Chapter Ninety-Three: I Am Mianyin

Inside the War Prince’s Mansion, Lu Yanran brought Rui’er to the Zhiyu Pavilion.

“I need to step out for a while,” Lu Yanran whispered softly to Wei Shaoqian. “Leave Rui’er with you.”

Wei Shaoqian was taken aback, looking at Lu Yanran in disbelief. She motioned for Qingxia to take Rui’er downstairs. “You want me to raise your son?”

If it hadn’t been inside the War Prince’s Mansion, Lu Yanran felt like kicking Wei Shaoqian away on the spot.

“Unless you explain exactly where you’re going,” Wei Shaoqian said.

Lu Yanran remained silent for a long moment. In truth, she had come today to confess...

She had heard that Wei Shao Zhan Tian’s Shuiyue Pavilion had been burned down, that Lady Wei Shao’s throat was slashed by a sword, that the Wei Shao ancestral home was reduced to ashes overnight, and that Wei Shaoqian herself had been targeted countless times...

She was no luckier than Wei Shaoqian; perhaps their fates were not so different.

“I am Mianyin.”

Lu Yanran’s words hung in the air.

“The Phantom Twin Spirits’ Mianyin.”

Again, Lu Yanran spoke calmly.

Wei Shaoqian could guess some things, but she only suspected Lu Yanran was a substitute taking Mianyin’s place, split off from Feng Qingxuan. She never imagined Lu Yanran was the real Mianyin.

“Isn’t it supposed to be the Charming Phantom Twin Spirits?” Wei Shaoqian asked, puzzled.

“Almost the same,” Lu Yanran replied with a glance.

The Phantom Twin Spirits: “Charming” refers to Meiji, while “Phantom” actually referred to Mianyin.

After Mianyin left, Meiji wanted to make people gradually forget Mianyin’s memories, thus becoming the “Charming Phantom Twin Spirits.”

“But didn’t they say Meiji and Mianyin were biological sisters?” Wei Shaoqian asked anxiously.

Lu Yanran frowned. As the person concerned, she had never heard that before.

Seeing Lu Yanran’s expression, Wei Shaoqian knew she was hearing false rumors. Indeed, tales in the martial world were not always true.

Wei Shaoqian awkwardly asked, “Is it true that Meiji treated Mianyin well?”

Lu Yanran hesitated. She didn’t believe anyone had treated her kindly, but Meiji had indeed been decent to her—they had gone on missions together without her ever getting hurt.

Noticing Lu Yanran’s contemplation, Wei Shaoqian guessed that Meiji’s treatment was neither too good nor too bad. She then asked, “Then what about Mianyin’s suicide?”

Mianyin’s identity was unique, connected not only to the Twilight Pavilion but also to Meiji and Feng Qingxuan.

“That was me, the means by which I left the Twilight Pavilion,” Lu Yanran said succinctly.

Wei Shaoqian stared at her in disbelief.

Without anyone saying it, she knew leaving an assassin organization alive was impossible—unless one died or faked death. Did Mianyin fake her death?

But later, Lu Yanran was still forced by others, proving that leaving the Twilight Pavilion was impossible!

Wei Shaoqian suddenly longed to know what had happened to Lu Yanran over the years and why she had joined the Twilight Pavilion.

Lu Yanran looked at Wei Shaoqian as if she pitied her, then quickly changed the subject. “I went to the Twilight Pavilion to place an order...”

Wei Shaoqian’s mind exploded. Who in their right mind would go to an assassin organization to hire a hit on themselves?

Thinking this way, the Twilight Pavilion was truly disgraceful.

Wei Shaoqian paused, suddenly recalling Meiji. “You mean you ordered the hit on Mianyin? Waiting for Meiji to come kill you?”

Lu Yanran nodded.

Wei Shaoqian, furious, shouted, “You idiot!”

Lu Yanran was stunned. It was the first time she had ever seen Wei Shaoqian lose her temper.

In the past, no matter how much trouble she caused, Wei Shaoqian never truly lost her temper.

Wei Shaoqian glared angrily at Lu Yanran. “You want to leave Rui’er behind and go find Meiji?”

Before Lu Yanran could answer, Wei Shaoqian said, “If you have the courage to leave, I promise I won’t break your legs!”

“Wei Shaoqian, don’t act so high and mighty just because you’re in the War Prince’s Mansion!” Lu Yanran snapped back.

She couldn’t stand it anymore—Wei Shaoqian always wielded her status against her, first using the War Princess title to pressure her, now threatening to break her legs. Was she really the elder sister and could do as she pleased?

“If you still want to be Mianyin, why did you fake your death in the first place?” Wei Shaoqian demanded angrily.

Lu Yanran had always been called foolish, and now it seemed that was true.

Revealing her identity to lure Meiji out—only she could be so stupid! Acting on her own, losing more than she gained.

Dong Nuan gasped, worried the two sisters might come to blows.

“I have already revealed my identity!” Lu Yanran said.

Wei Shaoqian was astonished.

“Someone in the Twilight Pavilion knows I am Mianyin, which is why I was forced by others!” Lu Yanran explained.

“At the poetry gathering back then, I drugged you because the poison was accidentally spilled by Luo Yanqing, and I knew you were my cousin. Maybe your life wasn’t meant to end, so I drugged you, planning to take you to the Twilight Pavilion to exchange for my freedom...”

“But you woke up!” Lu Yanran still found it unbelievable.

“Do you remember Lu Huiyan?”

Lu Yanran spoke calmly, but Wei Shaoqian was filled with endless shock.

