CHAPTER 41: 41

"Wan’er. What is she talking about?" It took a moment for Lin Yue to come back to her senses. Disregarding the explosive scene of Lin Wan slapping the Duality Sect’s saintess, she focused more on what Cang Yue said.

"....." Lin Wan didn’t reply, or perhaps she didn’t want to.

"What? Ashamed of telling them the truth?" Ignoring the fuming Lin Wan, Cang Yue let out a mocking laugh.

"Or should I just tell them myself?"

"YOU DARE?" The moment Cang Yue uttered those words, Lin Wan lost her cool. She was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

"What... what are you talking about?" Lin Yue couldn’t stay calm anymore. She was still trying to understand what Cang Yue meant by those words. Only a few members of the Lin family know the true identity of Lin Wan and how she was reduced by Lin Meilin. For Cang Yue to mention her blood relatives, she couldn’t help but doubt it.

"Heh, what else?" Seeing that Lin Wan had no intention of explaining herself, Cang Yue let out a sneer.

"I am her sister."

*BOOM

"Huh!?"

"HAAH!?"

Cang Yue’s words were like a stone thrown into a serene lake. For a moment, both Lin Yue’s and Xiao Ruolan’s brains seemed to have stopped working.

"Have you lost your mind, you crazy bitch? What kind of nonsense are you spouting?" Lin Yue screamed at the top of her lungs. This bitch has already humiliated her enough, and now she wants to humiliate Lin Wan, too? She couldn’t tolerate it any longer.

"....." Xiao Ruolan just kept quiet while looking at the three of them with a thoughtful expression. She didn’t know anything about Lin Wan’s history. Till now, she has always believed that she was a member of the Lin family. But now... judging by Lin Yue’s extreme reaction and Lin Wan’s silence, the truth didn’t seem so simple.

"Oh really!" Cang Yue just smiled in response. "Then why don’t you ask her yourself?"

Lin Yue didn’t need her reminder. Before she could even finish her sentence, she immediately walked beside Lin Wan, grabbed her shoulders and asked, "What is she talking about, Wan’er?"

"..." Lin Wan didn’t give any reply, but her silence, coupled with her dodgy eyes, told Lin Yue everything she needed to know.

"....."

"....."

Lin Yue first looked at her, then at Cang Yue, who was gloating, as a look of understanding dawned upon her face.

"HAH!" She suddenly let out a hollow laugh.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAA."

Her laughter only got louder and louder till tears fell from the corner of her eyes.

"Lin Wan... Oh! Lin Wan..." Ignoring Cang Yue, she looked at Lin Wan, who didn’t dare to look her in the eyes.

"And here I thought that we were sisters." The more Lin Yue spoke, the hoarser her voice got.

"We risked everything for you. Even went through hell, and now you are telling me that it was all for nothing?"

Taking a deep breath, her eyes turned cold as she asked again. "How long?"

"....."

"How long have you known about it?" Lin Yue felt like a clown. She risked everything, her family, her relationship with her mother, and even brought Xiao Ruolan to this sect and was treated worse than animals. All that... for nothing?

"...."

Seeing no response from Lin Wan, she shook her like a tree, "TELL ME."

"When I got captured." In the end, Lin Wan couldn’t hide the truth.

"Oh!" Lin Yue nodded with an unnatural smile. "And you didn’t bother to tell us about it?"

"So, while the two of us were being treated like animals here, you were out there, enjoying the luxury and comfort?"

"It’s not like that." Lin Wan protested in a weak voice, but deep inside, she was trying her best to come up with a suitable answer to diffuse the situation.

"Oh, you wanna explain that? Go on... The two of us are listening." Gritting her teeth, Lin Yue spoke in a calm voice, but anyone familiar with her would realise the surging anger hidden underneath all that calm.

"Tell us why you never showed up once while we were being treated like this? And don’t give me the excuse that you didn’t know."

"I..." Lin Wan wanted to explain, but found herself at a loss for words. When she heard about them, she really wanted to come, but couldn’t due to many complications. Looking at the two women whom she considers her sisters, she could only sigh in helplessness. Even if she told them, they wouldn’t understand.

"Heh!" Lin Yue just let out a sneer. "We risked everything just to come here and rescue you."

"Tell me... was it all a plot to kidnap and humiliate us?" She didn’t think too much about it earlier, but now that she thought about it, many things didn’t make sense. Why was it that after Lin Wan was kidnapped, the news of her kidnapping by the Duality Sect spread out in less than a day?

