Shi Qingxue flicked the pieces of paper on her body and asked casually, “Aunt, you have a good relationship with Lord Shi and contact him frequently, so there must be more than one letter that you have written to him, right?”
Zhou Ruyu seemed to think of something and turned pale with fear. She yelled at Shi Qingxue, regardless of her manners, “Shi Qingxue, don’t slander me. That’s not true.”
Then she turned her head and asked Mo Shujun for mercy in a hurry. “Mother, don’t listen to her bullshit. She lied to you.”
She was terrified and just told a very poor lie which revealed the truth.
Mo Shujun cursed “idiot” in secret and ignored Zhou Ruyu. She pretended calm and asked, “Qingxue, do you mean that you have other letters? Where are they? Show them to me now.”
When she spoke, she was anxious involuntarily.
Mo Shujun soon came back to earth and shut up. Then she sat straight and showed that she was impartial, stating in a dignified manner again, “Qingxue, since you have the evidence, show it to me. I will uphold justice for you.”
Shi Qingxue smiled but spoke with no emotion. “A letter is so fragile. What if it accidentally becomes…”
She looked down at the floor and then continued, “If it becomes the ‘white snow’ all over the floor again, it would be bad. Do you think so, Grandma?”
Mo Shujun was speechless after hearing the question. Her face looked stiff, and she appeared to be angry, but she couldn’t vent it.
Shi Junhe stayed silent from the beginning. Seeing that, he coughed in a low voice. When Qingxue looked at him, he glanced at her to warn her, “Don’t go too far.”
Shi Qingxue gave him a glance with comfort. “Don’t worry. I know what to do.”
Afterward, she didn’t push Mo Shujun too hard but stated flatly, “I don’t dare to keep such important evidence by myself, so I put some letters in His Excellency’s mansion, and he happens to have a subordinate who can recognize everybody’s handwriting and easily find if these love letters were written by Aunt Ruyu.”
“No!” Without hesitation, Mo Shujun tried to stop her.
It was no joking matter. Now it was exposed and humiliating. If they let Mo Junyang get involved in this matter, the fame of Duke Shi’s family would be ruined.
Shi Qingxue thought that Mo Shujun didn’t believe in the capability of Mo Junyang’s subordinate and then said unhurriedly, “Grandma, if you don’t think that person’s ability is reliable, there must be such capable men in the imperial palace. I can go to beg Empress Dowager. She might be willing to help us for my sake. What do you think?”
Mo Shujun stopped breathing for a while.
At the moment, she certainly understood that Shi Qingxue was threatening her.
If she still covered up for Zhou Ruyu, Shi Qingxue dared to tell the emperor about this matter.
Mo Xiangbin was angry as Shi Juncai was a deserter on the battlefield. Now that Shi Juncai committed one more crime as he couldn’t discipline his wife strictly and would attract everybody’s attention again in the capital, he would never turn the tables.
Mo Shujun glanced at Zhou Ruyu vaguely and ruthlessness flashed in her eyes.
In an instant, she showed an amiable smile to Shi Qingxue and asked gently, “Kid, why would you make a mountain out molehill? When did I say that I don’t believe your words?”
She paused for a moment and her voice became deep. “Leng Yan, forward my order. The third madam Zhou is immoral and ruined the family’s reputation. Lock her up in the South House. Nobody can let her out without my orders.”
Mo Shujun changed her mind quickly all of a sudden.
Zhou Ruyu’s complacent smile was frozen on her face, and she looked at Mo Shujun in disbelief.
However, Mo Shujun didn’t give her a chance to react and waved her hand, telling the servants to drag Zhou Ruyu away.
“No! No, Mother, you can’t do this to me!” Zhou Ruyu was dragged out and then came to her senses. She suddenly started to struggle.
Several maids could hardly catch her, and she almost ran away for a few times.
For a moment, the main hall was in chaos.
Curses, screams and cries were mixed and intolerable to the eye.
