Chapter 50: The End of Friendship
The plum garden fell into deathly silence.
Pairs of astonished eyes were almost fixed on Su Tan and Zhao Yu.
Even Liu Qingyin covered her lips with a handkerchief and blinked continuously.
"Bitch! What nonsense are you talking about!"
Veins bulged on Zhao Yu's forehead, his eyes were filled with venom, and he stared at Su Tan intently, his finger bones crackling from being pinched.
"Did I say something wrong?" Su Tan looked at Zhao Yu indifferently. The wind and snow blew past her ears, and her eyes shone coldly. "Zhao Yu, you stay by Song Tingchen's side all day long in the name of a friend. You always find fault with every woman who appears around him."
"You said that no woman in the world is worthy of Song Tingchen. Is it because in your heart, Song Tingchen is comparable only to the gods, or is it because you have a secret that cannot be seen in the light of day?"
Zhao Yu's eyes were bloodshot, but a flash of panic suddenly crossed his eyes. He had always concealed it well, so how could Su Tan, a bitch, know it? "Stop talking nonsense here and ruining people's reputations. Ha, no wonder Brother Tingchen doesn't want you. A gossip like you, slandering and causing trouble as soon as you open your mouth, even stray dogs on the street are more noble than you!"
"Sister Su Tan, this is too much. How can you casually say that Brother Zhao Yu is a homosexual?"
Liu Qingyin frowned, her face showing some disapproval, but there was a hint of gloating in her eyes.
Zhao Yu cursed well, he deserved more curses.
Su Tan's eyes fell on Zhao Yu. "I'm destroying someone's reputation? Zhao Yu, for the past three years, you've been raising boys in the mansion and burying countless corpses in the Zhao family's backyard. I'm afraid you've forgotten how much you've done. But in front of Song Tingchen, you're just trying to please him."
"Those children who were brutally murdered by you because they resembled him, have no recourse but to heaven, their grievances unresolved. Won't there be evil spirits chasing you in your dreams at night to claim your life?"
Zhao Yu's expression froze.
How dare she!
How dare this bitch Su Tan reveal the secrets of the Zhao family in front of so many people!
…
"Is this... is this true?! Zhao Yu looks so humble and handsome, but he actually did something so heartless?!"
…
"Tsk! What kind of gentleman would interfere in his brother's backyard? I think he has evil intentions!"
…
"When his elder brother was his age, his child was already four years old, but he is still alone now. This is nothing, but he keeps talking about Song Tingchen. Tsk tsk!"
…
"To find out whether he has done such a thing, we can send someone to the Zhao family to check if there is a body in the backyard."
…
"Shut up!" Zhao Yu shot a ferocious look at the group of whispering onlookers, "Su Tan is just a bitch, there's no credibility in what she says!"
Su Tan looked at him quietly. His anxious clown-like appearance of jumping up and down was imprinted in her eyes. Seeing the deathly look on Zhao Yu's face, she raised her eyebrows slightly, "Second Young Master Zhao, if you insist on deceiving yourself, I can only say, just be happy for yourself."
She turned around and was about to leave, but Zhao Yu's face was gloomy, "Stop!"
Su Tan didn't stop walking. Zhao Yuhan stepped forward with a stern face, grabbed a stone in his hand, and smashed it towards her head. "Bitch!"
Su Tan dodged by turning his head and kicked him far away.
Zhao Yu's body fell heavily on the tree trunk, and the white snow and plum blossoms fell like raindrops.
Zhao Yu spat out a mouthful of blood.
Liu Qingyin's face turned pale. She shrank back and glanced at Su Tan. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw that figure and her eyes instantly turned red. "Brother Tingchen!"
Song Tingchen had just left for a while because of something, but he never expected to see Zhao Yu spitting blood. His brows knitted together, "What's going on?"
Liu Qingyin hid behind him and told him the whole story with tears in her eyes.
