Oops! The Black Lotus Can’t Be a Female Supporting Character

CHAPTER 63 PART2

At present, Madam Yin oversaw all the Yin household affairs on behalf of the old Madam. She managed the running of an entire marquisate with perfect order; how much easier, then, the modest Yin household. Under her hand, the servants were well-disciplined—none dared to loiter about or gawk.

From Liang Zheng’s arrival to his departure, the whole process took less than the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn. Everything was carried out smoothly, with flawless propriety.

But no sooner had he left than Madam She eagerly began eyeing the lavish rewards, unable to tear her gaze away. Fawning, she said to Madam Yin: “Elder Sister, these gifts from His Majesty will make the perfect dowry for Yanfei. With them, even the Duke’s household will hold her in higher regard.”

The more she looked, the more envious she became. Her gaze lingered longingly on the treasures, and just as she was about to volunteer to catalogue and store them, a hesitant voice came from outside:

“Madam… Eldest Young Miss Xiao is here. She ran right into Eunuch Liang’s procession at the gate.”

The hall fell silent.

Xiao Luanfei? Madam She’s expression faltered as she turned to the maid who had brought the message.

From her seat at the head, Madam Yin’s brows knit tightly, her gaze turning cold. “I said before—we are not to receive anyone from the Marquis’s household. Send her away!”

The maid looked uneasy. “But Eldest Young Miss refuses to leave. She is kneeling at the gate, saying she wishes to apologize to Second Young Miss.”

The servants were in a bind. After all, the Eldest Young Miss was still of the Marquis’s house; as mere servants, how could they dare offend her?

Finally, the maid added in a troubled whisper: “And… there are more and more onlookers gathering outside.”

“…”

Madam Yin’s whole body tensed. Her fingers clutched the armrest of the grand chair, the veins standing out on the back of her hand.

Xiao Luanfei—of all times to come—had chosen this exact moment, right after the imperial rewards were delivered. And to kneel so ostentatiously at the gate, drawing every gaze… it was clearly a calculated move to force her hand, to pressure her into returning to the Marquis’s household.

Madam Yin felt as though something heavy and suffocating lodged in her chest.

“Mother, don’t worry.” Xiao Yanfei walked up beside her, gently covering her taut hand with her own. A bright, easy smile curved her lips.

Her daughter’s smile was like dawn breaking through storm clouds—radiant, serene, her crescent brows and eyes gleaming with a silver clarity, carrying an effortless grace as though no trouble in the world was worth her concern.

Just looking at her daughter eased the suffocating weight in Madam Yin’s chest, calming her heart. She returned her daughter’s smile. “I am not worried.”

Her Yanfei was so precious—why let another woman’s daughter distress her?

Drawing a deep breath, Madam Yin steadied herself, then rose resolutely and strode toward the doors.

“Mother, let me come with you.” Xiao Yanfei slipped her arm through Madam Yin’s, smiling lightly.

Watching the mother and daughter walk off together, Madam She hesitated, still unsettled. Then Zhu momo prompted her: “Madam, are you not going as well?”

Madam She now followed Zhu momo’s every word. At once she nodded busily, “Yes, yes, of course I must go.”

Indeed, she had worked tirelessly these past days, hoping the old master and mistress would see her worth. Now that trouble had come, how could she stand aside?

Hurriedly, she went after Madam Yin and Xiao Yanfei.

The closer they drew to the gate, the louder the clamor grew, the noise swelling from outside.

Madam Yin lifted her skirts and stepped over the high threshold. At once, her gaze fell on Xiao Luanfei, kneeling on the flagstone steps before the gate.

Her eyes flickered with complicated emotion.

After all, this was the “daughter” she had personally raised. She was no plant or stone—how could she be without feeling?

For a moment, all the surrounding noise faded. At this instant, Madam Yin saw no one but Xiao Luanfei.

Clad in pale moon-white robes, Xiao Luanfei knelt upright, back straight, her small, delicate face framed by a pair of unusually bright eyes, blazing with the intensity of the noonday sun.

The eunuchs’ carriages had not yet left. From within one, Liang Zheng lifted the curtain to study Xiao Luanfei, as though weighing her.

The entire alley was in an uproar. Residents nearby, shopkeepers and their customers, even passersby had gathered to gawk. A sea of heads filled the street, all eyes fixed on the kneeling young lady.

