Unable to live, unable to die.
Li Chengxiang had never imagined that this was the choice her biological father had given her.
"...If it were the third sister standing here today, would you still make such a demand?"
Li’s father remained silent, sitting in his chair and slowly picking up the collection of poems from the table, glancing at her leisurely.
Li Chengxiang’s heart turned cold in an instant.
The day Li Chengyuan smashed her head on the stone outside this room, Li’s father had also stood from afar and watched just like this.
So it didn’t matter who was standing here today; to Li’s father, there was no difference.
Ever since his son died, he had beco a completely different person, no, perhaps in his eyes, his daughters were just tools he could use to trade for a future all along.
Today, just because the family had fallen on hard tis, Li’s father could send her to accompany old Master Wang, and in the future, she might have to accompany old Master Zhang, old Master Song...
Li Chengxiang shook her head as she looked at him.
"I hope you don’t regret this..."
Having said that, she walked out.
Dusk gradually descended.
After confirming there were indeed no debt collectors outside, Li’s father breathed a sigh of relief.
These people didn’t get their money; it seed they had genuinely left.
Truly a bunch of lowlifes who judge by appearances.
"Why haven’t you finished packing? Old Master Wang is already waiting; hurry up!" Li’s father stood at Li Chengxiang’s door, urging her.
Li Chengxiang’s complexion was as pale as paper, and her lips lacked any trace of color.
Li’s father grew angry, "Can’t you apply so lip rouge? What’s with this deathly look?! Really inauspicious, you can’t even dress up, nothing like your sister at all."
Li Chengxiang clenched her teeth and took out the rouge to apply it to her lips.
Only then did Li’s father’s brows relax.
"That’s more like it." Seeing Li Chengxiang obediently follow instructions, Li’s father felt much more at ease, "Co out when you’re ready; the carriage sent by Old Master Wang is about to arrive."
As soon as the father and daughter got on the carriage, Yan Wanqing and Yan Lingzhen left the tea house across the street.
"Big sister, the eldest Miss of the Li Family is really willing to go with him?" If it were her, she would have taken a packet of poison long ago and sent that old bastard to hell ahead of his ti.
Yan Wanqing’s gaze was deep, "You are not her, and she couldn’t afford to be as carefree as you."
If it were a normal situation, she could have co forward to reprimand Master Li.
But that would only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.
Her authority might last a few months, but what after those few months?
What about when she turned her back?
Where would Li Chengxiang go then?
That’s why this ti, Yan Wanqing had patiently waited until the evening, intending to solve this problem at its root.
The two sisters quickly boarded a carriage and followed behind the Li father and daughter.
The carriage turned onto increasingly isolated paths, nearing the outskirts of the Capital City, and finally stopped outside an opulent courtyard.
"Big sister, they’ve gotten off." Yan Lingzhen lifted the carriage curtain and whispered.
The faces of Li’s father and daughter were covered with black cloth, and at that mont, they were led into the gate by the servants.
There were two burly n at the entrance who, upon their approach, interrogated them ticulously before allowing entry.
During this ti, one carriage after another passed by, each carrying a young lady whose situation seed no different from Li Chengxiang’s.
"I didn’t expect that there would be such filthy bounds within the Capital City." Yan Lingzhen finally saw the situation clearly.
Wasn’t this just an indecent transaction between officials?
Yan Wanqing let out a cold laugh at the sight.
"The more people there are, the dirtier things get. When I go in later, you better not follow," she said.
Yan Lingzhen was not pleased by this. "Is older sister finding troubleso?"
"I’m afraid you’ll hurt your eyes," Yan Wanqing replied, tapping her nose, then quickly pulled Nightwear over her outer robe.
She wanted to see, with Capital City already in such decline, who dared to indulge in such luxury and debauchery!
By this ti, the Li Family father and daughter had already gone inside.
Yan Lingzhen clutched the hem of Yan Wanqing’s robe and wouldn’t let go. "Older sister, take with you! I promise absolutely no trouble!"
Yan Wanqing had no choice but to let her co along.
Yan Lingzhen quickly shed her outer robe, revealing the Nightwear underneath, and deftly put on her mask.
"Let’s go, older sister," she said.
The corner of Yan Wanqing’s mouth twitched. This girl, she had been prepared all along.
Seeing her older sister look at her, Yan Lingzhen felt sowhat embarrassed and stuck out her tongue. "I promise I’ll listen to everything you say once we’re inside."
"Really, there’s no dealing with you." The two sisters dismounted from their carriage in a dim area, and Yan Wanqing wrapped an arm around her waist, cautioning repeatedly, "You must not let go of , understand?"
"Of course, older sister! I won’t let go," Yan Lingzhen swore.
The sisters followed the cover of night to the wall. From inside ca the sound of stringed instrunts, signaling that the event had already begun.
"This Lord Wang must be no good, having gathered so many beauties," Yan Lingzhen said indignantly, perched on the wall.
Inside was a mix of plump and slender beauties, moving through pavilions and around ponds. So carried wine jugs, others fruit, and still others danced to the music.
Yan Wanqing sighed in resignation. "Look for Li Family’s eldest daughter."
"Haven’t spotted her yet," Yan Lingzhen replied, standing on her older sister’s shoulders, hands desperately clawing the wall as she looked around.
The courtyard was filled with beauties, but the Li Family father and daughter were nowhere to be seen.
"Older sister, we’ll need to go in to search." Watching from outside was proving fruitless, and she was also concerned that she might flatten her older sister’s slender shoulders.
Yan Wanqing, after years of training, was now strong enough to lift boulders. Yan Lingzhen, slight in fra, was no trouble at all; in fact, Yan Wanqing could handle ten of her, though her little Xiaoliu overthought it.
"Let’s go." They still had the ti of a cup of tea.
Yan Wanqing effortlessly leapt over the wall into the courtyard with Xiaoliu at her side.
Both swiftly removed their Nightwear, transforming themselves into beauties sent into the compound.
One tall, one short, though their lower faces were covered, leaving only their eyes visible, they exuded a unique charm.
"You two, how did you get in here?" Just as they stepped away from behind the rockery, a man resembling a butler, with a Fu Manchu mustache, approached them from outside.
He pointed at Yan Wanqing and her sister with suspicion, clearly having never seen these two before.
Yan Wanqing beckoned to him with a curl of her finger. "You’re standing too far away, co closer to talk."
Her eyes, lifted coyly beneath the allure of peach blossoms, left the man half-lted in tenderness.
His body moved faster than his mind, but by the ti he realized it, he was already standing right in front of them.
Before he could say a word, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed on the ground.
Yan Xiaoliu gave him a kick. "Look at you, so clever, always kill the clever ones first!"
Yan Wanqing picked up the man who had been knocked unconscious with one hand and tossed him into the rockery.
"How long will the drug last?" she inquired.
Yan Lingzhen thought for a mont. "I reckon by the ti we rescue Miss Li and get back for a sleep, he still won’t have woken up."
Which ant they had enough ti.
"We’ll split up and search. Whether we find her or not, we’ll et here after the ti it takes to drink a cup of tea," Yan Wanqing instructed, patting Yan Lingzhen on the shoulder.
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