The more Song Tingchen listened, the more his brows furrowed. He looked at Su Tan with a sullen look, his eyes filled with suppressed anger. "Su Tan, when will you control your temper?"
Previously, she used the Eastern Palace as a place to vent her selfish desires.
Now he is so unscrupulous in the palace.
"I already know what Zhao Yu's character is like. There's no need for you to deliberately slander him and distort the truth!"
How could she say that Zhao Yu is a homosexual?
"General Song truly impresses me."
A sneer was heard, and everyone turned their heads to look. It was Prince Yu, who was rumored to be disfigured and had a broken leg. He was supported by his servants and was looking in their direction. A sarcastic smile appeared on his handsome and intact face.
"Miss Su was once your wife, after all, but you never trusted her. No wonder everyone around you dared to yell at her."
"General Song was able to get to where he is today thanks to the Yue family's support. You can't be so ungrateful."
Song Tingchen's face was tense.
He fixed his gaze on Prince Yu and sneered briefly, "Your Highness Prince Yu, please take care of yourself first when you have time."
After all, everyone knew how he treated Princess Yu in the past.
Unexpectedly, Prince Yu was so thick-skinned that he smiled nonchalantly, "I was deceived by a villain before, so I misunderstood Shen."
"I know I was wrong now. When we divorced, I returned all my dowry to Shen. I don't know if General Song will reflect on his mistakes, but since you two are divorced, has General Song returned Miss Su's dowry?"
It was such a grand occasion when Duke Dingguo married off his daughter. Everyone knows that Su Tan married into the Song family with a grand wedding dress.
Prince Yu was determined to bring Su Tan under his command, so her dowry should belong to Prince Yu's mansion.
We can’t let Song Tingchen get away with it for nothing.
Before Song Tingchen could speak, Liu Qingyin frowned. "Your Highness owes the former princess, but Brother Tingchen doesn't owe Miss Su anything. Even if he wants to return the dowry, he will only take back what's left. But Miss Su spends money like water. When she divorced Brother Tingchen, she had already squandered all her dowry."
Zhao Yu's face was filled with disgust. With a pale and lifeless face, he looked at Su Tan angrily, "Miss Su, a divorced and abandoned woman, wouldn't you be so shameless as to ask for a dowry from your ex-husband?"
Su Tan half-closed her eyes. Although she didn't know what Prince Yu was up to, his words did remind her.
In the past, in order to get rid of the Song family and not get entangled with them, she naturally had no time to argue about dowry or not. After all, those real gold, silver and rare treasures were used to fill the hole of the Song family.
For Song's father, Song's mother, and even Song Xiao, taking medicine when they are sick is a bottomless pit. It can be said that Song's mother's life was saved by her using her dowry to exchange for sky-high-priced medicines.
Su Tan's gaze fell on Song Tingchen, and he suddenly sneered, "General Song has always been upright and upright, and everyone says you are a great hero. If that's the case, you can't feel comfortable spending all of your ex-wife's dowry and then say it was your ex-wife who was squandering money, right?"
Song Tingchen's gaze lingered on Su Tan's face for a long time.
After a moment, he looked away, and his cold voice drifted into Su Tan's ears with the wind and snow, "Miss Su, just make a list. I will return all your dowry."
"If you can't find it, you can give it to Miss Su in cash."
Gu Mingzhu glanced at Song Tingchen coldly and said, "I happen to have a copy of the dowry list. When I get back, I'll have someone send it to the Song Mansion. General Song can find the records from that year and compare them."
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Song Tingchen's expression remained unchanged as he simply said, "Okay."
Zhao Yu suddenly became anxious and pulled him hard, "Brother Tingchen, you haven't done anything wrong to her, how can she have the nerve to ask you for a dowry!"
Su Tan's gaze fell on him, a hint of sneer playing on the corner of his lips. "Second Young Master Zhao is so jumpy, could it be that he remembered that your Zhao family's purple gold cloud pattern mother-of-pearl inlaid jewel screen was also part of my dowry and he doesn't want to return it?"
