“Legal complaint?”
When Ji Jinyu had her youngest son draft the legal complaint last night, Ji Yingcai was at the carriage workshop ordering a mule cart for the family, so he had no idea his mother intended to sue his father.
“Yes, a legal complaint.” Ji Jinyu looked at Ji Yingcai with a faint, ambiguous smile. “Dou Shichang has done such shameless things. Surely you don’t think I’d let him off so easily?”
Ji Yingcai could guess that his mother wouldn’t share a husband with another woman, but he never expected that after divorcing her husband, she would also prepare to take Dou Shichang to court.
From what Ji Yingcai knew of his mother, when faced with such matters, she would normally want to cut ties immediately rather than pursue it relentlessly like this. Something must have happened that he wasn’t aware of.
To be honest, although Ji Yingcai chose to stay with his mother, he thought having an official as a father was quite good—it might come in handy someday.
It wasn’t until after breakfast at the Ji household, when Dou Yingliang arrived with the Dou family, that Ji Yingcai understood why his mother was doing this.
“Ji Jinyu, you shrew! You’ve truly gone too far! Since ancient times, it has always been men divorcing their wives—never a woman divorcing her husband!” Dou Shitian, Dou Shichang’s eldest brother, stormed into the Ji family courtyard and pointed directly at Ji Jinyu’s nose, cursing.
Ji Jinyu casually picked up a nearby cleaver and said coldly to Dou Shitian, “Well, now you’ve seen it.”
Dou Shiqian, thinking of his third brother’s current official position, straightened his chest and sneered at Ji Jinyu. “Ji, my third brother is now a court-appointed official. You’re just a butcher woman—how dare you divorce him? I say we should report you to the authorities, have you arrested, and given thirty lashes as a warning to others!”
As Ji Yingcai and his younger sister were about to step forward to argue with the Dou family, Ji Jinyu twirled the cleaver in her hand, sending Dou Shiqian and the others scrambling backward in fear.
“If we’re going to the authorities, why don’t we go together? I’ve also written a legal complaint, accusing Dou Shichang of abandoning his wife and children, currying favor with the powerful, forming cliques for personal gain…”
Before Ji Jinyu could finish, the Dou family shouted, “You’re talking nonsense!”
“Ji, don’t spout wild accusations and slander!”
The Dou family had finally produced a high-ranking official; they couldn’t let this shrew Ji Jinyu ruin it.
Ji Jinyu set down the cleaver, picked up a sharp knife instead, and pointed it at the Dou family. “Oh, really?”
“I still have the marriage contract from when Dou Shichang entered into a Matrilocal Marriage with my family. The letters he wrote me can serve as evidence. Now that the Emperor values propriety, righteousness, integrity, and virtue the most, I don’t believe His Majesty would continue to employ Dou Shichang after learning he is such a faithless and ungrateful man.”
“You… you!”
“Ji, Shichang is your husband. How can you be so vicious?”
“You poisonous woman just can’t stand to see my third brother succeed!”
Ji Jinyu smiled and agreed. “That’s right. I can’t stand to see him succeed. I wish I could tear him apart limb from limb and scatter his remains.”
Though Ji Jinyu was smiling, her words, paired with the gleaming silver knife in her hand, sent chills down the Dou family’s spines. This shrew wasn’t joking—she truly wanted Dou Shichang dead.
At that moment, the elderly Mrs. Zhang stepped out from the crowd and pleaded earnestly with Ji Jinyu, “Third daughter-in-law, you mustn’t do this.”
“As the saying goes, a day as husband and wife brings a hundred days of affection. Even if you don’t plan to stay with the third brother, you should think of the children. Isn’t it better for them to have an official as their father than a farmer?”
“We don’t have a father.” Before Ji Jinyu could say anything, Ji Yingjun, looking at the grandmother they rarely saw throughout the year, spoke in unison with Ji Yingming beside her: “We only have a mother.”
From birth until now, they had never benefited in the slightest from that so-called biological father, nor did they expect to in the future.
