Zhao E immediately got out of bed and ordered, “Drag him out.”
Ling Feng immediately stepped forward, bent down, and dragged Jiang Cheng away.
Zhao E stood on the footrest before the bed, raised her hand to tousle her hair, then removed her outer robe, pulling the garments beneath into a state of disarray.
Zhou Yu sat on the bed, silently watching her every move.
Zhao E walked to the bronze mirror and examined herself, not quite satisfied. She reached up and messed her hair a bit more, then turned and headed outside.
From start to finish, Zhou Yu watched her, yet she never once spared him a glance.
In the outer room, Jiang Cheng lay sprawled on his back on the floor like a corpse.
Zhao E walked over and gave him a kick, casually asking Ling Feng, “He won’t die, will he?”
“He won’t die,” Ling Feng replied. “Rest assured, miss. I know my own strength—I won’t beat anyone to death.”
“When will he wake up?” Zhao E paced a couple of steps around Jiang Cheng, lowering her gaze to examine him.
“If left here unattended, he’ll come to on his own in about half an hour to an hour,” Ling Feng answered. “If miss wants him to wake sooner, just fetch a basin of cold water and splash it on him.”
Zhao E nodded and said no more.
“Miss, they’re here.” Xishi ran in quickly to report.
“Is the old hag here?” Zhao E turned her gaze to ask.
“She’s here, and Jiang Wang-shi came too. Just as miss predicted, the old lady was reluctant to come at first,” Xishi replied. “I followed miss’s instructions and said that if this matter weren’t resolved, miss would take it to the public court tomorrow and demand a divorce. That changed her mind.”
“Well done.” Zhao E offered a word of praise.
She turned and sat down in a corner of the soft couch, curling up and hunching her body.
Seeing this, Xiyu and Xishi said nothing more and silently took their places behind her.
Jiang Wang-shi helped Old Madam Jiang through the door and immediately saw Zhao E curled up on the soft couch, weeping, looking utterly pitiful and delicate.
Jiang Wang-shi sneered inwardly. This little wench is usually all sharp tongue, putting on that dissolute air to scare people, but when something like this actually happens, isn’t she still trembling in fear?
But when she saw Jiang Cheng lying on the ground, alive or dead unknown, she couldn’t sneer anymore.
How was she supposed to explain this?
One look at Jiang Cheng’s neatly intact clothing told her he hadn’t succeeded.
And besides, she had personally watched this little wench faint dead away—how had she managed to wake up again?
All sorts of doubts churned through her mind.
“Mother, please sit.” After helping Old Madam Jiang into a chair, she turned to ask Zhao E, “What happened here? How did Cheng’er end up in your quarters?”
“I don’t know.” Zhao E dabbed at the corner of her eye with a handkerchief before lifting her face to say, “I don’t know what came over me—it was as if I’d slept like the dead.
It was only when the maids heard a commotion in the room and went inside to check that they found uncle collapsed on the floor before my bed.
They pricked me with needles, and only then did I wake up.”
She rose as she spoke and bowed to Old Madam Jiang. “Grandmother, though I may be a bit fond of frivolity on ordinary days, I have never once dared to do anything to betray Huai Fu.
As for Zhaoyang Yuan, I have never allowed a single outsider man to set foot inside. I have no idea why uncle appeared in my chambers.
I beg Grandmother to seek justice for me and clear my name.”
With that, she covered her face and sobbed again.
Old Madam Jiang was about to speak when a person suddenly walked in from outside.
“Mother, sister-in-law, what’s going on?”
Jiang Chen-shi stepped across the threshold and asked.
Hearing that something had happened in the eldest branch, she was delighted beyond measure. She had deliberately gotten out of bed at this hour to come watch the excitement.
“Sister-in-law has arrived.” Jiang Chen-shi’s already unpleasant expression turned even uglier.
She still hadn’t settled the score with Jiang Chen-shi for spreading word of her son’s illness, and now Jiang Chen-shi had come skipping over to her again?
“Oh my, isn’t this Cheng’er?” Jiang Chen-shi caught sight of Jiang Cheng lying on the ground and immediately put on a look of surprise, turning to Zhao E: “Niece-in-law, what’s going on here?”
Zhao E sobbed twice before speaking with a wounded air: “I don’t know either. When I woke up, Uncle was collapsed on the footboard in front of my bed…”
“What kind of nonsense is this!” Jiang Chen-shi looked at Old Madam Jiang: “Mother, our niece-in-law is not that kind of person. This was Jiang Cheng trying to commit an indecent act!