“Clap!” Suddenly a slap was heard and the main hall returned to silence.
All people stared at the door, and Shi Juncai stood there out of breath.
He had slapped Zhou Ruyu in her face and didn’t give up. Seeing that she still stood there blankly, he rushed to grab her hair and cursed, “You are a shameless slut. You dare to cheat on me. I will beat you to death!”
Shi Juncai and Zhou Ruyu were not close at ordinary times, and the couple were apparently friendly but in fact not so. However…a man couldn’t endure his wife who had an affair.
Shi Juncai burst into anger and didn’t show mercy when he beat her. After he slapped her for several times, her face was red and swollen, and the jewelry on her head fell all over the floor.
She was like a crazy woman.
Shi Baoyou secretly asked Shi Juncai to come in order to help Zhou Ruyu out of a predicament, but unexpectedly, he didn’t care about their love at all but beat her as soon as he came. He was so ruthless that he wanted to kill his wife seemingly.
“Father! No. Don’t beat Mother. Stop beating her!” Shi Baoyou was scared and tears fell from her eyes. She hurriedly came to stop him.
Shi Juncai was out of mind because he was angry, and he waved away Shi Baoyou’s hand, kicking Zhou Ruyu to fall on the floor.
He still felt it was not enough and spat at the floor, cursing, “Bitch. Slut. You just like to sleep with another man. I will divorce you and make you unable to show your face.”
Before that, Zhou Ruyu was like a puppet out of control and lost her spirits, without fighting back no matter how he beat or cursed her.
Nobody knew which word Shi Juncai had said irritated Zhou Ruyu. Her eyes became red all of a sudden, and she got up from the floor.
She didn’t fear Shi Juncai but even raised her head to beat him, shouting angrily, “You are such a loser. Why did you beat me?”
Shi Juncai was stunned after being hit, but soon he reacted and got more furious. He rushed to Zhou Ruyu and fought against her. Both of them cursed and seemed to kill each other.
“Bitch, you dare to beat me. I will take your life!”
Shi Juncai was dragged away by the servants but still cursed Zhou Ruyu cruelly, ready to pounce on her at any time.
But Zhou Ruyu swelled out her chest and didn’t look scared at all. She just showed her disdain for Shi Juncai.
She leered at Shi Juncai coldly and snorted. “You are a loser. You became an official just because of your ancestors. You are not good at writing or fighting. If I didn’t rush about and help you, you must be still a Rank-7 petty official now.
“Shi Juncai, listen to me carefully. You are the last one who has the qualification to say that I am a slut.”
Not to mention Shi Juncai, even the onlookers were scared by Zhou Ruyu’s bold words.
However, they were suddenly enlightened at once. Why was Third Master Shi promoted smoothly when he was incapable even though he was not as lucky in his career as Shi Junhe? It turned out that Zhou Ruyu helped him and depended on…
Gee!
The expressions of all people changed when they looked at Shi Juncai.
Shi Juncai felt his face was burning. In fact, he felt something wrong before, but he would never admit that he was lucky in his career because his wife had sex with others. Wasn’t it humiliating him?
“You crazy woman, don’t talk nonsense or try to evade your responsibility. I was promoted because I did a good job and the superiors recognized my worth. It had nothing to do with you.” Shi Juncai hurriedly disassociated himself from Zhou Ruyu and took an oath devoutly. It seemed that he told the truth.
But all people had their own thoughts of the fact.
Zhou Ruyu didn’t waste her energy to retort but just spat at Shi Juncai with disdain. She sneered. “Why are you complacent? You can hook up with the fourth prince just because of the fame of the first master’s family and my father. Otherwise, how can His Highness give a damn about you? Pah, you even want to serve the emperor and make a great contribution. Why not check how much you are worth?”
“Ruyu, speak with caution!” In the beginning, Shi Junhe didn’t want to get involved in the mess of the third master’s family, but noticing that the couple said more and more recklessly, he couldn’t help but howl in a low voice to prevent Zhou Ruyu from saying those treacherous words.
