Ding Duchess slightly frowned and looked to Jing Wan with open eyes. She suddenly sensed the keenness below that calmness.
“If representing the Ding Duke Manor, then I rather need to find a time to visit Ding Duke Manor and ask your family’s old madam, whether or not your family’s rules are different from other families’, for one to actually be this impudent and rude.” When she spoke, she even calmly and composedly looked to Ding Duchess.
Of the entire Ding Duke Manor, wasn’t it precisely Sun Old Madam that had the highest status? So directly overlooking the Ding Duchess is also very normal, no?
Never mind Ding Duchess, everyone that came in just now, all their complexions turned somewhat unsightly. This slap to the face didn’t just land on one person’s face.
That fourth sister-in-law of Sun Yi Jia’s, her face was the most unsightly. Secretly sweeping a glance at Ding Duchess’s face, she rather wanted to borrow this mother-in-law’s hand to properly sort out this wretched girl that didn’t know how high the skies were. But if this matter were to be realized, then she would still have to lose a layer of skin. “Naturally representing my own opinions, what of it?”
“Oh, representing yourself?” Jing Wan softly followed up, carrying a bit of nonchalant. Her left hand brushed over her right sleeve cuff as she looked to her own palm with lowered eyes.
The intention of wanting to slap someone was very obvious. That woman subconsciously took a step back. ‘Pah….’ A crisp sound startled everyone.
That woman covered her face, turning her head in disbelief towards Sun Yi Jia. That’s right. The one that striked wasn’t Jing Wan, but Sun Yi Jia. The woman instinctively raised her hand wanting to hit back, but Sun Yi Jia, with a cold and indifferent look, even slightly raised her head, offering up her injured face, making it easier for her to hit. If she really slapped back, no matter who was in the right, she would still become the unreasonable one. The woman could only tightly clench her five fingers and resentfully retracted her hand.
“What, too scared to hit back?” Sun Yi Jia’s lips parted very little, refraining from tearing the wound on her face as much as possible. As she finished speaking, she swung another slap over.
This time, everyone was so shocked that their mouths hung agape. Although Sun Yi Jia’s personality was rather cold on normal days, she was still undoubtedly a model to the numerous noble young ladies in the capital. For there to be a day where she would hit someone, no one would dare to imagine this. That’s why, when this scene played out, one can as well imagine just how intense of a shock this caused.
“Yi Jia!” Ding Duchess looked to Sun Yi Jia, her brows furrowing even tighter. It was obvious that Sun Yi Jia’s behavior, although had also shocked her, it actually angered her even more so. How could a daughter she raised have such crude conduct.
Unfortunately, her daughter, who’d always listened to her obediently in the past, who when pointing out her faults, would immediately admit to her mistakes and moreover correct herself, attaining the best and most perfect results, at the moment, instead didn’t even give her a single glance.
An unprecedented violent emotion congealed inside Sun Yi Jia’s eyes, carrying a bit of viciousness, as she stared at her fourth sister-in-law like a viper, “Fourth sister-in-law probably doesn’t know, but little sister Wan originally intended to come to White Dragon Temple today. It was I that had the time shifted earlier to yesterday afternoon. So then according to your reasoning, aren’t I precisely the culprit? Of the four people in the horse carriage, my injuries were the lightest. Each and every one of you is probably all cursing why I didn’t just directly fall to my death, right? I’ve let you all down, who told me to have such an usually fortunate and sturdy life. Even if you all die, it still wouldn’t be my turn to.” Because she’d purposefully lowered her voice, the tone very much felt somewhat like a malicious spirit here to demand someone’s life.
Someone, who doesn’t get angry, suddenly getting angry was truly not an ordinary kind of terrifying.
“Yi Jia, look at yourself and what you’re like right now, quickly shut your mouth.”
Sun Yi Jia sharply turned her head to look towards Ding Duchess, “What am I like? If not the same as the one in your heart, then naturally it’s all no good. Mother, don’t assume that I don’t know what you and father are thinking, and also what you two want to do. I’m already like this now…” Saying this, she covered her injured face, tears gathering in her eyes, “Everything is all gone anyways, whoever dares to trample me, don’t blame me for ‘smashing an already broken jar’[1] and do something that will let Ding Duke Manor lose all face, and let you all regret for the rest of your lives.”
