No matter how bitterly Lin Yuwei cried, Mrs. Meng felt no sympathy and remained completely relentless.
Unable to withstand the pressure, Lin Yuwei had no choice but to weep as she admitted to it.
Naturally, she would not say that she had wanted to cause trouble for Lin Yulan while simultaneously kicking away her annoying sister-in-law to kill two birds with one stone. Instead, she claimed that Marquis Wuwei was young and handsome, and the Marquis’s estate possessed endless wealth and honor. She argued that someone as fine as Zifang would be wasted on an ordinary family, and even if she became a concubine to Marquis Wuwei, the Marchioness was her own elder sister—how could her sister fail to look after and treat Zifang with generosity?
One had to remember that a married woman needed backing from her maiden family. With this layer of relationship, her sister would not dare treat Zifang poorly.
Once Zifang gave birth to a son or daughter, even better days would lie ahead.
She claimed she was genuinely making plans for her sister-in-law’s sake.
In truth, what Lin Yuwei said actually made quite a bit of sense, and Mother Meng was secretly very willing in her heart. However, this scheme had failed! Since it failed, it simply would not do.
“Bah! If you truly had such good intentions, how could this matter have failed? I see you intentionally played Zifang for a fool. You disliked Zifang as a sister-in-law and deliberately sought to harm her. The Marchioness of Wuwei is your elder sister, so of course you side with your own sister! How could you ever truly mean well for Zifang? Could it be that you sisters conspired together on purpose to make a fool of Zifang?”
“Mother, I did not! I truly meant well for Zifang!”
“Then speak up—how did it fail?”
“I…”
How could she have known that Shao Xun would step aside?
In other words, how could she have known Meng Zifang was so useless? She failed to grasp such a great opportunity, so who else was there to blame?
Meng Zifang’s eyes were bloodshot. “You sisters joined forces to bully me, yet you still have the nerve to talk! I saw with my own eyes that your sister pulled the Marquis away. If you two had not conspired together, how could she happen to pull the Marquis away right at that moment?”
Lin Yuwei was so angry she was practically fuming. “There was such a thing? Why did you not say so back then!”
She had not said so at the time because she had completely fabricated it—how could she have spoken up then?
“Hmph! Even if I had spoken up, what of it? Wouldn’t you two still deny it? I had no evidence, so I could only let you mock and make a fool of me!”
“I am wrongly accused! I truly did no such thing!”
“You still dare to talk back? Mrs. Lin, you do not put me, your mother-in-law, or the Meng family in your eyes at all!”
Meng Mingchi was thoroughly dumbfounded. He opened his mouth, trying several times to interject, but found no opportunity. In the end, he could only give up.
Did Mother’s meaning imply that she strongly approved of his sister becoming a concubine to Marquis Wuwei? His sister seemed quite willing as well. Was Marquis Wuwei really that good? Were they all scrambling to throw themselves at him?
Meng Mingchi felt a stomach full of discomfort and simply remained silent.
Lin Yuwei was no match at all for Mother Meng and Meng Zifang, left entirely unable to clear her name despite a hundred arguments.
Furious beyond measure, she turned to Meng Mingchi for help, trying to get him to assist her.
How could Meng Mingchi help her deal with his own mother and sister? Furthermore, since the matter involved Marquis Wuwei, he did not wish to get involved at all.
The loud, chaotic squabbling among the three women gave him a headache, and he only wanted to settle the matter quickly to restore peace.
To restore peace, someone inevitably had to yield.
His sister had already suffered a grievance today, so it was no wonder Mother was angry. When all was said and done, it was still Yuwei who had botched the matter.
Besides, as a new bride, how could she not act humbly and subserviently before her mother-in-law? Where was there a daughter-in-law who openly challenged her mother-in-law?
Instead of speaking up for Lin Yuwei, Meng Mingchi advised her to apologize and admit her mistake. “If you properly admit your mistake, this matter will end right here. Let us speak no more of it. Today’s matter was, after all, due to your lack of consideration and your impulsiveness.”
Lin Yuwei felt half her heart turn cold, filled with disbelief.
