Su Xiaoqi stared intently at Ruan Xiaorui. Despite her young age, her performance was natural, almost flawless.
That's why Su Xiaoqi had focused on her eyes from the start.
She believed eyes were windows to the soul.
Outwardly, she could feign anything.
But the changes in her gaze were beyond her control.
As expected, the moment the phone call ended, Ruan Xiaorui's expression shifted.
Su Xiaoqi immediately understood her intention and the true nature of this game.
Su Xiaoqi pointed it out directly, without mercy:
"You did it on purpose, deliberately dragging us here so your people would have time to rescue someone in the backyard."
Su Xiaoqi's voice was icy, and the atmosphere in the room grew stiff.
Ruan Xiaorui's heart trembled.
This was indeed the purpose of her visit.
She never expected to be exposed so quickly.
According to the plan, she would keep them occupied in the hall while her people quietly infiltrated the backyard, subdued the guards, and rescued the captive.
Dealing with those defenseless women should have been easy.
But unfortunately, that was not the case.
Su Xiaoqi was a formidable opponent, and she had
seen through her plan from the very first moment.
Now, her only concern was whether the person had been rescued.
But Su Xiaoqi, as if on purpose, raised her hand, signaling the other person to stop talking.
"You go back to your post. We need to have a good talk with Miss Ruan Xiaorui."
Su Xiaoqi reassessed Ruan Xiaorui.
Earlier, she thought she resembled Zhao Xiaozhu a little.
But upon closer inspection, she also bore a resemblance to the peddler imprisoned in the wood shed out back.
Considering they were both peddlers, and had similar features.
Only the age didn't quite match.
Ruan Xiao'er already had three children, the eldest being an eleven-year-old daughter.
The person in the wood shed was at most twenty-two or twenty-three.
Younger than Ruan Xiao'er.
Su Xiaoqi's mind buzzed. She quickly put the pieces together and tested her with a deliberately slow statement: "So, you want to rescue your uncle."
Su Xiaoqi spoke slowly, maximizing the psychological pressure.
Ruan Xiaorui was astonished that Su Xiaoqi not only knew her intention but had also guessed the identity of the person they had captured.
She suddenly regretted her decision.
She shouldn't have listened to her mother and taken the risk to come here.
She had thought it would be easy: sneak in disguised as a young maid, then drug them in the kitchen.
Make them all fall asleep.
Once the people had rescued the captive, she would find an excuse to leave.
Effortlessly, without any complications.
It was a shame she had encountered someone like Su Xiaoqi.
Not only had Su Xiaoqi easily thwarted her plan,
but she had also forced her to reveal her identity as Zhao Xiaolan's daughter, a trump card she was reluctant to play.
And yet, even using it had yielded no results.
Her mother had always told her that the Zhao family had been looking for her.
They would be overjoyed and excited to know that Zhao Xiaolan's child had returned.
And at that point, it would be her opportunity.
Whatever she said would not be exposed.
In fact, Zhao Xiaolan's words were not entirely wrong.
Had Ruan Xiaorui encountered anyone from the real Zhao family,
even just a Zhao relative,
she would have been so overwhelmed that she would have forgotten everything.
But she had encountered Su Xiaoqi.
Su Xiaoqi didn't care about Zhao Xiaolan or anything else.
Let alone her inherent lack of good feelings for a woman who eloped with a man, abandoning her parents and family.
Knowing they lived in the capital, yet failing to visit the elder Zhao,
and appearing only with schemes.
It was no wonder Su Xiaoqi harbored no affection for her.
Su Xiaoqi, unwilling to listen to Ruan Xiaorui's ramblings, simply waved her hand: "Lock her up."
Zhang Yu chuckled and stepped forward, grabbing Ruan Xiaorui by the arm to drag her away.
Ruan Xiaorui was now truly scared.
Her previous fear had all been an act.
But this was real.
She was genuinely terrified, and there was no one to comfort her.
She looked at Shen Mingzhu with a pleading expression.
"Cousin, Cousin, save me, save me."
Shen Mingzhu felt a pang of sympathy.
After all, this was Sister Xiaolan's daughter.
