Chapter 24 She was pulled into his arms and clung to Chen Junbai.
"Come quickly, loosen it for me." Li Yang opened her arms so that the maid could easily untie the cloth strips and hemp ropes binding her.
God knows, I slept like this all night yesterday, and now that I'm finally free, it feels like there are tiny ants biting my waist all over, densely packed, both painful and itchy.
Massaging her shoulders and stretching her back, she looked up at Chen Junbo and asked, "Has everything been investigated?"
Chen Junbo helped the person up and said, "Okay, let's go." He then turned to leave.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey..." A soft cry came from behind him, and he quickly turned around to see what was wrong.
Li Yang was still squatting, his right arm pulled high. Chen Junbo squatted down, "Are you alright?"
The young woman raised her head, her eyes narrowed, and she hissed as if drawing out a cold breath, "Chen Junbo, my legs are numb..."
Young Master Chen's lips twitched. He released her arm, placed one hand on her back, and slipped the other under her legs, deftly pulling her into his embrace before getting up and leaving.
Li Yang was stunned by his sudden embrace. By the time he reacted, he was already off the ground. With a "whoosh," he reached out and locked his arms around the man's neck. His back stiffened, and he could only hear the man's low laughter in his ear.
When the two walked out of the woodshed, one was hugging the other, and the other was hanging on him.
The maids at the door blushed with embarrassment and lowered their heads to peek at her. The female servants, however, were not as shy as the maids; each was secretly thinking, 'From now on, we can't afford to treat this young mistress lightly.'
Bi Fang stood there, stunned: "Young Master... this is..."
Chen Junbo glanced at him, and Bi Fang immediately waved his arm to shoo him away, saying, "Everyone, disperse, disperse, get back to work."
With that, he dragged Zhao Di and Zi Yan away.
With a whoosh, the birds and beasts scattered.
This was the first time Li Yang had been held like this by a man, and she felt a little embarrassed. She clung to Chen Junbai and tried to make conversation, "Did you see my contract with Manager Zhou?"
Chen Junbo: "Mm."
Li Yang: "I told you, my relationship with Manager Zhou is completely innocent; it was just ordinary business..."
The remaining half of the sentence stuck in his throat.
The mother-in-law, along with the nanny and Caiqing Molian, stood not far away.
Now, without the crowd blocking their way, the two sides just stood there staring at each other.
The mother-in-law said coldly, "I really underestimated you, you wretched girl, to have tricked Bai'er into doing this much for you."
Li Yang frowned upon hearing this: What do you mean? What's the situation?
Looking up, she saw that Madam Chen's eyes were fierce, and the eyes of the two women beside her, Granny Sun, were filled with hatred, as if they wanted to devour her whole.
Behind her, Caiqing had half her face swollen, and her eyes were filled with unspeakable resentment.
Looking at Mo Lian again, she still appeared to have a clear conscience, standing to one side with her head bowed and eyes lowered.
Li Yang quickly patted Chen Junbo's arm, signaling him to put her down. Unexpectedly, the man didn't cooperate at all and instead asked, "Aren't your legs numb anymore?"
It would have been better if he hadn't said it. As soon as he said it, Li Yang felt that Chen Zhangshi across from him was practically spitting fire from her eyes. His face burned, and he quickly said, "I'm much better, I'm much better. Please put me down."
She doesn't have that kind of quirk of disgusting people in front of her rivals.
With her feet on the ground, she released her grip on Chen Junbo's back and turned to look at Chen Zhangshi.
“Mother-in-law, I have never been favored by you since I entered the Chen family. But I really don’t know what I did wrong to make you dislike me so much.”
Seeing that Chen Zhangshi was only staring at her fiercely and breathing heavily, she continued, "If it were any other day, it would be my duty as a daughter-in-law to punish or scold me. But you have repeatedly framed me and ruined my reputation. Why is that?"
However, that doesn't matter. Whatever your reasons for doing these things, I will not admit to anything I didn't do.
From this day forward, I will fulfill my duties as a daughter-in-law of the Chen family and will never again give you any leverage against me. Please don't waste your energy on these things; just enjoy your rest.
After she finished speaking, she turned to look at Chen Junbai.
These words were her declaration of war against Madam Chen, and also her sycophantic speech to Young Master Chen.
In the two years she's been selling wontons in town, she's long since learned to reason with reasonable people and to compete with unreasonable people to see who is more unreasonable.
Chen's mother-in-law made no attempt to hide her dislike for him from the very first day.
What kind of good mother-in-law would make her daughter-in-law stand at the door for an hour or two every few days under some excuse of a headache or fever?
If she could tolerate physical torture, these recent attempts to smear her were like stepping on Li Yang's toes. She hated being wronged more than anything in her life!
Moreover, if Chen Zhangshi succeeds, wouldn't the one thousand taels of silver agreed upon in the marriage contract be wasted?
Anger can be tolerated, but lewdness cannot!
Unsurprisingly, her words enraged Chen Zhangshi, who rushed up and slapped her across the face in the blink of an eye.
The speed was unexpected, and Chen Junbo quickly pulled the person behind him, barely managing to avoid the second slap.
Li Yang's face stung with pain, and he instinctively touched his cheek with one hand, a surge of emotion welling up in his eyes: Why did they even hit him?!
