An elegantly graceful beautiful woman walked out.

“She’s come out!” The crowd stirred with commotion.

Yang Shi, wife of the Marquis of Changchun, wore an expression of appropriate anxiety and gravity on her face. Her eyes immediately found Luo Sheng.

Under the sunlight, the young woman’s face was expressionless, her dark lustrous eyes and slightly raised fair chin making her radiate spirit and vitality from her hair to the hem of her skirt.

“Madam Yang has finally come out.” Luo Sheng stared fixedly at the approaching woman, her smile ambiguous.

Yang Shi felt anger rise in her heart.

Miss Luo was cornering her like this—truly malicious in intent!

Being a stepmother was already difficult. If she let Miss Luo continue spouting nonsense, her good reputation would be completely ruined.

“Miss Luo, did Xi’er offend you?” Yang Shi’s tone was anxious, full of concern for her stepson.

Luo Sheng curved her lips and pointed at her pitiful nephew being stepped on by Hong Dou: “Does Madam Yang think Young Master Xu could offend me?”

Yang Shi’s face paled: “If that’s the case, Miss Luo, why… why treat Xi’er this way?”

Xu Xi kept his eyes closed, escaping from everything, yet his eyelashes trembled slightly.

Was his stepmother concerned about him?

He knew it—if the family truly knew he’d been wronged, how could they not care about him?

In the past… it was just that he hadn’t complained.

Luo Sheng didn’t respond to Yang Shi’s words but instead instructed Hong Dou: “Don’t step on Young Master Xu on the ground.”

“Yes.” Hong Dou responded and hoisted Xu Xi onto her shoulder again.

Only then did Luo Sheng look at Yang Shi and ask in return: “How does Madam Yang think I’ve treated Young Master Xu? Did I beat him? Did I scold him?”

Yang Shi felt anger in her heart but couldn’t show it on her face. With a solemn expression, she said: “I heard Miss Luo wanted to take Xi’er away to become a male concubine.”

Luo Sheng looked surprised: “Who told Madam Yang that?”

Yang Shi faltered.

Naturally, she’d heard it from the steward, and the steward had heard it from many people who came to report to the marquis household. Looking at Xu Xi being carried on a young maid’s shoulder, could this be a misunderstanding?

Luo Sheng shook her head: “Madam Yang is at least a noble lady from a prestigious family—how can you think of people in such a degrading way? Ask these onlookers—did I ever say I would take Young Master Xu back to my estate to become a male concubine?”

Yang Shi instinctively looked toward the dense crowd.

The people who didn’t mind making the excitement bigger all shouted: “Miss Luo didn’t say that!”

Yang Shi clenched her fists hard and looked at Luo Sheng.

Luo Sheng smiled and pointed at Xu Xi being carried on Hong Dou’s shoulder: “As for me, I was escorting Young Master Xu home—otherwise, why would I take this route? Everyone, am I right?”

“Right!” Finding this spectacle thoroughly enjoyable, people were happy to cooperate and cheer.

Madam Yang’s expression turned ugly, barely able to suppress the anger in her heart: “If you were escorting Xi’er home, why carry him on someone’s shoulder?”

“Madam Yang doesn’t know?” Luo Sheng looked even more surprised. “It’s because Young Master Xu was beaten by several young masters from who knows which family and knocked unconscious. Fortunately, before he fainted, he identified himself, and that’s how we knew he was your estate’s eldest young master. Being kindhearted, I brought him here.”

Xu Xi, being carried by Hong Dou, nearly jumped up.

She was lying, she was fabricating—after a moment of agitation, Xu Xi calmed down.

He couldn’t expose her true face. Compared to being snatched away to become a male concubine, being sent home unconscious from a fight was at least not as humiliating.

Xu Xi buried his face in Hong Dou’s shoulder, hiding his expression completely.

Pretending to be unconscious was too difficult—he couldn’t let people see his face.

In the crowd, several young men were even more dumbfounded, staring at that girl with calm eyes and expression as if witnessing a miraculous new world.

