Chapter 93 [VIP]

The four members of the Yu family wanted to teach Mi Yao a lesson, but they were caught sneaking around in the middle of the night and were caught in a sack before they even reached the Xiao residence.

After being bound hand and foot and gagged for several hours, living in fear and trembling, the carriage finally stopped, and they found themselves in the deep mountains and forests.

Not only was it pitch black all around, but there were also wolf howls that seemed to be right next to your ears.

The group was terrified. Everyone wanted to grab the torch left by the kidnappers, but it eventually fell to the ground and went out completely.

"ah--"

Yu Yiqing's scream was interrupted by Yu Chengda's slap: "Are you afraid the jackals won't be able to find our location! Shut your mouth!"

After hitting Yu Yiqing, Yu Chengda slapped Yu Jiayin in return.

"It was all your bad idea! If you hadn't said you were going to cause trouble at the Xiao residence, we wouldn't have ended up here!"

Being dumped in this godforsaken place late at night, even someone as stupid as Yu Chengda could guess the reason.

I never expected that rebellious daughter Mi Yao would be so ruthless, even targeting him with underhanded tactics.

Now, when he recalls Mi Yao's unusual demeanor, he doesn't feel she's ethereal; he only feels she's sinister.

He increasingly felt that Mi Yao was possessed by a ghost and was not his daughter.

After Yu Chengda attacked Yu Jiayin, Yu Shaoqing followed with his fists and feet: "You slut, if you hadn't been so unfaithful and seduced a married man, we wouldn't have been implicated..."

Yu Chengda was an elder, and Yu Jiayin could barely bear his slap, but what was Yu Shaoqing compared to him?

The legitimate son born to a second wife.

Moreover, he was the good-for-nothing legitimate son of the second wife.

Yu Jiayin immediately retaliated, using pinching, grabbing, and pulling techniques simultaneously, causing Yu Shaoqing to cry out in pain repeatedly.

"You make it sound like you're standing up for me. If you weren't all in trouble and needed to sort things out, why would you have come to the Xiao residence with me? If you want to complain, complain about your heartless elder sister and your father's inability to control Yu Miyao!"

Fearing they might attract wild beasts, the group didn't dare to shout even when they were arguing or fighting.

Pu Qing and several of his men squatted in the tree watching these people. They thought they were like slow-moving, yet frantic, mute people, and they covered their mouths to keep from laughing out loud.

"Yu Er, do you even know that I am your elder?!"

Hearing Yu Jiayin mock him as well, Yu Chengda flew into a rage.

“I know what use it is that you are an elder. You were also thrown here. Are you Yu Miyao’s father or is she your father? And what about your two stupid children? So what if they are Yu Miyao’s siblings? Who in the entire Yizhou City gives them any face? Everyone treats them as a joke.”

"Shut up! You think you're any better? Murdering the wife, you'll be going to jail!"

The group cursed and fought at the same time. When Yu Jiayin was no match for them, she threatened to shout loudly to attract wolves. In addition, Yu Shaoqing was angry with his father, Yu Chengda, and took the opportunity to do many dirty tricks on Yu Chengda.

The four fought back and forth until they were tied, and by daybreak, each of them had sustained injuries.

With light in the woods, the four men, who had previously been so sullen, reverted to their old ways, no longer attacking each other, and instead began searching for a way back to the city.

Pu Qing abandoned them at a place that was quite a distance from both the village and the town. Moreover, the group didn't know how to navigate and wandered around like headless flies. They managed to avoid people several times, and it took them three hours to finally find a village with inhabitants.

The four men were so badly dressed and looked terrible from their fight that it took a lot of persuasion to convince the village chief to drive them back to town in an oxcart.

They made good promises when they sent the person away, but when they arrived at the destination, they had no money on them or in the house. Yu Shaoyang was not in the mansion, so Yu Chengda had no choice but to shamelessly find the money bag that he had smashed on the ground yesterday.

After half a day of terror, Yu Chengda was completely disappointed in Mi Yao and her brother Yu Shaoyang.

Fearing that once the three strings of silver in the bag were used up, Yu Shaoyang, that rebellious son, would really stop giving him money, Yu Chengda only gave the driver half a string of copper coins.

