Chapter 86 Resentment
Seeing that Tong'er and Bai Xue were confused, Jiang Li told them what happened last night.

The two maids did not go to the palace banquet, so they did not know that this would happen. After listening to Jiang Li's narration of the whole process, they were all very surprised. Jiang Li did not say how she played a trick on Jiang Yu'e, but only said that by mistake, the medicinal wine that was supposed to be given to her was drunk by Jiang Yu'e.

Tong'er was terrified and said in horror, "Thank goodness the Fifth Miss drank the medicine. If the girl drank it..." Tong'er didn't dare to think about what would happen to Jiang Li next. She clasped her hands together and prayed to the sky, "This is all because of the Madam's spirit in heaven, who has been secretly protecting the girl from harm. Amitabha..."

"Madam is too cruel," Bai Xue frowned and said, "You have left no chance for the young lady to survive. She looks gentle and kind, but in fact she is a vicious person. Young lady, can't we tell the master and let him see her true face?"

Jiang Li shook her head.

"I have no evidence for this matter. It's just my one-sided statement. They can naturally refute it. And now Jiang Youyao's marriage has been ruined for no reason. My father feels guilty about her and is biased towards her. No one will believe what I say. It's okay," Jiang Li said, "Just the cancellation of the marriage with Zhou Yanbang is enough to seriously hurt the vitality of the mother and daughter. After all, I was not hurt. As for their true faces," Jiang Li smiled slightly, "As long as I stay in this mansion for another day, I will always find a chance."

Tong'er and Baixue looked at each other.

Since Jiang Li said so, they could only give up. Tong Er asked: "So what does the Zhou Shizi want to do now? Is he going to marry the fifth lady? I think the master will definitely not let the third lady marry the Zhou Shizi again."

Even Tong'er could see that after this incident, Jiang Youyao would never be able to marry Zhou Yanbang again. Jiang Yuanbo would never allow Jiang Youyao to belittle himself like this and tarnish the Jiang family's reputation.

"It's impossible for the Fifth Miss to be the legal wife," Bai Xue said, "Doesn't the Zhou prince have Miss Shen involved? Even Miss Shen's status is much higher than the Fifth Miss. If you want to give an explanation to the Fifth Miss, you have to give an explanation to Miss Shen even more. Between Miss Shen and the Fifth Miss, Miss Shen will definitely be accommodated first."

Tong'er nodded vigorously, then looked at Jiang Li and patted her chest, saying with lingering fear: "Prince Zhou is involved with so many women, and he hasn't even gotten married yet... It seems that this man is really not a good match. It's better for the girl to break up with him early and let him harm other people." Tong'er was very glad that Jiang Li had already settled the engagement with Zhou Yanbang, otherwise Ruyun would not be sad for Jiang Youyao, but for Jiang Li in front of her.

"But," Tong'er suddenly remembered something and asked in confusion, "I've never heard of any relationship between Prince Zhou and Miss Shen before? How did they get involved together? Was it an accident?"

The drunk Zhou Yanbang accidentally saw Shen Ruyun and suddenly became lustful, which led to his sudden indecent behavior. Is that right?
Jiang Li's smile grew a little colder.

The husband is ruthless, but the concubine is interested. This is not an accident, but a "feat" carefully planned by Shen Ruyun.

……

Shen family.

The servants lowered their heads and worked seriously.

Even though the current master is a secretary, and seems to be very tolerant and kind, the mother of the secretary and his sister are not as easy to talk to as Shen Yurong. The two women are born with a bit of meanness in their temper. Especially now that Shen Yurong's career is getting more and more prosperous, the tempers of the two women are gradually increasing, as if to make up for the past suffering, they want to vent all the suffering they have suffered in the past.

The way to vent his anger was naturally to torture his servants.

The servants in the Shen residence all knew that the two mistresses were harsh to others, so they did not dare to be distracted in the slightest and were extremely careful when doing things.

In the room, Shen Ruyun was confronting Shen Yurong.

"You've gone too far!" Shen Yurong said.

