“Only the dead can’t speak.” Wei Qinglou smiled, told Shujian to continue driving, and then lowered his head to slowly begin wiping his longsword.
Shujian was already familiar with his young master's methods, so he said "yes" without any surprise.
As dusk approached and the new moon hung high in the sky, the city of Yujing appeared calm on the surface, but beneath the calm, countless undercurrents were stirring, known only to those within its walls.
In the distant southern city of Heling, a peaceful scene unfolded.
At the Qiu residence, the family banquet had just ended, and Zhu Jiayu was taking a stroll around the small pond.
Suddenly, the gatekeeper found Lüzheng. After hearing what the gatekeeper said, Lüzheng's expression changed slightly. She ran to Zhu Jiayu's side and said with a complicated expression, "Miss, Miss Song is here. She is outside the gate and says she wants to see you."
Zhu Jiayu chuckled upon hearing this, sprinkled the last bit of fish food into the water, and then turned and walked towards the gate of the mansion.
Song Jiangmei's arrival was somewhat unexpected—nighttime was always a chaotic time, hardly a good time for conversation. Moreover, if she wasn't mistaken, she and Song Jiangmei were destined for a long talk.
But since Song Jiangmei had come, she had no reason to turn her away.
Thinking this, she walked to Song Jiangmei's carriage outside the Qiu residence.
When Fuyao saw her arrive, she curtsied and said with lowered eyes, "My mistress invites Miss Zhu to ride in the carriage for a chat."
Zhu Jiayu nodded. Once inside the carriage, she saw Song Jiangmei dressed somewhat differently from usual—no longer in her signature red dress, but in a light blue, like the thick fog in the mountains at dusk, or like the river under the slumbering night.
She raised an eyebrow: "Miss Song today..."
"What?" Song Jiangmei pinched the hem of her skirt, somewhat unsure of her meaning.
Zhu Jiayu smiled sincerely and said, "It's quite beautiful."
Song Jiangmei's fingertips went limp, unsure how to react.
Zhu Jiayu then asked her, "Are you sure Madam Song is at ease knowing you came out to find me so late? It's all my fault. I should have told you not to rush, that we could have met during the day."
Song Jiangmei: ...
Song Jiangmei felt it was somewhat surreal.
She was the only one who would say such things to others, so hearing Zhu Jiayu say it to her like this was quite strange to her. But then, she became somewhat embarrassed and angry: "I came to talk to Miss Zhu about serious matters. Judging from your attitude, I'm afraid you don't really want to talk to me?"
Zhu Jiayu chuckled: "Then tell me, Miss Song, what's your decision?"
Song Jiangmei looked at her seriously, her eyes cold and aloof: "I have two things I want to know: what you can do for me, and what you need me to do for you."
She didn't know what Zhu Jiayu was planning, but she had seen her abilities. After a long afternoon of careful consideration, she decided to make the trip to the Qiu residence.
Zhu Jiayu smiled and said, "That depends on what Miss Song wants. Fame and fortune? Power? Or perhaps status?"
"You think you can just give me whatever I want?" That's absurd. Song Jiangmei even felt that Zhu Jiayu was making fun of her. What gave her the right to be so arrogant? Was it because she was the daughter of a merchant? Or because of her silver tongue?
Her face turned cold: "It seems Miss Zhu isn't very sincere."
Zhu Jiayu's smile faded: "You don't know my character and how I act, so how do you know I'm joking? What if I could actually do it?"
She looked at Song Jiangmei: "If you were so quick to dismiss me, you wouldn't have come in the first place. Miss Song, I've said before that smart people don't need so much testing. Now it's clear who lacks sincerity."
"I think you need to understand one thing: I'm the one bringing you on board, not the other way around. Admittedly, close partners shouldn't have too many secrets, but given our current situation..."
She chuckled. "Why don't you lay out what you can tell others first? Otherwise, there's probably no point in continuing this conversation."
Song Jiangmei's hands, hidden in her sleeves, gradually tightened.
Zhu Jiayu added, "Our conversation today is between you and me. After tonight, no one will even know we've met. Are you relieved now?"
Song Jiangmei looked at her: "Fine, I'll tell you. I don't care about fame or fortune, I don't care about status, I only want power. Perhaps you don't know about my background."
She pursed her lips, as if she had something difficult to say.
Zhu Jiayu didn't interrupt. She thought that some things, whether to say them or not, should be decided by Song Jiangmei herself. Speaking up at this moment would only disrupt her train of thought.
After an unknown amount of time, Song Jiangmei seemed to have finally made up her mind. Leaning against the carriage wall for support, she said, "My mother became a widow seven years after marrying my father. My brother and I changed our surname to Song as a result."
"Later, my mother remarried. On their wedding day, I saw my stepfather, my brother, who looked about six or seven parts like him."
"With great doubts in my heart, I stayed at the merchant's house and then learned some secrets that should have been buried underground and never seen the light of day again."
She calmly recounted those hidden past events: "It turns out that my father did not die suddenly from an old illness. It was because his wife, who had been tampering with his food day and night, that he left this world so early."
"And my brother is not my biological brother, but a bastard born from my mother's affair with my stepfather."
At this point, she closed her eyes wearily, but her words remained resolute, almost uttering each word clearly. She said, "Zhu Jiayu, I want to avenge my father. I want his whole family to pay the price they deserve."
"My life may seem glamorous, with a good background and good looks, but only I know that it's not like that. My life is a smudge on brocade, a flower crawling with insect eggs."
"It's not hard to imagine, is it? I can't stand seeing others have genuine feelings, so I seduced Liu Yasheng and flitted around those men. I won't force myself to have anything happen with them; I just want to keep them from having a peaceful time, so that all they see is my allure."
She laughed self-deprecatingly, her expression calm and composed, showing no sign of shame whatsoever, as if she had written on her face, "This is who I am, and you can start cursing me now."
"I understand." Zhu Jiayu nodded, then looked at her again after a moment and advised, "Don't do things like that again."
Upon hearing this, Song Jiangmei's expression remained indifferent, neither expressing disappointment nor regret. However, she had already anticipated Zhu Jiayu's reaction.
Unexpectedly, she then heard Zhu Jiayu say, "You are you, and your mother is your mother. Don't punish yourself for the mistakes your mother made."
Her eyes widened suddenly, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
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