Chapter 146: Gossip Across the City
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation.
“What exactly do you think you’re doing?”
“I am your little mother now!” Su Zhi Qing lowered her voice, laced with restrained anger.
“Last time, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have lost my child!” There was even a trace of hatred in her tone.
“What? You think you can climb over my father and just shake me off?”
“Su Zhi Qing, don’t forget who brought you to where you are today! You betrayed me!” Lu Jing Huai’s fury, suppressed for so long, finally erupted. In the mansion, he had to avoid direct contact with Su Zhi Qing to prevent Lu Yuan Ze’s suspicions.
Both had taken every measure to avoid arousing attention.
But that didn’t mean he would swallow this humiliation silently!
“Su Zhi Qing, I am your man!” Lu Jing Huai’s eyes were bloodshot. Heaven knew how humiliating it was every time he had to address Su Zhi Qing as “little mother.”
“What? I can’t satisfy you?”
“And you dared to climb into my father’s bed!”
“Your so-called miscarriage… Was that child even mine? Or was it his?!” His face darkened, his tone cold as ice.
Su Zhi Qing bit her lower lip and took a step back, fear evident in her gaze.
“You know better than anyone about my father’s condition. Whether he can even have children, you know very well. In the end, the only one you can rely on is me!” Lu Jing Huai gripped her face, pressing her against the wall.
“Qing Qing, those who betray me never end well.”
“How dare you?” His hands trembled with fury.
He had initially intended to entrap Lu Zheng Yue, but the tables had turned viciously against him.
Su Zhi Qing reached out, covering his hands with hers. “Brother Huai, I never wanted this.”
“I was tricked! I was trapped! I didn’t dare tell you—I was too scared…”
“How could the marquis compare to you? He’s old enough to be my father! You are a prodigy—how could I ever desire him? It’s…”
Lu Chao Chao crouched against the wall, her little ears perked up.
Suddenly, her sensitive ears twitched.
“Scoundrel Dad’s coming…” she whispered to her third brother.
“Third Brother, wait for me.” She crouched lower and slipped down the stairs.
Lu Yuan Xiao wanted to follow, but Scoundrel Dad was already ascending. He had no choice but to remain where he was.
Downstairs, dark guards stood vigil, ensuring safety.
Lu Yuan Ze, harboring a fear of discovering adulterous affairs, moved cautiously. Last time, his pursuit had unveiled a scandal involving the emperor and Madam Xu.
This time, he moved without alarming others.
“Lower your voices, don’t alert the public,” he muttered instinctively.
Standing at the doorway, he overheard Su Zhi Qing’s words inside: “I never truly loved him.”
“What could I possibly want from him? His age? His stale smell? Or his impotence?”
The guards stationed outside all turned their gaze toward the Marquis. The implication? The Marquis… impotent?
Lu Yuan Ze’s last shred of rationality snapped.
BANG!
He kicked the door open.
“Wretched woman!” he roared in fury. She dared to share such things with outsiders!
Su Zhi Qing shrieked, hastily pulling her disheveled garments together.
Her hair was unkempt, her eyes filled with panic.
Lu Jing Huai froze in shock. Where were the guards he had posted?
How could he have known? They had been knocked out by Lu Chao Chao’s shadow guards and tossed aside.
“Who? Who’s the adulterer? Wretch!” Lu Yuan Ze charged forward, delivering a slap so forceful that Su Zhi Qing’s cheek bled.
With his body weakened and his manhood lost, the Marquis was already touchy about such matters.
And now Su Zhi Qing dared to secretly meet a lover and broadcast his humiliation?
“Come out! Get out here! You dare bed my woman but not show your face? Today, I’ll skin you alive and parade you through the streets!”
“Come, let everyone see who has no shame!”
“Beast, BEAST!”
Seething with hatred, he stormed forward and yanked the quilt off.
Lu Yuan Ze’s fury choked him, leaving him frozen. His body stiffened, his expression locked in a grimace. It was as if he had been struck by a petrifying spell.
Meanwhile, Lu Chao Chao downstairs tugged on a guest’s sleeve, her innocent eyes wide with curiosity. “Uncle, what does catching adultery mean?”
“Why is Daddy mad that Big Brother and Little Mother are sleeping together?” She pointed upstairs.
The guests’ spines straightened immediately. What had been none of their business suddenly became the highlight of their day. They all crowded toward the staircase.
From the second floor, muffled sobs of a woman could be heard. Each onlooker’s eyes gleamed with scandalous excitement.
“Ahem… The view from the second floor must be splendid. Allow me to take a look,” one muttered.
“Me too!” Another followed.
Chaotic footsteps echoed as the crowd surged upward.
“Oh my heavens, the son and the Little Mother?”
“Dear gods, this is outrageous!”
In moments, the downstairs hall was deserted.
Lu Chao Chao blinked innocently. “Why did they all leave?”
She walked to the entrance, tugging at passersby. “Why is Daddy mad at Big Brother and Little Mother?”
Street vendors pricked up their ears.
“Where is your father?”
“In the room with Big Brother and Little Mother…” She pointed upstairs.
A flood of people surged into the store. Even the limping shopkeeper forgot his ailments, dashing upstairs with surprising agility.
“I want to see too!” A junior clerk exclaimed, desperate to join in the spectacle.
Upstairs, Lu Yuan Ze’s fingers turned pale from clutching the quilt. His body trembled violently, cold sweat dripping from his forehead.
He had never imagined. Never imagined!
On Su Zhi Qing’s bed… he would find his own son!
His pride, his genius of a son! This shame must never be known! This was a disgrace to the Marquis Zhongyong Manor, a stain that would shame their ancestors!
Lu Yuan Ze’s bloodshot eyes locked onto him, his rage overwhelming.
He was about to throw the quilt over Lu Jing Huai when heavy footsteps thundered behind him.
“Come and see! Come and see!”
“A son and his Little Mother caught in the act!”
“Whose family is it? Which family’s son dares shame his father this way?”
Lu Yuan Ze’s sweat dripped in torrents. He dared not turn around. The growing crowd was like a suffocating tide of ridicule.
Lu Chao Chao squeezed through the throng, her voice loud and defiant as she blocked the doorway.
“No! No! No entry!”
“My daddy is not Lu Yuan Ze!”
“Not the Marquis Zhongyong!”
“No looking, no entry!” she yelled.
The crowd erupted.
“It is the Marquis Zhongyong! He’s been cuckolded!”
“His son? Isn’t that the genius youth, Lu Jing Huai? Caught with the Little Mother?”
“Oh, remember when people said he once entered the wrong room and kissed the Little Mother? Turns out it wasn’t a mistake at all!”
The crowd’s excitement burned like wildfire, tearing through the fragile veil of secrecy.
“Father… Father…” Lu Jing Huai’s face turned ashen.
Summoning his courage, Lu Yuan Ze turned to face the sea of onlookers outside the door. Their murmurs were filled with his name, Lu Jing Huai’s name, and the shameful whispers of scandal.
Lu Yuan Ze’s vision darkened as veins bulged on his forehead.
“Father, she seduced me!” Lu Jing Huai fell to his knees with a thud. “Father, I was framed!”
Lu Chao Chao, the firewood master.