Chapter 264: Cornered into a Dead End

"If you can expose the Crown Prince, you'll be a meritorious official, and the Emperor will surely make an exception; as long as the Meng Family still exists, you still have a way out. But if you refuse to cooperate, you'll forever wear that face, and I want to see whether the Crown Prince can even bring himself to speak to you." After speaking, Chi Nan Yi feigned enlightenment, snorted, "I forgot, the Crown Prince is incompetent and has no such need."

"You… you even know this," Meng Qinghe said in a deep voice, "Chi Nan Yi, you and the Crown Prince…"

"Only you could look up to a scum like him; don't say it out loud and disgust me." She cut her off, Chi Nan Yi said coolly, "The time has long arrived; have you decided?"

Meng Qinghe lifted her eyes to look at her, finally overtaken by despair and compromise.

"Fine, I agree."

Chi Nan Yi's thin lips curled slightly, with no hint of surprise in her eyes, as if she had long known she would make this decision.

She tossed the potion to her; Meng Qinghe treated it like a treasure, hurriedly applying it to her face. The cool, refreshing sensation dispelled the pain, and stumbling she reached the bronze mirror, where all the wounds on her face had completely healed, as if by a celestial technique.

Trembling, she touched her face with her fingers; the fresh bloodstains had vanished entirely.

In the bronze mirror, Chi Nan Yi's exquisitely beautiful face, half‑smile, half‑frown, struck her heart like a heavy hammer.

She lost.

Meng Qinghe knew that in this life, she had lost again.

She was already held in Chi Nan Yi's palm, and this life she could never turn around.

All she now sought was that after she completed this deed, she could truly let herself go.

"Remember, this medicine only lasts a month; after three consecutive uses it will become completely ineffective. When that happens, if you still can't manage, your face will become a hundred times worse than now, the ruptured wounds will never heal, they'll ooze pus, rot, and beyond… I doubt you'd want to know."

Though she didn't say it, the effect was even better than if she had spoken it outright.

Meng Qinghe's complexion turned ghastly pale, her body shaking violently.

"The matter is settled; I should be going back now," she walked slowly toward the doorway, her fingertip brushing the door as a flash of light passed through her eyes.

He must have heard clearly what I just said, Mo Junyan!

Meng Hui and Jiang Clan were farther away; the voices inside were intermittent, they didn't catch it clearly, but the three words "Chi Nan Yi" kept repeating. Jiang Clan and Meng Hui exchanged a glance, and a terrifying thought grew wildly in their hearts.

That enigmatic Southern First Young Master who had already seized the Meng Family's lifeline was their adopted daughter, Chi Nan Yi.

As the door opened, Chi Nan Yi stepped out slowly.

This time, she did not wear a mask.

Meng Hui and Jiang Clan were jolted sharply, as if struck by lightning.

Their bodies froze in place, unable to move.

It's her…

It's really her!

Jiang Clan covered their mouth, so shocked that they couldn't utter a single complete sentence.

After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Clan regained their voice: "Yi'er… you're Yi'er!"

"Minister, Madam, long time no see."

The casual greeting tightened Meng Hui and Jiang Clan's hearts.

They had thought that after she abandoned the Minister's Residence's splendor she would live in utter poverty, never expecting her to reappear before them with such arrogance.

Just standing there made the Meng Family members in the courtyard gasp for breath.

Meng Hui was speechless, but his face was ashen, the back of his robe already soaked with cold sweat.

"What Southern First Young Master?"

"What 'World's First Village'?"

From start to finish, it was all a scheme set up by that damned girl Chi Nan Yi!

If his guess is correct, the scandal that broke out at today's banquet is also inseparable from her.

The purpose was to make the Meng Family fall from the altar of divinity.

"Yi'er, when did you return to Jingcheng?" Jiang Clan hurried forward, trying to grab her hand. Chi Nan Yi stepped back, saying coldly, "Madam Meng, what are you doing? Are we that familiar?"

"Yi'er, although you're not my biological child, I raised you. For over a decade I've treated you as my own, never shortchanged you. Have you forgotten all those years of nurturing?"

Hearing this, Chi Nan Yi's lips twitched, "Treat as my own… Madam Meng, does this mean you admit you knew from the start that I'm not your biological child?"

Jiang Clan was startled, their eyes full of panic.

Meng Hui furrowed his brows tightly, asking in a deep voice, "Madam, what's going on?"

Jiang Clan clenched the handkerchief, not answering Meng Hui, but continued looking at Chi Nan Yi: "Mother misspoke, but after all these years of nurturing, you cannot…"

"If I recall correctly, from childhood you had me learn Palace etiquette, secretly probing the Crown Prince's preferences, all so I could marry into the Crown Prince's Residence and bring benefit to the Meng Family. At that time I was a pawn in your hands. Later, when you learned your daughter was still alive, you were overjoyed, wanting me to become Meng Qinghe's stepping stone, and once the goal was reached, you'd have her crush me underfoot. This was your plan, your painstaking scheme, am I not right?"

Chi Nan Yi's words turned Jiang Clan's face a pallid greenish hue.

Each word was like a knife, tearing apart the Meng Family's last veil of shame; Jiang Clan's complexion turned extremely ugly, she still wanted to play the emotional card, but Chi Nan Yi gave her no chance.

"Your daughter's face has already recovered; Minister, you can now fulfill the promise you just made."

"What do you want?"

Last time she took the border fengshui map, the Meng Family was already in her palm; what does she want today?

"I want you to personally submit the petition, in front of all civil and military officials, earnestly requesting the Emperor to re‑investigate the old case of the Bai Family's treason and betrayal."

As the words fell, Mo Junyan, standing not far from her, looked startled.

Meng Hui's complexion changed abruptly, and he shouted hoarsely, "Are you mad? The matter was settled long ago; the Bai Family's treasoners were executed en masse. You want me to exonerate the traitors—this would mean the Meng Family gets executed en masse!"

"Treason and betrayal?" Chi Nan Yi sneered, "If we talk about treason, who could surpass you? That fengshui map…"

"Shut up!" Meng Hui clenched his teeth, his face ashen, his body trembling uncontrollably.

"If you disagree, I'll hand over whatever you have hidden directly to the Emperor. Which of these two matters do you think would truly destroy the Meng Family's foundation?"

This time, Meng Hui finally understood what Chi Nan Yi was scheming step by step.

He is the current Prime Minister, the head of all officials.

He had once handled the Bai Family case; now that he brings it up again, it's like slapping his own face in public, and forcibly reopening that ironclad case from back then.

Once the investigation restarts, the clues deliberately concealed back then, the silenced witnesses and the altered testimonies will all see the light of day; besides the Bai Family, the Situ Family's tragic case will also be uncovered anew.

Following the investigation into the Bai Family case, it will ultimately point to only one outcome.

The Bai Family is innocent; they have been wronged.

That is a consequence none of them can bear.

And the true mastermind behind the scenes is also an existence he cannot afford to provoke.

"You're pushing me onto a dead-end road!"

"Regardless, you haven't reached a dead end yet, but the Bai and Situ family members who were wrongfully killed have already stepped onto the Yellow Springs Road."