There were two possibilities. One was that she didn't care about her reputation at all. The other was that she was so powerful that she didn't take her opponent seriously.
Seeing the woman with her head down in silence, Bai Zheng reminded her aloud, "What's wrong, miss? You have to let me take a look so that I'll know if I've wronged you, right?"
The woman looked up. Before she could say a word, she heard the whispering of the onlookers around getting louder.
"Judging from this, it seems that Miss Bai didn't wrong her."
"Think about it. Look at her flirtatious gestures. She doesn't look like a decent girl at all. It's not surprising if she seduced a man and did something improper."
"Speaking of which, her elder brother is a bandit leader. With her looks, it wouldn't be a waste if she became the bandit leader's wife."
The woman's face grew paler and paler.
Bai Zheng smiled faintly.
That was human nature.
If you were extremely beautiful and behaved elegantly, you would be regarded as a fairy descending to the mortal world.
But once people found out you had done something wrong, your end would be much more miserable than that of an ordinary person who had made a mistake.
After all, the higher you were once praised, the harder you would be trampled now.
"Here!" The woman said angrily, throwing the handkerchief heavily into Bai Zheng's outstretched palm.
Bai Zheng smiled and picked up the handkerchief, examining it carefully. The more she looked, the more complicated her expression became.
The woman's heart skipped a beat. Then she heard Bai Zheng say slowly, "Just as I thought. No wonder you're so deeply in love with that bandit leader."
The woman's face turned pale. "What do you mean?"
"Are you still pretending to be stupid, miss? If I remember correctly, the undergarment found on your bandit elder brother also had the same cherry - pink seven - petal water lilies as on your handkerchief."
"Undergarment?!"
Hearing Bai Zheng's words, everyone gasped in surprise.
They had already suspected that the woman's personal item was something improper, but they never expected it to be an undergarment.
That was a woman's most intimate clothing. Even after marriage, a woman might not give it to her husband as a keepsake.
Moreover, she was an unmarried girl.
The onlookers' expressions towards the woman immediately changed from initial sympathy and pity to utter disdain.
Some of them even turned around and left, as if they had seen something dirty.
The woman stared at Bai Zheng with wide, disbelieving eyes. Her hands trembled uncontrollably as she pointed at Bai Zheng.
"Bai Zheng, you're so..."
Merciless.
She struck a fatal blow, leaving her with no chance to fight back.
Bai Zheng looked at her calmly, as if looking at a fish gasping for water.
Her dark pupils reflected the woman's shocked and embarrassed appearance, as if mocking her overconfidence.
Whoever she offended would be fine, but why did she have to offend Bai Zheng?
"You're talking nonsense! My elder brother and I are innocent. In order to protect the reputation of your Bai Mansion, you're even willing to pour such slander on a weak woman like me!"
As she spoke, the woman slowly straightened her back.
There was an unprecedented determination in her slender and charming eyes. She stared at Bai Zheng and said word by word, "I'm not like Miss Bai. Some people help you forge false evidence. I can do nothing. I can only die to prove my innocence!"
Having said that, her eyes swept over to the big stone pillar at the entrance of the Bai Mansion. She squinted her eyes slightly and tightened her cherry - colored lips. As if making up her mind, she rushed towards the stone pillar.
Bai Zheng knew she would do this.
She remained calm and just waved her hand.
The onlookers who were still watching were about to let out an exclamation when they saw a black shadow flash before their eyes.
When they could see clearly, the woman had been pushed hard by the black shadow and fell to the ground not far away.
"If you die, who will go to the government to save your elder brother?" Bai Zheng looked coldly at the woman on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, and said coldly, "Besides, isn't it something that girls from Yicui Pavilion often do to give undergarments?"
The words "girls from Yicui Pavilion" caused another stir among the crowd.
The woman stopped sobbing suddenly. She looked up at Bai Zheng in disbelief, clearly not expecting that Bai Zheng had investigated her background so quickly.
What she didn't know was that the matter of Yicui Pavilion wasn't investigated by Bai Zheng. It was just mentioned when the two bandit leaders on the mountain had an argument.
However, these didn't matter. What mattered was that at this moment, the woman felt a deep fear of Bai Zheng.
Although the girl in front of her had always looked calm - eyed, and sometimes even smiled kindly at her, she just felt that it was all an illusion. This girl was clearly a wolf in sheep's clothing!
Bai Zheng didn't care about the woman's complicated feelings. She had been arguing with her at the door for so long, and it was time to end it.
"Miss, since you've hooked up with the bandit leader, you must have enjoyed a life of wearing gold and silver for quite a while, right?
Suddenly, your sugar daddy's lair was raided by me, and he was detained in my mansion. It's as if I've cut off your source of income. It's normal for you to hate me now.
But have you ever thought that the white jade perfume on your body, the rouge and powder on your face, and the gold and silver jewelry around your neck were all bought with the hard - earned money that your elder brother robbed from the people of Yongding.
Don't you feel a twinge of conscience or feel ashamed when you use these things on a daily basis?"
"I didn't!" Seeing the increasingly unfriendly looks from the crowd, the woman was extremely flustered.
She waved her hands repeatedly, and the tears in her eyes kept accumulating and rolling down.
Normally, this should have been a sight of a beautiful woman crying pitifully like a pear blossom in the rain. But after the crowd knew that she was from Yicui Pavilion, promiscuous, and had hooked up with a bandit, spending money lavishly, they no longer felt any sympathy for her, only intense disgust.
A black shadow came to Bai Zheng's side and whispered something in her ear.
Bai Zheng lowered her eyes and nodded slightly. Then she looked at the woman and said with a smile, "Miss, don't cry. Take a look at these evidences first."
As Bai Zheng's voice fell, the door of the Bai Mansion creaked open. Led by Zhuling, several servants of the Bai Mansion walked out, each holding something in their hands.
Everyone stared intently at the things in their hands.
Zhuling walked forward with a box in her hands, stood beside Bai Zheng, and bowed, "Miss, there were too many things of that thief, so we only sorted out some. They're all here."
Bai Zheng nodded. "Show them to that miss and let everyone here take a look. Maybe there are some treasures that were snatched from you when you passed by the bandit mountain."
As Bai Zheng's voice fell, the servants showed the things in their hands one by one.
Everyone took a closer look and gasped in shock.
It was obvious that Zhuling had carefully selected these items. Most of them were very distinctive, and it was easy to recognize who their original owners were at a glance.
"This gold - inlaid jade lock!" A woman's surprised cry came. "Wasn't this the full - moon gift I specially had made and asked my brother - in - law to give to A'nan?"