AUBTN -Chapter 338 Visiting and Testing the Waters

But in the eyes of Su Hewan and Yu Qing, this was practically an Oscar-level pantomime performance.

【Good grief, that lung capacity, that breathy voice… what a waste not becoming a voice actress. If I hadn’t seen her swinging a sword and hacking at people last night, I might actually have believed she was some fragile Lin Daiyu.】

Yu Qing instantly joined the act as well.

She hurried to the bedside in three quick steps, grabbed Xiao Yuyao’s right hand, and burst into tearful concern.

“Oh my, Fourth Miss! You absolutely must take care of yourself! The prince has only just passed away—if anything were to happen to you as well, how could this manor possibly hold together?”

Her crying looked utterly sincere. Taking advantage of the moment, she sat beside the bed and leaned forward emotionally.

Clang!

The freshly brewed ginseng tea sitting on the side table beside the bed—still steaming hot—was accidentally swept aside by Yu Qing’s sleeve.

The scalding tea splashed directly onto Xiao Yuyao’s left arm.

“Ah—!”

A cry of pain escaped Xiao Yuyao’s throat.

She instinctively recoiled sharply, her right hand clamping tightly over her left arm. Her already pale face instantly turned bluish from the pain.

“Oh no! I’m so clumsy! Did I burn you? Let me take a look!”

Pretending to panic, Yu Qing reached out to pull back Xiao Yuyao’s sleeve.

“Don’t touch me!”

Xiao Yuyao violently slapped her hand away, a trace of unconcealed sharpness and fear leaking into her voice. But she quickly realized she had overreacted and forcibly suppressed the killing intent in her eyes.

Panting heavily, she weakly said,

“I-I’m fine… I’ve just always been afraid of burns since childhood. It startled me, that’s all.”

At that exact moment—

Su Hewan, who had been standing silently nearby the entire time, slowly swept her gaze across Xiao Yuyao’s face.

When a person experiences extreme pain, the brain instinctively prioritizes protecting the core injured area.

What Xiao Yuyao had covered wasn’t the burn.

It was the upper part of her left arm—the exact place Lu Yan had struck her with his blade the previous night.

Unhurriedly, Su Hewan stepped forward and gently placed the celadon medicine bottle beside Xiao Yuyao’s bed.

Looking down at the cold sweat covering Xiao Yuyao’s face, she curled her lips into a meaningful smile. Her voice was gentle, yet every word cut like a knife.

“Fourth Miss must have been frightened. I heard your health is delicate, so I specially asked the prince for this excellent wound medicine. It’s a secret formula from the imperial palace, highly effective for external injuries…”

Su Hewan deliberately paused for half a second. Leaning slightly closer to Xiao Yuyao’s ear, she lowered her voice and enunciated the final words one by one:

“Es-pe-cial-ly sword wounds.”

Xiao Yuyao’s pupils contracted instantly, though she concealed it well.

“Your Highness jests. I’m merely a sheltered young lady from the inner chambers. Why would I ever need medicine for sword wounds…?”

Her throat tightened.

Su Hewan straightened up, patted Yu Qing lightly on the shoulder, and said calmly,

“It’s best if you never need it. Then just keep the medicine for self-defense. Fourth Miss, rest well. We’ll take our leave.”

With that, the two women paid no further attention to Xiao Yuyao’s expression and departed gracefully.

Their visit during the day had merely been a test—

To see whether Xiao Yuyao truly was the black-clothed assassin from the previous night.

And the result was exactly as expected.

Late that same night—

Inside the mourning hall of the Zhennan Prince Manor, the deathly pale candle flames swayed violently in the draft, making the words on the spirit tablet appear ghostlike.

The doors to the mourning hall were pushed open from outside.

Four figures stepped over the threshold against the pale moonlight.

And in the very center of the hall knelt Xiao Yuyao, dressed in heavy mourning clothes.

She did not turn around, merely tossing paper money mechanically into the burning brazier.

“Stop burning them. If he knows anything in the underworld, he probably wouldn’t even dare accept your offerings.”

Shen Jue’s cold voice echoed through the empty mourning hall, carrying undisguised mockery.

Xiao Yuyao’s hand paused mid-motion.

Lu Yan strode forward.

“Xiao Yuyao, the gold thread at the crime scene, the ambush at the lotus pond, and the assassin at Yuyuan last night—every piece of evidence points to you. You took the tiger tally, and you killed the Prince of Zhennan too, didn’t you?”

“As long as you surrender, we can plead with the Emperor to show leniency,” Shen Jue added. “In a sense, you’re a victim as well.”

The air seemed to freeze for a full ten breaths.

Suddenly, Xiao Yuyao, still kneeling on the prayer cushion, let out a soft laugh.

“Hahahahaha… leniency? A victim?”

She abruptly rose to her feet!

With one motion, she ripped the white mourning flower from her hair—and casually tossed it into the flames.

She stopped pretending entirely.

“You think I need pity from a pack of imperial hounds like you?”

Her eyes were bloodshot and crimson with rage. Pointing at Xiao Zhengnan’s coffin, she spoke each word as though spitting blood, every syllable like a curse.

“He deserved to die! He never deserved to be the Prince of Zhennan, and he certainly never deserved to be my father!”

She spun around sharply, staring at Su Hewan and Shen Jue with madness blazing in her eyes.

“Do you know what kind of life I lived growing up? I could read by the age of three and recite military treatises backwards by five! When I was ten, the southern barbarians launched a surprise attack. It was me! Me, disguised as a boy, leading eight hundred light cavalry on a hundred-li night raid to burn the enemy’s supplies and save Xiao Zhengnan’s worthless life!”

“But what happened afterward?!”

Her voice suddenly rose, cracking harshly from overwhelming fury.

“He credited all the military achievements to that useless eldest brother who only knew how to gamble and fool around with fighting cocks! Just because my three brothers were sons—male heirs fit to inherit the title—while I was a woman!”

Hidden in the shadows, Yu Qing sucked in a sharp breath and cursed inwardly:

【Holy shit, what kind of ultimate misogynistic feudal trash father is this?! In modern times, he’d get dragged on trending topics for three straight days minimum!】

Lu Yan’s grip on his saber tightened slightly.

“If he had only stolen my accomplishments, I could have accepted that.”

Tears mixed with bitter laughter rolled down Xiao Yuyao’s face. She suddenly yanked open her left sleeve, revealing the horrifying wound Lu Yan had cut into her arm—deep enough to expose bone—as well as countless needle marks and dark poisonous blotches accumulated over years.

“He was afraid I’d grow too powerful. Afraid my prestige in the army would surpass that of his precious sons. So for eight whole years, he secretly poisoned my daily meals with slow-acting toxins! To protect his sons’ status, he wanted to destroy his own daughter!”

She rushed to the coffin and slammed her palm against the heavy golden nanmu wood, the impact knocking the memorial tablet over with a loud bang.

“Why?! Just because I’m a woman?!”

“I built the Prince of Zhennan’s dominion with my own hands! I united the army’s loyalty in the southern frontier with my life on the line! Since he refused to give it to me, then I’ll take it myself!”

Xiao Yuyao lifted her head to stare toward the ceiling of the mourning hall.

“I not only wanted to kill him—I wanted the tiger tally too, to command the three hundred thousand troops of the southern frontier! I will become the first female general under heaven!”

She turned around abruptly, eyes blazing like fire. Within them burned ambition and madness fierce enough to set the world ablaze.

“I’ll make Xiao Zhengnan watch from the underworld! I’ll make the entire imperial court—every worthless fool who looks down on women—kneel at my feet and bow their heads in submission!”