The Song family never expected Song Yaozhu to say such a thing. Madam Song suddenly stood up. She had been frightened at the New Year's Eve banquet, and yesterday she had forced herself to be in good spirits to entertain guests. Then she was startled by Eunuch Gao. Now she was angered by Song Yaozhu. She closed her eyes and collapsed.

"Song Yaozhu, look what you've done! You've made your mother faint!" Song Qingyuan snapped at her.

The Great Chen Dynasty educates its people with Confucianism and places great emphasis on filial piety. The fact that Song Yaozhu angered Madam Song to the point of fainting is a perfect excuse for the clan to criticize her and label her an unfilial daughter. If Xie Liwei wants to divorce his wife in the future, he can easily use this as grounds.

People can use this to attack her; the spittle of the world alone could drown her!

Song Qingyuan glared at Song Yaozhu, his eyes even showing a hint of excitement, probably wanting to see how Song Yaozhu would defend herself after being branded as "unfilial".

To his surprise, Song Yaozhu didn't panic as he had imagined. Instead, she had a "see for yourself" look on her face and preemptively said, "Big brother, Mother fainted from anger because of you. Don't you know you're wrong?!"

Song Qingyuan couldn't believe it; it was clearly her aggressive behavior that had caused her mother to faint!

“Look at how your second brother bows, and then look at how you bowed just now. Can that be called bowing? Mother was so angry at your behavior that she fainted.”

"Stop talking nonsense! You're the one who made Mother faint!"

"Your mother raised you to this age, and you can't even perform proper etiquette. You've truly failed your mother's teachings!"

Song Qingyuan was furious and almost jumped up, but Song Yaozhu didn't even lift her buttocks, showing no fear whatsoever.

"Your mother fainted, and you didn't show the slightest concern!"

"If I'm not the elder brother, how do you know I didn't? Mother fainted, so of course we had to call the royal physician. I don't know anything about medicine, so all I could do was worry." After saying that, she looked at Xie Liwei, "Your Highness, everyone is so worried!"

Xie Liwei raised his hand: "Go to the palace and send a letter to invite the imperial physician to examine Madam Song."

The Song family could no longer accuse Song Yaozhu of being unfilial, after all, he was an imperial physician, a physician who only treated princes and nobles!

The maidservants carried Madam Song back to the courtyard. Song Yaozhu sighed, "Brother, really, if you had just paid your respects properly, none of this would have happened."

Song Qingyuan: "......"

This matter can't be let go, can it?

Xie Liwei was thoroughly enjoying the show, thinking to himself that Song Yaozhu really knew how to annoy people.

Then Song Yaozhu said, "My mother has fainted. I'm worried about her and don't want my elder brother to say I'm unfilial. So I'll stay at home for a few days to take care of her!"

Song Qingyuan felt as if a ball of air was stuck in his chest, preventing him from escaping, and he felt like he was about to burst!

Song Chengzhang felt a ringing in his ears. She had only been back for a short time, yet she was already acting like a princess and causing unrest in the household. If he were to let her move back in, wouldn't he have to treat her like an ancestor?

"No need. It's the New Year, and there must be a lot going on at the Prince's residence. Besides, people from the Prince's clan are coming, and the entire household needs you, as the mistress, to manage things. It's enough that you have the thought of your mother in mind."

"There are stewards in the Prince's mansion, so I don't need to worry. But I can't rest easy until my mother recovers! I'll stay at home for a few more days!"

"You really don't need to worry about it, your older brothers are here!" Song Chengzhang's tone was a little stiff.

"My two elder brothers are both men, how can they come close to serve Mother? Let me do it!"

"No need, there's your sister-in-law too! It's a daughter-in-law's duty to serve her mother-in-law!"

Madam Wang, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Song family, was stunned for a moment. Then she heard Song Yaozhu say, "After all, she is my sister-in-law. There is a distance between us. How can she be as devoted as I am as her daughter, serving tea and water to my mother at her bedside and doing everything herself?"

