"Perhaps it was just a coincidence."

  Wang sat down in a daze, lowered his head and wiped his lips with a handkerchief.

  Xie Qigong furrowed his brow and remained silent, half a day later he said in a deep voice: "Let Qi Jie also pay attention to her manners. Ai Jie's private meeting with Wei Gongzi is already against the rules, and it's even more improper for her to wander around at night with Xuan Ge! She's not young anymore, don't let her cause another incident like the one where she stole the jade!"

  "Yes."

  Wang hastily stood up, nodded in agreement, but the handkerchief he was holding onto gradually loosened.

  As long as Xie Qi is not brought out to interrogate, no matter how dissatisfied Xie Qigong is with her, Wang Shi doesn't care. If Xie Qi is investigated and it is revealed that she designed the plot to harm Xie Wan and Wei Zuo, then Xie Qigong, who has been pinning his hopes on Xie Wei, hoping that she was the one who married into the Wei family, will definitely shift his anger onto her.

  Offending the Wei family is no small matter. Xie Qi was punished and lost the marriage with the Ren family, not to mention that Xie Hong, as his father, would also be held accountable for his mistakes. If Xie Qigong were to get angry and do something to him, such as kicking them out of the house, it would be a huge trouble. Now that he has a family to support, what can he use to make a living?

  So, Xie Qi's plan can't be exposed, as long as Xie Qigong doesn't suspect anything and treats Wei Cen with kindness and courtesy, retreating in order to advance and enticing the Wei family to acknowledge this matter. Wei Cen himself would also find it inconvenient to speak of this matter. Then, relying on Ren Jun's introverted personality, he wouldn't say anything, so even if Xie Wan herself jumps out and accuses Xie Qi, it would be an empty claim with no evidence.

  Xie Wan managed to escape from Xie Qi's control, but this mute debt she couldn't avoid paying.

  Wang's heart slightly relaxed, and he secretly went to warn Xie Qi not to mention it.

  The next day, Xie Qigong had Pang Xin personally send two letters to the capital. One was sent to the Wei Mansion and the other was sent to Xie Rong.

  At this time, the whole house was already buzzing with the news that Xie Yu and Wei Qian had been caught secretly meeting in the backyard. Xie Yu locked herself in her room after returning home and refused to come out. Qi Bao and Hua Qi took turns guarding the door but were unable to enter. Huang Shi was bedridden and insisted on letting Qi Bao send Xie Yu to a nunnery.

  Wei Xiao was thus delayed for half the night, and early in the morning he came over to the upper house, dressed up. Xie Qigong was sighing in the room, seeing him come, didn't ask anything, but as usual invited him to take the upper seat. However, the forced smile on his face was so obvious that Wei Xiao couldn't say a word of explanation, and he couldn't speak like normal days.

  Wei Xiao sat on a needle cushion. He was not good at fighting wits with others, and he couldn't see through what the Xie family was selling in this gourd. After drinking half a cup of tea, he saw that Xie Qigong still didn't give him a chance to explain, so he came out with a huff, turned around, and encountered ambiguous gazes everywhere. Just as he didn't know where to go, Xie Yun suddenly rushed out from the side and punched him in the face.

  "You scoundrel! How dare you ruin my sister's reputation! I treated you like a brother all along, but I never expected you to be this kind of person!"

  Xie Yun was not good at fighting, but only grabbed his collar and punched and kicked. However, there was no method to it, and after a beating, Wei Xiao had been hit by several punches, but he himself was also exhausted to the point of near death.

  Wei Zhen was seething with anger. He had clearly gone to find Xie Wan, fearing that she would be taken advantage of by scoundrels, who cared about Xie Yu's reputation or not? Xie Yu had appeared out of nowhere on her own accord. If he hadn't been afraid that she would be scared alone in there, why would he have accompanied her into the teahouse and waited for people to bump into them? Now it had become his fault! The more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt. However, he wasn't like Ren Jun, a softie who would immediately start throwing punches at Xie Yun.

  The two of them immediately rolled around on the ground. They fought and shouted, scaring people nearby to rush around to find help.

  Xie Wan was in the study writing when she heard the news, and upon hearing it, she hastily threw down her pen and rushed over.

  Ren You regretted what happened last night and didn't sleep all night, and he hadn't realized that there was anything wrong with the situation between Wei Xiao and Xie Yu at the time. He had just leaned against the pillow when he heard a commotion outside. When asked about the reason, his thoughts finally turned to this matter, which had been completely ignored by him. After hesitating for a moment, he quickly got dressed and got out of bed.

  As soon as he came out of the hospital gate, he bumped into Xie Qi.

  Xie Qi's eyes welled up with tears as she looked at him: "Jun Gege."

  He pushed her aside and hurried towards the corridor where Wei Xiao and Xie Yun were.

  Xie Qi gritted his teeth and followed up, no longer daring to say anything.

  Wei Cai and Xie Yun have separated, the originally handsome couple now looks disheveled with messy hair, untied collars, and bruises on their faces. They have been summoned by Xie Qigong and Wang Shi to the main courtyard, where everyone from the first and third branches has gathered except for Xie Wei, while Xie Liang is absent due to school, so only Xie Wan from the second branch has come.

  "Kneel down, Brother Yun!"

