Chapter 111 Make the decision for me

Ruan Xiaoyue returned to the Pei residence in a depressed mood. The maidservant beside Madam Pei was waiting for her at the door: "Young Madam, Madam wants you to go to her room."

Ruan Xiaoyue didn't want to go at first, but when she thought of the slap Pei Chong had given her before, her heart sank and she turned to the old lady's yard helplessly.

In the room, Pei Wen wiped her tears in anger: "Mother, you don't know that my sister-in-law has lost face today. Even Madam Ji has stood up to speak."

After hearing her daughter talk about the engagement party at the Jiang Mansion, Mrs. Pei's face turned cold. It was not because Ruan Xiaoyue had offended the Prime Minister's wife. After all, they were cousins, and any quarrel was a family matter.

But the Ji family is different. The Ji family is also a family of military generals. Master Pei was a first-rank general in his time, and now his son Ru has made many military achievements and is also a first-rank general.

Although the old man of the Ji family has resigned from his post as general, he has always been in the Ministry of War. Chong'er has to deal with him on weekdays.

Ruan Xiaoyue felt that the atmosphere was not right when she entered the room, and said politely: "The daughter-in-law has met the mother."

"Do you still have me, your mother, and the Pei family in your eyes?" Old Madam Pei's face was full of anger. "Even if you marry into the Pei family, when you go out, your actions and words represent the reputation of the Pei family. I can't control the intrigues in the inner courtyard of your Ruan family, but if you bring shame to the Pei family, that's another matter."

This was the first time that Mrs. Pei had truly broken off relations with her. She had been pretending before, but now she wasn't even pretending.

Looking at Pei Wen standing next to her with a smug look on her face, Ruan Xiaoyue knew that she was the one gossiping. "My daughter-in-law didn't do anything wrong in today's Jiang Mansion incident. She just said a few words, but someone with ulterior motives changed their mind after hearing them. What does it have to do with me?"

"Who do you think is the one with ulterior motives? It's obvious that you are the one who said that." Pei Wen was so angry that she said, "Humph, everyone knows that when you were in the Ruan family, you were jealous of Ruan Qinghuan in every way. Now that she has married the prime minister and become a first-rank imperial lady, you must be jealous to death, right?"

These words touched Ruan Xiaoyue's sore spot.

Since she was a child, she wanted to surpass Ruan Qinghuan in every way, just to let the Ruan family see, to let everyone see, that she was no worse than Ruan Qinghuan.

Looking at her now, the life she had worked so hard to build seemed like a joke.

"See, I hit the nail on the head, didn't I?" Pei Wen said even more recklessly: "Don't you look in the mirror and see what abilities you have? The reason you were able to marry into the Pei family was because you recommended yourself to the bed. My brother feels sorry for you because no one will want you in the future...ah..."

A crisp "pop" sound instantly quieted the noisy room.

Pei Wen covered her face with her hands, her eyes wide open in disbelief. After a moment, she reacted and angrily cursed, "Shameless woman, how dare you hit me?"

As he said this, he rushed forward and started fighting with Ruan Xiaoyue while crying.

Mrs. Pei was so angry that she slammed the table and muttered, "What a rebellion! I'm not dead yet, yet they dared to attack me in front of me. This is simply outrageous! Someone come and pull them apart."

The maid pulled the two people apart. Neither Pei Wen nor Ruan Xiaoyue gained any advantage. Pei Wen was grabbed and slapped twice, and Ruan Xiaoyue had several scratches on her face.

Looking at the finger marks on her daughter's face, Mrs. Pei felt distressed and angry. She shouted, "Ruan Xiaoyue, you are so bold. You did something wrong and you don't repent. You even dare to hit someone."

"She was the one who slandered me first. Didn't mother hear it?"

"Even if she is wrong, I will make her repent. As a sister-in-law, she is not filial to her parents-in-law and does not care for her sister-in-law. Do you really think that the Pei family has no rules at all?"

Ruan Xiaoyue sneered: "A girl dares to say such dirty words so brazenly, how good can her upbringing be?"

“You, you, you…”

The reason why we didn't make things too difficult for her earlier was because she came with a generous dowry and we thought she could help share Chong'er's worries.

However, after just a few days of marriage, he started to be rude and irritable, and couldn't even tolerate a pregnant Mingzhu.

Today, she even beat her own daughter. How could Madam Pei let her off? "Since you don't repent, don't blame your mother for being cruel. Someone, take Madam to the ancestral hall to reflect on your sins and make her kneel for a night."

"Why? What did I do wrong? Why should I kneel? Even if I really have to kneel, Pei Wen should kneel with me."

Pei Wen sneered: "You really think you are the mistress of the Pei family. Mother is sitting here. Is it your turn to speak?"

No matter how Ruan Xiaoyue struggled, she was still dragged to the ancestral hall by several maids.

The sound of the door being locked came from outside the ancestral hall. Ruan Xiaoyue shouted hysterically: "Let me out, why do you want me to kneel down as punishment? Let me out."

The only response she got was silence.

Looking back, Ruan Xiaoyue felt nervous as she looked at the rows of memorial tablets placed on the platform. She felt a little uneasy as she thought about having to stay with these cold memorial tablets for a whole night.

Knowing she couldn't escape, she sat down on the mat, feeling a surge of grievances in her heart, and her tears blurred her vision.

No, she couldn't be defeated. Ruan Xiaoyue wiped her tears and looked at the memorial tablets one by one. The two in the bottom row caught her attention. They were the memorial tablets of the eldest uncle and his son, Pei Yuanzheng and Pei Zhan...

Ruan Xiaoyue knew something about the past events of the Pei family's eldest branch. Last summer, the father and son fell seriously ill one after another and passed away not long after. Only her cousin Lin Qiutang was left in the entire eldest branch.

I couldn't help but think of the secret meeting between Lin Qiutang and Pei Chong. It was like there was a thorn in my heart that I couldn't swallow or pull out. How many dirty things were there in the Pei family's inner courtyard?

She sneered in her heart, no wonder her father-in-law and husband were both dead, but she still stayed in the Pei family and refused to remarry or go back to her parents' home... She just didn't know whether the relationship between the two existed before the incident with the eldest wife, or they got together after the incident.

The ancestral hall was so quiet that only her breathing could be heard. As she thought about it, Ruan Xiaoyue's eyes slightly raised in contemplation. Since ancient times, adultery has led to death. If the two of them had hooked up before the eldest wife's accident, is it possible...

Pei Chong's cold and heartless face appeared in my mind.

**

Inside the posthouse outside the capital, there was a small, shabby woodshed in the backyard. He An and Ji Lingchuan stood at the door and looked at each other.

Ji Lingchuan: "Living in a place like this, it's obvious that you're really afraid of being discovered."

He'an didn't say anything, just observing the surrounding environment. It was late at night and there was no movement in the purple room at all, and it didn't look like anyone was there.

Following Xu Zining's instructions, I knocked on the door twice. After a while, the sound of moving firewood was finally heard from the room. After a while, the door of the firewood room opened a little, revealing a wary eye.

The moment he saw He'an, his eyes suddenly became excited, and the door of the woodshed was completely opened. A lame, bent-over man, dragging his injured leg with one hand, walked out with difficulty, and the firewood on his body fell to the ground as he moved.

When he came to He'an, he immediately knelt on the ground and said, "Prime Minister, you must make the decision for me."