Chapter 1.2

Those coarse and robust old women were there to subdue her. She retreated two more steps, but her upper arm was suddenly grabbed by someone.

“Let go! Since your Li Family and I have nothing to do with each other, it’s not your Li Family’s turn to worry about where I go!”

She tried her hardest to throw them off but the other party’s hands were like iron clamps, absolutely not something she, a pampered daughter raised in the boudoir, could shake off. On the contrary, the people who came restrained her more firmly. Her wrist was twisted and her body followed, bending into an arc. The pain in her joints was only an eventuality and no matter how unwilling she was to expose her cowardice in front of the person who humiliated her, at that moment Xiao Youning was unable to control the tears that rushed forth.

“Let go of me!” She struggled, her vision a blur.

Madam Li lifted her chin slightly, giving her a victorious look. A young little girl, no matter how calm she appeared on the surface or how sharp her words were, she too was nothing more than a paper tiger once torn to pieces.

“—Mother!” Li Qingzhi, who hadn’t spoken since the beginning, finally raised his head, just in time to see her tears falling in clusters.

Xiao Youning’s appearance had always been beautiful, akin to that of flowers and the moon. She also had a pair of watery peach blossom eyes that always looked as if they were overflowing with her emotions. Even he felt his heart grow tender when facing her.

Li Qingzhi, in the end, was moved by compassion. Using a contemplative tone towards his mother, he said: “Mother, we just need to carefully explain it to Youning. She’s an intelligent person anyway, isn’t she? Surely she’ll understand our plight.”

“—Ah!” Just as the mother and child were talking, a cry of pain came from an old woman over there. “You little wench, you dare to bite people! Quickly, quickly capture her!”

It turned out that Xiao Youning had opened her mouth and ruthlessly bit the closest old woman with so much resentment that she used all of her strength to do it. The bite was so fierce that it immediately drew blood, scaring the other old women when she turned around and managed to loosen their hold.

“You bunch of useless people!!” Madam Li was so angry at the disorganized old women that she didn’t have time to take care of her son. She extended a finger toward the women and angrily rebuked them for their swiftness, rather lack thereof, in catching a person.

But when they were about to pounce on the frail girl again, they all froze on the spot, frightened by the candlestick she held in her hand.

Xiao Youning, who had struggled to break free from those servant women, immediately rushed to the elegant long case in front of the bed not far from her. Without the slightest hesitation, she grabbed the candlestick sitting atop the case, tightly holding it in her hands.

The light from the candle illuminated her eyes, making them shine a little brighter. She used the back of one hand to wipe the corner of her eyes, deliberately raising the candlestick nearer to one side of the partition screen. Her eyes, still containing a bit of wetness, curved and her hatred and anger all turned into provocation as she spat: “Come, ah.”

While speaking, she also used the candle’s flame to tease the silk strips hanging from the partition door. Every person in this small room was filled with terror, watching attentively as the flame, in an instant, burned down the area and emitted a black smoke.

“Youning, Ningning, calm down a little. Mother had no other intentions. Now that the Xiao Family was already sealed by the Brocade Clad Guards1, she’s afraid that after you leave the Li Family, you will have nowhere else to go.” Li Qingzhi extended both hands, nervously trying to appease Xiao Youning.

Xiao Youning laughed aloud at her former husband’s words. “Li Qingzhi, do you believe that? Do you even believe what you’re saying?”

Her memories of the boy who jumped over to her at the risk of falling off his horse just to protect her, the boy who smiled as he said it didn’t hurt when he broke his leg for her, were merely illusions!

Li Qingzhi’s handsome face turned deathly white; his lips moved yet after a while not a single word was uttered.

“You yourself already don’t believe in what you’re saying, then why bother trying to deceive me?!” She again shook her hands and raised them high, inadvertently catching sight of her own wrist adorned with a jade bracelet.

It was a relic from her mother. Her father had told her this was her maternal grandmother’s gift to her mother when she got married. Father complained that her mother’s greatest regret was not being able to see her grow up and give her a wedding gift. And now she was married … Xiao Youning’s heart ached. Tears once again blurred her sight, but her gaze was still firm.

Currently, it was summer, and each and every room of the house was decorated with light silk and muslin. The raised tongue of flame swept over, easily burning the cloth in a split second like a fiery dragon descending.

All of a sudden, with a roar, the entire surface of the partition door was set aflame.

The hot wave hit the onlookers in the face and their skin felt somewhat scorched. The old women were frightened and screamed for someone to fetch some water. Someone went and dragged the shrieking Madam Li away. Li Qingzhi, scared by the flames, also stepped back several paces.

Xiao Youning had set a section of the partition door on fire. Lifting her hand again, she went and ignited another section. She turned around, looked toward the inside of the room and smiled at the crowd of people fleeing out of the house in disarray.

Footnotes

The Embroidered Uniform Guard (simplified Chinese: 锦衣卫; traditional Chinese: 錦衣衞; pinyin: Jǐnyīwèi; lit.: ‘brocade-clad guard’) was the imperial secret police that served the emperors of the Ming dynasty in China. They were given the authority to overrule judicial proceedings in prosecutions with full autonomy in arresting, interrogating and punishing anyone, including nobles and the emperor’s relatives. The Embroidered Uniform Guards were tasked with collecting military intelligence on the enemy and participating in battle planning. The guards donned a distinctive golden-yellow uniform, with a tablet worn on their torso, and they carried a special bladed weapon.