Wisps of blue smoke curled from the bronze beast censer in the meeting hall of the Marquis's Mansion, yet they could not dispel the stagnant chill filling the room. Standing on the eastern side with her hands folded, Jiang Wan watched her father stroke the Feicui thumb ring on his desk. It was a keepsake left by her late mother, and now he was gripping it so hard it seemed almost as though it might squeeze water out. Madame Li knelt on the green bricks, her hair bun askew, the wound on her forehead from crashing into the woodshed last night still oozing tiny beads of blood.
"Master, Rou'er already knows she was wrong..." Madame Li choked out, crawling forward half a step, her sleeve sweeping across the cold floor. "She is only sixteen years old! A three-month confinement will ruin her reputation!"
The Marquis suddenly slammed the thumb ring heavily onto the desk, rattling the cold tea in the teacup until it splashed over the rim. "Reputation? When she planted a curse doll in her elder sister's room, why didn't she think of the Marquis's Mansion's reputation?" He turned toward the screen, and amidst the clanking of iron chains, Jiang Rou was dragged out by the guards. The young girl's once-exquisite skirt was stained with filth, and the iron chains on her wrists gleamed with a frigid light in the morning sun.
Chapter 77