Chapter 6

Chapter 6

In the end, Meng Ye was not a fool.

His young girl was intercepted in the middle of the street by her legal mother and the sisters of her household. They forced her to her knees and slapped her repeatedly. That lovely face of hers quickly lost its original appearance.

The foul language from the onlookers belittled the girl until she was worth nothing.

“Like mother, like daughter. Both are just goods for climbing into beds.”

“It’s a pity she doesn’t have her mother’s luck. Lady Wen was generous enough to grant her mother the status of a concubine, unlike her, who lives as an outer mistress, flaunting herself every day.”

“If she hadn’t gotten into a dispute with the young miss of the Minister’s house, who would have known that a fox-like mistress was living in the most prosperous courtyard of the West District?”

“The Wen Family is a family of generals, after all. How could they produce such a creature? In an ordinary family, she would have been hanged to rectify the family reputation.”

When she used the shackles of the back courtyard to lock me to my death in my past life, she probably never imagined that there would come a day when she would be sliced to the bone by the guillotine of public opinion.

The young girl was torn to shreds by the insults. Biting her lip with tears in her eyes and her long hair disheveled, she cast a weak, pleading gaze toward Meng Ye in the crowd.

Though Meng Ye’s fists were clenched tight, he did not play the hero to save the beauty at the expense of his future and the reputation of the Meng Family. Instead, he hurriedly sent a plea for help to the profligate heir, Lord Huo, Huo Ling.

Those insults and slaps landed on the girl’s face, but it was Lord Meng’s eyes that turned red with pain.

By the time Lord Huo arrived to resolve the situation, that vibrant, bright face-which always put on a show of fragility-was already unrecognizable.

Meng Ye, his heart already twisted with agony, had been waiting in the small courtyard with a physician for a long time.

I sat in the teahouse, counting every single slap. It wasn’t until they reached a full hundred plus twenty more that I felt a slight sense of satisfaction.

The old woman might have had nothing else, but she had plenty of methods and a ruthless heart.

The Wen Family’s values were upright, and they gave Wen Yunyang a choice.

Between the hanging beam and severing ties, Wen Yunyang chose the latter.

With a face swollen like a pig’s head and the judgmental fingers of others pointing at her, she had no choice but to play dead as she was carried back to the courtyard in the West District.

From then on, everything she took pride in was labeled as stolen and lowly.

But she didn’t yet know that her face had been completely ruined by those successive slaps.

Lady Wen was a decisive person. Once she knew that the public humiliation was a settled matter, she chose to sacrifice the small to protect the great.

The marriages of the Wen Family daughters and the futures of the sons were all brought to a satisfactory conclusion through those poisoned slaps.

When Meng Ye returned to the manor looking soul-crushed, I poured tea for him while smilingly chatting about the gossip.

“To be so young and yet not learn any good, becoming someone’s mistress… Now that she’s lost both her dignity and her reputation, I’m afraid even a concubine from a respectable family is cleaner than her.”

“Logically, Huo Ling doesn’t like the types from brothels, so how could he have taken an interest in her?”

“Anyone with eyes should know that such shameless behavior speaks volumes about her upbringing and background.”

“To have associated with her in the West District for three years, that person must have been blind.”

He truly couldn’t listen any longer and slammed his teacup down with a thud.

“Madam, you are usually not one for idle talk. Why are you acting like a neighborhood gossip, discussing the rights and wrongs of others?”

I grabbed his hand. When he saw the bloodstains on his sleeve, his pupils shrank and he instinctively tried to pull away, but I gripped him tightly.

As I wiped the stains for him, my smile didn’t reach my eyes.

“I’m merely feeling sorry for the ladies of that household. To have such a massive pile of filth thrown in their faces… the sheer disgust of it is something they’ll likely never be able to let go of for the rest of their lives.”

Meng Ye’s body was trembling, but I suddenly raised my eyes to lock gazes with him.

“Husband, you surely wouldn’t let me suffer such disgust, would you?”

“After all, I have never been of a gentle or forgiving nature.”

Meng Ye forced a difficult smile.

“Of course not.”

“Our affection for one another is beyond comparison.”

“It’s time for Mother to take her medicine. I’ll be back shortly.”

He fled in a panic, and I poured the tea he had sipped onto the ground.

“The affection between us was like spilled water long ago, impossible to recover. She is the one at the tip of your heart now.”

“The young girl is indeed hateful, but a dog that betrays its master to steal a bite is the one truly beyond forgiveness.”