nucmednet Chapter 96
Chapter 96
Just as the eldest princess was about to say something, the second wife interrupted, "Get lost! You'd better not let me see you! Humph! If it weren't for you, this jinx and nemesis, how could our Jiang family have ended up in exile! Fortunately, we didn't arrange for my Chun'er to be engaged to you, otherwise, the Jiang family would have faced far more than just exile!"
The eldest princess shouted anxiously, "Second sister-in-law, you can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want! If it weren't for Zisu taking in our Jiang family, she would be living a comfortable and happy life at Little Stone Pool right now! It's really too much for you to turn the tables like this!"
He quickly apologized to Zisu, saying, "Good child, this person has lost her mind. Don't bother with a crazy woman like her!"
Zisu waved her hand and sneered at the Second Madam: "Don't worry, I will definitely go far away and I promise I will never marry your son in this lifetime! Even if all the men in this world die, I will not marry your son!"
Upon hearing this, both the princess and Hua'er were deeply saddened.
Once these words are spoken in front of so many people, how can they be taken back? In this life, Zisu and Chun'er are truly destined to be apart!
The eldest princess was so angry she almost vomited blood.
Zisu said to Yingtao, "Go find my uncle and tell him to come back quickly. Then you can go find us about five miles ahead!"
"Yes, miss!" Cherry hurriedly ran off to find someone.
Zisu bowed respectfully to the Princess again: "Your Highness, if Shen Laihui and his men come looking for us, please help them find their way. Thank you, Your Highness!" As she spoke, she took out a one-hundred-tael silver note and handed it to the Princess: "This is a small token of my appreciation. Please accept it, Your Highness, and find some time to buy some daily necessities!"
"This, this isn't a good idea, is it? I think I'd better not take it." The princess seemed a little flustered.
My second sister-in-law just treated them like that, and now she's accepting their money notes? What kind of behavior is that? She doesn't have that kind of thick skin. But if she doesn't accept it, this family won't be able to make a living.
Caught in a dilemma, Zisu stuffed the silver notes into Yue'er's pocket, then turned and took her younger brother and cousin's hands, heading towards the carriage. Madam Yu and her grandmother quickly followed.
The family boarded the carriage, with Zisu acting as the driver, and they sped off. In the blink of an eye, the carriage became a black dot.
That's the good thing about the vast grasslands; there's no need to worry about the carriage falling into a ditch. Nor is there any worry about it hitting anyone. So even though Zisu had never driven a carriage before, she dared to drive it incredibly fast.
"What a disaster! What a disaster! How am I going to explain this to the master and the others when they return!" The princess came to her senses, slumped onto the grass, and couldn't help but sigh deeply.
Cherry quickly found Yu Zhe, who was at that moment gathering firewood in the grove with the three members of the Jiang family.
Cherry rushed to Yu Zhe's side, panting, and shouted, "Uncle, my daughter wants you to go back right now!"
Yu Zhe was shocked and quickly asked, "What's wrong? What happened?"
Cherry was still furious and said without any attempt to hide her anger, "Uncle, Madam Jiang said my young lady is a jinx, a nemesis, and said many other nasty things. She's angry and wants to take us to settle down five miles away! She wants you to come with me directly to that place five miles away, and we'll carry firewood and go find her!"
Everyone was stunned when these words were spoken!
Jiang Shichang, in particular, choked on his own saliva and almost bit his tongue.
Jiang Shihua and Jiang Yong were also stunned, their faces filled with disbelief. Shocked, they both felt deeply ashamed to have such a younger brother and sister-in-law (mother).
Yu Zhe snapped out of his daze, picked up the firewood he had gathered, and stormed off without even saying goodbye. It was clear he was furious, extremely furious. Naturally, he took his anger out on the three members of the Jiang family.
Cherry quickly followed. The direction they went was the opposite of the direction they had come from.
Seeing that things were going badly, Jiang Shichang panicked and quickly chased after him, saying, "Brother Yu, don't take that crazy woman's words to heart. Let's go back! Don't worry, I'll personally go and find Zisu and the others!"
Yu Zhe waved his hand, breaking free from his grasp, and said with a serious face, "Zisu is a kind-hearted person; otherwise, she wouldn't have taken in the Second Madam when you found Peach and Plum Garden. Therefore, what the Second Madam said today must be very serious. Otherwise, this child wouldn't have left on his own initiative!"
"Sigh, it's all my fault as her uncle; I'm so useless, causing my niece to suffer. I can't control other things, but I can at least follow her wishes and not go against her! Otherwise, how could I, as her uncle, face her?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Shichang was speechless and didn't know what to say.
Yu Zhe clasped his hands in a fist and said, "I'm sorry, but it's better if our two families live separately to avoid growing tired of each other over time. That wouldn't be good! Others may not care about my niece, but as her uncle, I can't help but care. If we don't live separately, I'm worried that I might not be able to resist beating up Madam Jiang when I see her!"
After saying that, he turned around and strode away.
At this moment, Jiang Yan also came over and explained the whole story in detail. He didn't embellish or deliberately hide anything; he simply told the truth in a calm tone.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Shichang's face turned ashen. Looking at his elder brother, a hint of hatred flashed in his eyes: "Brother, tell me, what's wrong with Hua'er's mother? Even at this point, she still has the mind to cause trouble, to be unreasonable, and to look down on others! We're only slightly better off than prisoners! I don't know what she's thinking. Even in this state, what right does she have to look down on Zisu? What's the point of keeping such a troublemaker around? We might as well divorce her!"
