After Xu Siyao had hit her several times, she suddenly reached forward and grabbed Xu Shuning by the throat, looking as though she genuinely wanted to strangle her to death.
Xu Shuning had indeed intended to provoke Xu Siyao, but she hadn’t expected the woman to become this terrifying once she completely lost control.
Everyone nearby had heard what Xu Siyao had just said. The way they looked at the family of three subtly changed.
“No wonder we’ve been hearing that Shuning has been trying to get a divorce lately. Sometimes we’d even hear Xu Siyao badmouthing Shuning’s husband to her. So that’s what she’s been thinking all along.”
“I’ve always thought having a military officer for a husband was a great thing. Why would Shuning insist on getting divorced? And why didn’t her parents try to talk her out of it? So the younger daughter has her eyes on her brother-in-law.”
“So that man was originally someone they intended to set Shuning up with? What kind of scheme were these three cooking up?”
“Shuning is just too naive. Her own father has been deceiving her, and she still foolishly believes he’s doing everything for her own good.”
“Disgusting. She’s so young, yet she has no sense of shame. First she’s trying to seduce one man, then another. If you ask me, someone like that should be taken out and shot.”
One person spoke after another, and every word hit painfully close to the truth. They also happened to strike directly at Xu Hongtao’s guilty conscience.
Xu Hongtao was furious with embarrassment.
Zhong Yan, who had finally stopped shouting, turned toward the people gossiping and yelled, “Say another word of nonsense and I’ll tear your mouths apart!”
The neighbors weren’t about to back down.
“You’re the ones who did those things. Can’t people even talk about them now?”
“Exactly.”
“If you ask me, maybe it’s a case of rotten roots producing rotten branches. If the mother has done similar things before, it’s no wonder the daughter turned out like this.”
The auntie who said it had merely spoken offhandedly and didn’t think much of it.
Yet completely by accident, she had hit the truth.
After putting in considerable effort, the two aunties finally managed to pull Xu Siyao away from Xu Shuning.
Xu Siyao had already blurted out far too much in her fury. She hated Xu Shuning so much that she wanted to kill her immediately. At that point, she hadn’t had the presence of mind to think about anything else.
Even after being dragged away, Xu Siyao continued struggling and tried to lunge at Xu Shuning again.
Xu Hongtao finally couldn’t take it anymore.
He slapped his daughter across the face.
“Enough! Stop making a scene!”
Xu Siyao fell silent.
She covered her cheek and stared at her father in disbelief.
“Dad… you actually hit me?”
It was the first time she had ever been struck in her life, and tears immediately streamed down her face.
Faced with his most beloved daughter, Xu Hongtao felt both love and frustration.
The family was already in complete chaos.
Everything had been stolen, and she and Zhao Yang had been set up in such a scandalous situation. Her reputation was ruined, and now she would have no choice but to marry Zhao Yang.
Originally, they could have claimed that the two of them were already planning to get married and simply registered the marriage afterward. That would have been enough to smooth things over.
But she had actually attacked someone in front of all these people—and, worse yet, she had blurted out everything they’d been plotting.
Were those things something she could simply say out loud?
Why hadn’t she used her brain before speaking?
If the Wen family found out that they had been plotting all of this, they would be finished.
Xu Hongtao’s heart was pounding wildly as he shouted at Xu Siyao, “Behave yourself! Do you want to get yourself arrested?”
With tears streaming down her face, Xu Siyao pointed at Xu Shuning, who had just gotten to her feet.
“Dad, Xu Shuning was trying to hurt me! I’m the victim here! If you won’t stand up for me, that’s one thing, but you even hit me and blamed me for making a scene. I won’t accept this!”
Xu Hongtao was already too exhausted to argue with his most cherished daughter.
He was just about to continue scolding her when one of the aunties looking after Xu Shuning suddenly cried out in alarm.
“Oh no! Shuning fainted!”
Auntie Liu came over and helped Xu Shuning to her feet.
Xu Shuning had barely managed to say, “Thank you,” before her body suddenly went limp and she collapsed backward.
Of course, Xu Shuning hadn’t actually fainted.
She had simply sent her consciousness into her space and made herself appear unconscious.
Xu Siyao’s initial tackle had genuinely knocked her around. She probably had several scrapes and bruises on her body.
When Xu Siyao had pinned her down and beaten her, Xu Shuning could have easily avoided most of the blows.
But she had deliberately endured them because she wanted to make the situation look as serious as possible.
Her original plan had been to expose this entire family for what they truly were in front of everyone.
She just hadn’t expected all three of them to perform so spectacularly.
At the exact moment Xu Shuning “fainted,” the police also arrived at the Xu family’s home.
Listening to the commotion outside, Xu Shuning didn’t even need to look to imagine how terrible Xu Hongtao’s expression must have been.
She really wanted to shout at him:
Hey, old bastard, surprised? Didn’t see that coming, did you? I was the one who called the police. No need to thank me.
After the police arrived at the Xu residence, Xu Shuning was taken to Nancheng Hospital.
The police questioned the family about the burglary, and before leaving, they took Xu Siyao and Zhao Yang with them.
After being admitted to the hospital, Xu Shuning continued staying inside her space without coming out.
She wasn’t concerned about what was happening at the Xu residence for the time being.
She could hear all about it from other people later anyway.
After today’s uproar, all the neighbors now knew about the Xu family’s schemes and how they had been plotting against her behind her back.
Xu Siyao’s reputation was now completely ruined, and both she and Zhao Yang had been taken away by the police.
With the scandal involving an improper relationship between a man and a woman, along with assault, Xu Siyao would probably spend at least half a month in custody, not to mention that a round of public criticism and denunciation was practically unavoidable.
Once she and Zhao Yang were released, they would undoubtedly have to get married.
Even after they married, however, they would spend the rest of their lives enduring people’s gossip and judgment.
For someone as proud and ambitious as Xu Siyao, being forced to marry the man she looked down on—Zhao Yang—would be more painful than losing her life.
But Xu Shuning had no intention of letting them get married that easily.
Their punishment hadn’t even truly begun yet.
Xu Shuning stayed in her space until the following morning.
This space really was incredible.
She had originally planned to organize all the things she’d previously stored inside.
Instead, she discovered that the space had already sorted everything automatically, placing the items into the warehouse according to category.
With nothing else to do, Xu Shuning began studying the empty land outside.
She used a hoe to turn over the soil, planted the seeds she’d bought earlier, and watered them with the spiritual spring water.
Once everything was done, she went to bed.
When she woke again, it was already almost noon the next day.
Xu Shuning opened her eyes and immediately saw an elegant, refined-looking middle-aged man sitting beside her bed.
It was her maternal uncle, Wen Mingyuan.
She glanced around.
There was no sign of anyone from the Xu family.
Xu Shuning was quite pleased about that.
They were probably too busy dealing with yesterday’s disaster to bother with her.
Besides, things had already fallen apart between them. There was no way they would be eager to see her now.
Yesterday, anticipating that the Xu family would cause trouble, Xu Shuning had called her grandfather in advance and told him that she wanted to come home.
Her grandfather had said that he would send her uncle to pick her up.
She had originally expected to return to the Wen family that very evening, but then Xu Siyao had caused such a huge commotion that Xu Shuning ended up staying in the hospital instead.
When Wen Mingyuan saw that Xu Shuning had awakened, he immediately stood up and went outside to call for a doctor.
He was actually a doctor himself.
He was simply still angry with Xu Shuning and didn’t want to look at the injuries on her body.