Chapter 27 – A Trap to Lure Her?

Tang Chaoyang had no idea about Su Ling’s hidden resentment toward her.

After finishing the acupuncture for her grandmother, she went to the outer study to see her grandfather and ask him to assign Ma Jiang and Ma Ge, the two brothers, to her.

“You only want those two? Do you need more men?” Old Master Su gulped down a cup of tea and asked.

“For now, just those two. Thank you, Grandfather.”

Tang Chaoyang gestured for the old master to extend his hand so she could take his pulse. She raised her brows and reminded him, “These days you absolutely cannot eat too much meat, and you definitely cannot drink alcohol!”

Old Master Su nodded over and over.

He looked very obedient.

After checking his pulse, Tang Chaoyang let her gaze sweep slowly around the study.

She stood and leisurely walked in a circle.

Old Master Su’s beard almost curled up in anxiety. He barked sternly, “The study is an important place. What are you looking for?”

Tang Chaoyang stopped in front of a vase.

Old Master Su’s eyes darted about as he pretended to lift his teacup and drink.

Tang Chaoyang plucked out the single plum blossom arranged in the vase, then reached inside and felt around. Soon, she pulled out a small bottle.

Unscrewing the lid, she was immediately hit by an overpowering aroma of strong liquor.

Old Master Su: “…”
You little wretch—how are you so good at finding things?

Tang Chaoyang was furious. “Do you believe I won’t take this bottle straight to Grandmother and let her deal with you?”

He’d actually learned to hide alcohol in the study!

How impressive!

Old Master Su glared at her in helpless frustration. “I wasn’t drinking it now!”

He watched, eyes wide, as his unfilial granddaughter carried off the little bottle of wine.

Was she born with a dog’s nose or something?

How had she known there was wine hidden inside the vase?

Tang Chaoyang left the study, lowered her gaze to look at the bottle in her hand, and shook her head with an exasperated smile. Just from feeling his pulse, she could tell he’d been sneaking drinks.

As for why she’d guessed there might be wine hidden in the vase—it was because her grandfather was never one for scholarly airs.

That old man had suddenly put a vase holding a single blossom in the study—it had looked very suspicious.

Sure enough, the wine was inside the vase.

After noon, Tang Chaoyang and her two cousins left the estate together. All three rode in the same carriage.

Su Miao called out to Tang Chaoyang gently, addressing her as “Cousin.”

But Su Ling didn’t greet her at all. Instead, she turned her head and pretended to lift the carriage curtain to look outside.

She was holding a grudge against Tang Chaoyang for her meddling words—if not for her, Grandmother would never have decided to arrange her marriage in advance.

Su Ling had never even seen what the new emperor looked like, but who didn’t wish to enter the palace and become a noble consort?

She certainly did.

Tang Chaoyang was unaware of Su Ling’s thoughts. Sometimes, a young girl’s feelings were so simple at the start.

After the carriage had driven some distance, Su Ling let the curtain fall and said coolly, “Cousin, we’ve arranged to meet other noble ladies to shop for jewelry together. Would you like to get down here and walk on your own?”

Su Miao frowned slightly. They hadn’t arranged to meet anyone at all. Su Ling was just being excessive.

But she couldn’t expose her sister’s lie right there.

Tang Chaoyang smiled lightly. “All right.”

She could sense Su Ling’s dislike.

The carriage stopped.

When Liu’er saw Tang Chaoyang alight, she quickly came over. “Miss.”

After the general’s carriage drove off, Tang Chaoyang turned to Liu’er. “We’re going to the bookshop.”

Liu’er looked after the departing carriage, then at her young lady. As a maid, she dared not question further. “Miss, walking to the bookshop from here will take at least half an hour, and there aren’t any carriages nearby.”

“It’s fine. We’ll walk.” Tang Chaoyang’s expression was calm, her voice relaxed.

There was no way to find a carriage around here anyway. They would simply have to go on foot.

At that moment, inside the carriage, Su Miao scolded Su Ling helplessly. “Ling’er, lying like that isn’t right. Cousin didn’t do anything to offend you. Grandmother hoped we could get along well with her.”

Su Ling huffed in irritation. “I don’t want to get along with her.”

Su Miao shook her head. “When we get home, if Grandmother asks about this, what will you say?”

Su Ling replied carelessly, “I’ll just buy a piece of jewelry and give it to Tang Chaoyang to shut her mouth.”

Su Miao sighed. “You… Cousin has already suffered so much. There’s no need to target her.”

She really didn’t know how to handle Su Ling and resolved to apologize to her cousin when they returned.

Su Ling’s eyes widened in indignation. “She deserved it! A cheap woman who went around stealing men—she brought her misfortune upon herself! What’s so pitiful about her?”

Su Miao quickly hushed her to lower her voice.

Su Ling, still angry, fell silent.

*

The capital’s streets were divided into East District and West District.

Most of the noble families shopped in the East District, while the West District was less prosperous.

The bookshop was in the East District on Ping’an Street.

In her past life, Tang Chaoyang had never even visited a bookshop.

Wearing a veiled hat, she and Liu’er walked toward their destination.

When they were near, Tang Chaoyang’s gaze froze ahead.

She spotted a man in a blue robe.

Strange—she felt as if she’d seen this man somewhere before.

Suddenly, some memories flashed through her mind. She kept her expression unchanged as she slowly walked forward.

She really had seen him before!

Back when she had heard that Madam Yuan planned to marry her off to that creature Sun Bao, she had run out of Yong’en Marquis Estate in a fury.

While standing on the street watching an old man shape clay figurines, she’d accidentally overheard this man chatting with someone.

That was the first time she’d ever heard the name “Fei Yan.”

He had said that Fei Yan, though born to a humble family, was shockingly talented and brilliant—radiant as moonlight—and likely to win the highest honors in all three imperial examinations. It was only a pity he had such lowly origins.

Back then, she’d become curious about the “Fei Yan” he mentioned.

Tang Chaoyang never imagined that in this lifetime she would run into the man in the blue robe again at a bookshop. She thought nothing more of it.

As she entered the shop, she couldn’t help turning her head to glance once more in the man’s direction as he departed.

That single curious look made her eyes widen instantly, her fingers trembling.

All the blood in her body seemed to freeze.

She saw a pair of exceedingly cold eyes.

Slowly, she turned her head back, no longer daring to look.

It was that middle-aged man—the very one who had rammed a sword into her heart in her past life!

The middle-aged man appeared to be speaking with the man in blue.

They knew each other!

In her last life, that middle-aged man had become Fei Yan’s guard after Guard Cheng died.

Tang Chaoyang pretended to pick up a book and flip through it. Her mind was in chaos.

Was she just being paranoid?

Or…had everything from the very beginning been a trap designed to lure her into meeting Fei Yan?

And Fei Yan—had he been part of it?

Tang Chaoyang clutched her chest, her heart thudding wildly. In her previous life, she’d taken revenge on Fei Yan only because he had been so heartless to her son, letting her child die.

It wasn’t because he had married Dong Xinrui—she hadn’t hated him to the point of wanting him dead for that. After all, she was the one who had forced him into marrying her in the first place.

Biting her lip, she forced herself to calm down.

Her meeting with Fei Yan—had it really been…a scheme? But why?

At that time, she was just a haughty legitimate daughter of Yong’en Marquis Estate, with a father who had no real power.

The face of the middle-aged man who had killed her kept flashing through her mind.