Chapter 4: If You Want to Play, I'll Accompany You to the End

Yan Wanqing then stood up and walked towards Aunt Song. Just as she was about to bow, Aunt Song quickly grabbed her hand, "You mustn't! What fault has Miss done? If not for Miss, I'm afraid Hongzhao would have harbored regrets for a lifetime. The Wang Family is not a good match, Auntie was wrong..."

Yan Hongzhao also quickly said, "Thank you, big sister, for saving me."

Yan Wanqing gripped Auntie's hand, and with her wide-eyed surprise, she spoke word by word, "I will definitely find a good marital match for Fifth Sister in the future, Auntie, be at ease."

"Ah... Okay!" Aunt Song was already moved to tears.

She knew that Yan Wanqing never made promises lightly; once spoken, it would certainly be fulfilled.

After talking a bit more, Yan Hongzhao then supported Aunt Song back to her room to rest.

Yan Wanqing followed Mrs. Sun back to the rear courtyard. As soon as she entered the room, her eyes reddened.

"Crying? What are you making a fuss about, and now feeling wronged?" Mrs. Sun took out a handkerchief to wipe the tears from the corners of Yan Wanqing's eyes, her tone much gentler.

Yan Wanqing shook her head, wanting both to cry and to laugh.

Mrs. Sun rarely spoke, seeming not easy to get along with, but over many years as the Duke of the Nation went to war in the south and battled in the north, Mrs. Sun relied on her own strength to manage every big and small matter within the estate alone. Sisters being close, brothers harmonious, the Yan Family lived in harmonious joy, except she kept her merits and fame hidden, devoted herself to fasting and praying for the peace of the whole Yan Family.

In a previous life, when the Imperial Edict of annihilation came down upon the Yan Family, hearts were stricken with panic.

Only Mrs. Sun, at that moment took the treasured sword bestowed by the Supreme Emperor and committed suicide at the Duke of the Nation's mansion door, using her death to demand that the Imperial Family thoroughly investigate the truth of the treason. Yan Wanqing still remembered, her mother's blood from her neck spraying as far as a yard away, splattering the freshly changed lantern with dots of winter plum...

Now able to see her mother, alive and standing before her, even someone as unemotional as Yan Wanqing was moved to tears.

Mrs. Sun, however, blamed herself, wondering if she had been too harsh on her daughter just now, considering that despite her widely acknowledged wisdom rivaling that of Zhuge Liang, she was still a girl who had just come of age few years ago.

Thinking this, Mrs. Sun embraced her, her movements a bit stiff as she patted her head.

"Don't blame your mother. It hasn't been easy for your aunt alone, and her wanting Hongzhao to marry a good man is understandable. You intervened, and I couldn't say much, but it's fortunate that your aunt is reasonable and doesn't blame you."

Yan Wanqing, buried in her chest, muffled a nasal sound, "Mhm."

Mrs. Sun rarely saw her daughter act so tenderly, her heart softened even more. "Has your cold improved? Do you need to take more medicinal soup to consolidate?"

"Don't want, it's bitter."

Mrs. Sun teased, perhaps for the first time, "You little child, when you followed your father on military campaigns you could swallow coarse grains and rotten vegetables, but now you can't stomach a bit of medicine for your cold?"

Yan Wanqing shook her head, "It's different."

Mrs. Sun tapped her nose, "All right, all right. Shall Cong Ge boil some more medicine, and I'll make you pastries to rinse your mouth with afterwards?"

"Then I'll endure and take some soup medicine."

The corners of Mrs. Sun's eyes were brimming with laughter, her eldest daughter rarely being affectionate with her, making her, as the mother, somewhat surprised and flattered. Seeing her daughter's slight cough, Mrs. Sun's heart ached anew.

After Mrs. Sun had people brought into the study, Yan Wanqing sat waiting in her room.

It wasn't long before Cong Ge entered with a stern expression.

"Miss," Cong Ge received orders from Yan Wanqing, and had been following since Wang Shujian was kicked out of the door, "He didn't go home, but instead went straight to the Flower and Willow Alleys. It's good that his matter with the Fifth Miss didn't prevail, such a hypocrite with the air of a gentleman!"

