When Shaoshang was pulled away, her head and face had already taken several blows. She felt her cheeks burning with pain, the corner of her eye seemed to be swollen, and her chin appeared to have been scratched with a small cut. Squinting to look at Yin E’e, she couldn’t help but secretly praise herself: her signature skills hadn’t been lost!
In the chaos, she vaguely saw Yuan Shen with a face full of worry, that youth called Lou Yao looking as if he’d been struck by lightning, seemingly having his life’s knowledge completely broadened. Lady Yin, who had rushed over in haste, was stamping her feet in both anger and anxiety. Then after a flurry of frantic activity, Shaoshang and the tearfully sobbing Yin E’e were both sent to a side room in the back hall of the Yin residence, where the just-arrived Lady Yin, Lady Xiao, and Lady Wan with her daughter were present.
Upon hearing of this matter, Lady Yin nearly stumbled and fell down the steps. She hurriedly entrusted the responsibility of receiving guests to her sister-in-law before coming over. Lady Xiao appeared relatively composed, though her breathing was clearly becoming somewhat more rapid. Lady Wan, though not a party involved, couldn’t remain uninvolved and stood awkwardly, not knowing which side to take. Wan Qiqi, however, was determined to show unwavering loyalty!
Lady Yin hastily reported the important points of the scene to her legitimate mother’s ear. Lady Yin breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as not many people saw it, things were fine. The two maidservants were her household’s servants, whom she could completely control. Yuan Shen and Lou Yao were men after all, with decent reputations. She could ask her husband to make a good request of them, so they wouldn’t go around spreading idle gossip about young ladies brawling.
The only somewhat strange thing was that Yuan Shen seemed inexplicably enthusiastic about this matter. If not for her eldest daughter’s clever words deflecting him, he would have almost followed them over. Even after being persuaded to leave, he still lingered, repeatedly inquiring about the injuries, completely unlike what her husband had said about him being ‘though young and successful, constantly attending His Majesty’s side, but cautious in speech and conduct, keeping to himself’—so, everyone has their quirks; did Yuan Shen enjoy watching young ladies fight?
As a mother who also had a daughter of marriageable age, Lady Yin wasn’t without thoughts of coveting Yuan Shen as a son-in-law. However, her husband didn’t think highly of it, saying Yuan Shen ‘appears indifferent, but actually has deep intentions within,’ and the wife’s family he would choose in the future would certainly involve great calculations—perhaps he would marry into an extremely powerful and noble family, or simply choose the daughter of a classic studies elder far from the imperial court but bearing a great reputation; it wasn’t impossible.
Lady Yin had already cooled half her heart toward Yuan Shen, and after today’s events, letting him see her family’s daughter beating a young cousin, she completely extinguished that thought.
“Sister, rest assured, not many people saw it, this matter won’t spread.” Lady Yin wiped her sweat and comforted Lady Xiao, then turned to angrily scold her daughter, “You wretched creature! You’re both older and from the host family, yet you beat Miss Cheng! All your book reading was wasted! Your etiquette learning was wasted! I’ll tell your father about this and see how he punishes you!”
Shaoshang was secretly amused: so parents of this era also use ‘wretched creature’ when angry at their children.
After scolding her daughter, Lady Yin then softly said to Shaoshang: “Shaoshang my child, you’ve been wronged! Rest assured, your aunt will definitely give you justice. After today’s banquet ends, I absolutely must make this wretched creature taste family discipline!”
Both brawling girls who had been pulled apart were in disheveled states, but Shaoshang was clearly more miserable—bruised and swollen like a pig’s head, with nosebleed still on her collar. In comparison, Yin E’e, apart from disheveled hair and smeared cosmetics, had her face and hands completely intact. Adding to this, one was tall and large, the other young and slight—the situation was simply self-evident.
Only Lady Xiao knew her daughter’s temperament and capabilities. There were truly few in this world who could make her suffer losses. The real situation was probably not like this, but if they could muddle through it this way, it wouldn’t be bad either. She pretended to be tolerant in comforting Lady Yin, while instructing her personal martial maid to go check on Shaoshang’s injuries.
Hearing the accusations coming one after another, how could Yin E’e be willing to accept the blame? She cried with tears and snot flowing, repeatedly saying she was wronged, yet couldn’t produce any witness or physical evidence. She was truly wronged to death! Who knew that at this moment, Shaoshang suddenly said: “I hit Sister E’e first.”
Yin E’e turned her face to stare at Shaoshang in a daze.
At these words, everyone in the side room was shocked.
Lady Yin’s heart relaxed, thinking this young lady had a bad temper, but was still upright, calling things as they were.
