Why give up?
This matter required explaining the relationship between the Wei and Xuanwu families. It wasn't a friendly neighborly relationship but a generational feud—they had been adversaries for hundreds of years, ever since the Wei family's first generation.
Why had they remained enemies? There was a story behind this!
Back in the day, the Wei family's first generation was just an ignorant youth, a poor scholar. But he was also a genius—this had already been evident in his childhood. From a young age, he was given great expectations to pass the imperial examinations, beco a high official, and bring honor to his ancestors.
That year, he t a girl and they fell in love. But they were separated by the girl's family on the grounds that their social statuses didn't match. He went to the girl's ho many tis. Although rejected countless tis, his persistence eventually earned him an audience with the family head.
However, the family head paid him little attention, rely saying that one day, when he had the strength to match their status, the girl would be betrothed to him.
So he began studying diligently by lamplight, preparing to pass the imperial examinations. With his talent, he eventually achieved the glorious rank of zhuangyuan (top scholar). He felt he was now qualified and could marry the girl, so he went to propose.
But he was still rejected and received these words: "Just a minor zhuangyuan—do you really think you're sobody important?!"
...
...
This was also a fact. The girl's family was an extrely powerful clan. A zhuangyuan ant nothing to them. The girl's parents still looked down on him, feeling he wasn't qualified. Moreover, they had already arranged a marriage for the girl and were preparing to marry her off.
As a result, the girl chose a path of no return. He lost that girl forever. That ti he cried—cried for three days and nights until his tears ran dry. From then on, he would never shed tears again!
Finally, he made an oath to that family: "I will achieve equal status. On that day, I will marry her, even if she's no longer there—I'll make her a ghost of my family!"
"And I will make you pay the price—I'll never let you have peace!!"
When a scholar's fury changes heaven and earth!
This poor scholar caused unbelievable changes throughout the entire empire. He eventually beca the empire's pri minister—the kind with real power. He built his own mansion directly across from that family, with his main gate facing theirs—truly equal status!
Because of his existence, that family suffered unprecedented political defeats, losing considerable power to other families while the poor scholar also devoured so of it. The poor scholar had now established his own clan—an equally formidable family.
Under this poor scholar's machinations, the girl's parents were executed for certain matters—executed by him personally. He gave that family no chance to protect them, acting first and reporting later.
By then, no one dared provoke this poor scholar, not even that family, because his sches had reached a terrifyingly outrageous level. With this, relying on his power alone, he created a scholarly family that lasted hundreds of years. Generation after generation held high court positions, and even the great super families didn't dare easily provoke the clan he founded.
In the end, he indeed married that girl who was no longer there, always keeping the wife's position for her. To continue the family line, he married several won, but they were all concubines—not one was a wife!
He made the world understand that even in a world where martial force decided everything, scholars had their place and were a very terrifying group!!
His family was the Wei family, and that girl's family was the Xuanwu family!!
The Wei family's first ancestral rule: All Xuanwu family mbers are enemies!
Hundreds of years ago, the Xuanwu family wasn't originally at the bottom of the Four Symbols families—they could still compete with other families. But because of that first generation Wei, the Xuanwu family lost considerable power and beca the last among the Four Symbols families.
This made the Xuanwu family understand how terrifying these scholars could be, while also designating the Wei family as their mortal enemy. The grudges between the two families accumulated more and more. In court, their political views were never aligned.
Now, if Xiaoyao's relationship with the Wei family beca public, he would naturally be kicked out by the Xuanwu family—this was indisputable!
Shang Lingjian also understood this point. After learning about Xiaoyao and Wang Yanyu's situation, he had never revealed it because he wanted Xiaoyao to stay, not be kicked out.
Now that he had reached an intolerable point, he exposed this matter. Only then did he learn that his uncle had already known but was just turning a blind eye.
After hundreds of years, although the two families still didn't get along, it wasn't as intense anymore. Xiaoyao's matter wasn't really a big deal, so it was naturally set aside!
But now that it had been dug up, it needed to be addressed.
"It's not so easy for you to leave now!" Shang Lingjian jumped out again.
