Chapter 129 Spoil the Concubine and Ruin the Wife
The mansion of Premier.
Xue Chang’s face was livid, “Were it you who asked your uncle from the same clan to instigate Fang Nongyan to sue Ruan Chunjun under my banner?”
“Dad, I… I didn’t say that!” Although Xue Fangmi had been deeply loved by her father since childhood, she knew that in spite of Xue Chang’s indulgence to her, it was impossible for him to let her make decisions on significant matters. Seeing that there was something wrong with his face at the moment, she immediately softened her tone and explained feebly, “I just said a few words about my hate towards that guy when visiting my aunt!”
She tried to behave like an obedient and pitiful girl, “I guess… maybe my aunt and uncle misunderstood me?”
“How dare you still quibble about it?” Xue Chang had a very high prestige in court, even the Empress Dowager and the Empress had to show respect to him. However, he was very kind at home, especially to his daughters and granddaughters whom he indulged very much. This prestigious premier seemed to be very good to his family, which could be shown from the fact that he didn’t strictly reprimand Madame Xue who had brought such a big trouble for him.
But after all, the daughter was different from the elder sister. Apart from the gap in seniority, Madame Xue shouldn’t be a person without a sense of propriety. The reason why she screwed things up this time was that she had misjudged Yang Yishi’s determination. As for Xue Fangmi, the girl had caused one trouble after another in the matter of Ruan Qingyan!
“What did Ruan Chunjun do to make you pester him like this?” Looking at his daughter’s little face, which was like petals, Xue Chang was unwilling to administer physical punishment in the end. But he still ordered her to kneel down and then exhorted earnestly, “Do you really think that I don’t know what’s in your mind? You just don’t want either yourself or Qing to be married to him! I have not quarreled with you about this matter anymore, and have persuaded your brother to forgive you. However, you are still against him! Do you really think he would like to be manipulated arbitrarily by me just because he’s my student?”
On hearing this, Xue Fangmi knew that she had to tell the truth. “I just feel angry about Jiang Yashuang’s refusal to the marriage!” she replied while puckering her mouth.
“Does it have anything to do with Chunjun?” Xue Chang was dumbfounded by her daughter’s reply. As a premier, he not only had to deal with a myriad of state affairs every day, but also had to guard against political enemies. Hence his attention to those things inside his mansion was certainly not as much as that of the young lady Xue Fangmi, who led a care-free material life and had nothing to do all day. At this moment, he couldn’t help wondering, “Do you think Jiang Yashuang refused to marry you just because he couldn’t tolerate Chunjun’s humiliation caused by your insult in public? You brought this on yourself!”
“Jiang Yashuang had an affair with Commandery Princess Ningyi, Ruan Chunjun’s cousin. In order to revenge for Ruan Chunjun, Commandery Princess Ningyi deliberately instigated Jiang Yashuang to refuse to marry me in public so as to humiliate me. Otherwise, with your prestige, my father, how could Jiang Yashuang disgrace our family like this?” Xue Fangmi said bitterly, “Dad, your daughter is too embarra.s.sed to go out now….”
“How could you still make mischief in your uncle’s house, if you were really too embarra.s.sed to go out?” Xue Chang sneered. “Never treat me as a fool in spite of my indulgence to you! The news of Jiang Yashuang’s refusal to get married with you was deliberately spread by the Gu family after spying them. Indeed, they did not mean to disgrace our family! Moreover, do you think Marquess Qin is dead? Will he allow a woman who has not yet married into their family to interfere with such a significant event involving the decency of both Xue family and Jiang family?”
Xue Fangmi was stuck for words and pursed her lips, “I admit my mistake!”
Xue Chang stared at her for a moment and sighed sadly, “I used to indulge you too much! If I continued to let everything move on like this, all of you would be ruined sooner or later!”
At first, Xue Fangmi had felt her father’s att.i.tude was not fierce, though his face looked grim. Thus she had believed that she would be able to muddle through this time by acting like a spoiled child just as before, but at this moment, she recognized there would be something wrong and said in a hurry, “Father…”
But Xue Chang no longer bothered to listen to her further explanation. Instead, he ordered someone to call for Xuesun, his eldest daughter-in-law, and asked, “How are you these days?”
Feeling confused, Xuesun answered cautiously, “Father, everything goes well with me.”
“In that case, don’t let your concubine mother work too hard on the housework inside the mansion.” Xue Chang said softly, “Besides, your mother pa.s.sed away too early. As the saying goes, ‘The elder sister-in-law is like a mother’, you must pay more attention to the teaching of Mi from now on!”
