Chapter 180 "What does it mean to be favored by high-ranking nobles..."
“Iani.” Her voice began to stir with emotion. “Don’t you remember me? You were my governess.”
I took two steps back abruptly. I remembered, I remembered, how could I not remember? The tutoring job I found in the Eastern Territory, the job that later plunged me into a terrible abyss. "Sorry, you've mistaken me for someone else."
I had poured my heart out to her, but she and her family betrayed me, falsely accusing me of murder and throwing me into the harshest prison in the East.
"No, I didn't." She became agitated. "Are you still blaming me? I was forced into it."
"Madam, you have mistaken me for someone else."
I turned to leave, and she hurriedly followed. "How are you now? I heard you went missing in the Western Region. What are you doing here?"
I hurried toward the crowd, betting that a noblewoman who cared about her reputation wouldn't chase after a commoner in a crowded place. Sure enough, she stopped after a short distance. I walked even faster and soon disappeared into the snowstorm...
Late at night, I huddled in Aya's little shack, both of us shivering with cold. The fire in the stove was already burning brightly.
“Sister, you seem a little unhappy today,” Aya said.
"Yeah, I ran into someone I didn't want to see."
"Huh?! Oh well, don't think about it." Aya didn't ask any more questions, yawned, and said, "Go to sleep early, and we'll just avoid running into each other again."
I yawned and snuggled closer to Aya. "Yeah, go to sleep."
But Aya's words did not come true. Early the next morning, just after Aya left, an uninvited guest arrived. Iani was dressed very casually; judging from her simple black coat, she was not much different from ordinary pedestrians on the streets of the city, and even the carriage she rode in was the kind commonly seen on the road.
She stood at the entrance of the shed, "Aren't you going to invite me in?"
"Come in." I picked up the kettle of freshly boiled water from the stove. "But I don't have much to offer you."
“I don’t need your hospitality.” She seemed relieved and entered gracefully. “I was always worried that you would never speak to me again.”
“I really don’t want to talk to you,” I poured hot water into my cup. “If I hadn’t been lucky, I would still be in your jail right now.”
She sat down at the table, her expression somewhat innocent. "I really didn't mean to. I had no choice. I killed my newlywed husband. My parents were ashamed and afraid of offending his family and bringing disaster upon themselves, so they followed Manager Sha Ling's advice and pinned the murder on you." She finished the last sentence with great difficulty, and then said, "I'm sorry, I really didn't want to hurt you, but my mother knelt on the ground crying and begged me, saying that if I didn't do as I said, not only would I die, but my father would also beat her to death."
I refilled the half-empty kettle with cold water and put it back on the stove. "Didn't you ever think about the consequences of pinning murder on a powerless person?"
She hesitated for a long while before finally speaking, "My mother secretly told me that Supervisor Sha Ling and you are old acquaintances, so you won't be sentenced to hanging, at most..."
"At most, life imprisonment." I laughed, holding the thermos. "You think that's pretty good for me."
She suddenly covered her face and cried, "I know I shouldn't have treated you like this. You've always helped me, but I didn't know what to do. I was a mess at the time, and I was terrified. I couldn't sleep all night, and I couldn't get a good night's sleep for two or three years."
"So, you think that you've suffered a lot by not sleeping for several years, and that you're not much better off than me, who's been locked up in prison?"
“Isn’t that right?” she cried. “I’ve been punished.”
“Then let’s switch,” I laughed. “I’ll stay up all night, and you’ll stay in the most suffocating prison. You’ll never see the sun, never hear human voices, rain, wind, or insects. You won’t even have the chance to go outside for fresh air like the male prisoners do. You’ll feel like a friend if a mouse happens to appear. Which kind of life do you think is better?”
If Di Yaruo hadn't spoken to me later, I would have gone crazy.
Her face flushed red. "How could you say that? I've already apologized to you, felt guilty for a long time, and suffered from insomnia for so long. I also told you that I had no choice back then, and my mother even knelt on the ground to save me. Why are you still so relentless?"
It was too cold, so I took a sip of hot water. "That's just how I am—unforgiving. I was framed for murder and imprisoned in a dark prison. I can't forgive them."
Enraged, her face flushed even more, and she stood up. "I've come all this way for nothing. I never expected you to be this kind of person. I've already humbled myself before you."
I said calmly, "I think I've been very good to you. I didn't kick you out or prevent you from entering the house."
She stormed out of the house in anger, got into her carriage, and left.
Can a few casual "I'm sorry," "I had no choice," and "I was also punished" really erase everything? At the time, I genuinely believed I would be imprisoned for life, never to see the light of day again.
When Aya returned in the evening, I said goodbye to her, "I'm leaving tomorrow."
"Why?" Aya asked in astonishment. "We were living there perfectly well."