"Your sister-in-law can do it!" Song Qingyuan answered for his wife before she could react, which made Wang Shi glare at him angrily. It seemed he wasn't the one doing the serving duties!

"Really?" Song Yaozhu looked at Wang Shi's face. "I don't believe it."

Wang knew that this was forcing her to make a statement. As a daughter-in-law, she naturally couldn't refuse, otherwise people would say she was unfilial.

"Your Highness, rest assured, I will personally take good care of my mother-in-law." Only she knew how wronged she was.

"Alright then, but I will send someone over every day to inquire about Mother's condition."

Wang was completely stunned. Did they mean to test her "filial piety"?

Wang cursed inwardly: "You Song family members are at odds, why did you dig this pit for me to fall into!"

After the imperial physician prescribed the medicine, Xie Liwei took Song Yaozhu back to his residence.

"This Song San is increasingly disregarding us!" Uncle Song said angrily.

"What can we do? She's a princess now. What can we use to control her? If we're talking about feelings, she's only lived in the Song family for three months. What feelings could she possibly have for us? If we're talking about interests, the Prince of Xiaoyao isn't involved in politics or business. Just his family's academy alone has a huge number of people currying favor with him. What can we do?"

Uncle Song fell silent after being scolded by his wife, only then remembering that they had originally planned to talk to Xie Liwei about their child's admission to Nanshan Academy. However, because Madam Song fainted, everything was put on hold.

At this moment, the head of the kitchen, who had been waiting outside, finally had a chance to see her master. She stepped forward and said timidly, "Master, today the Prince and Princess returned to their home, bringing with them a lot of rice, flour, and meat..."

The Song family was stunned. Ordinary families would bring wine, tea, and ginseng when their children returned home, but this was the first time they had ever seen someone bring rice, flour, and meat.

"The steward of the Prince's residence said that the Princess Consort ate at the Song family's house for three months, and now that she is a member of the Prince's residence, those meals should naturally be returned..."

Upon hearing this, Song Chengzhang was so angry that he leaned back.

"This Song Yaozhu has gone too far! Is she trying to sever our father-daughter relationship?!"

"Father, don't be angry!" Song Hanzhi supported him. "Right now, we need to find out whether it was Third Sister's idea or the Prince's idea!"

"You're right. If this is what Song Yaozhu meant, then I really misjudged her!"

Thinking back to how humble Song Yaozhu was during those months in the Song family, even to the point of being servile, the more subservient she was, the less they looked down on her.

Unexpectedly, now that she's married into a higher social class, she no longer respects them!

This feeling of being trampled underfoot by someone who is not as good as yourself is extremely unpleasant, especially unpleasant!

"If that's what Third Sister wants, then we really need to teach her a lesson."

Song Yaozhu didn't care how angry the Song family was. She happily got into the carriage and went back to eat her pickled bamboo shoot soup!

"You're quite something, knowing to target the Wang family and causing unrest in the Song family."

Song Yaozhu plucked at the hangnail on her finger and said with a grin, "Who told you men to be like this? You spout nonsense about husband and wife being one to coax women, but you don't actually respect us women at all."

Look at my good brother, he's completely outsourced his filial piety. He doesn't take care of his own mother, but makes his wife do it instead. There are so many ways to resolve this situation, and the Song family has plenty of servants, yet he insists on making his wife suffer for the sake of a reputation for filial piety. He deserves the unrest in his own household.”

Before she could finish speaking, Xie Liwei grasped her hand. She looked up in surprise and met his gaze. He was holding her fingers and taking out a box of ointment from a hidden compartment in the carriage. He dabbed some on her hangnails with his fingertip.

In that instant, Song Yaozhu's heart seemed to lose control and began to pound wildly.

The ambiguous memories of that New Year's Eve flooded back like a tide, impossible to ignore.