LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 42: For My Own Good?
Chapter 42: For My Own Good?
Lin Ye remained silent.
Madam Lin, trembling, walked step by step to Lin Ye’s side.
She reached out and gently tugged at Lin Ye’s sleeve, “Ye’er, quickly tell your sister that this is all a misunderstanding.”
Lin Ye kept a cold face, staying silent.
But the more he remained silent, the more anxious Madam Lin became. Her tugging on Lin Ye’s clothes became stronger, eventually turning into pushing.
“Say something! Speak up quickly!”
Her voice was thick with tears.
Seeing Madam Lin so agitated, Lin Yuan hurriedly came forward to hug her, “Mother, don’t be like this. Sit down and let brother explain slowly. I believe brother must have his own reasons!”
Hearing this, Qiao Nian’s eyes filled with disbelief as she looked at Lin Yuan.
Lin Ye had hired people to ruin her reputation, yet Lin Yuan said Lin Ye must have his reasons for doing so. What kind of siblings were they?
As a woman, how could Lin Yuan say such things so casually?
However, Lin Ye seemed to come back to his senses because of Lin Yuan’s words.
He even gave Lin Yuan a slightly grateful look before turning to Qiao Nian, “Yes, I did all this.”
As he spoke, his attitude was unexpectedly righteous, “I opened the letter, I changed Yuanlai Teahouse to Fulai Teahouse, and I hired those two men. But Qiao Nian, ask yourself, did they hurt you?”
He had repeatedly instructed them not to harm Qiao Nian, so he knew clearly that Qiao Nian’s injury was from her own escape attempt!
But if she had just stayed put until dawn, she could have returned unharmed. It was she who insisted on making such a big fuss about this!
Lin Ye’s tone suggested that all of this was Qiao Nian’s own fault.
Seeing such an expression on a face that once loved her so much, Qiao Nian’s heart couldn’t help but ache terribly.
She really wanted to slap him again, but she found that Lin Ye’s shameless words had drained all her strength. At this moment, she couldn’t move at all.
Suddenly, Marquis Lin strode forward and kicked Lin Ye in the chest, “You unfilial son!”
As a military official, Marquis Lin’s kick was certainly not light.
Lin Ye was kicked flying and fell to the ground, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Seeing this, Lin Yuan screamed and threw herself beside Lin Ye, “Father! Don’t hit brother! Wuwuwu… please don’t hit brother!”
She cried heartbreakingly, as if Lin Ye had already been beaten to death.
Marquis Lin, perhaps softened by Lin Yuan’s cries, indeed didn’t approach again. He just pointed at Lin Ye’s nose and demanded, “You, why did you do such a conscienceless thing!”
“How am I conscienceless?” Lin Ye clutched his chest and shouted hoarsely, “I specifically instructed them not to hurt her! Otherwise, they wouldn’t get a single coin! I did all this for her!”
With that, Lin Ye looked at Qiao Nian again, “Do you really think Prince Ming is a good person? He injured his manhood while fooling around with a palace maid years ago, and he still can’t get it up! Even the imperial doctors say he’s useless now! If you marry him, you’ll only be a living widow!”
“So, you had to ruin my reputation like this?” Qiao Nian spoke coldly, her voice not loud, almost soft compared to Lin Ye’s shouts.
But this soft voice made everyone in the hall shudder.
“If you wanted to ruin this marriage, why didn’t you target Prince Ming? Why did you have to harm me?”
“Is it because it’s easier to target me? Because I’m easy to bully?”
“You spent a thousand taels to hire two grown men to ruin my reputation for my future happiness? Do you find this funny when you say it?”
“Lin Ye, put away that disgusting face of yours. You’re not concerned about me at all, you just don’t want me to stand higher than you! You’re not doing this for my good, you just can’t bear to see me doing well!”
A few simple sentences exposed the ugliest corner of Lin Ye’s heart.
But Lin Ye refused to admit it, “How could I not want to see you do well? Is marrying Prince Ming doing well? Even if you lose your reputation, so what? With the Marquis’s mansion backing you, are you afraid no one will marry you in the future?”
After these words, there was a moment of silence in the hall.
Except for Lin Yuan’s incessant sobbing, it seemed everyone was holding their breath.
Qiao Nian’s gaze swept around the room. She looked at Madam Lin, then at Marquis Lin, and finally back at Lin Ye, letting out a low laugh, “I finally understand why Marquis Lin and Madam Lin chose to use my skirts to maintain the already precarious position of the Marquis’s mansion.”
This light remark slapped all the Lin family members in the face.
The mockery in Qiao Nian’s eyes deepened, “With such a brainless son, it’s only a matter of time before the Marquis’s mansion is confiscated and the family wiped out.”
“Qiao Nian, what are you saying!” Lin Ye was furious, feeling that Qiao Nian was cursing the Marquis’s mansion.
Unexpectedly, Marquis Lin shouted sternly, “Beast, shut up! You made a mistake and still have the face to yell at your sister? If it weren’t for your sister not blaming you, you’d already be in the death cell by now!”
?
These words were oddly strange.
Silenced by Marquis Lin’s shout, Lin Ye fell quiet, clutching his chest and not daring to say another word.
But Qiao Nian turned to Marquis Lin, her face full of confusion, “When did I say I don’t blame him?”
Hearing this, Marquis Lin’s face stiffened slightly, but he lowered his voice and said to Qiao Nian, “Nian Nian, since we’ve already told others that you just got lost with your maid, let’s not pursue this matter anymore. If this spreads, it will have too great an impact on your reputation.”
“Yes, Nian Nian,” Madam Lin, who seemed to have finally come to her senses, wiped her tears and said, “Your brother was foolish, and your father will surely punish him properly. But we absolutely cannot let it be known that you were kidnapped by villains. Your father is doing this for your own good.”
Hearing the elders speak, Qiao Nian’s face turned exceptionally cold, “Is it for my own good, or for Lin Ye’s good? Are you really worried about how this will affect my reputation if it spreads, or are you more concerned about Lin Ye’s reputation, about the Marquis mansion’s reputation?”
Her calm questioning seemed to touch Marquis Lin’s sore spot.
He immediately coldened his face and shouted, “Nonsense, how can you say such things!”
Qiao Nian met Marquis Lin’s severe face with only contempt in her eyes, “You can all do such things, yet you won’t even let me speak about it?”
She raised an eyebrow, memorizing the true faces of the Lin family members.
“Do you know how those two villains described Lin Ye? They said Lin Ye is insidious and vicious, skilled at using methods that kill without drawing blood, even more evil than them who have killed and done bad deeds for years!”
Qiao Nian spoke coldly, her eyes fixed on Lin Ye, “Doesn’t the young lord want my reputation ruined? Well then, this time, let’s ruin it together!”