Chapter 23 A Show of Force? I'll cripple your hands first, you insolent servant!

Chapter 23 A Show of Force? I'll cripple your hands first, you insolent servant!

The lights in the main hall went out one by one.

The vast Lu family mansion was plunged into a deathly silence and darkness.

Su Wanqing walked alone on the way back to Jingsi Courtyard. The night wind brushed against her face like fine ice shards.

There were no servants following her.

She was like a transparent shadow abandoned by this family, about to be swallowed up by the thick darkness of the night.

But her back was ramrod straight.

The look in Lu Zhanting's eyes before he was taken away was the spark that ignited in her heart.

There was apology and worry in it, but more than anything, there was an unspoken promise.

He said he was there.

She responded to him with her eyes; she was alright.

They are husband and wife, but more importantly, they are comrades who can entrust their backs to each other.

He was sent to the front lines, so she had to hold the line in the rear.

The door to the Jing Si Courtyard was ajar, creaking softly in the wind.

Su Wanqing pushed the door open and bolted it shut, completely isolating herself from the outside world.

The room was as cold as an icebox.

There wasn't a cup of hot tea on the table, and not a single ember of charcoal in the stove.

The floor, which she had kept relatively clean during the day, was now covered with an unsightly layer of dust, clearly indicating that someone had come in and "greeted" her again after she left.

This is the Lu family's way of treating guests—a silent yet continuous form of torture.

Su Wanqing felt no anger, but rather an eerie calm.

She walked to the table and, using the faint moonlight seeping in from the window, surveyed the room.

They wanted to use these underhanded methods to break her down and make her cry and beg to get out of the Lu family.

Unfortunately, they miscalculated.

During those years in Zhao Family Village, Li Juan's mother's tantrums were a hundred times worse than this, but she endured them all.

What's the big deal about such a petty trick?

With a slight thought, a thermos filled with hot water appeared out of thin air in her hand.

She poured herself a cup of warm spring water and sipped it slowly.

The warmth slid into her stomach, dispelling the chill in her body and making her mind clearer.

She didn't expect the Lu family's servants to bring bedding, so she took out a brand new, thick down comforter directly from her spatial storage.

She had prepared this for the winter in northern Xinjiang, but she never expected it to come in handy here.

The quilt smelled of being dried in the sun, warm and soft.

Su Wanqing spread the quilt on the bed, then took out a hot water bottle, filled it with hot water, and stuffed it deep into the quilt.

After doing all this, she took off her outer clothes and slipped into bed.

The bed was warm and cozy, a stark contrast to the cold world outside, as if they were in two completely different realms.

With her eyes open, she calmly reviewed the game of the night in the darkness.

Grandfather Lu Zhenguo, the absolute dictator of this family, his anger is the heaviest mountain weighing on Lu Zhanting.

Stepmother Liu Yuzhen appears gentle and kind, but in reality, she is cunning and manipulative, and is the mastermind behind this treacherous banquet.

Lu Zhanwen, the younger brother, is a spoiled good-for-nothing and Liu Yuzhen's most useful weapon.

There's also Song Tingyu.

She did nothing, she just sat there, and that very existence was a war.

These people are all the enemies she will face next.

Her husband, meanwhile, was imprisoned in the cold ancestral hall, bearing the brunt of the family's fury on her behalf.

Su Wanqing's hand unconsciously touched her flat stomach.

Here lies a secret that even Lu Zhanting is unaware of.

This secret is both her softest weakness and her strongest armor.

For Lu Zhanting's sake, and for the sake of this unborn little life, she could not back down, much less lose.

This battle has only just begun.

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Su Wanqing woke up.

She stood up nimbly, retrieved all the blankets and hot water bottles produced by the space, then spread out the thin blanket from the Lu family's bed, which reeked of mothballs, and wiped away all traces.

She knew that countless eyes were watching from the shadows.

She sat at the table, waiting quietly.

She wanted to see what new tricks the Lu family could pull off this show of force.

Time passed by, second by second.

The sky was bright, and the sun was high in the sky.

The courtyard remained deathly silent; there was no breakfast, not even a single person to bring water for washing one's face.

They planned to starve her to death.

Su Wanqing's lips curled into a cold, sharp smile.

She took out two steaming hot meat buns and a pot of soy milk from her storage space and began to enjoy them at a leisurely pace.

After breakfast, she even took out the unfinished sweater, sat by the window, facing the sunlight, and knitted it stitch by stitch.

Her composure made it seem as if she were not an abandoned woman imprisoned in a cold courtyard, but a noblewoman enjoying a leisurely afternoon.

This composure clearly stung some people.

Around noon, the courtyard gate was finally pushed open from the outside.

A maid, about sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing a blue cloth jacket, came in carrying a food box.

She had a mean face, slanted eyes, and thin lips. As soon as she entered the courtyard, she scanned the surroundings with her venomous eyes.

When she saw Su Wanqing sitting calmly by the window knitting, a look of surprise flashed in her eyes.

"Oh, our young mistress, you certainly have a lot of leisure time."

