“Slow down, Concubine, slow down.”
Mai Dong supported Qiao Bao’er, who was jogging ahead, anxiously urging, “It’s only the fourth day. Your body hasn’t recovered yet. You can’t run or be exposed to the wind! You’ll develop a chronic illness!”
Qiao Bao’er paid no heed.
Just now, a maid from Madam Hou’s side came to check on her, trying to see if she was pregnant.
That’s when she realized Madam Hou had found out about it.
She immediately sent someone in a hurry to inform Yushu, only to learn that Yushu had been taken by Madam Hou back to the Marquis Manor!
That could only mean Madam Hou wanted to punish Yushu for Qiao Bao’er’s pregnancy—this was originally her own fault; how could she let Yushu suffer punishment for it?
If the Marquis and Madam Hou wanted to punish someone, it should be her to bear it.
She didn’t fear this miserable life anymore, but Yushu must not be burdened because of her again.
Sweat pouring down her forehead, dizzy and weak-legged, she gritted her teeth and hurried through the side gate of the Marquis Manor, quickly entering Madam Hou’s courtyard.
Just as she reached the main hall’s entrance, she heard the Marquis’s furious roar: “What did you say? Do you even know what you’re talking about? Nonsense!”
Yushu’s voice came through the shouting: “How is it nonsense for me to redeem my mother’s Redemption Contract? Father, since you promised Madam Hou that you would never take a concubine in your life, then you should keep that promise and be loyal for life.”
“You said before it was because you were drunk that you had that foolish affair with my servant mother. Then now you should correct this mistake—set my mother free instead of keeping her as your concubine and making mistake after mistake…”
“Ungrateful daughter!”
Xie Zhi’an exploded in rage and grabbed a teacup from the table, throwing it at Xie Yushu.
“Yushu!”
Qiao Bao’er rushed in and shielded Yushu, tightly hugging her.
The teacup shattered on her frail back with a clang.
Yushu was utterly shocked.
She hadn’t expected Bao’er to be here and immediately reached out to feel Bao’er’s back.
It was trembling and soaked cold from the spilled tea.
But Bao’er firmly blocked in front of her and asked, “Did it hit you, Yushu?”
Yushu looked down to see Bao’er’s face pale without a hint of color, sweat breaking out on her forehead.
Anger surged in Yushu’s chest.
She hadn’t wanted to make such a scene, but now Xie Zhi’an was shamelessly pushing her too far.
“What are you doing!”
Meng Min was also startled by Xie Zhi’an’s actions and angrily scolded him, “If you want to talk, then talk! Why do you have to lay hands on people and smash things? You were raised properly too!”
Xie Zhi’an had never been spoken to like that before and grew even angrier, “All the education I had was wasted on this unfilial daughter! Just listen to what she says! And what she’s done!”
“Mother, sit down first.”
Yushu helped the trembling Bao’er to a seat and gently comforted her, “Don’t be afraid.”
But Bao’er was terrified, holding her hand and silently blaming herself for not having a good family background or the wits to help her daughter, and for dragging her daughter into this suffering.
“It’s nothing.”
Yushu patted her hand and reassured her, then turned to face the furious Xie Zhi’an with a cold sneer.
She grabbed the teapot and teacups on the table and smashed them to pieces with loud crashes.
Meng Min shrieked in fright, and Zhen Nanny hurried forward to shield her.
But Yushu wasn’t done yet—she overturned the entire table and grabbed a remaining unbroken teacup, throwing it violently against the wall behind Xie Zhi’an.
Xie Zhi’an was almost scared to death, ducking and dodging wildly, urgently ordering the maids and servants to stop her.
Yushu finally stopped, breathing heavily, looking at the stunned Xie Zhi’an.
“You’ve gone mad. You’re really mad…”
Xie Zhi’an’s face was splattered with tea, deathly pale.
He had never seen such a shameless woman, nor such a disrespectful daughter.
He was so shocked he couldn’t even find the words to scold her.
Yushu smiled faintly at him, “If I were truly mad, I wouldn’t be smashing teacups on the wall—I’d be smashing them on Father’s face.”
She found a chair and sat down, relaxed as if she no longer cared, and said, “Father, is it that you don’t like the things I say? Were the things I said just now not the truth? You weren’t ashamed when you did those things, but now that I say them out loud, you feel ashamed?”
“How dare you speak to your father like that!”
Xie Zhi’an was furious, but this outburst from Yushu silenced him.
He didn’t dare strike her, only shouted in anger.
“A filial son and a kind father? The reason I’m rebellious, disrespectful, and uneducated is because I have a mother who gave birth to me but no father to teach me.”
Yushu still smiled and said, “Besides forcing my mother while drunk and causing her to bear me, what else have you done these past ten years?”
“You—you…”
Xie Zhi’an trembled with rage.
