Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 82: Retribution

When Yun Ruoyan and the others heard about this, they immediately rushed forward into the greenhouse.

Perhaps because of his panic, Li Qianxiao tripped and fell forward, his head barely avoiding Yun Ruoyan to his front.

Li Mo stretched out an arm and blocked Li Qianxiao from hitting Yun Ruoyan’s shoulder.

“Watch where you’re going,” Li Mo turned back and criticized Li Qianxiao.

Yun Ruoyan didn’t pay much attention to the two of them, and instead clutched the item in her hands more tightly.

Li Xiu walked at the front, and it took only two steps for him to reach the entrance to the greenhouse. He was about to step inside when Eunuch Chang called out, “Your Majesty, please wait!”

But Li Xiu had already strode forth, revealing a scene he could never have imagined.

Eunuch Chang had only managed to light a single lamp in the greenhouse before running outside, so it was still quite dim in the interior of the greenhouse.

But in this faint light, Li Xiu could still see the nude girl lying on the floor of the greenhouse.

“Ah!” The empress shouted in shock before turning back and quickly walking away, dragging Li Qianhan with her.

Li Xiu’s eyes widened to twice their original size. He critically examined the girl’s body all over before suddenly turning around.

Yun Ruoyan glanced at Yi Qianying, then at Li Mo. He was looking at him, his dark eyes gleaming.

Li Mo glanced at Yun Ruoyan and slowly murmured, “Now that we’ve found your sister, aren’t you going to see how she’s doing?”

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Only then did Yun Ruoyan reveal a shocked and terrified expression. “Sister Qianying!” She rushed over hurriedly. The girl lay spread-eagled on the ground, her hair mussed up, her pale white skin marred with green-purple bruises all over. There were even a few traces of blood by her lower body.

Yun Ruoyan’s smile slowly vanished. She clenched her fist tightly, not caring that her fingernails dug into her palm, shivering all over as she shut her eyes. Memories from the past filled her brain.

“Sister, today’s the day the Yun and Lin families are to be beheaded. Won’t you go have a look?” Yi Qianying had asked with a smile plastered on her face and a bowl of poison in her hands. Yi Qianying, whom she’d always treated like a little sister!

“As ugly a girl as you, sister… how could you dream of accompanying Brother Ziao for life?” Yi Qianying scoffed. “Sister, did you know that Brother Ziao was so disgusted by you that he was too nauseated to eat?”

“Sister, if you weren’t the sole wife-born daughter of the Yuns, would Brother Ziao ever deign to talk to someone as ugly as you? Just bringing you outside with him would embarrass him to no end!”

Yi Qianying poured the poison slowly into her mouth. “Sister, don’t worry. Once you pass away, I’ll take good care of both the Yun family businesses and your husband for you.”

Yi Qianying looked gently at Pei Ziao. “Brother Ziao, why don’t we throw her outside? Otherwise, it would dirty our shack for storing firewood.

Barely clinging on to life, Yun Ruoyan was thrown out the Peis’ front door. Using the last of her remaining strength, she questioned, “Aren’t you afraid of retribution?”

Yun Ruoyan would never forget Yi Qianying’s smiling response. “Retribution? Oh, certainly. Unfortunately, you’re a piece of trash, and I’ll never face any retribution from you in this lifetime!”

Yun Ruoyan finally opened her eyes wide, the pain from her past memories once again quashed within the recesses of her heart. She slowly stooped down and covered Yi Qianying’s nude upper body with her clothes scattered on the floor.

Serenely, she muttered, in a voice so soft none but she could hear, “Retribution will always come for you, even if it’s for a sin you committed in your previous lifetime.”

“Scandalous, scandalous!” Outside the greenhouse, the empress gasped as she took deep breaths. “That something like this would happen within the palace… when I catch the culprit, I’m going to skin him!”

Li Qianxiao’s heart began palpitating again, his vision filled with Yi Qianying’s bruised skin. He didn’t realize he’d hurt her so. When he left the greenhouse, Yi Qianying’s body wasn’t, in fact, so heavily bruised. However, her skin was sensitive, and the long period of time she spent on the cold floor had aggravated her bruises.

“I clearly covered her up before she left, but this girl must have moved around!” Li Qianxiao mumbled angrily.

When Pei Ziao and the other scions heard that Yi Qianying had been found, they all rushed to the greenhouse. However, without exception, they were all barred at the entrance.

Suddenly, Yun Ruoyan pushed open the entrance to the greenhouse. “Let Sister Ruoyao enter, please.”

Yun Ruoyao quickly walked to the entrance. She frowned and glanced at Yun Ruoyan, who shifted aside to let her pass, her expression calm.

When Yun Ruoyao entered the greenhouse and saw Yi Qianying lying on the floor, she immediately sucked in a deep breath. Her sister’s reputation would be forever stained.

On the Chenyuan continent, women with tarnished reputations had extremely poor marriage prospects, no matter how noble their birth.

