"You're right, Sister Zheng. We certainly do have quite the connection. I always seem to hear the things you say about me behind my back. I wonder, what exactly is it that you mean? I never took you for the type to gossip about others, Sister. I always thought you were so understanding—I suppose I was mistaken." Zhao Qingyao put on a mask of innocence and heartbreak; what she wanted was to see Zheng Lianxin seething with unspoken rage.
Zheng Lianxin touched her hair with an awkward laugh, an instinctive gesture she made whenever she was flustered. "You must have misunderstood me, little sister. I’ve never said any of those things. It must be a misunderstanding."
"I agree, it must be a misunderstanding. You couldn't possibly be the kind of petty person who stabs others in the back. I’ve heard that when people do bad things, it can end up harming their own families. You look like you're living such a happy life, Sister; surely nothing like that would ever happen to you." Zhao Qingyao spoke with a saccharine, biting tone. She was struggling to keep from laughing. Everyone knew that the Zheng family had fallen and that over a dozen of them were now prisoners. It was only because Zheng Lianxin had married into another family that she had escaped that fate, though her life at her husband’s home was miserable. With her family disgraced, she had no status left, and she spent every day suffering.
Chapter 696