Yan Tongshu was stunned: "Ah?"
Yan Liangrong raised an eyebrow: "You don't believe me?"
Yan Tongshu shook her head: "But sister, if you step forward to speak for Lady Qing, you'll drag brother-in-law into offending the Princess-regent's household along with you."
Yan Liangrong's sharp brow arched upward: "We are family. If I don't help you, who will? Besides, you are my full-blooded younger brother. If you lose this battle, given Princess Tijia's vindictive and ruthless nature, do you think she'll spare me and your brother-in-law? This is life and death. No need to fear."
Since Yan Liangrong had made up her mind, Yan Tongshu had nothing more to fear.
She said, word by word: "Alright, we'll go up together."
The next day, Lady Qing's case was retried.
Yan Liangyu and Zheng Chun squeezed into the crowd. Yan Liangyu asked: "Brother-in-law, where's my sister? Didn't she come?"
Zheng Chun shook his head: "I don't know. She was here just a moment ago."
The sound of court dignity rang out.
Wei-wu—
Li Fulin and Zhang Jiu had already taken their seats among the lower assessors.
Yan Tongshu mounted the presiding judge's seat a step later.
Chen Sizhen was carried in, still in his wheelchair.
Zhao Kuangzhi followed behind Chen Sizhen.
Next, Granny Chen was the first to enter, with Lady Qing following behind her.
Finally, a veiled Yan Liangrong came in.
The group bowed to Yan Tongshu.
Yan Tongshu bade everyone rise and answer standing.
The distance between Granny Chen and Lady Qing was noticeably wider this time—a clear dividing line drawn between them, unlike their previous closeness. Zhao Kuangzhi was the first to question Yan Liangrong's identity. Yan Liangrong replied with a calm smile: "A friend."
Zhao Kuangzhi sneered: "A friend has nothing to do with this case."
"On the contrary," Yan Liangrong said, stepping forward with Lady Qing: "My Lady Qing and I haven't known each other long, but we hit it off at first sight. I treat her as my own elder sister. And now she's ill, her throat is sore, and she can only manage a few simple words—she can't answer questions fully. So I will argue her case on her behalf."
The moment Yan Liangrong spoke, Zheng Chun and Yan Liangyu recognized her. Both of their eyes went wide.
Yan Liangyu, afraid she'd blurt out "Big Sister," covered her mouth with her embroidered handkerchief.
Since Yan Liangrong had said what she said, Zhao Kuangzhi had no choice but to continue the trial.
Zhao Kuangzhi stepped forward: "Lord Yan, last time we established that this shrew Feng Qing Niang had been abusing Consort Chen, to the point that his body and mind were both wounded."
Yan Tongshu nodded and looked at Lady Qing: "Lady Qing, the charges brought by Consort Chen—do you admit to them?"
Lady Qing shook her head, pretending that her throat was too sore to speak.
Yan Liangrong turned sideways to face Chen Sizhen: "Consort Chen, you claim that Lady Qing beat you, cursed you, that she was hot-tempered and vile. Do you have any evidence?"
Chen Sizhen said coldly: "Of course I do."
Zhao Kuangzhi clapped his hands, and the two men whom Lady Qing had fought with at her stall were brought in.
Zhao Kuangzhi's voice was steady and ice-cold to the extreme: "Ladies and gentlemen, this Lady Qing, when she first arrived in the capital Kaifeng and set up a stall selling Jiangzhou-style crispy sesame cakes, got into a dispute with these two brothers. Out of her mouth came words like 'son of a turtle' and 'dog-rutting wretch.' Tsk tsk tsk—even I feel my mouth get dirty just repeating them. She is a woman, yet so crude and vulgar, with manners of a shrew. Look at one spot and you know the whole leopard. Anyone can imagine how Lady Qing cursed and beat Consort Chen in their everyday life."
The two men played their part well. No sooner had they kneeled down than they poured out the story of their fight with Lady Qing at the sesame cake stall, fighting over each other to speak.
"Oh, filthy. Too filthy."
"Indeed a shrew. Consort Chen is a scholar—how could he stand it?"
"Tsk tsk tsk, a textbook jealous harridan. What man could endure that?"
The onlookers buzzed with gossip.
Seeing public opinion tilt in his favor, Zhao Kuangzhi turned to face Lady Qing: "Lady Qing, I ask you this. In your three years of marriage to Consort Chen, did you ever say to him: 'You waste, you useless thing, get out, your old mother had the worst luck in eight lifetimes marrying you. If you don't study hard, I'll have your mother disown you'—words like those?"
