Chapter 146: The Whole City Gossips
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation.
Su Zhi Qing’s voice was thick with anger as she hissed, “What are you planning to do? I’m your stepmother now! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have lost the baby!” Her words dripped with venomous hatred.
Lu Jing Huai’s simmering anger erupted. “What? You think getting close to my father will get rid of me?” In the mansion, he always treaded carefully, constantly wary of Lu Yuan Ze’s suspicions. He avoided confronting Su Zhi Qing directly, but this was too much to let slide.
“Su Zhi Qing, remember I am your man!” His eyes blazed with rage, the humiliation of calling Su Zhi Qing his little mother unbearable. “Am I not enough for you?” he spat with scorn. “You dare to climb up to my father! Was that miscarriage yours with my father?!”
Su Zhi Qing bit her lower lip and stepped back, her eyes wide with fear.
“You know better than anyone about my father’s condition. Can he still father a child? You know the truth. In the end, the only one you can rely on is me!” Lu Jing Huai’s voice was harsh as he grabbed her face, pinning her against the wall.
“Qing Qing, those who betray me will not have a good end.” His hand trembled with contained rage. He had planned to manipulate Lu Yuan Ze but was outmaneuvered.
“Brother Huai, I didn’t want this either,” Su Zhi Qing pleaded, clutching his hand. “I was set up! I didn’t dare tell you… I didn’t dare… How could the Marquis compare to you? He’s old enough to be my father. You’re outstanding; how could I ever be fond of him? It was all a setup…”
Meanwhile, Lu Chao Chao, pressed against the wall, whispered to her third brother, “Bad Daddy is coming… Third Brother, wait for me.”
She then crouched and quietly descended the stairs.
Lu Yuan Xiao wanted to follow, but their father was already approaching, forcing him to stay behind. Fortunately, the hidden guards downstairs would handle any problems.
Lu Yuan Ze, scarred from a previous experience with catching adulterers—last time, he caught the king with Madam Xu—chose not to alert anyone this time. “Keep it down, don’t alarm anyone,” he whispered at the door, hearing Su Zhi Qing inside.
“I never truly loved him. What would I want from him? His age? His old-man smell, or his impotence?”
The guards exchanged looks, shocked.
Marquis Lu, impotent?!
This revelation shattered Lu Yuan Ze’s last bit of restraint.
Bang!
He kicked the door open.
“Wretched woman!” he roared. “How dare you speak of this!”
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation
Su Zhi Qing screamed, hastily gathering her clothes, her hair disheveled, eyes wild with panic.
Lu Jing Huai, startled, wondered where his guards were. Unbeknownst to him, they had been incapacitated by Lu Chao Chao’s secret guards and discarded.
“Who is it? Who’s the adulterer? You wretch!” Lu Yuan Ze charged forward, his slap sending Su Zhi Qing reeling, blood trickling from her lip. His fury knew no bounds; he felt his body and dignity had been betrayed.
“Come out, show yourself! If you have the guts to sleep with my woman, I’ll skin you alive!”
Lu Yuan Ze was filled with hatred. He yanked the brocade quilt away, his anger nearly suffocating him, freezing him in place as if paralyzed.
Downstairs, Lu Chao Chao tugged at a guest’s sleeve, her baby voice curious, “Uncle, what does ‘catching an adulterer’ mean? Brother and little mother are sleeping together… Why is Daddy angry?” She pointed upstairs, her innocence piercing the previously indifferent crowd, spurring them into action towards the stairs. Soft crying echoed from above, sparking even more interest.
“The view from the second floor is great; let me go check,” one guest murmured, followed by another, “I’ll go too…”
In moments, the downstairs hall emptied as guests scrambled upstairs, drawn by the scandalous possibility of a son with his father’s concubine.
“Oh my, the son and the concubine? This is huge.”
Lu Chao Chao blinked, puzzled, “Why did you all leave?” She walked to the door, pulling at passersby to ask, “Why is Daddy angry when Brother and little mother sleep together?”
The news traveled quickly as peddlers at the door perked up their ears.
“Where’s your dad?” someone asked.
“In Brother and little mother’s room…” Lu Chao Chao pointed towards the second floor, her innocence inadvertently drawing a crowd inside the shop. Even the shopkeeper lost interest in his business, instructing his assistant, “Watch the shop, I’m going upstairs.”
With that, the limping shopkeeper ran swiftly upstairs.
“I want to see too, shopkeeper, I want to see too!” The assistant cried out, his curiosity burning. Missing such excitement was out of the question.
The crowd surged upstairs, drawn by the drama unfolding.
Back in the room, Lu Yuan Ze’s knuckles turned white, his body trembling, his lips quivering. He had never expected to find his son in Su Zhi Qing’s bed. This was a disgrace to the Marquis household, a shame to their ancestors.
His eyes, red with fury, darted around the room. Just as he was about to cover Lu Jing Huai with the quilt, he heard the hurried footsteps and the excited whispers from the crowd.
“Come and see, come and see! The son and the concubine were caught!”
“Whose son? Whose son cuckolded his own father?”
“Whose son?”
Lu Yuan Ze felt cold sweat drip down his forehead. He almost didn’t dare turn around, as if stepping on a hot iron plate, his body and mind exhausted.
Meanwhile, Lu Chao Chao, always trying to be filial, squeezed through the crowd. “No, no, no come!” she shouted loudly, her baby voice firm. “My daddy is not Lu Yuan Ze! Not Marquis Zhongyong! No looking, no entry!” Her attempts to block the crowd were valiant but futile.
The crowd was in an uproar.
“It’s Marquis Zhongyong! It’s Marquis Zhongyong who’s been cuckolded!”
“His son? Isn’t he the genius boy Lu Jing Huai? The one caught in the act, it’s him and the concubine?”
“Oh my, remember? Not long ago, there was talk of Lu Jing Huai going into the wrong room and kissing the concubine. This wasn’t a mistake, they were already involved!”
The crowd’s voices buzzed louder, stripping away the cover Lu Yuan Ze desperately tried to maintain.
“Father… Father…” Lu Jing Huai’s face turned pale as he fell to his knees with a thud. “Father, she seduced me!” he cried out, his voice desperate. “Father, I’m innocent!”
Lu Chao Chao, the firewood master.