When she arrived at the Flower Hall, Yang Jiang and Yang Mei Shi's were sitting on the raised podium, and Yang Ruo, Yang Gao Xuan and a few aunts stood beside them.
Lu Zhu was kneeling in the hall tied with the flower vines. A sturdy man was beating her with a whipping stick. Lu Zhu collapsed to the ground and seemed to have passed out.
Mother Xu knelt beside Lu Zhu and kept begging for mercy. "Master, please be merciful. Madam, please show mercy."
Her forehead was dripping with blood.
"Stop!" Yang Yiting shouted sharply. The beating man beating Lu Zhu was surprised for a moment, whip he held in his hand stopped in the air. Seeing that it was the eldest lady of the family who was speaking, he stopped his movements and looked at Yang Jiang.
Yang Yiting stepped forward to Lu Zhu's side, squatting down to check Lu Zhu's injuries. Fortunately, she just fainted and was still alive.
Seeing that it was Yang Yiting, Mother Xu cried bitterly and threw herself in front of her, saying. "Miss, you are here. Please, save Lu Zhu. She is going to die."
Yang Yiting patted Mother Xu's back comfortably, indicating that the maid was okay. If she had come home one minute later, these people would have beaten her maid to death. Then, she looked at Yang Jiang with a cold face, and asked. "Pa, why was Lu Zhu being punished so severely?"
"Where have you been?" Yang Jiang snorted heavily and said. "Everyone was looking for you for a long time. You were not in your yard, you were not in this mansion so where on earth did you go?"
Was it because of this? Yang Yiting thought about it for a moment, and said, "This is the first day of the new year. I went to visit my grandmother. While chatting with her, I forgot about the time. That's why I'm back so late."
She made up one casually, and Yang Jiang would not go to the old lady for verification.
Hearing Yang Yiting talking about the old lady, Yang Jiang snorted again. He was a little jealous of his eldest daughter who could win the eyes of the old lady.
"A girl who has not been married should stay peacefully at home. Besides, since you have been given in marriage to the Meng family, you have to think about your own images in everything you do!" Yang Jiang reminded her sternly.
"Pa, what you said is what I'll follow. But I just don't know what Lu Zhu has done for her to be punished to this point?" She didn't know how many times Lu Zhu had been beaten with such a thick whip. Although Lu Zhu was a healthy girl, she was a woman. How could she withstand such punishment?
Speaking of this, Yang Jiang said to Yang Yiting with an ugly expression. "Ask your auntie!"
Yang Yiting glanced at the mother and daughter who were secretly proud of their actions. She knew that this matter must be connected to the two of them. She suppressed her anger, and said coldly. "Auntie, I implore you to please tell what happened."
Yang Mei Shi gave a glance at the close-knit maid Sun, who accepted the command and said to Yang Yiting. "I greet you, eldest lady. Your personal maid, Lu Zhu, has committed fornication with a man, violating the traditional rules of the Yang family. And according to the law, she should be punished with a whip!"
Fornication with a man? Yang Yiting's face changed when he heard the words, and he said sharply. "Nonsense, Lu Zhu is my personal maid, and she has always been around me. So how can she commit fornication? Do you have any evidence of this?"
"I have, eldest lady." The maid Sun threw out a baggage and said. "Just now this girl ran into the building with some bags, and this bag fell to the ground. I saw that the bag was full of men clothes, so I asked her who they were for, but the girl didn't say anything. So I suspected that the girl must be having an affair with a man. So I reported the matter to Mistress Yang."
It was indeed men's clothing in the baggage, but Yang Yiting knew that this was the clothes she wore when disguised as a man. It was just because Dasheng women's words and deeds were more conservative. It was rare that women would pretend to be men and go out of their homes privately, let alone Yang Jiang's house with a strict family tradition.
If Yang's women pretended to be men and go out of their homes privately, and they were discovered, then according to the rules of the family, it was important for the women to present reasonable grounds for their actions. But unfortunately, Lu Zhu probably did not say anything to defend herself.
Yang Yiting thought of this, and looked at the unconscious Lu Zhu and the tearful old Mother Xu, and felt distressed. These two people did their best to protect her. It was just that she must not allow Lu Zhu to bear the brunt of wrong accusations. How important was fame to a woman, not to mention that she was still a girl who had not been married yet.
She glanced at the clothes in her baggage, gritted her teeth, fell on her knees with a thud, and said to Yang Jiang, "Pa, I ordered Lu Zhu to buy these clothes. Lu Zhu is only acting on my orders. If she is to be punished, then you'll have to punish me."
Yang Ruo on the side concealed a smile and said contemptuously. "Why do you buy men's clothes, elder sister? Did you think about preparing it for Meng Yuan so early? It's a pity that Meng Yuan asked to postpone the wedding. Aren't you too anxious, my sister?"
Afterwards, Yang Mei Shi's and the other aunts both showed mockery and looked at Yang Yiting with different expressions.
Yang Yiting lowered her eyebrows, ignored them, still knelt down, and said, "Pa, I bought these clothes for myself. I used it to pretend to be a man and went out of the house a few days ago. I thought it was good, so I asked Lu Zhu to buy a few more sets. Pa, if you don't believe it, I can try it on on the spot to see if it's my size or not."
For the present plan, she could only try to draw the fire to her side. Both mother and daughter were targeting her, and Lu Zhu was only their primer to deal with her.
Yang Jiang said with a sullen face. "You know that a woman who doesn't abide by the rules and goes out of the house without permission, the punishment would be imposed according to the rules of the house?"
"I know, Pa. Please punish me." Yang Yiting was already kneeling, and said lightly.
"Miss... don't..." Lu Zhu woke up from the pain and heard Yang Yiting's words, and she said weakly.
Seeing Lu Zhu wake up, Yang Yiting breathed a sigh of relief, came to her, checked the injury on her back. Fortunately, it was a skin injury. She could recuperate for a few days. She grabbed Lu Zhu's hand and said to her. "Lu Zhu, you have suffered, go with Mother Xu to take a rest."
Then, She also ordered Mother Xu to give her medicine and take good care of her.
Mother Xu kowtowed to Yang Jiang and said, "Master, if you want to punish someone, you can punish me. It is me who did not look after the lady well, when the lady has trusted me. It is my fault!"
Mother Xu said this because she thought that Yang Jiang would punish Yang Yiting lightly for the sake of his dead wife and Xie's family in Suzhou.
Yang Jiang felt soft, and wanted to uphold the tradition with a lighter punishment, buy Yang Mei Shi said lukewarmly beside him. "My lordly husband, Yiting knows she has a marriage arrangement, but she is behaving unruly. If the words reaches the Meng family, then, I'm afraid that he will have an excuse to divorce again, and where will the face of the Yang family be by that time."
Yang Jiang knew she was right when he thought about it. The Yang family was already going downhill. If something detracting from its reputation were reported, he would not be able to hold his head in the public circle. This matter must be severely dealt with so as to appear effective.
Therefore, he ordered the punishment to be handled strictly in accordance with Yang's regulations, and no one was allowed to intercede.
Yang Yiting suffered twenty strokes of the whips under the the triumphant gazes of both the mother and daughter.
Fortunately, Lu Zhu's allegedly crime was cleared away. Yang Yiting smiled inwardly with satisfaction. She finally could not hold back the pain anymore and collapsed on ground.