Jiang Yong was startled and quickly pleaded, "Father, Mother was indeed unreasonable, but she only targeted Zisu. In other matters, she is still very reliable, so please forgive her! Anyway, Zisu's family has taken the initiative to settle down elsewhere and won't live together, so there won't be any conflicts in the future!"
Jiang Shichang shook his head and sighed: "You, don't you know that the Zisu family and the Yu family were implicated because of our Jiang family? If we hadn't gone to Taoli Garden to seek refuge with Zisu, her family and the Yu family would never have been subjected to confiscation of property and exile! The way your mother is acting today is simply ungrateful. She will be punished for doing this!"
Jiang Yong said with tears in his eyes, "Father, I know, I know that what Mother is doing is indeed unreasonable and incomprehensible. However, she is, after all, my birth mother, and she has not committed any unforgivable crimes. So, please, Father, calm down and don't divorce Mother. My mother has nowhere to go!"
Jiang Shihua also advised, "Yong-ge'er is right. In this vast grassland, if you divorce her, how will she survive?"
Jiang Shichang: "I regret it so much. I regret not divorcing her when we were still in Yulin. If I had divorced her then, she could have gone back to her parents' home! Even if her older brother and sister-in-law weren't very nice and might not have welcomed her, they would have at least given her a place to stay. Now it's too late! Fine, let's separate! If she gets worse in the future, I'll find a suitable time to divorce her decisively; if she changes her ways, I'll forgive her this time, and we can all live a good life together!"
Jiang Yong and Jiang Yan couldn't help but exchange a glance, and both breathed a long sigh of relief.
Father promised not to divorce Mother, that's good! Sigh, from now on, we'll just have to take it one step at a time! In the future, I must persuade Mother to treat Zisu's family better and try to reconcile with Father. Life is already hard enough; if Father and Mother become like strangers, how unbearable will life be!
Jiang Shihua patted his younger brother on the shoulder: "For the sake of the children, just bear with it! It's too late to say anything now. We'll repay Zisu's family properly when we have the chance in the future!"
Now that things have come to this, even if they kneel down and beg, Zisu will absolutely not move back to live with them. Since that's the case, it's better to let things take their course, and to avoid Hua'er's mother doing anything inappropriate to Zisu's family that would further worsen the relationship between the two families.
The four men, each lost in their own thoughts, bent down to gather firewood.
There's no other way; we need to gather as much firewood as possible. Now that Hua'er's mother has fallen out with Zisu's family, Shen Laihui and his men definitely won't come to protect the Jiang family tonight. So, we need to light several bonfires.
Sigh, this is really worrying! How are we going to spend the long night camping on this grassland with just a few campfires and two tattered tents?
Jiang Shihua felt a splitting headache, and Jiang Shichang also thought of this, his face full of worry and his heart full of anger.
Back at the campsite, the second wife approached her husband with a calm smile and said, "My husband is back."
Seeing her act as if nothing had happened, Jiang Shichang couldn't contain his anger and slapped her hard across the face: "You troublemaker! If there are no guards on watch tonight, you can just wait to be eaten by wolves!"
Her husband beat her in public again. She originally wanted to throw a tantrum, but after hearing the last few words, she was stunned: Yes, now that she was living separately from the Shangguan family, her guards would not stay here! What should she do?
Just as he was dazed and worried, the sound of a carriage approaching from afar grew louder.
Everyone looked up and saw that it was Shen Laihui, Luo Jianming, Pan Kang, Xia Tian, and Shu Gen—the five of them had come looking for them!
The second madam couldn't help but look at Xia Tian with longing eyes, her smile beaming: "Xia Tian, you were originally the eldest princess's guard. Tonight, you will stay here to protect the eldest princess!"
Xia Tian couldn't help but frown: "Replying to Second Madam, I am now Yi-ge'er's personal guard, and I must listen to my young lady!" He then couldn't help but ask: "Don't we all live together? Tonight, shouldn't we guards take turns on duty?"
Shen Laihui's focus, however, was not on that. His gaze swept quickly around and he immediately saw the problem: "What's going on? Why isn't anyone from the Shangguan family or the Yu family here?"
Yue'er pouted, looking like she was about to cry: "Uncle Shen, my second aunt said bad things about Sister Zisu. Sister Zisu got angry and took her people to stay in a place five miles away."
"What?! This crazy woman is talking badly about my young lady again?!" Shen Laihui immediately flew into a rage upon hearing this, glaring fiercely at the second madam. Then, he waved his hand forcefully: "Come on, get in the carriage, let's go find the young lady, madam, and young master!"
The four of them then drove two horse-drawn carts loaded with daily necessities and food at high speed.
The second wife was dumbfounded and muttered to herself, "Oh, don't leave! At least leave some food and supplies! Or leave a carriage so we can sleep in it tonight!"
Shen Laihui had previously acquired four carriages. After arriving in the Northwest, two of them were driven back to the capital by the officials. The remaining two were driven away by Shen Laihui and his companions; otherwise, if the officials in the Northwest had seen them, they might have been confiscated.
Because exiles were generally not allowed to ride in carriages on the road. This gave the officials a convenient excuse to confiscate their carriages for their own use or to seize them for the public good.
Shen Laihui and his companions drove the horse-drawn carriage around the streets several times, finally managing to purchase all the daily necessities they needed. However, they then came looking for them again.
Pan Kang followed Zi Su and the others from a distance until he learned where they were going, and then went to meet up with Shen Laihui.