“Who is that girl?” someone whispered curiously to the crowd. “She doesn’t look familiar—certainly not a local.”

“Truly, I don’t recognize her.”

“Didn’t the Yin family just move in this month?”

“…”

Most of the crowd shook their heads—no one knew the young lady kneeling at the Yin household’s gates.

Until a young scholar in plain blue robes, narrow-eyed and in his twenties, suddenly stepped forward. With great excitement, he exclaimed, “It’s Eldest Miss Xiao!”

A group of scholars in scholar’s caps and robes appeared at the back of the crowd, pushing forward eagerly. The bystanders turned their attention toward them.

The blue-robed scholar let out a sigh of admiration. “Eldest Miss Xiao once spent thousands of taels of silver to aid the refugees. A woman of rare virtue—her reputation does her no justice!”

These scholars had been hosting a poetry gathering at the Clear Spring Teahouse nearby. One of them, passing earlier, had spotted Xiao Luanfei kneeling here and hurried back to tell the others. Upon hearing that the famed young lady who had donated fifty thousand taels was here, several had come at once, eager to catch a glimpse of her.

“So this is Eldest Miss Xiao,” said another scholar, a man in his thirties with a short beard, tapping a folded fan against his palm as he smiled. “Truly a beauty of peerless grace—beautiful in face, and benevolent in heart!”

The others echoed their praises. But then the blue-robed scholar frowned. “Yet… why is Eldest Miss Xiao kneeling here?”

No one had an answer. The crowd exchanged puzzled looks, waiting to see how events would unfold.

“Mother!” Xiao Luanfei remained kneeling, unmoving, her eyes locked on Madam Yin and Xiao Yanfei standing at the steps. Her voice broke as she cried out, “I was wrong!”

As she spoke, tears welled up and rolled down her cheeks, glistening in the sunlight against her pale face.

“Mother, please… come back with me. You love Second Sister, and I will never fight her again.” Her words were brief, vague, but her tone rang with earnestness.

“It is all my fault.”

She did not utter a single word in her own defense. And yet, her pitiful, self-effacing demeanor seemed to speak of hidden grievance, as though she bore her suffering in silence.

Every word pierced Madam Yin’s heart like a needle, and her gaze grew ever colder.

All eyes in the alley turned toward Madam Yin and Xiao Yanfei at the gate—including those of the scholars.

“I recall Eldest Miss Xiao is the daughter of the Marquis of Wu’an,” one of them murmured.

Indeed, in recent days, tales of Xiao Luanfei’s generosity at Huangjue Temple had spread among scholars and pilgrims alike. Many already knew that this magnanimous young lady was the Marquis’s legitimate eldest daughter.

Then… the woman standing on the steps must be the Marchioness herself.

The scholars’ gazes swept over Madam Yin and Xiao Yanfei. Some who had been to Huangjue Temple recognized Xiao Yanfei at once. The blue-robed scholar pointed with his fan, exclaiming: “It’s her!”

“The shameless girl who twisted right and wrong!”

“So she, too, is a daughter of the Xiao family?”

He and several others had encountered Xiao Yanfei at the stele forest of Huangjue Temple. Remembering how she had berated them to their faces as fools, their expressions darkened.

“The elder sister is so righteous, yet this younger one is so… disgraceful.” The scholar narrowed his long eyes and shook his head with contempt.

His words stirred further whispers as curious onlookers pressed the scholars for details.

The alley buzzed with commotion, but Madam Yin stood frozen, staring down at Xiao Luanfei kneeling on the stones. At last, a bitter laugh nearly escaped her.

This was the child she had raised with her own hands, the one she had taught, nurtured, poured her heart into. She had guided her first steps, taught her virtue and propriety. And yet, looking at her now, she seemed like a stranger.

That little girl who once clutched her skirts, calling her “Mother,” felt like nothing more than a fleeting dream.

And dreams, when scattered by the wind, vanish without a trace.

It was time to wake.

Beside her, Xiao Yanfei quietly tugged at her sleeve.

“…” Madam Yin, who in these recent days had grown to share an unspoken understanding with her daughter, swallowed back the words that had almost slipped out. Instead, her lips curved in the faintest of cold smiles.

