The mistress who remarried has returned.

Hearing her father's unfair and extremely biased words, Su Yunxi trembled with anger. "Father, Yunze didn't hit anyone. It was Su Miao who hit him. Yunze is a good student; wouldn't it be a pity if he dropped out? You know all this. Why are you still treating him unfairly?"

"Because Father can only protect one of them. Su Miao's maternal grandfather's family has been officials in the court for generations, and their connections far exceed mine. I need to consider the Wang family's feelings," Su Yuanzhou said. "Now that you've made such a scene, the Qin family is backing up the Xue family, Su Miao has to drop out of school, Gui Rong has been beaten, and the Wang family is relentlessly demanding an explanation from me. If you were me, what would you do?"

She and her brother were the two that their father decided to abandon after making a selection.

Su Yunxi's shoulders trembled slightly. Unable to contain her grievances, she suppressed a sob. Trying to control her choked sobs, she questioned her biological father, "If you could only save one, why didn't you save my brother? Just because my mother is an orphan, and I don't have grandparents to support us, does Father treat us so disrespectfully? My mother used to support you through your studies..."

Her trembling shoulders as she sobbed bumped against Qin Huai's chest again and again.

"What's the point of bringing up the past?" Su Yuanzhou decisively stopped Su Yunxi from mentioning the past.

Su Yunxi abruptly shut her mouth; arguing in the dead of night was too embarrassing.

"Gold shines wherever it is. Yunze dropped out of school here, but he'll do just as well elsewhere." Su Yuanzhou sighed. "Why are you fussing over this? Where you study doesn't matter. How can you achieve great things if you can't even handle hardship?"

"I want my brother to get a good education. I don't want him to take the blame for someone and ruin his future. That's what I'm concerned about," Su Yunxi said frankly. "I hope Father will leave the best things for us first. Nobody likes to be wronged."

"You're too selfish, Xixi. You protected your brother, but as a result, Father lost face, Guirong was beaten and whipped beyond recognition, Su Miao was expelled from school, and the Wang family is causing me trouble. The Qin and Xue families also have grudges against me." Su Yuanzhou finished speaking and sighed softly, "In short, you are a selfish child. You only care about yourself. You act willfully and never consider the situation of others."

Even though Su Yunxi knew that Qin Huai was right in front of her, she couldn't control herself and burst into tears, her tears falling drop by drop onto Qin Huai's dagger and the back of his hand.

How was she selfish? How did she not consider other people's feelings? Her father is talking nonsense, making baseless accusations against her. She's clearly very sensible. It's just that her father looked down on her mother after he became wealthy.

Qin Huai simply looked down at her; her eyes were red as if they were about to bleed, and tears clung to her eyelashes, threatening to fall.

Seeing no response from inside, Su Yuanzhou explained his purpose: "Don't sleep now. Quickly get dressed and kneel outside the Wang family's gate. Tomorrow morning, when you see your grandparents there, kowtow and apologize. You can be beaten or punished, but don't say a word back. Otherwise, you won't get away with this."

Su Yunxi said earnestly, "Father, I'm not going to the Wang family. I didn't do anything wrong. So, I won't apologize."

Su Yuanzhou said, "Xixi, don't argue. You did something wrong, and if your father says you're wrong, then you're wrong."

Su Yunxi bit her lip, insisting on her decision, "I did nothing wrong, I will not kneel before the Wang family. Father cannot wrong someone."

"You're only hurt because you're so stubborn and argumentative; it's not endearing at all." Seeing his daughter's unwavering insistence, Su Yuanzhou was at his wit's end. He tightened his coat to ward off the chill. "You don't have to go. I didn't want to wake Qingniang in the night and have her kneel at the Wang family's house all night to apologize on your behalf. But it seems I can't persuade you otherwise. I'll have to wake Qingniang. To keep things quiet and protect you and your brother, she'll go. It's late, I won't say anything more. I don't want the neighbors to laugh at us."