Lady Qing opened her mouth to speak, but Zhao Kuangzhi quickly said: "Lady Qing, don't you dare lie. Your mother-in-law, Granny Chen, is right here. If you've said them, she can testify."
The denials in Lady Qing's mouth swirled around her tongue, but in the end she nodded.
Zhao Kuangzhi asked again: "Lady Qing, have you slapped Consort Chen? Have you beaten him with bamboo strips?"
Lady Qing nodded once more.
The men and women in the crowd were utterly dumbfounded.
"Heavens, what sin did the Chen family commit to marry such a scourge?"
"She even hits a man! Pah! Isn't a man a woman's heaven? She's got nerves of steel!"
"If my wife were so fierce, I'd have written up the divorce papers ages ago. Consort Chen is too dignified, too kind."
"Indeed. No wonder Consort Chen didn't come home once he made his fortune. A raging wife at home. Sigh... I tell you, this Lady Qing—when a man is poor, you don't soften up, you nitpick. No wonder her husband abandoned her once he got rich."
The pointed fingers of the crowd fell on Lady Qing's face like whips, burning, stinging.
So—was she still the one in the wrong?
So—she'd brought this all on herself?
So—she was to blame for not being a good woman, a good wife, while they were poor, and that's why she'd been discarded?
"Silence."
Yan Tongshu rapped the gavel. When the noise of the courtroom died down, she looked at Zhao Kuangzhi: "Is the plaintiff's counsel done with his questions?"
Zhao Kuangzhi nodded.
Yan Liangrong took over the floor: "Since counsel Zhao is done, now it's my turn."
Her gaze was sharp as a blade. She took a step toward Chen Sizhen: "Consort Chen, at the last hearing, both your mother, Granny Chen, and Lady Qing stated that at home you did nothing but study, which was the only thing required of you. Is that true or not?"
Chen Sizhen hesitated to answer, looked at Zhao Kuangzhi, who gave him a reassuring nod.
Chen Sizhen replied: "The imperial examinations are brutal. Only by studying day and night, with diligence, can one make any progress."
"Is that so?" Yan Liangrong offered a silken smile: "Since you, Consort Chen, were reading day and night, then who took care of all the household affairs?"
Chen Sizhen: "My mother and Qing Niang."
Yan Liangrong: "That is a lie."
Zhao Kuangzhi frowned. Yan Liangrong lifted her head: "After Lady Qing married you, she handled every single household task alone. Your mother—speaking nicely—was gentle; speaking plainly—she was feeble and spineless. After your father died, your house and fields were seized by your father's brothers. Your mother survived by washing clothes for others and digging wild vegetables in the mountains. But even so, your maternal grandfather's family came to your door demanding money time and again. Your mother could not refuse their pleas and kept sending money to her natal family. Thus your already hard life grew harder. Only when you showed aptitude for scholarship did the clan elder step in and lease you two mu of fields to farm, which allowed you to eat your fill a few times. But even so, your home was bare-walled and destitute."
Yan Liangrong brought out a list: "This is a comparison of your family's finances before and after you married Lady Qing, which your mother, Lady Qing, and I compiled together. It clearly shows that only after Lady Qing married into your family did you start to see any surplus in grain.
When Lady Qing married into your family, you were studying for the imperial examinations and had failed the prefectural exam twice before passing. As such, you had no ability to earn money—instead, you needed large sums invested in your studies. You could only use expensive Xuan paper on formal occasions; on ordinary days, you could only practice writing on the ground with a stick.
The two mu of land the clan chief rented your family came with poor cultivation—your mother was not skilled at farming, and neither were you. As a result, the two mu yielded less than what other families got from one. It was only after Lady Qing arrived that your family's two mu truly realized their value.
Zhao Kuangzhi walked over and snatched the list from Yan Liangrong's hands, inspecting it closely.
Yan Tongshu smiled.
This was where the real show began.
Didn't Zhao Kuangzhi and his lot enjoy launching personal attacks to sway public opinion, using minor flaws to completely deny a person's worth? Well, now it was their turn to taste that same medicine.
Yan Liangrong's icy gaze fell upon Chen Sizhen. "Consort Chen, your mother is weak-willed, and you are a coward yourself. Nine years ago, when Lady Qing was five months pregnant, the courtyard wall of your home collapsed. She used the money she earned from weaving to hire laborers from the village to repair it.
The laborers slacked off, did a shoddy patchwork job, and left the wall full of pits and gaps. Lady Qing demanded they redo it. Those men—strong, burly types—you cowered in fear. Too timid to step forward. It was Lady Qing, heavy with child, who charged at them, argued with them, and forced them to redo the work. Is that true or not?"