Lady Xiao’s heart, however, gave a thud. She looked at her daughter covered in injuries, yet so indifferent about it, her emotions extraordinarily complex.
Wan Qiqi on the side became anxious, struggling hard to pry open Lady Wan’s tightly gripping arm, loudly saying: “Sister Shaoshang is the most reasonable person, she would never randomly hit people, there must be a reason. Shaoshang, you speak, speak!”
Shaoshang had been waiting for these very words. Inwardly shouting ‘sister’s got spirit,’ she then took advantage of the opportunity, putting on a face full of stubbornness, saying: “She said I have no father or mother, no upbringing, can’t even recognize a few characters, utterly crude and vulgar!”
Lady Yin glanced sideways to see Lady Xiao’s face had already darkened, her head aching: whether beating a guest or speaking malicious words, she didn’t know which would do less harm to her sister’s reputation. She looked at her legitimate mother again, only to discover Lady Yin standing there dazed, with even a bit of tears in her eyes.
This time Yin E’e couldn’t cry injustice, because she had indeed said these words. But she very much wanted to say, wasn’t this the truth! Was speaking the truth also wrong! But facing the unpleasant expressions of the elders above, she also knew saying this would make things worse.
Lady Yin came out to smooth things over, smiling: “My sister just doesn’t know how to speak, doesn’t know how many people she’s offended. This time, even if she said the wrong thing…”
“Sister E’e didn’t say anything wrong, not a single word was wrong.” Shaoshang’s voice already carried a crying tone, mournful and pitiful, quite pitiable. “It’s precisely because she wasn’t wrong, I had no way to refute, so I could only resort to violence…”
Wan Qiqi listened with unbearable fury, blood rushing to her head.
She struggled to push away Lady Wan’s restraining grasp, jumped out in one motion, pointing at Yin E’e and saying: “When hitting people don’t hit the face, when exposing people don’t expose their shortcomings! Was it because Sister Shaoshang was lazy and stupid that she didn’t study and learn etiquette properly? You constantly flaunt the good upbringing of the capital’s ladies. Knowing someone has hidden pain, you still press your advantage relentlessly—is this your upbringing?!”
Yin E’e was left speechless. This time Wan Qiqi’s words were full of grand righteousness, she couldn’t refute them. She could only continue shouting in her heart that what she said really was the truth, the truth!
Shaoshang observed her expression and felt a slight pity: what cannot be said most in this world is often not lies or slander, but the truth.
At this moment, everyone except Lady Xiao exchanged glances, feeling the matter was very clear—it should have been Yin E’e who first spoke disrespectfully, and Cheng Shaoshang, being young, was provoked to the point of throwing punches. Unfortunately, being small and weak, she was held down by Yin E’e and beaten. No matter how one calculated it, Shaoshang suffered the loss.
Wan Qiqi ignored her mother’s eye signals and added fuel to the fire, pouring out everything about the ‘golden nest swallow date’ matter, then also said: “Aunt Yin, I’m not sowing discord, but Sister Cheng Yang was also bullied by her!”
Lady Yin’s expression was desolate as she said in a daze: “Cheng Yang was raised in her maternal grandfather’s home, also without parents by her side.”
Wan Qiqi hadn’t expected this reaction from Lady Yin, was stunned for a moment, then said: “Exactly!”
Seeing this situation, Lady Xiao turned and wept behind her sleeve: “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t kept Shaoshang back then, this wouldn’t have happened…” Shaoshang secretly praised Director Xiao’s acting skills—able to be soft or hard, able to bend or stand firm, capable on the command platform and on the theatrical stage.
At this time, Lady Yin instead became composed. She properly performed a bow to Lady Xiao, speaking with reason: “This matter is my failure in teaching my daughter. Rest assured, I will certainly give both children an explanation. Your family and mine have become acquainted today, our spirits are compatible, there’s much ahead. Sister, it wouldn’t be good to leave the table at this time and let people laugh. Better to first send someone to take Shaoshang home to rest and recuperate.”
Lady Xiao, being so alert, immediately saw that Lady Yin’s expression was unusual, there must be another hidden story. But as it involved the other family’s affairs, she couldn’t pry too much. She immediately took her daughter and went out.
Wan Qiqi, worried that her future sworn sister would be disfigured, left her mother behind and followed out, still muttering ‘my family has the finest wound medicine, I’ll have someone go home to fetch it right now.’
Watching them leave, Lady Yin staggered and fell onto the table, tears rolling down, her expression indescribably desolate.
Lady Yin was greatly alarmed. She had excellent feelings toward her legitimate mother. She immediately knelt before Lady Yin, anxiously asking repeatedly ‘Mother, Mother what’s wrong with you.’
