Punish Zhang's family

  "Originally, you should know your crime!"

  Zhang sat high up at the top seat, with several of Zhu's sisters sitting beside her. She heavily closed the teacup and scolded in a expressionless face.

  Yuanyi knelt in the center of the main hall, her thin back straight as a pen, looking directly at Zhangshi without humility or arrogance, saying: "I don't know what crime my daughter has committed."

  "Hmph." Yuan Yi sneered, her eyes full of resentment. "If you hadn't been so greedy for swan meat, trying to climb high and marry my brother, how would we have ended up with all these rumors flying around? It's not just your reputation that's been ruined, but what about the unmarried girls in the Zhu family? How are they supposed to get married now? Other families will think that all the daughters of the Zhu family are promiscuous and frivolous!"

  Apart from Yuan Rou who was already heartbroken, Yuan Hua's face suddenly changed, and when he looked at Yuan Yi, his expression had already turned somewhat different.

  Zhang's lips curled up with a faint, almost imperceptible smile, and his eyelids lifted slightly. "As you intended, this time you have tarnished the Zhu family's reputation. You should be handed over to the clan leader for punishment according to the clan rules. Do you have any objections?"

  Several people present widened their eyes in surprise, and Yu Rou even left her seat, kneeling on the ground, and exclaimed: "Mother, for the sake of Fourth Sister's youth and ignorance, spare her life!"

  Yuan Yi and Yuan Hua both looked at Yuan Yi's unchanged expression with complexity. This time, her situation was different from Yuan Rou's, who had brought about this kind of family scandal on her own accord. If she were to be handed over to the clan, it would be a matter of being thrown into the pond. The Zhu family had always been strict and just, and there had been precedents in the past where women from the clan had been thrown into the pond. It seemed that this time, Yuan Yi's fate was more ominous than auspicious.

  "Of course there is objection!" Yuan Yi glanced at Yuan Rou who was kneeling on the ground, her eyes softened for a moment before turning to Zhang Shi, now icy cold. She spread out her skirt and slowly stood up, her posture like bamboo or pine, saying sarcastically: "Since we both tarnish the family's reputation, why doesn't mother go with me?"

  "Zhang's pupils contracted, and he angrily said: 'How dare you, Zhu Yuanyi, to speak recklessly and slander the legitimate mother? You are a heartless, unjust, and unfilial person who will not repent even in death.'"

  Her slender phoenix eyes narrowed slightly, "If you want to keep it from others, don't do it yourself. Does Mother think that with just one trick of deception, she can rest easy?" She looked at Yuan Yi, who had already turned pale, with a profound gaze and said, "What a pity."

  Zhang's eyes widened in anger as she glared at Yuan Yi, realizing that the leak had originated from her. She shouldn't have let her soft and hard tactics get out of hand, and now it seemed that something unexpected had happened.

  She had a bellyful of anger, and the more she looked at Yuan Yi's smiling face, the more it grated on her nerves. With an angry slap on the table, she shouted: "Guards, take her away!"

  With a stern gaze, he shouted at the servants who were about to take action: "I dare anyone!"

  "How dare you!"

  A low, stern shout came from the doorway, and Zhu Changren, wearing official robes, with a pale face and bloodshot eyes, strode across the threshold. His gaze swept around, and the servants who had been on the verge of making a move suddenly trembled all over and released their grip on Yuan Yi.

  As soon as they saw him, everyone hurried to pay their respects. Zhang's wife smiled and said: "Master, you've finally returned. You must be tired from official business, let me serve you and help you rest."

  Zhu Changren didn't move, but his icy gaze made Zhang's smile falter, and she couldn't maintain it anymore. Her forehead was beading with sweat, and her face turned pale.

  He withdrew his gaze and looked at Yuan Hua, saying lightly: "Go back and tell your aunt that the lady is unwell, let her assist the lady in managing the household chores."

  Zhang's face suddenly turned pale, and Yuan Hua's eyes flashed as he said, "Yes."

  Zhu Changren cast his gaze at Yuan Yi, smiled gently and said: "Yi'er, come with me."