The unexpected surprise came so suddenly that Xuesun could not believe it. Trying to suppress her impulse to lean back and laugh loudly, she looked at Xue Fangmi who was surprised and angry for a while, and said cautiously, “My sister has always been intelligent and courteous…”
Upon hearing this, Xue Chang knew that she was just afraid that Xue Fangmi, who was favored by him, would be unwilling to be disciplined by her. So he said at once, “What kind of etiquette does she know? In terms of age, she is almost as old as Qing! Since you teach Qing so well, teach her in the same way from now on. Whenever she is disobedient, you should teach her a lesson following the same rules as Qing. As the eldest sister-in-law is like a mother, it is only reasonable for a mother to beat and scold her daughter! Even if she was not mature now, she should be grateful to you one day.”
Since she was married to this family years ago, Xuesun knew Xue Chang would always keep his word, although he often tried to mediate the differences between his families. Now that he said this, as long as she did not overdo anything from now on, he would not have a hand in her behavior even if she openly reprimanded Xue Fangmi. He wouldn’t intervene in the family affairs, and also took Nan’s rights back. What else would Xuesun be afraid of as the eldest son’s legal daughter-in-law?
“Father, thanks for your trust.” With no worries any more, Xuesun a.s.sured him in high and vigorous spirits, “I will teach the sister well!”
Heaven has eyes! Little b.i.t.c.h, you are in my hands in the end. I would give you a deadly lesson, you are a scorpion who destroyed your niece’s marriage again and again!
After disposing of the troublesome daughter quickly, Xue Chang calmed down and summoned Xue Nongying, the most beloved grandson, to discuss the way to deal with this matter, “How should we pacify Chunjun now?”
“We can’t keep Fang Nongyan alive.” Xue Nongying said without hesitation, “The confrontation between master and apprentice is a taboo in official circles! Especially after my youngest aunt humiliated Ruan Chunjun in public, our family had already owed him in the eyes of outsiders. We must not admit that we instructed Fang Nongyan to sue Ruan Chunjun!” Speaking of this, he sighed, “My uncle was really muddleheaded！How could he directly send his own families to pa.s.s on the message! If we didn’t kill Fang Nongyan now, how couldn’t other people blame grandfather once they knew my uncle had sent someone to instigate him?”
He didn’t say the last words: Xue Chang was now implicated by the Ding family. It’s uneasy for him to get the opportunity of General Ruan’s death. If someone knew the fact that Fang Nongyan’s suing Ruan Qingyan is related with the Xue family, the situation Xue Chang is confronted with would become even worse!
“It’s not up to our family to decide whether to kill him to keep his mouth shut.” But Xue Chang shook his head. “Don’t forget that your youngest aunt did this behind our back. If it hadn’t been for Ruan Chunjun who sent someone here to tell us, we wouldn’t have known anything about it!”
This couldn’t be entirely blamed on the males of the Xue family. In fact, it was inevitable for them to overlook their families for they had been really busy with the attack of the party of Empress Dowager these days. In addition, they did not expect that Xue Fangmi was so wayward and stupid that she turned a blind eye to the well-known rules of master and apprentice. How dare she really think that with Xue Chang as her father, she could be so domineering that she could even look down on a member of the Hanlin Academy appointed by the Emperor!
So Xue Chang had to cope with the aftermath of his daughter’s behavior, “Go to Ruan Family, and ask Chunjun in private what he’s going to do with Fang Nongyan. By the way, apologize for me. Indeed, it was caused by your youngest aunt, thus your father should have gone there, but I’m afraid it’s safe for you to go at present so as to avoid others’ attention.”
When Xue Nongying arrived at the General’s Mansion as per instruction, he was very ashamed to explain that everything was caused by the fool Xue Fangmi, “My grandfather thinks highly of you, and he often encourages us brothers to learn from you. How could he instigate someone to harm you?”
Now that Ruan Qingyan had clearly told Xue Chang about the matter, he certainly didn’t want to fall out with the Xue family. Thus he immediately expressed his forgiveness and understanding about this matter. Thereby the two families were reconciled to each other, and then they discussed the disposal of Fang Nongyan together. For such a small potato, which was like a mole ant in Xue Nongying’s eyes, it didn’t matter how Ruan Qingyan was going to cope with him!
He had made preparations to deal with Fang Nongyan personally, considering it was not convenient for Ruan Qingyan to dispose of Fang Nongyan, who was his brother-in-law.