The fare wasn't small, but the driver was willing to make the trip because the Yu family had promised to give him a large sum of money.

When the expected large sum of money turned out to be only a few dozen copper coins, the coachman immediately started cursing.

Standing in front of the courtyard, he cursed the group, calling them all slick and superficial.

The driver was loud and kept cursing, and Yu Shaoqing could hear the noise outside the house even from inside.

Knowing without even leaving the house that the people around them were laughing at them, Yu Shaoqing kicked the door in anger: "Father, just give him more money and send him away quickly!"

"Am I the only one riding in the carriage? If you're so ashamed, why don't you just give me some money to get rid of me?"

Sensing Yu Shaoqing's disrespect, Yu Chengda finished speaking irritably, then stood up and slapped him, "Useless thing, trying to tell me what to do!"

Yu Shaoqing covered his face. Since arriving in Yizhou, he had experienced every kind of beating he had never suffered before.

He thought Yu Jiayin was right.

If it weren't for Yu Chengda's incompetence as a father, unable to control Mi Yao and Yu Shaoyang, how could he, a dignified young master from a prestigious family, have fallen into such a sorry and shameful state?

"I want to go back to Jiangnan. I can't stay here for another day!"

Yu Shaoqing couldn't stay any longer.

Speaking on his behalf, Yu Chengda smashed the teacup on the table.

"Even if you're leaving, you shouldn't have slunk away like that!"

Yu Chengda thought that since Mi Yao and her brother could not be used by the Yu family, what was the point of keeping such discarded children?

After hiding for a few days and receiving the silver donated by the aristocratic families they had befriended, many men began to frequent Yizhou City.

The stories of the Prince of Huainan, the Prince of Jiangning, and even the stable boy of the Yu family were all told in great detail.

These scandalous stories were more interesting to the city's residents than disobeying their parents.

A case of conspiring to murder one's wife, with concrete evidence leading to a trial, is far more compelling than spreading rumors that would cause trouble for the Xiao family.

Yu Jiayin never expected that Mi Yao would actually ignore her and let the Ji family sue her in court. Ironically, she had actually considered poisoning Ji Wanyun to take over the position, and the whole story was eventually uncovered.

“The scions of noble families share both glory and ruin. Yu Miyao doesn’t care what she relied on to marry Xiao Chuan. If she didn’t have the status of a Yu family woman, no matter how beautiful she is, she would still be a prostitute in the streets.”

Yu Jiayin was still making a last-ditch effort, trying to let Mi Yao know that the Yu sisters were one family, and that if she, the older sister, suffered, Mi Yao, the younger sister, could not escape unscathed.

Unfortunately, she didn't get to be rescued from prison by the Xiao family; instead, she gained Miao Xueling as her cellmate.

Miao Xueling was frustrated after failing to seduce Xiao Chua. After returning home, she kept trying to make Mi Yao suffer so that she could vent her anger.

She instigated Yu Jiayin to cause trouble at the Tzu Chi Hospital and gave Yu Jiayin many ideas, mainly to spread rumors about Mi Yao.

Yu Jiayin wasn't stupid; she knew Miao Xueling was using her, so she turned around and threatened Miao Xueling to help her.

She had no connections in Yizhou, and the reason she was able to run into Gu Yunxiao several times was because of Miao Xueling.

Furthermore, Miao Xueling's father was a renowned doctor, and the poison found at Yu Jiayin's residence was clearly related to the Miao family.

After losing hope with Xiao Chua, Miao Xueling sought another high-ranking partner. With great difficulty, the other party agreed to an engagement, but before she could even enjoy the happiness for a few days, she was imprisoned.

Knowing that her reputation would be ruined after this incident, Miao Xueling glared at Yu Jiayin and said angrily, "I helped you so much, yet you harmed me like this."

"If you hadn't instigated me to anger Yu Miyao, how could I have been targeted by her!"

The two, who were usually as close as sisters, started by arguing and then fought, and ended up in class with bruises and swelling, which made them a laughing stock.

With conclusive evidence, Miao Xueling's crime was minor. Apart from her inability to restore her reputation, she was given ten strokes of the cane, and her family paid money to ransom her and send her home.