“It was she who ordered me. You must find it strange why she targeted you even before you met the War Prince.”

“That’s because the War Prince was looking for a woman surnamed Lu, and Lu Huiyan knew that woman was you!”

“Every rumor has some truth; the old tales about the War Prince marrying into the Lu family were not baseless!”

Wei Shaoqian had never thought of it this way. She had assumed Lu Huiyan, like Lu Yanran, had at first resented the attention Lu Yanran received from the Lu family, then because she had her eyes on Feng Jinye...

It turned out Feng Jinye had been looking for her all along—not her, but the original owner.

“I never understood why the Twilight Pavilion didn’t kill you but kept disturbing you,” Lu Yanran paused, “until my grandfather told me about the prophecy of the ‘Celestial Maiden born every hundred years’ in the Wei Shao family... then I understood.”

“So the poison I gave you, the flying darts on Mid-Autumn Night, and the assassination attempt during your wedding night with Lin Yichu were all forced by Lu Huiyan?” Wei Shaoqian asked.

Lu Yanran nodded.

“But she knew you were the Lu family’s legitimate daughter. Wouldn’t exposing this be bad for her too?” Wei Shaoqian was puzzled.

“She had the Twilight Pavilion and the Western Yan Kingdom behind her!”

“She fabricated evidence that all the Lu family were spies for Western Yan. If this came to light, it would be a do-or-die situation. If one died, the whole Lu family would be doomed.”

Wei Shaoqian suddenly understood. Lu Yanran had been fighting alone, with no support.

In truth, Wei Shaoqian had overthought it. Lu Yanran had been a walking corpse from the start.

Wei Shaoqian was an accident in her life.

Since childhood, she had been brainwashed to hate Wei Shaoqian, but she never saw the meaning in it...

Only after attacking Wei Shaoqian for the first time did she slowly realize she truly envied her.

She increasingly longed to live in the sunlight like Wei Shaoqian.

Yet those terrifying notions instilled since childhood resurfaced again and again, making her deluded that Wei Shaoqian’s radiant appearance rightfully belonged to her...

Inside the Zhiyu Pavilion, Wei Shaoqian and Lu Yanran fell into a shared silence.

Suddenly, Dong Nuan’s voice broke the quiet: “Mistress, there are signal bamboos lighting up in the east of the city...”

East of the city? Meiji!

Wei Shaoqian sprang to her feet, about to rush out, but suddenly remembered something. She turned back and grabbed Lu Yanran, pulling her toward the Tingfeng Pavilion.

On the way, Wei Shaoqian ran into Feng Jinye, who was about to leave the mansion with Ye Shiyi.

“Feng Jinye, are you going east of the city?” Wei Shaoqian asked.

Feng Jinye didn’t answer but signaled Ye Shiyi: “Princess Consort, the palace has news—the Prince is to enter the palace!”

“Alright, you go ahead,” Wei Shaoqian said.

“I’m going east of the city!”

Wei Shaoqian started toward the exit but was yanked back by Feng Jinye.

“Rui’er is waiting for you in the tree at Tingfeng Pavilion!”

Wei Shaoqian paused. “Fine, I won’t go. Happy now?”

“Dong Nuan will go rescue Rui’er!”

Feng Jinye frowned. Wei Shaoqian’s words “I won’t go” clearly meant “I’ll sneak out later.”

He sighed, grabbing Wei Shaoqian’s hand. “Stay by my side and don’t act recklessly!”

Wei Shaoqian turned her head in displeasure at his use of “recklessly”...

On a small hill on the outskirts to the east of the city, the assassins sent to kill Meiji were no ordinary killers. They were all renowned experts on the assassin rankings.

When Ye Shi arrived with a pair of bodyguards, Meiji was about to engage multiple assassins in combat.

Ye Shi and his men clashed with the Twilight Pavilion assassins patrolling the hills.

“We cannot kill her. Mianyin hasn’t appeared yet!” one assassin said.

Meiji smiled coldly. It was clearly that old woman from the Twilight Pavilion making a move, trying to capture her and Mianyin together.

Meiji had used all her throwing darts and pulled out a soft sword from her side.

Everyone was startled; they had only heard of Meiji using darts, throwing knives, and curved blades—never a sword.

Meiji’s aura was so fierce that the attacking assassins and the Twilight Pavilion patrols slowly clustered together.

Ye Shi also retreated to stand beside Meiji.

“Xuan’er...” Meiji whispered, almost inaudibly, heard only by Ye Shiyi’s group, “somewhere in these mountains...”

Meiji did not know Feng Qingxuan’s identity or even her name, only that Yun Ming had once called Feng Qingxuan “Xuan’er.”

The standoff continued, neither side daring to move.

Ye Shi could see Meiji was exhausted.

More than a dozen assassins who could go toe-to-toe with Meiji were formidable indeed.

Without hesitation, Ye Shi fired three more signal bamboo darts. If Princess Xuan were here, they would fight to the death to prevent her capture.

Meiji knew she couldn’t hold out much longer, even if Mianyin arrived. But if she could kill one person, or even two, that was something.

Meiji closed her eyes, recalling the sword techniques she had learned as a child.

She had forgotten much, but was grateful she hadn’t forgotten the swordsmanship taught under the old tree in the courtyard of an ancient family, where three girls had once practiced together.

She opened her eyes and struck diagonally with incredible speed. Ye Shi stood behind her, unable to discern the sword style.

But Ye Shi immediately thought of the Prince, who had come to fight alongside him...

Their movements were almost identical.