The Song Family were immersed in happy laughter and joyful voices. Madam Liu, who was married to Song Yuan as his second wife last year, was diagnosed of pregnancy two months ago. Today they called on a doctor who was good at identifying the baby gender. According to the doctor, he was 90% confident that the baby was a boy!
Madam Pang, eager for a grandson so badly, was pleased beyond words!
Her smile didn’t fade away even after the doctor left. She was talking about fetal stabilization with Madam Liu when a servant came hastily to report that the former relative Madam Cao brought people to smash open their front door and beat all the way towards the back hall. She couldn’t even believe her ears, “Is this old cat crazy? Just as she managed to let her daughter to hook up with Prince of Hengshan, she can show no respect for the Song Family now?”
Madam Liu heard that and also frowned, asking, “Are they coming here for the matter of Yixiao?”
Then she drew her napkin and pressed it on her eyes, starting to sob, “It’s all my fault! I allowed Ms. Wu to take her out due to Yixiao’s badgering… She was only an innocent child. I should have thought of the consequence. How can I allow a girl to hang around? Ms. Wu ought to be blamed too. She should have looked around while walking, or she would not be beaten unknowingly…”
“She deserved it!” Madam Pang always disliked Wei Mengying, her son’s first wife, so she was also indifferent to Song Yixiao. When she heard of that her granddaughter was lost a few days ago, she didn’t feel worried at all. Instead, she felt better because there wouldn’t be a granddaughter around her to remind her of the fact that Wei Mengying had abandoned Song Yuan and remarried.
Under this circumstance, she would never blame Madam Liu who was carrying a baby boy. On the contrary, she would attribute all the fault to the granddaughter, “If she stayed at home obediently, who could climb over the house and abduct her? She just followed her mother’s example and liked going out. Now she just deserved the misfortune!”
She got even more furious, “If it were not for the fact that you showed mercy for her and announced that she was dead, everyone would know that the eldest legitimate granddaughter of the Song Family was trafficked for being too mischievous, which would be an intolerable shame for us! Now that the Wei Family come to us for that, I must give two slaps to Cao as alertness!”
When she just finished talking, the door of the back hall had been kicked open. Madam Cao walked into the hall with a cold smile, “To give me two slaps as alertness?! I must ask you instead. You are a human being and you also have children yourself! How can you only treat your own children as human beings?!”
“I only treat my own children as human beings?” Madam Pang, beaming with anger, stood up quickly and pointed at her, roaring wrathfully, “The most regretful thing that I have ever done is not educating your daughter well after she was married to my son for the sake of his grace! Otherwise, even though your family is not decent, I should have taught her about the sense of propriety, justice, honesty and honor since she stayed in the Song Family for ten years!”
“Pfff!” Madam Cao spat on her face directly and cursed, “How dare you merciless old cat talk about the sense of propriety, justice, honesty and honor?! All men, good or bad, rarely maltreat their own children! You even plotted to hurt your granddaughter…”
“Madam Cao!” Madam Liu interrupted in surprise, “Did you misunderstand anything? How is it possible that Yixiao died because of mother? Actually, she…”
“How dare you play innocence now?!” Madam Cao had made proper arrangement before she came. She was afraid not to encounter this woman. Yet, Madam Liu stepped forward to defend for Madam Pang, which fitted in exactly with the wishes of the five daughters-in-law that Madam Cao brought!
Madam Mu and her sisters-in-law rushed forward and went at Madam Liu, scratching her hair and face as well as kicking her belly. When Madam Pang came to her senses and ordered the others to protect her in screams, Madam Liu had been rolling on the ground while holding her belly, “My baby… My baby…”
Madam Panda never thought of that the Wei Family should beat Madam Liu in front of her. One of the reasons why she disliked Wei Mengying was that—this former daughter-in-law was married to her son for ten years, but she only had one daughter and also made her son so deeply fascinated that he wouldn’t have any concubine!
However, according to the doctor, Madam Liu was conceiving a baby boy!
Staring at the blood dripping along the skirt hem of Madam Liu, Madam Pang felt that her heart was bleeding too!
Suddenly, she got into a muddle and struck at Madam Cao madly, “You evil! I must make you pay!”
Consequently, Madam Cao, who was well prepared, led two strong women to push her against the ground and beat her up, venting her anger because of the mockery from the Song Family after her daughter was remarried!