The maid slammed the food box heavily onto the stone table, making a loud "bang".

She spoke with a forced smile, her tone like that of someone offering alms to a beggar on the street: "Your lunch, eat it while it's hot."

Su Wanqing continued her needlework without stopping, as if the person in front of her was just a clown.

The maid, who had been completely ignored, turned a deep purplish-red.

She stepped forward and raised her voice: "Hey! I'm talking to you, are you deaf? Our lady is kind-hearted and was afraid you'd starve to death here, so she specially instructed the kitchen to save food for you!"

Su Wanqing then slowly put down the sweater and raised her head.

Her gaze was calm and indifferent as it fell upon the maid.

What's your name?

The maid was taken aback by her question and instinctively puffed out her chest: "My name is Xiao Cui! Why are you asking this?"

"Xiao Cui." Su Wanqing nodded, her tone calm and without a trace of emotion. "Put down the food box, and you can get out of here."

The tone was calm, yet carried an irresistible pressure.

Xiao Cui's face turned completely red. She hadn't expected that this country woman would not only be unafraid, but would also dare to speak to her in such a commanding tone!

"you……"

She was about to lash out when she suddenly met Su Wanqing's eyes.

Those eyes were so still, as still as a bottomless well, that the foul words that followed were abruptly stuck in her throat.

"Is there anything else?" Su Wanqing asked calmly.

“…It’s nothing!” Xiao Cui squeezed out the two words through gritted teeth, glared at her resentfully, and turned to leave quickly.

After everyone had gone far away, Su Wanqing walked over and opened the food box.

A bowl of rice that had congealed into a clump, and a plate of leftover vegetables glistening with oil.

The vegetable leaves were yellow and rotten, with a dead fly crawling on them.

Su Wanqing closed the food box expressionlessly.

She turned around and went back into the house, took out her small pot and rice, and then took out fresh vegetables and cured meat from her spatial storage to make herself a fragrant cured meat stewed rice.

The rich aroma of meat quickly and unrestrainedly wafted out of the Jing Si Courtyard.

The servants who were hiding nearby and watching smelled the odor and looked at each other in bewilderment.

"She...she's cooking for herself?"

"Where did you get the pot and rice? We didn't bring those in."

"This is bizarre, truly bizarre."

Xiao Cui came again in the afternoon.

This time, she was ordered by Liu Yuzhen to "probe the truth".

As soon as she entered the courtyard and smelled the lingering aroma of meat, her expression turned even more unpleasant.

"Well, you! How dare you start a fire in the yard without permission! Do you even know the rules of the Lu family? If a fire breaks out, can you take responsibility for it?!" Xiao Cui immediately began to interrogate him.

Su Wanqing was sitting in the courtyard basking in the sun, holding a book about herbal medicine cultivation in her hands.

She slowly turned a page before looking up at Xiao Cui, her tone relaxed: "I didn't start a fire. The rice cooked itself."

"You're kidding me! Food can't cook itself!" Xiao Cui said angrily, hands on her hips, her mouth firing like a machine gun. "Don't think that just because the young master is protecting you, you can do whatever you want here! Let me tell you, the young master is in dire straits right now, starving in the ancestral hall! You, a country bumpkin, really think you're something special?"

Su Wanqing's eyes finally turned cold.

"Are you done talking?"

"This isn't over! I'm going to teach you what the rules of the Lu family are today!" Xiao Cui said, reaching out to snatch the book from Su Wanqing's hand. "Looking at this useless stuff! Hurry up and sweep the yard! Do you really think you're the master, expecting to be served?"

Just as her dirty hands were about to touch the pages of the book.

Su Wanqing flicked her wrist, the movement so fast that it left only a blur.

She avoided Xiao Cui's tugging, and the book in her hand remained unharmed.

But her elbow, as if by accident, slammed heavily into the thermos on the stone table!

The bottle stopper was already partially closed.

The scalding hot water poured out instantly, hitting Xiao Cui's outstretched hand that she couldn't retract in time!

"ah--!"

A piercing, distorted scream shattered the tranquility of the Lu family's backyard.

Xiao Cui recoiled as if electrocuted, watching helplessly as the back of her hand turned bright red at a visible speed. Then, one after another, terrifying blisters swelled up like vicious pearls!

The excruciating pain brought tears to her eyes instantly.

"My hand! My hand!" She crouched on the ground in pain, frantically shaking her hand and crying out incessantly.

Su Wanqing slowly stood up and stood in front of her.

Her figure blocked the sunlight, casting a shadow that enveloped Xiao Cui.

There was no pity in her eyes, only an icy indifference.

"If you're careless, who can you blame?"

Her voice was soft, yet it was like an ice-cold awl, piercing Xiao Cui's ears.

Xiao Cui was in pain and scared. Looking at Su Wanqing's extremely indifferent appearance, a huge fear welled up from the bottom of her heart.

This is definitely not an accident!

That country woman, she did it on purpose!

