The Hehuan Sect's True Heiress - Chapter 1

At the welcome banquet held for my return to the chief minister’s estate, my younger sister, Zhu Mei, personally offered me tea.

But I already knew it contained a powerful dose of Joyous Union Powder.

She’d also hidden two men in a side room.

According to her plan, once I drank the tea, what followed would destroy me.

As I considered this, Zhu Mei raised tearful eyes to mine.

“Sister, won’t you take my tea? Do you hate me for taking your place as the chief minister’s daughter?”

“I know I’ve wronged you. Whatever you decide—kill me, cut me to pieces—I’ll accept it…”

She looked so frail yet so determined. Like a stalk of foxtail grass braving the frost and snow.

Chief Minister Zhu and his wife couldn’t sit still at the sight of her pitiful face.

“Zhu Xiaotao! You may be our flesh and blood, but Mei is the child we’ve cherished since she was small!”

“You may have suffered while you were lost for a few years, but that gives you no right to take it out on Mei!”

I gave a faint smile.

I’d been lost for twenty years.

In their mouths, that dwindled to a casual “few years.”

Fine.

I accepted the cup with both hands and drained it.

“This tea… What a wonderfully two-faced green tea.”

Malice flashed across Zhu Mei’s face, but her words were as meek as ever.

“If you like it, Sister, I’ll pour you another cup.”

I smiled. “I couldn’t possibly trouble you.”

So I took the pot and helped myself, drinking the whole thing before I knew it.

Full of tea, I claimed to feel dizzy and let a maid take me to a side room to rest.

After escorting me inside, she even thoughtfully locked the door.

Before long, a crowd approached with angry, determined footsteps.

Zhu Mei was clearly leading them.

I heard her distinctive shrill voice. “Mother, Sister is in here!”

Then came Madam Zhu’s voice, barely containing her fury. “That wretched girl! I’ll beat her to death!”

“Please calm yourself, Mother. Perhaps Sister grew used to loose ways in the countryside. That’s why she would do something so shameful…”

Madam Zhu raised her voice. “Loose ways? Outrageous! She’s behaving like an unlicensed whore!”

With their little duet in full swing, mother and daughter reached the room and pushed open the doors together.

“Zhu Xiaotao! How dare you seduce strange men and defile this estate—”

The doors flew open. Two male bodies, tangled together on the couch, greeted their eyes.

Yes.

Two.

Men.

Naturally, I’d prepared this delightful, eye-searing surprise for Zhu Mei.

The two men she’d arranged for me had already received a dose of my own invention: Supreme Joyous Union Powder.

At the sight of the naked men, utterly unable to part, Zhu Mei let out a scream that pierced the heavens.

“Young Master Niu! Young Master Ma! What are you doing?”

Something very manly, obviously.

My master, Adept Wuyou, leader of the Hehuan Sect, had once said:

“Real men like manly things.”

“Men, for example.”

Young Masters Niu and Ma, still wrapped around each other in the room, illustrated her theory beautifully.

Perhaps this was true masculine prowess.

My master had also said:

“Smiles don’t simply disappear.”

“They just move from other people’s faces onto mine.”

Like right now.

Zhu Mei and Madam Zhu both fainted in the doorway.

I, meanwhile, smiled.

Once Zhu Mei woke up, I kindly went to visit her.

She glared at me with hatred.

“Don’t think escaping this once means you can steal Father and Mother’s love! I’ll always be the one they love most!”

As if I wanted it.

I merely told her the Joyous Union Powder she’d bought had barely any medicinal flavor. It had to be counterfeit.

“You should hurry and get your money back. Leave it too late, and the shopkeeper might deny everything.”

Zhu Mei fainted from rage again.