Chapter 5: Isn’t it Exciting? Catching Your Own Daughter in Adultery

Everyone turned their heads at the sound and saw Tang Mi standing at the garden entrance. They were instantly stunned.

Madam Qin looked at Tang Mi as if she had just been struck by lightning, her entire body went stiff.

Under everyone’s shocked gazes, Tang Mi walked forward with poise and greeted politely,
“Greetings to Your Highness the Princess, and to all the esteemed ladies.”

The crowd finally snapped out of their daze and immediately began whispering amongst themselves:

“Isn’t that the eldest Miss Tang right there? Then who is the woman inside the room?”
“Who else could it be? It must be the fourth Miss Tang.”
“Just now, Madam Tang insisted it was the eldest daughter, and now here she is standing right in front of us. Isn’t that just hilarious?”
“If it really is the fourth young lady in there, then Madam Tang just caught her own daughter committing adultery!”

Hearing their whispers, Madam Qin’s face turned livid as she glared at Tang Mi.
“What are you doing here? Weren’t you supposed to be in the room?!”

Tang Mi looked innocently at her and replied,
“I wasn’t in there. I went to find Fourth Sister.”

As she spoke, she glanced toward the room, as if puzzled.
“What’s that sound from inside? Is Fourth Sister in there?”

“You little, what nonsense are you talking about?!” Madam Qin, enraged, raised her hand and slapped Tang Mi across the face.

Tang Mi narrowed her eyes but didn’t dodge, she took the slap directly.

Smack!
The crisp sound of the slap left the entire crowd stunned.

Tang Mi held her face, eyes brimming with grievance.
“I don’t understand what I said to make Aunt so angry. Though I lost my parents young, Grandmother personally raised and taught me. Even if I did something wrong, it should be Grandmother who disciplines me, not Aunt raising a hand against me.”

No one expected Madam Qin to slap Tang Mi in public, and everyone began murmuring in disapproval:

“Madam Tang has gone too far. She’s just her aunt, how could she strike her like that?”
“Exactly. She only asked a question. Madam Tang is clearly feeling guilty.”
“If she dares to hit her niece out here in public, who knows what kind of bullying goes on behind closed doors? Poor girl, having lost her parents so young…”
“Don’t forget, the late General Tang died a hero on the battlefield! She’s the daughter of a national hero. Madam Tang has really crossed a line.”

Madam Qin regretted it immediately. She’d slapped someone in front of everyone, clearly making herself look guilty.

“Mi’er, Aunt was just panicked. Don’t take it to heart,” she said, forced to apologize under everyone’s scrutiny.

Tang Mi blinked and held back her grievance for the time being. She asked worriedly,
“Is Fourth Sister missing?”

Seeing Tang Mi bring up Tang Rong, Madam Qin ground her teeth in frustration, but she couldn’t explode now. She forced a stiff smile and said,
“Yes, your Fourth Sister has gone off somewhere to play and hasn’t come back. We should go find her.”

She reached out to pull Tang Mi along.

She couldn’t leave everyone standing there, if they got a clear look at the people in the room, it would be over. As long as no one saw clearly, everything was still just speculation. If she could later “find” Rong’er somewhere else, she could still spin the story.

But Tang Mi’s gaze flickered. She wouldn’t let Madam Qin get away with this so easily. She shrugged off her hand and kneeled properly before the Princess.

“Your Highness,” she said, “I was feeling unwell earlier, and Fourth Sister brought me to the guest quarters to rest. But due to an incident, I left to walk around and haven’t seen her since. I beg Your Highness to help me search for my sister.”

The Princess furrowed her brow and looked down at Tang Mi. Was she truly unaware that Tang Rong was in the room, or was she trying to deliberately lead them inside?

Either way, the Princess had already made up her mind, she would never consider Tang Mi as a daughter-in-law anymore. Too stupid, her family couldn’t afford that. Too scheming, they didn’t dare accept it.

Still, she played along and asked,
“Where did you rest just now?”

“In that room,” Tang Mi replied, glancing at the half-open door.

The Princess narrowed her eyes sharply.
“You said you were resting in that room?”

Was she truly so stupid, or what? Saying she had rested in that room was practically an open declaration that she had set Tang Rong up.

The other madams all looked at each other. Their expressions of pity for Tang Mi quickly turned into disgust and disdain.

They were all women of noble birth, what they hated most was a girl scheming against her own sister, especially in a way that would ruin her for life.

But Tang Mi paid them no mind. She still looked perfectly innocent and repeated,
“Yes, I was resting in that room just now.”

The Princess stared at her, trying to read something from her expression, but there was nothing. It was as if Tang Mi truly didn’t know anything.

Madam Qin was seething with hatred. This wretched girl! If she weren’t worried about exposing Rong’er, she would have lunged at Tang Mi right then and torn her to pieces.

Just then,

“Ahhh!”
A sharp scream rang out from the room, and the door swung fully open.

Everyone turned simultaneously to look.