After Becoming the Hero's Ex-fiancée

Repaying Karma (2)

“First, my mother has been ill and bedridden for a long time. There had always been a regular prescription, so why did the doctor insist on a very precious medicine, leaving me no choice but to pawn the zan?

“Secondly, why did the zan that I pawned end up in Lady Zheng’s hands?”

Zheng Wan wondered aloud:

“It’s just a hairpin. There are people who resemble each other, naturally, there are also items that are alike. How can you simply speak without any basis, and claim that what’s mine is yours?”

“I recognise the word ‘Cui’! It’s clearly the one I pawned!”

Third Lady Liu straightened.

“In this world, there’s more than one family with the surname Cui.” The crown prince couldn’t stand that a lowly daughter of a concubine actually dared barge accusatorily into the Zheng family like this, and spoke up. “Back then, the Zheng family had ties all over the country, what’s so strange about having this zan?”

“But this zan is something between me and the State Preceptor, the significance of it is different!”

Liu Yi raised her head and looked at the State Preceptor with tears streaming down her face. “When Lady Zheng had the State Preceptor beaten up back then, it was I who sent him to the medical hall for treatment. Because I didn’t have enough for the treatment fees, I even used a pair of silver drop earrings as payment. Before we parted, the State Preceptor gave me this zan.”

“Lady Zheng used underhanded tricks to cheat me out of my zan, and befriended the State Preceptor in my name… Because of her guilty conscience, she wanted me to get married off somewhere far away, and even harmed my mother! How can I not feel bitter?!”

“You really are a strange one,” Zheng Wan clenched her fists, angry tears springing into her eyes. She thought inwardly that since Third Lady Jiang could act pitiful, she could also act innocent.

“Why do you blame me for your mother’s death?”

Third Lady Liu also didn’t know why she was so sure, but there was a dim voice telling her that it was the truth.

That was why she did everything possible to shake off her bridal entourage and came back here while hiding and enduring many hardships along the way. But when she returned to the capital, she heard the entire capital talking about how perfectly matched the State Preceptor and Lady Zheng were, and felt as if her heart had been stabbed with a knife.

This glory should have been hers.

It should have been her, Liu Yi, who the State Preceptor was treating with such tenderness, but Zheng Wan seized her position and stole the happiness that was hers.

“I beg the State Preceptor to decide what to do!”

Currently, she could only place all her hopes on the person before her.

Zheng Wan also turned her head and reached out to tug Cui Wang’s sleeve the way she had been accustomed to.

“Cui Wang, believe me. I didn’t——”

But before she could touch it, she was flung away with a burst of power; the soft silk slid past her fingers, bringing up a gust of wind that cut painfully at her fingertips.

“Cui Wang——”

Her eyes widened incredulously, “You don’t believe me?”

Almost instantly, tears spilled out from her eyes.

“She says that I had pretended to be her, and you believe her? Cui Wang, I’m asking you——”

Zheng Wan could always tell falsehoods beautifully; three parts of truth mixed with seven parts of falsehoods, interweaving the false with the true in a way that others could not untangle.

She said, “Have I ever said that I was the one who had saved you back then?”

Cui Wang cast his eyes down at her; the little lady’s nose was red, but her cheeks were whiter than the pear blossoms in the courtyard, streaked with piteous tears, looking utterly heart-rending. It reminded him of the snowy jade rabbit in the heavenly realms, which was born with a well-behaved appearance but loved to eat meat.

“No.”

“Since I’d never done so, then how can it be said that I’d pretended to be someone else? Moreover, how would I know about the private exchanges that had happened between the both of you? About this bloodstone, or about the so-called token——” Zheng Wan shook the handkerchief and all the bloodstone fragments fell to the ground. Then, she also threw the gold flower chain around her wrist to the ground, crushing it with her beaded shoe, “Whoever wants it can just take it!”

She sounded like she was about to burst into tears, like a young deer in the woods that had been accidentally wounded.

The crown prince by the side felt like his heart was being shredded with each tear that rolled down her face. The Zheng Wan he knew had always been high and mighty, and acted freely and unrestrained—when had she ever been so soft and weak?

He quickly stepped forward and shielded her behind him.