She had no intention of stopping: “There are some things you did—giving a little silver every month, and from time to time despising and scolding me and my mother as if we were beneath you. If you look down on us so much, why do you keep another servant to bear your child? You have plenty of women anyway.”
After she said this, Xie Zhi’an’s face immediately darkened.
He shouted, “What nonsense are you spouting!”
Then he hurried to look at Meng Min, afraid she might believe Yushu.
Meng Min’s expression darkened.
She had a lot she wanted to say, desperate to use this opportunity to expose all of Xie Zhi’an’s and Ye Widow’s, and Mistress Kuishou’s scandals!
But Zhen Nanny held her shoulder, signaling her to stay calm and see what Yushu planned.
As expected, Yushu calmly continued, “Am I spouting nonsense? Does Father dare swear to Madam Hou that you only ever betrayed her once when drunk? That the only two women in your life are her and my mother? If there’s even one more woman, you should give all the Yong’an Marquis’s property and estate to Madam Hou.”
Xie Zhi’an’s face stiffened, and he shouted angrily, “It’s a joke for me as a father to swear to you!”
“To me?”
Meng Min spoke up, biting back her anger, “Zhi’an, if you’ve done nothing wrong to me, what good is a vow?”
“Why are you encouraging her to make a scene?”
Xie Zhi’an snapped at Meng Min, “She and her servant mother are both crazy, and you let them run wild instead of controlling them?”
Meng Min’s heart turned cold.
She knew very well that if vows mattered, Xie Zhi’an would have been struck down by heaven long ago.
But he now didn’t even want to lie to placate her, which showed he planned to bring the other woman back eventually.
That was why he was afraid of what he said today becoming future evidence against him.
After all, Ye Widow was due to give birth soon.
He was probably calculating when to bring her back.
Meng Min even thought that Xie Zhi’an only mentioned Qiao Bao’er’s pregnancy to test her reaction.
If she accepted it easily, then later when he brought Ye Widow back, he could say: “You accepted Bao’er, so why can’t you accept one more woman?”
Shameless.
Meng Min’s fingers trembled with fury.
This man she had been married to for almost twenty years was terrifyingly unfamiliar, scheming to control her and use other women as scapegoats.
Was he even planning for her to deal with Yushu and Bao’er today?
She hated it deep in her heart.
After all, Qiao Bao’er was just a pitiful woman—forced by him when he was drunk, fresh for two days before being dismissed to the outer quarters, forgotten all these years.
Now, he clung to her only because no woman dared defy him so openly.
No woman dared silently abort his child, nor redeem herself, nor actively try to leave him!
A strange relief arose in Meng Min’s heart. Xie Zhi’an probably never expected a servant to reject him, or a servant’s daughter to tear open a rift with him for her mother’s sake!
She couldn’t help but say coldly, “If you think they’re crazy and making a fuss, why not just give her the Redemption Contract and send her away?”
Xie Zhi’an froze.
He hadn’t expected Meng Min not only to refuse to help him discipline the two madwomen but also to want to let them go.
Yushu knew she had him now.
She and Xie Zhi’an had broken ties; the oath was only for Meng Min—to make clear that she and her mother would never be enemies of Meng Min, that they firmly stood with her.
Today, she wanted Meng Min to know that in the Yong’an Marquis Manor, she recognized Meng Min as the head Missus.
“Send her away?”
Xie Zhi’an frowned at Meng Min, “Have you lost your mind? Is Qiao Bao’er just an ordinary servant? She’s a concubine who bore me a child. No lord in history has ever let a concubine keep her freedom! And she dared to abort the child on her own!”
“That wasn’t a child—just a clump of unformed flesh.”
Yushu, encouraged by Meng Min’s words, spoke without fear, “It couldn’t be saved anyway. She just lost it in time. If Father cared about my mother’s pregnancy, he’d know she had several bleeding episodes and started burning mugwort to protect the fetus at five months. Even the doctor you hired said the outlook was bleak. But you never visited her once—how would you know any of this?”
She looked at Xie Zhi’an: “I’m really curious—if Father ignored my mother’s pregnancy all this time, why suddenly tell Madam Hou and send for the nurse now?”
Xie Zhi’an was stabbed in a weak spot and shouted furiously, “You wretched thing!”
He shook a finger at her.
“Don’t think that just because you’re married I can’t discipline you! Someone! Drag her outside for family punishment!”
Qiao Bao’er was shocked and immediately stood up to shield Yushu, unwaveringly saying, “This has nothing to do with Yushu. It’s me who didn’t want to keep that pregnancy. I want to redeem myself!”
She had always been timid and never dared speak loudly, even when Xie Zhi’an forced himself on her.
She could only cry and accept her fate.