Shen Ruyun disagreed and replied: "Brother, it was not me who did something wrong, it was Ningyuan Hou Zhou Yanbang, why are you blaming me, are you really my big brother?"

Shen Yurong smiled instead of getting angry, looked at Shen Ruyun, and asked, "Oh? Was it really his fault?"

His eyes were very sharp, like "whoosh" directly drilling into people's hearts, peeping into everything they were thinking. Shen Ruyun shrank back, and said with a stiff face: "Not bad!"

Shen Yurong looked at her steadily.

Shen Ruyun felt a little guilty.

That night at the palace banquet, everyone saw the result. Zhou Yanbang, the son of Ningyuan Marquis, and Jiang Yu'e, the cousin of his fiancée, had a secret meeting in the palace, and they made love. He also tried to flirt with Shen Ruyun, the sister of Zhongshu Shelang. The son of Ningyuan Marquis was not as elegant as he appeared to be, but was full of lust.

Everyone could see the result, but no one knew what happened that night. Even Zhou Yanbang and Jiang Yu'e might not know it very clearly. The one who knew it best was Shen Ruyun.

That night, she met Jiang Li by chance in the garden and learned where Zhou Yanbang had gone. After struggling for several times, she finally couldn't help her longing for him and went to Yuxiu Pavilion, intending to "meet" Zhou Yanbang by chance, or at least say a few words to him, so that Zhou Yanbang would remember her and know that there was such a person, not a stranger.

Until now, Shen Ruyun is still glad that she made this decision.

When she pushed open the door of Yuxiu Pavilion and saw the ugly scene of Jiang Yu'e and Zhou Yanbang rubbing their ears and cheeks together, she almost couldn't help but scream. Anger and jealousy instantly overwhelmed her. Shen Ruyun almost didn't hesitate at all and planned to run out and make this scandal public, and take revenge on this man who hurt her heart and this shameless woman.

Before leaving, Shen Ruyun didn't know what she was feeling, but she stepped back again. She wanted to ask Zhou Yanbang why he did this. If she had to give up before and could only look at this man she loved from afar, it was because Zhou Yanbang and Jiang Youyao were already engaged. But why did Zhou Yanbang, who was already engaged, want to be with Jiang Yu'e? Did he like Jiang Yu'e?
Shen Ruyun recognized Jiang Yu'e at a glance, Jiang Youyao's sister, the annoying dog of Jiang Youyao who always wagged her tail and begged for mercy.

But after Shen Ruyun summoned up the courage to question Zhou Yanbang, Zhou Yanbang did not answer. He seemed to have heard Shen Ruyun talking, and raised his head towards Shen Ruyun, but the expression on his face was dazed, as if he was drunk, with an abnormal flush.

Shen Ruyun remembered what Jiang Li said, that Zhou Yanbang was drunk and taking a nap. Thinking that Zhou Yanbang might be drunk, she felt a little lucky. Could it be that Zhou Yanbang was drunk and did this unconsciously?
When she bravely walked a little closer and looked at Jiang Yu'e with disgust, she found that Jiang Yu'e was also in a daze like Zhou Yanbang.

But even a drunk person shouldn't look like this.

Shen Ruyun vaguely felt a sense of familiarity, as if she had seen this scene somewhere before, until she saw a half-burned incense stick in the corner of the room, while the other half had turned to ashes and fallen to the ground.

Shen Ruyun suddenly realized!
She understood why the scene before her was so familiar, making her wonder if she had seen it somewhere before. Now she finally knew, wasn't this the scene when her sister-in-law, Xue Fangfei, was caught with her "adulterer"?
Almost exactly the same!
Xue Fangfei was also in the same state at that time, she was in a daze and had no idea what kind of environment she was in. After finally waking her up, the ladies watching outside had seen almost the same scene as they wanted to see.

They were two people who were drowsy and unconscious, with the same incense and the same intriguing smell.

The longer Shen Ruyun stayed in the room, the drier her mouth and tongue felt, and an unfamiliar heat surged in her body.

