“Mrs. Chen, where is your conscience?! To go so far as to harm your own nephew for the sake of fame and wealth!” the Old Mrs. strictly reprimanded.
*Sigh~*
Yin Weiyue silently sighed to herself. She had already dragged Mrs. Chen out of the courtyard, but she hadn’t expected the Old Mrs. would still hear it. The soundproofing of these courtyard walls was truly a bit too poor.
She carefully observed the elderly woman’s expression and demeanor. Perhaps because she wasn’t arguing face-to-face with Mrs. Chen like in the book, the reduced distance had lowered her rage levels, and fortunately, there were no signs of the stroke mentioned in the book.
Only then did Yin Weiyue put her heart at ease.
However, Mrs. Feng at the side was not in nearly as good a state. Always someone who treated others with gentleness and peace, her eyes were now red with rage as she glared at Mrs. Chen, looking as though she wished she could swallow her alive.
Mrs. Feng had been married into the Huo family for so many years. As the managing matriarch of the Marquis Manor, she had always restrained herself and observed etiquette, conscientiously taking care of the household affairs and attending to everything in person. Although Mrs. Chen had always been an unsettled person, out of respect for her parents-in-law and husband, she had always exercised forbearance time and again, never expecting that Mrs. Chen could be so mad and inhumane as to harm her son.
“What a sin, what a sin…” Excitingly thumping her walking stick, the Old Mrs. walked up to Mrs. Chen. “Brute, kneel down!”
“Mother, I…” When had Mrs. Chen ever been treated like this? Surrounded entirely by the younger generation, and being a person who prized her pride above all, she bit her lip and simply refused to kneel.
“Kneel!” The Old Mrs. swept her walking stick across Mrs. Chen’s legs, and the latter let out a shriek as she tumbled to the ground. “Mother, I am wronged!”
The Old Mrs. looked up at the sky and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again, they were filled with endless exhaustion and sadness.
“Back then, you used those shameful, dishonorable tactics to get close to Anzong, casting away every bit of face! Yet I also knew it takes two hands to clap. Anzong was determined to marry you regardless of the family’s honor or disgrace, and unwilling to strike down a young couple in love, I brought you into the family with proper dignity, only hoping you would restrain your temperament in the future and take good care of your husband and children.
Yet what about you? After entering the door, you frequently stirred up trouble, turning the whole family into a state of utter turmoil! I knew you jumped up and down like this only because your humble background left you lacking confidence. Your Eldest Sister-in-law and I chose not to hold it against you, but who would have thought that years of indulgence would rear a hungry wolf! You actually plotted against the descendants of my Huo family for the sake of academic fame! Although today’s Huo family is already tottering in the wind and rain, if I do not severely punish you today, how can I face the ancestors, and how can I face the late Marquis?!”
Mrs. Chen cried out loudly: “Mother, I didn’t do it! It was Mrs. Yin who framed me! She framed me!”
“Framed? Seventh Daughter-in-law explained the entire matter from start to finish without a single flaw, yet you still refuse to admit it to this day—then let’s just pretend she framed you!” The disappointment in the Old Mrs.’s eyes was replaced by icy coldness. “Sihuan, take the walking stick! Beat her thoroughly for me until she recognizes her mistake!”
The Old Mrs. handed the walking stick to Mrs. Feng, and Huo Wanying rushed forward to support her grandmother, seeing she had lost her support.
“Yes, Mother!” With tears in her eyes, Mrs. Feng’s hands trembled with anger. That night, the doctor had already told them to prepare a coffin; her Jun’er had nearly lost his life!
Taking the walking stick, Mrs. Feng brought it down against Mrs. Chen’s back without the slightest hesitation.
“Ah, ouch, it hurts!” Mrs. Chen took a solid hit from the stick. She had never expected Mrs. Feng to actually dare beat her in front of so many people.
“How dare you hit me?!” Mrs. Chen blew her top in an instant. Jumping up like a fierce termagant, she pinned Mrs. Feng down in two or three moves, striking her chest heavily several times before grabbing the walking stick and throwing it away.
“Mother!” Seeing this, Huo Wanying and the two daughters-in-law rushed forward frantically, while the timid Huo Dong sobbed out of fear on the side.
Only with great difficulty did the several of them pull Mrs. Chen away, saving Mrs. Feng from taking further beatings.
This wretched scene stunned Yin Weiyue, giving her a strong sense of exasperation. So it turned out the fragility of her frail husband was inherited from his mother.
Poor Mrs. Feng wanted to avenge her son, but unfortunately her combat capability was in the negative numbers. She was the daughter of a civil official, and although she had absorbed some influence after marrying a military officer for so many years, making a scene and beating people up was still her weak point.
Over here, Mrs. Chen went mad first, screaming wildly: “Mother is biased! You all look down on me for being a concubine-born daughter! I refuse to accept this!” In her excitement, she sat on the ground, pointing her finger at everyone present one by one and cursing them, her wide sleeves swaying violently with her arms.
“You’ve gone mad! Mad!” The Old Mrs. had never expected that the moment the Huo Manor fell, Mrs. Chen would no longer place even her mother-in-law in her eyes.
