Chapter 667: The Three Ladies
Yun Luo, a veteran of the Green Phoenix Guard, was unconvinced. “Mage Yao, you are a noble lady from a prestigious family. Isn’t such behavior a disgrace to your family’s reputation?”
This laid bare what many had been quietly thinking.
Qi Xuansu and Yao Pei were out alone at night, especially avoiding Zhang Yuelu. This left only two possibilities—they were either secretly involved or faking it.
Yao Pei lowered her eyes and countered, “How exactly have I disgraced my family’s reputation? Is taking a walk in the capital with a classmate now considered disgraceful? Who made those rules?”
Yun Luo replied, “These are customs passed down over a thousand years.”
Yao Pei retorted, “Then those are the Confucian School’s rules. If we followed them, Deputy Hall Master Zhang, Envoy Han, you, and I would all be confined deep in the inner quarters, never stepping foot outside our home. How would we even show our faces in public?”
She deliberately paused before continuing, “Or are you suggesting that I’m shielding Daoist Qi? Or perhaps you suspect that the two of us conspired to kill Monk Yan Xiu? Is that why you’re subtly accusing me of disgracing the Daoist Order?”
This was a counterattack that exposed Yun Luo’s inner suspicions.
But Yun Luo could not respond lightly. To accuse Yao Pei of shielding Qi Xuansu or conspiring with him without solid evidence would only backfire. It would not have mattered if it were someone else, but Yao Pei could easily charge Yun Luo with slander, and the proceedings would become messy.
Such was the weight of Yao Pei’s status. If she said she was with Qi Xuansu, no one could prove otherwise. But if someone else had said it, they would have been grilled for every detail.
From beginning to end, Qi Xuansu had done nothing beyond a bit of acting because Yao Pei had told him to leave the rest to her.