After happily receiving the amulet given by Ye Xi, Luo Ji hesitated and asked,
"Mother, should we still go and settle Ling Yi down now?"
"Go what go,"
Zhou Zhanlan said with a look of impatience on her face.
"Didn't the immortal maiden say that we should stay away from her? Moreover, in our own mansion, what could possibly happen?"
"I've always said there's something wrong with her. Everyone in our family is fine, but only she was born mute. She's really an ill - omened thing."
Carefully putting away her own amulet, Zhou Zhanlan turned around and walked back into the mansion.
"Tell a servant to watch her closely. Just send meals to her on time every day. Let her stay in that courtyard and not come out. We don't want her running around spreading bad luck."
After the three of them reached an agreement, they really stopped caring about Ling Yi and instead whole - heartedly went to coax Luo Xiaobao.
At this time, in Ling Yi's small courtyard—
[But I don't know how to pretend to be a ghost.]
Ling Yi wrote on the paper stroke by stroke.
The gestures she made were incomprehensible to Yi Yaofeng. Although he was also trying hard to learn, he had only been learning for a short time and had a lot of schoolwork. Yi Yuan was afraid that he wouldn't be able to defeat those villains in the future and come back for help, so he increased Yi Yaofeng's martial arts training.
So the poor young heir was still only half - understanding Ling Yi's gestures. He simply picked up a pen and paper, thinking that he could let Ling Yi write directly for him to read.
Looking at the rather neat characters on the paper, Yi Yaofeng scratched his head.
"I'm not very good at it either. But Sister Xi said that we must act like ghosts and make your grandmother and the others deeply feel the punishment for bullying you. Only then will they be afraid and let you go."
"Um... If you really don't know how, how about we learn now?"
[How can we learn this?]
Ling Yi looked at Yi Yaofeng with a confused blink of her eyes.
"This..."
Yi Yaofeng looked around and his eyes fell on Yan Gui standing silently in the corner.
Yan Gui: Hmm?
The sun was blazing, and it was getting hotter.
After a while of commotion among the two children and one adult, Ling Yi quickly grasped the key points of pretending to be a ghost:
Look dull and listless, be jumpy, and have disheveled hair.
Ling Yi laughed silently. She had never felt such joy before. Since she could remember, no children were willing to play with her. They only bullied her, calling her the little mute and saying she was ill - omened.
Ling Yi's eyes were red. She picked up the pen and paper again and wrote:
[Thank you]
Yi Yaofeng shook his little head like a rattle and said repeatedly:
"You're welcome, you're welcome..."
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Ling Yi hold the paper up in front of him again.
[Tell you a secret]
[The Immortal Maiden Manping is the beautiful sister who helped me at the Qunying Building that day.]
Yi Yaofeng was greatly shocked. He suddenly pounced on the paper with the ink still not dry and covered the words in a hurry. He looked around warily.
He knew what happened to Sister Xi at the Qunying Building that day. It was also on that occasion that Ye Xi taught him the phrase "stand up for the unjust".
But he didn't know how Ling Yi had discovered that Sister Xi was the Immortal Maiden Manping.
"How do you know?"
Little Yaofeng's eyes widened in shock.
"You mustn't tell this. It's Sister Xi's little secret."
Ling Yi: [The Immortal Maiden Manping is your Sister Xi?]
Yi Yaofeng: ...
Oh no, he had forgotten that Ling Yi had never seen his Sister Xi. Now it was all his fault for revealing Sister Xi's secret.
Seeing Yi Yaofeng looking so regretful, Ling Yi quickly wrote again:
[I won't tell. You can rest assured.]
"Then... Let's pinky - swear."
The two children whispered to each other. They went over the plan of pretending to be ghosts again and talked for a while. Only then did Yi Yaofeng reluctantly leave with Yan Gui.
On the other side—
"Immortal Maiden,"
Qiao Yan was waiting around the corner. When she saw the Luo family enter the mansion, she came out and waved vigorously at Ye Xi.
"Over here, over here."
"What did the note you gave me just now mean? Why did you ask us to leave first? Ling Yi is still in the Luo Mansion. My cousin was crying so hard that she was half - dead. She refused to go back with my aunt no matter what. She insisted on waiting for you here."
Qiao Yan was extremely anxious. As soon as Ye Xi got closer, she bombarded her with questions.
"Miss Qiao,"
Ye Xi said helplessly.
"This is not the place to talk on the street. Is Lady Yushi and the others in the private room inside? Let's go in and talk."
The group entered the private room and sat down. They didn't even bother with the greetings and started asking Ye Xi about her plan in a hubbub.
"Everyone, don't be impatient,"
Ye Xi sat down calmly.
"The Luo family won't let me 'divine the fate'. Without any evidence, we can't force them."
"As for now, if Lady Luo wants to divorce Luo Ji and take Ling Yi away..."
"Alas," Qiao Yiting waved her hand in disgust. "What Lady Luo? The Luo family doesn't deserve her."
"My daughter is a daughter of the Su family. From now on, she won't be a wife of the Luo family!"
Ye Xi smiled understandingly and changed her words.
"Madam is right. Regarding Miss Su's divorce, first, we must catch Luo Ji in the act so that he can't defend himself. Second, since the Luo family keeps saying that Ling Yi is ill - omened, then we'll really let them experience what 'ill - omen' means and make them give up Ling Yi on their own initiative."
"But, but if we do this, won't Ling Yi's reputation be ruined for life?"
Qiao Yiting hesitated.
Qiao Yan and Su Xin also nodded. Ling Yi had already suffered a lot of discrimination because she was born mute. If this "ill - omen" reputation was further confirmed, her future life would be even more difficult.
Ye Xi naturally knew their concerns.
Tapping her slender fingers on the table, Ye Xi said:
"What if this so - called 'ill - omen' only targets the Luo family but is good for others?"
"Then..."
The people looked at each other. Qiao Yiting's face showed a happy expression.
"Then this is not an 'ill - omen' at all, but a punishment for the Luo family. Outsiders will only think that the Luo family has done something immoral and that's why this happened. They won't think it's Ling Yi's problem."
"Maybe, maybe Ling Yi will even gain the reputation of a divine envoy, acting on behalf of heaven."
Everyone's eyes lit up.
In this way, not only Ling Yi but also the Su and Qiao families would have an easier time.
Qiao Yan was extremely happy. She bowed to Ye Xi seriously and said:
"The immortal maiden's plan is excellent. I wrongly blamed the immortal maiden. I knew the immortal maiden wasn't that kind of person. The immortal maiden should not take offense at my rudeness."
Ye Xi was amused by Qiao Yan's straightforward manner and said:
"How could I? It's okay not to know. It's mainly because Miss was in such a hurry to find me that we didn't discuss it in advance."
"Cough, cough..."
Su Xin was a little relieved. She propped herself up and thanked Ye Xi. Then she frowned slightly and said:
"As the immortal maiden said, A Yan exposed Luo Ji's dirty deeds in public today. The Luo family will surely be more on guard in the future. It may be difficult to catch him in the act again."
"And my Ling Yi, she, cough, cough... She's so young and alone in the Luo Mansion. How can she do those 'ill - omened' things and make others think it's a good omen?"
"Well..."
Ye Xi mysteriously took out an amulet from her bosom.
"I just took the side of the Luo family and spoke for them in order to gain their trust."
"I've given each of them an amulet and told them to carry it close to their bodies and never leave it."