The night's fierce wind and rain had just subsided, and the clouds and mist of Xian Mountain billowed, making it seem like a divine realm, one that dared not be easily peered into.
The ancient and elegant courtyard within the mountains was also veiled in a layer of hazy mist.
"What time is it?"
The young man descending from upstairs had a refined and handsome demeanor, his voice laced with a hint of impatience.
"It's nearing the end of the Chen hour. The rain was heavy last night, and the mountain paths are treacherous. This place is remote, so the Duke of Wei's mansion people might be delayed on their journey."
Xie Jiang let out a light scoff. They wanted her to treat their patient, yet expected her to wait? How audacious. "Then we won't wait. I'll go to the capital and stroll around. You don't need to follow."
"Ah? Then you're not treating Madam Xu anymore?"
"No rush, she won't die in a moment." She was the one who administered the poison, and she knew the situation well.
Xie Jiang casually grabbed an umbrella and walked out.
Xian Yun hurriedly chased after her, holding a straw cloak. "Mistress, you need to wear a straw cloak when riding a horse. Who rides a horse with an umbrella!"
Who wanted to wear something so ugly? Xie Jiang didn't look back. "I'm not riding. I'll get to the main road shortly and hijack a carriage."
Hijack? Fine, then. How could he expect his mistress to care about propriety?
As soon as she reached the foot of the mountain, she saw a carriage approaching from afar. Xie Jiang raised an eyebrow; her luck seemed to be quite good.
As for whether it was the Duke of Wei's carriage, Xie Jiang didn't care. In any case, the entire Duke of Wei's mansion deserved to die a terrible death.
Gazing at the drizzling rain and mist, Xie Jiang's eyes, which had absorbed the luck of heaven and earth, gradually held a chilling glint.
She was originally the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Dingguo, the foremost of the Ten Great Duke's Mansions, more precious than princesses.
Simply because Xu Hengdan, the heir of the Duke of Wei's mansion in this generation, had a preposterous dream, she was branded a malevolent spirit that brought ruin to the nation.
How laughable, she was only seven years old that year.
Could she ruin a chicken? Or a duck?
How could she have bewitched people and overturned the imperial court?
The Duke of Dingguo's mansion, at the pinnacle of power, was annihilated overnight. Her father, her second uncle, her youngest uncle, died on the northern frontier battlefield waiting for reinforcements.
Her grandmother, her mother, her younger cousin... all perished in that chaos.
She was sent away under the name of her deceased cousin, Song Heng, to the doorstep of an old friend of her grandfather, who lived a thousand miles away. Yet, she couldn't live as her family had wished.
The second daughter of the Duke of Dingguo's mansion ultimately died, dying at the age of eight.
She was Xie Jiang, who had transmigrated.
But she was also Miss Song Er.
The deep-seated hatred of the Duke of Dingguo's mansion was Song Er's, and it was also Xie Jiang's.
The Duke of Wei's mansion, the main culprit, and everyone who had fanned the flames would not escape.
Especially the instigator, Xu Hengdan!
She heard that he abandoned his position as the heir of the Duke of Wei's mansion to cultivate the Tao, and was now the revered Celestial Master Xu.
Then she would pull him down from his pedestal and ruin his reputation!
Xie Jiang stood in the middle of the narrow mountain path. The carriage couldn't fly over, so it had to stop before her.
The emblem on the carriage was—the Prince of Yu's mansion?
What a coincidence. The northern border army, originally controlled by the Duke of Dingguo, was now controlled by the Prince of Yu.
Since the Prince of Yu was the beneficiary, how could he be innocent?
Let's drag him down with them.
Before the guards in front could speak, an oil-paper umbrella flew towards them. By the time he split the umbrella in two, the person in the middle of the road had vanished.
The carriage door was kicked open.
The moment Xie Jiang's dagger pressed against the throat of the person inside the carriage, the person who had been sitting with closed eyes as if awakening an ancient ferocious beast opened their eyes.
Meeting those eyes, as deep as an abyss, Xie Jiang suddenly froze. A strange sense of familiarity struck her soul like an electric current.
This person?
An absolute, world-ending pressure instantly permeated a ten-mile radius, and even the continuous fine rain outside the carriage ceased.
In just a moment, Xie Jiang snapped back from her daze.
The heir of the Prince of Yu's mansion was indeed no ordinary person.
More formidable than she had imagined.
However, those heart-stopping, fear-inducing eyes contracted sharply the moment they saw her face. The pain and wounds, previously confined to the deepest recesses, suddenly erupted like a tempestuous tide.
Xie Jiang blinked, a flicker of confusion rising in her heart. Had she abandoned someone carelessly at some point?
But if she had encountered someone so divinely resplendent and beyond compare, how could she have no memory of it at all?
None of this mattered.
What mattered was that he was the beloved heir of the Prince of Yu's subservient devotion.
He had delivered himself right to her doorstep; it would be a waste not to take advantage of it.