Chapter 44 My aunt is not someone to be bullied easily.
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's eyes turned to Li Bao'er. This legitimate daughter of the Prime Minister's family had always been arrogant and spoiled. How could she tolerate her half-sister being so glamorous?
Those who were still dissatisfied wished that Li Bao'er would rush up and teach Li Yan a lesson, regardless of the consequences.
But Li Bao'er simply lowered her eyes and smiled faintly, her fingertips gently stroking the steam rising from the teacup.
Bao'er has lived in this world for nineteen years, and she is well aware of the importance of family background among these high-ranking officials and nobles. Many times, they have no reason to dislike someone, but they just can't stand that someone of lower birth than themselves can be superior to them.
For example, they can spend lavishly on a courtesan of low social status whom they don't even know, but they cannot tolerate anyone around them crossing even an inch of social class.
But Li Bao'er is different. She comes from the 21st century and understands the value of hard work better than anyone else. She respects everyone who works hard and achieves results.
When she first came into this world, she did give the mother and daughter a way to survive. Whether it was Zhang Yingying climbing into someone else's bed to give birth or Li Yan vying for favor and acting cute, these sordid things in the deep mansion were, in her eyes, nothing more than ways of survival under the feudal cage.
After all, in a world where having multiple wives and concubines is legal, why bother arguing with two pitiful people?
But some people are just like that; if you don't provoke them, they'll think you're easy to bully.
They mistook her modern upbringing for weakness, so she was determined to make Li Yan and Zhang Yingying pay the price they deserved.
But if Li Yan truly earned this opportunity through her own abilities, she will not disrupt the opportunity that belongs to her.
"Sister, come up quickly," Li Yan called out timidly from the altar, but her eyes held a sly, venomous smugness.
“No need. Since the Imperial Advisor said you are the person of destiny, I believe the Imperial Advisor,” Li Bao’er said with a gentle smile as she sipped her hot tea.
She gave Li Yan a chance to stop this time. If she were to push her luck any further, she would definitely expose this so-called "chosen one of destiny" lie, after all...
If anyone in Da Lin truly has good fortune, it can only be Mu Cenlin or her!
Who has the better luck to be born as the protagonist or someone who transmigrates halfway through life?
Upon hearing this, Li Yan dug her nails deep into her palms, almost drawing blood.
She had gone to great lengths to get to where she was today, enduring the pain of Fang Xu carving a birthmark on her body, all so that she could see Li Bao'er's ever-composed face completely crumble.
Jealousy, anger, and resentment drove her to want Li Bao'er to scream in a fit of rage, just like all the noble ladies she had trampled underfoot!
But Li Bao'er simply sat quietly at the table, a smile on her lips, her fingertips gently toying with the teacup, as if the humiliation that had been carefully prepared for her was nothing more than a boring farce.
What is this?!
Is she arrogant? Is she generous? Or am I petty?
Li Yan's chest heaved violently, her eyes almost spitting fire. She abruptly turned to look at Fang Xu, her gaze filled with undisguised urging and dissatisfaction. She didn't want Li Bao'er to stay out of it! She wanted her to suffer! She wanted her to be humiliated! She wanted her to fall from grace in front of everyone!
Fang Xu's lips curled up almost imperceptibly beneath his veil. This stupid woman—if she weren't still of some use, he really wouldn't want to pay any attention to her.
“Miss Li,” Fang Xu suddenly spoke, his tone leaving no room for refusal, “I believe many people still have doubts. Why don’t you step forward and give it a try?”
"This humble Taoist priest would also like to see if your destiny... is truly as terrible as the rumors suggest?"
Li Bao'er paused, her fingertips twitching. Wait a minute, doesn't this fellow villager know how to talk? Her reputation might not be great, but does she have to publicly humiliate her? They're both transmigrators, can't she at least show some respect?
Before 001 disappeared, Bao'er asked, "Why didn't he realize I was a time traveler?"
001 laughed out loud: [It seems he's had a falling out with the system; the system isn't here.]
"Luckily you only disconnected briefly, and didn't run away after an argument."