  Xie Qigong pointed at Xie Yun and scolded him angrily.

  Xie Yun was dissatisfied and said with a pale face: "I didn't do anything wrong, I don't understand why I have to kneel!"

  "You dare to talk back? The master tells you to kneel and you'll kneel!"

  "Mother!" Xie Yun clenched her fists, her eyes blazing with anger: "How can you be so muddle-headed? Don't you know what's being said about your sister now? She was brought up to be chaste and virtuous, a renowned lady of our county. Whoever saw her would praise the strict upbringing of the Xie family. And yet, overnight, she's been ruined by Wei Cai and turned into a wanton woman with loose morals! Shouldn't I stand up for her and demand justice?!"

  Huang looked at his son, speechless.

  Xie Wei's plan was so absurd that even she herself felt a little ridiculous. How could she possibly discuss this with Xie Yun? Moreover, such a big matter would affect the overall situation if it were to be revealed carelessly. So, apart from her daughter, she had never breathed a word about this to anyone else.

  What can Xie Yun say now?

  Xie Yun looked at his mother like that, and was truly disappointed. He didn't know that his mother, who had always been so loving to them, would also choose to swallow her anger because of the Wei family's power! What did the Xie family's reputation become? What did Xie Wei become? The reminders from his grandfather and father to maintain the family's reputation at all times, what was the point of it all?!

  He couldn't express his anger and glared at Wei Jie again, feeling more and more disgusted with him.

  Wang hastily mediated: "Young Master Yun, don't be rude!" At the same time, he pointed to the guest seat on the left and said, "Master Wei, please take a seat quickly."

  Wei Xiao wiped away the blood from the corner of his mouth with a scowl.

  Wang was somewhat embarrassed. If she didn't know that all of this was Xie Qi's deliberate creation, she would probably also feel unhappy because of his lack of respect. But precisely because she knew that Wei Xiao was the most innocent victim among them, she still had to coax him not to summon Xie Qi, so how could she have the heart to calculate against him?

  "Gege is impulsive, we will deal with him ourselves. Master Wei, please don't blame us." She coaxed in a gentle tone and pointed at Su Luo to hurry up and serve tea.

  Xie Yun was so angry that she gritted her teeth and made a hissing sound.

  No one emphasized whether he knelt or not for the time being. Xie Qigong originally wanted to wait until the Wei Mansion received the letter and responded before showing his hand to Wei Cai, but now that Xie Yun had already broken the window paper, it saved him from thinking of a way to bring up the topic. So whether Xie Yun knelt or not was no longer important.

  "Although Brother Yun is reckless, he's not entirely unreasonable. Master Wei, we're all aware of what happened last night. Our sister Yu is simple-minded, but she also knows the teachings for women and has always been virtuous. Normally, she wouldn't even dare to slightly misbehave. Now that something like this has happened, it must be because you two are fated to be together. I'd like to ask, Master Wei, what plans do you have regarding our sister Yu?"

  Xie Qigong's words were spoken, and everyone in the room cast their eyes on Wei Cai.

  Huang was most astonished; she had never mentioned this matter to Xie Qigong and Wang, so how could they have coincidentally come up with the same idea?

  Xie Yun's anger turned into shock and he stared at Wei Jiao, as if waiting to see how he would react.

  "When was Wei Xiao surrounded like this? With a burst of anger, he no longer cared about etiquette and coldly said: 'Plan? What plan do I have? Your eldest sister's reputation has nothing to do with me!'"

  "Prince Wei!"

  Xie Qigong lowered his voice, "If you say so, then I'll have to wait for Lord Wei to arrive and personally ask him about the law! To be honest with you, sir, after what happened between you and Ai Jie yesterday, I've already sent letters to your father and Dogzi. I reckon that within three to five days, there will definitely be news coming from your esteemed household. Your father is a man of great reputation, but if you refuse to acknowledge your wrongdoing even unto death, it's likely to make him even angrier!"

  Wei Xiao looked up at him with his face pale with rage, the previously dignified and elegant young nobleman nowhere to be seen.

  Xie Wan sat beside Huang Shi, and had yet to speak a word.

  Xie Qigong's intention is already very clear, that is to take the opportunity to force Wei Zhan to recognize Xie Wei, which coincides with what Xie Wei thought. And Huang Shi's surprise explains that they had not communicated before, and now Xie Qigong put forward such a request, which is also in the identity of the family head to help Xie Wei out.

  Huang's family is not actually a selfish person, born in a farming and reading family, she still has her own principles and dignity to some extent. If she was a timid person who feared power and endured silently, then when facing Zhao Zhen's couple holding Xie Wei's geng tie, she would not have been so excited and disregarded the consequences.

  Her tolerance for this can only show that Xie Wei's determination is firm, and as a mother, she has already been unable to stop it.

  Xie Wei is far more cunning and resourceful than Xie Qi, so how can Wei Qian escape this predicament?

  As for Wei Qian's significance to Xie Wan, she couldn't just watch him sink into the mire without doing anything. The hole that Xie Yu dug this time was so deep that even if Wei Bin, as a second-grade official, personally intervened, he might not be able to get him out of it. Now that Xie Qigong has exposed the matter in the capital, she must think of a solution before Xie Rong gets involved.