When Yang Mingyi was young, Old Master Wu's health was still robust then, and he was often busy at the academy. He couldn't stand Yang Mutao, but he cared quite a bit for his grandson, the sole child of his beloved daughter.
He frequently sent people to deliver things to Yang Mingyi every few days—sometimes food and snacks, sometimes clothes, sometimes small toys and books. After all, Fu'an Town was a small place, even if the Yang Residence was wealthy, some things were hard to buy.
And he was always afraid that Zheng Xiaoling wouldn't care properly for his grandson. Every time the servants he sent came, Zheng Xiaoling put on a good front. Yang Mingyi had no visible injuries on his body, and the momo would specially change his clothes before he came out, dressing him in fine silks. The servants only thought he was doing well and wasn't mistreated.
There were no other young masters in the residence, and Zheng Xiaoling didn't care to read these books herself, so she sent them all to Yang Mingyi.
That day, Yang Mutao flew into a tremendous rage.
Zheng Xiaoling wept in protest, claiming she had been unaware of the situation. She insisted she had entrusted the child's care to Tang momo, never imagining the servant would betray her trust behind her back. With the immense responsibility of managing the entire Yang household resting on her shoulders, she pleaded that oversights were inevitable. She suggested that Tang momo, noticing her preoccupation, must have seized the opportunity to act maliciously by secretly depriving the child of proper meals.
She cried grievously, her words sounding sincere. Yang Mutao wasn't stupid. Zheng Xiaoling was the mistress of the household; without her permission, how would a servant dare to act like this? Moreover, he had entrusted Yang Mingyi to her care, and she failed to look after him properly – that was the fact.
He made a huge scene. A servant notified Old Lady Zheng, who helped persuade him for a long time. Only then did Yang Mutao let Zheng Xiaoling off. Later, he had Tang momo beaten and then sold her off. He took Yang Mingyi to raise by his own side.
Yang Mingyi, accustomed to being alone for years, didn't talk much and was very quiet. In his spare time, he loved holding a book to read, or playing chess. He didn't chat much with Yang Mutao either. But even so, Yang Mutao still doted on him from the bottom of his heart.
He hadn't held Zheng Xiaoling's past actions against her. And the result? Not only did she cuckold him, but she also tried to lay hands on his ger! If he didn't kill her on the spot, he considered himself kind-hearted.
The Zheng family stared, dumbfounded: "Second Child, look at your elder brother. His wings have truly hardened; he doesn't hold us elders in his eyes anymore."
The Second Master Yang didn't speak, turned, and left.
The Zheng family: "..."
One after another, they were acting as if they had no fear of heaven's judgment.
The uproar they created was so tumultuous that it finally drew Old Lady Zheng out of her quarters.
The disgraceful affair involving Zheng Xiaoling had left her both furious and unwell, forcing her to retreat to her courtyard for quiet recuperation. In recent years, she had largely withdrawn from household affairs, spending most of her days in devotional contemplation, burning incense and reciting Buddhist sutras in her chambers.
Old Master Zheng shouted, "Elder Sister, do you know about the matter between Xiaoling and Mutao?"
Old Lady Zheng said indifferently, "I know."
"Then why don't you do something about it? Although Mutao is your son, Xiaoling is also someone you watched grow up!" Old Master Zheng had been making a scene for a long time and was very thirsty by now. They had been sitting in the room for a while, and no maid had served any tea, increasing his displeasure even more. "Your Yang family's actions are truly excessive. Xiaoling married into your family for decades. She has always been filial to you, attending to you every day. There's no way she has wronged you, right? How can you bear to watch your heartless, ungrateful son treat her like this?"
"Excessive?" Old Lady Zheng said coldly, "I haven't gone to find you yet, and you have the nerve to come here first? You say our Yang family is excessive? In what way are we excessive? All these years, in what way has our Yang family failed you? In what way has my son treated her poorly? And I, specifically because she is my niece, handed the household authority to her as soon as she married in. We never shorted her on food or drink. You say she attended to me? That's truly a joke. Aside from paying her respects to me on the 5th and 10th of each month, what has she ever attended to? Has she ever helped an old woman like me wash my feet even once?"
"No matter what, for your Yang family to divorce her as soon as she makes a mistake is truly excessive," Old Master Zheng said. "Elder Sister, Xiaoling is over forty, not young anymore. Have you considered that if she, at her advanced age, is divorced and sent back, how will she face people in the future?"
"Yes!" Old Lady Zheng laughed coldly. "She is indeed of advanced age. An old woman like me also can't understand. How could she endure the lonely empty room when she was young, but now that she's old, she can't endure it anymore? She just had to do such a shameless thing. Considering the friendship between our two families, I didn't demand an explanation from you and had my son keep the matter quiet. And you're still not satisfied? You want to make a big scene, is that it?"
Old Master Zheng caught the implication: "Elder Sister, what do you mean by that?"
"What do I mean? You don't understand?" Old Lady Zheng was exasperated. "Do I have to spell it out and lose face again?"
Old Master Zheng looked at Old Madam Zheng and saw she was also baffled. "Elder Sister, just say it directly! What exactly did you mean by that? What else did Xiaoling do?"
Old Lady Zheng slammed the table. "She committed adultery!"
Old Master Zheng: "..."
Old Madam Zheng: "..."
A bolt from the blue wouldn't have been more shocking. Old Master and Old Madam Zheng stood with ears ringing in disbelief, while Zheng Xiaoling's brothers also froze on the spot.
"Our Yang family's face has nearly been shamed off by her." Old Lady Zheng tapped her cane. "That's not all. She also wanted to lay hands on Yi Ger. I never knew her heart was so vicious before. Our Zheng family has been generous, kind, and virtuous for generations. I never thought we could raise such a person. A family misfortune, a true family misfortune!"
Old Master and Old Madam Zheng's faces burned, feeling as if they had been slapped several times.
Now they finally understood why Yang Mutao had suddenly turned his back on them so completely.
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