“Father, I beg you, save Mother! Please save Mother…”
Little Yanqing knelt on the floor, kowtowing until her forehead was red and raw.
Yet Shen Changfeng didn’t show a shred of sympathy. Instead, he shot a look of disgust at the woman half-lying on the daybed.
“Jiang Yuexi, you truly are venomous and jealous to the core. Knowing full well that Yulian is in labor today, you still feigned illness just to summon me here. Such malice—if you really could drop dead right now, it would finally be heaven opening its eyes!”
“Back then, because you stubbornly occupied the position of the legitimate wife, Yulian had no choice but to become a concubine. She never complained in the slightest, yet you constantly made things difficult for her.”
“Even when the celestial master predicted that Jiang Yanqing would bring misfortune to her close kin, Yulian couldn’t bear to cast her out; she simply let her take your surname.”
“When your parents and younger brother were murdered, Yulian even wore mourning sackcloth to accompany you to their funeral. Just what on earth are you still dissatisfied with?”
“Once I have a moment tomorrow, I’ll have people send both you and Jiang Yanqing away to the countryside estate, so you stop turning the household upside down!”
With that, Shen Changfeng slammed the door and left. Jiang Yuexi coughed up a mouthful of dark blood with a sharp pfft.
“Mother! Mother!”
Little Yanqing crawled over to grab her hand, large tears streaming down her face.
“Qingqing… don’t cry… don’t cry…”
Using the very last of her strength, Jiang Yuexi felt under the pillow and pulled out a cloth bundle.
“In the courtyard… beneath the peach tree… I buried it…”
Pfft…
Before she could finish her sentence, another mouthful of blood spilled from her lips.
“Buried… an iron box… inside is gold, silver… and the property deeds… This is the key… keep it safe… don’t give it… to anyone…”
Clutching the cloth bundle, little Yanqing nodded frantically.
“I know. Mother, wait for me, I’m going to find a doctor for you…”
She scrambled off on her short legs toward the door, only for a heavy thud to echo behind her.
Jiang Yuexi slipped off the edge of the bed and fell limp, silent forever.
“Mother… Mother!”
Little Yanqing walked step by step to her side, gently stroking her face.
Even at just four years old, she understood that her mother… had left her forever.
Her clear eyes surged with a towering wave of hatred.
“Mother, one day, I will make the entire Marquis of Pingyuan’s Estate pay for your life with theirs!”
Thirteen years later.
Jiang Yanqing had returned to the imperial capital.
Yet the moment she reached the main gates of the Marquis of Pingyuan’s Estate, Steward Gao Hai blocked her path with a group of guards.
“Fourth Young Miss, the Lord said your birth chart clashes with the marquisate, so you cannot use the main entrance. Please enter through the back door.”
Jiang Yanqing twirled the small folding fan in her hand, her lips curling into a light smile without uttering a single word.
With a single sweep of her palm, she knocked Gao Hai sprawling, and with a swift kick, she smashed open the heavy crimson wooden doors.
“Ouch…”
Gao Hai crashed flat on his back and bellowed furiously, “Quickly grab the Fourth Young Miss! Don’t let her in—carry her to the back door if you have to!”
“Understood.”
The guards swarmed toward Jiang Yanqing in unison, none of them taking a scrawny country girl seriously.
Yet to everyone’s astonishment, within mere seconds, all of them were sprawled across the ground, battered and bruised.
Gao Hai trembled from head to toe, though his tone remained dripping with contempt. “Fourth Young Miss, have thirteen years of hardship really failed to teach you any manners? Now that you’ve finally been given a chance to return, I advise you to tuck your tail between your legs and behave. Acting so arrogant, the Marquis will never spare you!”
Jiang Yanqing’s gaze turned icy cold, and she delivered two sharp slaps to his face.
“What kind of thing are you, to lecture this young miss?”
“Audacious!”
Suddenly, a harsh roar rang out from behind.
Jiang Yanqing turned her head to see Shen Changfeng, draped in brocade and fine robes, striding over alongside Feng Yulian and their second son, Shen Zhenze.
She nodded casually. “Father is right. I’ve just returned, and I suppose the whole household must be waiting to welcome me. Yet Gao Hai not only brought people to block my path, but he also spoke insolently. Not just audacious—he practically wants to rebel!
Father, you really must discipline these people properly. Otherwise, outsiders might think you can’t even tolerate your only legitimate daughter. And worse yet, if they end up offending some prominent figure in the future, it could bring total disaster down upon our marquisate.”
Shen Changfeng glared at her with utter disgust. “Sharp-tongued! The only thing that could bring disaster to this estate is a jinx like you. I told you that you would bring bad luck to the household and instructed you to use the back door—why wouldn’t you listen?”
He had expected this cheap wench to return from the countryside rustic and submissive after all these years. Never had he imagined she would grow up even more beautiful than You’er, whom he had meticulously raised, and that she would start a riot the moment she returned. She was courting death!
Before Jiang Yanqing could open her mouth, Feng Yulian chimed in, “Forget it, My Lord. Qingqing grew up in the countryside, so it’s only natural she doesn’t understand the rules. We can slowly teach her hereafter.”
Turning to Gao Hai, she instructed, “Go fetch a brazier of charcoal fire so the Fourth Young Miss can step over it and banish her bad luck.”
“Yes, Madam.”
“Madam?” Jiang Yanqing cast an amused, mocking look at Shen Changfeng. “Ever since the founding of the Great Da Kingdom, there has been a strict rule: imperial concubines can never be elevated to empresses, and concubines can never be elevated to legitimate wives. My mother has been dead for over a decade, so where on earth did a ‘Madam’ come from in this household? What’s this? Is it not Steward Gao who wants to rebel, but you, the Marquis of Pingyuan?”