Chapter 102

Chapter 102: Kneel and Apologize, But I Won’t Forgive

The crowd fell silent. It was like a giant question mark popped up over everyone’s head. What was going on? Why was there talk about Your Majesty? And what did it mean that because of Yu Jiao Jiao, the Yu clan had to use an imperial pardon token just to keep their whole family alive?

Yu Jiao Jiao’s face froze. Yesterday, after leaving the palace, she had not even stepped through the gate of Yong Duke’s Manor before being thrown out. Zhang Tian Shun was not home. Because of what happened at the palace banquet, Madam Meng had been punished by Duke Zhang and shut away in the so-called cold courtyard. The one running the inner household now was the secondary wife, Madam Fan. Madam Fan blocked Yu Jiao Jiao at the door and said the third young master had already left word to divorce his wife. Yu Jiao Jiao did not dare accept the divorce letter. [If I never see it, then it does not exist.] So she ran straight back to the Yu clan home.

That big Yu clan estate was a mess. When the family saw her, no one hurled harsh words, but their faces still showed impatience and blame. She burned with shame and anger, yet had to swallow it and coax everyone. After using every trick she knew to smooth their ruffled feathers, she herself was full of pent-up fury and went out to cool off.

Sitting by the window, she spotted from afar Yu Zhi Yi and her maid walking this way. Rage rushed to her head. She did not think about the consequences and did something stupid. She tried to repeat her old trick, wanting the crowd to drown Yu Zhi Yi with spit. But she forgot a simple truth: facts speak louder than words. Minister Yu’s dismissal was a huge event. The reason had not spread yet, but soon the upper circle would know, and after that the common people would hear too. With a clear conscience, Yu Zhi Yi would no longer indulge that family. In the end, Yu Jiao Jiao dug a pit for herself and fell in.

Seeing the doubtful looks around her, Yu Jiao Jiao’s heart jumped. [Even if my lie gets exposed later, that is later. If I do not hear it, I can pretend it never happened. I will never be like Yu Zhi Yi, standing in the street while everyone points and stares.]

She tried to change the subject, blurting out: “Don’t dodge the point. We are talking about how Yu Manor did you a favor, even finding you such a great match with Chancellor’s Manor, and you repaid kindness with betrayal!”

Yu Zhi Yi gave her a mocking look: “Sometimes I wonder if there is something wrong with your brain. You know what I’m capable of, yet you dare babble nonsense right in front of me. Did you think I really don’t know which family Madam Yu first picked for me?”

Yu Jiao Jiao’s expression turned stiff and shocked. She blurted: “How could you possibly know?!”

Of course Yu Zhi Yi knew. She was reborn after the wedding, but the days before the wedding still happened. Yu Jiao Jiao had been reborn a few months earlier. Not only did she grab Zhang Tian Shun, the future non-royal prince, she also tried to push Yu Zhi Yi into a pit. She egged Minister Yu and his wife to marry Yu Zhi Yi down. Her reason was that Yu Zhi Yi was not Yu Manor’s true daughter. If they married her up or even as an equal, the future in-laws might think Yu Manor was looking down on them by giving their excellent son a fake. But marrying her down would be different. Whether the other side liked it or not, they would not dare show it. They would even have to act grateful.

Minister Yu and his wife were very tempted. If Madam Yao had not gone to the temple and drawn a marriage lot that said Du Zi Heng must marry a girl of the Yu clan, Yu Zhi Yi would have been married off to a merchant family from the Yu clan’s main branch.

Yu Zhi Yi did not say the man’s name, but everyone could read Yu Jiao Jiao’s face. How could they not understand? “Good grief, I can only say wow,” someone muttered.

“I used to think the Yu clan treated this fake daughter pretty well. Now it looks nothing like that.”

A few still tried to speak for the Yu clan: “Even if they treated the fake daughter poorly, so what? Isn’t that normal? The fake took the true daughter’s place for years and split the family. If Yu Manor had treated her well, that would be the strange part.”

“Bah! It is sensible to not treat her well, sure,” someone shot back, “but they mistreated her and then went around telling people she stole the true daughter’s affection and framed her. They even bragged that they found her a great husband. That is stepping on her to prop themselves up.”

“Maybe her mother is not a good person, but the Yu clan are not saints either.”

Hearing the jeers and scorn, and feeling those looks that seemed to see right through her dirty little schemes, Yu Jiao Jiao wanted to crawl into a hole. She did not want to hear another word about her or the Yu clan’s character, and she did not want those weird stares. She let out an angry roar and turned to rush into the restaurant to avoid everyone’s eyes.

The moment she moved, her own feet tangled. Her left foot caught her right, and she dropped to her knees. The window frame hid everything below her waist from the people on the street, but it was not hard to guess her position. In fact, no guessing was needed. She was not in a private room, but in the second-floor hall. Everyone upstairs saw her odd kneel. A lively onlooker leaned over the rail and shouted down: “Young Madam Du, your sister is kneeling to apologize to you.”

Yu Zhi Yi smiled: “Seems she knows she went too far and was too vicious, so she is kneeling to repent. But I do not want to forgive.”

Yu Jiao Jiao happened to be facing the direction of Yu Zhi Yi and Li Rou. Saying she was kneeling to them was not wrong. The street burst into laughter.

Yu Jiao Jiao wanted to die of shame. Her eyes nearly popped out as she screamed: “Yu Zhi Yi! You harmed me!”

Yu Zhi Yi spread her hands: “You are always like this. Things that have nothing to do with me somehow become my fault. Back then, people in the manor sided with you and chose to shut their eyes and believe whatever you said. But the people here are not from your Yu clan, and they are not fools. Did you think the same trick would still work?”

With that, she ignored the noisy crowd and took Li Rou back to Du Manor to change clothes.

The crowd exploded after hearing her words. She had dropped too much new information at once. “So those stories about the fake daughter bullying the true daughter were fake?”

“The fake daughter stealing the true daughter’s affection was fake too?”

“And the claim that the Yu clan adored the fake daughter was the fakest of all?”

One sentence stirred a thousand waves. The people of the capital had believed for years that the fake daughter stole the true daughter’s favor. Since her mother was that kind of person, it felt natural to think the daughter would be ungrateful and mean too. But today, Yu Jiao Jiao acted it out herself, giving everyone a live show of a thief crying ‘stop thief’ and framing someone from afar.