Having done beating her up, Madam Cao started to talk about her purpose in coming, “Thus, there’s incontrovertible proof. Your step-daughter-in-law is pregnant and loathes my granddaughter so she just asked her subordinate to sell my granddaughter to a brothel! She is such a vicious woman that a miscarriage is only a mild punishment for her! Listen! If you don’t explain to me well today, I will leave and go to the Liu Family to ask for an explanation!”
“My daughter remarried only because she couldn’t stand your maltreatment and the Wei Family has been disgraced for that! I am wondering what consequence will happen to you if everyone knows that the daughter of the Liu Family dares to sell the daughter of the first wife of the Song Family.”
The Liu Family would vent the anger of the Wei Family at any rate, if Madam Cao gave them the chance!
Madam Cao snorted, “Even a bawd knows that a highborn lady shall not fall to the dirty place as a brothel. And you just think otherwise. The eldest legitimate granddaughter of your family has been taken out and got lost, but you didn’t even look for her or punish the delinquent servants. Instead, you just announced her death in public… There wouldn’t be grandmother or father like you! You are so cruel to your own blood, which shows your heartlessness! You are absolutely not human being at all! You are basically a beast!”
Madam Pang stared at her furiously. She stubbed her fingernails so deeply into her palms that her palms started to bleed and the blood dripped on the ground, saying through her teeth, “Nice scheme! Nice move! You just choose to put on such a show when my daughter-in-law is pregnant. Your daughter cannot give birth to a son, which is never tolerated by any mother-in-law! You’ve done this only to ruin my unborn grandson…”
Slap!
Madam Cao looked fierce and gave her a harsh slap, shouting loudly, “I dare to swear on the Wei Family, this is definitely not plotted by us! Do you dare to swear too? Beast! It is such a wrong decision for me to agree on marrying my daughter to you!”
“Moreover, my granddaughter has her own maid. Why was it not her foster nurse, Ms. Zhao but the maid of Madam Liu who followed her out of the residence? Obviously, Madam Liu is the one after this! Now that you defend for her like this, has this been approved by you?”
“You are such a vicious woman. How dare you blame my daughter for not having a grandson? Your family just deserve to live without descendants! If your son didn’t marry my daughter, you wouldn’t even have a granddaughter!”
“Madam Pang was so angry at that time! How fabulous!” Song Yixiao leaned against her cousin, Wei Ge’s arms obediently and pretended to be sleeping, hearing in secret the servant of the Wei Family talking about how Madam Cao settled with the Song Family, “Then she summoned Ms. Wu to confront. Just guess what she said.”“What else could she say? Of course she refused to acknowledge!” Wei Ge shouted with excitement, “That old cat even claimed that we plotted to sell Yixiao. What else can’t they do? Fortunately, the facts are all there. She can never make a false countercharge!”“Voice down! Yixiao is still sleeping!” Her elder sister Wei Ning lowered her voice to remind her and meanwhile turned around to have a guess in spirits, “Did she just say that she had searched for a long time and yet failed? Then they could execute the stalling tactics?”The servant was quite articulate, “If it were not for the elderly lady, the Song Family would do as you
Wei Mengying held her daughter to Madam Cao’s bed, took off her shoes, tucked her in and put down half of the curtain.She turned around to see that her mother also came into the room and closed the door. Then she said with a smile, “Madam Liu is so heartless! She must never have expected that Yixiao is so lucky to encounter a timid buyer who returned her to the Wei Family. Now they can never scold us for fawning on the rich!”“You didn’t do that?” Madam Cao answered in surprise, “I thought it was you who made the arrangement and set the trap for Madam Liu’s trusted subordinate!”“How is that possible?” Wei Mengying said in surprise, “Last time I came back, I have told you that the prince is nice to me but my mother-in-law doesn’t like me…” She heaved a sigh, “Somehow I feel that I just can’t win favor from the mother-in-law. The former one and the current one both dislike me. Over the past days, I have been busy dealing with the trouble that t
As a saying went, “Man proposes, God disposes.” Before Song Yixiao finished her show of burying the hatchet, because Madam Cao took some move or Madam Pang just hated her first granddaughter, Song Yixiao’s belongings and maids were sent to her with an excuse of Madam Pang—“I am so old now that I even have made two mistakes in choosing a daughter-in-law. How can I raise a granddaughter well?”“Now that Song Yuan has been impeached for not being able to managing the family well and lost his job, he will bring me to an adjacent city to stay away from trouble… Since Yixiao is your precious treasure and her birth mother is in the ascendant, she will be at your hands then!”If that was all, Song Yixiao could still continue pretending to be filial, “Since my father is bringing grandmother to an adjacent city, how can I not follow and take care of my grandmother and father?”However, Madam Pang went even further, “There are precedents for the dowry of
