What was scarier was that not only did he marry her, the two even bore a child!
This really was the scandal of the century!
The sounds of the crowd’s discussion rose louder and louder. “For how long has Old Sect Leader Qin followed Jin GuangShan? So he even dared touch the wife of his old subordinate. Damn that Jin GuangShan!”
“So it seems that nothing can be kept a secret for long in this world…”
“For Jin GuangYao to gain a strong foothold within the LanlingJin Sect, he had to have the help of his father-in-law Qin CangYe as his backbone. How could he have chosen not to marry her?”
“He really is the most immoral person of all the world!”
Wei WuXian whispered to Lan WangJi, “So that’s why in the secret chamber he said to Qin Su, ‘A-Song had to die.’”
In Sword Hall, a few others thought of A-Song as well. Sect Leader Yao, “Judging from this, I dare to guess that his son wasn’t assassinated by another at all, but rather by his own hands.”
“And why so?”
Sect Leader Yao analyzed, “Most of the children born from closely related brothers and sisters end up being dull-witted. Jin RuSong was only a few years old when he died, precisely the age at which young children begin to learn. Others wouldn’t be able to notice anything wrong when the child was still young, but after he grew up, it’d expose the fact that he was different from the others. Even if they didn’t doubt the relationship between his parents, if a dull-witted child really was born, it’d be inevitable that others pointed at Jin GuangYao, saying that such a child was born only because he had the dirty blood of a prostitute in him.”
Everyone found this to be quite persuasive, “How sharp, Sect Leader Yao!”
Sect Leader Yao continued, “And the one who killed Jin RuSong just happened to be the sect leader who opposed his construction of the lookout towers—how could there be such a coincidence?” He snorted, “Either way, no matter what, Jin GuangYao didn’t need to keep a son who’d likely turn out to be an idiot. He killed Jin RuSong, framed the sect leader who opposed him, and crusaded against sects that refused to accept him fair and square, in the name of revenge for his son—although it was heartless, it killed two birds with one stone. What tactics, LianFang-Zun!”
Suddenly, Wei WuXian turned to Bicao, “The night of Koi Tower’s Discussion Conference, you saw Qin Su, didn’t you?”
Bicao paused.
Wei WuXian, “That night, in Fragrance Palace, Qin Su and Jin GuangYao were in quite a big argument. She said she went to meet someone, that this person told her a few things and gave her a letter, that this person definitely wouldn’t lie to her. Was she talking about you?”
Bicao, “Yes.”
Wei WuXian, “For how long have you been keeping this secret? Why did you suddenly decide to tell her? And why did you suddenly decide to publicize all this?”
Bicao, “Because… I had to let Maiden Qin just what kind of person her husband is. In the beginning, I didn’t want to publicize it either, but because of Madam Qin’s inexplicable suicide at Koi Tower, I had to uncover this demon’s real face to seek justice for my madam and Maiden Qin.”
Wei WuXian smiled, “But have you never thought what a blow it’d be to her after you told her? Or do you really not know? That it’s because you went to tell Qin Su of the matter that she killed herself?”
Bicao, “I…”
Sect Leader Yao criticized, “Now this I can’t possibly agree with. Would hiding the truth be right instead?”
Immediately, someone helped him, “The other people are not to blame… Madam… Qin Su was still too fragile.”
A few of the older female cultivators chimed in, “Qin Su was so pitiful.”
“Back then I even envied her. I thought that she really had a good life. She had a good birth and a good marriage, the only mistress of Koi Tower with how devoted her husband was. But who knew? Tsk, tsk.”
One of the madams commented in an aloof way, “That’s why these seemingly beautiful things are often full of holes beneath the surface. There’s nothing to envy at all.”
Wei WuXian, Perhaps it’s precisely because of these people who comment in joy masked as pity that Qin Su decided to take her own life.
He looked down to see a bracelet of jade and gold worn on Bicao’s wrist. The quality was extremely high. It was definitely not something that a maid would be able to wear. He smiled, “Nice bracelet.”
Bicao hurried to pull her sleeve down. She said nothing.
Nie HuaiSang still seemed confused, “But… But who exactly is… the person who sent these two here?”
Sect Leader Yao, “Why worry over these?! No matter who it is, there’s one thing we can be certain of—he’s a man of justice who’s definitely standing on our side.”
Immediately came sounds of agreement, “That’s right!”
Wei WuXian, however, disagreed, “The one who saved Maiden Sisi is definitely remarkable. Wealthy, and has time in his hands. But a man of justice? That’s not necessarily true.”
Lan WangJi, “There are many points of suspicion.”
If Wei WuXian said this, not many people would pay attention, but since the one who spoke was Lan WangJi, the crowd quieted at once. Lan QiRen, “And where do those points lie?”
Wei WuXian, “Now there’s quite a lot of them. For example, with how cruel Jin GuangYao is, why would he spare Sisi after having killed more than twenty people? Now we have the witnesses, but what about the material proof?”
He had always been voicing different opinions than the rest, ringing quite starkly against the passionate speeches among the crowd. Some people already seemed very much offended.
Sect Leader Yao spoke loudly, “This is called, the net of Heaven has large meshes, but it lets nothing unwanted through.”
Hearing this, Wei WuXian smiled, and stopped speaking.
He knew that right now, nobody could take in what he said. Nobody would carefully consider his suspicions either. A few more words, and maybe the others would start to position themselves against him again. If it were ten years ago, he wouldn’t care about other people at all. He’d say whatever he wanted, and others would have to hear them whether they wanted to or not. Now, however, Wei WuXian no longer had the interest in taking the limelight this way.
And so, the waves of criticism began:
“Who knew this person could be so ungrateful and immoral!”
In the past few years, the words ‘ungrateful’ and ‘immoral’ were almost tied to Wei WuXian. At first, he even thought that they were criticizing him again. He only realized afterwards that even though it was the same people using the same words, the object of their criticism had already changed. He felt a bit not used to it.
Closely after, someone else spoke, “Back then, Jin GuangYao could climb up a step at a time only by playing up to ChiFeng-Zun and ZeWu-Jun. Or else, how could a prostitute’s son like him be where he is now? How dare he lay his hands on ChiFeng-Zun! ZeWu-Jun is still with him right now. Let’s hope that nothing happens to him!”
In the beginning, none of them believed that ChiFeng-Zun’s death, the incident of the dismembered corpse, and the corpse siege at Burial Mound was all related to Jin GuangYao. Now, everyone suddenly believed it.