"Why are you so despicable in your speech? Just now you clearly said I must leave, but now you say leaving isn't so easy. Xuanwu Family Head, what exactly are you trying to do?" At this point, Xiaoyao was no longer polite, and even his form of address changed. This showed he was no longer a Xuanwu family servant—that previous deference could be dropped.
Of course, this didn't an losing respect—as long as you were worthy of respect!
"You think the little things you've done could be hidden from ?" Shang Lingjian said coldly and arrogantly, looking at Xiaoyao as if saying: "No matter how you pretend, it's useless—I've seen through you."
"What have I done? Are you talking about tricking you, laughing at you, or have you already discovered that matter?" Xiaoyao looked at Shang Lingjian with surprise, as if caught in so misdeed.
"See, everyone? He's already slipped up. He's that person," Shang Lingjian said.
"Shang Lingjian, that's impossible. If he had such abilities, would he still be here working as a servant?" Xuanwu Lingxiao spoke up. She knew what Shang Lingjian was talking about, but it was too incredible.
She felt that what Xiaoyao was referring to wasn't the sa matter Shang Lingjian ntioned!!
Xuanwu Wenyuan looked at Xiaoyao, examining him up and down, seemingly thinking about sothing.
"He does have ulterior motives—maybe this was exactly his purpose," Shang Lingjian's fawning smile appeared again—his usual expression toward Xuanwu Lingxiao.
"If he could co and go silently in front of us, why bother becoming a servant for over a year? He could have just co directly," Xuanwu Lingxiao said irritably.
"This... this..." Shang Lingjian couldn't give a reason. This was indeed the most inexplicable point.
"Could you speak clearly? I'm getting confused listening to this," Xiaoyao said, feeling sowhat puzzled. Could they not be talking about that matter? It sounded like they were discussing yesterday's events. He didn't need to admit to this—they wouldn't have any evidence anyway.
"He's saying yesterday's incident was your doing," Xuanwu Lingxiao said.
"Yesterday's incident?" Xiaoyao put on a confused expression without any flaws. As such a minor servant, how would he know about yesterday's events so quickly? If he showed he knew, that would be problematic.
"You might not know—a thief ca yesterday," Xuanwu Lingxiao replied.
"A thief? What does that have to do with ?" Xiaoyao didn't show surprise. Showing surprise would seem too forced. Since he was no longer part of the Xuanwu family, why should he care if they had thieves? Moreover, it was normal for such a great family to have thieves.
"Originally it wouldn't concern you, but your whereabouts exactly match the thief's appearance ti. Tell us where you were last night," Xuanwu Lingxiao said.
"My whereabouts?" Xiaoyao was stunned.
"That's right. Don't think you were being careful. You usually et with the Wei family woman before the hour of zi, but yesterday you appeared after zi hour. Your appearance ti exactly matches when that thief disappeared. There can't be such a coincidence," Shang Lingjian said.
"Why can't there be such a coincidence? There are countless coincidences in this world. I was late last night because I was doing sothing," Xiaoyao said. Yes, being a book thief, so he was late.
"What were you doing? Who can testify?" Shang Lingjian questioned.
"Yesterday I was in the alchemy room, the sword forging workshop, the kitchen for a while, cleaning the West Garden's sewers, and guest-chanted sutras at the ditation Hall..." Xiaoyao listed the places he'd been yesterday. With such a long list, even if they wanted to investigate, they probably couldn't make sense of it. Whether he had actually worked at night would be hard to determine.
Xiaoyao hadn't been idle at night. Often in the deep of night, when almost no one was around, he could do certain things. Because of this, many people were used to him working alone at night. If asked, many would think he had worked at their location last night.
"..."
Xuanwu Lingxiao looked at Xiaoyao, feeling he was becoming more and more interesting. One person doing so many things in a single day—never mind whether there was enough ti, most importantly, you had to know how to do all these things. For one person to have so many skills was very surprising.
At this point, Xuanwu Lingxiao and the others felt that what Xiaoyao had said earlier didn't seem like a joke—he really was learning all servant skills, suitable for any servant position.
"If you want proof, go ask them. I don't really rember the sequence," Xiaoyao said with a wave of his hand.
(End of Chapter)
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