A piercing scream suddenly tore through the sky.
However, the one who emitted this scream was not Liu Rumei, but Su Lihua.
Su Lihua clutched her right arm that was throbbing with intense pain, her meticulously made-up face deathly pale, cold sweat pouring down her forehead.
Her gaze fixed fiercely on Ji Yunsu, who had somehow appeared behind her without notice, and she couldn’t stop her body from trembling uncontrollably.
Su Lihua instinctively wanted to flee like a frightened rat. She never expected that a newly arrived illegitimate daughter, who hadn’t even found her footing in the manor yet, would dare to publicly strike her, the favored concubine!
Su Lihua tried to dodge to the side, but how could Ji Yunsu let her have her way!
In the blink of an eye, Ji Yunsu moved with lightning speed, swiftly blocking Concubine Su’s path.
Seeing this, Su Lihua’s face changed color. Although the thick veil completely obscured Ji Yunsu’s current expression, just her standing in front of her made Su Lihua feel an overwhelming, powerful aura pressing down on her.
This kind of aura wasn’t even present in Ji Wanqing, the legitimate daughter of Madam Qin Shi, who was renowned throughout the capital as the top talented lady.
That esteemed legitimate daughter of the Grand Tutor Manor, with her noble status and dignified, elegant appearance, held a prestigious background that couldn’t be underestimated even among the elite young ladies of the entire capital.
Yet, the aura exuded by such a noble legitimate daughter was overshadowed by this obese, ugly illegitimate daughter who didn’t even dare to show her face.
“Thump-thump!”
“Thump-thump!”
“Thump-thump!”
Su Lihua’s heart pounded uncontrollably in her chest.
Her eyes remained fixed on the plump woman blocking her way, her gaze flickering incessantly.
At that moment, under the watchful eyes of everyone, Ji Yunsu raised the arm-thick rolling pin high into the air.
Seeing this, Su Lihua hurriedly shouted threats: “Ji Yunsu, wh-what do you think you’re doing?”
“I’ll have you know, I am the master’s most favored concubine. If you, a lowly illegitimate daughter born of a village woman, dare to hit me, you, your mother, and your younger brother will all suffer together… Ah!”
“Thwack!”
“Thwack!”
“Thwack!”
A series of heavy blows, accompanied by Su Lihua’s sharp screams, fell upon the ears of all the servants present.
Everyone stared wide-eyed as Ji Yunsu raised the rolling pin high and brought it down heavily on Concubine Su’s right arm.
Each strike landed on the same spot, until with a “crack,” Concubine Su’s right arm was brutally broken!
Instantly, everyone present was so terrified that their mouths hung open, standing stiffly in place like candle sticks.
Heavens! The second young mistress, an illegitimate daughter with no power or influence, on her very first day in the manor, actually dared to break the right arm of the master’s most favored concubine, Su Yiniang!
Th-this… this is just too audacious!
“Someone, help! Murder! Someone, save me!”
Concubine Su was thoroughly frightened by the beating. Faced with the storm of blows raining down on her, she cried out in pain.
Forget maintaining the haughty demeanor of a favored concubine; she couldn’t even manage a basic human standing posture.
Clutching her right arm that Ji Yunsu had brutally broken, enduring the excruciating, heart-piercing pain, she collapsed onto the ground, shouting and screaming in a wretched state.
At that moment, the servants who had been stunned by the scene finally reacted belatedly.
As they snapped back to reality, a group rushed forward to help Concubine Su up.
“Whoever dares to help her.”
Ji Yunsu’s face, hidden beneath the weimao, was terrifyingly dark as she coldly uttered the warning.
Earlier, she had been trapped in her room by a crowd of chattering maids and matrons, their noisy clamor drowning out the commotion from her mother’s room.
When she finally emerged, she saw her mother already injured and lying unconscious on the ground!
Instantly, a surge of fury shot straight through Ji Yunsu’s head!
Without a second word, she went straight to the kitchen, grabbed a rolling pin, and stormed furiously into the main room!
All those plans that had run through her mind hundreds, if not thousands, of times—about avoiding direct conflict, developing her own abilities first, understanding the Grand Tutor Manor’s situation thoroughly before gradually making her move—vanished into thin air the moment she witnessed her mother being bullied!
The tree may crave calm, but the wind will not subside!
She would not actively seek trouble, but she was not afraid of it either.
Since someone was so eager to come looking for trouble, they shouldn’t blame her for being ruthless!
Though the five words were spoken calmly, they carried an indescribable pressure that weighed heavily on the servants’ ears.
Each word was firm and decisive.
For a moment, the servants who had been about to step forward and assist Concubine Su hesitated in their tracks.
They glanced at each other, none daring to make a move.
At this very moment, in this very scene.
Su Lihua, clutching her broken and agonizingly painful right arm, struggled to prop herself up from the ground.
Ji Yunsu looked down coldly through the thick weimao and spoke icily.
“Concubine Su, if you ever dare lay a hand on my mother again, whichever hand you use to touch her, I will break that hand.”
“Today, you struck my mother once, and I have broken your right arm. We are even. You may leave.”
Upon hearing this, Concubine Su, trembling all over from the pain, wore an expression of mingled colors on her pale, sweat-drenched face.
She stared fixedly at this lowly daughter of a village woman—who had never even shown her face since entering the manor—the resentment in her eyes intensifying, as if ready to spit fire at any moment.
“What, do you want another taste of my sister’s rolling pin?”
At that moment, Ji Wenbo, who had helped his mother up from the ground, raised his sallow, childish face and shouted angrily at Concubine Su.
Su Lihua barely managed to stand upright. Right now, she truly regretted coming alone to Cuiyue Courtyard to cause trouble for Liu Rumei, that village woman.
Lifting her chin, enduring the excruciating pain, her eyes filled with hatred, she tremblingly uttered a threat.
“You three—mother and children—just wait! This is not over!”
With that, Su Lihua dragged her disheveled self away and fled Cuiyue Courtyard as if escaping.
“Su’er, Mother has burdened you…”
Liu Rumei watched Concubine Su’s retreating figure, tears welling in her gentle eyes as she spoke with self-reproach.
The moment her soft words faded, Liu Rumei suddenly felt the world spin around her, and then her body went limp, unable to withstand it any longer as she collapsed.
“Mother!”
Ji Yunsu and Ji Wenbo, the sister and brother, cried out in unison.
The servants were also terrified by the situation. The master was counting on Concubine Liu to salvage his official reputation—she absolutely couldn’t have anything happen to her at this critical moment!
The group of servants, who had been standing frozen in place, immediately rushed forward and hastily carried Liu Rumei to the bed in the main room.
Moreover, one among the servants seized the opportunity to slip away, darting out of Cuiyue Courtyard and dashing straight toward Madame Qin Yurong’s Shuanghong Courtyard…