Chapter 82 Go in peace, I, Lu Zhaoruo, will be fine!
The prefect pronounced his verdict in court: "Granted! Shen Rongzhi and his family have indeed violated the law of 'severing ties of righteousness'! I hereby decree that Lu Zhaoruo and Shen Rongzhi shall immediately divorce, each return to their own clan, and have no further connection with each other!"
The prefect's loud voice echoed in the courtroom.
Dongrou was so excited that tears streamed down her face. Her wife was finally freed from this cannibalistic cage!
Greenie and Stone exchanged a glance, genuinely happy for Lu Zhaoruo.
Gu Xian actually led the applause, and seeing this, the surrounding people also clapped and cheered...
Xiao Yeming was shocked. He had never imagined that Sister Lu had meticulously planned and pushed the Shen family to the brink of ruin, with the ultimate goal of obtaining a divorce decree.
She got divorced...
but.
He was actually still feeling guilty and scared.
He was not only the one who defiled her, but also, as early as three years ago, on the night Shen Rongzhi left, she knew that he had not gone overseas to do business, but rather...
Lin Yingyu never expected that the matriarch, whom she thought would fight to the death for the Shen family and be entangled with her, would so resolutely sever her relationship with Shen Rongzhi.
Wasn't she madly in love with Rong Lang?
Didn't she admire him since childhood?
Weren't you supposed to be waiting at home for three long years?
Why are you giving up so easily now?
A surge of inexplicable anger welled up inside me...
Lu Zhaoruo's lack of competitiveness and non-competition seemed to be the greatest mockery of what she so desperately sought.
Upon hearing the word "divorce," Shen Rongzhi finally lost all semblance of dignity and collapsed to the ground.
He looked at Lu Zhaoruo with tears in his eyes: "A Ning... why... why did you do this..."
He had assumed that even if she harbored resentment after his return, she would eventually retreat to a quiet corner of the world. He believed that he only needed to occasionally offer a little tenderness to easily maintain this humble bond that she so desperately desired.
Just as he was thinking about this, the clerk presented the drafted divorce papers to the official.
After reviewing the documents, the prefect nodded slightly.
The yamen runner then carried the document to Shen Rongzhi.
Shen Rongzhi's hands trembled violently as he looked at the thin sheet of paper in front of him, his eyes red and moist.
He struggled for a long time before finally managing to grip the pen, sign his name on the paper, dip it in red clay, and press down a bright red but disheveled handprint.
Subsequently, the document was presented to Lu Zhaoruo.
Lu Zhaoruo lowered her eyes and looked down, her gaze as still as water, without any ripples or waves.
Without hesitation, she picked up her pen and began to write her name.
His pen strokes were steady, and his handwriting was clear and sharp, without the slightest hesitation.
Finally, the clerk returned the divorce papers to the prefectural office, and the prefect took out the official seal of the prefectural government and stamped it on heavily.
"The ceremony is complete! The marriage certificate is null and void. Go your separate ways!"
The clerk announced in a loud voice, handing a document stamped with a vermilion official seal to Lu Zhaoruo.
Lu Zhaoruo reached out and took it. It was a thin piece of paper, yet it felt incredibly heavy. But when held between her fingers, it was light and airy, almost weightless.
She looked down at the still-wet ink on the characters and the bright red official seal, her gaze clear and sharp, yet the corners of her mouth curved into a smile that she couldn't suppress.
The tension that had been building up inside me for over seven months suddenly eased.
An indescribable feeling of exhilaration welled up from the bottom of her heart, spreading through her limbs and bones, making her fingertips feel numb.
Those two hundred-plus days and nights of docility, timidity, and cautious advance were not in vain.
She finally broke free from the cage called "Shen Family".
The prefect swept his gaze across the deathly-looking Shen family members below the courtroom and spoke again: "The Shen family's criminal property has been confiscated. The 1,500 strings of cash that Master Gu gave as a congratulatory gift, as well as the 500 taels of silver awarded by the government, have been verified as fraudulent gains. They shall be immediately compensated with the Shen family's residence and land. This shall be carried out without delay!"
