The Truth

Without any change in her expression, Li Rui passed a small smile to Li Caihong. But, the words that escaped from her mouth changed Li Caihong's victorious expression to a bitter one.

"It seems like my Third Younger Sister is very Idle to pass her time with such useless rumors."

After saying this to Li Caihong, she turned to Yi Jie.

"Mother, you need not worry. Xi Ling is fine. He is just having normal fever and will be healthy soon."

Yi Jie patted her daughter's hand and tried to ease the awkward atmosphere.

"Nanny Liang, Go and tell the kitchen's maidservant to serve the dishes. Rui, I asked them to make your favorite dishes. Let's have something, Child. "

As Yi Jie stepped ahead with everyone else to go to the Dining room, Li Rui intentionally slowed down her steps to close the distance between herself and Li Caihong, Li Na. Her maids Li Hua and Li Mei followed her.

Seeing her, Li Na smiled and greeted her.

"Greetings, First sister. Do not mind Caihong's words. You know how she is."

Li Caihong frowned at Li Na's words but didn't say anything. Li Rui maintained her smile and took one step closer towards both of them.

"Then shouldn't second younger sister be responsible and teach third younger sister to shut her mouth if she can't speak anything good."

Li Hua and Li Mei snickered at their mistress' words which made Li Caihong glare at them. Li Na held her hand to stop her from doing anything and looked at Li Rui.

"As an elder, shouldn't Elder Sister be generous to us younger ones ? "

Li Rui passed a very cold smile to her sisters at these words. She was wearing a light blue-colored dress that showed only a small part of her neck. But the visible part of the skin looked so white in contrast to the clothing. A small red dot was drawn in the mid of her eyebrows.

As she was smiling coldly with her clear bright black eyes, Xi Ying thought that his wife looked very cute.

The next moment he was shocked by his own thought and frowned deeply.

However, Li Rui's next words shocked not only the two younger sisters but gave him another shock as well.

"Do I need to tell you about my generosity? I am very willing as long as you feel comfortable with me telling First Uncle how both of you drugged me four years ago at the Place's banquet and sent a man to play with my chastity. Do we want me to do this, my younger sisters? "

Li Na and Li Caihong's faces went pale at her words.

Soon, Li Na composed herself and feigned a confused face.

" What are you talking ab..? "

Before she could complete her sentence Li Rui had already stepped forward to go inside.

"Second sister, how ...how does she know? "

Li Na glared at Li Caihong to shut her mouth.

However, the work was done.

Li Rui didn't know what power her words had. And Xi Ying had never thought that his one visit to Li Mansion would change his perception of the wangfei he had since four years.

Xi Ying followed Li Rui in a daze. Just one sentence was repeating in his brain.

"Both of you drugged me and sent a man to play with my chastity."

With every repetition, his heartbeat fastened and at the end of the sentence, his fists and jaw clenched in fury.

Even if he didn't want to believe these words, he couldn't do so now. He was looking at the pale faces of both the sisters and their stuttering after Li Rui's words. Their every action was telling him that they really did this. And Li Caihong's last words, about how Li Rui knew all of this, were just a nail on the head.

The last confirmation he needed.

Li Rui knew this. Then why didn't she tell him when he had asked her four years ago.

Like his subconscious mind answered him instantly.

' If she had told him, would he have believed her? He didn't ask, he had accused her at that time. '

But the way things were going at that time naturally made him believe that Li Rui was behind all of the things.

-------------

Four years ago

Everyone in the Imperial City was jumbling with great excitement. After two days, the place was going to have a banquet. Many noble families were invited. The females of these noble families didn't want to lose this chance of setting a good impression in front of the royal family.

Xi Ying was going to Xi Mansion after the ending of morning court.

"Prime Minister Xi"

He heard someone calling him.

On turning around, he found General Li walking towards himself. As they don't talk much, Xi Ying thought that it must be something serious.

"General Li"

He gave a nod to General Li in greeting. The middle-aged General smiled at his greeting.

"Prime Minister Xi, do you have some free time? I want to have some talk with you."

"Sure, General Li. What do you want to talk about? "

"Let's sit somewhere."

Xi Ying glanced at An Ping and An Ping arranged a private room for them in a nearby Pavillion.

Sitting inside the Private room, Xi Ying patiently waited for General Li to start the conversation.

"Prime Minister Xi, I will come straight to the point and don't waste your time. I and your father have been great friends. I have always seen you as my son."

Xi Ying looked at the general with a confused expression. Where was he trying to reach by all this?

"I wanted to ask you if you would like to marry my daughter, Li Rui. I am sure you and she are ..."

"No, General Li."

Xi Ying answered even before General Li could complete his sentence. 

Looking at the silent General, Xi Ying continued coldly 

"I think that's all you wanted to talk about. Have a nice day ahead."

Without giving any chance to General Li to complete his unfinished words, Xi Ying stood up and left from there.

On his way to Xi Mansion, Xi Ying thought about the dim expression General Li had after he rejected the sudden proposal. He knew what the old general was trying to do.

Xi Ying was very close to the Emperor. The Emperor has always praised him for his intelligence. He knew that the Emperor doesn't like General Li that much.

In fact, the Emperor was looking for a chance to snatch all the military power from General Li. But this wasn't an easy task. The former Emperor trusted General Li's father a lot. Hence, he had given him all the military power and some special rights to make decisions about the borders.

After General Li's father sacrificed himself on the battlefield, the former Emperor transferred all those rights to General Li Heng. All of the citizens and soldiers respected Li Clan for the sacrifices they had done to safeguard Empire Xin and its borders.

It wasn't easy to reduce the effect of Li Clan instantly.

So the only way was to weaken the position of the Li Clan bit by bit. The Emperor had already started his work from General Li's in Law's Family. Yi Clan. The daughter of Yi clan Yi Jie was wife of General Li. The power of the Yi clan is a great benefit to General Li.

The emperor issued an imperial edict of marriage between the Second Prince and the only daughter of the Yi clan who had gotten seventeen this year. In the eyes of others, it seemed like General Li was being favored by the emperor. But Xi Ying knew the real motive behind this move.

Preventing the Yi clan from making strong relations with any other family was a great move.

Yi clan's only daughter will soon lose herself among the other concubines of the Second Prince. The only son, not favored by the Emperor would also not be able to maintain Yi's position in the royal court. The Yi clan would vanish in six to seven years like this and General Li will lose his most strong backing.

The royal family seemed to be attractive but only some knew that it was very difficult to maintain their position inside the Imperial Palace, especially for those who are not royals from birth.

Now General Li was afraid that the Emperor's next target would be his own daughter, Li Rui. So he was trying to be smart and ask for an imperial edict of marriage with someone else before the Emperor himself could announce it with any other prince.

But Xi Ying doesn't want to be involved in this mess. Nothing mattered more than the country. And he himself thinks that military power should be in the hand of the Emperor himself. He was a special advisor to the Emperor in this whole case. This was the plan he had suggested after a lot of effort. 

Then how could he marry General Li's daughter only to get their plan failed?

What he didn't know was that in the future, he would hate himself for everything he was doing now.