"Pah! Truly despicable. Hiding while making your pregnant wife charge forward. Even a butcher like me looks down on such a man."
"And he calls himself a scholar? All those Confucian classics went to the dogs."
The tide of public opinion was turning.
Yan Liangrong pressed her advantage. "Consort Chen, clearly you feel aggrieved—beaten by Lady Qing, scolded by her. You think yourself a future jinshi with a bright path ahead, and Lady Qing, a village woman, unworthy of your supposed purity and brilliance.
But when you ate the food she cooked and spent the money she earned, you never felt that the meal or the coin was beneath you. Consort Chen, that time with the wall—when Lady Qing saw you were useless and panicked, she called you a waste. You remembered that to this day. But her dressing you and feeding you every day? Not a single memory of that."
Zhao Kuangzhi shouted, "Those are two different matters!"
Yan Liangrong: "Remembering only the wrongs and never the good—that is the mark of an ungrateful wolf."
Zhao Kuangzhi: "What about the whip?"
Yan Liangrong's tone was cold and hard. "Then why don't you ask him why he was whipped in the first place?"
Yan Liangrong stared straight at Chen Sizhen. "Consort Chen, you tell us yourself—why were you whipped?"
Chen Sizhen's face was cold and tense, his hands pressed onto his knees, knuckles white.
Yan Liangrong let out a contemptuous sound from her throat. "Nine years ago, Lady Qing had just given birth a month earlier. She had to work the fields during the day and tend the baby at the same time, relying on you to bring back money from copying manuscripts to buy rice. But you were persuaded by your fellow copyists and went to a gambling den. You were cheated of all your money and ran up heavy debts.
When you came back, instead of reflecting, you sank into despair, drinking all day and turning yourself into a lump of mud. Your mother pleaded with you in vain. So Lady Qing had no choice but to curse you, call you useless, and take a whip to you—forcing you to pick up your studies again. Then she stormed into the gambling den and made a scene. But the gamblers were not as easy to deal with as villagers. They beat her badly—black and blue, swollen-faced, nearly to death. You held her in your arms, crying, and swore you would study hard and treat her well from then on.
What woman doesn't love tenderness? What woman doesn't yearn for a peaceful, gentle life? If her husband could have stood on his own two feet, would she have had to charge forward and fight alone? Your mother was gentle enough—but did she manage to hold the family together? Seven years ago, after you left without a word, your brothers and uncles once again seized your family's possessions, and your mother cowered trembling in the corner. Then the creditors, discovering you had vanished, came knocking for their money.
The bachelors in the village, seeing Lady Qing alone and defenseless, came to harass her at her door. Consort Chen, I ask you—if Lady Qing had truly been soft and weak, would she still be standing before you today, alive and whole?"
Yan Liangrong advanced step by step toward Chen Sizhen. "It isn't just Lady Qing who called you useless. Today, I will say it too—waste! Good-for-nothing! Lady Qing was cursed by fate to marry you, to marry into your family.
You remember none of the great kindness done for you, yet you cling to every small grievance. Calling you an ungrateful wolf is too kind. You abandoned your parents above, cast aside your wife and child in the middle, and trampled the debts of gratitude owed to your clan. You are a faithless, unjust, unfilial beast."
"You're lying!"
Yan Liangrong's condemnation was venomous, and Chen Sizhen finally cracked—his neck veins bulging with rage.
Yan Liangrong merely swept a contemptuous glance over him. "Am I wrong? Waste, good-for-nothing—which of those words is incorrect? Your mother is weak and spineless, and you are weak and spineless as well. You cannot bear to admit your own shamelessness, so you dump all the filth onto Lady Qing. You came to the capital to take the exams, accomplished nothing, and only managed to attach yourself to a princess with your looks to secure your present wealth and status. At home, you drained Lady Qing's blood. In the capital, you drain the princess's blood.
Raised by the full efforts of your mother and Lady Qing, you still performed poorly in your studies, mediocre in achievement, fond of pleasure, and unwilling to improve. With Princess Tijia's tremendous influence behind you, you still achieved nothing—idle and inept—while thinking yourself superior as a scholar and looking down on ordinary folk.
You are nothing but a hollow, useless fraud. The ordinary people you despise—women like Lady Qing—are the ones who till the fields, work hard, and deserve the highest respect."
"You—you—I'm not like that!"
Chen Sizhen's eyes were bloodshot. He lunged toward Yan Liangrong as if he wanted to strangle her.