As for Yu Jiayin and Gu Yunxiao, according to the laws of Daxing, since they plotted but did not carry it out, they could only be sentenced to hanging. Gu Yunxiao was stripped of his official position, never to be employed again, and exiled three thousand miles away.

When Mi Yao heard about the punishment, she realized that the law was more severe than she had thought. She had assumed that Gu Yunxiao would be dismissed from his post and the two of them would be beaten with dozens of strokes of the cane.

I never imagined it would escalate to exile.

Such a punishment is clearly unacceptable to both of the people being punished.

Gu Yunxiao never expected Ji Wanyun to be so ruthless. She cried and begged the Ji family for forgiveness, pushing all the blame onto Yu Jiayin.

Yu Jiayin was surprised by Mi Yao's ruthlessness, and the others didn't take the Yu family seriously either. They first cursed angrily, and then, like Gu Yunxiao, they cried and begged.

Yu Chengda had been running around for his niece for a long time, but he failed to fulfill his instructions and instead lost a legitimate daughter of the eldest son's family. He couldn't explain it away.

However, after the last purge, Jiannan no longer had any powerful clans that could influence the situation there. Jiannan was now Zhao Tianhe's personal fiefdom, and Xiao Chuan was Zhao Tianhe's chosen successor.

Under such circumstances, the officials of Yizhou all had to be mindful of Xiao Chuan's feelings. If he didn't budge, no amount of lobbying or lobbying would be of any use.

Knowing he couldn't change his niece's fate of exile, Yu Chengda heard the gossip about Mi Yao in the city and feared being held accountable by Mi Yao and her husband. Even though he didn't have enough money to get all the way to Jiangnan, he still planned to leave first and figure out how to get travel expenses in other prefectures later.

"What about Seventeen?"

Upon boarding the ship and finding that Yu Xian was not there, Yu Chengda frowned. Since the Yu family could produce the most beautiful woman in Jiangnan, they could naturally produce a second one.

It's Xiao Chuan's loss that he didn't accept her. Once Yu Xian matures, she might not be any worse than Mi Yao. Besides, Yu Xian's temperament is many times more obedient and well-behaved than Mi Yao's.

"I don't know."

After spending two months in Yizhou, both Yu Yiqing and Yu Shaoqing lost a lot of weight, and their faces looked haggard, as if they had aged seven or eight years.

They sat on the boat, barely alive, watching the dock recede into the distance. When they returned to Jiangnan, they didn't even want to hear the name Yizhou again.

"What use are you to me!"

After searching the entire boat several times without finding Yu Xian, Yu Chengda glared at his children.

Neither of them paid any attention to his angry glare. After this trip, they realized that Yu Chengda, the father, had no authority whatsoever. If he couldn't control Mi Yao and Yu Shaoyang, what right did he have to control them?

The only thing the Yu family felt proud of after leaving was that they had at least created a lot of rumors about Mi Yao and ruined her reputation.

Unfortunately, they didn't know that, thanks to the help of Ji Wanyun and the sisters in the mutual aid society, Mi Yao's reputation quickly reversed, and the phrase "putting righteousness before family" was enough to elevate her moral standing.

As for relationships between men and women, they were also set aside amidst the turmoil of the times.

While the south suffers from floods in the summer, Guanzhong experiences a severe drought.

Emperor Daxing must have intended to suppress Zhao Tianhe, and ordered the refugees from the famine in Guanzhong to migrate to Jiannan and register their residency.

And he did not inform Zhao Tianhe about this beforehand.

When Zhao Tianhe received the news, the disaster victims had already moved south.

The southward migration was not a major problem; the problem lay in Emperor Daxing's order to close the city gates of the counties along the Guandong to Jiannan route, driving away the disaster victims and preventing them from making their way, which caused a lot of chaos in various places.

Moreover, these chaotic events have thrown Jingzhou, which was just beginning to calm down, into chaos again.

Besides the large influx of refugees, the unsettling news in the city was the Khitan attack on Youzhou. Gao Ji of Youzhou suffered repeated defeats and lost the two prefectures of Ying and Ping.

The world is about to descend into complete chaos.