waiting for your decision. Shall we send it?”

  “Since they haven’t brought up the marriage, I’ll pretend I don’t know. Send a customary gift, nothing more.”

  Nanny Fu sighed. She truly did not want the engagement to fall through and wished that Miss could one day marry Liu Junqing.

  Qin Shuying caught the look on Nanny Fu’s face. If not for the fact that this woman had been her wet nurse in her previous life, she might have grown angry by now.

  “Nanny Fu, it’s time you let go of any thoughts about the Liu family.”

  Nanny Fu was startled. Miss had already said this before, yet she hadn’t fully believed it. Although Miss had encountered several incidents afterward, there was no direct evidence implicating the Liu family, so Nanny Fu had tried to convince herself that Miss was overthinking.

  Hearing Qin Shuying say it so bluntly now, Nanny Fu looked embarrassed: “Miss, the Liu family…”

  Before she could finish, Qin Shuying cut her off: “Do you really think, without the Liu family secretly fueling things behind the scenes, that Madam Mao, Xu Peiwei, and Qin Yunyun could have found such a perfect scapegoat?”

  She had thought it over. Not many people knew about the situation. Those three were likely the main culprits. As for others like Xu Mingyi, Qin Yongtao, or even Young Madam Xu, they likely didn’t know.

  Why would Madam Mao go so far?

  The reason was simple.

  Qin Shuying had already sent people to watch Madam Xu, and she knew a bit about the Xu family’s affairs. Recently, Madam Mao’s maiden family had encountered major financial trouble, losing half their assets.

  The Mao family needed money—a lot of it.

  Madam Mao had always looked down on Qin Shuying. Most likely, she thought she could easily manipute things by sending out a few people, relying on her daughter and Qin Yunyun, expecting Qin Shuying to obediently fall into the trap.

  Nanny Fu paused in thought. Yes, how had they managed to find such a perfect family for that scheme?

  If Qin Shuying hadn’t cleverly escaped that day and had been caught at Zhao’s household, even the neighbors wouldn’t have doubted she was Yao Niang.

  It was too convenient. The Zhao’s child bride had gone missing three years ago and resembled Qin Shuying closely. Otherwise, how could they have fooled so many neighbors?

  Even if the authorities investigated afterward, the Zhao family would’ve insisted it was a mistake, and so would all the neighbors. Who would have been punished?

  By then, Qin Shuying would’ve lost her innocence and reputation, while the Zhao family would’ve been detained for two days at most. Upon release, they would receive a sum of money they’d never be able to earn in their lifetime and could flee far away.

  Meanwhile, Qin Shuying would pay the price for the rest of her life, worse than death.

  Nanny Fu shuddered and asked cautiously, “Miss, you mean… the Liu family…”

  “I have no proof yet, so I can’t say for certain. I even suspected Lu Changxuan, but he doesn’t have the means to orchestrate something like this so quickly. So it can only be the Liu family. They were looking for people early on. When they learned Xu Peiwei and Qin Yunyun wanted to act, they simply passed the matter to them while keeping their own hands clean. I’ve already sent someone to investigate quietly. It may not have been Madam Liu, but likely Liu Gongshan’s doing. As for Liu Junqing… that young man is deep and calcuting. I can’t yet see through him.”

  Although Qin Shuying said she wasn’t sure, Nanny Fu, who had seen her share of secrets within pace walls and grand households, caught on quickly and gasped, her face turning pale.

  After a moment’s silence, she said solemnly, “Miss, I was foolish before to still believe in the Liu family. But you can rest assured, from now on, I will never pce my trust in them again.”