Sixty-Five The Twisted Madame Xie

"I did no such thing!"

Qiongshan sneered cruelly, his lips curling into a malicious arch. "You cannot deny it now. Did you truly think you could rest easy just because you burned our correspondence from last night? What you failed to realize is that I long ago concealed the most crucial letter of all—the one where you begged me to help you get rid of Xie Qi!"

He shook a yellowed sheet of paper in his hand, the delicate, elegant handwriting clearly belonging to a woman.

"Your personal seal is right here upon this. Do you still dare to deny it?"

"It's a forgery! You and Xie Miaoxuan colluded to fabricate this and frame me!"

Madam Xie trembled in utter disbelief, her eyes brimming with a terrifying panic.

Tears instantly gushed from her eyes, and she stared fixedly at Qiongshan through her blurred vision.

"No! Handwriting can be forged! What on earth do you stand to gain by slandering me like this? You must have taken bribes from Xie Miaoxuan! Tell me how much she gave you, and I will pay you double, if only you spare my reputation!"

"Besides, Daoist priest, if you act so recklessly, have you never once thought of your own family?"

With these words, she was actually reminding Qiongshan of the lie she had once told him to trick him into believing Xie Miaoxuan—*wait, Xie Miaohan*—was his daughter. With the passage of time, she had no idea if he still remembered, leaving her with no choice but to drop veiled hints in hopes that he would back down.

Qiongshan had long since lost any shred of pity for her wretched act. Even though he understood her insinuation, he no longer believed that Xie Miaohan could possibly be his own flesh and blood.

More importantly... he glanced over at Xie Yuangju and Xie Miaoxuan. If he failed to expose Madam Xie's actions today, that would truly spell his own doom.

Those two had countless ways to make him wish he were dead!

Nothing was more important than his own life.

"Forged?" Qiongshan's facial muscles twitched. Deep in his heart, he thought, *Since you refuse to confess, don't blame me. Take a look at what this is.*

From the folds of his robe, Qiongshan produced a pink bodice, upon which a peony flower fluttered as if in the wind.

And Lujiu was Madam Xie's childhood pet name.

"I am certain that even if you try to quibble, Xie Yuan cannot possibly fail to recognize this, can he?"

Sure enough, upon the sight of this pink bodice, the person whose expression turned the most hideous was Xie Yuan.

His face shifted from green to pale, finally settling on a sickly shade of livid.

He had been trembling all over the moment he heard Xie Qi's name, but eventually, a shred of relief had crept into his heart: compared to Madam Xie's illicit affair with Qiongshan, he would much rather hear that Madam Xie was involved in a murder plot connected to his own interests.

However, the appearance of this single item completely shattered that lingering sliver of hope.

Not only had Madam Xie wanted to murder Daoist Priest Qiongshan, but she had also been intimate with him long before.

He was far too familiar with this pink bodice. It was something Madam Xie had meticulously sewn to please him back when their relationship was still somewhat amicable. What had she said back then?

*With my humble willow-like appearance, it is the blessing of my past life to have won a husband like you, my lord.* To make him happy, she had expended a great deal of effort on her attire.

In those days, he had spent nearly every night in her chambers, and it was only later that Xie Miaohan was born.

Yet, as it turned out, she had worn that very same intimate garment for other men to see! No wonder he had never seen it again afterward—she had actually given it to her paramour!

"Vile creature!"

He dealt a vicious backhand across Madam Xie's face, his features so horribly distorted by rage that he looked as though he longed to devour her alive.

Xie Yuan's reaction was, of course, taken in by all the onlookers. Even those women who usually considered themselves sharp-tongued and bold could not help blushing with embarrassment. With such intensely private items brought to light, no matter how Madam Xie denied it now, it was utterly useless.

"Madam Xie has always held herself so high in the past, yet behind closed doors, she is actually such... such a shameless wretch, using a single bodice to seduce two men."

Another woman slapped her own cheek in disgust and spat, "To think that earlier I even remarked that among all the noble ladies in the capital, the senior mistress of the Xie clan was the most devout and pious! I never imagined she could be so base; it truly soils my mouth to speak of her."