“Yi Jia…..” Perhaps because her inner thoughts got seen through by Sun Yi Jia, when she saw that look of hers again, like as if her heart was dead, the Ding Duchess’s heart also began aching. No matter what, this was still her one and only daughter. Although she spared no effort in cultivating her, it was still for a purpose. But she still had put in countless thoughts after all, “Don’t say silly things, who would dare to trample you? Don’t do foolish things, understand?”
Sun Yi Jia coldly tugged the corners of her mouth, clearly showing that she just didn’t believe.
Ding Duchess suddenly felt very helpless towards this daughter of hers. She couldn’t help but soften her tone, “Return home with mother first, alright? If there’s anything, let’s talk about it when we get back.”
“Return? Return to have me locked up in confinement, so as to avoid letting someone as unbearably ugly as me go out and get pointed at by others and let you all lose face? Or better yet, just relentlessly have me married off far far away, never to be able to step into the capital city ever again?”
“Why would you think like this?”
“Is it not the case? Mother, do you dare to vow that you and father don’t have these kinds of intentions? Vowing on your sons and grandsons’ lives that if you lie, you will sever your descendant line, and be left without heirs.”
Ding Duchess’s composure could no longer be maintained anymore. Her eyes raging with fury, “Sun Yi Jia, such malicious words, you even dare to say out loud? Your older brothers have all loved you for nothing. And your nephews all like you that much, yet you curse them?”
“I’m malicious? I’m merely letting mother, you, use them to make a vow, that’s all. If you and father really don’t have those intentions, then naturally you would have a clear conscious.”
Ding Duchess was suddenly speechless, unable to say anything.
“Nothing to say?” The tears in Sun Yi Jia’s eyes fell like giant pearls, as she recounted the endless grievances and sorrows, “It’s you all that abandoned me first, you all that didn’t want me first. In the past, you all did have me held in the palm of your hands, always giving me the best, but that was because I had worth. You all weren’t raising a daughter, but rather a precious product, just waiting for the day when I can obtain in exchange the greatest benefits for you all. But you all did give birth to me and raise me after all, so I ought to repay you all. That’s why I did whatever you told me to do, never once complaining. But what about now? My face is ruined and worthless. But you all not only didn’t take pity on me and console me, you even sprinkled salt on my wound. They all say, cats and dogs, when raised long enough, all would have feelings. I feel I’m even less than a small cat or dog…….” The more she said, the more grief she felt. And the more she spoke, the more her voice broke.
Previously, Jing Wan could still indifferently watch from the sides, but seeing Sun Yi Jia’s face begin bleeding again, she hastily went forward, “Big sister Jia, don’t say anymore, quickly stop….”
Ding Duchess dazedly stood in her original spot. She’d probably never thought that her own daughter actually had these kind of thoughts inside. But what she said doesn’t seem to be wrong either. And exactly because of this, this stirring of emotions wasn’t ordinarily deep. She thought to herself, wasn’t her life also just like this? At the time, did she feel wronged? Did she resented? Clearly knowing that kind of sorrow, yet she still heartlessly wanted her own daughter to follow down this path of tragedy?
Jing Wan’s anxious voice awakened her. “Yi Jia, Yi Jia, it’s all mother’s fault, mother is wrong, mother won’t give up on you. Mother promises you, there absolutely won’t be such a day, believe mother, alright?” Ding Duchess uncontrollably cried too. In these years, it’s not that she’s never cried before, but those were all merely crying for Ding Duke to see. How ever much sorrowfully and painfully she cried was exactly how cold and hard her heart was at the time. But now, she truly cried, because of her daughter, because of herself.
Sun Yi Jia slapped away her hand and had her head buried into Jing Wan’s neck, “Mother, why don’t you all leave for now, I want to be quiet for a while.”
“Okay, okay, mother will listen to you, listen to you. Don’t speak anymore, be careful….it’ll hurt. It’s not good if it bleeds too much.” Initially, she wanted to say, ‘be careful of your face’, but worried she might touch upon her inner scars again. But leaving just like this, she was also uneasy.
“Why don’t madam go out first, and leave big sister Jia to me. I’ll console her.” Seeing her helplessness and also genuine care towards Sun Yi Jia, at this moment, Jing Wan opened her mouth.
“Alright, then I’ll be troubling Miss Luo.”
“Madam is too polite.”
[1] Idiom meaning, since something is already damaged, it wouldn’t matter if it get damaged again.
