Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Mengyu had now thoroughly grasped the Liang family’s way of doing things. She was finished indulging them. Reaching out, she let Qianfan help her up, and without a word, she turned to walk out of the room.

This was like poking a hornet’s nest. Madam Liang shot up from her seat, her voice trembling with rage. “Do you have no sense of propriety?”

Mengyu glanced back at her and smiled. “I followed propriety by kowtowing and serving tea. The one who failed to follow propriety is clearly you.”

Madam Liang slammed the table with a deafening thud. “Kneel!”

Mengyu acted as if she had heard a joke.

“Are you going senile? I have money and power; do you really think I’m afraid of a powerless country woman like you?”

Madam Liang was so livid she nearly fainted. She began to hurl insults. “You shameless hussy! Filial impiety is a crime! I’ll take you to court!”

Mengyu’s smile vanished. Madam Liang said triumphantly, “Scared now? If you’re scared, then get on your knees!”

Instead, Mengyu asked, “If I am unfilial, who saw it?”

The two maids shook their heads. “We didn’t see anything.”

Liang Wenxiu’s temper flared. “Do you really think I’m dead? I saw it! What are you going to do about it?”

Mengyu shifted her gaze to Liang Wenxiu. Her sister-in-law was quite pretty, certainly better-looking than her brother.

“Wenxiu, you’re currently discussing marriage prospects, aren’t you?”

“So what if I am?”

“Once the match is settled, I, as your sister-in-law, will add to your dowry. I’ll give you at least two chests of goods so you can be married off with dignity.”

As soon as those words were spoken, Liang Wenxiu’s resolve to back Madam Liang instantly evaporated.

Madam Liang was so furious she couldn’t help herself. Right in front of Mengyu, she began cursing her daughter, calling her a shallow, money-grubbing lost cause.

Mengyu let out a scoff. “It’s not that Wenxiu is shallow; it’s that your greed is too deep.”

In their first confrontation, Mengyu had won a total victory.

However, she knew Madam Liang was no pushover. There would be many more battles to come.

After returning to their room, Xiaowu couldn’t help but ask, “Miss, are you really going to give her part of your dowry?”

Mengyu nodded. “Two chests of dowry in exchange for driving a wedge between mother and daughter isn’t a high price to pay.”

Xiaowu was still indignant. “They were already plotting for your dowry on the very day of the wedding! These people from the Liang family are simply despicable! If you ask me, Miss, you never should have agreed to marry into this family. Didn’t the Master and Madam say that if you were unwilling, they would call off the engagement?”

Mengyu smiled.

“Liang Baishan and I had never met. We had no childhood bond to speak of, so why would they bother asking if I wanted to marry him? If my parents truly didn’t want me to marry, I wouldn’t have even known this matter existed.

“They weren’t really asking if I wanted to marry. They wanted me to be ‘sensible’ and jump into this fire pit of my own accord, just to save them the embarrassment of being the ones to push me.

“After all, Father was only recently promoted. All eyes are on him. If he didn’t honor this engagement, he would inevitably be accused of being treacherous and snobbish, which would damage his official reputation. I had to jump into this fire pit.

“When people speak, you have to listen for the underlying meaning, not just the literal words. They can afford to say they’d cancel the engagement, but I couldn’t afford to believe them.”

Xiaowu understood only half of it, but Qianfan let out a long, melancholy sigh.