The Winter Jasmine Had Burned Down
Su Ye then looked past Xue Liang and slowly said, "Is that all the young master of one the imperial city's four great families have to offer? Where did you get the confidence to mock others?" She flashed a vague smile at everyone on the boat., her gaze steely.
The people on the boat traded glances, unsure of whom she was speaking of.
With that, Su Ye jumped onto the shore. The scenery around the moat was gorgeous, but her company had turned out to be dull. As the thought crossed her mind, she saw Xiao Xing rushing towards her from a distance, with a squad of guardsmen from the governor's manor in tow. They approached Su Ye quickly with great pomp. "Junior governor!"
Xiao Xing usually addressed Su Ye as 'milady' or 'Lady Su' in the manor, but would use 'junior governor' in public so people would be aware of who Su Ye was.
The second she said that, everyone at the scene realized Su Ye's identity.
Xiao Xing finally reached Su Ye, her hair pin about to fall off since she had run to Su Ye with such urgency.
Su Ye reached out to keep the pin from falling, and told Xiao Xing, "Calm down, there's no rush."
Xiao Xing appeared to grow more confident, and quickly said, "Someone just came to the governor's manor and demanded the recipe for the mirrod pill!"
The mirrod pill was a pill which curbed the symptoms of poisoning—the very same pill which Su Ye had given Su Qing. It was a secret recipe of the Su family, one that they never gave to outsiders. Additionally, Su Ye's father was the only person who knew how to refine the pill.
"How many people came in?" Su Ye asked urgently.
Trembling, Xiao Xing held up two fingers. "J-Just two."
Breathing a sigh of relief, Su Ye decided that the pair most likely did not include Su Qing. In the original text, Su Qing had been pretending to avenge Su Ruoruo, so he hadn't wasted time with meaningless exchanges as he charged into the manor with his lackeys. He had taken the recipe for the mirrod pill by force, gouging out Su Ye's cinnabar field, massacring the family, and burning their manor down with one swift stroke. Despite such a vicious assault, he had left no evidence behind… aside from the half-dead Su Ye hanging to dry at the city gates.
Gasps of surprise echoed from behind Su Ye.
"You're Su Ye? The junior governor?!" Yang Xuan cried out, and Su Ye turned to look at him.
The rest of his group were shocked as well. The very person they had been mocking on the boat had been right in front of them all along, and they had not even recognized her! The scene quickly turned from a charged standoff to sheer awkwardness.
Su Ye's lips curled into a feline smile. "Pleasure meeting you... I do hope we can go boating again someday."
Realization finally dawned on them. No wonder that woman had been cold the moment she boarded their boat, and no wonder she had mocked Xue Liang. They actually had been insulting her right to their face! Her neutral tone only further humiliated them, and they could not help but want to dig a hole to hide in.
On the other hand, Su Ye did not care to look at their reactions after she had her say, and left for home pompously with Xiao Xing and the guards. As they walked, she asked Xiao Xing, "The Winter Jasmine was burned down?"
Xiao Xing nodded vigorously. "Word is that a great fire suddenly ignited that evening, killing everyone inside just three days ago."
Su Ye shot her an annoyed look. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Xiao Xing gasped in surprise. "You didn't know, milady?"
Su Ye pursed her lips and rubbed her cheeks, murmuring, "I was too busy gathering money… that's why something so important actually managed to escape my notice."
When Su Ye mentioned 'gathering money', Xiao Xing quickly told her, "We've got the money now, milady… the furniture from the hall has been pawned for six hundred thousand golden leaves, since it was said to have been made from thousand-year old wood from the Southern Sea!"