Zhu Yu lowered his head silently, fiddling with the jade bracelet on his right wrist with his left hand. Fang Shi was now imprisoned, and Lu Jinmi was punished in the ancestral hall.
With the Duke of Zhenguo and his son at home, they will surely deal with those wicked servants who bullied the original owner. In that case, it will only be a matter of time before he and Lu Xiaoyun switch bodies back.
Seeing that he lowered his head and did not speak, Lu Yucheng thought that she still had some concerns, and said, "Don't take what the stepmother said to heart. So what if you go back to the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion? Father and brother are not the kind of old-fashioned people who would think that if their daughters divorced their husbands, it would damage the reputation of their maternal family and delay the marriage of their children.
Zhu Yu raised his head blankly and looked at Lu Yucheng.
He never expected that Lu Yucheng would say such things.
So, at the very beginning, he said that once the two of them switched back, he and Lu Xiaoyun would divorce, and Lu Xiaoyun would take Lu Yuyan away from Shengjing.
It should be understood that in the Great Zhou Dynasty, whether a woman was divorced or remarried, it was considered extremely damaging to the reputation of her family in the eyes of the world.
Therefore, divorce was virtually unheard of in official families. Once a woman married, she would either die of illness in the inner quarters, or be hanged with a white silk ribbon, or even spend her life as a Buddhist monk.
Moreover, Lu Xiaoyun married into a royal family!
Zhu Yu stared intently at Lu Yucheng, a lump of cotton stuck in his throat, making him feel uncomfortable: "Brother..."
Lu Yucheng gently rubbed Zhu Yu's head. Seeing his sister fiddling with the jade bracelet on her wrist, he took his hand and smiled faintly, "You've been wearing this bracelet that Mother left you."
It turns out that this was something that Madam Lu left for the original owner. He tried to smash it several times. Last time in Lu Yuyan's thatched hut, he even smashed it with a stone. As a result, the jade bracelet did not break, but his wrist was broken.
Fortunately, Ah Yan's medical skills are extremely good, and he is now much better.
He nodded slightly, wondering what the jade bracelet was made of, since it hadn't broken despite all his handling.
Zhu Yu felt somewhat relieved.
Zhenguo Duke's Mansion
As soon as the Duke of Zhenguo stepped into Cuizhu Residence, he heard Fang Shi coughing violently in succession, followed by the harsh sounds of cursing and smashing things.
Several maids and servants knelt under the eaves.
Those people were not the old women from the Begonia Courtyard who usually served her; they were people that the Duke of Zhenguo had transferred from the outer courtyard overnight.
He glanced around unhappily and asked, "What's going on?"
Another old woman, whose hair had been pulled and whose face and body bore several scratches, whispered, "Last night, the lady sat in the courtyard all night in the cold wind. No matter how we tried to persuade her, she refused to go back inside. This morning, she fell ill and developed a high fever."
Has the doctor come by?
"Yes, Master Hong came, but Madam wouldn't let him take her pulse. So I had to tell Master Hong about Madam's condition. Master Hong prescribed a medicine, and I prepared it, but Madam refused to drink it and instead, she knocked the medicine over."
After saying that, the old woman hid her hand in her sleeve.
The Duke of Zhenguo lowered his eyes and naturally saw the red, swollen, and blistering burn on the back of her hand: "Go and ask Elder Hong for some burn ointment."
The old woman thanked her, got up, and left.
The Duke of Zhenguo swept his imposing eyes across the courtyard and coldly ordered, "Men, seal off this courtyard. All servants and attendants must leave. From this day forward, only three meals a day may be delivered."
"If she wants to drink the medicine, she can; if she doesn't, so be it."
This means Fang will be completely placed under house arrest until his death!
After saying that, the Duke of Zhenguo turned and left without pausing.
A sharp, cursing voice rang out from the Green Bamboo Residence: "Lu Zhongyi, have you lost your conscience? I've toiled my whole life for this family, and now that you no longer need me, you want to imprison me until I die! My entire Fang family died on the battlefield, making your Lu family a symbol of loyalty and heroism, yet you've ended up like this!"
"Lu Zhongyi, you are ungrateful!"
"Don't think I don't know that Lu Xiaoyun was divorced by His Highness Prince An, and Lu Yucheng had no choice but to bring her back to the manor!"
"How dare she come back? Why doesn't she just die? Why doesn't she just die? She's ruining her two younger sisters' chances of getting married, and she's ruining her brother's life!"
The Duke of Zhenguo stopped and turned to stand in front of Fang Shi. He looked down at her coldly, seeing her disheveled hair and the woman lying on the ground like a madwoman, cursing incessantly.
Fang was so frightened by his return that she trembled and took a few steps back, no longer daring to curse.
The Duke of Zhenguo's face was cold and ashen: "Madam Fang, I was reluctant to hold a grudge against you because you bore children for my Lu family. But you, ha, do you really think I don't know what you've done to Xiaoyun over the past ten years?"
Fang's face turned deathly pale.
"You pretend to be a good stepmother, giving her whatever she wants and letting her do whatever she wants, which has led to her becoming arrogant and domineering."
"Isn't this situation entirely your doing? Who is Prince An? How many heads do you have to dare plot against him?!"
"Where would this fat woman get poison from? If it weren't for you, she wouldn't have suffered so much in the Prince An's mansion. Fang, you're trying to kill Xiaoyun!"
"She called you 'Mother' for nineteen years, how could you be so heartless as to want to kill her? How many times can a married woman return to her parents' home? But you, you haven't changed your bad habits, actually setting your sights on the backyard of the Prince An's mansion, hoping to have that fat woman poison her!"
“Fang, if it weren’t for the fact that you managed such a large Zhenguo Duke’s Mansion in Shengjing City all by yourself, and that your father died protecting my father, I would have handed you over to the Jingzhao Prefecture long ago!”
Fang was so frightened that her whole body trembled like a leaf.
The Duke of Zhenguo let out a long sigh of relief: "If you behave yourself, the Duke's mansion will not starve you. But if you cause any more trouble, don't blame me for turning my back on you without mercy."
After saying this, the Duke of Zhenguo lifted his foot to leave, but Fang suddenly grabbed his leg: "Your Excellency, Your Excellency, I know I was wrong, I know I was wrong. I beg you, I beg you to take the three children to the palace banquet, I will do anything. Mi'er and Pei'er are already sixteen years old, their marriages cannot be delayed."
The Duke of Zhenguo coldly flicked his sleeve and pulled his leg away from Fang's grasp: "Fang, I will not agree to Mi'er's marriage to the Duke of Ying's family. Forget about it. My Duke of Zhenguo's family is full of loyal and virtuous men, and we are already a noble family. We do not need to rely on our children's relatives to form marriage alliances!"
After saying this, the Duke of Zhenguo turned and walked away without saying another word.
The courtyard gate slowly closed behind him, and Fang's cries could still be heard from inside the courtyard.
That foolish woman, Fang, has been guarding the southern border for decades with 200,000 troops under her command. If she dares to marry the grandson of the British Duke who commands 150,000 troops in the Xishan Military Camp guarding the capital, what will the Emperor think?
Given Xiaoyun's relationship with Prince An, is she trying to put the entire Duke Zhenguo's mansion on the fire?
The Duke of Zhenguo tightened his grip on the letter of divorce that Prince An had written to Xiaoyun, which he had tucked into his sleeve, and turned to walk outside.
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