Ji Yingming went even further, stating directly: “We don’t need an official father. I can become an official myself, and I will earn the imperial noble title for my mother.”
When Ji Yingming said this, no one in the Dou family dared to refute him. After all, Ji Yingming had become a xiucai at such a young age—the first in their Cuiyang City.
“Yingming, precisely because you want to become an official, you should go find your father. With your father paving the way for you, you might even reach the fifth rank before you’re twenty. If you stay with this shrew, you might not even become a provincial graduate by thirty!”
When the dagger came flying, Dou Shitian’s tongue tied itself into a knot in his mouth.
Everyone was startled by Ji Jinyu’s sudden action. As the dagger sliced through Dou Shitian’s stray hairs and embedded itself in the door panel, Dou Shitian’s legs gave way, and he knelt in fear, while Dou Shiqian hid behind his mother.
“Ji… Ji Jinyu, you’re insane! How dare you attack your own brother-in-law?” Dou Shiqian stammered, staring at Ji Jinyu.
“Let me say it again: I have divorced my husband. Don’t claim kinship where there is none.”
Ji Jinyu looked at the Dou family members who seemed incapable of understanding human speech, her gaze settling on the only one among them who could—Tan Youlin, the husband of Dou Shichang’s twin sister.
In her previous life, when they traveled north, the Dou family had been nothing but troublemakers, and Tan Youlin was the only one who could keep them in check.
“Dou Shichang abandoned his wife and children to climb the social ladder. I even suspect his current official position was obtained through improper means.”
Noticing Ji Jinyu’s gaze fixed on him, Tan Youlin said to her, “Boss Ji, as the saying goes, commoners should not contend with officials…”
“You’re right,” Ji Jinyu interrupted Tan Youlin. “As a mere commoner, I certainly can’t contend with Dou Shichang. But I refuse to believe Dou Shichang has no political enemies. If his opponents get hold of this leverage, I doubt Dou Yingliang will even need to go to the capital to find his biological father—Dou Shichang himself will come crawling back to Cuiyang City in disgrace.”
Tan Youlin fell silent, and the Dou family hadn’t expected Ji Jinyu to be so petty.
It was just a matter of demoting a wife to a concubine. Since Dou Shichang was now a court-appointed official and hadn’t divorced this butchering shrew, she should be burning incense in gratitude.
Who would have thought she’d be so ungrateful, as if she wouldn’t rest until Dou Shichang was ruined?
“Ji Jinyu, my brother is still your—”
“Shut up! Just hearing Dou Shichang’s name makes me sick now, and seeing you all makes me sick too.”
The only reason Ji Jinyu wasn’t taking action against the Dou family now was because she wanted to watch them go to the capital and make life miserable for Dou Shichang and Miao Yufang.
Tan Youlin looked at Ji Jinyu and said, “Boss Ji, I know you don’t really want things to come to this.”
“As the saying goes, leave room for reconciliation when parting, so that we may meet again in the future. If you have any demands or seek compensation, you may state them now. If we can fulfill them, we certainly will.”
Upon learning that his wife’s twin brother, Dou Shichang, had become an official in the capital, Tan Youlin decided to resign from his job at the grain shop and follow the Dou family to the capital to seek refuge with him. Therefore, he absolutely could not allow Dou Shichang’s official career to be jeopardized.
Ji Jinyu looked at Tan Youlin, the only sensible person in the Dou family, and smiled. “Finally, someone has gotten to the heart of the matter.”
She remarked sarcastically, “All these years, while I was slaughtering pigs and selling meat in Cuiyang City to support the family, that scoundrel Dou Shichang became an official by groveling to women. Now, unable to father a son, he wants to demote me from wife to concubine and take our son to the capital. What a pipe dream!”
“He owes me far too much. By rights, I wouldn’t give up suing him for anything less than ten thousand taels of silver. But today, I’m willing to give Shopkeeper Tan some face.”
Ji Jinyu looked at the distorted expressions on the faces of the Dou family across from her and laughed. “Five thousand taels. If you can gather five thousand taels of silver for me before tonight, I’ll let Dou Shichang off the hook.”