If she had not experienced the Xue Fangfei incident, Shen Ruyun, with her not-so-smart mind, would naturally not be able to figure out what was going on. But because of her experience, Shen Ruyun was very smart this time and immediately guessed what was going on.

Zhou Yanbang and Jiang Yu'e were plotted against!

At this point, Shen Ruyun began to hesitate.

If Zhou Yanbang was being plotted against, it was not his intention, so there was no need for her to retaliate against him, and she did not need to call people to watch this scandal. But if she did not call them to wake up, would Jiang Yu'e take the opportunity to use this incident to blame Zhou Yanbang after she woke up? The more she thought about it, the more she felt that this was possible. Shen Ruyun even thought that it was Jiang Yu'e herself who plotted against Zhou Yanbang.

With this conjecture, Shen Ruyun felt that what she thought was right. You know, with Jiang Yu'e's status, it is impossible for her to marry a son of an official in the future, let alone the Ningyuan Marquis's son, who is admired by all the girls in Yanjing City. Even if she marries the Ningyuan Marquis's son as a concubine, it is still considered that Jiang Yu'e is marrying up.

Thinking of this, Shen Ruyun felt resentful and looked at Jiang Yu'e with a glaring look. If she left, wouldn't that be Jiang Yu'e's wish? Shen Ruyun didn't want to see Jiang Yu'e get a bargain for nothing.

After thinking about it, Shen Ruyun couldn't think of a good solution. She couldn't help but feel angry. Who made it so that she wasn't the one entangled with Zhou Yanbang? If it was her who was lying in bed with Zhou Yanbang now, things would be much easier. As the sister of Zhongshu Shelang, Zhou Yanbang could just marry her. They were well-matched and a perfect match. And since they were actually husband and wife, no matter how unwilling Jiang Youyao was, she had to cut off contact with Zhou Yanbang.

The Jiang family will not allow Jiang Youyao to be a co-wife.

It was just a casual thought, but when Shen Ruyun thought about the latter part, he was suddenly stunned.

Yes, since Jiang Youyao would have no chance if she got entangled with Zhou Yanbang, why not do this?

Anyway, Zhou Yanbang has been drugged and is unconscious now, so even if there is one more person "harassing" him, Zhou Yanbang won't know.

But Shen Ruyun also knew that her current status was not as good as before, and she had a brother who was a secretary. What she did was too ugly, Shen Ruyun would lose face, and it might affect Shen Yurong's career. She couldn't sleep next to Zhou Yanbang in dishevel like Jiang Yu'e. She was a woman, and she had to consider her reputation.

In this matter, Shen Ruyun probably used up all her intelligence and wisdom in her life to make up a story of "being molested". In this way, she became a victim that everyone pitied, but she also had physical contact with Shen Yurong, which enabled her to make Shen Yurong take responsibility for her.

Things went very smoothly, and even Princess Yongning stood on his side and spoke for him. Judging from Marquis Ningyuan's tone, he would definitely give him an explanation.

Even in her sleep, Shen Ruyun dreamed of marrying Zhou Yanbang and becoming the Crown Prince's wife.

But she didn't expect that her own brother, Shen Yurong, did not stand on her side. On the contrary, he accused her of doing so.

Feeling uneasy at Shen Yurong's gaze, Shen Ruyun changed the subject and said, "Brother! What's the point of talking about this now? Ning Yuanhou said he would explain to us. Now that I have such a relationship with Zhou Shizi, no one else dares to marry me. I have no other choice but to marry him!"

"Is there no other way?" Shen Yurong snorted, "When you did that, why didn't you think about the fact that there is no other way now!"

Shen Ruyu was shocked, but Shen Yurong had guessed it. Well, with Shen Yurong's mind, she would have guessed the strangeness.

"I know you like him, but he is the son-in-law of the Jiang family!" Shen Yurong said, "Now the Jiang family has no choice but to cancel the engagement. You have caused the Jiang family and the Zhou family to become enemies. Do you think the Ningyuan Marquisate will not hate you? The Jiang family will also hold it against you!"