"You...you've ruined me! I'm going to tell Madam! You deliberately burned me!" Xiao Cui screamed, her voice trembling with fear.

“Go ahead.” Su Wanqing’s tone was completely flat. “You can go and tell Madam that you went to Jingsi Courtyard and yelled at me, the ‘young mistress,’ and even tried to touch me, only to be so stupid as to knock over the thermos. Go and see if Madam will stand up for you or scold you for being an incompetent good-for-nothing.”

Xiao Cui's crying stopped abruptly.

She knew that every word Su Wanqing said was true.

In the lady's eyes, she was nothing more than a dog.

A dog that does something wrong will only be kicked away and will never receive any pity.

Upon realizing this, her arrogance vanished instantly, leaving only helpless pleas.

"It hurts so much... My hand is going to be ruined... Please, young mistress, save me... Please get me some burn ointment..."

Su Wanqing stared at her coldly for a long time, until she was sobbing uncontrollably, before slowly speaking.

"I do have the medicine. But why should I give it to you?"

"I was wrong! Young Madam, I was really wrong! I'll never do it again!" Xiao Cui knelt on the ground with a thud, crying and kowtowing. "I was blind and didn't know your place. I was just a bully who relied on my master's power! Please, have mercy on me this time!"

"Spare you?" Su Wanqing chuckled, her laughter full of sarcasm. "Didn't you just call me a country bumpkin?"

“It’s my fault for being so foul-mouthed! I’ll slap myself!” Xiao Cui said, raising her other intact hand and slapping herself twice hard.

Su Wanqing watched this scene with her eyes still cold.

What she wanted wasn't an apology, but submission.

"Alright," she finally said. "Give me your hand."

Xiao Cui felt as if she had been granted a pardon, and hurriedly and shakily handed over her hand, which was already swollen like a pig's trotter.

Su Wanqing turned around and went back into the house, taking out a small white porcelain bottle from a hidden compartment in her suitcase.

She walked back, uncorked the bottle, and a refreshing medicinal fragrance instantly filled the air.

She picked up a little bit of the bright green ointment with her fingertip and gently applied it to the back of Xiao Cui's hand.

The next second, something both miraculous and terrifying happened.

As soon as the ointment touched her skin, Xiao Cui felt a refreshing coolness that instantly suppressed the burning pain.

What horrified her even more was that she watched as those terrifyingly large blisters deflated rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye!

The bright red skin miraculously returned to its normal color!

In just a minute or two, apart from a faint red mark, there was no trace of burn on the back of her hand!

Xiao Cui was so shocked that she forgot to cry.

She looked at her hands over and over, as if witnessing a miracle.

"Is...is this a miracle drug?" she stammered, her gaze towards Su Wanqing now filled with awe instead of fear.

“It’s just some cheap herbs from the countryside.” Su Wanqing put away the porcelain bottle, her tone indifferent. “It won’t kill you. But if it’s left for too long, it will leave you with a festering scar, making it difficult for you to marry into a good family in the future.”

Xiao Cui was startled and trembled with fear.

She knew that Su Wanqing was telling the truth.

If a servant gets disfigured, his life is over.

She knelt down again with a thud, this time prostrating herself completely, utterly convinced of her submission.

"Thank you, Young Madam, for saving my life! Thank you, Young Madam, for giving me a second chance!"

"Get up." Su Wanqing sat back in her chair and picked up the book again. "I'm not one to cause trouble, but I'm not afraid of trouble either. You'd better know what you should and shouldn't do in the future."

"Yes! Yes! This servant understands! This servant will be yours from now on!" Xiao Cui quickly got up from the ground, stood respectfully to the side with her hands at her sides, and dared not be the slightest bit presumptuous.

"Speak, what exactly does Liu Yuzhen want from me today?" Su Wanqing asked without looking up.

Xiao Cui trembled all over, not daring to hide anything, and blurted out everything: "Reporting to...reporting to the eldest young mistress, the old lady...the old lady wants you to come over, saying that she has something to ask you."

"Madam?" Su Wan-qing paused in turning the pages of her book.

“Yes… she is the second young master’s biological grandmother, and also the madam’s mother-in-law.” Xiao Cui explained cautiously, “The old madam is usually devoted to Buddhism and never interferes in affairs. I don’t know why, but today she suddenly asked to see you.”

Su Wanqing narrowed her eyes slightly.

An elderly lady who was devoted to Buddhism and never interfered in worldly affairs.

Why did he have to see her when Lu Zhanting was imprisoned and she was completely isolated?

This is probably yet another trap.

"I understand." Su Wanqing closed the book, stood up, and said, "Lead the way."

"Yes." Xiao Cui quickly replied, bowing as she led the way, her demeanor completely different from when she arrived.

Su Wanqing followed behind her, looking at the first "spy" she had just subdued, her mind as clear as a mirror.

In this secluded mansion, she was treated as a pawn.

But she will never let anyone manipulate her.

What she has to do is stir up trouble and become the one who wields the pieces.

Lu Zhanting, wait for me.

I won't leave you to fight alone.