Chapter 53: Shen Xin Reveals Her Identity

“You won’t wrong me?”

A bitter laugh escaped her lips.

Shen Xin sat on the ground, soaked to the skin, supported by several servants. Her black hair clung damply to her face, utterly disheveled and miserable.

She had thrown herself into the lake hoping to win sympathy and trust, but the moment Shen Mo spoke those words, all her efforts were rendered meaningless.

Why? Shen Mo used to protect her.

Would he truly believe everything Shen Zhaoxi said, even after seeing her leap into the water? That day on the cliff, it had only been her and Shen Zhaoxi—no one else had witnessed what happened. That was why she dared to return and continue pretending innocence.

When Shen Zhaoxi accused her in front of everyone, she could confidently claim Shen Zhaoxi was slandering her. After all, no one knew the real truth.

But now? Now Shen Mo said Shen Zhaoxi would never wrong her?

So—it was her, after all.

Shen Xin never imagined that Shen Mo, who had shielded her so fiercely a decade ago, would speak to her like this today.

At that moment, Shen Yuan returned.

“Sister.”

The young man wore a black windbreaker. His slender figure radiated a quiet austerity, his pale, cool face set with a hint of seriousness. Then his jet-black eyes swept across the people gathered in Birch Garden.

He handed something to Shen Zhaoxi.

“Weren’t you looking for evidence?”

“This is the proof—”

With that, Shen Zhaoxi held a small black chip between her slender fingers.

She narrowed her eyes, looking down at Shen Xin sitting on the ground.

Shen Xin’s pupils flickered!

The moment she recognized the chip pinched in those fingers, her mind went utterly blank.

She was frozen in place.

What?! Impossible.

How could Shen Zhaoxi possibly have that?

“You didn’t expect this, did you?” Shen Zhaoxi’s lips curled in a smile. “Xu Xing.”

At the sound of that name, Shen Xin went rigid.

At first, Shen Zhaoxi had wondered—after being sent abroad alone for so many years, why had she suddenly returned?

She’d harbored doubts about Shen Xin from the very first day she came back. She didn’t believe someone sent away for ten years would only harbor the same childish jealousy and desire to hurt her.

And if Shen Xin truly wanted to harm her, why not find a way to do so quietly after returning to the Shen family, instead of revealing her hand so openly on the road back from Sanqing Peak?

Her supposed motive—that she was jealous, that she too was a Shen daughter, yet only Shen Zhaoxi was cherished by the family—was far too convenient.

Was that reasonable? No, it was not.

Unless Shen Xin wanted to use that as a smokescreen for her real agenda.

The very day her grandfather allowed Shen Xin to return to the capital, Shen Zhaoxi had her investigated.

And, as she’d suspected—

The moment her words faded, Shen Xin suddenly sprang up from the ground!

A dagger appeared in her hand from her sleeve.

“Don’t move.”

Her voice was icy, her face now twisted with venom.

She seized Shen Sisi beside her, pressing the dagger to Shen Sisi’s throat.

The servants in Birch Garden shrank back in terror.

Shen family’s bodyguards surged forward, a black-clad crowd.

Shen Zhaoxi fixed her with a gaze, then cocked her head slightly. “You mean to kill her?”

“Ah! Shen Xin, what are you doing?”

“Calm down.”

“Don’t be rash…” Only now did Shen Sisi realize true fear. Her body was rigid, unable to move, the dagger’s cold edge biting into her throat.

“Shen Sisi stood by you, protected you at every turn, and yet you want to kill her?” Shen Zhaoxi’s question struck straight at the soul.

“Shut up.” Shen Xin’s face went black.

“She’s a fool, that’s why!” Shen Xin spat coldly.

Shen Sisi quivered with terror. The dagger pressed against her, she nearly lost control.

“Brother Shen Mo, save me…” she whimpered.

Now she knew fear—too late.

Xiao Xiao, standing nearby, rolled her eyes inwardly.

She’d been warned, hadn’t she? The young mistress had made it clear: stay out of the Shen family’s affairs. But this brainless girl wouldn’t listen. Now look—she’d become a hostage.

Serves her right.

Xiao Xiao lowered her gaze, glancing toward Shen Zhaoxi in her wheelchair, and gave a subtle nod.

“Let her go first!” Shen Mo’s voice was ice-cold, his black eyes fixed on the dagger in Shen Xin’s hand.

“Let her go?” Shen Xin sneered. “You think I’m a fool?”

“If I let her go, what’s next for me but interrogation by the military tribunal of Country Y?”

Shen Mo’s tone was glacial: “Release her now, and you may yet live.”

“Shen Mo, Commander-in-Chief of Country Y’s military—am I wrong?”

“Xu Xing, you cannot bear the weight of treason.”

“And surely you don’t want your grandfather to bear the sin of his descendants betraying the nation, do you?”

“Shut up!”

At those words, Xu Xing erupted in fury, her grip tightening, making Shen Sisi scream.

“Ah!”

“Don’t kill me…”

A thin line of blood appeared on her neck, the blade slicing just deep enough to break the skin, not yet severing the artery.

She lost all control, her legs shaking, urine dribbling down.

Shen Yuan’s gaze darkened.

If the hostage had been Shen Zhaoxi, he doubted he would have stayed so calm, so unflinching in the face of danger, able to watch with such composure.

Shen Zhaoxi’s voice was puzzled. “Let me think—what could be worth risking capture and sneaking into Country Y for? Was it for me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Xu Xing retorted coldly. “If you don’t want her to die—”

“Oh.” Shen Zhaoxi smiled. “That remnant scroll from the Western Zhou, the one I just burned—what did you record on it?”

“Too bad, it’s gone now.”

She smiled.

Couldn’t take it out now, could she?

Shen Zhaoxi had wondered why Xu Xing attacked her on the way back from Sanqing Peak—wouldn’t that expose herself too soon?

But it was all to make the Shen family’s eldest daughter come to harm, to throw the Shen family into chaos, giving Xu Xing the chance she needed to act after returning.

The study had clearly been tampered with.

Thinking of the item she’d burned, black lines appeared on Xu Xing’s forehead, her face darkening.

Shen Zhaoxi continued, “If you wanted it, you should have shown yourself sooner. Why keep up the act in front of me, pretending to be so fragile?”

Now she had lost everything.

But she hadn’t realized that from the very first day she returned to the capital, she was already exposed.

All along, Shen Zhaoxi had merely been playing along with her.

And once again, Shen Zhaoxi had won the game.

Her wager with Grandfather—well, it seemed Grandfather would have to honor his promise ahead of schedule.