Chapter 146: Play Within A Play
Wen Shi covered her face and wept, sobbing heartbrokenly: “Why do this to me? Women already have it hard enough, and now you’ve ruined my reputation. Why hurt me like this?”
Seeing her like this, the crowd couldn’t help but feel more sympathy.
Pairs of hostile eyes turned toward Jiang Yihuan.
Jiang Yihuan fearfully threw herself into Xiao Yanci’s arms, sobbing: “Xiao Gege, it wasn’t me. They’re so scary. I’m afraid.”
One was crying, and the other was crying too.
Su Yaoguang leaned close to Zhou Wangshu’s ear and asked: “What do you think the truth is?”
Zhou Wangshu touched his itchy ear and said indifferently: “We’ll know the truth once we search.”
“Right, we can search!” A nearby woman heard Zhou Wangshu’s words and said loudly. “Whoever drugged her—we’ll know once we search their room. This is originally your matter; we onlookers have no need to get involved. But ruining a woman’s reputation is utterly heartless. In front of the Buddha, we absolutely cannot tolerate such villains. Everyone, we all sit upright and walk straight. We’re all willing to cooperate with the search, right?”
“I’ve never done anything bad. Go ahead and search. If it’s found, it’s on me.”
“I’m not afraid of a search either.”
“Exactly, whoever’s afraid of a search is the one with a problem.”
Immediately after, those pairs of eyes turned toward Jiang Yihuan.
“Miss Jiang, do you dare let us search?”
Jiang Yihuan frowned: “I didn’t do it. Go ahead and search if you want.”
After speaking, she lifted her head, tilting her delicate little face expectantly toward Xiao Yanci: “Xiao Gege, do you believe me?”
The sixteen-year-old Jiang Yihuan was much more tender than in her previous life after bearing his child for him—youthfully green yet with a touch of coquettishness, stirring an unbearable itch in the heart.
Xiao Yanci possessed memories of his previous life. Facing Jiang Yihuan always reminded him of their intimate moments in bed. Especially now, with her fragrant body rubbing against him, it made his desire surge from below upward, as if it were he who had been drugged, not Wen Shi.
Seeing her pitiful little appearance at this moment, he truly wanted to take her and leave quickly, far away from those ignorant lowly folk who seemed ready to devour people.
“I believe Huan’er.” Xiao Yanci said, “She is unmarried. If you rashly search her things, what of her reputation?”
“If we don’t search her, are we just going to wrongly accuse Eldest Sister-in-law Wen like this? She’s served you for so long—has your conscience been eaten by a dog?” From the crowd, people cursed.
Perhaps men liked Jiang Yihuan’s flirtatious ways, but to the women, seeing her vixen-like appearance made them hate her. What they liked was a straightforward young lady like Su Yaoguang.
“You don’t dare let us search—does that mean there really is a problem?” Su Yaoguang added fuel to the fire.
She didn’t know if Jiang Yihuan was behind this, but who else could it be besides her? Her gaze shifted between Wen Shi and Jiang Yihuan.
Jiang Yihuan was acting coquettish with Xiao Yanci precisely to avoid the search. If she hadn’t done it, why be so nervous?
“Ignore them. Let’s go search.” A woman said, “We’re all women, we’ll do the searching. No men allowed in—that should be fine, right? If even that’s not okay, then you definitely have a problem.”
Xiao Yanci also knew things had reached this point and he could only agree.
The women went to Jiang Yihuan’s room and rummaged through her bundle to search.
Clunk! A bottle rolled out from the bundle.
“What’s this?” The woman grabbed the bottle and ran toward Jiang Jing.
Jiang Jing took it, opened it, sniffed, then covered her mouth and nose: “This is it—a potent aphrodisiac.”
“It really was you!” Wen Shi looked at Jiang Yihuan in shock, got back up from the ground, and lunged toward Jiang Yihuan. “How could you be so vicious, drugging me with something so shameless!”
Jiang Yihuan’s eyes widened hugely, her face full of disbelief.
Seeing her expression, Su Yaoguang felt it was strange.
From Jiang Yihuan’s expression, she seemed truly unaware of the drug.
She kept staring at Jiang Yihuan’s face, not missing a single change in her expression.
Could it not be her?
If not her, why was the thing found in her bundle?
When Wen Shi lunged, Xiao Yanci instinctively blocked in front of Jiang Yihuan.
Wen Shi froze for a moment, but quickly recovered and clawed at Jiang Yihuan from behind Xiao Yanci.
Jiang Yihuan wanted to make her lose face, so she would make the other suffer.
“Enough!” Xiao Yanci’s face was scratched by Wen Shi, and his sleeve was torn off by her.
He said coldly: “Eldest Sister-in-law Wen, I’ve long wanted to tell you—I feel only…”
“Young Master Xiao…” Wen Shi threw herself at Xiao Yanci, sobbing heartbrokenly and despairingly in his arms. “I merely like you, and she treats me like this. This woman is so vicious—how can I rest assured leaving you in her care? Young Master Xiao, from the moment you saved me, you became my entire world. I’m not afraid of death, but I fear days without you.”
Su Yaoguang: “…”
Heavens! Don’t mention Xiao Yanci—if she were a man, she’d probably crumble under such a deep confession too.
Zhou Wangshu pulled Su Yaoguang away.
“It’s not over yet!” Su Yaoguang still wanted to watch the drama.
Seeing Su Yaoguang leave, annoyance appeared on Xiao Yanci’s face.
“Eldest Sister-in-law Wen, Huan’er is too young and acts without thinking things through. I apologize to you on her behalf. But take back your feelings—I have only master-servant affection for you, nothing more.”
“Xiao Gege, I didn’t…” Hearing Xiao Yanci say this, Jiang Yihuan complained aggrievedly. “I don’t know where this thing came from. It’s not mine—someone must have framed me.”
“Who would frame you?” Nearby onlookers asked.
“Yeah, who would frame you?”
“You can’t be saying Eldest Sister-in-law Wen framed you, right? For framing you, she’d disgust herself like this—what does she gain?”
“Exactly.”
Jiang Yihuan’s first suspect was Wen Shi, but hearing them, it made sense—Wen Shi wasn’t so foolish as to frame herself with such a method.
Immediately after, she thought of someone else.
In this temple, besides Wen Shi, she had another enemy: Su Yaoguang.
“Su Yaoguang—it must be Su Yaoguang framing me.” Jiang Yihuan said, “She’s been jealous of me since we were young, and now jealous that I found such a great Xiao Gege. She deliberately wants to ruin my reputation.”
The crowd looked at Jiang Yihuan like she was a monster.
“Boss Su and Young Master Zhou are a loving couple—why would she need to be jealous of you?”
“Boss Su is beautiful, gentle in character, kind-hearted—why jealous of you?”
“Besides your face, what other use do you have? Calling Brother all day—are you laying eggs?”
The women hurled words at her one after another, cursing Jiang Yihuan mercilessly.
The crowd didn’t believe it, but Xiao Yanci did.
“Enough.” Xiao Yanci shielded Jiang Yihuan and said to the crowd, “Huan’er is timid. Don’t scare her.”
“I think these two are both sick. Stay far away from them—don’t get tainted by their bad luck. You said Boss Su harmed you? Then take care of this man yourself. Don’t trouble Boss Su and the others. From now on, handle your own food and things—don’t rely on Boss Su.”
“Exactly.”