As she was new to the prince’s residence, Song Yixiao didn’t dare to ask about whether anyone had died in the Hanxia Villa before.However, after being led to her room by Ms. Bo, the maid of Wei Mengying, she looked around and felt quite good, “This place seems quite nice?”The Hanxia Villa was in among malus halliana. Now the florescence almost ended so only a few flowers were on the branch. It was not hard to imagine how beautiful the blooming scene was. To her satisfaction, the Hanxia Villa was delicately decorated and spacious, in which the furnishings were not new but all in readiness.Ms. Bo sighed and said, “Her Highness wanted to let you reside in the Xiluo Villa, which is next to the fourth princess of the third rank so that you two can accompany each other! However, the dowager consort interferes and makes you live in such a lonely place!”Song Yixiao put on an obedient face, “As long as I can be with my mother, I am even
Although Song Yixiao guarded against Madam Jin, nothing happened in the following several days.Of course it didn’t mean that Madam Jin wouldn’t vent her anger. When Song Yixiao went to greet Wei Mengying, she learnt, “Marquis Yuan hopes that his sister can live here for some time. These two days, Her Highness has taken the order of the dowager consort so she is busy discussing with the two young mistresses about how to help Miss Yuan settle down. I’m afraid that she has no time to meet you!”Song Yixiao also learnt from Madam Kong that Marquis Yuan and his sister came to pay a visit the day when she entered the prince’s residence. Yet, it was now that she learned about the background of these two big shots. They were the grandson and granddaughter of the dowager consort. Young as they were, their parents were dead now.Yuan Xuepei had inherited the rank of Marquis two years ago. He just finished mourning for his parents and there were seniors
“Get lost!” A young man shouted angrily from the dark cave, “I’ve told you that I wouldn’t eat. Who grants you the permission to disturb me again and again?!”Song Yixiao heard him and knew that the man must have misunderstood. She supported herself up with her hands against the ground, intending to explain after getting up. However, when she tried to move, she felt a sharp pain in her ankle. Instantly, her face turned pale!“My lady, what’s wrong?” Fortunately, Zhiqin was fine. She got up neatly and found out that something was wrong with Song Yixiao at once. She hurried to support her, “Is your foot hurt?”Before Song Yixiao replied to her, the young man in the cave sensed that something went wrong and then walked out. That was a young man around 11 or 12 years old, dressed in a red round-collar suit decorated with bamboo pattens. With a jade belt tied around his waist, he also wore a green craped coat. He looked rather handsome with red lips
Jinguo Grand Princess and Daiguo Grand Princess were blood sisters of Emperor Xianjia. The former one, who was not as interested in politics as the latter one, only cared about entertainment, so she was more favored by the empress dowager and Emperor Xianjia. Even though she married for three times and her numerous romantic affairs were widespread in the imperial capital, the empress dowager and Emperor Xianjia just turned a blind eye and pretended that they didn’t know.“The maid called Cuipiao said he had inherited the title of Duke Yanguo. Hence, he must be the youngest son of Jinguo Grand Princess, Jian Xubai?” Song Yixiao sat by the bed and left the woman to smear the vulnerary on her foot, thinking in secret, “His father, Jian Likuang is the third husband of the Grand Princess, who is said to be seven or eight years younger than her. I doubt that they are not in good relationship due to the age gap. Yet, they two still have two sons. Jian Xubai is the younger one
Jian Xubai stayed by the door for a while. Then he stepped over the threshold and then closed the door, which made Song Yixiao even more alerted and vigilant.He just walked to Song Yixiao slowly and didn’t mean to do anything against her. With an embarrassed face, he opened his mouth and seemed to say something.“Anything I can help?” Song Yixiao looked at him suspiciously.“Kind of.” Jian Xubai answered with uncertainty and remained silent for a long while. He even blushed and then talked of his intention in a low voice, “My uncle says girls are good at how to act like a spoiled child. I am wondering how you do this to your father.”After he said that, his face was completely red. He kept looking around and yet didn’t dare to look at Song Yixiao. It was too embarrassing for him to ask a girl younger than him how to act like a spoiled child before her father. Even though he was eager to win favor from his father, he felt so awkwar