Shen Ruyun hated to hear the Jiang family mentioned. Although she was now the sister of Zhongshu Shelang, she was still not as rich as the daughter of the Prime Minister. She couldn't help but sneer, "Jiang family, Jiang family, you only know the Jiang family. After all, you still care about your career. Now that Her Royal Highness the Princess is in our Shen family, why should you be afraid of the Jiang family, you——"

With a "pop", Shen Ruyun's voice stopped abruptly.

Because Shen Yurong slapped her in the face. Shen Yurong's body tilted and she almost fell down. Shen Yurong's eyes were red and his hands were shaking. He looked at her with a gloomy look and said, "Watch your words."

Shen Ruyun was so frightened that she couldn't even cry.

She knew that her eldest brother was smart and had been good at studying since he was young. The teachers in the private school said that their Shen family would sooner or later produce a top scholar. Later, Shen Yurong really became the top scholar.

Shen Yurong was very kind to Shen's mother and Shen Ruyun, but when Shen Ruyun really annoyed him, Shen Yurong would be afraid. But since when, probably after Xue Fangfei's death, Shen Ruyun felt that her eldest brother was becoming more and more gloomy and more and more strange. For example, now, she was very scared. She didn't know what Shen Yurong would do.

Shen's mother, who heard the noise outside, pushed the door open and came in. As soon as she came in, she saw Shen Ruyun covering her face with tears in her eyes. She hurried over to push Shen Ruyun's hand away. When she saw the scars on Shen Ruyun's face, she immediately said angrily: "Yurong, how could you hit your sister!"

When Shen Yurong saw Shen's mother coming, she immediately pressed her forehead helplessly and said, "Mom, don't interfere in this matter."

"How can I not intervene!" Shen's mother said, "I am your mother! Ruyun suffered such a great injustice last night. What did she do wrong? She is your sister! I know you are very capable now. I can't control you now. If you think Ruyun and I are a burden and we are not worthy of being your family, please tell me as soon as possible. Ruyun and I will pack up and go back to our hometown. We dare not provoke you, the number one scholar!" At the end, she simply sat down on the ground and howled, "It's all the master's fault that he died early and left such a mess. I finally raised my son with great difficulty, but now he doesn't recognize his biological mother. It's really a sin..."

Shen Ruyun quickly squatted down, and the mother and daughter hugged each other and cried bitterly.

The servants outside were so frightened that they dared not even breathe, pretending not to see anything and staying far away. Such scenes were not unfamiliar in the Shen Mansion. Whenever Shen's mother could not do anything to Shen Yurong, she would always use dry howling to force Shen Yurong to compromise.

As expected, Shen Yurong immediately gave up. He said, "Mother, when did I say I don't care about you anymore? It's all my fault. I'm unfilial. I'm wrong. Ruyun, I'll go to Ningyuan Marquis' Mansion at noon. You won't be wronged in this matter. Zhou Yanbang...you can wait at home without worry."

Shen Ruyun was secretly happy in her heart, but she still sobbed and said, "Brother, don't lie to me, and don't think that I am being relentless. Now if the Ningyuan Marquis' Mansion doesn't give me an explanation, I have nowhere else to go. I will have to cut my hair and become a nun. You also know how people in Yanjing City treat unclean women..." She suddenly stopped talking and looked at Shen Yurong in confusion.

Shen Yurong did not allow anyone to mention Xue Fangfei in the mansion. Everyone guessed that it was because she admitted that she was cuckolded. It was a humiliating thing for a husband to have a wife having an affair with someone else.

Shen Yurong's eyebrows twitched slightly, but he didn't get angry. He just suddenly calmed down and his expression became cold. He said, "I understand. You guys wait in the house. I'll go out first." After that, he didn't even care about Shen Ruyu and Shen's mother, and went out.

Mother Shen didn't wail again this time. She waited until Shen Yurong left, then suddenly slapped Shen Ruyun on the back and complained, "Why did you bring up that matter for no reason? Look, your brother is not feeling well again."