Yan Wanqing lightly placed the chess piece in her hand down, her voice very calm, inexplicably soothing the restlessness in Cong Ge's heart.

"And then?"

"After that, this servant couldn't follow him inside, but he looked panicked, didn't even bother with the madam and went straight upstairs..." Cong Ge, thinking about the place crowded with girls, found it somewhat difficult to speak openly.

Yan Wanqing nodded, "I understand."

Wang Shujian had just been ranked as the Top Scholar and then made a great show of coming to the Duke of the Nation to propose marriage, only seeking a concubine as the primary wife, which was a high likelihood of success.

Living again, she had re-evaluated all the events of her previous life and found that every uncertainty originated from this marriage proposal.

Now that she had thwarted this marriage proposal, she wanted to see what Wang Shujian would do.

As she had expected, this despicable person had someone formidable guiding them from behind.

Cong Ge went out to simmer the medicine, and Yan Wanqing took the white piece, her bright wrist as pale as frost and snow. She slightly curved her lips, indifferent as a gentle breeze.

This chessboard targeting the Duke of the State had unexpectedly been laid out since this moment.

The identity of the person behind Wang Shujian was the key to deciphering the chessboard.

"If you want to play, then I shall accompany you to the end," she said.

With the placing of the white piece, it seemed random and disruptive but, surveying the whole board, one could see that the move had captured several black pieces. Suddenly, the tide of the game changed, from a certain defeat to an undecided outcome.

In this life, she refused to play by the rules; she intended to be the disruptor, even if it meant using the entire court as chess pieces, determined to ensure that the person behind the scenes met a grim fate!

The most famous Flower and Willow Alleys in Capital City.

In the finest room marked with the character 'Heaven,' rather than the presence of girls, two men were seated.

One of them was, surprisingly, Wang Shujian.

Although he held a wine cup, the drink had long been spilled over the table, his shaking hands a stark contrast to his previously eloquent demeanor at the Duke's residence. Now he stuttered, desperately trying to demonstrate his loyalty.

The person opposite him was not at all impressed by this act.

"Such a simple task and yet you failed to do it properly. What use are you to me?"

This crucial move was supposed to be foolproof! How could it have failed?

It made no sense.

"Are you saying the person who hindered you is the eldest daughter of the Yan Family, Yan Wanqing?"

Wang Shujian quickly replied, "Exactly! Just when the birth dates were about to be exchanged, Yan Wanqing stepped in and thwarted the marriage."

"Hmph," the other man sneered coldly, "but I heard it was because you couldn't present a decent dowry that Yan Wanqing seized the opportunity and threw you out."

Wang Shujian broke into a cold sweat, noticing from the corner of his eye the man holding a short, serpentine dagger. The handle was adorned with a glowing ruby, emanating a chilling, ominous light.

"Wang Shujian, do you realize you've spoiled my plans?"

The dagger was already at Wang Shujian's throat as he broke out in a cold sweat with his hands clasped together, wishing he could kneel and beg for mercy.

"Please, give me another chance!" he pleaded.

The sharp tip of the Dagger with a Snake-tip licked out a red mark, and Wang Shujian dared not move, afraid the ruthless and grim person might kill him.

Seemingly pleased by the fear in Wang Shujian's eyes, the man with the dagger withdrew it, "Three days from now, the women of the Yan Family will go to the Southern Mountain to admire the plum blossoms. Slip this medicine into Yan Wanqing's vegetarian meal."

A small white bottle was placed on the table.

"Wang Shujian, this is your last chance," the man stated.

Eager to prove himself, Wang Shujian clutched the small white bottle in his hands, tumbling off the chair and kneeling on the ground. "I will not fail in my mission!" he exclaimed.

...

After consuming the last dose of medicine, Yan Wanqing's cold seemed to improve. Seizing the opportunity of a sunny day, she made a trip to the palace.

Her mother's niece, her cousin Sun Lianyi, was currently in high favor, being the Imperial Consort of the court.

Inside the Imperial Consort's palace, various treasures and rare objects were displayed in abundance, overflowing from their cases, a clear indication of the favor her cousin enjoyed at the moment.

But Yan Wanqing knew.

In six months' time, when the Duke's family would fall from grace and the Sun Family implicated, her cousin would be strangled to death by eunuchs deep within the palace.