Lady Wang glared at the servant woman.

Such an ill-mannered creature, not even considering what kind of occasion this was, running over in a panic to speak nonsense. What a waste of her usual trust.

The servant woman, however, couldn’t care less about Lady Wang’s reproachful gaze and lowered her voice: “Madam, the young master was caught in an affair with someone and fainted from shock. He’s been sent to our residence.”

“What!” Lady Wang shot up from her seat. Meeting the surprised gazes of several ladies, she forced a smile and said, “I suddenly have urgent matters to attend to. Please, continue sitting.”

Seeing Lady Wang hurry out, the ladies exchanged glances and all gave meaningful looks to their trusted maids and servants. Soon, several maids and servants slipped out to gather information.

Before long, the maids and servants who had gone out returned one by one, each wearing peculiar expressions.

“What exactly happened?” one lady asked.

The maids blushed and remained silent, while one servant woman cleared her throat and replied: “Reporting to Madam, there was quite a commotion outside with many people arriving, saying that Young Master Zhang was caught having an affair with someone, was so shocked he fainted, and was brought back completely naked.”

“My, such a thing happened?” The ladies’ eyes immediately sparkled with gossip, though their faces showed concerned expressions.

“Is Young Master Zhang alright? And who was the woman he was having an affair with?”

Among them was a lady who happened to be the sister-in-law of Lady Wang, the wife of the Court of Judicial Review Minister. Hearing this, she frowned, feeling embarrassed by her sister-in-law’s troubles while secretly feeling fortunate.

When her youngest daughter had reached marriageable age, her mother-in-law had once intended to marry the child into her sister-in-law’s family. Thinking about it now, what great fortune that was! Her mother-in-law should be grateful she had disagreed back then.

With this thought, she lost the intention to discourage these ladies from watching the excitement.

A married daughter is like spilled water—her sister-in-law’s failure to properly educate her son couldn’t be blamed on the Wang family.

“What, the woman’s background is unclear?” the questioning lady asked with some disappointment.

The servant woman’s expression became instantly colorful: “The one having an affair with Young Master Zhang wasn’t a woman, but… a man…”

Saying this, the servant woman quickly glanced at the lady from the Wang family.

The ladies were immediately shocked by this bizarre news. Opening their mouths, someone finally found their voice to ask: “What kind of person was that man?”

The servant woman hesitated before saying: “It was, it was the son of the Assistant Minister’s wife—”

The lady from the Wang family’s expression stiffened.

Her husband was the Assistant Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. What did this servant woman mean by looking at her while saying this?

It wasn’t until the several ladies all looked over that the Wang family lady belatedly realized.

Could it be that the one fooling around with her sister-in-law’s son was her son?

Earlier, when the ladies had sent maids and servants to gather information, since she was Lady Wang’s sister-in-law, it wasn’t appropriate for her to do the same, so now she was completely in the dark.

“This is impossible!” The Wang family lady suddenly stood up, no longer caring about face or dignity, and went to question her sister-in-law.

The remaining ladies looked at each other and simply all followed along.

“What exactly is going on here?” Lady Wang, wife of the Court of Judicial Review Minister, saw her son unconscious while her nephew was just carelessly wrapped in someone’s clothing. Her vision darkened as she grabbed her nephew and asked in a hoarse voice.

“Aunt, you should at least let me get properly dressed before we talk.”

“Zhen’er, how did you end up with your cousin?” The Wang family lady rushed over.

Lady Wang turned to see several ladies following behind and wished she could immediately faint and die.

Today’s incident had truly lost her all face.

“Ladies, I won’t be entertaining you today.” Lady Wang forced herself to gather her spirits, sent the ladies away, then grabbed her awakened son and nephew to scold them harshly.

Hearing her sister-in-law’s words implying that her son had corrupted his cousin, the Wang family lady said angrily: “Sister-in-law, that’s meaningless talk. Both children made mistakes and should be properly disciplined. How can you push all the blame onto Zhen’er?”

Lady Wang sneered: “Sister-in-law, aren’t you ashamed saying such things? Zhen’er has had this problem for quite some time. He could harm anyone else, but how could he harm his cousin?”

The Wang family lady became even more furious upon hearing this: “Sister-in-law, what are you saying? Zhen’er hasn’t delayed marrying and having children. He just indulges occasionally. There are plenty of young masters in the capital’s households who fool around when they don’t understand things, but don’t they all eventually marry and establish careers?”

Thinking of this, contempt flashed in the Wang family lady’s eyes.

She had wondered why her sister-in-law’s younger son had no children after several years of marriage—turns out he didn’t consider himself a man.

“Sister-in-law, let’s not discuss this. When things don’t come to light, anything goes, but now their shameful affair is known throughout the capital. You decide what to do about it!”

Just then, a steward hurried over and handed a letter to Lady Wang: “Madam, someone asked me to give this to you.”

Lady Wang numbly accepted the letter, pulled it out to read, and saw several large characters written on it: “Courtesy demands reciprocity.”

“What does this mean?” The Wang family lady leaned over to look and asked in confusion.

Lady Wang was thunderstruck and cried out: “My son was framed, he was framed!”

“Framed by whom?”

“The Marquis Guanjun’s wife!”

“Sister-in-law, why do you say it was the Marquis Guanjun’s wife?”

Lady Wang suddenly realized she had spoken out of turn and stammered, unable to speak.

The scandal of the Court of Judicial Review Minister’s household and the Assistant Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices’ household quickly spread like wildfire, immediately overshadowing the gossip about the Marquis Guanjun’s household.

The rumor about the Marquis Guanjun’s wife being closely involved with the Qiao family’s young master lacked solid evidence after all. How could it compare to two grown men being caught naked in a room by a group of people? Moreover, these two men were both young masters from prominent families, and they were cousins!

For a time, from the Court of Judicial Review Minister down to his servants, no one dared show their faces outside. But this wasn’t the end—soon the natal family of Lady Wang’s younger daughter-in-law came knocking.

“Today, no matter what, your household must give us an explanation. My daughter was raised like a precious pearl. After marrying into your family for three or four years, because she hadn’t had children, she endured countless cold remarks from your family. Turns out your son is someone who doesn’t want to be a man, wasting several years of my daughter’s youth for nothing.”

The in-law’s wife, who had always kept her head low before Lady Wang because her daughter had no children, now wanted to rush forward and bite off a piece of Lady Wang’s flesh.

Heaven knows how much her daughter suffered because of not having children, when the truth was this!

Even killing that bastard with a knife wouldn’t be enough to resolve her hatred!

The two families quarreled for several days, finally ending in divorce.

The Court of Judicial Review Minister was soon impeached by various censors for improper family conduct and lax household management. Emperor Mingkang was already irritated and directly suspended the Court of Judicial Review Minister from his position, ordering him to reflect behind closed doors.

The Court of Judicial Review Minister had struggled in official circles for most of his life, only to be inexplicably suspended for reflection. Nearly dying of anger, he carefully inquired and learned the root cause of the disaster. He slapped Lady Wang to the ground with one blow and without another word, wrote a divorce letter.