The mistress who remarried has returned.

Upon hearing this, Granny Wu said to Su Yunxi, "Since you refuse to produce it respectably, I will have no choice but to have Cai'e search your body. If you don't want to suffer this humiliation, then produce it yourself. I won't repeat myself a third time."

"Go ahead and search me." Su Yunxi said expressionlessly, wanting them to search her body so she could leave.

Upon hearing Wu Mama's order, Cai'e went over and began to grope Su Yunxi's body indiscriminately, hurting several of Su Yunxi's wounds. Taking advantage of Wu Mama's inattention, she stuffed a bent gold pendant into Su Yunxi's clothes.

"What are you doing?" Su Yunxi saw that Cai'e's framing was too despicable, so she raised her hand and slapped Cai'e across the face.

"She got angry and started hitting people!" Cai'e then pulled the gold bracelet from Su Yunxi's clothes, covered her swollen face, and said to Granny Wu, "Granny, look, she's the one who stole things! I found out, and she lost face, so she hit people."

Granny Wu was furious, angry, and extremely disappointed. She said, "Take her to the government office and let them decide what to do with her. She's a dishonest person. I took such good care of her back then."

Cai'e breathed a sigh of relief, stepped forward and grabbed Su Yunxi's shoulder, pulling her forcefully, "Let's go see the official."

Su Yunxi had no strength, but Cai'e was strong and scratched her wounds painfully. She had no strength to resist and said, "Let me go."

She couldn't break free at all and was dragged away by Cai'e, who wanted to take her to the government office.

"What's all the noise about? Where is this place?" Just then, Qin Huai's voice came.

Hearing the sound, Su Yunxi didn't look at Qin Huai. Being seen in such a disheveled state by him was already too much for her to bear; she couldn't bear any more of his coldness. Out of the corner of her eye, his tall figure blocked the lantern light, his shadow completely obscuring her.

Upon seeing that it was the general, Granny Wu and Cai'e immediately changed color and hurriedly stood to one side with their hands clasped, saying, "Greetings to the general."

Both of them were very shocked. Since Su Yunxi followed the Crown Prince and caused the General to be humiliated four years ago, the General had never come to this courtyard. How come he came twice in one day today?

Qin Huai stepped closer and looked at Su Yunxi.

Su Yunxi was basically a snowman. Even after Cai'e shook her a few times, she still couldn't shake off all the snow. The snow on her head made her stubborn eyes look even more blood red under the lantern light.

Su Yunxi felt his gaze, glanced at him, and then carefully straightened her coarse cloth clothes that Cai'e had messed up. She then stood there with her back straight. Her mother had said that a person can dress poorly, but should be neat, clean, and proper.

Qin Huai scrutinized her meticulous movements, his gaze finally settling on her neatly arranged collar.

Seeing that the general's shoulders and clothes were covered in snow, Granny Wu quickly brought out a brand-new cloth from the house to brush the snow off his shoulders. "General, why did you come here at night? The snow is falling heavily. Why didn't you take a carriage? You must have hurriedly driven your horse back."

Qin Huai brushed it off briefly, "I left something in the study, come and get it. What are you doing shouting and yelling at night? What kind of noise is that?"

Su Yunxi lowered her eyes. It turned out that Qin Huai had come back to retrieve something, not because she was kneeling there waiting for him. What was she hoping for?

I wonder if, when he was tending to the plum trees for Xue Wenying, he remembered a woman named Su Yunxi who was kneeling in the snow, willing to risk her life for him.

But now that he has come, the thought she had almost given up on resurfaced.

Granny Wu held out the gold pendant for Qin Huai to see. "When I checked the courtyard and the rooms to make sure everything was in order, I found that the gold pendant on the fan you used to use in the summer in the study was missing. I asked Cai'e, who guards the study, to look for it, and she found it on Consort Su. I didn't make things difficult for her; I just had Cai'e take her to the authorities so they could handle it fairly."

Qin Huai glanced at the gold pendant, then looked at Su Yunxi, paused for a moment, and asked, "Did you steal it?"

Su Yunxi felt as if an old wound in her heart had been suddenly ripped open, and she was bewildered, unable to understand what he was asking.

She was wrongly accused by him for four years. The whole capital said she had cheated on Qin Huai, betrayed him, and climbed the social ladder. Although he was only asking about the gold pendant, she said what she had wanted to say for a long time: "I was wronged. I didn't steal it..."

Qin Huai slowly asked her, "Didn't you steal anything?"

Su Yunxi ultimately did not delve into the past. Now that she was deeply mired in trouble, clarifying things would be tantamount to making excuses. She said softly, "I did not steal the gold pendant."

Qin Huai remained silent for a long time, lowering his eyes in the darkness, concealing all his emotions.

Cai'e, however, persisted, saying, "Granny Wu saw me search your clothes and find the gold pendant, and you still won't admit it. You stole men before, and now you steal gold; you're wicked to the core. Didn't your mother teach you any manners? What kind of mother could raise such a worthless daughter?"

Seeing the other party attack her mother, Su Yunxi, who usually controlled her emotions well, could no longer control them and instantly turned into a madwoman, "The thief cries 'stop thief!' Don't be so shameless. Don't move an inch. The footprints I left in the snow when I left the study at noon are still there, but the footprints when I returned to the study are gone. Granny Wu checked things three times a day. The gold pendant was still there at noon, but it was gone in the afternoon. I've been kneeling in the courtyard since noon. The things you lost have nothing to do with me."

He paused, then continued, "So be it. Whose footprints led into the study? Let the authorities investigate tonight. They have their own ways of identifying whose footprints were near the fan in the study!"

Cai'e panicked and shrank back. Su Yunxi seemed like a quiet person, but how could she be so clear-headed when she suddenly erupted? She hadn't expected Su Yunxi to have the guts to cause a scene at the general's place.

Su Yunxi grabbed Cai'e by the collar and pulled her outside. Despite her weak body, she was suddenly struck where her weak spot was, and she didn't know where she got the strength. She kept saying, "Come with me to see the official."

He was consumed by rage, and his weakened body couldn't withstand it. Suddenly, everything went black, and he collapsed forward.

Before losing consciousness, I only felt my waist being pulled into a warm embrace.

The snow on her cheeks and hair was gently brushed away.

"Xixi."

Someone gently patted her cheek and called out to her in a panic, "Xixi."

Is that her mother calling her? But her mother isn't in this separate courtyard.

It was clearly Qin Huai's voice.

"Please call a doctor! She absolutely cannot afford the slightest mistake!"

"Take that maid away and lock her up. We'll decide what to do next."

It seems I'm dreaming again. Qin Huai despises her to the extreme, so why would he call her by her name so intimately and stand up for her?