Meng Mingchi intensely disliked that look in her eyes and frowned. “Is that not so? If not for you, Zifang would not have made a fool of herself and become a laughingstock. As her sister-in-law, shouldn’t you comfort her? Mother is so angry that as a daughter-in-law, you should apologize even more. Could it be that you expect Mother to apologize to you?”
Lin Yuwei’s eyes turned moist instantly.
In all the dozen-plus years of her life, she had never suffered such a grievance, nor had she ever been so isolated and helpless.
She was not in the wrong—why should she apologize?
In her fury, Lin Yuwei shoved Meng Mingchi and Mother Meng out the door, slammed it shut, and let her tears stream down profusely. No matter how harsh or foul Mother Meng’s enraged scolding outside the door became, she paid it no heed.
In the end, it was only through Meng Mingchi’s earnest, painstaking persuasion that he managed to pull his mother away.
Only then did Lin Yuwei feel slightly better: Brother Meng still has me in his heart, after all.
Yet what she had not anticipated was that while she seemed to have successfully defied her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, it had left them harboring deep resentment. She was harassed in every imaginable way by her mother-in-law, while her sister-in-law delivered sarcastic, exaggerated remarks and intentionally made things difficult for her, angering her beyond endurance.
When she went to complain to Meng Mingchi, he would only blame her for not behaving like a proper daughter-in-law.
“That is my mother, your mother-in-law! If you do not find a way to appease her anger, there is nothing I can do either! Could I possibly scold my own mother?”
Lin Yuwei was both angry and annoyed, rendered utterly speechbound. She desperately wanted to shake Brother Meng and tell him: This is not your mother! Your mother is the First Marchioness of the Duke Rong’s estate, and in the future you will be the Heir of the Duke Rong’s estate! You have no connection whatsoever to this Meng family!
Lin Yuwei had no choice but to step back.
What Brother Meng said was not wrong. As a daughter-in-law, could she win in a battle of strength against her mother-in-law?
Furthermore, this mother-in-law of hers was by no means an easy person to deal with.
Fine. She would endure.
It would only be less than half a year.
Once they returned to the Duke Rong’s estate, she would have plenty of ways to deal with this old hag. By then, wouldn’t this old hag have to bow low, wear a flattering smile, and curry favor with her?
To spend money and avert disaster, Lin Yuwei gave Mother Meng two bolts of silk and ten taels of silver, and gave Meng Zifang a pair of gold hairpins along with a box of fine rouge. Only then did the matter blow over.
This “blowing over” merely meant that Mother Meng and Meng Zifang no longer targeted her intentionally.
Returning to that day, Shao Xun had led Lin Yulan away from the Lin family in a huff.
Inside the carriage, Shao Xun’s expression still looked somewhat unpleasant.
Leaving things like this was not ideal. If he was upset, she too felt awkward.
Lin Yulan then gave a gentle smile and said, “Fortunately, the Marquis came today; otherwise, I would have been made a laughingstock by my maiden family.”
Shao Xun had originally felt immense regret, thinking he shouldn’t have come today at all. Yet hearing these words, he did not know what to say. Recalling how he had heard that family accusing her outside the hall door, he had anticipated that her life in her maiden family was not great, but he had not expected it to be that bad.
The two of them could be considered fellow sufferers in a sense—neither had close, loving family members, and both were equally disliked by those so-called relatives.
That was why he had been unable to hold back at the time and had stood up for her.
Shao Xun grunted, “You are the Marchioness. What right do they have to make a laughingstock of you? If I had not happened to arrive and they spoke to you like that, would you have just sat there submissively and listened?”
Lin Yulan said, “If I did not submissively listen, I would have had to argue with them. They were set in their beliefs; no matter what I said, they would not change their minds. I simply did not wish to make a futile effort. It is just that I feel sorry to the Marquis—in the end, it was because I failed to protect that hairpin properly. Marquis,”
She looked at Shao Xun earnestly. “I am sorry! I do not know if that hairpin can be repaired, but I will surely search for the finest craftsman to restore it as close to its original state as possible.”