Mrs. Cui pulled her daughter behind her: "Empty words."
"We have both witnesses and evidence!" Princess Linchuan winked, and the maid brought out the blood-stained menstrual belt. "When this thing fell out of Cui's sleeve, all the ladies saw it."
Jiang Shu suddenly sneered, "Is Mrs. Cui going to say that Mrs. Chen stuffed it into your daughter's sleeve?" She shook the sachet she had ripped off Zhuque's body, "Is this filthy thing mixed with red musk powder specially made by your Cui family?"
Suddenly, one of the elders coughed: "Since this is a family matter, why not go back to the ancestral hall?"
"It's over right here!" Chen Ruyi suddenly pulled out her golden hairpin and pressed it against her throat. "If I can't clear myself of the injustice in front of all the ladies today, my blood will be spilt all over the Peony Garden!" She knew these old foxes too well. They would definitely try to smooth things over behind closed doors.
Deng Xu suddenly took off the jade pendant from his waist and said, "This is what my father entrusted to me before he died. Whoever holds the jade pendant is as if he were there in person." He pressed the jade pendant into the hand of the clan leader and said, "Granduncle, if my father were still alive, would he allow anyone to bully my mother?"
The clan leader touched the familiar patterns on the jade pendant, remembering the old Duke's deathbed, and sighed deeply: "Cui framed my mother-in-law and is now confined to the Buddhist temple. Zhuque will be caned to death, Cui family." He glanced at the Minister of War, whose face was ashen, and said, "Pay 5,000 taels of silver to repair the ancestral hall."
Jiang Songyi finished her last melon seed and said, "Five thousand taels? Enough to buy three Suzaku birds. Madam Chen made a killing this time." She glanced at her aunt and saw Jiang Shu gazing intently at the golden hairpin in Chen Ruyi's hair—the style was exactly the same as the dowry in the Yongding Marquis's storeroom.
As the sun set, Chen Ruyi personally escorted the elders out of the mansion. The moment the carriage curtain dropped, the smile on her lips vanished. "Let's find out where the Cui family's secret medicine came from." As the carriage churned, she added, "Have the accountant send a box of honeydew melons from the Western Regions to Miss Jiang."
The secret guard murmured a promise. Chen Ruyi stroked the bruise on her wrist, remembering Jiang Songyi's words, "Everyone is a villain," and suddenly chuckled. As the carriage passed the Yongding Marquis's residence, she lifted the curtain and glanced at the vermilion lacquer gate. The image of the Jiang family's little girl, huddled and shivering in the doorway on that rainy night, suddenly flashed before her eyes.
The Deng clan elder slammed his red sandalwood cane on the ground: "Unfortunate for our family! Such a vicious woman has emerged!" He glanced at Duke Dingguo with his eagle eyes, "We swore an oath in front of the Deng clan's ancestral hall that anyone who brings disgrace to our family—"
"You can't divorce me!" Old Madam Cui interrupted him harshly, "The Cui family has a good reputation for a hundred years, how can we allow the stigma of divorce!" She clenched the armrests of the armchair with her skinny fingers, her knuckles turning blue and white.
Chen Ruyi slowly lifted the lid of the teacup. "Duke Dingguo's mansion does have a tradition of bereavement." The celadon lid clashed with the cup's rim, making a crisp sound. Everyone in the hall knew that the old Duke had lost three wives in a row, and at this moment, they all bowed their heads and held their breath.
Cui sank to her knees, her golden peony skirt spreading out like withered flowers. "Mother! I know I'm wrong!" She took two steps on her knees and grabbed the hem of Deng Xu's robe. "The children still need to discuss marriages, my husband!"
Deng Xuyu twirled his ring around his thumb. How dare this woman drag him and Chen into a public argument? He jerked back his shirt hem. "My Lord, for the sake of our son, has shown me a lenient sentence."
"What a lenient sentence!" Cui suddenly laughed crazily, pointing her gilded armor at Chen Ruyi, "You dare to swear to heaven, in the study on Lantern Festival night."
"Shut her up!" the elder shouted. Two servants immediately clamped handkerchiefs around Cui's cheeks, choking her out. Old Madam Cui tried to intervene, but her own maid held her back—the Cui family had already decided to sacrifice their own strength to save their own.
Princess Linchuan leaned against a mother-of-pearl-inlaid table, picking up candied fruit as if watching a play: "This peony banquet of mine is even more exciting than the stories in the theater."