But now she seemed to have nothing to lose as she knelt down trembling and loudly said, “Does the Marquis still remember when you forced me while drunk? You promised Madam Hou that as long as I kept silent, you’d give me my Redemption Contract?”
Xie Zhi’an was stripped of all dignity by these women today.
Shocked and furious, his face turned red and white as he scolded her that past matters should not be brought up again!
But Qiao Bao’er was determined to speak: “The Marquis made it very clear. You said you were drunk and mistook me for Madam Hou and told me not to say a word. You promised you’d give me the Redemption Contract and send me home after a while. If I hadn’t found out I was pregnant later, I never would have stayed as a concubine…”
“Shut up!”
Xie Zhi’an couldn’t listen anymore.
“Ungrateful wretch! I’ve already honored you by noticing you. Now you shamelessly bring up these ugly matters against me!”
He shouted in anger, “Drag this servant outside and beat her to death!”
But Meng Min sneered coldly behind him.
Zhen Nanny, standing beside her, waved at the nurses approaching from outside, signaling them to retreat.
Naturally, Madam Hou’s courtyard had to witness the mistress’s disgrace.
Looking at Xie Zhi’an at this moment, Meng Min felt disgusted to the point of wanting to vomit.
Where had the once gentle and refined young master of a noble family gone?
What was he now but a desperate gambler or drunkard?
Meng Min shivered all over, a dull pain starting in her head again.
“Isn’t the Marquis already making enough of a scene?”
Xie Zhi’an turned to look at her, full of anger, but when he met her cold and mocking gaze, his fury instantly died down.
She had never been like this before.
She had no anger or resentment—only chilling coldness.
“It was the Marquis who was wrong first by forcing Qiao Bao’er. She never did anything wrong all these years. On what grounds would you beat her to death?”
Meng Min asked coldly and calmly, “Even in families like ours, we don’t kill people without reason. A servant’s life is still a life, especially since she bore you a daughter. Her daughter is married now. If the Marquis has no shame, I still do. The Meng family still does.”
Xie Zhi’an didn’t understand when Meng Min changed.
When did she stop standing behind him?
“Zhen Nanny, bring Qiao Bao’er’s Redemption Contract.”
Meng Min ignored Xie Zhi’an and looked at Qiao Bao’er and Yushu.
The frail Bao’er still stood guarding Yushu, and Yushu’s gaze was resolute, like the strongest support Bao’er had.
A pang of sorrow struck her heart.
If only her Jia Ning were still alive…
“Are you deliberately opposing me?”
Xie Zhi’an’s heart grew icy.
He felt Meng Min was purposely embarrassing him as head of the household in front of everyone, opposing him openly, “Are you trying to tell them that you’re the one in charge here at Yong’an Marquis Manor?”
Meng Min looked at him, almost laughing with anger.
So what he cared about most was face—his face as the Marquis of Yong’an.
“Does my husband care that I’ve offended your face? If I forbid you from taking concubines all these years, do you feel ashamed and suffocated living outside?”
Xie Zhi’an’s face turned black.
He felt like all the women in the room had gone mad and out of control.
“You’re crazy too now!”
He didn’t want to argue more with these madwomen and angrily swept his sleeve, nearly bumping into Zhen Nanny who had just returned with the Redemption Contract.
Zhen Nanny quickly stepped aside, watching him storm out of the courtyard, then immediately called a servant over and quietly ordered him to follow the Marquis to see if he intended to leave the manor to visit Ye Widow.
She took the Redemption Contract inside and handed it to Qiao Bao’er.
Bao’er took it in disbelief, trembling all over.
This was the Redemption Contract for herself, Qiao Miao’er, and Mai Dong—something she had dreamed of reclaiming all her life, and now it was really hers.
She couldn’t help but cry and knelt to kowtow to Meng Min, “Mistress, you have done me great kindness, I…”
“Get up, quickly.”
Meng Min had Zhen Nanny help her up, then sighed looking at her obviously weakened face, “Don’t thank me—thank yourself for giving birth to such a daughter. I’ve never seen a daughter so rebellious, willing to redeem her mother like this.”
She looked at Yushu, not only admiring her courage but even more so her ruthlessness and decisiveness.
She must have been the one who made Bao’er abort the child, right?
There were few daughters in the world who dared to go this far.
She had undoubtedly offended her father completely, just to free her mother.
Bao’er nodded repeatedly, crying as she hugged Yushu, “Mother, thank you, thank you, Yushu…”
Yushu gently returned the embrace and then heard the long-awaited system voice—
“Congratulations, Host, you have completed 20% of the Female Supporting Role Main Mission.”
So much?
Yushu was amazed.
She had only just reached 12% before, and now it jumped to 20%.
Yushu, do you really want to save your mother?
If she helped Qiao Bao’er redeem her servitude and live in the big mansion, wouldn’t she jump directly to 50%?