Font Size:
Wen Ruyu smiled as she pulled her daughter into her arms. She didn’t bring up any of the upsetting matters, simply changed the subject naturally.
“Are you hungry? I just had some steamed shrimp dumplings. I thought you might be studying, so I asked the kitchen to save some for you.”
Hearing that, Lu Mingzhu nodded and dropped the topic about her sister-in-law.
Wen Ruyu then told Chuntao to bring up the dumplings.
On this side, it was a peaceful and warm scene between mother and daughter. But next door at the Song household, things were already turning chaotic.
As soon as Madam Wang returned home, she saw her daughter had already been slapped twice.
She had married young, and now at twenty-three or twenty-four, her children were just five years old.
The New Year had just passed, and in this very first month, her child had already been beaten by her own father.
Then she spotted that seductive fox of a concubine sitting in a chair, pretending to be weak and fragile. Madam Wang didn’t even need to think—she knew this must be the work of Concubine Yang.
Her gaze dropped and she saw Concubine Yang’s round, pregnant belly.
A flood of grievances from over the years surged in Madam Wang’s heart. She charged forward, ready to tear the face off that vile woman.
“I’ll rip your vile tongue out!”
The maids and attendants tried to stop her, and Zhao Shu, standing by, rushed in to hold her back.
Startled, Concubine Yang pretended to panic, looking oh-so-pitiful and weak.
Zhao Shu, though tall, couldn’t match Madam Wang’s fury. Even with two older maids helping, they couldn’t hold her.
In the end, Madam Wang broke free and lunged at the pregnant concubine.
Naturally, Master Song wouldn’t allow that. He stepped in front of Yang and forcefully pulled Madam Wang away, then threw her hard to the ground.
“You shrew! Are you done making a scene?!”
Madam Wang landed hard on her backside, pain shooting through her body, even her internal organs seemed to tremble.
Because the commotion was loud, all the maids and servants gathered by the door. Since guests from the Lu family were visiting, everyone saw her being thrown down by her husband.
Shame and frustration turned into tears.
“You would hurt me for a whore?” she cried, getting up from the floor.
Zhao Shu quickly urged, “Quick, hold your lady back. Your concubine’s pregnant—if she gets hurt, it’ll be serious.”
Zhao Shu wasn’t truly worried about the concubine, but the child she carried—Master Song’s child. If something happened to it, Wang’s already fragile position in the household would be even worse.
But Madam Wang no longer targeted the concubine—she reached straight for her husband.
Trying to protect Yang and fend off his wife’s attacks, Master Song, though a tall man, ended up with several bleeding scratches across his face—deep red and terrifying despite their small size.
The ruckus was so loud, even the elderly couple of the Song family were alerted.
Old Madam Song, around fifty, arrived with a maid’s help.
She saw her son’s face covered in blood, the pregnant concubine crying on a chair, the daughter-in-law looking deranged with messy hair, and her granddaughter sobbing behind the servants.
She was stunned.
Old Master Song, however, managed to scold someone.
But instead of asking what happened, he immediately yelled at his daughter-in-law: “What are you doing?! Wang! You’ve gone too far!”
Exhausted from the fight, Madam Wang had little strength left and was easily pulled away.
Seeing his parents arrive, Master Song seemed to find his backup. He straightened his clothes, ran over to them, and pointed at Wang.
“She’s gone mad! She attacked the concubine for no reason, then scratched me! Father, Mother, I want to divorce this shrew!”
Zhao Shu, though embarrassed, still spoke up for her friend.
“You can’t say things like that. You’ve been married for years; there should be some mutual tolerance.”
Old Madam Song finally reacted. She cupped her son’s face and saw the scratches. Immediately, she began wailing.
“A venomous woman! She wants to kill my grandson and won’t even spare my son!”
Madam Wang was heartbroken. She may not have been perfect all these years, but she bore the Song family two children. If not worthy of praise, she still deserved some credit.
Even Zhao Shu, an outsider, spoke for her.
But her own husband wanted to divorce her. Her father-in-law didn’t ask for the truth, just blamed her. Her mother-in-law kept calling her a “venomous woman.”
Looking back, ever since her mother-in-law had sent that concubine into her husband’s room, everything had changed.
Thinking of this, her hatred toward Yang deepened.
“Divorce me?” Wang laughed bitterly. “Then I’ll kill that bitch first and pay with my life!”
With that, she charged toward Yang.
