Yao Huiyi timidly said, "Sister, I know you're upset, but this marriage was arranged by the old madam."
With a sharp "slap," Jiang Yuwei directly struck Yao Huiyi across the face.
"This slap is to teach you manners," Jiang Yuwei said coldly. "When your master is speaking, what right do you have to interrupt?"
Yao Huiyi covered her face, looking at Jiang Yuwei in disbelief.
She never imagined that the always timid Shu Nansheng would suddenly become so assertive.
Fu Jiuque was both shocked and furious. "Shu Nansheng! How dare you hit someone?"
"What if I did hit her?" Jiang Yuwei stood her ground. "A lowly woman like her who doesn't know her place—am I not allowed to hit her?"
"You!" Fu Jiuque's face turned pale with anger. "I think dying once has muddled your brain!"
Another "slap" echoed as Fu Jiuque also received a slap.
Jiang Yuwei shook her stinging hand and sneered, "This slap is for my daughter… myself. You broke your original vows, married someone else, and drove me to hang myself. How dare you make such a fuss here?"
Fu Jiuque covered his face.
He had never seen such a Shu Nansheng before. The sharpness in her eyes made him almost afraid to look directly at her.
"What nonsense are you spouting!" Fu Jiuque forced himself to stay calm. "Huiyi and I are deeply in love. She is the one I've always dreamed of. You marrying into the Fu family was already a step up for you. Now you're here causing trouble for no reason?"
Jiang Yuwei sneered. "What a beautiful tale of deep love, what a perfect dream lover. If that's the case, why did you come begging to marry me back then?"
She no longer looked at the two of them and walked straight out of the mourning hall.
"Where are you going?" Fu Jiuque shouted after her.
"To ask Lady Fu whether the Fu family's rules have all been fed to the dogs!" Jiang Yuwei replied without looking back.
Stepping out of the mourning hall, Jiang Yuwei took a deep breath.
She followed the route from her memory toward Caiyunyuan, her thoughts in turmoil.
This body clearly belonged to Nansheng, but the soul inside was that of her, the mother.
Such a bizarre occurrence was something she had never encountered in all her years.
Strangely, she didn't feel afraid. Instead, she believed that Nansheng's soul must still be alive somewhere in this world, just as she was now using Nansheng's body.
Perhaps this was the bond between mother and daughter.
She recalled the scene when she had betrothed Nansheng to the Fu family back then.
At that time, Lady Fu had held her hand, swearing earnestly that she would treat Nansheng well.
It was precisely because of their many years of sisterly affection that she had agreed to this marriage.
Jiang Yuwei clenched her fists.
If she had known earlier that the Fu family would torment Nansheng like this, she would never have agreed to marry her daughter into this family.
She must demand an explanation from Lady Fu.
Outside Caiyunyuan, before Jiang Yuwei even entered, she heard Lady Fu's sobbing voice from inside: "My heart aches so much… How could that child Nansheng have been so desperate…"
Before she could finish, a woman's voice interrupted: "Sister-in-law, don't be too sad. If you ask me, this Shu Nansheng hasn't produced a single child in all these years since she married into the family. Now that she's taken her own life, who can she blame?"
Another voice immediately chimed in: "Exactly, exactly, Sister He is right. Besides, with her death, Jiuque can finally marry Huiyi properly. Huiyi is the daughter of the Vice Minister of War. Even if she's a concubine-born, she's still better than Nansheng, isn't she?"
Jiang Yuwei stood outside the door, trembling with rage.
She suppressed her fury and peered through the crack in the door.
In the courtyard, seven or eight servants were carrying out large red chests one by one—weren’t those all Nansheng’s dowry?
"Hey, be careful with those! That chest contains a top-quality jadeite headpiece—it’s worth a fortune!" A young man directed them; it was the Fu family’s third young master, Fu Jiuheng.
A woman beside him hurried over. "Third Brother, look at that pair of white jade ruyi scepters—they’re so fine. Take them to Mother later; she’ll be delighted."