Jiang Shu stared at Cui's figure being dragged away, her fingertips digging into her palms beneath her wide sleeves. If the Hao family had used the same drastic tactics as Deng, she wouldn't have even been able to reach the door of the Marquis's mansion. She caught a glimpse of her daughter Qing He chatting and laughing with the girl from the Mei family, and her heart suddenly tightened.
As dusk deepened, the winding corridor suddenly erupted with cries of surprise. Peng Yuyan, the daughter of the Minister of Works, had fallen into a lotus pond, and the Prince of Jingkang had "just happened" to be passing by. When everyone arrived, they saw Mei Weixing carrying the soaking wet Miss Peng ashore, the lilac-colored bellyband strap still entangled in his jade crown.
"Your Highness is quite skilled." Jiang Shu pushed through the crowd, her nails tapping the hem of Mei Weixing's still-dripping robe. "The speed with which he rescued people seemed to be waiting for the right moment."
Mrs. Peng's face turned grim as she pulled her cloak over her daughter and said, "The Mei family won't give us an explanation today."
"Mother, look at that cluster of sweet osmanthus flowers." Jiang Songyi suddenly tugged at Jiang Shu's sleeve. Deep in the shadows of the flowers, the pearl hairpin on Jiang Yuyao's temples trembled slightly—there hadn't been such a drowning scene in her previous life.
The eldest princess rubbed her temples and ordered the garden to be closed. She turned to Jiang Shu and smiled bitterly: "This peony banquet of mine is a failure."
"Well done." Jiang Shu chuckled as she watched the Mei and Peng families fighting. "I was just worried about finding a reason to cancel the engagement." The jade bracelet on her wrist reflected the setting sun, emitting a cold light.
Princess Linchuan rubbed her brow in annoyance, her jeweled armor scraping against the armrest of her carved sandalwood chair. "This peony garden of mine would be a good place to turn it into a theater." Even so, she ordered the Peng and Mei families, along with the women of the Jiang residence, to enter the hall. As the golden peony curtains drifted, she caught a glimpse of the engagement jade bracelet dangling from Jiang Qinghe's wrist, and her temples began to throb again.
Jiang Shu stood in the corridor, leaning against a gilded heater, watching the maids hurried by with ginger soup in their cups, a sneer on her lips. From the hall came Madam Peng's shrill cries: "My son's innocence is ruined!" She tilted her head to Jiang Songyi and whispered: "Listen, this is just like what happened when the Hao family forced the marriage."
"Aunt, please be careful with your words." Jiang Songyi gently pulled her sleeve, but her eyes were fixed on the corner of the flower hall - the pearl hairpin on Jiang Yuyao's temples was shining with water, which was clearly the morning dew that had just been collected by the lotus pond.
Jiang Yuyao moved lightly to block the way, wiping the corners of her eyes with a silk handkerchief: "Second cousin, don't be sad. Although Prince Mei has brought Miss Peng ashore, the engagement is still in place."
"My cousin, there's some duckweed on the ends of your hair." Jiang Qinghe suddenly reached out and plucked a piece of moss from her hair. "That's strange. How could this grow on the bluestone road on the shore?"
Jiang Yuyao's smile faltered, and the gilded armor dug into her palm. She clearly remembered rubbing against the rockery when she pulled Peng Yuyan. She looked up and saw Jiang Songyi's half-smile, and a chill ran down her spine.
"Make way." Jiang Qingmo squeezed over with a hand warmer in her arms. "A good dog doesn't block the road." She deliberately shook the ashes on Jiang Yuyao's embroidered shoes, and the peacock blue brocade immediately became stained with black.
In the flower hall, Mei Weixing's robe was still dripping wet. He bowed to Madam Peng and said, "My nephew is in a desperate situation." Before he could finish his words, Peng Yuyan suddenly coughed violently and vomited up a pool of water mixed with aquatic plants.
"Look!" Mrs. Peng cried, beating her chest. "My son has had a close call with death!"
Lady Jingkang twirled her Buddhist beads and sneered, "If your daughter really drowned, could she have tied the prince's belt into a knot?" She pulled the jade belt from her son's waist, and there was a heart-shaped knot tied on the gold ribbon.
Princess Linchuan tapped the table with her fingertips. "I'm curious how Miss Peng ended up falling into the lotus pond in the southeast corner." She glanced at the crowd. "That place is a full half a mile away from the banquet hall."
Peng Yuyan shivered as she wrapped herself in a fox fur coat. "Your servant...Your servant and Second Miss Jiang were admiring the flowers and got lost."
"Jiang Yuyao!" Jiang Qingmo suddenly rushed in. "Didn't you say you were going to change clothes at 3:30 PM? Why are you changing in the southeast corner?"
All eyes in the room immediately turned to the door.
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