Chapter 118: It Was You I Hit
Jiang Ruanxi’s series of rhetorical questions were like heavy stones. Madam Zhou was rendered speechless. Like a chilling cool breeze, it blew away the haze in Lin Feng’s heart. He suddenly awakened, looked at the divorce letter in his hand, and instantly crumpled it into pieces.
“No, divorce is impossible, and repudiating your wife is also impossible.” Lin Feng’s eyes were red as he turned to look at Madam Zhou, his tone firm. “Mother, I’m sorry.”
Madam Zhou was so angry her eyes turned red. Like a feral beast, she lunged at Jiang Ruanxi. “Jiang Ruanxi, you little bitch. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be like this. I want to kill you, you bitch.”
But before she could get close to Jiang Ruanxi, there was a “pa” sound, and Madam Zhou froze in place.
There was a fresh red fingerprint on her face, followed by intense pain. “Jiang Ruanxi, you actually dared to hit me.”
Madam Zhou had an expression of disbelief.
“I hit you.”
“Jiang Ruanxi, I’ll fight you to the death.”
Madam Zhou lost reason and rushed forward again, grabbing at Jiang Ruanxi’s hair. Just as she was about to touch Jiang Ruanxi, but Jiang Ruanxi dodged to the side. Madam Zhou fell to the ground like a toad, crying out in pain.
She rolled over and glared fiercely at Jiang Ruanxi, cursing under her breath. “Jiang Ruanxi, you little bitch. I will definitely make Ning Kun repudiate you.”
Jiang Ruanxi looked down at her from above. She was not flustered like Madam Zhou but instead completely calm.
“Madam Zhou, can’t you see it even now?”
“What do you mean?”
Jiang Ruanxi looked at her like she was an idiot.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t be making a fuss. I did play some tricks to get you locked up here, but it’s also because you’re stupid. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had the chance, right?”
“Little bitch, so everything was you scheming against me. I want to kill you.”
As soon as she spoke, Madam Zhou angrily tried to lunge again, but Jiang Ruanxi stomped hard on her chest with her foot, causing her so much pain she couldn’t move.
Cold sweat poured from her forehead. Her forehead was scraped, her hair messy, no different from a beggar outside.
Admiring Madam Zhou’s disheveled state, Jiang Ruanxi said leisurely, “You’ve been yelling for Lin Ningkun to come repudiate me. In the past, he might have, but now, I’m afraid it won’t go your way. With such a big matter happening in the Lin family these past few days, you’ve been locked up for so many days. Did your most beloved son Lin Ningkun ever come to see you?”
Madam Zhou froze as if forgetting the pain.
She recalled the time she spent in jail.
At first, she had been hoping Lin Ningkun would come rescue her.
Because no matter what, although Lin Ningkun had his noble title stripped, he still had his accumulated connections. As long as he went to beg those people, she would soon be released.
But she waited a long time, neither seeing Lin Ningkun nor hearing any good news from him.
Seeing her face turn pale, Jiang Ruanxi twisted the knife in her heart again. “Lin Ningkun knew you were taken away by the officials and that you were locked in the ancestral hall. But think about it—why didn’t he come?”
Madam Zhou shook her head, muttering to herself, “No, impossible. You’re definitely lying to me. You definitely didn’t tell Ning Kun. You’re spreading rumors here, you bitch. I treated you well on normal days—why do this to me?”
“Treated me well?” Jiang Ruanxi seemed to hear a joke and said sarcastically, “When you say that, have you touched your own conscience? Ask yourself honestly—did you ever treat me with sincerity?”
Madam Zhou’s eyes evaded, not daring to meet her gaze.
“From the first day I married into the Lin family, you’ve been coveting my dowry.”
“Nonsense, who used your dowry?” Madam Zhou denied directly.
“Whether it’s nonsense, Mother knows in her heart.” Jiang Ruanxi looked at the luxurious brocade clothes on her body, her expression growing colder. “With the Lin family’s meager estate, could you afford a bolt of brocade worth a thousand gold?”
Could you afford to eat fresh sturgeon shipped from the south and kept on ice every day?
Whether it was the endless supply of ice in summer or the expensive nanmu charcoal in winter—which of those isn’t supported by my dowry?”
The Lin family was once a marquis manor, but it was just a good-sounding name. Inside, it had long rotted away.
Glittering on the surface, but actually drowning in debt.
A great family with no source of income, yet still maintaining an extravagant lifestyle.
Besides targeting her dowry, what else could they do?
Madam Zhou was ashamed and angry. “Once you married into the Lin family, you became part of the Lin family. Your dowry is also the Lin family’s property. Besides, did I force you when I spent your dowry? Wasn’t it willingly? What are you resenting now?”
When a person has no shame, they are invincible in the world.
In the Qin Kingdom, coveting a daughter-in-law’s dowry—if known—would be ridiculed by the whole world.
But the Lin family saw it not as shame, but as pride!
Madam Zhou’s reaction was expected. In her previous life, she willingly spent her dowry on the Lin family just to please Lin Ningkun.
But she never expected her sincerity to be fed to a dog.
“Spending the dowry is one thing—it’s just some money. But you shouldn’t have, absolutely shouldn’t have, spent the dowry so righteously while hiding the matter with Jiang Xuerou. You wanted to have Xiao Ge’er adopted and let Jiang Xuerou marry in. Then when Lin Ningkun rises to glory, kick me aside. You really treated me like a fool to toy with. I treated the Lin family with sincerity, and if you didn’t appreciate it, fine—but why scheme and toy with me?”
Jiang Ruanxi voiced the question that had puzzled her since rebirth.
Thinking of her tragic death in her previous life, Jiang Ruanxi’s face was full of chilling coldness.
Madam Zhou was frightened by her face, her heart trembling.
She hadn’t expected her to know everything.
But in her heart, she was already broken and desperate, instead angrily questioning her. “Since you know everything, Jiang Ruanxi, I didn’t expect you to have such deep schemes. Pretending to know nothing, then taking revenge on our Lin family like this.”
“If you hadn’t kept harming me, without counterattacking, I’d be reduced to bones by now. I was originally thinking the main responsibility wasn’t yours. If you behaved yourself, I wouldn’t trouble you at most, letting you live out your wretched life. But you shouldn’t have colluded with Madam Kang Zhou to scheme for my dowry and even my life.”
Seeing her vicious expression, Madam Zhou realized belatedly that today, Jiang Ruanxi would not let her go.
Endless fear surged in her heart, her body trembling along with it. She knelt down and kowtowed.
“Jiang Ruanxi, I really know I was wrong. Please let me go. If I can get out, I will stay far away from you, never appear before you, and never cause you trouble.”
Looking at her ugly state like it was garbage, Jiang Ruanxi curled her lips in a cold smile.
