The Double
Chapter 200 - 200 95 Qiongzhi_3

200: Chapter 95 Qiongzhi_3 200: Chapter 95 Qiongzhi_3 From then on, there were no longer any dealings with Qiongzhi.

“I didn’t expect Xue Zhao to have mentioned me to you,” Qiongzhi laughed.

“After all, I am a woman of the brothel, and he, being so upright and stern, is not afraid of tarnishing his good name.

However, his discussion of these matters with you suggests a close relationship with you.”

The probing tone of her words implied she thought Jiang Li and Xue Zhao shared an unusual relationship.

Jiang Li smiled, “I’m friends with Xue Zhao’s sister.

In fact, it wasn’t Xue Zhao who told me these things; it was his sister.”

The implication was clear: she had a pure relationship with Xue Zhao, her friendship was only with Xue Fangfei.

With that, Qiongzhi’s gaze softened considerably.

She smiled and said, “I see.”

“I also came here to test my luck, thinking that perhaps you were no longer at the Cherish Flower Tower.

To my surprise, you still are here,” Jiang Li said.

“If I’m not at the Cherish Flower Tower, where else could I go?” Qiongzhi too smiled.

Jiang Li fell silent for a moment before asking, “When Xue Zhao wanted to take you away from the Cherish Flower Tower, why didn’t you agree to go with him?”

Qiongzhi glanced at Jiang Li enigmatically and slowly responded, “Miss, I am not like you.

One look and it’s clear you are a young lady brought up in luxury, unacquainted with worldly suffering.

I have been orphaned since childhood, sold into the Cherish Flower Tower, learning zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting to please my patrons.

This is my livelihood.

I see no shame in it.

Compared to those sold into grand households to serve as slaves or maids, perhaps to be taken by the master and become a concubine, living in constant fear under the matriarch, I am content.

At least here as a top courtesan, I don’t have to guard against the legitimate wife’s poison.”

“You may think I lack dignity, but if I had been born into a family of privilege, I surely could have held my head high.

People with silver can talk about dignity; those without should not even bother,” she laughed.

“Xue Zhao is good, though he doesn’t look like some nobleman’s son, he’s full of righteousness.

It’s just that sometimes his righteousness seems too naïve.”

Suddenly remembering something, Qiongzhi laughed and said, “That day he came to take me away, I asked him what I should do after leaving the Cherish Flower Tower with him.

He looked at me in shock and said, ‘Afterwards, of course, you find a proper job and live a good life.'” Qiongzhi spread her hands and said, “You see, he had never thought about keeping me by his side.

Men who redeem a girl’s body aren’t doing it to let her go and earn a living on her own.”

“Xue Zhao doesn’t like me.

He only did what he did out of righteousness.

I cannot take it as pity or special affection towards me.

Why should I follow someone who has no feelings for me?

Why should I leave the Cherish Flower Tower?

At least here, I don’t lack silver, nor do I lack men who lavish me with adoration,” she added.

Qiongzhi sighed, a wistful look in her eyes as she reminisced, “Perhaps it was his naïve righteousness that touched me.

I’ve seen plenty of men at the Cherish Flower Tower—all with their own agendas, all selfish.

Someone as clear-cut as he is a rarity.

In this lifetime, I don’t know if I’ll ever meet someone like that again, someone with no ulterior motives, who simply wanted to help me…

Unfortunately,” she laughed at herself, “he never came back after that, and I never saw him again.”

Listening to Qiongzhi’s words, Jiang Li found herself disagreeing with some points, but she couldn’t help but admire Qiongzhi’s clarity of vision.

Xue Zhao indeed didn’t like Qiongzhi, and she knew it well, thus she didn’t cling to him.

Xue Zhao’s righteous naivety was also his undoing; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been ensnared by Princess Yongning and died so senselessly.

Suppressing the emotions welling up inside her, Jiang Li said, “Miss Qiongzhi, it’s not that Xue Zhao didn’t want to come; it’s that he couldn’t come.”

“Oh?” Qiongzhi laughed lightly.

“Why couldn’t he, did he get married?”

“He’s dead,” Jiang Li said.

Qiongzhi was momentarily stunned, as if it took her a while to grasp the meaning of those three words from Jiang Li.

She exclaimed, “Impossible!”

“He is indeed dead, killed in Yanjing City by bandits, his body discarded in the river.”

Qiongzhi suddenly covered her mouth, and Jiang Li clearly saw tears glinting in her eyes.

Shaking her head, Qiongzhi murmured, “How could it be…”

“You only know Xue Zhao’s name, not his identity.

Xue Zhao was the son of the Tongxiang County Magistrate Xue Huaiyuan, and his sister Xue Fangfei was married off to Yanjing.

A year ago, Xue Fangfei had a miscarriage in Yanjing, and when Xue Zhao went there to visit her, he was murdered by bandits.

Later, Xue Fangfei died of illness, and Xue Huaiyuan passed away too.

Jiang Li spoke calmly as she looked at Qiongzhi, “In just one year, the three members of the Xue Family all perished.

Don’t you find that strange?”

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