Having said that, he grabbed the gavel and slammed it down: "Court adjourned! Take all the prisoners to the dungeon and await their fate!"
"mighty--"
Amidst the low, authoritative voices of the yamen runners, the constables immediately stepped forward, dragging up the limp Zhang Shi, the absent-minded Shen Qingshu, the distraught Shen Rongzhi, and the silent Lin Yingyu, and shoving them down from the courtroom.
Zhang and Shen Qingshu never imagined that not only would their lives be in danger, but they would also lose their ancestral home where they had lived for generations.
They truly ended up with nothing left, their lives and reputations destroyed.
At this moment, Zhang suddenly found a surge of brute strength and broke free...
She staggered and fell to the ground, grabbing Lu Zhaoruo's ankle.
"Zhaoruo! Zhaoruo! It was my fault! It was Auntie's fault!"
Tears streamed down her face, her hair disheveled, and all traces of her former haughtiness vanished. "Save me! Please, for the sake of our past relationship, beg the magistrate to spare my life! I... I'll do anything for you, I'll kowtow to you!"
She actually let go and was about to bang her head on the ground with a "thud".
Lu Zhaoruo lowered her eyes and coldly looked at the old woman at her feet, who looked disheveled and terrified.
There was a time when she was tormented and nearly killed by these hands and this person.
“Aunt,” her voice was calm and even carried a hint of pity, but what she said was the most hurtful: “The law is as solid as a mountain, and I am but a lowly woman with little influence. How dare I offer my opinion? You… have a safe journey.”
Have a safe journey?
The pleading in Zhang's eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a venomous hatred. She screamed and cursed, spittle flying from her mouth: "Lu Zhaoruo! You will die a horrible death! You wicked woman, struck by lightning! You schemed against my in-laws and forced my husband into exile. Sooner or later you will die a gruesome death in the streets, your heart and lungs rotting and your body oozing pus!"
"You think you've won? Let me tell you! You unfilial and wicked woman who has harmed your entire family, the whole world will despise you! Your Lu family's ancestral graves will be dug up sooner or later..."
Her curses grew increasingly frenzied and vulgar, veins bulging on her neck, as if she wanted to unleash the most obscene words in the world upon Lu Zhaoruo.
Lu Zhaoruo didn't even twitch her eyebrows.
She simply lowered her eyes slightly and calmly smoothed out the hem of her skirt that had been torn.
Then, she slowly stepped forward, gracefully bent down, and leaned close to Zhang's ear, whispering in a soft voice that only the two of them could hear: "Zhang Cuie, I forgot to tell you, those gambling debts that your daughter Shen Lingyi owed... were all arranged by me, and I also had her arm cut off."
Upon hearing this, Zhang wanted nothing more than to pounce on Lu Zhaoruo and tear her to pieces, but fortunately the yamen runners quickly stepped forward and held her down firmly.
"You vicious woman! So it was you who harmed my Yi'er! You'll die a horrible death! Do you think you can have a good life without the Shen family? Go back to your Lu family and see if your old mother will even give you a single bite to eat!"
"What kind of good person do you think your mother is? She told my Yi'er herself—'A married daughter is like water spilled from the doorway! Now that Lu Zhaoruo has entered the Shen family, she's a ghost of the Shen family, dead or alive! Don't even think about bringing her filthy body back to defile my Lu family's land!'"
"Let's see how long you, a powerless and abandoned woman, can be so arrogant! I'll be watching how you die in the underworld."
Lu Bohong clenched his fists. He never expected that his mother would say such heartless and cruel words!
Lu Zhaoruo, however, did not back down but instead advanced, still smiling as she looked at her, her eyes clear as water, her tone even gentle: "How could it not end well? Don't I still have two shops? Not only my original dowry of one hundred taels, but also the one hundred taels of savings you secretly kept at the bottom of your trunk, and oh right, the two hundred taels you secretly withdrew from the shops in the past six months..."
"Now, they're all with me."
She straightened up gently, a cool yet bright smile curving her lips: "Go in peace."
"I will be... fine."
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