Quick Transmigration: Why did you provoke him? He's love-struck!

Chapter 507 Relying on Favor (52)

Xie Ying clearly felt his heart skip a beat.

Tan Jinyu was even more flustered than the maid: "How could it be gone?"

"This servant doesn't know either. The token has been kept in the box ever since it was changed last year and hasn't been touched..."

"Could it have been misplaced while packing? Quickly, have someone look for it."

Just as the maid was about to mobilize the people in the princess's residence to search for the token, Xie Ying said, "Don't bother looking for it."

Tan Jinyu was taken aback.

Xie Ying turned around, and his usually gentle and kind face was now filled with coldness.

He stared directly at Tan Jinyu, not missing a single change in her expression.

"Your Highness, is the token really lost?"

Xie Ying, having held a high position for many years, exuded an aura that even Tan Jinyu, who had been in contact with him for a long time, was somewhat intimidated by. She subconsciously took two steps back: "Second brother, what do you mean by that?"

Xie Ying released his hand from under his sleeve, and a token swayed and fell into his palm.

Tan Jinyu's expression changed slightly.

"Do you know where I found this token?" Xie Ying said, "In Tingzhou, at the Zhao Prince's residence, on the body of a assassin who tried to kill Jun Zhuo."

"..." Tan Jinyu's lips trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes. "Second brother, do you suspect that I sent assassins to kill my elder sister?"

"If it wasn't you, why would the token that should have been on you be in the Zhao Prince's mansion, a thousand miles away? And why did you lose your token so conveniently?"

Tan Jinyu blinked, and tears streamed down her face. She shook her head repeatedly, causing the hairpins in her hair to jingle.

"I don't know...maybe it was stolen."

"Do you even believe that yourself?" Xie Ying said through gritted teeth. "Back then, you asked me and His Majesty for this token, saying it was for your protection, but now you're using this token to send assassins to kill your elder sister!"

“I didn’t do it, and I don’t know how the token got lost…” Tan Jinyu cried with tears streaming down her face. “Second brother, think about it carefully. Why would I want to assassinate my elder sister? What good would it do me if she died?”

She saved me from a marriage alliance; I'm so grateful to her, how could I possibly want to kill her? If it weren't for her, I'd be the one submitting to Zhao Yuan right now!

She spoke with heartfelt sincerity, but Xie Ying's eyes remained icy cold.

"How do you explain the rumors circulating in the capital that *** was captured and forced into prostitution by bandits?"

Tan Jinyu was taken aback: "What does this matter have to do with me?"

Xie Ying said in a deep voice to the outside, "Bring the person in!"

As soon as he finished speaking, guards brought in a ragged, smelly beggar and a man in his forties dressed as a farmer.

Tan Jinyu asked, puzzled, "Who is this?"

Xie Ying did not answer, but looked at the guards who were escorting the beggar.

Upon receiving the signal, the guard kicked the beggar in the back.

The beggar, who had already been brutally beaten, was kicked to the ground and immediately covered his head, trembling as he pleaded, "Stop hitting me! Stop hitting me! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"

He pointed to a man dressed as a farmer next to him and said, "Eight days ago, this man found me, gave me two taels of silver, and asked me to spread the word at the beggars' gathering place at the city gate. He said that three years ago, the current queen was kidnapped by bandits on her way to a marriage alliance and became a prostitute who was ridden by thousands and slept with by thousands. Every time the bandits finished killing someone and went back, there would be several men with her..."

Before he could finish speaking, Xie Ying, unable to bear it any longer, kicked him hard in the chest.

The beggar, after being kicked, immediately spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed unconscious.

The man next to him trembled like a leaf at the sight of the beggar. He peeked up to try and catch a glimpse of Xie Ying's eyes, only to be met with Xie Ying's gaze that looked at a dead man. His face turned deathly pale.

Before the guards could make a move, the man confessed: "I...I'm a distant relative of the head maid of the princess's residence. She gave me five hundred taels of silver to spread the news...My lord, spare my life! My lord, spare my life!"

After hearing these words, Tan Jinyu's face turned as pale as paper.

Xie Ying looked at her: "Do we need to find the head matron of your household to confront her?"

Tan Jinyu: "..."

Her reaction said it all.

Xie Ying coldly ordered the guards, "Drag these two away and deal with them."

The man was dragged away while howling like a banshee, and the flower hall returned to silence.

Tan Jinyu didn't speak, and neither did Xie Ying.

Just then, a maid stumbled in from the backyard and reported, "Your Highness, something terrible has happened! Granny Liu... she hanged herself!"

"..." Tan Jinyu's breath hitched, and she staggered, falling into the armchair behind her.

The maid's words broke the suffocating silence in the flower hall. Xie Ying looked at Tan Jinyu with no trace of pity as before: "Why did you do this? Even if you hate the Empress Dowager for wrongly accusing your mother of poisoning her, that is a grudge between you and the Empress Dowager. What does it have to do with Jun Zhuo?"

Over the years, because of your poor health, Junzhuo has taken good care of you. He always thinks of you first when he has something good. When you came to me and said that you did not want to go to the marriage alliance, I asked her to go on your behalf. She agreed without saying anything.

She suffered terribly for three years, and now that she's finally back in the capital with her life on the line, you're using such vicious rumors to slander her… Do you really wish she were dead?

Tan Jinyu was trembling slightly. Facing Xie Ying's aggressive questioning, she finally said after a long while, "Isn't a marriage alliance what she should do?"

Xie Ying narrowed his eyes: "What?"

“She is the daughter of the Empress Dowager of Liang, and has enjoyed wealth and honor since childhood. When Liang is in trouble, shouldn’t she step forward to help?” Tan Jinyu said. “Why does Lord Xie think that going to marry her is like her suffering for me?”

"Moreover, the Empress Dowager wrongly accused my mother of poisoning her, causing my mother to spend eight years in the Cold Palace, suffering endless hardships and developing chronic illnesses. She died with resentment less than three years after leaving the Cold Palace. As for me, I am cautious and live in constant fear, having to be obsequious and flattering to survive. Do you think that my elder sister's 'care' for me can offset all of this, Lord Xie?"

"Yes, I wish she were dead!" Tan Jinyu said, no longer hiding the hatred in her eyes. "I wish she were dead! I wish she would marry into the Northern Jurchens, suffer endless humiliation, and die under that old man Ji Tu, or be kidnapped by bandits and taken to their den, where she would be violated and trampled on every day..."

"Shut up!!!" Xie Ying roared in fury.

His chest heaved violently, and he looked at Tan Jinyu with a gaze so unfamiliar that he had never truly known her.

When did that obedient girl who followed him and Tan Xuanmo timidly calling him "Second Brother" grow into such a ferocious-looking person?

No! Perhaps it's not that she's changed.

She was always like this; it's just that she, Tan Xuanmo, and Tan Junzhuo were all deceived.

They never saw through her true nature.