Su Yunxi heard her father's footsteps as he was about to leave for her mother's room to wake her. She knew how heartbroken her mother would be if she were forced to kneel before her father's concubine's family by the official she had implicated while selling cloth. She couldn't bear to let her mother kneel before her father's concubine's family. So she immediately called out to him in a low voice, "Father."

Su Yuanzhou paused, "Are you going or not?"

Su Yunxi sniffed, finally letting her stubborn shoulders slump. For her mother to get a good night's sleep, she could force herself to do things she didn't want to do, and compromised, saying, "I'll go kneel down at the Wang family right now. Father, please wait for me a moment."

What else can we do? Besides compromising, what other options are there? When you're at your lowest point, it's incredibly difficult to move forward.

After saying this, Su Yunxi's eyes and nose were red. She raised her face and stared at Qin Huai's face, saying helplessly, "If you kill me, how many jokes will the general miss? It's better to keep me alive and watch me make a fool of myself slowly, that's more interesting. Killing me all at once will only be a momentary pleasure, but there will be no fun afterward. Look how interesting my father is."

Qin Huai looked at the tears that were falling from her eyes despite her best efforts to hold them back, without saying a word or walking away from her.

Su Yunxi was worried that if she went out late, Su Yuanzhou would wake her mother. She didn't want her mother to be humiliated and hurt like that by her father, but Qin Huai wouldn't let her off the hook.

She steeled herself, shoved Qin Huai in the chest, and then strode forward, forcing her way through.

Just as Qin Huai's dagger was about to slice across his neck, the moment was extremely dangerous. The blade was as sharp as mud, and if he hit it, he would either die or lose half his life.

But she couldn't care less about anything else; all she could think about was protecting her mother, and she wasn't even afraid of pain or death anymore.

However, the expected pain and cold sensation of a sharp blade slicing through the skin did not occur. Instead, the neck bumped into something warm, and the rusty smell of blood rose to the air.

She looked down and saw that Qin Huai's hand had quickly grabbed the blade before it hit her neck, so her neck didn't hit the blade. Blood dripped from the lines of Qin Huai's clenched hand.

Su Yunxi's heart skipped a beat as she stared at his blood beads, stunned.

Qin Huai said nothing, quickly sheathed the dagger, and hid the hand holding the blade behind his back. Two deep wounds on his palm were bleeding. "Master is right. If I kill you, I will indeed lose a lot of fun. If we are thinking about the long-term fun, we should spare your life. After all, the Crown Prince hasn't woken up yet. It will be more interesting once he wakes up."

Su Yunxi realized that her suggestion had worked. He spared her life so that he could have more fun, to vent his anger today, to vent his anger at her betrayal four years ago, and to avenge the loss of his concubine by placing himself above the Crown Prince.

But why did he grip the dagger with his hand, injuring himself? She didn't understand, and she wanted to know. There could be no ambiguity in her world. Everything had to be clearly defined.

Qin Huai turned his face away and looked at himself in the bronze mirror. He had seen this disheveled and dejected look in the bronze mirror four years ago. He quickly composed himself and remained cold and aloof, not allowing himself to lose control of his emotions. Controlling one's emotions is the lowest form of self-control.

Seeing that Qin Huai was cold and no longer spoke to her, Su Yunxi said gently, "After I leave the courtyard with Lord Su, you should leave quietly through the side door. As long as you are not seen, you won't have any worries. When I open the door, just hide behind the door to avoid Lord Su's gaze."

After arranging his departure, Su Yunxi resolutely walked towards the door. To prevent Su Yuanzhou from disturbing her mother at night, she resolutely decided to kneel outside the Wang family mansion for the entire night and turn the page on today's events. After all, Wang Shi had been beaten, and they were relentless in their pursuit; she would inevitably suffer the consequences.

But since it preserved his younger brother's reputation, he didn't care about suffering this loss.