He toppled off his wheelchair and landed face-down on the ground, thrashing helplessly.
Yan Liangrong stood upright, looking down at him from her full height. "Now you know how it hurts? And what about Lady Qing, whom you deliberately slandered as a shrew and a harridan, making her the target of a thousand pointing fingers, trying to force her to death? Didn't she suffer too? You knew perfectly well public opinion wouldn't affect the verdict much, yet you still went through this whole charade—wasn't it just to use others' insults, to condemn her in the name of 'not being a good woman,' and drive her to death so the case would fade away?"
Chen Sizhen screamed viciously: "You poisonous woman—"
Yan Liangrong couldn't be bothered to look at him. She raised her head and gazed straight ahead. "When the mask is torn off, you turn and bite. As expected of Consort Chen's usual tactics."
Li Fulin and Zhang Jiu were stunned into silence by Yan Liangrong's fierce conduct as well.
Among the onlookers, Yan Liangyu clutched her hands to her chest in excitement.
The case was finally overturned. Chen Sizhen and Zhao Kuangzhi hadn't gotten away with it.
"Brother-in-law, look how impressive sis—"
Yan Liangyu turned toward Zheng Chun, the praise still on her lips, but saw his face shifting between pale and livid, his eyes resting on Chen Sizhen with something like sympathy.
Sympathy?
Yan Liangyu was momentarily stunned—had she misread?
She lowered her gaze, then looked at Zheng Chun again, testing the waters with a soft call: "Brother-in-law?"
Zheng Chun withdrew his gaze and said blandly, "What is it?"
Yan Liangyu suppressed the questions in her heart and lowered her voice, saying, "Sister is truly impressive."
Zheng Chun grunted in acknowledgment and said no more.
Yan Tongshu waited until the onlookers had mostly said their piece before rapping the gavel: "Order in the court."
The courtroom fell silent.
Zhao Kuangzhi helped Chen Sizhen up. Chen Sizhen was so furious that steam seemed to be rising from his seven orifices. He sat in his wheelchair, blood seeping from his severed leg, but he paid it no attention at all. Panting heavily, he pointed at Yan Liangrong: "What do you know?"
He screamed hysterically yet weakly: "You have no idea what they did to me. Do you understand the pressure of failing the imperial examinations? Do you know how many people travel to the capital to take the exams? Don't I want to make something of myself through my own abilities? But what use is it? What use is it..."
As he spoke, Chen Sizhen began to cry: "So many students from all over the country—their families have power and influence, they have famous teachers guiding them, they have endless supplies of brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones. What about me? What do I have? I have two cotton-padded jackets and two broken brushes. My mother, Qing Niang—you think they're pitiful? What about me? Am I not pitiful?
They can't read a single character. They don't understand anything. All they ever say to me is: 'Sizhen, you're the only male heir in our family. The whole family depends on you. You must study hard, work diligently, and pass the imperial examinations. Only when you pass and become a jinshi can our Chen family live a good life.'
They never ask if I'm tired, if I'm suffering. They can't help with anything; they just push me to study harder. They only pile pressure on me. Is it that I don't want to succeed? I do. I really do. But I can't do it..."
Chen Sizhen wept bitterly. His tearful confession struck a chord with many of the scholarly onlookers.
Especially since this year, with the new emperor ascending the throne, an exceptional grace examination had been announced. Many scholars had just finished taking the exams and were still waiting for the results to be posted.
At this very moment, they were anxious about their scores, anxious about their futures, carrying the hopes and pressures of their entire families on their backs.
Chen Sizhen's pent-up grievances reached their peak at this moment, and he blurted out: "You don't care whether I'm tired or suffering or in pain—so why should I care whether you live or die!"
In the face of Chen Sizhen's accusations, Lady Qing's face turned pale. She felt that something was wrong somewhere, but she couldn't articulate what it was.
She felt that she did care about Chen Sizhen, but at the same time, it also seemed to be exactly as he had accused.
Granny Chen was even more distraught, tears streaming down her face. She had never imagined that her own son thought of her this way, nor that deep in his heart, her most beloved son actually resented her.
Zhao Kuangzhi, however, was the first to notice the flaw in Chen Sizhen's words. He quickly grabbed Chen Sizhen's hand: "Consort Chen, calm down."
He said this while signaling with his eyes.
That last sentence was almost tantamount to a confession of guilt—it should not have been said.
Among the onlookers, Zheng Chun suddenly lowered his gaze and murmured softly: "He's suffering too, really. Carrying the burden of a family's rise—but not everyone is a genius, not everyone can achieve fame and glory. There's no need to be so relentless."
