And so, Su Yuexi, with Sikong Jing, walked into the courtyard...
When they reached the hall, Mei Xiaofang had already come out of her room, her face still gloomy.
This time, she naturally noticed the presence of Sikong Jing and pointedly asked, "Are you the criminal?"
Sikong Jing's face grew even darker. He disdained the label "criminal" as the charges had been forced upon him by Yang Tianmo and Yan Ruyu, but remembering what Su Yuexi had told him, he still endured and said, "Mother-in-law, I..."
"Stop, don't call me mother-in-law. It disgusts me to hear it," Mei Xiaofang interrupted him once again.
Su Yuexi's expression shifted slightly as she extended her delicate hand and tightly grasped Sikong Jing's, as if to comfort him in his perceived weakness.
At this moment, Mei Xiaofang turned to Su Yuexi and commanded, "Kneel."
Su Yuexi trembled all over, tears welling up in her eyes, but she still prepared to kneel... But at that moment, she realized the thick hand she was holding was holding her back firmly, refusing to let her kneel.
"I told you to kneel!"
Mei Xiaofang hadn't noticed Sikong Jing's subtle intervention and thought that Su Yuexi was unwilling to kneel, resisting.
Biting her lip, Su Yuexi forcefully withdrew her hand and with a 'thump' knelt down.
"Someone fetch a ruler."
At Mei Xiaofang's command, a house servant delivered a ruler.
Grasping it in her hand, she furiously berated Su Yuexi, "I'll beat you to death, you jinx, I'll beat you to death, you freak, I'll beat you to death, you wretched thing that's about to kill your father."
The ruler lashed out viciously towards Su Yuexi, who instinctively closed her eyes.
However, she didn't feel the anticipated pain for a long time.
Suddenly anxious, when she opened her eyes, she saw what she had expected – her mother's hand had been taken hold of by Sikong Jing.
It was over!
Now, her mother would surely become even more enraged.
"Sikong Jing, let go of my mother's hand," Su Yuexi instinctively urged.
Yet Sikong Jing remained unyielding, his eyes had turned icy, a fire burning in his heart.
"Criminal, do you dare to stop me from disciplining my daughter?"
Mei Xiaofang exploded with rage, her eyes filled with ferocity, her teeth clenched.
Sikong Jing closed his eyes briefly, struggling to calm his spirits, but his gaze remained resolute, "I'm sorry, Yuexi, I can't bear it."
As his voice fell, Sikong Jing glared at Mei Xiaofang, enunciating each word, "Yuexi is now my wife first, your daughter second. Have you asked me before you decided to chastise her?"
They say that once a daughter is married, she is like water poured out.
In the Great Shang Dynasty, once daughters are married off, they belong to someone else's family.
So now, Su Yuexi is Sikong Jing's woman.
Mei Xiaofang, of course, understood this notion but her eyes showed no sign of weakness, "If she's going to cause the death of her father, then I will discipline her."
"Yuexi did not ask Father-in-law to go to the pig farm to fetch her," Sikong Jing countered decisively, "She was brought back by Father-in-law from the Su Family Law Enforcement Hall."
As his voice fell, Mei Xiaofang's malicious gaze suddenly froze, "Law Enforcement Hall?"
Releasing Mei Xiaofang's hand, Sikong Jing turned to face Su Yuexi and reached out to tear off her veil, revealing the half of her face that had been trampled by Aunt Dou, the blood not yet completely congealed.
Su Yuexi exclaimed in shock, then covered her disfigured face that could scare anyone.
But Sikong Jing forcefully parted her hands, undaunted by ugliness, cherishing only her heart.
Moreover, he would soon reach the Bright Realm Ninth Layer, by which time Su Yuexi would shine with the brightest hues.
He then brought out the white handkerchief that Su Yuexi had used to wipe his blood in the pig farm's straw hut and gently wiped her face, saying, "This was done by a shrew named Aunt Dou, who trampled her on the ground."
Mei Xiaofang's face changed slightly, her eyes flickering as she asked, "Law Enforcement Hall, what happened there?"
"I chopped that shrew," Sikong Jing said with a grave voice, recounting the whole incident before standing up and staring directly at Mei Xiaofang.
"May I ask, Mother-in-law, where were you when the shrew was stepping on Yuexi?"
"Where were you when Su Yun insulted Yuexi? Where were you when Su Zhengtao wanted to give Yuexi a hundred lashes?"
"If it weren't for Father-in-law fortunately going to the pig farm to fetch Yuexi back, you wouldn't need to be furious here; you could have been collecting Yuexi's corpse instead!"
Sikong Jing's voice was forceful, his words piercing as they hit Mei Xiaofang.
Mei Xiaofang's mouth hung open, unable to utter a word, her face turning from green to red to white.
Suddenly, seemingly overwhelmed by Sikong Jing's questioning, Mei Xiaofang shouted again, "Isn't it all because of you, the criminal? If you hadn't chopped Aunt Dou, would Yuexi have been brought to the Law Enforcement Hall?"
Sikong Jing roared back, "Who cannot craft a crime when they wish to condemn? Do you think a servant would dare to fabricate the story of stealing pigs?"
Mei Xiaofang's face stiffened; she was well aware that this must be a setup by Su Zhengtao, intending to infuriate Yuexi's father to death.
"A mother does not despise the ugliness of her child."
"But you, one moment calling her a jinx, the next a freak. Is Yuexi truly your own flesh and blood?"
Sikong Jing pressed his advantage, not yielding an inch.