“Strength? As for the strength to beat you, this Junzhu has plenty!” The fury in Xiao Yunshu’s heart had not subsided. She approached Duan Chenlang, who was collapsed on the ground in pain, her every step radiating a chilling, murderous intent.
“Xiao… Xiao Yunshu, what… what are you doing?”
Xiao Yunshu looked down at Duan Chenlang, her words sharp and clear: “Duan Chenlang, even if my Wu’an Wangfu is neglected these days, it is not the place for a contemptible wretch like you to criticize. Every member of the Xiao family is a thousand times better than a dog like you, begging for pity!”
Duan Chenlang was in so much pain that it felt as if his internal organs had shifted, yet he refused to show weakness. “Xiao Yunshu, what’s the point of acting tough? If this drug isn’t neutralized, I’m afraid you won’t escape death today. You might as well just submit to me now, and perhaps…”
“Bad guy! Big bad guy!” A tiny, fierce voice interrupted his foul words. Nuannuan rushed forward and gave Duan Chenlang a kick.
As if that weren’t enough, like a small, provoked beast, she swung her tiny fists and began thumping him. “You bad guy! Big bad guy! Beat you! Beat you!”
The way this bad guy looked at her aunt was exactly the same way that bad guy who wanted to buy her mother away looked!
They were all bad guys!
Sensing the fear in her young niece’s tone, Xiao Yunshu quickly stepped forward to scoop her up. She took the child’s small hands, which were red from the force of the hitting, and gently blew on them.
“Nuannuan, be good. Don’t hit him anymore. Do your hands hurt?”
After saying this, her tone shifted from tender to ice-cold as she stared fixedly at Duan Chenlang. “Dirty trash like this isn’t worth Nuannuan doing it herself.”
Having soothed Nuannuan, her gaze landed precisely between Duan Chenlang’s legs, her lips curling into a cold arc.
“You… what do you want to do! Xiao Yunshu, don’t you dare!”
Sensing her intention, Duan Chenlang instinctively squeezed his legs together. He screamed in terror as he scrambled backward repeatedly.
Xiao Yunshu, naturally, did not answer him.
In the next moment, she swiftly raised her foot, and the sole of her boot descended steadily.
“Ah—help—ah!”
The anticipated pain did not come, and Duan Chenlang’s screaming stopped abruptly. He let out a long breath, looking at the space between his legs with lingering fear.
Xiao Yunshu’s boot had landed just at the root of his thigh, barely an inch away from the vital spot.
But even so, Duan Chenlang remained as pale as a ghost.
“Master Duan,” Xiao Yunshu’s voice carried a heavy warning, “I shall remember today’s events for now. In the future, if I ever hear of you harboring such filthy thoughts toward any woman again, I, Xiao Yunshu—”
Xiao Yunshu narrowed her eyes. “I, Xiao Yunshu, swear here and now that I will personally ruin this source of trouble for you!”
Nuannuan was held in her aunt’s arms. Although she didn’t quite understand what “ruining the source of trouble” meant, she could feel her aunt was punishing the bad man. She clapped her small hands and, mimicking her aunt’s manner, huffed at the big bad guy with all her might: “That’s right! F-Fly… fly the source of trouble!”
Xiao Yunshu: …
She shouldn’t have said that. If her elder brother found out she was teaching his daughter such things, she feared that the moment he woke up, she would be in for a whipping.
However, as long as her brother could wake up, she didn’t care how many lashes she received.
“Junzhu, Junzhu!” The door was suddenly pushed open from the outside, and then Su Wanying’s delicate, somewhat artificial face appeared.
Only a moment later, the door was quickly pulled shut again.
Su Wanying gave a cry of alarm and immediately turned around, spreading her arms to block the door. Her voice was panicked and urgent: “Don’t… don’t go in! Everyone, please… please don’t look, please go back!”
Xiao Yunshu was also momentarily stunned.
Su Wanying? Why was she here?
Shortly after Xiao Yunshu had left, estimating that enough time had passed, Su Wanying had pretended to look into the garden with concern.
“How has Yunshu Junzhu been gone for so long without returning? Could it be that the child is young and naughty, and they’ve been delayed?”
The daughter of the Vice Minister of Rites, who was on good terms with her, immediately spoke up: “That child grew up in the countryside; I doubt she knows any rules. Why don’t we go and take a look together?”
