Seeing that Old Madam Su was so enraged she actually wanted to have her killed, Shen Chuyun sneered inwardly.
What a vicious old hag! You want to kill me? Fine. I’ll make sure you all wish you were dead first!
As soon as Old Madam Su gave the order, the guards rushed toward Shen Chuyun, surrounding her with drawn blades.
The six hidden guards lurking in the shadows also revealed themselves and launched deadly attacks against her.
Sisters Miao Chunxiu and Miao Chunhua immediately met them in battle with their whips.
The white wolf showed no fear either. It lunged viciously at the hidden guards.
Anyone who harms my master deserves to die!
A fierce battle erupted inside the flower hall.
Shen Chuyun darted around in apparent panic, secretly sabotaging her enemies while shouting anxiously, “Oh, dear! Why are you all fighting? Stop it! Whatever the problem is, we can talk it out!”
Snap!
She flicked her finger, sending a fruit pit flying straight into one hidden guard’s leg.
The guard had been preparing to launch a sneak attack on Miao Chunxiu from behind. He immediately sprawled face-first onto the ground.
Miao Chunxiu seized the opportunity to lash him with her whip.
“Grandmother! Stepmother! Tell your people to stop fighting!” Shen Chuyun continued shouting as she dodged from side to side. The guards repeatedly swung their blades at her, yet she somehow managed to evade every single strike by the narrowest of margins.
Under the protection of the servants, Old Madam Su, Xu Yuru, and Su Yanhuan retreated to a safe corner.
Su Yanhuan wiped the corner of her mouth and glared furiously at Shen Chuyun, who was hiding beside a pillar.
She recalled the chicken bone that had been thrown into her mouth earlier. It was a filthy, half-chewed bone, and who knew how much of Shen Chuyun’s saliva was still on it?
In other words, she had just swallowed Shen Chuyun’s saliva!
Disgusting! Absolutely revolting!
As the dignified eldest young lady of the marquis’s household, she had never eaten anything so vile in her entire life.
It was a humiliation beyond measure!
“You little wretch! I’ll kill you!”
Su Yanhuan suddenly charged forward, snatched a saber from one of the guards, and swung it at Shen Chuyun.
Shen Chuyun let out a terrified scream and immediately turned to run.
“Who are you? Why are you trying to kill me? Help!”
She ran straight toward Xu Yuru.
“Stepmother, help me! There’s a lunatic here trying to kill me!”
Seeing her rushing over, Xu Yuru hurriedly ordered the nannies and maids to stop her.
Shen Chuyun lowered her body and ducked beneath the outstretched arms of a maid. As agile as a kitten, she slipped past every obstacle and arrived right in front of Xu Yuru.
“Stepmother, save me!”
As Shen Chuyun rushed forward, her foot kicked a shard of broken porcelain. The shard flew through the air and pierced Xu Yuru’s left leg.
Xu Yuru cried out in pain, losing the strength to run away. Meanwhile, Shen Chuyun kept screaming for help as she hid behind her.
Su Yanhuan came chasing after her with the saber. She circled around Xu Yuru and continued trying to slash Shen Chuyun.
Shrieking in terror, Shen Chuyun ran around Xu Yuru while Su Yanhuan chased her from behind, swinging the blade.
The two circled Xu Yuru repeatedly, one fleeing while the other hacked at her with the saber.
Watching the blade in her daughter’s hand, Xu Yuru felt a chill run down her spine.
“Huan’er, stop this at once! Be careful not to hurt Mother!”
No sooner had she spoken than Su Yanhuan’s foot slipped.
With a loud thud, she fell toward Xu Yuru, and the saber slashed into Xu Yuru’s right leg.
Xu Yuru let out a bloodcurdling scream and collapsed backward onto the ground.
Thud!
Su Yanhuan fell on top of her immediately afterward, her hands rubbing against the wound on Xu Yuru’s right leg.
“Ah!”
“My leg!”
Xu Yuru screamed again in agony and instinctively shoved Su Yanhuan away.
Caught off guard, Su Yanhuan toppled sideways. Her head slammed into a stool with a loud bang, and blood immediately appeared.
The pain made her wail uncontrollably.
“My head! Ahhh! My head is bleeding! It hurts so much!”
“Huan’er!”
