Chapter 5: Hazing

Jiang Li returned to the Duke’s Mansion and forced them to bring her stepfather and younger brother before her.

As expected, Yuan San had been beaten, and four-year-old Yuan Zhao was also frightened, throwing himself into Jiang Li’s arms and wailing.

Jiang Li’s heart was in a mess from the little guy’s crying, and she patted the chubby little dumpling’s back, saying, “There’s going to be a flood, washing me away.”

The little dumpling she raised was closest to her, even his mother had to come second.

Yuan San looked at Jiang Li nervously, “Big girl, did they do anything to you?”

Yuan San had always called her Big Girl.

He was very good to Jiang Li, with the concern of an elder, but also with awe, because Jiang Li was the absolute backbone of the family.

Yuan San used to be an honest blacksmith, his wife died in childbirth, and his meager property was all taken away by his wife’s family.

He owed a lot of debt to bury his wife, and he himself got sick and owed debt, spending five or six years to repay it.

Later, Yu Shi moved next door to him with her daughter.

Seeing that they were pitiful, Yuan San often took the initiative to help with rough and tiring work.

Jiang Li thought he was honest and simple, so she deliberately brought him and Yu Shi together, and successfully helped them achieve a positive result.

Jiang Li felt that Yu Shi, as a concubine in the Duke’s Mansion, was cautious and careful, and suffered all kinds of bullying, so she should find a man who knew how to care for her.

This marriage was very satisfactory.

“I’m fine, it’s just that my mother was bullied,” Jiang Li said indignantly.

Yuan San looked at the injuries on his wife’s face, but didn’t say anything, only lowered his head and clenched his fists secretly.

He was incompetent and couldn’t protect his wife and daughter.

But if they insisted on coming, he still had this life!

“But it’s okay now. You go home first…”

Jiang Li repeated the lie, and instructed, “I’ll go to the royal mansion myself first, and I’ll write to you often. You can also come to see me.”

When she passed by the back door of the Prince of Ping’s mansion before, she saw the eunuchs inside leaning on the wall and calling to the peddlers outside to buy things.

So communication shouldn’t be difficult, but they just couldn’t leave the house.

“Miss, this servant will go with you!” Zhi Zi said, crying.

“I’ll go too,” Yu Shi said, “The royal mansion always needs rough maids, right?”

“Then what about Uncle Yuan?”

“I can also do rough work, I can be a gardener, or transport swill, anything is fine.”

“Then what about my brother?” Jiang Li was amused.

It wasn’t enough for her to fill the hole alone, she also had to buy one get four free, and drag the whole family in to be slaves?

Then she would really be crazy.

Four-year-old Yuan Zhao really couldn’t be arranged, and Yu Shi was in a dilemma.

But she quickly said, “Let your Uncle Yuan take care of him at home, and I’ll go with you.”

“That won’t do!”

The couple argued.

Jiang Li said, “Alright, it’s a burden for me to take you. Stop arguing, listen to me, wait for me at home. Whatever I tell you to do, you do it, otherwise you’ll just be making trouble for me.”

Yu Shi and Yuan San stopped talking.

They were used to listening to Jiang Li giving orders.

But Zhi Zi insisted on going with her.

Although the little girl was gentle and considerate, she was stubborn, and Jiang Li couldn’t persuade her.

Considering that if no one followed, the family would be even more worried, she reluctantly agreed.

Jiang Li went to find Old Madam Wan.

But Old Madam Wan said that her chest hurt and sent the First Madam to see her.

Jiang Li and the First Madam engaged in a war of words, back and forth, and finally sent her parents and younger brother back home, while also letting them take away ten thousand taels of silver.

The Duke’s Mansion couldn’t give her the hundred thousand taels of silver she wanted.

Jiang Li was just talking nonsense, and what was more important was to protect her family.

The result of the final bargaining was that there was a total of thirty thousand taels of silver, in addition to giving her parents ten thousand taels, she would take another twenty thousand taels into the Prince of Ping’s Mansion.

