With Li Xian’s cooperation, Lin Dan quickly tied the other person up.

“You stay here, I’m leaving now.” Feeling more blood trickle down her leg, she tore off another section of the curtain and wrapped it tightly in thick layers around her wound. Seeing her face drenched in cold sweat made Li Xian’s desire completely turn to shock.

People say that no one in the Lin family was spineless. The men and women alike were strong-willed and unyielding. He used to think such words were exaggerated, but today he realized they were true. If their roles had been reversed, he would never have had the courage to be so ruthless to himself.

“Be careful.” He couldn’t help but remind Lin Dan as he watched her thin figure retreat.

“Don’t worry, I won’t implicate you. Once I’m outside, I’ll discreetly call your servants to escort you away.”

Li Xian shook his head and replied, “No need to call them. I’m fine lying here like this.” Whoever had set him up today would have to pay the price. A prince, drugged and bound in a room, would surely lead his father, the emperor, to investigate thoroughly to protect the imperial family’s reputation. His imperial father would feel guilty toward him and suspect the other princes. This way, he could persuade his imperial father to send him away from the capital to gain experience at the border.

Lin Dan immediately realized he was planning to use the ‘self-inflicted injury^[1]the ruse of self-injury to win somebody’s confidence’ strategy, so she didn’t insist further and left. Her senses were sharp, allowing her to detect any presence nearby even from a distance of dozens of meters, so her return went smoothly without encountering anyone. To avoid stirring the grass and startling the snake^[2]to inadvertently alert an enemy, she didn’t return to the banquet but instead had a maid from the Jiang family’s residence quietly inform her mother, Madam Lin, that she had her monthly flow and was too embarrassed to meet anyone. She asked Madam Lin to bring clean clothes to the guest room in the east wing.

The maid, carrying a generous reward, hurried through the crowd to find Madam Lin and whispered the message to her. Since it was a private matter for a young woman, the maid didn’t think twice about it and certainly wouldn’t mention it to others.

Madam Lin, worried that her daughter was shy and unwilling to be seen, personally delivered the clean clothes. As soon as she entered the room, Lin Dan pulled her into the inner chamber and explained everything in detail. “Mother, my maids helped me to Linshui Pavilion, but I fainted for no reason afterward. You must help me clear this mess.”

Those maids had all been chosen by the other Lin Dan. They seemed trustworthy on the surface, but after what had happened, Lin Dan could no longer rely on them. She decided to deal with them all. The Lin family was renowned for its military achievements and immense power, envied by many in court. The princes all dreamed of drawing the Lin family into their factions, and as the Lin family’s daughter, Lin Dan would not cause trouble for her family.

No matter what minor disturbances occurred, Lin Dan chose not to hide anything. She honestly told Madam Lin everything, allowing her mother and the elders of the family to handle it. She despised these underhanded tactics and had no patience for dealing with them.

Madam Lin lifted her daughter’s skirt to inspect the bloody wound on her leg, trembling with rage. “Good, good! These vile creatures dare to plot against our Lin family. I won’t let them get away with this!” Just as she finished speaking, there was a commotion outside. It turned out that Prince Zhuang had been found and was being rushed to the imperial hospital for treatment.

Taking this opportunity, Madam Lin bid farewell to the Jiang family, and upon returning home, she ordered that all the maids and old servants in Lin Dan’s courtyard be captured and interrogated one by one.

Lin Dan paid no attention to these matters. After returning to her room, she carefully sorted through the other Lin Dan’s memories and discovered that she secretly harbored feelings for her Shu^[3]children of the concubine sister^[4]younger sister Lin Wan’s fiancé, Ding Mujie. The other Lin Dan had even stolen many of his personal belongings, which she would take out from time to time to look at and touch, treasuring them greatly. The items were scattered in a large pile, including letters, paintings, jade pendants, pouches, and the like, all bearing Ding Mujie’s personal seal. If someone were to find them, it would undoubtedly cause more trouble.

Lin Dan made a swift decision. She burned everything that could be burned and ground the rest into powder, scattering it in the garden’s flowerbeds. Just as she finished doing so, someone from the front courtyard came to inform her that the old general had summoned her.

When Lin Dan arrived at the main hall, she saw that the maid the other Lin Dan relied on the most was lying on the floor in a miserable state, her face full of fear. As soon as the maid saw Lin Dan, she crawled forward, clutching Lin Dan’s legs while crying, “Miss, please save me!”

Noticing the old general’s grim expression, Lin Dan kicked the maid away and asked bluntly, “What did she say?”

General Lin glanced at the old general, and then at his daughter, who looked innocent, and replied, “She said you went to the Linshui Pavilion on your own accord and dismissed everyone with the intention of meeting Ding Mujie in secret. You and he had already been involved for some time, but for some reason, Prince Zhuang ended up in the room instead.”

The other Lin Dan’s memory does not contain a secret meeting with Ding Mujie, which means the maid was lying. After a moment of thought, Lin Dan said calmly, “I’ve never even met Ding Mujie before, let alone had any affair with him. If I had arranged a meeting with him, why would I faint so mysteriously? And why would I be drugged? That is not how a secret rendezvous normally unfolds.”

General Lin, seeing her straightforward and honest expression, relaxed a little. He knew his daughter well. She had always been bold and direct, never one to hide the truth.

