Things of Conscience
As soon as Chen Cong and Xu Lingwan left Yuanxiangyuan, a commotion broke out in the courtyard.
Yao held her son with tears on his face, pointed at Master Shen Wu and scolded him: "Shen Jingzhi, you coward, people bully you.
You came home and you couldn't even protect your wife and son!"
Fifth Master Shen looked at Yao, whose face was filled with ferocity, and his stomach churned.
He suppressed the urge to vomit and twitched the corners of his mouth with a sneer, "That lotus pond is seven feet deep. If there hadn't been a skilled waterman on duty today, do you think my second brother would have allowed my second sister-in-law to simply slap Huaimin a few times?"
He had just returned today, and his concubine Yunniang, unlike her usual gentle demeanor, said hurriedly upon seeing him, "Fifth Master, I have prepared a small gift for you. Please go to the second chamber to visit the Seventh Master."
Yunniang was his maid who had served him since she was a child. She usually acted steadily and spoke softly, but at this moment, her face showed a rare look of anxiety, and her slender eyebrows were deeply furrowed.
"What's wrong?" Yunniang had never looked like this even when she was bullied by Yao, and when he heard her mention Huai'an from the second house, Chen Jing couldn't help but frown.
"I heard from the servants that the Ninth Young Master pushed the Seventh Young Master into the lotus pond." Yunniang said anxiously.
"What!" Master Shen Wu just sat down and stood up in shock. "Is Huai'an hurt?"
He knew Huaimin's temper. He'd been spoiled by the Yao family to the point of being lawless. Last year, his sixth brother's brother Cheng played marbles with him and nearly got blinded by him. If it weren't for his sixth brother's consolation, who knows what kind of fuss his sister-in-law would have made.
"Luckily, there's a servant here who knows how to water." Yunniang shook her head and pushed him out. "But I heard that the Seventh Young Master is still feverish, and Madam hasn't gone to visit him yet to apologize."
Huaimin almost harmed his own brother, but Yao remained indifferent.
Mr. Shen's eyes were already filled with disgust when he heard the word "Madam", and when he heard Yunniang's words, his disgust became even more intense.
Last year, when Huaicheng happened, Yao also hid her son in the house and protected him well. As long as the other party didn't come to the house, Yao would pretend that nothing had happened.
"Yunniang, thank goodness for you. Otherwise, the Yao family would have covered up this matter again, and I'm afraid my second brother would have become estranged from me." Before leaving, Shen Jingzhi paused, turned around, and held Yunniang's hand. "You're weak, so get some rest. I'll go check on the second room first and talk to you when I come back."
Having said that, he strode towards the second room with his servant.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he left Feiyunxuan, his second brother sent someone to find him, saying that his second sister-in-law had taken Huai'an to visit Huaiyin and Huaimin, and that his second brother would go with him to Yuanxiangyuan to pick up his second sister-in-law.
He was so ashamed that he wanted to find a hole to crawl into. It was Huai Min who almost hurt Huai An, but his second sister-in-law personally brought Huai An to visit first.
Shen Huaimin, who had just been crying, shrank back when he heard his father mention the word "lotus pond" and buried his head in Yao's chest. As if to hide his nervousness and seek comfort, he kept rubbing his face against Yao's, not daring to look at Shen Wuye even a little bit.
Shen Huaimin was already a six-year-old boy. Seeing him like this, Fifth Master Shen knew that Yao must have been crying because she felt sorry for her son who was weaned, so she secretly breastfed him again.
Master Shen Wu felt even more nauseous. He took a deep breath, looked at the mother and son sideways, his eyes cold, "Parents who love their children will plan for them. Yao Xinqin, if you indulge Huai Min like this, it will only lead to disaster sooner or later."
After saying that, he didn't want to look at them anymore and left.
He really felt disgusted even to meet Yao, and being able to say a few words to her today was already the limit.
