“Impudent wretch, shut your mouth!” Shen Changfeng said, his face flushed red with anger. “How dare you utter such outrageous words? You truly are the jinx of my Marquis estate. Someone, slap her across the face!”
“My Lord!” Feng Yulian grabbed his arm again, her eyes welling up with tears as she said aggrievedly, “It is I, a lowly concubine, who am unworthy of the title ‘Madam.’ Please do not blame Qingqing. For all these years, she has held misunderstandings toward me. If you punish her further because of me, won’t her resentment toward me run even deeper?”
“She wouldn’t dare! Just like her cheap-born mother, she cannot sit still for a moment and cannot bear to see any good come to my Marquis estate. Today, I—”
Before he could finish his sentence, Gao Hai happened to walk over carrying a brazier of charcoal.
Jiang Yanqing kicked out, sending the entire basin of burning charcoal crashing straight into Shen Changfeng and Feng Yulian.
“Ah… Ah!!!…”
Their clothes caught fire instantly. Terrified, Feng Yulian collapsed to the ground, rolling around uncontrollably.
Shen Changfeng also jumped around in a panic. “Save me… Quick, save me…”
The maidservants and pages scrambled to fetch water.
Brandishing a sword, Shen Zhenze lunged straight at Jiang Yanqing. “Vile wretch! How dare you secretly harm my parents? I’m going to take your life!”
Jiang Yanqing tilted her body to dodge his attack, reached out to grab his wrist, and sent his sword clattering to the ground.
“Slap! Slap…”
Jiang Yanqing let loose a flurry of left-and-right strikes across his face, the sound of the slaps ringing deafeningly.
“A lowly concubine’s son, yet you dare raise a hand against this young miss? And speaking of your mother—you have no mother, that is your concubine stepmother. For a prestigious House of the Marquis to be so devoid of basic decorum from top to bottom… As the legitimate daughter of the estate, I simply cannot allow you to ruin the family’s reputation. You all deserve to be slapped.”
With that, Jiang Yanqing gave Shen Zhenze’s mouth a few more stinging smacks.
Blood streamed down in a steady flow, splattering all over his body.
“Ah… Hiss…”
Unable to put up any defense, Shen Zhenze took the beating while over on the other side, Shen Changfeng—whose fire had just been put out—was consumed by boiling rage.
He roared at the top of his lungs, “Someone, pin Jiang Yanqing down! If she dares to resist, execute her on the spot!”
As soon as those words left his mouth, a circle of twenty guards closed in around Jiang Yanqing, followed by another circle of archers taking up positions across the rooftops and treetops.
They were genuinely trying to put her to death!
Jiang Yanqing reached out and grabbed Shen Zhenze by the throat, smiling like an opium poppy blooming—drop-dead gorgeous, yet laced with a fatal poison.
“Whoever dares to move, I’ll snap his head right off.”
“Dad… Sob… Dad… Save me…”
In Shen Zhenze’s eyes, Jiang Yanqing had always been mere worthless mud, as easy to crush to death as an ant.
Yet right now, as even breathing became a struggle, he couldn’t help but feel a primal wave of terror.
Shen Changfeng clenched his back teeth tightly, his eyes bulging wide in fury.
“Jiang Yanqing, let your second brother go, and I will spare your life!”
“Ha…” Jiang Yanqing burst into loud laughter. “Hahaha… You’ll spare my life? Shen Changfeng, do you take me for that four-year-old child from before, to be bullied at your whim?
You were the ones who demanded I return, yet you made me enter through the back door, forced me to step over a burning brazier, had the steward block my path, and let a concubine-born son draw a sword to kill me.
Why don’t you ask yourself whether I’m going to spare you?”
“You—”
“Hehehe…” Jiang Yanqing didn’t give him a chance to speak at all, her sweet smile carrying a chill of three parts and a madness of two. “Your entire Shen family… must die… Hahaha…”
Shen Changfeng’s fists clenched so hard his knuckles popped. “Ignorant and arrogant wretch! Do you think you can outpace my archers? Release the arrows!”
An abandoned daughter still dared to threaten him? He would make sure she wished she were dead and unable to die!
“No!”
Feng Yulian cried out, but it was already too late.
Amidst a volley of flying arrows, Jiang Yanqing spun around, using Shen Zhenze as a human shield. The arrowheads embedded themselves thickly into his arms, legs, back, and shoulders…
“Ah!!!”
Shen Zhenze’s screams pierced the heavens, and Feng Yulian collapsed to her knees in tears. “Ze’er! Ze’er!”
Jiang Yanqing tossed Shen Zhenze right in front of Shen Changfeng, offering a gentle smile. “I originally thought you merely detested me, but it turns out you are just as ruthless to any of your children. You aren’t playing favorites at all—you are simply born vicious.”
In order to let Feng Yulian serve as the true mistress of the Marquis estate, Shen Changfeng had never remarried all these years.
She had assumed he loved Feng Yulian to the absolute extreme; never had she imagined he could be so indifferent to the life and death of her own son.
“Fire! Keep firing! Jiang Yanqing, I will make you pay tenfold for the suffering my Ze’er has endured!”
Yet no sooner had the words left Shen Changfeng’s mouth than he drew in a sharp, startled breath of disbelief.
With a display of lightness kung fu, Jiang Yanqing leaped into the air, effortlessly evading every single incoming arrow.
Her folded fan spun as she hurled it out, slicing across the throats of every archer. Blood spurted from their wounds, and one by one, they toppled down from the rooftops and treetops, leaving the courtyard littered with corpses.
Miraculously, that small folding fan steadied its trajectory and flew right back into Jiang Yanqing’s hand.
Everyone present felt their legs turn to jelly, staring at her as if she were a living demon.
Even Shen Zhenze forgot his pain for a moment, his mind filled with only a single thought: thank goodness Jiang Yanqing had merely used him as a human shield earlier instead of slitting his throat.
Jiang Yanqing casually wiped the blood from the edge of her folding fan, casting a cool glance at Shen Changfeng. “What are you standing around for? Hurry up and have someone clean up these corpses, they’re utterly sickening.
I’m hungry. Go prepare the meal.”
Subjugated by her absolute, overwhelming martial might, Shen Changfeng didn’t dare utter another word.
He could only mutter, “Go on ahead to the dining hall. Allow me to change my clothes first.”