Shi Junhe looked serious and powerful and frightened Zhou Ruyu.
Zhou Ruyu was frustrated and in front of Shi Junhe, she didn’t look like a shrew who made a scene on the street. Tears fell from his eyes instantly.
She gazed at Shi Junhe and cried sadly, complaining, “That year, Princess Royal came to visit the mansion of the Marquis of Wuyang, and I saw you for the first time under a peach tree. You just returned with victory from the battlefield then. You looked heroic and graceful, full of youthful spirits.
“You don’t know that I have heard about many of your brave acts from my mother before. She said that you followed your father to the battlefield far away at a young age and made outstanding achievements. I always wondered what kind of person you were. When I saw you in the flesh, I almost loved you at first sight.”
Everybody was shocked and gasped after Zhou Ruyu revealed this secret all of a sudden.
But Zhou Ruyu didn’t feel anything wrong and continued to stare blankly at Shi Junhe. “So later Princess Royal came to my parents’ mansion to make a match, and I was so happy that I couldn’t fall asleep for several days. But when we were engaged and exchanged the gifts, you told me that I wouldn’t marry the big hero in my heart, but…”
She had hatred in her eyes suddenly and pointed at Shi Juncai, adding resentfully, “But I would marry you, such a loser who is lazy, greedy of money and beauties but good for nothing!”
“You!” Shi Juncai’s injury was hurt, and he glared at Zhou Ruyu, seeming to want to eat her alive.
However, as it went to this point, Zhou Ruyu feared nothing and was not afraid of Shi Juncai’s glare.
She turned her head and gazed at Shi Junhe again, showing a crazy expression. “Junhe, Junhe! Why didn’t you marry me? Why did you marry the bitch, Dong Hui? She married you but couldn’t give birth to a son for you. And she didn’t allow you to marry a concubine. Doesn’t she obviously want you to have no male descendants? Why did you marry such a vicious woman?”
Shi Junhe furrowed his brows more tightly. He originally wanted to ignore Zhou Ruyu’s crazy words, but hearing that she even defamed his beloved wife to his face, he got angry at once.
He strode forward and slapped Zhou Ruyu in her face.
“You don’t have the right to comment on Hui. If I hear you slander her again, I won’t show mercy. Don’t blame me.”
Zhou Ruyu was beaten and moved two steps backward. After she managed to stand steadily, she didn’t realize that she was beaten by a man she loved secretly all the time.
She covered her cheek and raised her head, giving Shi Junhe a hurt look. “You beat me? You even beat me because of that woman of loose morals? Aha! Don’t tell me that you really don’t know Dong Hui’s relationship with her father’s student at all. Or are you so generous that you don’t even care when your wife has an affair?”
Shi Junhe’s eyes were cold, and he wasn’t irritated by Zhou Ruyu. Instead, he warned her coldly, “I will mind the business of Hui and me. It has nothing to do with you. I have nothing to do with you, too. Please mind your own business.”
Zhou Ruyu took several steps backward again and leaned against a pillar. It was more obvious in her eyes that she was hurt.
She was sad, angry and depressed…
All kinds of emotions were shown on her face and mixed at last, which made her swollen face more ferocious.
But Shi Junhe didn’t care about Zhou Ruyu’s feelings. After warning her, he turned around and faced Mo Shujun.
Seeing Mo Shujun’s unpredictably changing expressions, he just bowed calmly and said impassively, “Mother, we can’t meddle in the matter of the third master’s family, so I will leave it to you. I am going back with Baoning and Qingxue first.”
Afterward, he didn’t mind Mo Shujun’s reactions but led his two daughters to leave.
When he walked to the door of the main hall, Zhou Ruyu roared from behind suddenly, “Shi Junhe, you leave me alone and go away today, and I will make you regret in the future.”
Shi Junhe stopped for a while and then strode out, ignoring Zhou Ruyu’s cries and curses behind him.