Old General Lin’s expression softened and said, “I trust you. You are someone I personally trained. How could you ever do such a shameless thing?”

Lin Dan nodded, feeling no embarrassment. After all, it was the other Lin Dan who did those things, not her. Moreover, the other Lin Dan had indeed been framed. Although she admired Ding Mujie, she knew he was her Shu sister’s husband-to-be. Neither her grandfather nor her father would agree to the sisters swapping husbands, so she could only think about him in her heart and occasionally invited her Shu sister over to inquire about Ding Mujie, but she never dared do anything outrageous.

As Old General Lin said, she still understood what shame was.

The maid suddenly cried out, “It was really the young lady’s order! If you don’t believe me, you can search her room. She’s been secretly meeting with Ding Mujie for a long time!”

Lin Dan sat confidently in her seat, gesturing with her hand. “Go ahead and search. I’ll wait here.” She didn’t offer any defense for herself.

Seeing this, Old General Lin and General Lin felt even more at ease. After a short while, the servants who searched Lin Dan’s courtyard returned, reporting that they found nothing suspicious. However, they discovered many valuable items in the maid’s room— things someone of her status could never afford.

The maid had never expected those ‘treasures’ to have been dealt with by Lin Dan already. She immediately panicked. But no matter how much she wanted to argue, she couldn’t say another word now. Old General Lin and General Lin had already concluded that she was a traitor and had framed Lin Dan. The incident also involved Prince Zhuang, so even if the Lin family wanted to cover it up, the emperor wouldn’t let the matter go easily.

Realizing she couldn’t escape, the maid had no choice but to reveal the real mastermind.

General Lin asked in disbelief, “You’re saying it was Lin Hui who ordered you to do it?” Lin Hui was none other than General Lin’s sixth daughter, born to a concubine. She had been well-educated since childhood and showed considerable talent, which attracted the attention of Miss Jiang, the eldest daughter of the Jiang family. Lin Hui was frequently invited to the Jiang residence for poetry gatherings. And while Lin Wan’s talent couldn’t match her sixth sister’s, she had a bit of charm, so she had also attended a few times.

Only Lin Dan had no interest in such activities, preferring martial arts over the company of other young ladies. She had never been to the Jiang residence before, so this incident clearly had nothing to do with her. On the other hand, Lin Hui, with her familiarity with the Jiang family, could easily set such a trap.

The more General Lin thought about it, the angrier he became. His face twisted with rage, especially after hearing the maid’s pitiful confession, “This servant didn’t want to do it either, but Sixth Miss has my younger sister in her grasp, so I had no choice but to follow her orders. She was jealous that the eldest and seventh misses were more favored, so she plotted to frame the eldest miss and the seventh miss’s fiancé, to teach them a lesson. Once the eldest miss married a commoner and the seventh miss was jilted, she would be the most outstanding among the sisters and naturally gain the general’s favor.”

“Just to gain favor, she would betray her sisters and throw the Lin family into peril. She really is my good daughter!” Father Lin was furious and immediately had Lin Hui brought in for questioning.

Not only had the scheme failed, but it also implicated Prince Zhuang and the imperial family, and the scandal had grown out of control. The charge of ‘attempted assassination of a prince’ was severe enough to condemn Lin Hui to death a hundred times over. Growing increasingly anxious after returning home, Lin Hui didn’t wait for her grandfather and father to call for her. As soon as she entered the house, she knelt down and confessed everything, begging her grandfather to save her and not send her to the authorities.

By this point, Old General Lin had already realized that while Lin Hui had indeed intended to harm her sisters, she hadn’t expected someone else to exploit the situation, turning it into a trap that dragged Prince Zhuang into the mess. If not for Lin Dan, who stabbed herself in the leg to stay clear-headed and managed to leave in time, both the Lin family and Prince Zhuang would have been pulled into the mire. With Lin Hui’s limited abilities, how could she have captured Prince Zhuang?

The scandal itself was a small matter, but losing the emperor’s trust was far more dangerous. The Crown Prince and Prince Kang were already at odds, and if the Lin family became involved, who knew what the emperor might think? Once the struggle for the throne began, any suspicions the emperor had of the Lin family could turn their merits into crimes.

How many generals throughout history have died from getting high achievements? Old General Lin counted on his fingers and couldn’t tally them all. After careful consideration, he ultimately had Lin Hui bound and sent directly to Prince Zhuang’s residence.

Fortunately, the emperor still trusted the Lin family, recognizing that Lin Hui alone couldn’t have orchestrated such a plot. He ordered the guards to give her fifty lashes and sent her back home, also instructing Prince Zhuang to keep the matter quiet to preserve Lin Dan’s reputation. After investigating, Prince Zhuang could only trace the scheme back to Lin Hui, so he let it go. But precisely because of this, the emperor became even more suspicious of his other sons. Seeing how pitiful Prince Zhuang was, having lost his mother at a young age and with no one to take care of him, the emperor approved his request to gain experience at the frontier.

When Lin Hui returned home, she didn’t even dare step out of the carriage. She asked for a cloak with a hood to cover herself completely before letting someone carry her out. General Lin refused to see her, only sending a servant to deliver a message saying that once she recovered, she would be married off far away. She shouldn’t even dream of marrying into a prestigious family. If she had enough food and clothing, the Lin family had already done right by her.