Chapter 46: The Scumbag Father is a Petty Villain!

Ye Qingyan stared at the letter of recommendation, the tiny emblem at the bottom of the paper was all too familiar to her.

It was the character "Chen," rendered in an ancient and intricate totemic style.

This was the emblem of the Chen family.

The very Chen family that had been wiped out to the last member over a decade ago for the crime of treason.

How could a clan reduced to ashes crawl out of their graves a dozen or more years later to send her a letter of recommendation?

Had the netherworld started a courier service? Or was this some newfangled scam?

Holding the letter, Ye Qingyan felt a torrent of profanity rushing through her mind.

There was something profoundly sinister about this.

Clutching the letter, she walked straight toward Chen Huai'an's courtyard.

Under the moonlight, the youth was sitting by a stone table, polishing a dagger. The sharp lines of his profile were cold and hard, and his aura was heavier than the biting chill of the late night.

"Huai'an, busy?" Ye Qingyan asked with practiced familiarity, sitting down across from him.

Chen Huai'an did not even lift his eyelids, his hands continuing their steady motion.

"Something the matter?" His voice was cool and detached, devoid of emotion.

"Nothing much, just feeling a bit curious." Ye Qingyan pushed the letter toward him, pointing at the emblem.

"Do you recognize this?"

Chen Huai'an's polishing motion paused.

He finally raised his head, his gaze falling upon the emblem.

After a few long seconds, he slowly spoke, his voice three degrees colder than before.

"I don't know it."

"You really don't recognize it?" Ye Qingyan was unrelenting, leaning her torso forward. "Don't you share the surname Chen? Maybe it has some connection to your family. I heard there was an immensely formidable Chen family in the capital back then that used this exact emblem."

As she spoke, she watched Chen Huai'an's expression with cautious scrutiny.

The youth's face remained utterly devoid of ripples.

"I said, I don't know it."

He repeated it again, a distinct trace of impatience now lacing his tone.

"Oh, if you don't know it, you don't know it, why so fierce?" Ye Qingyan pouted, while her internal radar went off the charts.

This reaction definitely meant something fishy was going on!

"I just find it strange, how a family that vanished long ago could—"

Before she could finish, Chen Huai'an abruptly stood up, cutting her off.

"The Chen family were all paragons of loyalty; every single one of them laid down their lives for the country. They were not the rebels recorded in history books."

"They were innocent."

With that, he didn't give Ye Qingyan another glance, turned, and strode into his room, slamming the door shut with a loud bang.

Ye Qingyan was momentarily stunned by the force of the slammed door.

Goodness gracious, that reaction was way too intense.

Paragons of loyalty? Innocent?

This was completely different from the version of history she knew.

Just as she was completely baffled, the system in her mind, which had been dormant for a long time, suddenly exploded.

[Traitors' descendants!]

Filled with overwhelming fury, the roar echoed through Ye Qingyan's mind.

[Such paragons of loyalty! Such innocence!]

Ye Qingyan was startled by this sudden rampage.

"System? Good grief, are you playing dead and now you're haunting me?"

[Insolence!] The system's voice was majestic and enraged, heavy with imperial oppression. [This person carries the bloodline aura of the Chen traitors! I could never mistake it!]

Ye Qingyan was dumbfounded.

The Chen traitors?

Was it talking about Chen Huai'an?

The last time Chen Huai'an mentioned his father, he said his name was Chen Yi, a great general who had been framed for treason, leading to the execution of his entire clan.

What exactly had happened back then?

[If the Chen family army hadn't defected at the critical moment and colluded with the enemy state, how could half of My empire have been lost?! How could My entire army have been wiped out?!]

[Those faithless traitors! Rebel scum!]

The system's voice was filled with bone-deep hatred and resentment.

[The descendants of traitors, and they even dare to appear before Me!]

[Host! Kill him for Me! Right now! Immediately!]

Kill Chen Huai'an?

What kind of international joke was that!

"Calm down! That ancient history happened ages ago! Besides, what does a kid like him know?"

[A sovereign commands a subject to die, and die he must! Let alone the descendant of a traitor! Kill him, and I shall bestow upon you heavy rewards!]

In an instant, countless chaotic images flooded her mind.

An ancient battlefield filled with billowing yellow sand and the haze of war.

Innumerable soldiers engaged in bloody combat, warhorses crying out, swords and blades clashing.

