The grand hall of the Leng Manor had never felt so quiet.
The heavy double doors had barely stopped trembling from Lu Jingyan's departure three days ago, her silhouette already swallowed by the afternoon light pouring through the arched windows. The silence that followed was thick unnatural and in its vacuum, a low laugh broke out.
"Well, good riddance," Leng Meixuan sneered, arms folded, her polished heels clicking against the marble as she turned to Ning Ruomo. "Maybe now the manor can finally breathe without her dragging her past in like dead weight."
Ning Ruomo allowed herself a sip of tea, her smile faint but cutting. "Indeed. Some people were never meant to rise so high. A fallen princess pretending to wear a crown… How poetic that she finally fell."
Neither noticed the footsteps descending the grand staircase until it was too late.
Leng Yumo's voice cut through the air like a knife dipped in honey and venom.
"How proud you sound, mother" she said, her tone light but glacial. "Like you actually accomplished something."
Both women turned.
Yumo stood halfway down the stairs, clad in soft gray loungewear, but there was nothing soft in her expression. Her dark eyes shimmered—not with sadness, but the kind of disdain that burns slow and deep. A single lollipop stick peeked out from her lips, a strange contrast to the storm gathering in her gaze.
"Oh, Yumo," Meixuan said sweetly, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "I hope you're not here to defend someone who turned their back on us."
"She didn't turn her back," Yumo replied flatly, walking the last steps down. "She walked away. There's a huge difference."
Ning Ruomo gave a short, mocking breath. "Emotions run high. You'll grow out of this phase, child."
Yumo chuckled, low and mirthless. "You always think emotions are a weakness. Maybe that's why you're so good at pretending not to have any."
Meixuan rolled her eyes. "Save the dramatics. She was never one of us. She didn't even try."
Yumo stopped a few feet away from them, her arms folded now, lips curled faintly—not in a smile, but in something colder.
"She tried. She tried to survive you."
The words lingered. A soft hush, then Ning Ruomo sighed, exasperated. "What do you even want from us, Yumo? Sympathy?"
"I wouldn't accept it from you if it was gift-wrapped," Yumo shot back, her voice like cracked glass. "This whole place is built on secrets and smirks. You should be grateful Jingyan left. At least now you can finally talk behind her back without pretending you ever liked her."
Meixuan scoffed "pretend? Doesn't worth a try"
"she was a family" Leng Yumo said
Meixuan scoffed, stepping forward. "She never belonged here—"
"And neither do you," Yumo said calmly.
Meixuan blinked.
Yumo tilted her head slightly. "You always act like blood gives you the right to be cruel. But loyalty isn't inherited. It's earned."
Ning Ruomo's eyes narrowed, but before she could speak, Yumo continued.
"sister in law may be gone," she said slowly, "but the air still stinks of all the poison you left behind."
"You still dare call her sister in law?" Leng Meixuan asked
"At least she had earned something. Not like you who doesn't even earn a trophy in her entire existence" Yumo said and the both if them kept quiet
She let the silence hang there—letting them stew in the meaning behind her words. She didn't yell. She didn't raise her voice. But somehow, her stillness screamed louder than thunder.
Then, with the same nonchalance with which she'd walked in, Yumo turned on her heel and walked away.
She didn't need their approval. She never did.