Chapter 297 Not Afraid of Being Criticized Behind One's Back
"Not interested, move aside." Jiang Zhi said coldly.
She tried to leave after she finished speaking, but the other three blocked her way.
"Does Madam Shen not dare?" Zhao Nianzhen raised an eyebrow and looked down at her.
“I won’t make such a childish bet or participate in such a childish competition,” Jiang Zhi said, her patience running thin. “Miss Zhao, there are plenty of people willing to play along with you, so I won’t be joining you.”
Zhao Nianzhen was really angry this time. The whip lashed across Jiang Zhi's face with a sharp crack. Although it didn't touch her skin, because it was so close, half of Jiang Zhi's face instantly felt hot, as if she had been burned.
"Oh, Madam Shen, why didn't you know to look away?" Zhao Nianzhen said with a smile. "Are you hurt?"
Jiang Zhi narrowed her eyes. "Miss Zhao, aren't you afraid of being punished by the Empress for attacking officials' wives in the hunting grounds?"
“I didn’t hit you, everyone saw that,” Zhao Nianzhen sneered. “Who told you to be so cowardly that you wouldn’t even participate in a competition? What’s the point of coming to the Spring Hunt? You could just stay in the manor and be a coward.”
Another girl in yellow laughed, "Who said Madam Shen is timid? She was kidnapped and lost her innocence, yet she still dared to swagger out to participate in the spring hunt. Clearly, she's not afraid of being gossiped about and cursed."
"I really don't know what Lord Shen is thinking," someone chimed in. "If this were in my residence, he would have been beaten to death with sticks long ago."
"After all, we come from humble backgrounds, how can we have the strict family traditions of our aristocratic families?"
Jiang Zhi knew they were deliberately trying to provoke her, hoping to make her agree to the competition out of resentment.
But she really wasn't interested, and she didn't want to cause trouble for herself and Shen Ci'an.
So, without even flinching at their sarcastic remarks, he said, "Are you done? I'm leaving."
She turned her horse around to leave, but four men came up and surrounded her again.
Zhao Nianzhen raised an eyebrow. "If you want to leave, come down and kowtow to us first."
Jiang Zhi closed her eyes, suppressing the anger and frustration in her heart, and decided to endure it.
"you……"
Before she could even speak, another young girl rode up on horseback, her face filled with anxiety. "Second sister, I've already told you this is none of your business. Why don't you get out of the way? Otherwise, I'll go tell Mother."
The person who arrived was none other than Zhao Nianchun, the fifth young lady of the Zhao family, who had almost been engaged to Shen Ci'an.
However, Zhao Nianzhen didn't take her younger sister seriously at all. "What are you doing here? Get back home. You're a disgrace too."
Zhao Nianchun was frail and sickly as a child. A passing itinerant fortune teller told her that her fate was too weak to withstand the fortune of the Rongguo Duke's Mansion and that she needed to be sent to the countryside to be raised.
Therefore, although Zhao Nianchun was the legitimate daughter, she grew up in the countryside and was only brought back when she came of age, which fostered her introverted and shy personality.
Zhao Nianzhen was furious when she saw her. "His first wife is still here, what are you doing, trying to curry favor with her? Why can't you be his second wife? Are you trying to please the mistress and become a concubine?"
"Second sister! You've gone too far!" Zhao Nianchun's face flushed red, and her voice trembled.
"What you've done is far more outrageous than this!" Zhao Nianzhen almost jabbed her on the head with his riding whip. "You've completely disgraced the Rongguo Mansion, and now you're siding with outsiders. Are you in such a hurry to marry into the family? But I do think the two of you get along quite well."
"One was kidnapped and lost his innocence, the other grew up in the countryside and has no sense of shame. A rotten pot with a rotten lid, a perfect match!"
The people around him also laughed.
Zhao Nianchun was both angry and anxious, tears welling up in her eyes, but her lips trembled and she couldn't utter a single word.
She recalled the time at the palace banquet when she was surrounded and mocked by a group of people, and it was only then that Lord Shen happened to pass by and came to her rescue.
But what about now?
"Miss Zhao keeps saying she's proud of the Rongguo Duke's Mansion, but has she ever considered that the Rongguo Duke's Mansion is actually rotten from the inside out?"
Jiang Zhi finally spoke at this moment.
This Miss Zhao is arrogant and doesn't know anyone; she really needs to be taught a lesson.
"What do you mean? Explain yourself!" Zhao Nianzhen gripped the riding whip tightly.
"Don't you know?" Jiang Zhi curled her lips. "Your father, the Duke of Rongguo, had a penchant for male prostitutes. He built a room in the backyard of the Duke's mansion specifically to keep his mistresses, causing countless innocent people to lose their families and lives."
Zhao Nianzhen's eyelids twitched violently, and she almost dropped her riding whip.
The household kept this matter a secret, not a single word of it was leaked out, so how could she know?
"How dare you! You're asking for death!"
She lashed out with her whip, but Jiang Zhi, who was prepared, dodged it by sidestepping.
The girl in yellow immediately chimed in, "Madam Shen, how can you speak without any evidence..."
Before she could finish speaking, Jiang Zhi interrupted her, "Miss Yan, the daughter of the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief, don't you know that your mother was caught in bed with her lover by your father? Her going up the mountain to practice Buddhism with her hair still intact was just to cover up the scandal."
Miss Yan immediately looked flustered and astonished, "You, you..."
Jiang Zhi's gaze fell on another person, and she smiled maliciously, "Miss Ning of the Chengen Marquis's Mansion, your father used his power to forcibly take a commoner as a concubine, and fearing that the authorities would report him, he burned down the entire family's house."
Ignoring Miss Wang's unpleasant expression, she focused her gaze on the last person.
"As for you, Miss Wang, the Minister of Revenue, the rest of your family is fine, but you and your brother are secretly having an affair. You're too busy taking care of yourselves to have time to meddle in my affairs?"
The young lady of the Wang family turned pale and was furious. "You, how dare you talk nonsense and ruin my reputation?"
“How could that be? I just wanted to remind Miss Wang,” Jiang Zhi’s expression was even somewhat amiable, “Your brother contracted syphilis from visiting brothels. You should see a doctor as soon as possible.”
With a "bang," Miss Wang fell off her horse and fainted.
The once bustling woods were now completely silent.
Jiang Zhi hadn't expected that the booklet she had been looking at in the bamboo house would come in so quickly.
She increasingly felt that Xiao Xuanyou was right.
Power is indeed a good thing.
Seeing these people rendered speechless by her rebuttal, yet too guilty to refute her, she felt as if something was sprouting within her.
"A prestigious family? A family with strict traditions? It's laughable if word gets out."
Zhao Nianchun's originally sad and anxious face was now filled with admiration for Jiang Zhi.
No one told her that Lord Shen's wife was so formidable!
"You bitch, I'm going to teach you a lesson today!"
Enraged, Zhao Nianzhen's eyes turned bloodshot, and she lost her temper. She leaned forward, grabbed Jiang Zhi's arm, and lashed the horsewhip at her.
Jiang Zhi closed her eyes, bracing herself for the whipping.
A familiar voice, so familiar it made her heart flutter, rang in her ears.
"What are you doing?"
Jiang Zhi opened her eyes and saw Lu Yuan's cold and sharp profile. His thin lips were tightly pursed, one hand restraining Zhao Nianzhen's whip, and the other hand pulling herself and her horse behind him.
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