"Your subject, Your subject receives the imperial decree."
No matter how ugly or pitiful Liu Zhi's face looked, none of the people present felt much sympathy for him.
Liu Zhi accepted the imperial decree in a disheveled state, and then left Cui Leng Courtyard in a similarly disheveled state.
Qingyin watched coldly from the sidelines, showing no intention of persuading him to stay, which added another layer of complex feelings to Liu Zhi's mind.
But Qingyin didn't care about Liu Zhi's feelings, and Song's mother was even less likely to care.
After Liu Zhi left, Song's mother was overjoyed and said, "Qingqing, the Emperor must have found out about Liu Zhi's cold-heartedness. He specially made arrangements for you and issued an edict for a divorce. Now you can take Niannian home with peace of mind. This is wonderful!"
As she smiled, Song's mother thought of the reason Qingyin was able to return home—it was because of her frail health—and her expression turned grim again.
When Qingyin saw Song's mother's expression, she knew that she was thinking about her current health. She smiled and nodded, pretending not to understand her expression, and changed the subject.
"Yes, Mother should hurry up and tidy up the house. Niannian and I have quite a lot of things in the mansion."
"Yes, you're right. I'll pack up all your dowry and these things and take them home right away. Humph, I'd rather throw your dowry away than let the Liu family waste it."
As soon as Song's mother imagined that the dowry her daughter had brought had been taken by the Liu family, she felt like bugs were crawling all over her. She felt disgusted and anxious, and her mood for melancholy vanished. She perked up and directed Qinghe to prepare to bring back Qingyin's dowry.
Most of the people in Cui Leng Courtyard were from the Liu family, but Madam Song specially brought people from the Song family, so the nannies and maids were quite fast. But even at their fastest pace, it still took quite a while to pack up the dowry of a noble lady from a prestigious family.
The imperial decree ordering Qingyin and Liu Zhi to divorce had not yet been spread, so Old Madam Liu, who was staying at the Liu residence, was unaware of it.
However, the commotion of packing up the dowry in Cui Leng Courtyard was a bit too loud, and it woke up Old Madam Liu, who was used to sleeping in.
Hearing the noise around her, Old Madam Liu couldn't help but frown and asked the head maid beside her in a low voice, "What's all the commotion outside? Why is it so noisy!"
Ping'er was also a little puzzled. Ever since the second mistress of their second master (Liu Zhi) fell ill, there had been very few incidents. So who had caused this commotion outside?
Ping'er didn't know, but she couldn't simply tell the old lady she didn't know. She paused and replied, "This servant will go out and ask."
Madam Liu nodded.
Ping'er went out.
Looking at the unfamiliar-looking nannies and maids carrying boxes outside, Ping'er felt a sense of foreboding.
Sure enough, she stopped a slow-moving maid and asked, "Which courtyard are you from? Why are you moving things?"
The maid Qiuwen, who was being held back, was a servant of the Song family. She knew how the Liu family disliked their eldest daughter. If it were before, when the eldest daughter was still the lady of the Liu family, she would have been a little nicer. But now that the emperor had ordered the young lady to divorce the Liu family, why should she be nice to this servant of the Liu family?
Qiu Wen smiled coldly at Ping'er: "Heh, I am a maid under Madam Song. Does this sister not know that the Emperor has already decreed that our eldest young lady and Lord Liu Zhi should divorce? Now our Madam has said that the eldest young lady's dowry should be burned and thrown away, and not left to those heartless bastards!"
"Ha, you!"
Ping'er was so angry that she trembled, pointing at Qiu Wen with shaky hands, but she couldn't say anything to retort.
She was seething with anger, and could only watch helplessly as the young maid from the Song family, who had angered her, mocked her arrogantly before returning to her group with a smile.
Ping'er watched for a while, and seeing that there were more and more things being packed for the dowry, she couldn't wait any longer. It would have been better if she hadn't known about this news, but now that she knew the Song family was going to move the second young mistress's dowry back, she had to tell Old Madam Liu as soon as possible.
—
"Madam, Madam, something terrible has happened!"
As Ping'er hurriedly added fuel to the fire by complaining, she successfully made Old Madam Liu's face even more unpleasant.
"Bang!" Old Madam Liu slammed her hand heavily on the table.
"Ha, the Song family's upbringing is so shameless! They're supposed to be devoted to their wives, but they still have the nerve to take their dowry away!"
Upon hearing the old lady's words, the maids standing nearby twitched at the corners of their mouths.
When a woman marries into a family, her dowry is supposed to be delivered to her husband's family. But now, the Second Madam has been personally granted a divorce by the Emperor. Why should the dowry stay in the Liu family? Besides, the Second Young Master treated the Second Madam badly in the past, and now he has ruined her health. To put it bluntly, even if the Second Madam were to return home now, she would most likely die young. And the Old Madam is still acting like this... She really is shameless, as she put it.
They didn't understand the reasoning, but the maids dared not tell the truth to Old Madam Liu.
They followed obediently like quails, trailing behind the furious Old Madam Liu as she rushed towards the Cui Leng Courtyard.
Aside from a few maids who already disliked and envied the Second Madam, who followed behind Old Madam Liu with smug expressions, waiting for the old lady to reprimand Qingyin.
They just didn't expect that the reason they could teach Liu Zhi a lesson before was because the original owner liked Liu Zhi and deliberately lowered her face to be a good daughter-in-law. But now that the "person" has changed and Song's mother is also there, these people have run into a "black plate".
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