With Madam Yin’s cold expression standing against Xiao Luanfei’s pitiful submission—one upright, one kneeling—the contrast alone made Madam Yin appear unfeeling.

The scholars, predisposed to see Xiao Luanfei as virtuous, took her gesture as proof of her kindness. Sympathy flickered in more than a few eyes.

“Why does the Marchioness of Wu’an treat her own daughter with such harsh words?” the sharp-eyed scholar in blue protested indignantly. “Eldest Miss Xiao is such a good-hearted young lady!”

Meanwhile, the crowd at the alley’s mouth swelled thicker and thicker, layer upon layer of curious onlookers pressing in.

“Second Sister.” Xiao Luanfei raised a pale jade-like hand to brush away the tears clinging to her lashes. Turning toward Xiao Yanfei, who stood by Madam Yin’s side, she pleaded softly, “Won’t you persuade Mother as well?”

“Your mother… she’s been ill. Even in sickness, she still thinks of you. Can’t you at least—”

Her voice broke. As she lifted her gaze, fresh tears streamed down, reddening her eyes and streaking her flawless face. Like a bright moon veiled in rain, her beauty seemed all the more pure, all the more lofty.

The scholar in blue looked at her with growing pity. Overcome, he stepped forward and cried out, “Eldest Miss Xiao’s virtue shines beyond compare! Second Miss Xiao, with such an elder sister as your model, should you not look up to her instead of opposing her?”

Eldest Miss Xiao was noble, benevolent, a woman who had sold her own jewels to aid the starving refugees. And yet her younger sister? She had neither inherited a fraction of her elder’s compassion, nor learned to discern right from wrong.

At Huangjue Temple, she could not bear her sister being honored, and now, surely, it was the same—seizing the chance while Eldest Miss toiled for the refugees to vie for favor at the Marchioness’s side.

Another scholar heaved a sigh. “Fifty thousand taels of silver—how many lives must that have saved? Madam, with such a daughter, you ought to count yourself fortunate.”

“Do not let momentary affection or dislike blind you to what is right.”

By now, Xiao Luanfei’s act of generosity at Huangjue Temple had spread across the capital. With the scholars speaking up, many in the crowd began to murmur as well.

From the press of voices, the words ‘fifty thousand taels’ surfaced again and again, each syllable like a dagger stabbing at Madam She, who stood stiffly just behind the threshold.

Her eyes blazed with fury as she glared at Xiao Luanfei kneeling outside the gates.

That silver was hers.

It was hers!

Even if the eldest young master had been cast out by the elders, surely the old man would not have reclaimed the generous dowry once gifted. The estates and fertile fields would have been enough for her son to study, sit the examinations, marry, and make his way in life.

It should have been their lifeline for the years to come.

Zhu momo suddenly stepped half a pace forward, smoothing a crease from Madam She’s sleeve. Instinctively, Madam She straightened her back, chest lifted.

Zhu momo sighed gently. “Such wrongs done to the young lady… no doubt the master and madam would be grieved beyond measure.”

At this, Madam She’s gaze slid toward Madam Yin and Xiao Yanfei.

Xiao Yanfei let out a faint smile. “Fifty thousand taels? Is that really so much?”

“How much merit could it possibly buy?”

Her tone—careless, as though saying ‘why not eat meat instead’—was enough to stir the scholars’ tempers.

“Fifty thousand taels is enough to keep tens of thousands of refugees in the capital from starving! That is not just one life saved, but tens of thousands!”

“Such goodness, such boundless compassion—rarely has the world seen a lady like Eldest Miss Xiao. One day, I too hope to do my part for the people, just as she has…”

A sneer cut through the rising voices.

“Goodness? You call it goodness to squander fifty thousand taels extorted by threats? Is that your ‘great virtue’?”

Extorted? The crowd gasped, eyes widening as they turned toward the speaker.

Madam She stepped down over the high threshold, skirts lifted, her spine straight as a rod.

“Such charity is worth little, if it is bought with blood-stained silver,” she declared.

Yin Huan had committed the heinous crime of parricide—retribution would fall upon his children.

Had she been the one to use that silver for merit, perhaps the Bodhisattva might have spared her own children from such karmic punishment.

All because of Xiao Luanfei.

***