A commander's banner embroidered with the character "Ye" and another embroidered with the totem of the character "Chen" had once stood side by side on a high ridge.

The scene shifted, and the battle grew increasingly fierce.

The Chen family army was surrounded on all sides by an enemy force tens of times their number, plunging into a desperate situation.

They fought bitterly in pools of blood, waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

Yet, that commander's banner bearing the "Ye" name led its troops to quietly withdraw from the battlefield at the most crucial moment.

They stood like cold onlookers, watching with their own eyes as their allies were completely swallowed and torn apart by the enemy's iron hooves.

The final image showed the commander-in-chief of the Chen family pierced by a myriad of arrows, falling beneath the commander's banner with his eyes wide open in death, his gaze fixed straight toward the direction where the Ye family army had retreated.

In those eyes lay boundless bewilderment and absurdity.

"..."

Ye Qingyan snapped back to reality, her face pale as paper and her entire body icy cold.

So... it was like this.

The sparse lines written in the history books—"The Chen family colluded with the enemy and attempted treason, leading to the fall of the northern frontier"—the truth was actually...

The Ye family fled the battlefield at the critical moment, proving faithless and causing the total annihilation of the Chen family army!

The so-called "Chen family treason" was merely dirty water splashed upon the bones of their allies by the victors to cover up their own filthy betrayal!

The rise of the Ye family had precisely begun after that battle on the northern frontier.

They swallowed the remnants of the Chen family's influence, took over everything belonging to the Chen family, and stepped upon the corpses of their allies to climb to the pinnacle of power.

Her father, Ye Chengzong...

That gentle-seeming man full of benevolence and righteousness...

Not only was he a murderer who could execute his lawful wife without hesitation for the sake of his future.

He was also a faithless traitor!

The glory and wealth of the Ye family were all bought through the most despicable and shameless means!

She understood in an instant.

Everything fell into place and connected seamlessly.

Why her mother had died.

Why Ye Chengzong was so cold and even disgusted toward her, his legitimate daughter.

Her mother came from a military lineage and most likely... knew about this disgraceful dark history of the Ye family!

Therefore, she had to die!

Because only a dead person could keep a secret forever.

Ye Qingyan felt a chill rising straight from the soles of her feet to her crown.

She had always thought that the battles she had to face were merely against a concubine-favoring, wife-neglecting, selfish scumbag of a father and a bunch of scheming women in the inner courtyard.

Only now did she realize this was no domestic harem drama script at all.

This was a blood feud spanning two generations and a sealed historical truth!

Subconsciously, she looked toward that tightly closed door.

Behind that door was that cold and proud youth.

The descendant of the loyal subjects who had been betrayed.

He knew everything.

He knew he was living under the roof of his enemies, interacting day and night with the daughter of his enemies, and even being used as a pawn by those enemies.

With what kind of feelings had he endured humiliation here all these years?

A complex emotion surged into Ye Qingyan's heart.

There was guilt over what the Ye family had done, pity for Chen Huai'an's misfortune, and a budding urge to protect him.

"System," she took a deep breath, speaking in her mind to the tyrant system that was still clamoring to "kill him." "Shut up for a second."

[Audacious! You dare command Me?]

"I am not commanding you, I am notifying you." Ye Qingyan's tone was exceptionally calm. "From now on, the revenge plan has been upgraded."

What she needed to do was not merely avenge the original owner and her mother.

What she needed to do was ruthlessly tear off the glamorous facade of the Ye family, exposing the filthy and rotting truth beneath it to the broad daylight!

She had to demand justice for the Chen family!

But all of this required evidence.

Relying solely on the memory fragments triggered by the system's rampage was entirely insufficient to shake the towering tree of the Ye family.

She needed more conclusive, fatal ironclad proof.

"Mother..."

"Since Mother knew this secret, given her intelligence, she could never have been completely unprepared."

"She must have left something behind."

She remembered.

Among the heirlooms her mother left her, aside from the phoenix hairpin, there was a sandalwood box she had never opened.

On top of it was an extremely delicate and complex metaphysical lock.

Her mother had once told her that unless she encountered a life-or-death crisis or felt she could stand entirely on her own two feet, she must never open it.

Previously, she had dismissed it as her mother's idle words and hadn't taken it to heart.

Thinking about it now, what was locked inside that box might very well be the ultimate weapon capable of nailing the Ye family permanently to the pillar of shame!