"What do you mean with human life being interested?" Qin Huiling could not help but ask, but Bai Rouyun just smiled and looked around. She was not in a hurry to answer.

Looking around, everyone was still staring at her without trying to hide their gazes, and Bai Rouyun was not bothered by them.

She perked up her ears, and since no one was careful about what they were saying, she quickly grasped the key points of the chatter.

"So, that is the cheap woman?"

"To think that a hero like Li Moyun was forced to marry a used shoe."

"She is extremely pretty; I wonder if she will consider me as well."

"It is shameful what she has done; I understand why the others from the Richu Empire are keeping their distance."

The more Bai Rouyun heard, the wider the grin on her face became. So the Richu Empire had spread rumors about her purity? How desperate!

Any ordinary woman who had their reputation destroyed would kill themselves, unfortunately, Bai Rouyun was not usual.

It was clear who was behind the malicious rumors, and Bai Rouyun began wondering how to repay the favor when she noticed the malice flashing in Qin Huiling's eyes as she looked at the many people gossiping about her.

"Relax," she said while laughing, but Qin Huiling could not calm down. Bai Rouyun was her hero, her light, and now she was being defamed like this! How could she possibly be calm?

But when she looked at Bai Rouyun, she was like a deflated balloon. Bai Rouyun was calm and controlled; she did not seem to mind at all what everyone was saying about her; all she did was smiling and looking at everyone with squinted eyes.

"Are you not angry?" Qin Huiling could not help but ask, but Bai Rouyun just shrugged her shoulders, "what will being angry bring me?" she asked.

Qin Huiling was stunned. How was being angry about what it could bring her? If she was upset, she had to show it!

But upon looking closer at Bai Rouyun, she noticed no signs of anger, no signs of frustrations. It was as if she was indeed entirely in control of what was happening.

"Does it not anger you that they are destroying your reputation?" Qin Huiling could not understand it, but Bai Rouyun just shook her head. "It is not my reputation that will end up being destroyed but theirs."

"Why so?" Qin Huiling did not understand how it could be their reputation that would be destroyed when they were insulting her. She was already married, so she would not be able to prove her being pure.

"Do you know what all women have on the upper right arm throughout a period of their lives?" Bai Rouyun asked, and Qin Huiling frowned. She knew what she was referring to, but how could that help her?

"The Phoenix mark?" she asked tentatively, and Bai Rouyun nodded her head. "The Phoenix mark is a mark that all women are born with. When they lose their purity, it will change in color from red and become an ordinary birthmark.

"This phoenix mark is a mark that changes when one becomes a woman. It is impossible to fake the color of a phoenix mark, and it is the best proof amongst all the ones in the world."

"But you are married," Qin Huiling said, "your phoenix mark has already changed."

"You see, that is where they have guessed wrongly," Bai Rouyun said with a sigh and a shake of her head. "When I married Li Moyun, I was a mentally challenged person. How could he, a hero of the people, possibly force himself onto a mentally challenged person?

"Later on, he spent a lot of time trying to cure me, and as long as I was not fully ready, he would never touch me. You see, Li Moyun is one of those people who respect women.

"Then, when I had gotten fully healed, he got sent out of the capital, towards the battlefront, so there simply has been no chance to consummate our marriage.

"Now, how do you think the Richu Empire will fare if I can prove that their rumors are fake? They are framing their own royal family, but they are also framing the wife of a hero."

"But won't it be bad on Li Moyun's reputation, knowing that he is married but has not touched his wife?" Qin Huiling could not help but ask up for Li Moyun. She knew that he mattered to Bai Rouyun, so she wanted to consider all options.

"Don't worry," Bai Rouyun's eyes suddenly flashed with a bit of ruthlessness. "I have no interest in ruining my husband's good name. In fact, I can raise his reputation quite a bit, if I tell the world about his benevolence, and his respect towards women, how he has respected me from the beginning. However, I was a mentally challenged person, and now how he still respects me, although I am working like any other person."

"So, if you have thought it through, then let us hurry up and tell everyone!" Qin Huiling was ecstatic that Bai Rouyun could cleanse her name, but Bai Rouyun just smiled. "No rush," she said. "It is much better to get everyone involved handled in one go."

"Can you really handle that people are saying such things about you?" Qin Huiling was agitated when she thought of the many glances that were sent her way, but Bai Rouyun remained smiling.

"Why should I care about how the common people view me?" she asked while chuckling. "They do not like me now, and I am sure that they will like me even less when we enter the academy."

"What makes you say that?" Qin Huiling was confused. Bai Rouyun was friendly, beautiful, and diligent. How could anyone dislike her?