Seeing Su Yanhuan injured, Old Madam Su hurried over. But she stepped on a peanut, slipped, and fell flat on the ground.
Her right foot hurt so badly that she could no longer move it.
“My foot! It hurts so much!”
“I can’t move my foot!”
The chaos had erupted in an instant. In less than ten seconds, all three women—Old Madam Su, Xu Yuru, and Su Yanhuan—had been injured.
The servants hurried to help them up. When the hidden guards and ordinary guards saw that their mistresses had been hurt, they immediately abandoned their fight against Shen Chuyun and the others and rushed over to examine the three women’s injuries.
“Quick! Hurry and fetch the physician!”
Shen Chuyun angrily scolded the guards and hidden guards.
“You useless bunch of good-for-nothings! You barbaric, blind fools! Can’t you see that my grandmother and stepmother are injured? Why are you still standing around? Get them onto their beds and summon a physician to treat them!”
The guards and hidden guards were furious. They wanted nothing more than to chop her to pieces, but now was not the time to settle scores with her. Their priority was to save their mistresses.
Seeing them occupied with the injured women and unable to pay her any attention, Shen Chuyun led Miao Chunxiu, her companion, and the white wolf in running around, busily interfering and giving orders that no one had asked for.
“Grandmother has injured her leg! You can’t carry her like that. You have to do it this way. Yes, yes! Support her legs first, then her head!”
“Both of Stepmother’s legs are injured! What terrible thing did she do today to deserve such bad luck? How could a little girl injure her so badly? What? That girl is her own biological daughter? How vicious! She actually slashed her own mother!”
“…”
Watching Shen Chuyun gleefully fan the flames without the slightest concern for the consequences, Old Madam Su and the other two were so furious that they cursed her furiously.
“Jinx, shut your mouth! This is all your fault! Ever since you returned, nothing good has happened! You’ve brought misfortune upon every single one of us!”
“Why didn’t you die out there? You should have died long ago!”
Shen Chuyun was beginning to lose her patience.
“You people are so unreasonable! I’m showing concern for you, and all you do is call me a jinx. Fine! Since you’re injured, I’ll be magnanimous and let it go this time. You servants, hurry up and carry Grandmother and Stepmother to their rooms!”
The servants didn’t need her to tell them how to do their jobs.
But Shen Chuyun simply wanted to make her presence felt. The more she pranced around and stirred up trouble, the angrier Old Madam Su and the others became.
Old Madam Su wanted to order the hidden guards and ordinary guards to continue surrounding Shen Chuyun, but suddenly, she felt something was wrong with her body.
“Why am I suddenly… losing my strength?”
She stared at her own hands in confusion.
The guards carrying her suddenly faltered. Their strength vanished all at once, and they collapsed onto the ground.
Old Madam Su fell uncontrollably back onto the floor. Her right foot twisted again, and the excruciating pain drained the color from her face. Unable to endure it any longer, she fainted.
Everyone else in the flower hall, including the hidden guards and the remaining ordinary guards, also collapsed limply to the ground.
“What’s happening? Why have I suddenly lost all my strength?”
“I can’t move either!”
“…”
Everyone in the marquis’s residence was overcome with terror.
“Mother!”
Su Yanhuan cried as she crawled toward Xu Yuru. Her carefully arranged hairstyle had become a mess, and blood mixed with loose strands of hair smeared across her face.
“It hurts so much! I… I have no strength left!”
Xu Yuru’s face was filled with terror. Suddenly, she seemed to realize something.
She lifted her eyes and scanned the room, finally spotting Shen Chuyun, her two companions, and the white wolf, all of whom remained perfectly unharmed.
Pointing at Shen Chuyun, she demanded, “You did this! It must have been you! What exactly have you done?”
Shen Chuyun maintained her innocent expression.
“Stepmother, what are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
Miao Chunxiu suddenly exclaimed in dismay, “Oh no, Eldest Young Lady! I think I made a mistake. You asked me earlier to burn some incense to keep everyone alert, but I picked up the wrong kind. I burned bone-weakening incense instead! That must be why the marquis’s wife and the others have lost their strength!”
Upon hearing this, Xu Yuru turned toward the incense burner in the corner on her right.
Thin wisps of smoke were still rising from the bronze burner, filling the entire flower hall with a fragrance resembling jasmine.
Xu Yuru was instantly overcome with terror.