"Fifth Master, are you going to Feiyunxuan?" Seeing his master coming out with a disgusted look on his face, the servant Wang Ji hurried forward.
"Yeah." After hearing the three words "Feiyunxuan", Master Shen Wu's expression relaxed a little.
Inside Yan Xi Residence, Xu Lingwan was shaking with anger.
On the way back to Yanxi Residence, Ling Wan noticed that something was wrong with Huai Yin. But after asking her several times, Huai Yin just evaded the question by saying, "Aunt, I'm fine."
Ling Wan made up her mind that when she returned to Yanxiju, she would ask Mama Yu and Mama Chen to carefully examine Huaiyin's body.
Just now, when she heard Mother Yu say that Shen Huaiyin had needle bruises on his abdomen, thighs and other private parts, and that the blue and purple were alternating, and that she thought it was new injuries added to old ones, she couldn't help but burst into tears.
"Second aunt, these are not injuries. Huai Yin was naughty and fell accidentally." Ling Wan saw that his eyes were panicked and filled with tears, so she dodged.
Upon hearing this, Mother Yu and Mother Chen also felt a lump in their throats.
Growing up in the inner house, these injuries were obviously caused by women. Without much thought, it was clear that these injuries were either caused by Yao or Yao ordered someone to do it.
Although Shen Huaiyin was not favored, he was still the sixth young master of the Shen family. No servant was so bold as to dare to do anything to his master.
Ling Wan couldn't hold it in any longer and began to wipe away her tears while hugging Shen Huaiyin's small body. Damn it, these rotten-hearted villains, they even had the heart to harm a child!
Shen Huaian, who was standing next to him, had been silently shedding tears. He bit his lips several times, looking at Shen Huaian's helpless and numb eyes, and finally mustered up the courage to pull Ling Wan's sleeve: "Mother, these injuries on Sixth Brother's body were caused by Fifth Aunt and Ninth Brother. They, they would torture Sixth Brother whenever they were unhappy, so Sixth Brother has always been...always in poor health..."
Ah. Ling Wan was shocked when she heard this. She knew that Huai Yin was not in good health. Because of his poor health, even though he was one year older than Huai An, Huai Yin was unable to go to school.
She thought Huai Yin was just like Huai An, and that his poor health was due to his physical condition, but she never expected that it was caused by such abuse.
"No, no, Seventh Brother is concerned about me, so..." Chen Huaiyin hurriedly denied it when he heard this.
But in the end, he couldn't deceive himself anymore. He bit his lips tightly to prevent himself from crying out loud.
What's the point of telling Second Auntie? He's the fifth wife's child, and he'll eventually return to the fifth wife's family. If Yao Shi finds out about his complaints today, he'll only be tortured even more when he returns to Yuanxiang Courtyard.
Just like the last time he couldn't bear it anymore and wanted to ask Sixth Aunt for help, before he opened his mouth, the maid beside him found an excuse to take him back, and after returning, he faced even more cruel abuse from Yao.
His stepmother was right. "In this family, do you really think you're the Sixth Young Master? You're nothing more than that whore's bastard child. You've disgraced the Shen family. Even your father would be ashamed of you!"
Indeed, his biological mother was just a prostitute in a brothel whose "red lips were tasted by thousands of people". He was born as a stain on the Shen family and a bad boy. What qualifications did he have to ask everyone in the family to treat him like a proper master?
What's more, it was because of him that Old Master Shen passed away in anger.
The masters of the Shen Mansion and Old Madam Shen hadn't killed him to avenge Old Master Shen, and they had even given him a bite to eat and allowed him to grow up until now. As his stepmother said, "That's already quite benevolent!"
His sins were so grave that he should suffer some of the pain of his stepmother, atone for the old man's sins, and repay his biological father's bloodline and the Shen family's upbringing.
"Don't cry, don't cry..." Ling Wan hurriedly took out a handkerchief and wiped the tears from Huai Yin and Huai An's faces, but the tears kept coming out. Even she herself became tearful and tears were streaming down her face.
