Xin Yongwang went on to tell a love story.
In that story, he was a silly, young man who dreamed of getting together with the beautiful and rich young lady. But the young lady was already about to marry someone else and he thought he didn’t stand a chance. That was until something happened and the lady had forgotten everything. He seized the chance to come into her life, to gain her favor and even used what he already knew about her to make her like him more.
But these happy times only lasted for about half a year. One day, he left to attend to some matters, only to return and find that the lady had disappeared. After searching for her, he found out that she had gone back to her home and had forgotten what happened over the last six months.
Everything he had done had come to nothing, like pouring water into a basket with holes. He was left with nothing.
“I admit that I was very despicable, very selfish. But I couldn’t hold myself back. At that time… Young Mistress was exceptionally warm to me…”
All this time, Ye Nan had remained silent. But she finally broke her silence at this point. She turned her pale face toward him and snapped, “Shut up!”
“Yes, Young Mistress…”
Xin Yongwang swallowed the rest of his original sentence, bowed his head and went on, “Young Mistress had forgotten me and started thinking about Liao Xingjian again as she waited for him to return. Liao Xingjian eventually came back as well and he still liked her just as much as before. They were such a loving couple, so I…”
“I dared not do anything to disrupt them and treated what happened as just a dream. I kept this dream, a dream that only I knew about, a secret.”
Xin Yongwang went on to talk about the pain he suffered, the struggles and inner turmoil he went through, then how he finally endured the pain and decided to give the couple his blessings.
And this was when Xi Rui came knocking on their door with her child.
Xin Yongwang’s expression grew nasty at this point and he raised his voice as well. “Liao Xingjian had another woman out there, even had a child with her, yet he dared to covet Young Mistress! He was no longer worthy of her! He should have just continued living his own life with the other woman! He already had a child with another woman but he continued to hang on to Young Mistress, so I was sure that he had other ulterior motives. He was eyeing the Night Sanctum!”
“I couldn’t just sit by and do nothing, so I tried to persuade Young Mistress to give up Liao Xingjian and be with me instead…”
Xin Yongwang clenched his fists. “I told Young Mistress what happened during those six months and it was hard for her to accept it…”
“I didn’t mean to upset her, but I didn’t want her to become troubled by all these things and lose not only her husband but the Night Sanctum as well. She was unsure of what to do, so I pushed her, saying that if she didn’t go with my plans, I’d tell Liao Xingjian and everyone else about this.”
“…That’s what happened between us.”
Throughout the story, Xin Yongwang portrayed himself as a deeply devoted and sentimental man. He was selfish and a little scheming, but they were all for good reasons.
At the end of the day, he was merely a victim who had been played out by fate.
Every person in the room was affected by this story and they looked at Xin Yongwang and Ye Nan with pity in their eyes.
But Song Caitang fell into deep thought.
She paused to think, then asked Xin Yongwang, “When you were sent out four years ago to look for Ye Nan, didn’t you have to report back to the sect?”
How could he have spent a good six months with Ye Nan without anybody finding out about it?
By that time, Xin Yongwang was no longer some small fry in the outer halls. He had some standing in the sect and had begun his upward climb. It would be impossible for him to go missing for so long without anyone noticing.
Xin Yongwang bowed his head. “I would report back every now and then and tell them that I did not find Young Mistress… And if I had not gone to report that one last time and just stayed with her, then after she woke up she might not have… reached this current state of affairs.”
“I see…” Song Caitang softened her voice slightly. “But I heard that you only started showing your feelings for Ye Nan during the past two years.”
The servants in the Sanctum had all said so, and so had Dong Xin.
Xin Yongwang replied, “Like I said earlier, I didn’t want Young Mistress to be troubled or upset, so I didn’t mention it at all until Liao Xingjian went too far and I couldn’t help but… I’ve really been in love with Young Mistress for a long, long time now.”
Song Caitang asked, “Ye Nan has already forgotten what happened four years ago. Do you have any proof that what you said really happened?”
Xin Yongwang froze for a moment, then glanced at Ye Nan with a mix of shyness and happiness in his eyes. “I do. Back then, she gave me her earring as a proof of her love.”
He pulled something out from his inner pocket and placed it on his palm.
Song Caitang just needed to take one look at it and she immediately understood why Ye Nan believed him.
This earring was obviously a very expensive one. It was in the shape of a calabash, a symbol of good fortune, the setting was made from gold and high quality tourmaline and ruby gems were embedded into the setting. Also, Ye Nan’s name was engraved at the back.
It was impossible to make a copy of this.
“I know you suspect me,” Xin Yongwang looked up at Song Caitang and smiled. “I did something terrible and it is only right for you to suspect me. In fact, if you didn’t, I would say that you aren’t being serious about investigating this case. But everything I did was for a reason. My feelings are real, just like the time I spent with Young Mistress.”
“Otherwise, how could I possibly get my hands on her things and give you so many details about what happened then?”
Song Caitang looked at Ye Nan.
Ye Nan nodded with a look of pain and resignation on her face.
Millet’s Dream had caused that part of her memories to be as hazy as a dream. She couldn’t remember most of it, but she did recall a few details.
The few things that Xin Yongwang had mentioned matched her vague memories.
And then that earring…
Of course she believed him. How could she not?
Song Caitang also felt that everything had fallen into place perfectly and made perfect sense. But it was also because it was simply too perfect and free of loopholes or missing pieces, and also because Xin Yongwang had answered every question very quickly with great detail…
It made her feel like he had prepared everything beforehand, like a memorized script.