Yan Liangyu looked up at Zheng Chun in shock.
Her brother-in-law... was empathizing?
Feeling the same way as Chen Sizhen?
Was he out of his mind?
A cold chill suddenly ran through Yan Liangyu's body.
Her sister and brother-in-law had always been the ideal couple she looked up to.
She disliked her own indecisiveness, her hesitancy, her soft and weak temperament. She admired her sister's toughness and decisiveness, her bravery and fearlessness.
She also longed for the happiness of her sister and brother-in-law's harmonious marriage, and envied how her brother-in-law was so obedient and gentle toward her sister.
But at this moment, the perfection she had envied seemed to show a crack.
Her brother-in-law seemed to harbor many grievances against her sister.
No, this was too terrifying.
No, it wasn't so. Her brother-in-law had just made a passing remark. She was overthinking it.
She must be overthinking it.
Yan Liangrong turned around, her gaze sweeping over the onlookers one by one, and understood everything.
In truth, there had never been any shift in public opinion.
Those who supported Chen Sizhen and denounced Lady Qing had always been the ones who 'felt the same way.'
It was just that when Lady Qing gained the upper hand, these people would fall silent at the right moment, making it seem as though public opinion had shifted.
Yan Liangrong withdrew her gaze: "May I ask Consort Chen—is care expressed only through words?"
Chen Sizhen glared at Yan Liangrong viciously: "What do you mean?"
Yan Liangrong ignored him and turned to Lady Qing: "Lady Qing, in your household, when there's meat to eat, who gets it?"
Lady Qing sobbed: "We're poor, we can't afford meat often. Mother, me, and Yingge never eat it—it always goes to the man of the house first."
Yan Liangrong: "When someone falls ill at home, who gets priority for treatment and medicine?"
Lady Qing: "It goes to Consort Chen. Mother and I just tough it out. Only once, when Yingge had a high fever, did we buy medicine."
Yan Liangrong nodded: "Lord Yan, Judge Li, Judge Zhang. In the Chen household, rice, flour, oil, and meat always go to Chen Sizhen first. Only after he's finished eating can the others eat whatever remains. If nothing remains, they don't eat.
All the family's money goes to buying Chen Sizhen's brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, clothes, and medical treatment first. All the heavy labor and hard work in the household is done by Lady Qing and Granny Chen. When Chen Sizhen falls ill, Lady Qing cares for him day and night, keeping vigil by his bedside. I'm truly curious—if all of this doesn't count as care, then what does?"
The people who had been arguing noisily just moments ago fell silent.
Yan Liangrong again stepped closer to Chen Sizhen: "You say your mother and Lady Qing don't care whether you're tired or suffering, and that all they do is push you to study hard and bring glory to the family. Then what about you? Have you ever cared about whether Lady Qing and your mother are tired or suffering? Washing clothes, cooking, cleaning—that's done by Lady Qing and your mother, two women. The two mu of land rented for you by the clan leader—that's tilled and planted by Lady Qing and your mother. All the rice, flour, and money in the household goes to you first.
Your mother and Lady Qing can't see a doctor when they're sick, can't afford medicine—but when you're sick, you can take all the medicine you need. Have you ever cared about them? If you had even a shred of conscience, you wouldn't only study and never do any labor. If you truly felt for them, you would have taken on the responsibility of farming yourself. You wallow in self-pity, think you're too good for this world, but you're also all talk and no action, looking down on farming. You didn't change after coming to the capital and seeing the gap between yourself and others.
From the very beginning, back in Jiangzhou, you never once felt for your mother, your wife, or your children—you only ever bled them dry and leeched off them. You never changed at all. You've always been a textbook ungrateful wretch."
Chen Sizhen's eyes bulged with fury at Yan Liangrong's words, his whole body trembling on the brink of madness.
Those who had expressed sympathy for him could no longer speak on his behalf now.
Once public support for Lady Qing had built up sufficiently, Yan Tongshu rapped his gavel: "Consort Chen, Attorney Zhao, I remind you once again. This court is not a place for you to argue personal grievances. This court deals in evidence. If you wish to overturn Lady Qing's and Granny Chen's accusations of 'abandoning one's wife and children, and neglecting one's birth mother,' you should present new evidence rather than resorting to personal attacks."
Yan Tongshu looked at Chen Sizhen: "Consort Chen, your marital relationship with Qing Niang is legally valid, and there is no doubt that you and Granny Chen are mother and son by blood. Is there any disagreement on this point?"
