Chapter 52
Chapter 52: Planting the Seeds of Doubt
The room fell silent.
Luo Yin’s face sank as he shouted: “Shut up, Luo Ning. You have no upbringing at all, talking carelessly in front of the Valiant Cavalry General.”
“When the Valiant Cavalry General talks carelessly and tells lies, Brother, why don’t you stand up and say something to him?” Luo Ning asked.
“Every word he said was true!”
“If you believe slander so easily, you will never tell right from wrong. If I go to the Empress Dowager and accuse him, will this ‘Valiant Cavalry General’ still keep his title tomorrow?” Luo Ning asked.
Bai Ci Rong turned pale with fright.
She stood up, looking at Luo Ning with pleading eyes: “A’Ning, it was me complaining and saying some selfish things. Don’t blame the General, just blame me.”
“I know you were the one stirring up trouble,” Luo Ning said.
Li Yu Xuan, who had been silent for a long time, let out a cold laugh: “What a sharp tongue. Madam Luo A’Ning, with a mouth like that, aren’t you afraid they will cut out your tongue in hell one day for the sins you speak?”
“You all slander me, bully me with numbers, and smear me as you please. With people like you in hell, it is already packed full, there is no room left for me,” Luo Ning said.
Luo Yin could not bear it anymore. He called toward the outside: “Someone, close the door! Today I will discipline you on behalf of our parents. If I do not beat your mouth to a pulp, I will have failed the ancestors of the Luo family.”
“Do you deserve to speak of them?” Luo Ning suddenly asked. “Luo Yin, you still remember the ancestors of the Luo family? You still dare to mention them?”
Luo Yin froze.
Even Bai Ci Rong’s heart suddenly skipped a beat for no reason.
But very soon, the two of them, like Madam Bai before, decided it was impossible.
Luo Ning could not possibly know anything.
Even if she knew and told others, who would believe her?
Li Yu Xuan and Yu Zhuo did not take it to heart.
Luo Yin’s attendant came in with a wooden stick and casually shut the study door behind him.
Luo Ning looked at him, then at Yu Zhuo sitting there, and gave a cold smile: “You dare to hit me? Luo Yin, if you lay a hand on me, you will pay it back a hundred times over.”
Luo Yin stepped forward with the stick: “I will beat you to death. You wicked thing, you are the one who made this house restless.”
“Who closed the door?” a voice came from the doorway. It was the Old Madam. “Open it!”
When Luo Ning came in earlier, Qiu Hua had already gone to invite the Old Madam.
Compared to a soft whip, of course Grandmother was more useful.
If Yu Zhuo dared to insult Luo Ning in the Luo family home, he should not even think about coming here again in the future. If Luo Yin dared to attack his own younger sister, he would surely get a sound beating. Bai Ci Rong had just lost face earlier and dragged down the reputation of the Marquis Manor. If she got involved in this matter again, how could the Old Madam forgive her?
Luo Ning would not let anyone stay out of this.
As for Li Yu Xuan, he was just a jumping clown. It would not even be his turn to be beaten.
Luo Ning hurried forward, pulled open the study door, and on her way out she purposely kicked off one of her shoes and threw herself into the Old Madam’s arms: “Grandmother!”
The Old Madam looked at her granddaughter’s frightened, pale face and pointed angrily at Luo Yin: “What were you doing with the door closed?”
When she saw the wooden stick still in Luo Yin’s hand, which he had not had time to throw away, she snapped: “You were going to beat your sister? Good, you dare to use private punishment in this house. Go call the Lord Marquis.”
A maidservant answered at once.
Thinking of the Lord Marquis’s heavy foot and the pain of the board hitting his body, Luo Yin hurried out of the study, having already dropped the stick: “Grandmother, I did not lay a hand on A’Ning.”
“He wanted to. He just had not done it yet when you came, Grandmother,” Luo Ning said softly. It sounded as if she had cried, yet no tears came out, and every word was extra clear. “They were all bullying me together.”
She added: “The Valiant Cavalry General is so amazing, praised by everyone all over Shengjing, and he also came here to humiliate me. Grandmother, they pushed all the faults of this family onto me alone.”
The Old Madam was shaking with anger: “Call the Lord Marquis here at once. If I cannot control him, then bring someone who can.”
Luo Yin knelt to the Old Madam: “Grandmother, please do not be angry…”
Bai Ci Rong also knelt: “Grandmother…”
The Old Madam’s brow twitched.
A fine rain was still falling, and the ground was wet. The Old Madam looked at Bai Ci Rong kneeling on the damp ground, especially at her eyes and the shape of her face.
She looked too much like Madam Bai, and like Luo Ning as well.
Only, Luo Ning’s forehead was a bit broader, so she had less soft charm and more dignity.
And Madam Bai’s forehead was not narrow either.
Luo Ning’s forehead was like that of the Marquis of Zhen Nan, Luo Chong Ye.