When I mentioned that an acquaintance had come to our door and we had a fight, Aya became very angry and immediately rolled up her sleeves, saying that if she were there, she would definitely beat up that acquaintance.
"Forget it, it's all in the past." I pulled her to sleep on the floor mat. "Go to sleep early."
The wind was strong and the snow was heavy that night. We were shivering with cold. In the middle of the night, we added more fire to the stove, which made us a little warmer, and we stayed like that until dawn.
Before dawn, we both got up, afraid that if we lay in bed too long we would freeze to death. We each wrapped ourselves in a tattered blanket and sat by the stove drinking hot tea.
"Sister, why don't you leave in a few days? These are the coldest days in the Eastern Territory, and look, it's freezing outside. Where are you going?" Aya sipped her hot tea, her feet twitching occasionally from under the blanket.
I hesitated. Indeed, the snow outside was too heavy, and it was freezing cold. I didn't have much money on me, so why insist on leaving? I might freeze to death.
"But I'm afraid I'll implicate you," I said hesitantly.
"What do you mean by 'implicated'? You're overthinking it, sis. You mean the argument you had with someone yesterday..."
Before she could finish speaking, she heard a voice from outside, "Lanna, where are you?" Iani had come again! And so early in the morning.
I was extremely surprised. I stood up, and the blanket slipped off, revealing that Ianne had already entered.
“Listen, I’m not here to beg for your forgiveness.” Ianie was bundled up in thick clothes, but her face was red from the cold. “I’ve been thinking about this all night. It’s your business if you’re stubborn, but I don’t want to have trouble sleeping at night anymore.”
She took out something and said, "This is the property deed. I'll compensate you with a house, is that alright? It's not big, and it's not very expensive, but it's still better than your slum."
I remained unmoved, and Aya looked at me in surprise. She didn't quite understand what was going on, only that this house was a very rare thing, so why wouldn't I take it?
"Just one house?" I said coldly. "My life and my existence are only worth one house?"
"How much more do you want?" Iani was a little embarrassed, and her anger rose again. "There aren't many people like me who are willing to pay for the house. Usually, when nobles encounter this kind of thing, they will just kill to cover up their mistakes. I'm already being very generous by paying compensation. Don't be greedy."
"I just feel that a house is nothing compared to my life, and that's called being greedy?" I retorted angrily.
“I also think I’ve done quite well, compared to the average nobleman. I didn’t kill anyone to cover it up.”
She placed the property deed on the table, saying, "It's up to you whether you want it or not. If you don't, just throw it away."
The shed door slammed shut, and the wind and snow seeped into the house, stirring up a brief chill.
I did not leave that day because the wind and snow were too heavy.
The sky was a deep, dark red, and the wind and snow continued relentlessly, making the shacks sway precariously.
"Why don't you just accept it?" Aya advised me. "She was right about one thing: many nobles have lost their conscience and would only kill to cover up such things. People like her who give away houses are really a minority."
I told Aya about the years I had been imprisoned, and I also explained the background and consequences of that incident.
Aya suddenly realized, "So that's why Sister Shaling was locked up." She looked at me with pity, "Prince Bernard's chief mistress was quite shrewd back then, eliminating many women who wanted to become her mistress, and you were also considered a rival by her. I've heard that she doesn't like to be a villain on the surface, preferring to eliminate her rivals silently, and many of them died without even knowing how. The prince seemed to know a little about it, but he was too lazy to care, and then later... I never expected it would happen to you."
Aya sighed repeatedly, “After the incident, many people speculated whether the chief mistress had met her match, why the prince would step in to deal with her, and who the prince was standing up for. The prince kept this matter well hidden, and we little people only vaguely heard that she was a woman who was very popular with the high-ranking nobles. So it was you, sister.”
I chuckled. "What woman is popular with the upper class? I'm the one who's been schemed against more."
Looking at Aya's "admiring" eyes, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I couldn't tell Aya all the stories, so I only told her a few about being locked on the top floor of the palace, being besieged by the army, and being betrayed by her stepdaughter. Her expression turned frightened again. In her opinion, these things were too terrible and unimaginable. "If it were me, I wouldn't know what to do. I would wish I were dead."
"Actually, there's nothing wrong with being an ordinary person. If you have abilities that others can't, you'll suffer hardships that others won't encounter," I said.
Aya sighed, "To be an ordinary person means to endure ordinary suffering, but to be an extraordinary person means to endure extraordinary suffering."
"If I could choose, I'd rather be an ordinary person..." I had just said this when several gusts of fierce, cold wind blew in, followed by several loud crashes. Before I could react, Aya screamed, and the ceiling of the shack collapsed, smashing down with cement blocks and bricks. My head, hands, and feet were all injured. Several more gusts of fierce, cold wind blew in, and before the new bricks could fall, Aya, who reacted quickly, pulled me away and we ran out together...
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Author's note: Thank you everyone~~~
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