Before she married Song Tingchen, even though Song Tingchen and Zhao Yu were good friends, he couldn't even enter the Zhao family. Later, all the Zhao family members changed their attitude.
Could it be that Zhao Yu thinks that the Zhao family's good impression of Song Tingchen is all due to his daily bragging?
Zhao Yu suddenly felt as nauseous as if he had eaten a fly.
His mother loved the set of screens very much. He thought it was a gift from someone who wanted to curry favor with his father, so he never asked much about it. Indeed, he had praised the screens for their beauty several times.
Turns out this is Su Tan’s dowry?
At this time, a concubine who was fed up with the situation finally spoke up for Su Tan. "Back then, General Song was away at war, but you were so cold and hard-hearted that you didn't even realize you'd offended someone. Miss Su did a lot of work on your behalf."
Managing the inner house and being a wife is not as simple as just drinking tea and checking accounts.
The officialdom is ever-changing. If you don’t understand how to be an official, you will never know how you will die in the future.
It’s okay for civil servants, after all, they kill people without shedding blood.
It just so happened that Song Tingchen was a general, and he could manipulate the distribution of military pay, food supplies, and when reinforcements would arrive if he encountered difficulties during the war.
If someone dislikes Song Tingchen, they may deprive him of food during the battle, or create obstacles on the road when he is waiting for reinforcements, causing the reinforcements to arrive a few days late. The consequences of this are immeasurable.
Prince Yu sneered, "General Song, why do you think so? After you and Miss Su divorced, many people in the capital called your Song family ungrateful. Is it simply because you kicked her away the moment she lost her support?"
Song Tingchen's face was cold and gloomy.
He looked at Su Tan without blinking.
It was Su Tan who proposed the divorce at that time.
He was certain that she was just throwing a tantrum and was just trying to back down, so he did as she wished. At that time, he always thought that in a few days, Su Tan would admit her mistake.
But he never expected that she would be gone for three years.
Song Tingchen moved his lips, wanting to say something, but in the end he just said, "My fate with Miss Su has ended. I will return everything I owe you without a single cent left."
"Repay?" Gu Mingzhu sneered at the words, "That's easy for General Song to say. You'll never be able to repay what you owe Tan'er in this lifetime!"
Su Tan's face was expressionless. He just looked at Song Tingchen with an indifferent look. "In that case, I will make a list for General Song later. Except for the money spent on Song Xiao, General Song will return the rest."
Song Tingchen frowned, "No need, Xiaoxiao is a child of the Song family."
"No." Su Tan's brows were cold as he looked at Song Tingchen quietly. "Returning what I spent on him would make it seem like I still owe him something."
She had risked her life to give birth to Song Xiao, and she truly loved the child at that time, and had no regrets about anything she gave.
Originally, Song Xiao was weak, but later he finally became no different from an ordinary child. She did not regret everything she had done for Song Xiao. It is a mother's nature to love her children.
But now, she just wants to draw a line between herself and the past.
What happens to Song Xiao in the future has nothing to do with her.
Song Tingchen was suddenly stunned and looked at Su Tan deeply for a long time.
In the past, Su Tan always had a smile on her face, and she didn't know the sorrows of the world. It seemed that she had become as cold as the snow covering the plum branches since some time ago.
Song Tingchen originally thought that she didn't want him to return everything he spent on Xiaoxiao because she still remembered that she was Xiaoxiao's biological mother.
It turned out that she just wanted to draw a clear line between herself and Xiaoxiao.
Song Tingchen laughed at himself, laughing at himself for being too sentimental and also laughing at himself for underestimating Su Tan's ruthlessness.
His brows gradually turned colder, and his voice carried the chill of winter. "Okay."
It turns out that the breakup did not happen three years ago.
But today.
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