“Qianying, Qianying, wake up, please, wake up!” Yun Ruoyau grabbed Yi Qianying, shaking her softly and shouting into her ear. After a moment, Yi Qianying finally responded.

“Brother Ziao, stop, I don’t want it…” Yi Qianying didn’t seem to be fully awake, and she kept on murmuring Pei Ziao’s name.

“Qianying, open your eyes. Tell me who did it—was it Pei Ziao?” Yun Ruoyan shook Yi Qianying’s shoulder until she finally widened her eyes.

She glanced quizzically at Yun Ruoyao’s furious expression. “Sister Ruoyao, is something the matter?”

“Is something the matter? Look at yourself!” Yun Ruoyao lowered her voice and criticized her. “You’ve destroyed the reputation of the Yun family!”

Although Yi Qianying was from the Yi family, she had grown up with and been educated by the Yuns. Now that something like this had happened, it was the Yun family who would lose face.

Only when Yi Qianying leaned down to inspect her body did she fully awaken in shock. Clearly, she too was dumbstruck by her own appearance. She wanted to scream, but Yun Ruoyao clutched her mouth in the nick of time.

“Don’t you think you’ve disgraced yourself enough?!” Yun Ruoyao whispered vehemently. “The scions of the entire Li nobility are right outside! Did you want everyone in the capital to know of your plight?!”

Yi Qianying panicked even more after hearing Yun Ruoyao’s words. She grabbed her wrist and cried out, “Sister, what should I do? Where’s Brother Ziao? I’m sure he’ll take responsibility for me!”

“I think not.” Yun Ruoyan crossed her arms and said coolly.

Only then did Yi Qianying notice Yun Ruoyan’s presence. Her eyes immediately went wide, as if she’d seen a ghost. “Why, why, you…?”

Yun Ruoyan knew what she was thinking even before she said it. “You want to know why I’m doing just fine, while you were drugged?”

“What are you talking about? What drugs?” Yun Ruoyao asked suspiciously.

“Our dear sister drugged me with an aphrodisiac. Rather than harming me, however, she ended up being the affected one herself.” Yun Ruyoan looked at Yi Qianying and smiled coldly. “This is retribution. Would you like to hear another piece of news? Your Brother Ziao doesn’t seem to be willing to admit it.”

“What did you say?” Yi Qianying stood up all of a sudden and shouted, “No, there’s no way! He wouldn’t!”

Yun Ruoyao shook her head in disappointment as she looked at Yi Qianying’s disheveled appearance. She had intended to make use of her, but she had ruined herself.

“Let me find Brother Ziao! I need to talk to him!” Yi Qianying tried to stand, but the pain that radiated from her lower half made her fall back down again.

“It was he who told us to come find you.” Yun Ruoyan looked at her coldly. “In front of everyone, he announced that he was knocked unconscious in the outer gardens. By the time he woke up, you were already gone. According to him, he wasn’t the one who relieved you.”

Yi Qianying shook her head in a daze. “No, no, it couldn’t be…!”

She looked toward Yun Ruoyao and begged, “Sister Ruoyao, please bring Brother Ziao over to me. Please, I beg you, find him!”

Yun Ruoyao didn’t want to look at this sister of hers at all, but she had to act the part of her elder sister. “Tidy up your clothes. Pei Ziao’s right outside, as is the emperor. We’ll reclaim justice for you, Qianying.”

Yun Ruoyao opened the door to the greenhouse, and Li Xiu, Li Mo, the empress, Li Qianxiao, and Pei Ziao walked in, while everyone else remained outside.

“What in the world happened?” A young master asked a skinny eunuch-in-training. Coincidentally, that was one of the eunuchs who had followed Eunuch Chang into the greenhouse to light the lamps.

The skinny eunuch looked all around him before whispering, “Oh, it was terrible! That miss’s skin was all mottled green and purple!”

“Really, that really happened to her?!” the youth exclaimed in surprise.

“Of course!” The eunuch couldn’t help but raise his voice. “I saw with my own eyes that—”

With a dull thunk, Eunuch Chang’s fist landed on his head. “Do you want your tongue to be cut off?”

The skinny eunuch immediately shuddered and walked off.

At the beginning, the scions didn’t completely believe the skinny eunuch, but Eunuch Chang’s swift censure gave his words more credibility.

And word began to spread, all throughout the kingdom of Li, that the young Miss Yi had been assaulted and raped in the royal palace.

“Brother Ziao!” Yi Qianying immediately walked toward him when she saw him enter.

But Pei Ziao immediately took a few steps back. “Miss Yi, please restrain yourself.”

Miss Yi, please restrain yourself! When Yi Qianying heard these words, her heart instantly froze over. “Brother Ziao, aren’t you going to take responsibility for me?” Yi Qianying’s tears dripped down her face like pearls.

As soon as Yi Qianying disappeared, Pei Ziao knew that he had to cut off any relations with the girl. When he heard Yi Qianying asking him to take responsibility, he hurriedly raised his head. “Why should I take responsibility for you? Miss Yi, you must be mistaken!