Legacy World 1.9 An Accusation

The scene that greeted Xinyi once she reached her courtyard made her eyelid twitch and look at everyone judgmentally.

/I guess it's to be expected when the victim this time is an important character. I doubt that they would make such a big issue out of it if the victim was someone like MeiRuo or me./

Everyone in the family, except for HuiShan, was gathered in her small courtyard. They were even honoured with WangWei's and ZhangYong's presence.

The crowd made the place look very cramped, especially with all the comfy looking chairs that Xinyi guessed were ordered to bring over while waiting for her arrival.

What made Xinyi wary was the reason for choosing to gather here instead of the main hall.

Everything ran through Xinyi's mind in a matter of seconds.

She curtseyed and greeted everyone present politely.

"Where were you and what were you doing?" Her father chillingly demanded to know without returning her greeting.

"I was studying under the plum blossom tree in the corner of the estate." Xinyi replied unfazed by his tone.

"What were you studying?"

Xinyi held out the book that was still in her hand and answered honestly, "Plants and poisons so that I can-"

Her words were cut off by a resounding slap delivered across her face by the third concubine. The third concubine was staring at her hatefully and her chest was heaving. HuiShan's strong and upfront character came from this very woman.

If Xinyi had not been afraid to make matters worse by antagonising the love of her father, she would not have allowed herself to be slapped like that.

With tears in her eyes, HuiShan's mother opened her mouth to say something but Xinyi continued with what she had been about to say.

"So that I can figure out what was wrong with my body."

"Who are you trying to kid? What can you identify that the doctors could not?" HuiShan's mother said with tears running down her face.

Her father walked forward to back HuiShan's mother up, placed his arm protectively around her shoulder, then added, "Give up on trying to save your hide. The very profession that you just disrespected identified the insidious poison you gave our baby girl."

"... Do you mind explaining to me the details? Believe it or not, my conscience is completely clear." Xinyi continued to speak with perfect calm reflected on her face and in her voice. Only the bright red hand mark on her face marred the stone cold visage she portrayed at this moment.

"Impudent!" Her father lost his temper and scared everyone. He was known to be a level headed person but now that his precious baby was touched, his control was slipping.

"Do as she says." WangWei suddenly said with controlled rage in his voice and a dark look in his eyes. "I'd like to see how she defends herself. The more she does, the harsher the punishment should be if she's the culprit in the end."

Her father looked from WangWei to Xinyi.

"Good… You're good." Her father nodded. "Clearly guilty yet calmly asking for all the evidence before you let yourself be convicted. I didn't know that I had such a cold blooded daughter. Is this the result of your mother's pampering?"

"Daughter, you're old enough to start managing your own behaviour, how can you be so unfilial…" Her mother promptly chimed in to absolve herself of responsibility and sound like a proper mother correcting her child.

HuiShan's mother did not want to waste time so got straight to laying out the evidence. "The herb that the doctor identified as responsible for her condition is found in your little back garden!"

Xinyi clenched her jaw ever so slightly. /They touched the herb that I was not done experimenting on?/

With her current knowledge on poisons, she knew what happened.

The culprit likely took the inedible herb that she was growing and fed it to HuiShan. It was insidious because its symptoms were exactly like a common cold when it was actually literally chilling the body to the point of making the heart stop.

/I've been too careless. What was I thinking? Leaving my courtyard so open and vulnerable with a person like ZiYao in the house./ She mentally chided herself. She was still not used to being part of a household where schemes and lies laid around every corner and bend.

"... You still haven't proven to me how I could have poisoned HuiShan meimei and why I would want to do something like that."

Fed up with her questions, HuiShan's mother roughly pulled her by the ear through the crowd and to the back of her courtyard, before pointing at the mess on the stove.

"How about you try to explain this away? As for your motive, what else could it be but jealousy? There are plenty of girls who are jealous of HuiShan and have tried to harm her. However, my BaoBei is vigilant and strong so she never got done in. Who'd expect that a person would get her from right under her nose? If not for WangYe, ZhangYong GongZi, and the imperial physician that WangYe brought over, she would have died!"

When she saw the mess on the stove and in her little garden, Xinyi's brows twitched as they almost drew together. Her gaze fell onto the pots of herbs and she inwardly sighed in relief. /So they aren't touched./

"What's wrong with having a stove in the back of my courtyard? Doesn't HuiShan meimei have a whole kitchen for herself? Mine's but a mere stove. You also can't prove that I was the one who cooked it. Moreover, wouldn't I at least be smart enough to try and hide the evidence?"

Observing the poor work and fake holes left behind in her little garden, the image of a suspect surfaced in her mind and her eyes shot towards the hands of the person. "Da-"

"Ah!" ZiYao suddenly exclaimed out, drawing everyone's attention to her.

She then put on a look of horror. "Er Jie… I just remembered you joked about getting rid of HuiShan so that you would stand a chance with ZhangYong GongZi, was it not a joke after all?"

With her interference, everything became clear for Xinyi to see.

"Did you not joke about the same thing?" Xinyi fired back at her. She was no longer the meek original soul of this body who likely would have cowered by now.

ZiYao looked shocked and tears sprung to her eyes. "How could you accuse me like that?" As compared to Xinyi who chose to be honest, ZiYao lied through her teeth.

"And Da Jie, your-"

"Er Jie, why're you trying to accuse others and pulling in innocents now? Are you getting desperate? I would advise you to stop it. You're only incurring everyone's wrath. Save yourself from a heavier punishment." ZiYao sounded like a good samaritan giving advice to a guilty person.