The Old Madam glanced at Bai Ci Rong, then at Luo Yin’s narrow forehead.
When the Old Madam first met Bai Ci Rong, she had liked the girl very much. That liking came from a sense of familiarity.
Bai Ci Rong looked like Madam Bai, and also a bit like Luo Yin.
In that instant, the Old Madam was drowned in her own thoughts. She almost could not stand steady.
“Grandmother, do not upset yourself,” Luo Ning said as she helped her stand firm.
The Old Madam did not dare show the slightest trace of what she was thinking, not even to Luo Ning.
After all, Luo Ning was only a child.
“Outrageous!” the Old Madam cursed in a trembling voice.
Seeing this, Yu Zhuo took the umbrella from a maidservant and walked to Bai Ci Rong’s side, holding it over her.
He looked toward the Old Madam and said: “On my account today, could you forgive these two siblings? Old Madam, A’Yin did not actually hit anyone. We were only talking in the room.”
“It is not your place to plead for them,” the Old Madam said.
Yu Zhuo gave a cold laugh: “Since you insist on being so unreasonable, I will have to ask the Imperial House to judge this. Old Madam, I will soon be serving under Prince Yong’s banner. A’Yin is my close friend. He has his own future. Why must you make things so hard for your eldest grandson?”
He brought up Prince Yong.
The Old Madam’s heart trembled badly, but she did not back down even a step: “Someone, see the Valiant Cavalry General out. This is a family matter.”
The Marquis of Zhen Nan, the marchioness Madam Bai, and Madam Yu rushed over in a hurry.
Luo Chong Ye saw his mother’s bad expression at a glance and started scolding both Luo Yin and Luo Ning: “You argue and quarrel, and now you have disturbed your grandmother?”
He especially scolded Luo Ning: “If I do not teach you a lesson today, you will grow more and more lawless. Who allowed you to go drag your grandmother into these trifles? She is already so old.”
“Do not blame her,” the Old Madam said, gripping Luo Chong Ye’s hand. “You must not blame A’Ning. You should be fair. Luo Yin, as her brother, closed the door and was going to beat his own sister in front of guests.”
“One hand cannot clap. A’Ning is far too wild. She does not even show respect to her own mother. How could she respect her brother? She must have angered A’Yin first,” the Marquis of Zhen Nan said.
The Old Madam looked at him.
Then she looked at Luo Yin.
Her heart cramped with pain again and again, and she almost could not stand.
Hearing Luo Chong Ye say this, she grew more and more angry and resentful: “You, you are also talking nonsense. She is your very own daughter. How can you not know how to protect her?”
“They are all my children. Whether it is the palm or the back of my hand, it is still flesh. Mother, I am just speaking fairly,” the Marquis of Zhen Nan said.
Madam Yu had listened for a long while. Then she cut in: “That is right. If the eldest miss were obedient, who would make things hard for her?
“Old Madam, please let the Lord Marquis discipline the child and do not indulge her. As a maiden of her parents’ house, if she presses every advantage and never lets anything go, when she marries out in the future, others will point at the Luo family’s back and curse us.”
The marchioness Madam Bai grabbed the umbrella from a maidservant’s hand and held it over her kneeling son: “Mother, please forgive A’Yin. A’Ning, if our mother and son did anything wrong, please be generous with us.”
Everything was Luo Ning’s fault.
It was Luo Ning who kept challenging them at every turn.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan watched this scene, looking very pained: “Mother, we can no longer keep A’Ning at home. Send her back to Shaoyang.”
Joy rose in the marchioness’s heart.
Even Yu Zhuo let out a secret breath of relief.
Without Luo Ning, the Grand Master would no longer have to bear such a heavy burden on his shoulders.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan could openly enjoy the noble rank earned by his daughter’s blood. The marchioness Madam Bai could help her niece take the place of legitimate daughter of the Marquis Manor. And Yu Zhuo would no longer feel guilty for giving his heart to someone else.
If Luo Ning refused to leave, she might as well die.
The Old Madam looked at one face after another, and her heart felt as if it were being cut with knives.
It was as if she had to watch her own family being swallowed whole while she could do nothing.
Who could save the Luo family?
Just then, the chief steward came running in, flustered and breathless: “Lord Marquis, Lord Marquis! The imperial edict is here!”
“What imperial edict?” the Marquis of Zhen Nan asked in surprise.
The Grand Master and the others all looked at each other, then turned their eyes toward Yu Zhuo.
Yu Zhuo also felt it was unbelievable, but right now, besides him, no one else seemed qualified to receive an imperial edict. He asked the chief steward: “Could it be for me?”
Madam Yu was shocked and delighted: “Then hurry and go. How did they find their way to the Marquis Manor?”
The chief steward looked helpless. This young general was far too full of himself: “It is for the eldest miss.”
He added: “Lord Marquis, hurry and set out the incense table and receive the decree. It is not only the Minister of the Ministry of Rites. His Highness Prince Yong has also come.”
Everyone: “!”
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