Unexpectedly, Ruan Qingyan burst into tears as soon as he heard this, and said, “About this matter, I can’t explain it clearly in a few words. I also just know about it from the little oral description of people around my elder sister. Now there are no seniors in the Ruan Family, and my cousin is too young, so I’m afraid it would scare her. If possible, I would like to ask Mrs. Sun for help….”
“What does he want me to do?” said Xuesun in surprise who had just taken power inside the mansion and was in a good mood to get the opportunity to teach Xue Fangmi. She was bewildered to hear what her son said after coming back, “What can I do for him as a woman? General Ruan had just pa.s.sed away, he won’t want me to be his matchmaker, will he?”
Xue Nongying did not know whether to cry or to laugh, “Mom, what are you thinking about? Ruan Chunjun just wants you to invite several madams to check their eldest lady’s…” He felt awkward for a while before he said with a strange expression, “body!”
Xuesun was surprised, “Why did he make such a request? Could it be that Fang Nongyan dared to beat his wife?”
“I don’t know, maybe?” After all, it was not convenient for men to ask more questions about this topic. Xue Nongying guessed, “From Ruan Chunjun’s words, I don’t think he knows much about it because he just speculated on the basis that some information had been revealed by people closed to Miss Ruan. This time I also want to take the opportunity to ask mother to make a decision.”
“That’s true. No matter how much he cares about his sisters, he’s going to get married after all, so he can’t check it out by himself…” Xuesun rubbed her eyebrows and still felt a little confused. “Even though General Ruan implicated Fang Nongyan, he had taken great care of him before that… As the saying goes, ‘A day together as husband and wife means endless devotion the rest of your life’, the eldest lady is his legal wife who also had given birth to children and done housework for him. Does Fang Nongyan go so far as to be so insane?”
The next day, several n.o.blewomen who were the supporters of the Xue Family gathered in the backyard of the General’s Mansion. All of them tried every possible way to persuade Ruan Ciyi. Finally, she was unable to dissuade them and took off her mourning dress with tears in her eyes.
As soon as she took off her mourning dress made with hemp, some of the n.o.blewomen had already uttered an incredible cry of surprise, “Ah!”
“What happened?”
Because of the news revealed by her son, Xuesun had already been mentally prepared. Even so, after seeing the dense wounds on the complete back of Ruan Ciyi, with obvious both new and old wounds, she couldn’t help but hold her handkerchief tightly!
“Poor child! You… you’ve been abused by that beast for so many years?” Before Xuesun could utter a word, one of the n.o.blewomen could not contain herself and stood up right away. She first put on a robe for Ruan Ciyi, then carefully hugged her and cried, “How honorable were you when your father and mother were alive?! It’s only been a decade or so, and you’ve been maltreated like this!”
Xuesun glanced at the woman and suddenly realized, “Yeah, I remember Sister Feng was on good terms with Lady Ruan’s mother years ago, and you were going to unite your children in marriage. This decision was only given up later when both of your first children turned out to be girls.”
Madam Feng wiped her tears and choked with sobs, “I don’t deserve to be a close friend of Sister Tan! When she was still alive, she had asked me to take care of this child. However, my husband was sent to be local officials the next year and I had to go there with him. When I came back last month, I was very happy to hear that the child had also returned to Jing City. But I was too busy with some trivial things at home to meet her. I didn’t expect to see such a scene when I finally come here today. How can I explain it to Sister Tan in the future? How can I have the nerve to say that I am a close friend of Sister Tan?”
She immediately begged everyone, “You all know that Sister Tan and I had been as intimate as sisters in the past. Now her only daughter has been so maltreated that I must ask for justice for her, even if the lawsuit was brought in front of Empress Dowager and Empress! Please testify for me!”
These n.o.blewomen who came here today were originally partial to the Ruan Family just as Xuesun had wished, and they had seen with their own eyes how terrible the wounds on Ruan Ciyi’s back were. They were also women, who worried that their husband would abuse them after their parents’ home went downhill. At that moment, there was no need for Xuesun to imply because everybody was gnashing their teeth at Fang Nongyan and wished to kill this brute under a human mask as soon as possible!
There were so many n.o.blewomen witnessing and spreading this matter, and the wounds on Ruan Ciyi’s back were solid evidence. Even blind doctors could not deny that those wounds had been acc.u.mulated for at least five or six years!
In such a situation, the case of Fang Nongyan’s suing Ruan Qingyan had been directly linked to Fang Zijun’s slander of his own mother, before Ruan Qingyan finished keeping vigil beside the coffin for seven days. He was sent to prison, being accused of ruining his wife while spoiling his concubine.
As for Ruan Qingyan, he submitted a letter written in his own blood to the emperor at the same time, asking for a breakdown with the Fang Family!