Reborn as the Weakest Heiress, I Gave My Inheritance to the Enemy's Daughter novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: In Front of Everyone

"I'm here," Zhaoxue said.

Three hundred heads turned at once.

She stood at the rail of the east terrace, dripping, with the black banner hanging from her hands to her knees.

Linxia climbed over the wall behind her and stopped one pace to her left, wet and torn and silent.

For a moment nobody breathed.

Then a disciple at the front shouted, "The Mo woman has her!"

Steel scraped out of sheaths all across the courtyard.

A dozen swords came up toward the terrace, and the nearest man took two quick steps up the stairs.

Linxia's hand went to her hilt.

Zhaoxue stepped in front of her.

She put her back to Linxia's chest, her arms out from her sides, and faced the swords alone.

"Put them down," she said.

The man on the stairs stopped.

"Young mistress, she has the Seal."

"I gave it to her."

"You were forced."

"I walked up to her with it in my hand," Zhaoxue said. "In the guest courtyard, at midday, with the tea still hot. Your senior brother can tell you who was standing in the garden."

She turned her head and found Ning on the Pine Hall steps.

His face was perfectly kind.

"Shimei," he said. "You're frightened. It's all right. We'll talk about it inside."

"We'll talk about it here."

She lifted the black banner in both hands and let it fall open over the terrace rail.

It hung down the wall, ten feet long, heavy with ditch water, the white crests along its hem dark and clear in the grey light.

"Everyone knows this flag," Zhaoxue said. "Every disciple in this courtyard has been told since the day we were born that this is the banner of the enemy at our door."

She raised her voice, and it cracked, and she kept going.

"Count the waves."

Nobody moved.

"Count them. Aloud."

A girl near the front, one of the youngest of the kitchen disciples, whispered, "One."

An older man picked it up from the side. "Two. Three."

It spread through the crowd in a low uneven chant, one number after another.

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