This is simply outrageous—daring to covet his own sister-in-law.”
She was eager to bring down the eldest branch so she could take charge of the household, and she also understood in her heart that currying favor with Zhao E would surely bring benefits. So she held nothing back in her words.
Hearing this, Zhao E wept even harder. It seemed the gifts she had sent Jiang Chen-shi had not been wasted—when trouble arose, this so-called aunt was indeed willing to speak up.
“How do you know there wasn’t something going on between the two of them?” Jiang Wang-shi, thinking quickly in desperation, shot back.
After all, Jiang Cheng was unconscious. Even if nothing had actually happened, if she could establish that there was an illicit affair between the two, she would have a hold over Zhao E—would she still dare not to obey?
“Naturally there wasn’t.” Jiang Chen-shi immediately retorted: “If there really was something, why would our niece-in-law need to make such a scene in the middle of the night, dragging you and Mother here? Wouldn’t that be afraid others wouldn’t find out?”
Jiang Wang-shi’s face turned ashen. This fool Jiang Chen-shi—was her heart stuffed with lard? Here she was, siding with that little slut.
“I beg Grandmother to make a decision…” Zhao E clutched her handkerchief, wiping around her eyes until they were red: “If it really can’t be resolved, then let’s report it to the authorities.”
“Family scandals should not be spread abroad—how can we report this to the authorities?” Old Madam Jiang hurriedly stopped her, then snapped at Jiang Wang-shi: “What are you standing there dazed for? Haven’t you come up with a plan yet?”
Great households valued face above all. If this matter got out, wouldn’t they become the laughingstock of everyone?
She was also quite clear in her heart that Jiang Cheng had been summoned by Jiang Wang-shi.
As for how the current situation had come about, she had not yet figured out.
Jiang Wang-shi detested that lofty, self-righteous look of hers to the extreme, yet she had no choice but to endure it.
She paused, then said to Zhao E: “This matter is Jiang Cheng’s fault.
I will take him back first. Once he wakes, I will question and discipline him properly, and tomorrow I will bring him to apologize to you.”
Afraid that Zhao E would refuse, she turned her head as she spoke, about to order someone to carry Jiang Cheng away.
“Mother-in-law, that won’t do.” Zhao E stopped crying. Her voice still carried a tearful tone, but her attitude was firm: “You yourself just suspected that Uncle and I had an illicit affair. This matter must be clarified face to face.”
The good show hadn’t even started yet—how could she possibly let them leave just like that?
“But Cheng’er is unconscious…” Jiang Wang-shi said with a troubled expression.
“That’s easy enough.” Jiang Chen-shi chimed in from the side: “Just pour a basin of cold water over his head and he’ll wake right up.”
Jiang Wang-shi wished she could cut out her tongue. Old Madam Jiang also looked displeased.
“Bring water.” Zhao E ordered, then asked: “Mother-in-law, did you bring any household servants? In case Uncle wakes up, we’ll need people to hold him down.”
She watched Old Madam Jiang and Jiang Wang-shi’s increasingly ugly expressions, and could barely hold back her laughter.
This Jiang Chen-shi was completely artless, striking wherever she was pointed—truly a fine weapon. With her around, many matters were much easier. In the future, she would need to get closer to her even more.
“Someone come,” Jiang Wang-shi, unable to find an excuse to put things off, had no choice but to summon the household servants.
Jiang Cheng was dragged out of the room, and after a moment, he was dragged back in, his head and body soaked with water.
When the two servants held him down on either side, forcing him to kneel on the ground, his face was still full of confusion, not knowing what had happened—he only felt the back of his head hurting terribly.
“Wretched creature, do you know your fault?” Old Madam Jiang struck first to gain the upper hand.
Jiang Cheng was dazed for a moment, but then he recognized her: “Grandmother?”
“Do not call me Grandmother. I have no such unworthy descendant as you,” Old Madam Jiang scolded. “Running to your sister-in-law’s place in the middle of the night—what were you trying to do?
If we follow you, we cannot bear the shame. Drag him down and lock him in the firewood shed!”
“Wuu wuu…”
As soon as her words fell, Zhao E covered her face and burst into loud sobbing.
She sneered inwardly. The old woman, despite her advanced age, was not muddled in the least.
This was taking advantage of Jiang Cheng still being dazed, not giving him any chance to speak, and directly having him taken away.
Jiang Cheng’s mind was in complete chaos. Hearing the crying, he instinctively looked over, and when he saw Zhao E, his mind suddenly cleared.
He immediately shouted loudly: “Grandmother, it was Mother who told me to come!”