“That’s right, I have gone mad! Mother, why must you speak such high-sounding, grandiose words? What do you mean by you and Eldest Sister-in-law not holding things against me? That’s just the two of you, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, putting on a pretense to let the servants watch my joke! Eldest Brother has no concubines to this day, yet using the excuse that I gave birth to three daughters in a row, you secretly slandered me to the Master! Otherwise, how could he grow colder and colder toward me, and why would I have suffered the pain to take in two concubines for him?!
My Kai’er is your legitimate grandson just like Huo Jun, yet you are so biased as to seek out the legitimate daughter of a cabinet minister for Huo Jun! Meanwhile, my Kai’er was treated by you as an object to repay a life-saving favor! While he was still in my belly, he was forced to marry the daughter of a sesame-seed sixth-rank official! Now, based on a single sentence from this lowborn woman Mrs. Yin, you insist that I attempted Seventh Brother’s life! You favor one over the other, you are unfair to me!”
“You!” The Old Mrs.’s lips trembled continuously, so enraged that it took her a long time to utter: “You ungrateful thing, spewing nonsense!”
“Mother, cease talking back to Grandmother!” At this moment, three people ran over in a hurry—it was Huo Jun and the male and female leads.
*Sigh*, these three had finally arrived. She hadn’t expected the time it takes for an incense stick to burn in the book to pass so slowly. She even somewhat suspected if the author had written it this way on purpose just to give the Old Mrs. a stroke and push the subsequent plot forward.
“Kai’er, you’ve finally come! After that Mrs. Yin was rejected by you, in order to retaliate, she actually claimed I poisoned Seventh Brother so he couldn’t take the Palace Examination! Their entire eldest branch is instigating your Grandmother, they want to kill me! Waaah…” Mrs. Chen crawled and threw herself toward Huo Kai, holding onto his legs tightly like a lifeline.
Huo Kai looked toward Mrs. Chen. Her hair was in disarray, her clothes were covered in dust, and the skin on her forehead was scraped, filling his heart with immense distress in an instant.
Yin Weiyue quietly stole a glance at Huo Jun first. Look at this disheveled state of his—had he gone to the third branch’s courtyard, or had he gone to a pigsty?
His fair face, slanting eyebrows, high nose, and full lips were now all tainted with blemishes, just like delicacies fallen into dung.
Truly distressing.
So what was the point of a man being pretty?
At the thought of him previously making her suffer pain and lose face, her favorability score dropped directly from -10 down to -1000, and Yin Weiyue glared at him fiercely.
Huo Jun felt a slight chill at his neck. Turning his head, he met the woman’s sarcastic eyes. What kind of look was that in her eyes? He hadn’t even mocked her as a toad hoping to eat swan meat, yet she actually had the nerve to dislike the dirt on his body?
After looking at Huo Jun, Yin Weiyue immediately shifted her gaze to Huo Kai.
Without the slightest suspense, the male lead was just as the author had written—versed in both civil and military arts, outrageously handsome, and lacking no food. His body proportions were very well balanced, unlike Huo Jun who was starved into a skeleton.
However, the male lead was destined for the female lead, and no matter how handsome he was, it couldn’t arouse her desire.
Yin Weiyue tilted her head to look at the female lead Zhang Yulin. She was about the same height as herself, around 1.65 meters. Wearing a tender green dress that appeared brilliantly lively, her hair was bound in a cloud-top chignon with a jade dragonfly hairpin inserted, playful without being vulgar. With eyebrows like distant emerald mountains and eyes holding a galaxy of stars, she truly lived up to being the female lead—so beautiful that one couldn’t tear their eyes away.
She and Huo Wanying belonged to two completely different kinds of beauty.
Zhang Yulin was more vivid and charming, with wisdom, freedom, and boldness hidden beneath her gentle, alluring charm; meanwhile, Huo Wanying possessed a classical, gentle beauty, with traces of fortitude occasionally visible in her every gesture.
Having seen the real Zhang Yulin today, Yin Weiyue couldn’t help but wonder where the original owner’s confidence had come from. How could she have believed that Huo Kai would abandon such a beautiful, kind-hearted woman beside him to choose her—a plain-looking and vicious woman?
Standing to the side, Huo Jun saw Yin Weiyue glance at Huo Kai first before staring unblinkingly at Zhang Yulin. Assuming she was feeling jealous and cooking up wicked schemes again, he turned his head, too lazy to care. However, this woman bringing up the matter of Mrs. Chen’s poisoning back then today happened to suit his wishes perfectly.
Back then, when he suddenly fell gravely ill and missed the Palace Examination, he had suspected Mrs. Chen’s doing after his body recovered, but he lacked the evidence to investigate. Furthermore, he and Huo Kai had a good relationship; since he had pulled through, he didn’t want to make things difficult for him and had not informed his parents or elders.
However, ever since the Marquis Manor fell into crime, Mrs. Chen had constantly kept “Huo Kai becoming top scholar at fourteen was buried by the eldest branch” on her lips, making his mother feel self-blame and guilt time and again, leaving her uneasy in mind and weeping night after night.
He hadn’t expected it to be exposed by Yin Weiyue this time, and spoken with such well-founded logic that aimed straight for Mrs. Chen’s sore spot. It seemed his green hat hadn’t been worn in vain.
Quite good, he had made a profit.