Chapter 2: Betrayal

After tidying her appearance, Xie Jiu returned to the main hall.

Madam Yang busily beckoned her to sit and join them for the meal.

"Speak, why did you rush back so early in the morning?" Xie Minshen asked.

Xie Jiu had just picked up her chopsticks, but she set them down again and lowered her eyes slightly. "Daughter had a nightmare. I dreamt that Father and Mother were harmed. I was terrified, so I rushed back to the manor at dawn. Now that I have seen you both, I feel a little more at ease. It was my own impulsiveness."

As she spoke, Xie Minshen appeared to be eating the food in his bowl, but his eyes were fixed intently on her expression, clearly scrutinizing the truth of her words.

Noticing this, Xie Jiu pursed her lips and deliberately adopted the spoiled, coquettish manner she had used in her maiden days.

"Daughter knows she was wrong, but Father, I was just worried about you!"

Seeing this, the tension in Xie Minshen’s eyes seemed to loosen slightly. He took the initiative to place a piece of food into Xie Jiu’s bowl, then said in a low voice

"It is not that Father wishes to lecture you. When the current Emperor raised his army as a feudal prince, the Wu family led the late Emperor’s orders to suppress the rebellion. If Wu Que hadn't surrendered after your father-in-law died, how could he have saved his life?"

Xie Minshen adopted a tone of earnest advice.

"His title was only kept because the Emperor wished to show he treated the officials of the previous dynasty with kindness. If the Emperor is displeased one day, he can strip it away with a single word. If you are so reckless and someone finds fault with you, they could submit a memorial against him—wouldn't that invite disaster?"

"It isn't as serious as you make it sound..." Madam Yang had just started to speak up for her daughter when she was silenced by a sharp glance from Xie Minshen.

"Eat in silence," Xie Minshen said, withdrawing his gaze.

Since he had said so, Xie Jiu had no choice but to suppress her emotions and eat in silence.

By the time the morning meal was nearly finished, the manor’s steward returned from outside.

After entering the room, he whispered something into Xie Minshen’s ear.

Upon hearing the steward’s words, a look of wariness flashed in the depths of Xie Minshen’s eyes. He set down his chopsticks and said to Xie Jiu

"It was truly improper for you to return from your husband’s house so rashly today. Now that you have seen your mother and me, you should be at ease. As it happens, I am on my way to court, so I will drop you off at the Marquis of Weiyuan’s manor on the way."

These words were spoken with such high-sounding justification that Xie Jiu could find no fault in them.

Yet, for him to be so urgent and insist on personally escorting her back to the Marquis of Weiyuan’s manor—it felt more like he was afraid she might run away.

Xie Jiu was unwilling to return to that den of wolves, but because she was already suspicious of her father, she dared not reveal the truth easily.

To stall for time and find a way to escape, Xie Jiu proposed that she needed to go and change her clothes.

Xie Minshen naturally could not block even this, so he told her to be quick.

But as soon as Xie Jiu stepped out of the room, she caught sight of a familiar figure quickly leaving through the side gate of the courtyard.

"It’s Steward Chen’s son!" Qingfang whispered in shock.

By then, Xie Jiu had also recognized that the person was from the Marquis of Weiyuan’s manor. Her scalp tightened instantly, and she grabbed Qingfang’s hand, signaling her to be silent.

Why would a servant from the Marquis of Weiyuan’s manor be here at this moment?

Xie Jiu felt a chill run down her spine.

It was likely that because her father saw her return in a panic at dawn, he suspected she knew something and had rushed to confirm the news with the Marquis of Weiyuan’s manor.

Though she did not want to believe her own analysis, the facts were right before her eyes, and she could no longer deceive herself.

Her own family, her biological father—they were likely already in collusion with her husband’s family.

No wonder, no wonder. In her past life, before she died, she had denounced Wu Que for his shamelessness and threatened him with the power of the Xie family, hoping to force him to stop, yet he had remained unmoved and completely unafraid.

Thinking of how she had died a miserable death, hoping that her maiden family would come to save her, and how, upon waking after her rebirth, her first instinct was to flee back to her maiden home to seek shelter, a bone-chilling coldness filled Xie Jiu’s heart.

So, from beginning to end, no matter which side she turned to, she was the one being abandoned.

How laughable that in her flight, she had only delivered herself into another cage.

Was she just going to surrender like this?

Xie Jiu gritted her teeth. After returning to the room, she tried one last time to struggle. "Father, I still wish to speak with Mother for a while longer. I will return to the Marquis’s manor later myself; there is no need for you to escort me."

But Xie Minshen stood up immediately and said, "Let’s go. I have things to say to you on the way."

His tone allowed for no refusal.

And those eyes were fixed intently on Xie Jiu, not wavering in the slightest, like a cage closing in, making it clear to her that she had no wings with which to escape.