Palace Coup 16

Xie Miaoxuan’s eyelids drooped halfway as her delicate hand brushed over the scales of the whip hanging at her waist. She lightly tapped the handle and slowly drew the whip free.

“Oh? Is that so?”

The whip cracked sharply through the air, its slender tip striking the ground and leaving a shallow dent.

Some of the retainers stirred at the sound.

“Father... father! These people are bad! Please make him let me go! They broke into our home and stole our grain, and yet they say this grain isn’t ours. But didn’t you say that after we sell this year’s grain, you would buy me better brushes and satin clothes than last year’s?”

“Kill them! Kill them all! I want you to chop off their heads and kick them around like balls.”

Two retainers dragged over a boy and an elderly woman. The boy, held tightly by his shoulder blades, caught sight of Cao Youxin and cried out louder, his expression foolish and pained. “It hurts, it hurts so much! Father, Jian’er is hurting—please kill him to avenge Jian’er!”

Mrs. Cao had been so frightened she had lost control, the stain on her trousers unmistakable. She could only plead silently with her eyes for Cao Youxin’s help.

Cao Youxin took two quick steps forward, ready to rescue his son, but suddenly stopped, turning his face with a sinister glare. “What do you mean by this?”

The mask of feigned respect on his face shattered, leaving only a venomous glint.

The sun blazed overhead. Standing with her back to the light, a halo of warm radiance outlined Xie Miaoxuan, lending her the ethereal air of a celestial being stepping down from the sun itself.

She was naturally striking—not with delicate grace, but a fierce and commanding beauty. Her eyes burned like blazing sun, her brows arched like distant mountains, and her red lips parted slightly. “No more pretending?”

At that moment, a formidable aura surged from her, so dazzling it made one avert their gaze.

As soon as Cao Youxin appeared in the fields, Xie Miaoxuan had already sent retainers to covertly seize people. Earlier, when she was examining the ledger, she had deliberately dragged out the time to allow her men to locate the hidden grain stash they had marked the night before.

Now, it was time for her to make her move.

She lifted her chin slightly, her fox-like eyes half-closed in disdain. The retainers present all felt a chill in their hearts; it was as if they were witnessing the slow rise of a fierce sun.

Cao Youxin felt as if a venomous snake was locked onto him, a cold dread crawling down his spine, warning that any sudden move would be met with a vicious bite.

If Xie Miaoxuan knew what he was thinking at that moment, she might have told him she was merely looking at him as one might look at rubbish.

“Cao Youxin! If your ears aren’t completely deaf, listen well to your son! This grain is clearly your secret hoard, and the amounts on the ledger are falsified. How dare you deceive me! Do you really think I’m so easy to trick?”

Her voice was like a gale as she pointed behind her.

The crowd swiftly opened a path.

“Look carefully! You claim to love your own child, but do you have even a shred of kindness for other people’s children?”

Just as her words fell, another retainer appeared, carrying a frail, almost unrecognizable girl.

The girl lay weakly in the retainer’s arms, her breath shallow. After a long struggle, her eyelids fluttered open. Her wrist, barely two fingers wide, was covered with fresh and old bruises of varying shades of blue and purple. Her skinny ankle looked so fragile it could break if set down.

“Yan’er!”

A heart-wrenching cry escaped from the peasant woman who had been earlier; she staggered toward the retainer, trembling as she gently stroked the girl’s cheek.

“...Mother,” Yan’er seemed to recognize her.

“Take her inside and give her some porridge to fill her stomach.”

Xie Miaoxuan’s voice softened with kindness. Yan’er looked toward her, bathed in sunlight.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe now. Eat something first; a healer will come soon to treat you.”

The words sounded like heavenly music to Yan’er’s ears. In her blurry state, she almost believed she had seen a fairy sent to rescue the suffering.

From that day on, that radiant sun remained engraved in her heart for many years, a source of strength that kept her going whenever she recalled it.

Cao Youxin counted the increasing number of retainers in the field, secretly tallying heads.

There were twenty-three in total.

Anxiety gnawed at him as Xie Miaoxuan suddenly asked, “As the head of Cao Manor, you should know our family rules by heart. Since everyone is here, why don’t you recite them for us?”

Cao the Manor Head, of course, remembered. His outward performance had always been excellent. Since Xie Qi purchased the manor six years ago, he had recited the rules every year without fail.

This was a perfect chance to show loyalty to his lord.

Six years had passed in the blink of an eye, but thanks to repeated memory in earlier years, his tongue was quicker than his brain, and he rattled off the rules like a chant:

“First, no disloyalty to the master’s family; second, no lack of righteousness, integrity, or shame; third, no bullying and annexing others' property…”

He recited mechanically, but as the words left his mouth, a dull pang struck his heart. He wished he could slap himself several times.

Sneaking a sideways glance, he caught Xie Miaoxuan’s dark eyes fixed on him. The retainers around him stared like hawks, their gazes suffocating.

He hesitated to speak further.

Xie Miaoxuan raised her hand, and in unison, over twenty retainers drew their swords from their waists, ready to charge at her command.

The scorching sun did nothing to dissipate the chilling atmosphere that surged toward him. Her deep eyes were unfathomable. Cao Youxin rolled his eyes and forced himself to continue.

“Fourth, no disrespect to elders; fifth, no forceful seizure or tyranny; sixth, no improper relations between men and women; seventh, no idleness or freeloading; eighth, no drunken violence; ninth, no harboring of criminals; tenth, no collusion with foreign powers.”

“Well recited,” Xie Miaoxuan applauded exaggeratedly, looking at Cao the Manor Head’s evasive eyes with a cold sneer. Indeed, once reminded of the rules, a guilty man’s spirit faltered.

He really thought he was fearless, the almighty lord of all.

But all these years, he had just grown too bold.

Her scarlet lips parted, her expression chillingly cold.

“So, what punishment awaits those who break the family rules?”

“Well…”

“Hm?”

Cao the Manor Head belatedly sensed the cold menace in the air. He finally realized that the woman before him was not quite what he had imagined.

Her ruthless decisiveness was more like that of a lord than a lady.

The self-satisfied eyes that had long deceived themselves now gleamed with a wary clarity.

He pondered briefly, a ruthless resolve rising in his heart. He had prepared two plans already—if necessary, it would be a fight to the death. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill to silence others.

His mind began to devise ways to cover his tracks in the future.

He subtly cast a glance toward a certain spot in the crowd.

Feigning indifference, he raised his voice, “Those caught breaking one rule shall be whipped thirty times; two offenses, one hundred lashes; three or more, handed over to the authorities for prosecution.”

He drew everyone’s gaze to himself.

At that moment, suddenly, a man lunged from behind, moving with the swiftness of a thunderclap toward Xie Miaoxuan. The man was crude and repulsive, his large head skillfully aimed at her chest.

Xie Miaoxuan’s eyes flashed sharply. She stepped back half a pace, her whip snapping like a tempest across the attacker’s face.

Smack! Smack!

“Ah!”

Despite this, the man persisted, recklessly charging toward her, his eyes filled with the cruel audacity of a scoundrel.

“Scoundrel! How dare you offend a lady!”

The big man trembled with shock, unprepared for such a sudden turn of events.