Chapter 18 Xue Lin'an ran away

“No.” Ye Wanning raised her eyes, a cold glint in them. “If he really wanted to do something, he couldn’t stop him.”

Ye Wanning paused, tapping her fingers on her knee: "Big brother, I'm going to Ci'an Hall the day after tomorrow."

Ci'an Hall was a charitable hall built by her birth mother when she was alive. It was located in a poor alley in the south of the city, not very close to the Marquis's mansion. In her previous life, she would go there every month, until Ye Jingshu instigated her, saying that she was "faking compassion to gain fame," and she gradually stopped going.

Ye Chengjing was taken aback: "What are you going there for? You've just recovered..."

“Go take a look,” Ye Wanning interrupted him, her tone calm but her attitude firm. “And while you’re at it, donate this month’s allowance.”

Ye Chengjing wanted to persuade her further, but seeing the stubbornness in her eyes, he swallowed his words and said, "I'll go with you."

"No need," Ye Wanning shook her head. "My brother has official business to attend to; I can manage with just a few guards."

She knew Xue Lin'an was looking for trouble, and the Ci'an Hall, with its many people and complicated affairs, was a good place for her. Rather than waiting to be ambushed, she decided to lure him out herself.

Ye Chengjing was still worried, so he sent four more guards, all of whom were the best in the manor in terms of martial arts.

The day of departure was a sunny day. The carriage wheels made a regular "creaking" sound as they rolled over the bluestone road.

Ye Wanning sat in the car, lifting a corner of the curtain to look outside. The street was bustling with people, the cries of peddlers and the laughter of children mingling together, creating a vibrant, everyday atmosphere. Looking at the sugar figurine vendor by the roadside, she suddenly remembered how her birth mother would buy her sugar figurines when she was little.

Lost in thought, the carriage suddenly stopped, and the driver cried out, "Miss, be careful!"

Ye Wanning's heart tightened, and she instinctively reached for the carriage wall. Outside came the sounds of clashing swords and the roars of guards: "Who are you?!"

"Something's happened!" Chun Tao's face turned pale instantly, and she frantically tried to pull the carriage curtain.

"Don't move." Ye Wanning pressed her down, quickly pulling a silver hairpin from her hair and holding it in her hand. "Sit still."

She took a deep breath and listened intently. There were quite a few people outside, at least a dozen, and they were ruthless; the screams of the guards echoed through the air.

"Miss, should we...?"

"Wait." Ye Wanning's voice was emotionless. "Their target is me; they won't lift the carriage curtain easily."

Sure enough, the fighting outside gradually subsided. A rough, hoarse voice cursed, "Damn it, the guards of the Marquis's mansion are really tough!"

Another voice, sinister and chilling, said, "Stop talking nonsense and take him away to complete your mission!"

The car door was pushed open with a bang, revealing a burly man with a thick beard standing against the light, a blood-dripping steel knife gleaming coldly in his hand.

"Young lady, come with us." The burly man grinned, revealing his yellowed teeth.

Ye Wanning seemed not to notice, instead looking up at him, her voice eerily calm: "Did Xue Lin'an send you?"

The bearded man paused, seemingly unprepared for her question: "If you know what's good for you, don't ask any more questions and just come with us!"

He reached out to grab Ye Wanning's arm, but his wrist was gripped tightly. Ye Wanning's hairpin was pressed against his pulse point, the tip gleaming coldly.

“Tell Xue Lin’an,” her eyes were like ice, “that his methods are nothing.”

The burly man hadn't expected this seemingly frail woman to be so ruthless; he was in so much pain his face turned green: "You..."

Just then, the sound of rapid hoofbeats came from afar, along with Ye Chengjing's anxious shouts: "Ningning!"

The bearded man's face turned green instantly. He forcefully broke free from Ye Wanning's grasp and shouted to his accomplice, "Run!"

The group vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving behind a mess and injured guards.

Ye Chengjing dismounted and rushed to the carriage. Seeing that Ye Wanning was unharmed, he breathed a sigh of relief, his legs still a little weak: "How are you? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." Ye Wanning shook her head, looking at the groaning guard on the ground. "Quickly, call a doctor."

"I've already sent someone." Ye Chengjing helped her out of the car, his face ashen. "That bastard Xue Lin'an! I'm going to kill him right now!"

"Big brother!" Ye Wanning grabbed him, "It's no use going now, he's probably already run away."

She picked up a piece of blood-stained cloth from the ground, on which was embroidered a crooked "Li" character: "These men are Li Laohu's henchmen from the west of the city. Xue Lin'an must have hired them."

Li Laohu was a notorious bully in Beijing, who kept a gang of thugs under his command and committed all sorts of heinous crimes.

Ye Chengjing clenched his fists so tightly they cracked: "I'm going to report this to the authorities right now, and I'll take care of Li Laohu too!"

“Reporting to the authorities is fine,” Ye Wanning said, looking at him, “but Xue Lin’an can’t just let this go.”

A ruthless glint flashed in her eyes: "Let him know who he can't mess with."

Ye Chengjing looked at his younger sister's calm profile, feeling somewhat unfamiliar with her. Was this the same little girl who had been staring blankly at the crabapple blossoms when they first returned to the manor?

But he wasn't afraid; instead, he felt a strange sense of security. Only someone like this would prevent Ningning from being bullied.

"What do you want to do?" Ye Chengjing asked.

Ye Wanning smiled, the sunlight shining on her face but not into her eyes: "Big brother, just do as I say..."

Three days later, a major incident occurred in the capital. Li Laohu, the notorious tyrant of the western part of the city, was found dead in a stinking ditch, his body riddled with more than a dozen holes of varying sizes, a truly gruesome sight. His gang of thugs were either beaten with broken legs or packed up and fled, disappearing overnight.

No one knows who did it, but it's obvious to everyone that it was aimed at the "job" Li Laohu recently took on.

When Xue Lin'an heard the news, he was eating a cold steamed bun in a dilapidated temple. He was so frightened that he dropped the bun, and his face turned deathly pale.

He knew this was Ye Wanning's warning. This woman was not the pushover he had imagined.

He packed his things that very night, leaving behind even the few coins he had left, and ran frantically out of the city. He was terrified, truly terrified.

When Ye Wanning received the news that Xue Lin'an had absconded, she was distributing pastries to the children of Ci'an Hall.

Chuntao leaned closer to her: "Miss, Xue Lin'an has run away. I heard he doesn't even dare to return to the capital."

Ye Wanning paused, holding the pastry, then smiled and handed it to the little girl with pigtails in front of her: "Okay."

It's good that she ran away. It saves her from getting her hands dirty again.

She just didn't expect that this was only temporary. Some people, no matter how far they run, will eventually come back to their deaths.

Xue Lin'an ran away, and Ye Wanning only had a few days of peace and quiet in the past few months.

Besides going to Ci'an Hall every day, she would either stay in the Red Leaf Courtyard reading or doing accounting. With the money she won from the gambling den, she had Chun Tao ask someone to buy two shops, one for a cosmetics shop and the other for a clothing shop, both in prime locations in the city.

In her past life, during her years at the Scholar's Pavilion, she had seen the rare trinkets that noblewomen were fond of, and she also knew what kind of fabric made of clothes would flatter her figure and what color of rouge would complement her complexion.