"Second Sister-in-law, aren’t you a bit too eager?" another woman chimed in. "At least wait until she’s buried before dividing things up!"
"Tsk, tsk, what kind of unlucky talk is that! If we don’t divide it now, are we supposed to wait for Zhaopinghoufu to come and demand it back?"
Jiang Yuwei’s heart burned with anger. Just as she was about to push the door open and enter, she heard a commotion from another direction.
"You can’t touch these! These are all our young lady’s dowry!" a familiar voice shouted loudly.
It was Linlang! Nansheng’s chief maid.
Another voice joined in. "That’s right! Our young lady’s body isn’t even cold yet, and you’re already rushing to divide her belongings. Have you no shame?"
This was Shao’er, another personal maid.
"How dare you!" the Fu family’s steward shouted sternly. "You two little wenches, how dare you talk nonsense here! Someone, seize them!"
"Why should you seize us?" Linlang’s voice trembled with tears. "The dowry lists are all filed at Zhaopinghoufu. This is outright robbery!"
Shao’er threw herself directly onto one of the chests. "Unless you step over my dead body, no one touches our young lady’s things!"
"Outrageous! Outrageous!" The steward stamped his foot in fury. "I think you’ve grown tired of living! Come on, beat these thieving wenches to death!"
Several sturdy maids immediately rushed forward with clubs, pinning Linlang and Shao’er to the ground.
"You’re slandering us!" Linlang struggled and shouted. "It’s clearly you who are trying to steal our young lady’s dowry!"
Shao’er also cried out, "Zhaopinghoufu won’t let you get away with this!"
"Still defiant!" The steward sneered. "Beat them to death!"
Just as the clubs were about to descend, Jiang Yuwei could no longer hold back. She kicked the door open and charged inside.
"Stop!"
Her shout startled everyone in the courtyard.
The servants carrying the chests loosened their grip, and a chest crashed to the ground with a loud clang, spilling gold, silver, and jewelry everywhere.
"G-g-ghost!" someone yelled first, and the courtyard immediately descended into chaos.
Jiang Yuwei rushed forward in three quick strides, snatched the club from the maid’s hand, and snapped it in two with a sharp crack before throwing it to the ground.
"What, have the Fu family turned to banditry in the short time I’ve been away?" she sneered, sweeping her gaze across the scene.
Lady Fu’s face turned deathly pale, and she trembled as she pointed at Jiang Yuwei. "N-Nansheng, you’re not dead?"
"Disappointed, Madam?" Jiang Yuwei replied with a hollow smile. "If I had really died, wouldn’t that have suited you perfectly, letting you divide up my dowry as you pleased?"
Lady Fu flushed with embarrassment, stammering, "This is all a misunderstanding… It was your two maids who stole things first…"
"Stole things?" Jiang Yuwei cut her off. "I’d like to ask: is it my maids who stole things, or is it the entire Fu family conspiring together to steal the dowry?"
She bent down to pick up a golden hairpin that had rolled on the ground: "This was part of my dowry from my mother. What, has the Fu family fallen so low that they must rely on selling their daughter-in-law's dowry to get by?"
Just then, Fu Jiuque also arrived. Seeing the scene, he immediately flew into a rage: "Shu Nansheng, what nonsense are you up to again?"
"I'm the one making trouble?" Jiang Yuwei sneered. "I should be the one asking what you all are doing here. I haven't even been dead for two hours, and you're already in a hurry to divide my dowry. What kind of rule is that?"
Fu Jiuque frowned at her question. "Since you're not dead, you shouldn't be causing a scene here!"
Jiang Yuwei raised her voice. "I demand an explanation today! Is this how the Fu family treats their daughter-in-law? As soon as someone dies, instead of investigating the cause, you rush to seize the dowry—is this the Fu family's way?"
The Fu family members flushed with shame under her questioning, each lowering their heads in silence.