With the strength of the Duality sect, it was impossible for anyone to trace the kidnapping back to them in such a short span of time.

This only meant that they purposefully leaked the information about the kidnapping.

But why?

The moment this question came to her mind, Lin Yue already had an answer.

They already knew about Lin Wan’s relationship with the two of them. With Yuyang’s city’s two most talented and future leaders of their respective families captured... they already have leverage.

The moment this thought came to her mind, Lin Yue’s face turned pale.

It was a conspiracy... A huge conspiracy that targeted Yuyang City and perhaps the entire Yan Kingdom. And she, along with Xiao Ruolan, was the trigger.

"Mother..." Thinking about how her mother was injured while coming here to rescue her, her fists clenched in anger, and her nails dug into the flesh of her palms. After her last conversation with her mother, she hated that woman to the very core. But now... Perhaps she only wanted her to stop acting immature and look at the bigger picture.

In a moment, all kinds of negative emotions overwhelmed Lin Yue’s mind.

"Yue’er..." Seeing her expression, Lin Wan wanted to help her, but the moment she reached out to her, Lin Yue patted away her hand.

"Don’t... Don’t come near me." Taking a few steps back in disgust, Lin Yue felt that her entire world was falling apart. The only thing she was thankful for was that her mother managed to escape with the help of Heavenly Sword Sect members. If she too was caught like the two of them... She didn’t dare to imagine the consequences.

"...." Lin Wan blankly looked at her hand that was swatted away. She didn’t know how things suddenly turned out like this. When she was kidnapped into the Duality Sect, the first thing she was worried about was not herself, but Lin Yue.

She knew that Lin Yue would do everything in her power to rescue her. So when she got the news that Lin Yue was captured along with Xiao Ruolan, she was both happy and worried. She thought about visiting them immediately, but before she could, she received the news that shook her very world.

Her mother and sister, the two people dear to her heart who were kidnapped when her family was massacred, were actually alive. Not only were they alive, but they had also joined the Duality sect. Her mother became an elder, and her sister became the Saintess of the Duality Sect.

After that... She doesn’t remember much. She was overwhelmed with all kinds of emotions. There were so many questions that she wanted to ask and so many things she wanted to say.

And with such a revelation about her mother and sister, it was natural for her to forget about Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan. And by the time she realised it, it was already too late. But she still tried to help, only for Cang Yue to stop her.

She wanted to tell everything to Lin Yue; she wanted to grab her and scream what happened to her. But looking at her face, which was full of disgust and hate towards her, she lost her heart. Even if she told her the truth, Lin Yue wouldn’t believe her.

"GET OUT." It was Xiao Ruolan who spoke this time. By now, she had a rough understanding of things. But it still didn’t change the fact that Lin Wan betrayed them. She had been with the two of them for the last two days. She had plenty of time to tell them the truth and everything that happened. But she didn’t...

Xiao Ruolan was both angry and heartbroken. There were only a handful of people in this world whom she could call her friends. And now... Now there was one less person.

"I..." Lin Wan wanted to say a few words, but before she could even find words to speak, Cang Yue, beside her, grabbed her wrist and took her out of there before closing the door.

As for the two women inside... She wasn’t worried about them. With the seal of a Duality Sect’s Elder placed upon them, they can forget about using their Internal Energy. And even if they somehow miraculously broke the seal, they still had to get out of this place that was surrounded by members of the Sect who were vastly more powerful than they.

Looking at their departing backs with a cold gaze, Xiao Ruolan focused back on Lin Yue beside her, who was trying her best not to cry. She hated this woman for as long as she could remember. She was stupid, arrogant and brash. She would do idiotic things only for them to backfire.

And yet... At the moment, she felt a profound sadness for her.

"Forget it." With a sigh, she slowly walked towards her before standing right behind her.

Lin Yue was so overwhelmed with feelings that she didn’t even notice her presence. Her mind was still reeling with shock. She was still trying to understand what had just happened. How could a person whom she had adored her entire life betray her like this?

And it was at this moment that she felt a warm embrace.

"What the..." She didn’t even have time to react before she was pulled by Xiao Ruolan into her embrace.

"Ummm..." She wanted to struggle and take out her face from that deep and soft valley, but no matter how hard she struggled, Xiao Ruolan didn’t budge. She simply held her in her embrace with her hand gently stroking her hair.

"....."

"....."

With every passing second, Lin Yue’s struggle weakened and in less than twenty seconds, she had given up. She just lay there in silence without a word.

The two of them stood like that in silence, with their breathing and Lin Yue’s muffled sound of crying echoing there...