Chen Yuanyuan thinks that she is not a saintly bitch nor someone with excessive sympathy (although she cries every time she watches TV dramas). After coming here, she has always adhered to the principles of "I will not offend others unless they offend me" and "keeping a low profile and protecting myself".
But when Huaiyin appeared in front of Chen Yuanyuan in such a situation, she could not remain indifferent and stand idly by, nor could she know what Yao was doing. She comforted Huaiyin for a few days and then sent him back.
So, after calming the two children down, Ling Wan straightened herself up, wiped the tears from their faces, looked into Huai Yin's dark eyes, and asked solemnly, "Huai Yin, if Second Auntie asked you to move here and live and study with your seventh brother in the future, would you be willing?"
"Sixth brother, can you move in? Live with me?" Shen Huaian's eyes lit up.
After receiving Ling Wan's affirmative answer, she took Shen Huaiyin's hand and said excitedly: "Sixth brother, mother said you come to live with me, are you happy too?"
Shen Huaiyin listened but said nothing.
He looked into his second aunt's eyes, which were as bright as stars, and thought that his second aunt probably didn't know about him yet.
"Sixth brother, what's wrong with you? Why are you unhappy?" Seeing the loneliness and numbness on Shen Huaiyin's face, Shen Huaian said anxiously.
Ling Wan thought that he thought that she asked him to move in just for a while. After all, he was the child of the fifth room, and the fifth master and mistress of the fifth room were both there, so there was no reason to raise the child of the fifth room in the second room.
Although this child is only nine years old, he is so observant and intelligent, which makes Wan feel even more distressed.
She touched Shen Huaiyin's head and explained softly, "Huaiyin, when Second Aunt asked you to move in, she didn't mean to stay for a while, or for a year or two, but to live here forever, until you don't want to live here anymore."
This was the first time that Shen Huaiyin heard such a kind and gentle tone.
He couldn't help but be startled. Although he thought to himself, "I wonder what Second Aunt would do if she knew that Old Master Shen passed away because of me," he was only a nine-year-old child after all. Such kindness made him think of the possibility that Second Aunt wouldn't know. He pursed his lips and carefully confirmed, "Really? Can you stay here until I don't want to?"
"Of course." Seeing Shen Huaiyin's eyes full of anticipation and nervousness, Ling Wanzheng nodded.
Although it was true that the Fifth House's child was raised in the Second House before being adopted by the Second House, which was a slap in the face of Fifth Master Shen and Fifth Madam, so what? Fifth Madam Yao had no moral standards to do such a thing to a child, so why did she care about the reputation of the Fifth House?
But for this matter, she had to go find her powerful husband.
And she and her husband, just an hour ago, she was still saying "Second Master Shen, I can't be a qualified virtuous wife, nor a good wife who can manage your backyard well."
Ah, the old people are right. If you say too much or too harshly, you will only get slapped in the face.
But Chen Yuanyuan didn't care. After all, she had been slapped in the face twice today, so she didn't care about the next three, four, five, or six times.
Seeing that Shen Huaiyin still had a worried look on his face, Ling Wan gently smoothed his loose hair and said, "Huaiyin, if you don't say anything, Second Aunt will take it as your consent. You can live here peacefully. If you ever want to leave, just come and tell Second Aunt."
How could I not want to live here? Hearing Ling Wan's words, Shen Huaiyin couldn't help but redden his eyes, but he was also afraid that living here would bring a lot of trouble to this young aunt.
After having dinner with the two children and asking Mother Chen to take them downstairs to rest, Ling Wan remembered that her husband was called away by the servants on his way back to Yanxiju. The guard's expression seemed quite serious.
"Zhu Chi, go to the outer courtyard study and ask if the Second Master is coming back to rest today as well?"
Well, isn't it true that asking for help requires a proper attitude? Ling Wan sighed to the sky, once again feeling that he was really being pretentious.
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