But Su Xiaoqi stopped her with a look. Without many words, she handed Shen Mingzhu a bowl of drugged soup and said, "She tried to harm us. You don't need to pity her.
Even if you save her, it would only be a story of a farmer and a snake.
If she can summon the escaped person now, she'll surely summon others next time."
Su Xiaoqi couldn't help but wonder how to describe Shen Yun's cousin, Zhao Xiaolan, whom she had never met, for raising her daughter to be so ruthless and cunning at such a young age.
"Aunt, Aunt, save me, save my sister. I didn't mean to, I really didn't mean to.
They captured my twin sister Ruan Xiaoxin, and I had no choice."
As Ruan Xiaorui was being dragged out, she revealed something else.
"Oh, let her come in first." Su Xiaoqi knew that simply locking her up wasn't the goal.
After all, she was Shen Yun's relative.
If word of this got out, it would surely give the censors in the Censorate something to talk about.
Su Xiaoqi no longer had the patience to argue with her and warned with a cold face:
"Speak properly. If you don't, you'll still be locked up."
Ruan Xiaorui nodded quickly.
She realized that the aunt before her, who looked like a celestial being, was actually a woman with a celestial face but a venomous heart.
Even colder than her mother.
Perhaps this was her only hope.
She decided to tell the truth.
Her mother didn't deserve to be their mother.
She didn't know when her mother had joined some organization.
Before, they lived quite comfortably in Yizhou Prefecture.
Her father had a small shop selling sundries, and business was good.
But five years ago, her mother suddenly acted strangely and insisted on coming to the capital.
She even said that if their father didn't want to come, she would take the three children and go alone.
Ruan Xiao'er couldn't possibly leave his wife to travel thousands of miles alone, so he sold his shop, packed their belongings and money, and brought the family to the capital.
Ruan Xiao'er intended to rent a shop in the capital and continue his previous business.
It was a trade he was familiar with.
But when he had found a shop and was about to pay the deposit, he discovered that all the money they had brought from Yizhou Prefecture was gone.
Their mother had taken it, claiming to have donated it to the Black Sky Six-Faced Buddha.
From then on, not only could they not open a shop, but their livelihoods became difficult.
However, her father was deeply in love with his wife.
He also felt that her unwavering decision to leave her hometown with him, who had nothing, to venture out was a testament to her deep affection.
Therefore, Ruan Xiao'er did not blame his wife too much for spending the money.
Initially, he was understanding, but later, even his father became deeply ensnared in the vortex of the Black Sky Six-Faced Buddha.
The two stopped doing anything else, spending their days locked in their room, practicing the doctrines of the Six-Faced Buddha.
They even talked about practicing dual cultivation and multi-cultivation...
Ruan Xiaorui seemed unclear about the definitions of these terms, only repeating what she had heard from her father and mother.
The family went through a period of great hardship.
But six months ago, their lives suddenly improved.
They no longer had to go out to work; money was delivered to their door regularly.
At first, they weren't sure, but later they learned it was thanks to their maternal uncle, whom they had never met.
"They valued my maternal uncle's abilities greatly, saying that if my maternal uncle joined their organization, our family's life would improve."
Ruan Xiaorui spoke these words with a look of confusion and bewilderment.
It seemed she herself didn't understand what she was saying.
"So, your three siblings also joined."
Ruan Xiaorui replied, "I joined. My sister and brother did not. They had studied and once told me that the Six-Faced Buddha was not a good thing and advised me not to believe in it."
Su Xiaoqi chuckled softly, thinking that there were indeed a few sensible people in their family.
Unfortunately, they were just two young children.
It was truly pitiful that their parents, who should have been their support, were such people.
Having embarked on this path, it was no wonder they were unwilling to acknowledge their relatives.
This time, if they hadn't intended to use them, they probably wouldn't have shown themselves.
Su Xiaoqi suddenly asked, "Is your organization called 'The Net'?"
"Ah, 'The Net', I don't know, maybe. The oracle didn't say." Ruan Xiaorui appeared extremely sincere, looking at Su Xiaoqi with her innocent, almond-shaped eyes.
"Lock her up." Su Xiaoqi refused to believe her so easily.
Her life creed was simple: once betrayed, trust is lost forever.