"Your hands. You're the one who did all these." XinYi continued as if she had not been interrupted.

"You're only throwing suspicion onto others but the most suspicious one is still you. Everyone either has an alibi or evidence with other possible explanations for it. We will never be convinced like that." WangWei said coldly.

/BaoBao, pay close attention./

[Ah?]

/I'll show you why you can't rely on someone who has a script to follow./

"GongZi should know the truth." Everyone turned their surprised gazes on ZhangYong.

"It must be known to everyone here how GongZi has been visiting my courtyard for dalliances while I'm asleep in my room. So, GongZi, you should be familiar with what's growing in my garden, right?"

ZhangYong frowned deeply and his eyes reflected a storm that represented the turmoil he was experiencing on the inside.

He indeed remembered seeing only edible plants growing in her little garden but he was suddenly lacking in confidence. He could not be sure if he accidentally missed seeing an inedible plant or two growing in the garden.

He felt torn into two. There was a small part of him that believed in Xinyi's innocence. It was, however, fighting against an uncontrollable urge and very natural tendency to go along with everyone in condemning her, and it was losing.

He felt his mind was very slowly losing its use, prompting and persuading him to just do what felt natural. No matter how hard he tried to think and reflect, it was like his mind became unresponsive. In fact, the more he pushed himself, the more he felt a headache coming on.

His frown only spooked her father as he interpreted it as displeasure. Grouping it with his impatience to deal with Xinyi, his anger, and his desire to not lose face in front of important figures, his wrath became a force to be reckoned with.

"Enough! How dare you try and implicate innocents!"

Meanwhile, BaoBao was chanting out of denial. [No no no no no no no no. ZhangYong can still say something! There's still time!]

"Flog her 50 times!"

When the guards approached her, she tried to fight back with physical force while she spoke, "If you put as much effort into condemning the other suspects as you put into condemning me, the truth would be out!"

She was, however, quickly restrained. Her mid level Sky realm martial ability was still nothing as compared to those guards who had long been in high level Sky realm.

While she was held flat against the ground in front of everyone, her father increased her punishment. "You dare to fight back! You're really too gutsy! I have to teach you a lesson or people will say that I'm raising a cold blooded monster! 60 times!"

Xinyi continued to fight since her mouth could still move. "I have never liked ZhangYong GongZi, much less been in love with him, nor will I ever like him! ZiYao-"

Her mouth got stuffed with cloth at her father's order.

"For being rude to ZhangYong GongZi and having such impure thoughts, you'll be flogged 80 times! If you can't survive this, it's karma."

[Impure?!] BaoBao felt attacked.

Xinyi bit down hard on the cloth and bore with the pain of the first hit.

To see ZhangYong standing there without showing any signs of interfering and with a hard look in his eyes, BaoBao felt betrayed and Xinyi felt a little sting in her heart which surprised her. /I've already been so careful... Why does it still hurt? Is my guard still too low?/

While she continued to bear with the pain without letting even a peep out, the walls around her heart were being reinforced.

[Xinyi… I'm sorry… I understand now…] BaoBao cried. This was the first time he felt this sad.

Xinyi did not have the mind to reply because she was completely focused on cultivating and preserving her energy to avoid becoming crippled.

Everyone stayed on to watch the flogging in vengeance. Only HuiShan's mother returned to HuiShan's side after watching for a while.

The silence that was only broken by the sound of wood meeting flesh became more disturbing when skin tore, flesh got exposed, and blood flowed.

The audience had stayed on to watch the sorry sight of her crying and begging for mercy, yet they only saw her quiet resilience which greatly tempted them to cry out in her stead. If not for the little wince on her face each time she got hit, they would have thought that she had passed out.

The bloody sight and scent made the bad feeling that something was not right become stronger. ZhangYong pushed himself more and more. He thought harder and harder. /Think! Remember! Know the truth!/

His head finally started to hurt. Suddenly, a blurry image of a bloodied body overlapped with Xinyi's bloodied body. A whisper simultaneously escaped ZhangYong's mouth, "Why...?"

WangWei, who heard ZhangYong's whisper, turned back to look at him. Noticing that his expression looked a little paler than normal, he whispered, "ZhangYong, what's wrong?"

ZhangYong, who was taught to always appear strong, feigned ignorance. "Hm?"

"... What do you mean by why?"

ZhangYong looked at WangWei with a slightly dazed look in his eyes and a frown still on his forehead. "What're you talking about?"

"Earlier, you asked why. … You're definitely not feeling well. You can't be feeling sorry for that arrogant girl lying there?"

"Why…? Arrogant…?" He had pretended to feel fine but he was really not aware that he had said something.

/Pearl… Arrogant?/ His mind started to move a little but he felt increasingly sick. He now felt nauseous as well.

"Of course she's arrogant, even overconfident. How else can you describe someone who did something like that yet dare to leave the evidence lying around? She took the fact that her courtyard was hardly visited for granted."

/Arrogant? Overconfident? That's… Not her. A pearl is… Not that cheap!/

His mind was suddenly flooded with memories of all the times he watched her work hard and speak to him rudely and the times when she treated him like air even when they were eating together.

/Her attacks reflect her discipline and desperation, not confidence. She may be rude but it was more due to nonchalance than arrogance. How's it possible that she'd want to harm HuiShan to get me when she doesn't even show the slightest interest in me?/

The moment he came to that conclusion, the nausea and headache stopped. He paid no mind to his weird condition to first handle something far more urgent.

"Stop!" A fierce roar filled the quiet courtyard.