Zhan Qingrou felt thoroughly vindicated. “Cheng Yao, everyone is cursing you. Now you see how outrageously wrong you are, don’t you?”
Lady Zhan also quietly said to Cheng Yao, “Enough. Let Old Madam have her way.”
“All right.” Cheng Yao smiled. “Since filial piety comes first, even if Old Madam has always mistreated our branch and never regarded us as family, I’ll accept it. Let her sit in the carriage. But Haochen cannot sit with her.”
She looked at Zhan Haochen. “You’ll have to trouble yourself and take turns carrying him with Uncle Xiao.”
Zhan Haochen nodded. To be honest, he no longer trusted anyone either.
Zhan Qingrou’s eyes widened. “Cheng Yao! Ninth Brother’s feet are already worn raw from walking, and you still want him to carry Big Brother? How can you be so vicious?”
Cheng Yao snapped angrily, “Do you think I want him to carry your Big Brother? If we weren’t desperate, your Big Brother wouldn’t want anyone to carry him either!”
Zhan Qingrou was about to say more when a constable shouted loudly, ordering everyone to move on.
The procession began to trudge forward. Old Madam Zhan was a proud woman and refused to get into the carriage no matter what.
“Though I may be ignorant, I still have my dignity. I will never accept charity that is offered with contempt.”
She refused the help of her children and grandchildren and hobbled forward on her own.
However, she had just recovered from an illness and was still weak. On top of that, she had suffered the shock of having her family confiscated and being exiled, and had walked all day on an empty stomach. She was already at the end of her strength. Little by little, she fell behind until she was at the very back of the procession.
“Walk faster! Why are you dragging your feet? Do you want to die?” a constable shouted at her.
Old Madam Zhan hurried to quicken her pace, but her left foot caught against her right. She stumbled and fell to the ground.
The constable showed no mercy and lashed her with his whip.
“Grandmother!” Feng Xianxian cried out and hurried to help Old Madam Zhan up.
She glared furiously at the constable. “Do you people have no humanity? The old madam is advanced in years and can barely walk. How can you treat her like this?”
The constable’s expression remained cold. “If she can’t walk, then she shouldn’t walk.”
Second Madam Zhan was furious. “You’re so cruel! You’ll surely suffer divine retribution!”
“Cruel?” The constable sneered. “She’s holding up the entire procession. So tell me, who’s really being cruel?”
Second Master Zhan stepped in front of Old Madam Zhan and glared at the constable. “Bullying an old woman—that’s what cruelty is.”
The constable looked at First Master Zhan with contempt. “It seems the War King protected you all too well. You know nothing of the harshness of the world, and even less about what cruelty means. You’ll receive no food for three days. Reflect on your behavior.”
With that, the constable flicked his sleeve and turned away.
“Oh, what a calamity! They’re punishing us by withholding food for three days!” Second Madam Zhan wailed. “The old madam is so old and can’t walk anymore. How are we supposed to survive?”
Walking at the front of the procession, Lady Zhan anxiously nudged Cheng Yao. “What should we do?”
“Don’t bother. They’re only putting on an act.”
“But Old Madam really can’t walk anymore.”
Cheng Yao found the whole thing ridiculous. “She put on this little performance because she wants us to beg her to get into the carriage.”
“Then let’s beg her…”
“Mother.” Cheng Yao frowned at her. “Tell me honestly—how has Old Madam treated our branch?”
“She has been somewhat harsh toward us,” Lady Zhan admitted hesitantly. “But she never intended to harm Haoting. And she is his grandmother, after all, so… just let her sit in the carriage.”
Cheng Yao’s smile faded. “Mother, I will not let her sit beside Haoting.”
“Then let her sit by herself. The carriage is empty anyway.”
Lady Zhan turned back to find Old Madam Zhan.
Zhan Qingrou angrily said to Cheng Yao, “Our family values virtue and filial piety. You grew up away from us, and your adoptive parents were such disgraceful people. No wonder you became selfish, materialistic, and ill-mannered. We accepted you despite all that, but you can’t be foolish enough to openly contradict and defy Grandmother. Where does that leave our family’s dignity?”