How, how, how could she tell such lies with such righteous confidence?

What do you mean beaten unconscious by them? Even in the past when they were afraid of causing trouble, they’d never struck such vicious blows. If we’re really talking about it, they were the ones about to be beaten unconscious in that alley just now.

“Should we expose her?” The not-so-quick-witted young man was eager to try.

Another young man slapped him: “Expose what? If we expose her, everyone will know it was us who beat him. Are you stupid?”

The slapped young man murmured: “Miss Luo is really clever.”

To lie publicly yet have no one able to expose it—what a remarkable skill!

“In that case, Miss Luo, please have your maid put Xi’er down.” Yang Shi showed a relieved expression.

Luo Sheng frowned: “Madam Yang, aren’t you going to ask about Young Master Xu’s injuries?”

Yang Shi remained quite composed: “Once I bring Xi’er inside, naturally I’ll summon a physician to examine him.”

“Then does Madam Yang know that Young Master Xu frequently gets beaten?”

Yang Shi looked at Xu Xi with concern, full of regret: “I didn’t know. I’ve never heard Xi’er mention it… Why would Xi’er get into fights—”

Luo Sheng unceremoniously interrupted Yang Shi’s words: “Not getting into fights—being beaten by several people. Madam Yang’s beloved daughter at the young age of twelve already has a widespread reputation for talent, showing that Madam Yang is also a woman of talent. How can you speak so inaccurately? Everyone, tell me—is getting into a fight the same as being gang-beaten?”

“Of course not the same.”

“Who would have thought—even a young master from a marquis household gets beaten.”

“What’s so strange about that? Such things happen everywhere. Who told Young Master Xu not to have a birth mother to protect him…”

People in the crowd said all sorts of things, some words like knives stabbing directly into Yang Shi’s heart.

“Why doesn’t Madam Yang know that Young Master Xu is frequently bullied?” Luo Sheng asked word by word.

No matter how composed Yang Shi was, facing countless strange looks and pointing fingers became unbearable. Her face pale, she said: “Xi’er never mentioned it… Besides, this is the Marquis of Changchun’s household’s family matter. Isn’t Miss Luo interfering too much?”

Luo Sheng raised an eyebrow with a cold laugh: “When the road is uneven, someone levels it. When matters are unjust, someone intervenes. With Madam Yang’s single phrase ‘family matter,’ does that mean if Young Master Xu is one day beaten to death and thrown in the street, outsiders aren’t allowed to speak of it either?”

Ignoring Yang Shi’s ugly expression, Luo Sheng’s lips curled with mockery: “Madam Yang, don’t use ‘Young Master Xu never mentioned it’ as a fig leaf. I asked those people who beat him—Young Master Xu being beaten isn’t just this once, but a common occurrence. You might not know once, but can you not know every time? Not know month after month, year after year? Do you think being the marquis’s wife is just for show?”

Luo Sheng’s three consecutive questions made the onlookers’ discussions even more heated.

“That’s right—if a child is frequently beaten, how could the mother not know?”

“Tsk tsk, if it were a poor family with many children focused on making a living and not paying attention, that wouldn’t be strange. But in such a wealthy and refined household with quite a few servants attending to Young Master Xu, how could they not know anything at all?”

“Perhaps the eldest young master forbade the servants from speaking?”

Someone hearing this scoffed: “If you were a servant attending to Young Master Xu and saw your master frequently beaten, knowing the lady of the house cherished the master, what would you do?”

More people shook their heads and sighed.

Definitely report it to the lady of the house.

Once, perhaps they’d follow the master’s instructions not to tell anyone, but if this happened frequently, how would they dare hide it from the marquis household’s mistress?

Unless the servants knew in their hearts that the lady of the house didn’t actually care that deeply for the master.

Yang Shi listened to these discussions, her vision darkening in waves: It’s over. Her good reputation built over many years has been destroyed by Miss Luo’s few words!

Looking at the swaying and tottering Yang Shi, Luo Sheng curved the corners of her lips slightly.

Unable to withstand even this small blow? The matter wasn’t finished yet.