Chapter 32

Chapter 32: She Bullied Me

Huo Qi wanted to go with Chun Zhi to the Lu Clan to ask for the house deed and land deed, but Chun Zhi refused. She told Huo Qi: “I’ll be right back. There’s no need for you to run back and forth.”

Huo Zheng said: “Is it that I don’t need to run back and forth, or do you want to meet Lu Jing Yun alone?”

[What kind of question is that…]

Chun Zhi said: “Why would I meet him alone? I only want the house deed and the land deed back.”

Huo Zheng said: “Only you know what you truly think.”

“I…” Chun Zhi hadn’t finished when Huo Zheng turned and went inside.

Chun Zhi followed him, saying: “If not for the deeds, I wouldn’t go look for Lu Jing Yun.”

Huo Zheng didn’t look back. He entered the room and shut the door.

Chun Zhi was speechless: “…”

[How can he get mad so fast? He’s so hard to coax.]

She lingered in the courtyard for a while, then, while it was still light, she went to the Lu Residence.

The Lu Clan wasn’t like before. Two servants now guarded the gate.

Chun Zhi stepped forward and said to them: “I have business with Lord Lu.”

They knew Chun Zhi. They knew she used to live with the Lu Clan and had moved out the day the Top Scholar and the Top Scholar’s Wife returned, after falling out with them.

The servant blocked her and said stiffly: “Lord Lu is not home.”

Lu Jing Yun was now Lord Lu. Since returning to Linshui Town, he was busy with social visits. It wasn’t strange if he wasn’t at the Lu Residence.

Chun Zhi said: “Then I’ll see Old Madam Lu.”

The servant said again: “The old madam is ill and will not receive guests.”

In a year of twelve months, Old Madam Lu was ill for eleven. It wasn’t that she could never see guests. She simply didn’t want to see Chun Zhi.

Chun Zhi understood and said: “Then I’ll see Madam Lu.”

The servant sneered: “Who do you think you are? Our Top Scholar’s Wife is not someone you can see just because you want to.”

“A stinky tofu seller should know her place. Look where you are…”

“Since you won’t announce me, don’t blame me for making a scene!”

Chun Zhi rolled up her sleeves and stopped wasting words, then tried to push inside.

The two servants rushed to stop her: “What are you doing?”

“I came to the Lu Clan to take back what is mine. Why won’t you let me in? Lu Jing Yun still hasn’t paid back the silver he owes me! So being the Top Scholar makes him great? Does being the Top Scholar mean he can owe people money and never pay it back?”

Because of the noise, passersby stopped in front of the Lu Residence to watch.

The servants knew Old Madam Lu and Ji Ru Zhen cared a lot about their reputation. If they learned that Chun Zhi was making a fuss at the gate and drawing a crowd, the servants would be punished. They hurried to say: “Don’t shout… don’t shout! We’ll go announce you right now, all right?”

Chun Zhi straightened her clothes and said: “You should have done that earlier instead of waiting for me to kick up a fuss.”

One servant went in to report, the other drove the onlookers away: “Move along! No more to see!”

People left, looking back every few steps.

Soon the servant returned and led Chun Zhi inside.

Ji Ru Zhen met Chun Zhi in the front hall.

The Top Scholar’s Wife fanned herself slowly with a round fan, looking calm and at ease, as she asked: “Why are you here?”

Chun Zhi got right to the point and said: “I’m here to take back my house deed and land deed.”

Ji Ru Zhen said: “This is the Lu Clan. There is nothing of yours here. The day you left, everything here stopped having anything to do with you.”

Chun Zhi said: “I only want what belongs to me.”

Ji Ru Zhen said: “And if I refuse to give it?”

“Then I’ll ask Lu Jing Yun for it,” said Chun Zhi, “and see if he really has no shame and would even swallow things that are mine.”

“You!” Ji Ru Zhen grew furious the moment she heard Chun Zhi mention seeing Lu Jing Yun.

From Ji Ru Zhen’s expression, Chun Zhi could guess that Ji Ru Zhen did not want her to meet Lu Jing Yun again.

Chun Zhi said at once: “If you don’t want me to see Lu Jing Yun, then hand over the deeds to the tofu workshop. Otherwise…”

Ji Ru Zhen looked at her with alarm: “Otherwise what?”

“Otherwise I’ll go straight to Lu Jing Yun,” said Chun Zhi. “If he won’t give them to me, I’ll let the whole world know that the new Top Scholar not only cast off his first wife to marry a high official’s daughter, but also kept the little property that belonged to that first wife. You two will be known as shameless.”

These days, when the people of Linshui Town mentioned the Top Scholar and the Top Scholar’s Wife, they almost always said things like this.

“Don’t you dare!”

Just hearing those words made Ji Ru Zhen’s head pound with rage.

Chun Zhi lifted her chin and said: “Try me and see if I dare.”

She added: “There’s a saying: the one with bare feet isn’t afraid of the one wearing shoes. You care about reputation, but I don’t. I have nothing anyway.”

“You dare threaten me?” Ji Ru Zhen could not swallow this insult and was about to call maids and servants to throw Chun Zhi out.

Chun Zhi said: “Go ahead and try throwing me out. The moment I step out of the Lu Clan’s gate, I’ll call everyone over to see how the Top Scholar’s Wife bullies people.”

Ji Ru Zhen hadn’t expected that after a few days, Chun Zhi had turned into such a tough opponent.

In truth, Chun Zhi wasn’t fully sure of herself, but she had Huo Qi at home. She had already told him she would cry, make a scene, or even threaten to hang herself if that’s what it took to get the deeds back. No matter what, she couldn’t return empty-handed.

For the moment, Ji Ru Zhen couldn’t drive her away and had no way to handle her.

The room fell into an uneasy silence.

Chun Zhi spoke again: “I’ll leave if you give me the tofu workshop’s house deed and land deed.”

Ji Ru Zhen said: “I don’t have any deeds for a tofu workshop.”

“Then I’ll take them from the study myself.”

Chun Zhi said this and started walking toward the study.

Ji Ru Zhen said: “You won’t get them even if you go there.”

“What do you mean by that?” Chun Zhi turned to look at her.

Ji Ru Zhen’s face went stiff: “The Lu Clan has nothing of yours. Anything related to you, I had burned.”

“What did you say?”

Chun Zhi strode back and stopped in front of Ji Ru Zhen.

Startled, Ji Ru Zhen quickly motioned two maids to shield her and said: “Burned. All burned.”

Chun Zhi hadn’t expected Ji Ru Zhen to burn the tofu workshop deeds.

Now she had no advantage in a lawsuit against Wu Xin.

Rage surged up in Chun Zhi. She wanted to slap Ji Ru Zhen several times.

[A high official’s daughter has no idea how hard it is for small businesspeople like me. I saved for years, waking early and working late, just to buy that workshop. And she says burned like it’s nothing.]

Just then, Lu Jing Yun came back.

“Chun Zhi,” he said, quickening his steps into the hall when he learned she was there.

But what he saw was nothing like what he had imagined.

Chun Zhi wasn’t being bullied by Ji Ru Zhen.

Instead, Ji Ru Zhen was hiding behind two maids.

Lu Jing Yun froze and asked: “Chun Zhi, why are you here?”

Before Chun Zhi could answer, Ji Ru Zhen stood up and threw herself into Lu Jing Yun’s arms, saying: “Husband, she… she bullied me…”