Was that really what happened?
Or was she overthinking this?
As she turned her head, she spotted Zhuang Qingyu.
This man’s presence throughout the case seemed… rather negligible.
He was very, very quiet. During their time on the ship, Song Caitang knew that this man had a lot of class. Compared to Hua Rong who was a complete mess without his servants, Zhuang Qingyu always knew what he ought to wear, eat, carry or do in the correct place at the correct time.
His temperament was also very mild. Even though he was capable of saying very sarcastic or mean things, he hardly displayed much emotion. The drama that he had just watched hadn’t shocked him in any way. There was angry shouting, outbursts of emotion and all that, but the biggest reaction he had was raising an eyebrow.
He didn’t seem to like Ye Nan very much.
And that seemed normal.
After all, he had been close to the victim, Liao Xingjian, who had died just before his wedding and his death seemed connected to the bride. Anyone who was close to the groom wouldn’t like Ye Nan.
From the way he looked at Xin Yongwang, he didn’t seem to like Xin Yongwang much either.
But that made sense too. Regardless of what Ye Nan had done, she was still the woman that his good friend wanted to marry. Anyone who tried to covet such a woman was a bad person. Xin Yongwang was unforgivable.
But he also didn’t like Xi Rui.
The only one who would be offended by Xi Rui was Ye Nan. This was an era where the number of women a man had didn’t matter to men. Besides, Xi Rui was the mother of Liao Xingjian’s child.
But Hua Rong had also mentioned before that Zhuang Qingyu and Xi Rui had spoken to one another in private before.
They had met in private but he didn’t like her at all…
What in the world was that about?
Song Caitang started observing the two of them and she actually realized that something was indeed going on.
Xi Rui would subconsciously steal glances at Zhuang Qingyu from time to time.
After Xin Yongwang had finished his story, Ye Nan remained silent and the atmosphere in the room grew heavy. Xi Rui was no longer antagonistic and her laugh was filled with sadness and cynicism.
“Instead of going down a path that could have led to a happy ending for both of you, you insisted on going this way. Xingjian is dead and so is my heart… What about you, Ye Nan? Was this the day you were waiting for all this time?”
Ye Nan stiffened up, but she didn’t flinch and didn’t speak either.
“I don’t know why I bother waiting for a response from you. Forget it. You can’t bring the dead back to life, anyway. We won’t have to face a disgusting future either.”
Perhaps she had been holding the child too tightly for too long. The child finally couldn’t take it anymore and burst into tears.
“Oh, oh, baby, be good, don’t cry…” Xi Rui finally remembered her responsibility as a mother and began patting and soothing the child quietly.
Ye Nan stared blankly at the child as though she was frozen in time and had forgotten how to talk.
Xi Rui said in a smug voice, “Thankfully, I’ve got a child who looks just like Xingjian. What about you, Ye Nan? What do you have? Oh! You’ve got a Hall Master Xin who likes you! Why don’t you just marry him and give birth to a child who looks just like him?”
Ye Nan scoffed and turned away.
Her expression was very strange. She still looked pained, but she also seemed relieved, as though she had understood something, or accepted something and was no longer bothered by it.
As though… her heart had turned to ashes.
“Miss Ye, are you feeling alright already?” Zhuang Qingyu suddenly spoke up at this juncture.
Ye Nan nodded. “Thanks everyone for your concern.”
Hua Rong was very agitated. “Concern?! They clearly came here to pick a fight!”
He glared especially fiercely at Xi Rui.
Xi Rui was all relaxed after she was done with her outburst. She held her child in her arms and bowed toward Song Caitang. “I’ll have to count on you to continue investigating Xingjian’s case. Take care, Miss Song.”
With that, she turned and sashayed off.
Xin Yongwang wanted to stay and take care of Ye Nan, but it was clear that Ye Nan didn’t want him to, so he had no choice but to leave the room reluctantly.
Zhuang Qingyu was a man who knew what to do at the right time, so he, too, left the room.
Hua Rong…
He probably knew that he wouldn’t be able to make Ye Nan change her mind, so he consoled her for a bit and left as well.
After they all left the room, Ye Nan finally started speaking again, “I’m sorry you had to witness that, Miss Song. I’ll count on you to keep investigating Xingjian’s case. I’m fine, so you don’t have to stay. It’s very late, so you should go back to your room to rest.”
Since she wanted to be left alone, Song Caitang wasn’t going to insist on staying and reminded her before leaving, “We still don’t know who did this to you, so please be careful.”
“Thanks for the reminder. I will be careful.”
Song Caitang then left the room.
Zhao Zhi, of course, left with her.
“You didn’t say anything at all just now.”
Song Caitang was a little puzzled. Zhao Zhi wasn’t a talkative man, but his mind was very active during an investigation, so if he noticed anything amiss or needed further explanation on any points, he wouldn’t keep quiet about it.
Zhao Zhi was too embarrassed to say that he kept getting distracted and had not really processed anything he heard just now, so he asked her instead, “Is there something you can’t figure out?”
“Yes,” Song Caitang admitted honestly.
Xin Yongwang had indeed threatened Ye Nan. Even though he had a reasonable explanation for everything he did and he had proof as well, she still felt that something was not quite right somewhere and felt that there were some other things she hadn’t uncovered…
But that wasn’t important right now. The problem right now was that someone had tried to kill Ye Nan.
“Why does Ye Nan have to die?”
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