Su Jinyu had always been a sensible person. After questioning Auntie Wu, she left only with the words, “Behave yourself,” and walked away with the letters. Auntie Wu slumped to the ground, staring in the direction she had gone, with only two words left in her mind: It's over.
She did not go to disturb her grandmother first. Her grandmother had been uneasy lately because of the annulment, and the imperial physician had visited twice, saying that the elderly lady's constitution was weak and she could not handle major emotional upheavals. Su Jinyu knew very well that her grandmother had almost fainted at the banquet that day, and it was only because she had stepped forward herself to handle the situation that a major disaster had been avoided on the spot.
If her grandmother found out that Su Qing'er and Xie Tianci had been secretly meeting for over a year, it would likely break her heart even more than the annulment itself.
She went straight to her father's study.
Minister Su was reading official documents under the lamp. Seeing Su Jinyu arrive late at night, he thought she was feeling uneasy about her reputation after the annulment and was about to offer a few words of comfort.
Su Jinyu did not say much. She simply pulled the stack of letters from her sleeve, presented them with both hands onto Minister Su's desk, took a step back with her hands at her sides, and said calmly, “Father, please look at these first.”
Minister Su glanced at her, lowered his head, and picked up the letters to flip to the first page.
His expression changed from confusion to gravity, and then from gravity to a dark, furious lividity.
Before he had even finished reading the first letter, he had already crumpled the paper. By the time he reached the third, he slammed his hand down on the desk with a loud bang. Several writing brushes on the brush hanger bounced into the air before clattering back down, making a sharp, rattling noise.
“What does she think she is doing?” Minister Su's voice was very low, but the rage squeezed through his teeth was far more terrifying than his slamming of the table. “Carrying on a clandestine affair, secretly exchanging letters with her legitimate elder sister's betrothed... Does she have to ruin this family's reputation before she is satisfied? She is just a concubine-born daughter, who gave her the audacity—”
Su Jinyu stood across from the desk in silence, waiting for her father's anger to pass.
Minister Su finished flipping through the letters, clenched them in his hand, and stood up. His expression was as dark as a storm-laden sky as he pushed open the study door and walked straight toward Su Qing'er's courtyard.
Su Jinyu followed behind him, keeping a distance of a few paces without getting too close.
Su Qing'er had already retired for the night when she was summoned to the side parlor. She came out with an outer robe draped over her shoulders, her hair disheveled and her eyes sleepy.
When she saw her father's livid face and the calm silhouette of Su Jinyu standing behind him, her sleepiness vanished instantly. The moment her gaze fell upon the stack of papers clenched in Minister Su's hand, she froze, as if the very ground had been pulled out from beneath her feet.
Minister Su slammed the stack of letters onto the table in front of her, his voice not loud but icy. “Look at this yourself. How many times have you met with Xie Tianci over the past year, and how many letters have you written? Clandestine affairs, secret exchanges, and you even dared to lay your hands on your legitimate elder sister's betrothed—you are just a concubine-born daughter, where did you get the audacity? Do you have no sense of shame? You have trampled the reputation of the Minister's manor under your feet. Do you not think you have embarrassed us enough?”
Su Qing'er's face drained of color under the dim lamplight, turning from flushed to deathly pale, before a wave of unnatural, feverish redness rushed back.
She opened her mouth as if to say something, her gaze darting between Minister Su's face and Su Jinyu twice. Ultimately, she lowered her head, her fingers trembling slightly as she clutched her sleeves, unable to utter a single word.
The side parlor fell silent for a moment. The flame of the oil lamp flickered slightly in the draft leaking through the window cracks, stretching and shrinking the shadows of the three people.
Su Jinyu stood near the door without drawing closer, nor did she kick her sister while she was down. She simply stood there quietly, as if waiting for her father to finish venting his anger so she could see how this situation would be resolved.
Su Qing'er stood with her head bowed, her shoulders slightly slumped like a slender twig bent but not yet broken by heavy snow. In the quiet hall, she appeared exceptionally lonely and fragile, the anxiety and shame of being rebuked trembling slightly between her knuckles.
Su Qing'er was confined to her courtyard.
After slamming the letters before her that night, Minister Su had declared in front of several servants, “From this day forth, you are not allowed to take a single step out of your courtyard. We will talk after I have decided how to deal with you.” With that, he flicked his sleeves and left.
Su Jinyu followed him out of the side parlor without looking back at Su Qing'er's figure standing under the lamp. She knew very well that Su Qing'er would not be punished too severely. Minister Su was a man who valued self-interest above all else; confining her was merely a gesture, and it would not be long before he found a convenient excuse to let her out.
By the time Su Jinyu returned to her own courtyard, her maid had already made her bed.
She sat in front of her dressing table, slowly removing the dangling hairpins from her hair, and stared at herself in the bronze mirror for a moment.
Although Minister Su had lost his temper tonight, she could tell it was not because Su Qing'er had truly done anything wrong in his eyes. He was angry because Su Qing'er had been careless and clumsy, damaging the reputation of the Minister's manor and almost affecting his own interests.
As for the fact that the object of Su Qing'er's clandestine affair was her legitimate elder sister's betrothed, he likely did not think it was all that serious. He might even have calculated another possibility in his mind.
Su Jinyu had grown up by her grandmother's side and had been taught the principles of distinction between legitimate and concubine-born, as well as the order of seniority, since childhood. However, she also knew her father's character—he only looked at people and matters through the lens of whether they were worth exploiting.
The legitimate daughter, Su Jinyu, had failed to hold onto Xie Tianci's heart, whereas the concubine-born daughter, Su Qing'er, had actually succeeded.
In Minister Su's calculations, if he were to send Su Qing'er to be Xie Tianci's concubine in the future, the marital alliance between the Minister's manor and Count Jing'an's Manor would not be completely severed.
As for her, Su Jinyu, a legitimate daughter whose engagement was annulled but whose reputation remained intact, Minister Su would in all likelihood seek another marriage for her with an even higher-ranking family.
Su Jinyu placed the last dangling hairpin back into her jewelry box and closed the lid, her lowered gaze reflected in the bronze mirror.
She ran through Minister Su's calculations in her mind and arrived at the exact same conclusion.
She stood up, walked to the window, and pushed open one of the shutters. The night wind rushed in, carrying the scent of the garden's vegetation, gently stirring her loose hair.
She stood watching the night sky outside for a moment, then closed the window, blew out the lamp, and lay down in the darkness.
She closed her eyes, and a vague thought drifted through her mind—she seemed to be slowly seeing through the true faces of everyone around her, and the faces beneath those faces were peeling away, layer by layer.
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