Shen Ruyun was also very regretful in her heart. At this critical moment, she did not want to make Shen Yurong angry, but she still refused to speak, saying: "Brother, what's going on? You are still acting like this when you mention that person. Are you still thinking about her?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Shen's mother said immediately, "Your eldest brother and that woman have no relationship for a long time! She made your eldest brother a laughing stock in the whole capital. Which man in the world can tolerate a cheating wife? It's good that she died. If she hadn't died, your eldest brother would have been dragged down by her. How could he have had such a good future now?!"

Seeing Mother Shen's stern expression, Shen Ruyun did not dare to refute anything. After a while, she said, "Mom, will my eldest brother really go to Ningyuan Marquis' Mansion to stand up for me?"

"Of course he will!" Mother Shen held Shen Ruyun's hand, a sharp light flashed in her eyes, "Even if your elder brother didn't show up, the Ningyuan Marquis' Mansion insulted your innocence in front of so many people, so naturally we have to give you an explanation. If it really doesn't work, let the princess help... In short, you will never be wronged!"

Shen Ruyun felt a little guilty. She had plotted against Zhou Yanbang, but not even Shen's mother knew about it, except for Shen Yurong. If Ningyuan Marquis's Mansion knew the truth, they would definitely not let it go. However, judging from Zhou Yanbang's condition, they would not know the truth.

In this way, the matter would be perfect and she could marry into the Ningyuan Marquis' Mansion smoothly.

She finally got what she wanted.

……

At this moment in Ningyuan Marquis Mansion, the sound of a woman crying was heard in the hall.

"Master, stop hitting me, stop hitting me! Yanbang can't stand this kind of beating, stop it now!" The wife of Marquis Ningyuan was about to snatch the whip from Marquis Ningyuan's hand, but was pushed away by Marquis Ningyuan and fell to the ground. She watched helplessly as the shiny black whip fell on Zhou Yanbang's back, and Zhou Yanbang screamed in pain.

The servants in the hall and other people in Ningyuan Marquis's mansion did not dare to plead for Zhou Yanbang. Zhou Yanbang knelt on the ground, trying to avoid his father's whipping, but he was whipped even harder.

His back was immediately covered with red scars, which were raised one by one. Because of his delicate skin and tender flesh, the scars were very scary.

While beating him, Ning Yuanhou cursed: "You are ridiculous!"

No matter how hard the Ningyuan Marquis' wife tried to dissuade him, she could only watch as Ningyuan Marquis got tired of beating him, threw away the whip in his hand, snorted, and walked away without looking back.

The wife of the Ningyuan Marquis rushed over and saw Zhou Yanbang dying. She couldn't stop crying and shouted to the servants around her, "Go and get the doctor!"

The doctor came quickly and wrote some pharmacy notes for Zhou Yanbang. Lady Ningyuan Hou quickly asked someone to get the medicine and take it to the kitchen to boil it, while she personally applied ointment on Zhou Yanbang's back.

After a while, the unconscious Zhou Yanbang finally woke up and called out, "Mom."

The tears of the Ningyuan Marquis' wife fell on the back of her hand. She felt sorry for his misfortune and angry at his lack of resistance. She wanted to reach out and hit Zhou Yanbang twice, but she couldn't bear to do it. She just asked, "What did you do?"

Zhou Yanbang couldn't say anything either.

What did he do? From last night till now, he was dizzy and didn't know anything.

Ningyuan Marquis’ wife continued, “Forget about you getting involved with Jiang Yu’e. She is just a concubine’s daughter anyway. If things really don’t work out, you can just take her in as a concubine. But why did you go and mess with Shen Ruyun? She is the sister of the Secretary of the Central Secretariat. Now the Emperor values ​​Shen Yurong the most. If you mess with the Shen family, the Emperor will definitely be displeased with you and will also be suspicious of our Ningyuan Marquis’ Mansion. That’s why your father is so angry.”

Zhou Yanbang was overwhelmed by what he heard. When did he mess with Shen Ruyun? He didn't even know what Shen Ruyun looked like. When the Zhongshu Shelang's sister had an accident last night and she complained in tears, Zhou Yanbang saw the woman's appearance for the first time. How could he flirt with such a strange woman? Zhou Yanbang himself couldn't figure it out.