“This…” Su Wanying looked toward the Chang Gongzhu with some hesitation.
“Why decline, Sister Su? Since today is the Shanghua Yan, you should take us for a stroll in the garden. If we can help Yunshu Junzhu, that would naturally be for the best.”
The other ladies thought this made sense and all said they would go together.
The Chang Gongzhu was drawn by the commotion, and Su Wanying naturally stepped forward to explain, her words filled with “concern” for Xiao Yunshu.
The Chang Gongzhu’s eyes flickered, and without committing either way, she also stood up. “Very well. Since it is a Shanghua Yan, it wouldn’t be right for us to be confined here. I have heard that the garden of the Zuoxiang Fu is quite extraordinary!”
The group then headed toward the side courtyard in a grand procession.
Now, with everyone being blocked outside the door by Su Wanying, their curiosity was naturally piqued.
“What is actually happening? Is there something we can’t see? Could it be that Yunshu Junzhu is having a private meeting with a man in the Zuoxiang Fu?”
“With Miss Su acting like this, could it be that inside…”
Su Wanying lowered her head, hiding the cold sneer at the corners of her mouth. When she looked up to face the crowd, she once again wore an expression of hesitation.
“Everyone… everyone, please stop asking. This is truly for the sake of Yunshu Junzhu’s reputation…”
“My reputation? Since it concerns my reputation, Miss Su should speak clearly!”
Before she could finish, the door behind her was pulled open from the inside with a “bang.”
Xiao Yunshu held Nuannuan in one arm, while her other hand gripped Duan Chenlang like a scruffy chick, throwing him down in front of everyone.
“Miss Su, I only have one question for you,” she stood tall, her gaze majestic. “I came to this banquet at your family’s invitation. Your servant led me here to change clothes. Why was there a lust-inducing drug burning in the room? Why was the door locked from the outside? Is this the hospitality of the Zuoxiang Fu?”
Su Wanying had always known Xiao Yunshu’s temperament. But she had thought that given the current state of the Wu’an Wangfu, Xiao Yunshu might restrain herself. She hadn’t expected her to still be so… so uncouth!
She was choked by the question, and her face quickly shifted to an expression of grievance. “Yunshu Junzhu, you… what do you mean by this? I meant well, fearing your reputation would be damaged. How can you misunderstand me so?”
Seeing Su Wanying deliberately avoid the main issue while everyone else watched with expressions of amusement, Duan Chenlang felt he had found an opportunity to turn the tables. He endured the pain in his thigh, struggled to crawl up, and put on an act of grief and indignation.
“Grand Princess! Ladies, please be the judge! It was Xiao Yunshu who invited me here for a private meeting. Seeing that the matter has been exposed, she turned heartless and beat me, even fabricating some lie about a lust-inducing drug! Although I, Duan Chenlang, am untalented, I cannot allow her to trample over me like this!”
“Liar! Bad guy!” Nuannuan struggled down from Xiao Yunshu’s arms and stood in front of her, blocking her. “Bullying Auntie! Bad!”
She then pointed her small hand at Su Wanying, who was snickering on the side. “Auntie! Bad! Also bad!”
“You…” Having her face shamed in public by Nuannuan, Su Wanying’s expression instantly turned ugly.
But because they were in front of the crowd and the Chang Gongzhu was present, she could only endure it, merely using her handkerchief to wipe away non-existent tears. “You child…”
Xiao Yunshu pulled Nuannuan back into her arms. Her back was ramrod straight, and she no longer bothered with a pointless war of words with Duan Chenlang.
“If Miss Su does not give my Wu’an Wangfu an explanation today, I, Xiao Yunshu, will not let this rest even if I have to take it all the way to the Jinluan Hall!”
Low sneers broke out in the crowd. What kind of waves could the current Wu’an Marquis’s Mansion possibly stir up?
Seeing this, Duan Chenlang became even more emboldened, continuing his “devoted” performance. “Yunshu, why must you be so aggressive? I know you’re angry, but trust me, I will definitely take responsibility for you.”
“Bad guy! Shut up!” Nuannuan was extremely anxious watching the bad guy lie. Her little mouth chattered away trying to defend her aunt, but she couldn’t explain it clearly.