Chapter 163 Waste Not, Want Not

Although Zhao Hengyi hadn't paid much attention initially to Xi Ning privately recognizing Miao Xiaoyu as his elder sister, he soon began to realize that something was amiss.

First, Xi Ning completely dropped his initial polite, cooperative attitude toward Zhao Hengyi, and instead vaguely and uncontrollably began to display a subtle hostility.

Second, this fellow seemed to take Miao Xiaoyu's status as his sister genuinely to heart, defending her at every turn in their conversations and even taking advantage of his identity as a court eunuch—meaning he didn't need to strictly observe the traditional boundaries between men and women—to intrude upon and manage Miao Xiaoyu's daily life.

Even the six younger sisters had somehow become the apple of Xi Ning's eye. This fellow showed an incomparable, almost abnormal pampering toward Zhao Hengyi's six young sisters. Even Zhao Hengyi, who had always considered himself good enough to the six girls, couldn't help but start doubting whether he had been too harsh on them in the past.

This was not right!

To Zhao Hengyi, every time he returned home now, it felt as though he were stepping into someone else's house, as if he were merely a guest!

"Xi Ning, a piece of open land outside the village has been cleared to serve as the future camp for the Xuan Character Battalion. Aren't you going to take a look?"

Even though Xi Ning was a palace eunuch, Zhao Hengyi still felt a tinge of unease. After all, while he didn't discriminate against eunuchs, that didn't mean he lacked vigilance toward such people. "Right now, various military forces are trying to clear the road to Yonggu City. Once the road is open, the Earl of Runan can lead his men rushing to Dangyang County. You might enjoy traveling around the village, but you can't just ignore your official duties, can you?"

The Earl of Runan was Chen Yongzhong's peerage title. This fellow had risen to an earldom purely on military merit, making quite a few people envious that he had such a capable elder sister.

"Trifling chores like that are beyond me. I've always expected Lord Zhao to handle them all anyway," Xi Ning replied with a cynical, sarcastic attitude. "If it becomes necessary to requisition grain or land from Jiangling Prefecture or Dangyang County, I can step forward then. I wouldn't want to make you, Lord Zhao, and those officials lock horns over such unpopular matters that ruin people's reputations."

"Xi Ning, Xiaoyu is my wife, and Ruo'er and the others are my sisters... If you harbor any ulterior motives, I might not know many other tricks, but making someone vanish is something I am quite familiar with!"

"Oh? I've long since heard tales of your terrifying penchant for killing, Lord Zhao, but I never expected to witness it firsthand."

"Speak. What is it you want? Your behavior over these past few days is completely different from usual."

Before reaching the absolute breaking point, Zhao Hengyi still hoped to resolve the issue calmly. Before Xi Ning acknowledged Miao Xiaoyu as his sister, he had been quite normal.

"What do I want? I should be asking you what *you* want, Lord Zhao!"

Xi Ning snapped instantly, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on! "You say my behavior is different from usual? Different is right! The 'usual' you speak of, Lord Zhao, was before I had a sister and younger sisters!

Back then, I was nothing more than a rootless, wandering ghost!

To put it bluntly, back then I only cared about one thing: fulfilling the duties entrusted to me by Imperial Concubine Chen. Everything else was completely irrelevant!

But now, I have an elder sister. Someone so honorable actually... actually sewed clothes for me with her own hands! I am not an ingrate; I understand human warmth. Sister Xiaoyu's kindness to me is genuine. She genuinely pities me from the bottom of her heart!

And the little sisters—they are so young and understand nothing, yet they treat me well and don't treat me like some monster or a cripple... When I look at them, I truly feel as though I am looking at my own flesh-and-blood sisters... Lord Zhao, someone as noble as you probably cannot understand this feeling, can you?

Since you've dropped all pretense to speak to me like this today, Lord Zhao, it must be because you feel I've been getting too close to Sister Xiaoyu, isn't it?

Yet I have never once thought of harming Sister Xiaoyu or the younger sisters. On the contrary, it is you, Lord Zhao, whom I wish to question: the Liang family, who drove Sister Xiaoyu and the younger sisters to ruin and forced their family apart—why have you turned a blind eye and done nothing about them?"

As soon as Xi Ning blurted this out, Zhao Hengyi was instantly struck dumb.

It wasn't that Zhao Hengyi couldn't answer, but rather that he never imagined Xi Ning was picking a fight with him precisely because of the Miao family's blood feud...

This damn development made Zhao Hengyi feel even more like an outsider in his own home.

"Let's lay our cards on the table. I'm no lord, and you're no eunuch. Let's speak our minds completely and clear the air, deal?"

"Deal! I want to see what brilliant excuses you have to offer!"

Xi Ning wore an expression of intense resentment, as if it was his own family that had been destroyed by the Liang family.

Zhao Hengyi truly couldn't wrap his head around it—or rather, he couldn't empathize with Xi Ning's desperate longing for and obsession with genuine familial affection.

"First, regarding your recognizing Xiaoyu as your sister... I have no objection to this." Zhao Hengyi gathered his thoughts. "Xiaoyu is an independent person with enough insight to make her own decisions. Since she believes you, Xi Ning, are a good man and worthy of being treated as her younger brother, then as her husband, I can only support it... However, if you dare harbor any malicious schemes, I will never spare you!

Now, let's talk about the Liang family."

The situation with the Liang family was not complicated, and Zhao Hengyi hadn't intentionally delayed action. Sister Xiaoyu was well aware of this.

Back then, the Liang family used a new type of loom to drive the Miao family to ruin, forcing Xiaoyu and her six younger sisters onto the streets to face public scorn, insults, and the stigma of being jinxes who brought bad luck to their family. Did Xi Ning know about any of this?

Heh, surely he didn't know, because ever since marrying him, Xiaoyu had never once brought it up!

She was unwilling to mention it precisely because she didn't want him, her husband, to put himself in danger just to avenge the Miao family.

"Tell me, Xi Ning: can the tragedy of the Miao family, the disasters suffered by Xiaoyu and her sisters, be repaid simply by killing the Liang family off?"

"If wiping them out isn't considered settling a blood debt, then what is?"

"Making them experience the exact same helplessness the Miao family felt back then—watching their family business slowly crumble before their eyes with absolutely no way out, forced to sit together and wait for death... Only through such a process can this deep grievance be truly appeased!"

Zhao Hengyi's words sent a chill down Xi Ning's spine!

This Lord Zhao wasn't just someone with a heavy penchant for killing!

"Come, come. Let me lay out my plan. The time to close the net has arrived anyway, and since you're acting as the younger brother, you can execute the final step."

For days, Zhao Hengyi had been subsidizing the rapidly expanding textile workshops using the profits from Nine-Flower Jade Dew and silver mirrors, driving the fabric merchants of Jiangling Prefecture to utter despair!

Even the Liang family, who had instigated the whole conflict in the first place, had been reduced to the public enemy of the entire textile trade!

At a time like this, even the Chang family standing behind the Liang family wouldn't dare rashly take the blame upon themselves!

After all, the other fabric merchants had backers of their own!

The timing was now fully ripe. Zhao Hengyi had intended to move against the Liang family in the near future anyway. Since Xi Ning had proactively thrown himself into the fray... it would be a waste not to use him!