Among the crowd, there were not a few elderly people whose attention was not focused on such sordid private affairs, but who instead recalled that brilliant, jade-like gentleman of peerless grace who had once dazzled and stirred the entire capital: Xie Qi.

Unable to hold back, someone steered the conversation back to the matter at hand. "If this is true, then Xie Qi was completely ruined by his own elder brother's jealousy!"

It was precisely because of Xie Yuan's petty, small-minded suspicions that he allowed his pillow-talk companion to learn of them, whereupon she used such despicable methods to destroy Xie Qi.

At that time, the ethereal young scion of the Xie family, who had captivated half the capital, was already preparing to enter official service, and everyone was waiting for him to make a great mark upon the world.

Then, out of nowhere, the rumor spread like wildfire that Xie Qi had committed unspeakable transgressions with Madam Xie's younger sister!

How massive a scandal the Langya Wang clan had made of that incident at the time! The entire capital had been in an uproar.

On one side stood the unshakeable three-hundred-year-old aristocratic clan; on the other, the Xie clan, which had been passed down for centuries and was now on the decline.

Madam Xie's younger sister was the most renowned talented woman of the Langya Wang clan. They had dispatched numerous scions of their clan to confront the Xie clan, declaring that if they were not given a satisfactory answer, they would drag Xie Qi bound before the Capital Magistrate's Office.

When the Langya Wang clan came knocking, the Xie clan, eager to appease their wrath, pushed Xie Qi straight to the wolves. It was said that had Xie Qi's mother not dragged her frail, sickly body forward to plead for him that very day, they would have executed him on the spot.

In the blink of an eye, the ethereal young master who was supposed to be the new generation's standard-bearer for the Xie clan became a street rat whom everyone cursed and beat.

Xie Qi's official career and reputation were utterly destroyed.

By the time they heard news of Xie Qi again, it was of how he could no longer bear the weight of the rumors and had exiled himself far from home.

Never had they imagined that he had been framed and plotted against all along.

An old man sighed, mourning the fact that Madam Xie had destroyed such an ethereal prodigy as Xie Qi merely over petty jealousy within the inner courtyards.

"Tragic and lamentable indeed! To think that a young master of such transcendent grace was destroyed at the hands of a mere woman!"

From the moment Xie Qi's name was first uttered, Xie Yuan's face—which had been flushed red under a canopy of metaphorical green hats—began to turn white, and then a sickly cyan.

His heart hammered frantically in his chest, terrified that the unfolding scandal might implicate him.

Later, upon realizing that while the crowd condemned his jealousy, they laid the primary blame on Madam Xie's vicious and poisoned heart, leaving him merely branded with the sin of jealousy, he let out a secret breath of relief.

In truth, how could he possibly have been entirely ignorant of Madam Xie's actions? Yet under the watchful eyes of the crowd, he naturally had to distance himself as far as possible. Only by shifting all the blame onto Madam Xie could he extricate himself from this vortex of public opinion.

A thought flashed swiftly through his mind, and ruthless hostility surged within his eyes.

He could easily pin the entire accusation of jealousy onto Madam Xie as well, arguing that all of this stemmed purely from her own malicious guesswork regarding his intentions, leading her to frame Xie Qi on her own accord, without a shred of solid evidence to prove he had ever instigated it.

He, too, had simply been kept entirely in the dark.

With this thought, he suddenly raised a heavily balled fist high into the air and brought it smashing down onto Madam Xie's head.

*Crack.*

Madam Xie's vision went black. Caught entirely off guard by his sudden move, she took the full force of his unmitigated blow square on.

Instantly, she collapsed weakly to the ground, retching up a mouthful of blood as a relentless, high-pitched ringing echoed deep within her ears.

Seeing that Madam Xie had merely vomited blood, Xie Yuan panicked. His eyes darted wildly about until they landed on the longsword held by a guardsman standing nearby; his gaze lit up, and he lunged forward with fierce speed to snatch it away.