"Wretched creature, shut your mouth!" Shen Changfeng's face flushed crimson with rage. "How dare you utter such nonsense! You truly are the calamity of our Marquis's Manor. Guards, slap her mouth!"
"My lord!" Feng Yulian grabbed his arm again, tears welling in her eyes as she spoke with feigned grievance. "It is I, a lowly concubine, who am unworthy of being addressed as 'Madam.' Do not blame Qingqing. For so many years, she has misunderstood me. If you punish her because of me again, her resentment toward me will only deepen."
"How dare she! Just like her lowly mother, she cannot stay peaceful for a moment and cannot bear to see any good in our Marquis's Manor. Today, I—"
Before he could finish, Gao Hai happened to approach carrying a brazier.
Jiang Yanqing kicked out, sending the entire basin of burning coals crashing onto Shen Changfeng and Feng Yulian.
"Ah… ah!!…"
Their clothes instantly caught fire. Feng Yulian collapsed to the ground in terror, rolling frantically.
Shen Changfeng also hopped about in panic. "Save me… quickly save me…"
Maid servants and attendants scrambled to fetch water.
Shen Zhenze raised his sword and lunged at Jiang Yanqing. "You wretched girl! How dare you secretly harm my parents! I'll take your life!"
Jiang Yanqing tilted her body to dodge his attack, then reached out and seized his arm, causing the sword to clatter to the ground.
Slap, slap…
Jiang Yanqing struck his face left and right, the slaps resounding thunderously.
"A lowly son of a concubine dares to raise a hand against this young lady? 'Your mother'? What mother do you have? That is your concubine. From top to bottom, the esteemed Pingyuan Houfu has no sense of propriety whatsoever. As the legitimate daughter of the Marquis's Manor, I absolutely cannot allow you to ruin its reputation. All of you deserve to be slapped."
As she spoke, Jiang Yanqing slapped Shen Zhenze's mouth a few more times—slap, slap.
The gushing blood dripped all over his clothes.
"Ah… hiss…"
Shen Zhenze was utterly powerless to fight back. Meanwhile, Shen Changfeng, who had already been extinguished, was seething with fury.
He roared, "Guards, seize Jiang Yanqing! If she resists, execute her on the spot!"
As soon as he uttered these words, Jiang Yanqing was first surrounded by twenty guards. Then, another ring of archers appeared on the rooftops and treetops.
They truly intended to kill her!
Jiang Yanqing raised her hand and gripped Shen Zhenze's throat, smiling like a blooming poppy—beautiful as a celestial being yet carrying a deadly poison.
"If anyone dares to move, I'll twist his head off."
"Father… sob… sob… Father… save me…"
In Shen Zhenze's eyes, Jiang Yanqing was nothing but worthless mud; crushing her would be as easy as crushing an ant. But now, struggling even to breathe, he couldn't help but feel instinctive fear.
Shen Changfeng clenched his jaw tightly, his eyes bulging.
"Jiang Yanqing, release your second brother, and I will spare your life!"
"Heh…" Jiang Yanqing laughed loudly. "Hahaha… You spare my life? Shen Changfeng, do you think I am still that four-year-old child who could be bullied at your whim?
It was you who demanded my return, yet you made me enter through the back door, forced me to step over a brazier, allowed the steward to block my path, and let a son of a concubine raise a sword to kill me.
Why don't you ask me whether I can spare all of you?"
"You…"
"Hehe…" Jiang Yanqing gave him no chance to speak. Her sweet smile carried three parts coldness and two parts madness. "Your Shen family… all must die… hahaha…"
Shen Changfeng's fists clenched until they creaked. "You insolent wretch! Do you think you can outpace my archers? Archers, fire!"
A discarded daughter dares to threaten him? He will make her wish she were dead yet unable to die!
"No!"
Feng Yulian screamed, but it was already too late.
Amidst the volley of arrows, Jiang Yanqing spun Shen Zhenze around by the neck, and the arrowheads all pierced Shen Zhenze's arms, legs, back, shoulders…
"Ah!!"
Shen Zhenze howled to the heavens, while Feng Yulian collapsed to her knees, weeping, "Zhenze, Zhenze!"
Jiang Yanqing flung Shen Zhenze before Shen Changfeng and said with a faint smile, "I thought you only hated me. I never imagined you could be so cruel to any child. You show no favoritism—you're simply wicked by nature."
To make Feng Yulian the de facto mistress of Pingyuan Houfu, Shen Changfeng had not remarried all these years.
It was assumed he loved Feng Yulian to the extreme, but now he could disregard the life of her son—truly unimaginable.
"Shoot, keep shooting! Jiang Yanqing, for the suffering my Zhenze endures, you will repay it tenfold!"
But as soon as Shen Changfeng's words fell, he gasped in shock.
Jiang Yanqing had used Qinggong to leap into the air, effortlessly dodging every arrow.
The folding fan in her hand spun out, slicing across the necks of every archer. Blood gushed from their wounds, and they tumbled from rooftops and treetops, corpses littering the courtyard.
Yet the small folding fan returned steadily to Jiang Yanqing's hand.
Everyone present trembled, their legs weak, staring at her as if she were a devil.
Even Shen Zhenze forgot his pain, his mind filled with a single thought: Thank goodness Jiang Yanqing had only used him to block the arrows and hadn't slit his throat.
Jiang Yanqing wiped the blood from the edge of the folding fan and glanced coolly at Shen Changfeng. "Why are you still standing there? Have the bodies cleared away quickly—they're disgusting.
I'm hungry. Let's prepare for the meal."
Under the absolute pressure of her martial prowess, Shen Changfeng dared say nothing more.
He only replied, "Go to the dining hall first. Allow me to change my clothes."