Chapter 133: Playing the Victim

**Chapter 133: Playing the Victim**

In the dim space, their breaths mingled.

A Yuan pressed against the carriage wall, trying hard to ignore him.

Though she’d agreed not to avoid him anymore, being stuck in such tight quarters still made her uneasy.

“A Yuan, I’m cold.”

The man tugged her sleeve with a little shake.

She sat near the door, having cracked the curtain for air. But when Wei Xun covered his mouth and coughed, putting on a weak act, A Yuan had no choice but to lower the curtain again.

Still, a large part of the carriage separated them.

Wei Xun lowered his gaze, his coughing growing louder. When she glanced over, he asked with fake guilt, “Am I disturbing you?”

She pursed her lips and shook her head.

His wounds were still healing, so she couldn’t bring herself to be harsh—even though she strongly suspected he was faking it.

After all, even when seriously injured before, he never seemed to care.

Her doubt was written all over her face, but Wei Xun pretended not to notice, holding out his hand. “Then, A Yuan, could you come sit closer? It’d be warmer.”

The usually cold and distant man acting like this was shameless.

A Yuan’s lips parted slightly; she looked stunned for a second.

“A Yuan…” he called again.

His long lashes fluttered, shadowing his eyes—making him look almost pitiful.

Though she doubted him, she couldn’t just ignore him.

Biting her lip, she slowly edged closer. His lips curled upward as he linked his pinky with hers.

“With you beside me, I don’t feel cold anymore.”

He knew exactly how to play on her soft heart. They say even the strongest women can’t resist a persistent man—and A Yuan was already kind-hearted by nature.

Still, Wei Xun didn’t dare push too far. For the rest of the trip, he simply held her hand. The bumpy mountain road rocked the carriage, and each jolt pressed them closer together.

By the time they reached the Marquis’s estate, her face was flushed. Before the carriage had fully stopped, she yanked the curtain open and jumped out.

“Be careful.”

Wei Xun hurried after her. Chang Yuan stepped forward to steady him. Seeing A Yuan flee, he asked curiously,

“My lord, did you make Mistress Xie mad again?”

Weren’t they just making up? When would this end?

He hadn’t hugged his wife in ages.

Wei Xun shot him a sidelong glance. “If your eyes don’t work, give them to someone who needs them.”

Since when did A Yuan look angry to him?

Chang Yuan shrank his neck, too scared to talk back under his master’s intimidating glare, but he was unconvinced in his heart.

Blame the young master’s shady track record.

So if Mistress Xie wasn’t angry just now, was she… blushing?

It had to be said, Chang Yuan’s thick skull finally caught on.

Wei Xun stepped down from the carriage and steadied himself, brushing off his help. Before entering the gate, he turned back and gave an order.

“Go buy more storybooks—the kind where… the hero chases his wife back.”

The hero chases his wife back?

So the young master really learned all these tricks from storybooks?

Chang Yuan was astonished. He couldn’t help but wonder what exactly those books taught.

......

In the rear courtyard of the Marquis of Anning’s estate, A Man stood arms akimbo, planting her foot on Wei Chengye’s back.

“Say that again!”

“Little shit! You’re just an unwanted little bastard!”

Wei Chengye’s face was pressed into the ground. He inherited Wei Cong’s sickly frame—though several years older than A Man, he couldn’t even overpower a three-year-old child.

Pinned under A Man’s foot, he sneered viciously.

A Man huffed and kicked him again. The little girl shook, fists clenched. “You’re the bastard! A Man has a father and a mother!”

“Ha! Your mom sneaked you into this world—you’ve got no name, no claim. What else are you but a bastard?”

Zhao Wan bad-mouthed A Yuan nonstop in the courtyard, and he’d soaked up every word. Now that A Man had beaten him, he spat it all out.

The little girl trembled with rage. She wasn’t a bastard—it was all the bad brother’s lies!

“You’re evil! Shut up!”

She threw wild punches at Wei Chengye. When Zhao Wan arrived with Madam Wei, this was the scene they witnessed.

Madam Wei’s cane struck the ground heavily. “Get this brat out of here now!”

Wei Chengye was the eldest grandson of the Marquis’s household, her golden boy. A nobody like A Man shouldn’t even touch him!

Zhao Wan yanked her son to his feet, her heart twisting at his bruises.

“Mother, it’s not that I’m biased as his aunt, but A Man’s gone too far beating up Chengye!”

“No manners at all! All taught by that trashy mother of hers!” Madam Wei’s face twisted in disgust.

Technically, she was still grounded and shouldn’t have been in the courtyard.

Hearing the children were fighting, Zhao Wan made sure Madam Wei saw it instead of intervening herself.

At her mother-in-law’s words, her eyes gleamed with smug satisfaction.

“A Yuan is now General Xie’s sister—she probably thinks our Marquis’s estate is beneath her now. And since Grandpa spoils A Man rotten, Chengye won’t even defend himself when she bullies him.”

"It was the bad brother who started it by insulting me first! I didn’t bully him!"

Though still young, A Man could understand what the adults were saying.

Her grandmother and aunt disliked her and even tried to frame her. The little girl wouldn’t stand for such unfairness.

"How dare you sass me, you little brat!" Madam Wei trembled with fury as she barked orders at the servant.

"Shut her in the ancestral hall! I’ll pound some manners into her and teach her the ways of this marquis household properly!"

If her maternal family couldn't discipline her, then she, as the grandmother, would!

"Mother, won’t Father be angry if you punish her?"

Zhao Wan was secretly delighted but worried about the Marquis blowing his top when he got back.

Madam Wei was also concerned, but failing to discipline A Man today would mean losing face entirely.

"What are you waiting for? Take her away!"

Nanny Lin hurriedly obeyed and grabbed A Man’s arm.

Zhao Wan smirked, hugging her son. "Since Mother insists, let the brat get what’s coming to her. This time it was just Cheng Ye—if another child had been involved, they wouldn’t let her off with just kneeling."

Tears filled A Man’s eyes, and she bit her lip to keep from crying.

She would never bully a child without reason—it was all Wei Chengye’s fault.

Her grandmother and aunt were bad too. She hated this place now.

The little girl was forcibly carried off and dumped in the ancestral hall.

"Kneel here until the old lady cools off!"

Nanny Lin kept her face stern, though her eyes showed pity.

The little lord was usually so sweet—adorable and doted on by both the Marquis and his heir. It was likely he had provoked her first today.

But Madam Wei had given the order, and servants could not disobey.

A Man knelt on the cold floor of the ancestral hall, shivering in the creepy darkness.

She clung tightly to Nanny Lin’s sleeve, her face pale. "Nanny Lin, I’m scared. I want my mother."

She wanted out of this awful house.

Unable to meet her tearful gaze, Nanny Lin peeled her fingers off roughly. "You stay here and kneel. Your mother... she won’t come."