During the meal, Xiao Han frowned, and several people who were on good terms with the Li family looked at this seemingly divine national advisor with dissatisfaction.
Zhang Chi slammed his fist on the table and stood up, expressing his dissatisfaction: "I thought the Imperial Preceptor was some kind of otherworldly being, but it turns out he's just a mediocre person who listens to rumors from the streets! How laughable!"
His father was a Grand Secretary of the Imperial Academy, and he often taught him not to cause trouble. However, he grew up with the Li siblings and couldn't stand seeing others bully his friends.
Moreover, he knew who Li Bao'er was; she wasn't the talentless and arrogant person the outside world described, except for her poor taste in men.
Upon hearing this, Fang Xu turned his head slightly to look at Zhang Chi and said only one sentence: "Young Master Zhang, you must have been released from the ancestral hall by your father a few days ago. Does the wound from those thirty rattan canes on your back still hurt?"
Zhang Chi's body suddenly froze.
Those thirty lashes were personally applied by my father; even his personal servant didn't know the exact number. This Imperial Advisor is really something!
"The Imperial Advisor is truly skilled." Li Bao'er suddenly chuckled, gracefully rising to her feet. "To be able to calculate even other people's family affairs so clearly, using divination techniques for this is truly a waste of talent."
She walked slowly toward the altar, the jade pendant at her waist swaying gently with each step, reflecting tiny golden glints in the sunlight.
As she passed Zhang Chi, Li Bao'er lowered her head and chuckled softly, indicating that nothing was wrong.
Fang Xu's gaze followed her movements, and his smile deepened beneath the veil: "Miss Li, please."
Li Bao'er stopped beside Fang Xu, looking at him with a probing gaze, "How does the Imperial Preceptor intend to verify my unfortunate fate?"
Fang Xu did not respond, but simply gestured for the boy to bring out a sandalwood box.
The box contained no rare treasures, but a slightly worn parchment with intricate star charts and hexagrams drawn in cinnabar, along with dense ancient annotations.
“This is an artifact passed down through our sect,” Fang Xu said. “It contains star charts and predictions of several shifts in fortune over the past century. Each one corresponds to a change in the world’s overall situation and the appearance of a key figure.”
"Please examine this scroll carefully, Miss. If you feel a connection, you may find some resonance with your own destiny. You may also feel a slight connection in the corresponding hexagram area on the parchment, but only those with the right affinity can glimpse it."
This explanation still sounds far-fetched, but Li Bao'er knows that Fang Xu is just a charlatan who uses the system to fool people.
As instructed, Li Bao'er's gaze fell upon the intricate star map. She couldn't actually understand it; she only felt that the lines were so complex and confusing that they made her dizzy.
Just like in real life, her college roommate loved studying astrology, but she couldn't understand it either.
However, just as she was looking closely, a cinnabar rune next to a certain area on the parchment scroll depicting the ominous hexagram of a lone star descending upon the world and the inauspicious formation of the Killing Wolf formation flickered extremely faintly, as if touched by an invisible force, and then dimmed, so quickly that it was almost an illusion!
"Huh?!" A monk near the altar suddenly stood up, his eyes wide. "That divination chart...did it move just now?!"
"It looked like it flashed?" someone echoed uncertainly.
"Which place? Which divination result is it?" Everyone craned their necks.
Li Yan also saw the sudden change. Although she didn't understand divination, she vaguely recognized a few of the annotations next to that area: "warfare," "lonely evil," "bloodshed"... definitely not a good omen!
She immediately seized the opportunity, her voice sharp with alarm, pointing to the divination mark: "It's there! It just lit up! Sister... how could your fate trigger such a malevolent omen representing war and bloodshed?!"
She successfully linked the "ominous sign" to Lai Po-yee.
The room erupted in discussion, with suspicious, fearful, and scrutinizing gazes directed at Li Bao'er.
"It can actually trigger ominous divination symbols?"
"Could she really be involved in something ominous?"
"No wonder the Imperial Preceptor said that just now..."
Li Bao'er stood with her arms crossed, her face turning cold as she snapped, "All of you, shut up!"
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