Cheng Yao was stunned. “You’re talking about me?”
“Who else?”
“Fine, fine.” Cheng Yao was so angry that she laughed. “You’re selfless, cultured, and refined. It must be terribly hard for someone like you to be part of the same family as a vulgar person like me. Go join Old Madam, then. Our branch has no room for someone as lofty as you.”
“Since when could you speak for the entire family by yourself?”
“An elder sister-in-law is like a mother. From now on, I’m the one in charge. If you have an objection, keep it to yourself.”
“You!”
Zhan Qingrou’s face flushed red with anger. “You’re impossible!”
She actually turned around and headed toward the back of the procession.
Before long, Second Master Zhan ran to the front and shouted for Hongxiu to stop the carriage. He drove Xiao Fu, who had been resting inside, out of it, then helped Old Madam Zhan climb aboard.
Second Madam Zhan and Feng Xianxian got in as well.
Second Master Zhan even told Hongxiu to get down so that he could drive the carriage himself. He clearly had no intention of enduring the hardship of walking.
Cheng Yao was so furious that she laughed. She made two demands.
“First, this is Hongxiu’s carriage, so she will drive it. Second, the carriage can hold no more than two people. Otherwise, the horse will be worked to death. One of those seats must be reserved for our branch.”
Second Madam Zhan immediately leaped to her feet. “Who do you think you are, Cheng Yao? Old Madam is perfectly healthy. It isn’t your place to give orders.”
“This is Hongxiu’s carriage. Why don’t you ask her who gets to decide?”
Hongxiu immediately said, “Hongxiu belongs to Madam. Everything Hongxiu owns is under Madam’s authority.”
Second Madam Zhan was left speechless with anger.
In the end, Old Madam Zhan remained in the carriage, while Xiao Fu and Zhan Haochen took turns carrying Zhan Haoting and occasionally climbed into the carriage to rest. Lady Zhan and Zhan Qingrou also took turns going inside for a brief rest.
Later that afternoon, a carriage came rumbling up from behind. A woman leaned out and shouted, “Mother!”
Old Madam Zhan’s whole body trembled. She leaned out in disbelief to look. “Yurong?”
The procession did not stop, but the carriage continued to pursue them. When it finally reached the front, two women climbed down.
“Mother!”
One of the middle-aged women burst into tears before she could even speak. “Mother, I chased after you all day before I finally caught up.”
Old Madam Zhan was heartbroken. “You silly child, why did you come after me? Anything you brought would only be confiscated.”
“Mother, I didn’t come to bring you anything.” Zhan Yurong threw herself into Old Madam Zhan’s arms and began sobbing. “Mother, my husband divorced me… They said my family had committed a crime and that they were afraid of being implicated, so they drove me and Tongtong out…”
Old Madam Zhan was instantly both furious and distressed, her face turning ashen. “Those vile, opportunistic wretches!”
“Grandmother.” A shy young girl stood beside Zhan Yurong. There was a trace of bashfulness and deep affection in her voice as she called out to Old Madam Zhan.
She was Zhan Yurong’s daughter, Shao Yutong.
Looking at her granddaughter, Old Madam Zhan felt a sharp ache in her heart. “Yutong, you poor child. You’ve suffered.”
They had barely exchanged a few words when they fell behind the procession. The constable impatiently urged them on.
“Hurry up! Stop dawdling!”
Zhan Yurong gritted her teeth and looked at Old Madam Zhan. “Mother, I want to leave with you.”
“Don’t be foolish!” Old Madam Zhan said sternly. “We’re criminals. The road to exile is a matter of life and death. Don’t throw your life away.”
Zhan Yurong burst into tears. “Mother, I have no home anymore. If I don’t go with you, where else can I go?”
She had only one daughter. After being cast out by her husband, she could not return to her marital home, and there was no one left in her mother’s family either. What else could she do?
A woman without anywhere to go was worse off than a beggar.