Yang, six months pregnant, couldn’t move quickly. The two young maids guarding her—only twelve or thirteen years old—were no match for the furious Wang.
Sure enough, Yang was knocked over like a turtle on its back, belly up, unable to get up.
Old Madam Song, desperate for a grandson, was horrified.
Zhao Shu, initially worried for herself, couldn’t hold back anymore and stepped in to stop the fight.
Master Song and Old Master Song also joined in. After a chaotic struggle, they finally separated everyone and held Madam Wang down in a chair.
Madam Wang’s son and daughter—twins—came over, crying uncontrollably.
She felt life had treated her unfairly. Even after having two children, she still couldn’t keep her husband’s heart.
Holding her children, she burst into loud sobs.
Zhao Shu, watching from the side, felt deeply moved and secretly wiped her own tears.
Through her sobs, Madam Wang told her dowry maids, “Pack up my things! You all hate me anyway. I’ll take the kids and go back to my parents’ house!”
But Old Madam Song said, “You can leave, but the children stay.”
“They are my children!”
“They are the Song family’s grandchildren!”
Old Madam Song didn’t care about the granddaughter, but she couldn’t bear to see her eldest grandson leave.
She hoped the child Yang carried was a boy—then the family wouldn’t be under Wang’s control anymore.
For reasons unknown, she never liked her daughter-in-law. When Wang married into the family, the Songs and Wangs were well-matched.
But now, the Songs had prospered while the Wangs remained the same. Old Madam Song felt Wang was just benefiting off their fortune.
When Wang was ill and bedridden, worried her son lacked care, she had sent a concubine to his room.
But ever since, Wang had treated the concubine with disdain, which the old lady took as an insult.
In this day and age, when a daughter-in-law argues with her mother-in-law, no matter how right she is, she never wins.
Zhao Shu, as an outsider, could help mediate, but had no right to interfere in family matters.
In the end, with no resolution, Wang was taken to the Lu residence by Zhao Shu to calm down.
By the time they returned, the Lu family was almost ready for dinner.
Wen Ruyu saw Wang’s disheveled appearance and didn’t need to ask to guess what happened.
She didn’t pry. Instead, she asked her personal maid, Xia Zhu, to help Wang freshen up, then had dinner served in the room.
Only the women were present, and they had a simple meal.
Wang wasn’t particularly hungry—she had had afternoon tea, and had been angered so much it filled her up. She barely ate.
After dinner, she sat there absent-minded, wiping tears with her handkerchief.
Wen Ruyu watched, feeling deeply sympathetic for women of this era.
By now, Lu Mingzhu had gone back to her room.
In Wen Ruyu’s room, aside from the servants, it was just the three women talking.
Zhao Shu, sitting next to Wang, asked with concern, “What do you plan to do next?”
Wang simply wept. “I don’t know. I want to go back to my parents’ house. But my children are still at home—I can’t stop worrying.”
Though Wen Ruyu had no children, and couldn’t completely empathize, she still understood Wang’s concern.
Zhao Shu, a mother herself, instantly teared up when Wang mentioned her children.
Meanwhile, the Song family had also finished dinner.
Yun, the daughter, kept crying for her mother, so her nanny brought her to the Lu house.
Wen Ruyu saw the slap mark on the child’s face and her expression darkened.
“It’s one thing for adults to argue, but hitting a child in the face?” she said as she waved Yun over.
She gently stroked the girl’s cheek.
The skin of children is delicate, and the slap mark looked striking on her small face.
Though they had applied ointment, the crying had rubbed most of it off.
Wen Ruyu told Qingxue, “Go get my Baibao ointment and apply it for the child.”
She understood that in this era, it was unrealistic to expect elders to never hit children.
But still, there had to be limits. Even when Lu Baining was grown, if she punished him, it was never with face slaps—because one wrong move could cause real harm, even deafness.
“It was that vile woman stirring up trouble!” Wang said bitterly, wiping her tears.
“She told Yun that once she had her baby, their father wouldn’t want Yun or her brother anymore. Yun was angry and pushed her. Then he saw it and slapped Yun without even asking what happened.”
Wen Ruyu, after hearing the full story, said calmly, “That Yang woman was wrong, but your husband wasn’t blameless either. He’s nearly thirty—how could he hit a child like that without even asking what happened?”
Wang was stunned.
Yes, she’d been blinded by rage, blaming her in-laws and the concubine.
But the person who had truly failed her today… was the man she had shared a bed with for so many years.