Chen Junbo coldly said, "Mother! Yesterday, I sent someone to invite the Fengya Troupe to perform at the mansion. They have arrived now. Please go back to Baomo Hall to watch the performance."
Having gained an advantage, Madam Chen didn't care about her son's attitude. She glared at them and turned to leave.
"Mother, wait a moment."
Chen Zhangshi: "What do you want to do now?"
Chen Junbo: "Caiqing and Molian were originally maids in Lanxin Pavilion. Now the two of them have committed insubordination and falsely accused the head of the family. I ask Mother to return them to her son for punishment."
"You!" Madam Chen glared at her son, her teeth grinding together. "Are you going to humiliate me for this bitch?!"
Chen Junbo: "Mother, please be careful with your words. The Chen family's prosperity today is entirely due to the harmony among all members of the household. I am only thinking of the Chen family's interests."
As if choked with emotion, Madam Chen pointed at her own son with one hand, her face trembling as she was unable to utter a word.
Taking a deep breath, she shouted, "Don't even think about it! Don't even think about letting this girl step on my head and act like a tyrant!"
Chen Junbo coldly replied, "Mother, I am merely dealing with the servants in Lanxin Pavilion. These two dare to falsely accuse Li today, and they will dare to falsely accuse you tomorrow."
The son is only concerned about his mother's reputation; why doesn't the mother hand the man over to her son?
As he spoke, he glanced towards Bao Mo Tang and said, "Mother, does this mean we're not going to watch the play today?!"
Seeing this, Granny Sun hurriedly stepped forward and tugged at the back of Madam Chen's clothes. "Madam, the young master is doing this to ease your worries. These two maids dared to deceive you, clearly showing they don't respect you. The young master is punishing them today to vent your anger. Why not leave it to the young master to deal with?"
As they spoke, they half-coaxed and half-dragged the person away.
Inside Lanxin Pavilion, Caiqing and Molian knelt together in the main hall, while Chen Li and another person sat at the head of the table.
All that could be heard was Caiqing crying out in a delicate voice, "Young master, if you don't care about our past relationship, at least remember that I've served you since I was little. Even if I haven't done anything great, I've still put in a lot of effort. Please forgive me this time."
Mo Lian, kneeling steadily beside her, looked resigned to her fate, which piqued Li Yang's interest.
"Mo Lian, you were so eloquent when you falsely accused me that day. Now, do you have anything to say?"
The person kneeling below did not even lift her eyelids, and coldly snorted: "Young Madam, I misunderstood your matter with Manager Zhou. It was my carelessness. I will accept whatever punishment you may give me."
The implication behind these words is that she still doesn't think she's qualified to be the young mistress of the Chen family.
If she has another chance, she will learn from her mistake, act more cautiously, and continue to report herself.
Li Yang showed no anger, but leaned down with interest and said, "Mo Lian, I have never mistreated you. Why do you choose to stir up trouble instead of living a peaceful life?"
"Young Madam! I address you as Young Madam today only because you are the woman the young master married. But in what way have you acted that you deserve the title of Young Madam?"
Mo Lian suddenly looked up, her eyes gleaming. "What Mo Lian did was not for her own selfish desires, but for the young master and the Chen family. Mo Lian has done nothing wrong!"
There's no hope for her, this girl is completely hopeless.
Right now, Li Yang really wanted to crack open her head and see what was going on inside her head!
"Mo Lian, you keep saying you're doing this for Chen Junbo and the Chen family, but isn't this just selfish desire?"
You judge things you don't understand with your shallow knowledge, complain about Caiqing because of your shallow sisterly bond, and refuse to see your own mistakes because of your stubbornness.
Do you really understand Caiqing? Do you really understand Chen Junbo? Do you know what the Chen family needs right now?
Mo Lian's eyes welled up with tears: "Did the young mistress know that?!"
“I don’t know either.” Li Yang smiled slightly and stood up. “You, Cai Qing, and I are all the same. We work for the Chen family and for Chen Junbai.”
Therefore, I obeyed orders in the Chen family, followed my mother-in-law's commands, and obeyed Chen Junbai's orders.
My mother-in-law forbade me to wander around the house, so I hid in the Lanxin Pavilion. I made whatever Chen Junbo liked to eat.
Last time you said, "The most valuable thing about a person is self-awareness." Today I'll give you another piece of advice: "Never be arrogant!"
After saying that, she glanced at Chen Junbo and left the main room.
Chen Junbo's eyes narrowed, and he immediately made his decision.
The two were not allowed to utter a word and were immediately locked in the woodshed, receiving the same treatment as Li Yang had the previous night. Then, a matchmaker came and took them away.
A maid who has done something wrong in her master's household and has been sold off can never be remarried into a good family.
When Li Yang learned of the two men's fate, he felt a pang of sadness. In this day and age, what kind of fate awaits a girl who cannot marry into a good family?
But she wasn't Guanyin Bodhisattva; she felt no sympathy for those who had harmed her, only hoping they would get what they deserved.
Unfortunately, no matter how much Caiqing cried and shouted, she couldn't drown out the commotion inside Baomo Hall.
Madam Chen smashed almost all the porcelain in the main room, and still not satisfied, she even kicked over several stools.
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