Lady Yin covered her brocade handkerchief and wept without speaking.
Only Lady Wan knew of her past, stepped forward and softly said: “Ah Yu, it’s passed, it’s all passed, you… you now have a happy family, you’re also a grandmother now, your late parents in the springs below surely know, they definitely… definitely…” Speaking thus, she also covered her sleeve and wept softly.
Lady Yin wiped away her tears, walked before her daughter who was standing dazed like a wooden chicken, raised her hand and ‘slap’—delivered a heavy slap. Yin E’e’s face quickly reddened in a patch, showing how hard Lady Yin had struck.
“Mother!”
“Ah Yu!”
—Lady Yin and Lady Wan simultaneously cried out in alarm.
Yin E’e was stunned by the blow. Since her birth, pampered by her parents, loved by her siblings, let alone corporal punishment, not even a harsh word had been said to her. Now experiencing her first slap in life, she couldn’t even cry.
Lady Yin glared at her daughter, coldly saying: “I too was without father or mother from childhood, before the age of twelve hadn’t read many books, didn’t recognize many characters, I too was crude and vulgar, unworthy of being your mother! From now on don’t acknowledge me, I don’t dare accept it!”
Through tear-blurred eyes, Lady Yin recalled that she too had once been born in a blessed nest like her daughter, with a happy family, who knew one day they’d suffer someone’s frame-up, resulting in family destruction and death. She even watched with her own eyes as her father and brothers were beheaded at the Wan marketplace, her mother using her last breath to hide her in the Wan family, passing away not long after.
Because at such a young age she suffered such great trauma, for several consecutive years she was muddled and confused. Fortunately Lady Wan, like a real sister, carefully attended to and counseled her. In her tenth year she finally awakened. Later the situation changed, the enemy family also met their retribution, and only then did Lady Wan’s father dare bring her out and send her to her distant uncle’s home.
Uncle and aunt were both loving people, treating her as their own. But even so, in the middle of the night under the covers, the small her was still desolate and anxious, missing her parents, not to mention how many girls who bullied her mocked her countless times for being ‘without father or mother, without upbringing.’
Lady Yin and Yin E’e had never heard of this matter, and for a moment both were stunned.
Over there, Master Yin was entertaining guests in the front, when a servant woman conveyed that his wife was crying uncontrollably, bedridden and unable to rise, he hurried back to the room to check. Learning the reason, he without a second word also gave his youngest daughter a resounding slap, first scolding her as an ‘ignorant wretched creature’ and so on, then following with a round of reprimands, hand strikes, punishment copying… just short of kneeling at the ancestral shrine.
The young Miss Yin E’e, who had lived smoothly for fifteen years, now at once received all possible punishments in full.
Compared to the bitter wind and harsh rain for Yin E’e, Shaoshang’s side was simply gentle breezes and light rain.
After returning to the Cheng residence, A’Zhu saw her covered head to toe in injuries, was pained beyond measure, silently shed a basin full of tears. Who knew that when changing Shaoshang out of her dirty and torn clothes, she discovered there were very few injuries beneath her clothes, the delicate skin almost perfectly intact.
“I said early on, these injuries don’t matter, I know what I’m doing.” Shaoshang smiled and patted A’Zhu’s shoulder.
—Technique! The key was technique! That Miss Yin didn’t look seriously hurt at first glance, but Shaoshang knew she had struck ruthlessly. Even though this body didn’t have much strength, it should still make that Yin E’e uncomfortable sitting or lying down, finding nothing appetizing to eat.
Especially that kick she planted on Yin E’e’s leg, those several pinches at her waist—the former followed the Shaolin school’s profound and harmonious approach, the latter circulated the Wudang school’s gentle breeze essence. The technical content simply broke the charts. That Miss Yin would hurt for at least three days. If she hurt one day less, she’d write her name backwards!
Shaoshang knew that after Lady Xiao returned there would be another hard battle waiting for her. After washing up, adding a lunch abundant in vegetables and meat, she quickly got on the bed to rest. Hugging her quilt, she slept soundly all afternoon. When she woke, the sun was already slanting westward, and she learned that all the Cheng family members had returned to the residence. Sure enough, A’Zhu said anxiously that Lady Xiao had instructed her to come to Jiuzhui Hall as soon as she woke.
Shaoshang first took out that small target mirror that Second Brother Cheng Song had just sent over, looking left and right at the exquisite and lovely pig head in the mirror, clicking her tongue in praise, feeling she had controlled it exceptionally well this time—this was exactly the effect she wanted.
Now she was even more confident and assured.