*BANG*
Hit hard by Dong Ling's words, Yan Le staggered, and provoked by the shame and rage coursing through her veins, her eyes turned red. In an extreme patriarchal society such as Dongli, spreading your legs before marriage was bad enough. But to betray your husband with another man? And a monk at that? Now that was an offense worthy of stone lynching.
Even a forever faithful widow would be looked down on if she became another man's wife—to say nothing of an unfaithful one.
Wherever she went, Yan Le couldn't escape these stigma. And having spent decades in Dongli, she'd long internalized these beliefs, now seeing herself as inferior to all the fresh flowers that Xinzi had drawn to his banner. It was for all these reasons that Yan Le was so fond of her Li clan body, thinking of it as her second chance to devote herself wholeheartedly.
Dong Ling's words unveiled the wounds, making even A'Zhi and A'Zhu frown in discomfort.