This thirty thousand taels of silver, from the old lady to the ladies and young mistresses below

“””From the old lady to the ladies, young mistresses, and young ladies, each room and courtyard bled.

Jiang Li was very satisfied with this.

However, she originally thought there would be a lively wedding, and she had even stuffed two wads of cotton into her ears to avoid being disturbed by the firecrackers.

But she didn’t expect that she, a dignified princess, would actually be carried into the Prince of Ping’s mansion in a small sedan chair, without any ceremony.

Apart from the two thousand taels of silver notes sewn into her underwear, the Duke’s Mansion only prepared worthless dowry items such as bedding and a fertility bucket. There wasn’t a single valuable item.

Good heavens, really good heavens.

After Jiang Li was carried to the door, she took out the cotton wads from her ears and, with her head covered, was helped out of the sedan chair by Zhi Zi.

“The prince is unwell and cannot come to greet the princess,” a shrill voice rang out. “This servant is ordered by the prince to welcome the Princess Consort.”

Jiang Li thought that the voice sounded like a chicken being strangled by the neck, which was too unpleasant.

As if her wish came true, something was shoved into her hand the next moment.

Jiang Li looked down and was speechless.

A rooster!

“The prince cannot perform the wedding ceremony, so the princess will have to make do with this chicken,” the voice said gloatingly, and there was a burst of snickers around.

This was a hazing.

She didn’t know if it was the Prince of Ping’s idea or if these insolent servants were trying to reach the sky.

“Marry a chicken, follow the chicken; marry a dog, follow the dog. I have no problem with that,” Jiang Li said loudly. “But using a dead chicken for the ceremony seems unlucky, doesn’t it? Is it cursing the prince?”

“Dead chicken? Who said it was a dead chicken?”

“I did.” Jiang Li directly threw out the rooster whose neck she had broken.

Everyone was surprised to see that the rooster, which had been struggling while tied up just now, was now lying on the ground with its neck crooked, truly motionless.

Dead?!

Really dead.

Weird.

The eunuch who spoke was named Wang Jingrong and was the steward of the Prince’s Mansion.

His face was ugly, and he immediately ordered someone to clean up the dead chicken and replace it with another rooster.

But when the second rooster was handed to Jiang Li, before anyone even saw her move, she said the rooster was dead and threw out another dead chicken.

Jiang Li silently chanted in her heart: Chicken, oh chicken, grievances have their source, debts have their debtor. If they hadn’t sent you here, you wouldn’t have died.

So if you want to hold a grudge, go find those insolent servants.

Everyone felt that this matter was too strange, so strange that it was frightening.

This time, no one sent any more chickens.

Jiang Li wiped her hands. Although it was annoying to have her head covered, she still resisted the urge to lift it and put on a timid voice, “What should I do?”

She really loved acting.

But what she was best at was playing a mental patient, mainly because she was free-spirited.

“Let’s go inside first!” Wang Jingrong was also flustered. “Check the dowry and bring it all in together. Close the door!”

He was a superstitious person, and the successive deaths of two chickens made him suspect that there was a weasel spirit causing trouble in broad daylight.

Otherwise, how could the chickens have died one after another for no reason?

Perhaps the Prince’s Mansion had been sealed for too long, and when it suddenly opened, dirty things came in.

Someone took the dowry list and began to read it, while others checked and inspected each item.

When they heard the meager dowry, disdainful voices rang out in the crowd again.

Jiang Li turned a deaf ear.

However, Zhi Zi, who was beside her, was flushed with anger.

The Duke’s Mansion was really bullying people too much.

Knowing that the Prince of Ping couldn’t recover, they looked down on people like this, unwilling to even put on a show of politeness. The young lady would be looked down upon in the future.

“…One maid…” the person reading the dowry list announced.

“Incorrect, two maids.” A clear and familiar voice rang in her ear.

Jiang Li’s body trembled, and she suddenly lifted her head covering, just in time to meet a pair of clear eyes.”””