"Didn't you say before that you liked Jiang Li, the second daughter of the Jiang family? If you liked her, why did you look for Jiang Wu, Shen Ruyun, and Yan Bang? What were you thinking? How could you do such a stupid thing?"

Jiang Li? Zhou Yanbang was stunned, and the pain from the whipping on his back was ignored for a moment. Zhou Yanbang remembered that he had clearly made an appointment with Jiang Li at Yuxiu Pavilion last night, so how could it become Jiang Yu'e? At that time, he saw someone coming from Yuxiu Pavilion, and thought that Jiang Li had come to keep the appointment, so he was overjoyed and couldn't help himself. Could it be that from that time on, the person who came was actually Jiang Yu'e?

Seeing Zhou Yanbang was stunned and silent, Ningyuan Hou's wife asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Zhou Yanbang came back to his senses and said perfunctorily, "It's okay." But his heart was like a raging storm and he couldn't calm down.

How did Jiang Li become Jiang Yu'e? The note was delivered to Jiang Li, and the person who reported it also made it clear that Jiang Li had received the note. Jiang Li would definitely not throw away such an important thing for others to pick up.

Zhou Yanbang recalled that after Shen Ruyun attracted the crowd last night, Jiang Li also stood in the crowd. There was no trace of surprise in her eyes when she looked at him, but her calmness was chilling.

She already knew it.

It was as if a basin of cold water was poured over his head. Zhou Yanbang felt shivering all over. The colder his body got, the bigger and stronger the flames of hatred and anger in his heart grew.

Jiang Li didn't want to keep his appointment, so she teamed up with Jiang Yu'e to frame him. Jiang Yu'e tried every means to marry into the Jiang family, and Jiang Li must have known about this for a long time, so she gave this note to Jiang Yu'e.

In this way, she could stand in the crowd and watch her own ugly appearance coldly!
Zhou Yanbang was extremely angry.

No matter how stupid he was, he knew that after what happened last night, his career was ruined. The first thing a student from the Imperial College must have is virtue. His virtue had been verified by so many people and had become a joke. Emperor Hong Xiao was unhappy, and he had no chance to make a big splash in his career!

All this is thanks to Jiang Yu'e and Jiang Li.

Zhou Yanbang hated Jiang Yu'e, and he hated Jiang Li even more. Jiang Li didn't come to the appointment, and she used such a humiliating method. She turned a blind eye to his true feelings and treated him like a worn-out shoe. She used such a method to ruin her life.

This is a vicious woman!

Seeing that Zhou Yanbang seemed to be shaking all over, Ningyuan Hou's wife was a little anxious and asked him, "Are you feeling unwell somewhere? Let the doctor take a look?"

"No need." Zhou Yanbang endured the pain in his back and the coldness in his heart, and said, "Mother, what should I do next? Now I am involved with Miss Jiang Wu and Miss Shen, what should I do?" He raised the corners of his mouth, "Marriage with Jiang Youyao should be impossible."

The wife of Ningyuan Hou was silent for a while, then shook her head. "The Jiang family sent someone here early this morning." Her tone was not sure whether it was anger or regret. "Just pretend that the marriage with Jiang Youyao never happened."

Zhou Yanbang said: "Nothing, the marriage between Jiang Youyao and I shouldn't have happened in the first place."

Lady Ningyuan Hou thought what he said was a little strange and couldn't help looking at him.

Zhou Yanbang thought in his heart that the marriage with Jiang Youyao was originally a replacement for him and Jiang Li. Now that Jiang Youyao left, it was like returning to the beginning.

But his connection with the Jiang family did not seem to be completely severed.

"How about Jiang Yu'e?" Zhou Yanbang asked, "I think I have to arrange a status for her. Mother, how about her being a concubine?"

"This is the best." Ning Yuanhou's wife snorted, "Don't you think about her own status? If this can't satisfy her, she'd better give up the idea of ​​entering Ning Yuanhou's mansion."

(End of this chapter)