All heads turned towards her and Madam Shen's eyes were filled with gleam.
Realizing that she had spoke out loud, old Madam Gu immediately cleared her throat to ease her awkwardness and looked at Madam Shen sternly.
"Finish in one go. Don't pause in the middle. I don't have whole day to listen to your stories." Even though she said so, old Madam Gu's ears were still raised in order to hear Madam Shen's story clearly.
Madam Shen immediately adjusted her expressions and immediately turned it into a sorrow one.
She hung her head and wiped her non-existing tears as she continued:
"I saw with my own eyes, your red coral headpiece was in Second sister-in-law's room, Mother." Madam Shen cried but this time she didn't stop to give Madam Yun any chance to defend herself and continued through her sobbing. "I didn't wanted to embarrass second sister-in-law in front of you and others so I didn't tell you but I didn't know that my not telling you would give second sister-in-law so much guts that she would not hesitated to conspire with outsiders to empty our storehouse." In the end Madam Shen couldn't help but choked out at her own tears.
'What a great actress she is.' Madam Yun gnashed her teeth in anger and in embarrassment as she could feel everyone's disdainful gazes at her.
"But just because of that red coral headpiece, you can't prove that last night robbery was done under my command and I was the mastermind behind this." Madam Yun summoned her courage and argued against Madam Shen.
But by doing this, she publicly had accepted the fact that she stole old Madam Gu's favorite red coral headpiece.
Hearing the truth behind disappearance of her favorite piece of jewelry, old Madam Gu was stunned. She first looked at Madam Shen and getting a nod from her, she turned to Madam Yun.
Seeing her second daughter-in-law lowering her head in embarrassment but acceptance, old Madam Gu was livid.
She threw the tea cup in her hand directly at Madam Yun without caring a bit how it would hurt Madam Yun.
As the daughter-in-law and a guilty one at that, Madam Yun could only accept porcelain tea cup with hot tea in it directly at her face.
When porcelain tea cup made contact with Madam Yun's forehead, it made a thud sound and then a crisp as it touched the ground.
"Aah!" Madam Yun screamed as she held her forehead. She could feel a warm and liquid substance on her fingers as it touched on the area that porcelain tea cup had hit before.
When she took the hit bravely at first, Madam Yun thought it would leave a bruise at most but after feeling the liquid substance on her fingers, she was sure, it was more than bruised.
She was bleeding, it means there was a cut, it means it would leave a scar.
Madam Yun was terrified at that thought. In this era, for a woman, having a beautiful face more important than having wealth amounted two cities otherwise why would Gu Tianshui had chosen her over Madam Lin?
But now that there was a possibility of losing her beauty because of a scar, how could Madam Yun have any rationality left in her.
Enraged Madam Yun lifted her head amd openly glared at Madam Shen who pretended to be scared by Madam Yun's ferocious gaze.
"Second sister-in-law... see, you-you don't have to-to direct your resentment towards me. I just spoke truth. It was mother who punished you. As you have done wrong, you-you should accept punishment as well, right?" Madam Shen pretended to be fearful under Madam Yun's glare and stuttered as she fan the flame with her words.
Indeed.
As she had expected, old Madam Gu instantly flared into rage after hearing what Madam Shen said and pointed her finger towards you.
"You, you, you... how dare you?" Old Madam Gu threw another porcelain tea cup towards Madam Yun but having learned her lesson last time, Madam Yun instinctively dodged the porcelain cup and it landed on the floor behind Madam with a crisp sound as it shattered on the cold tiles of floor.
Seeing the scene, old Madam Gu's chest heaved up and down as she slapped the table beside her with all her might making a thump sound "Kneel down."
Realizing what she had done, Madam Yun was stunned at her own actions.
Dodging punishment from elders was akin to disrespecting them. If words like this get out of the house and spread in the capital, how was she gonna bear those disdainful gazes thrown towards her.
Thinking all this, Madam Yun didn't waste a moment of breath when old Madam Gu asked her to kneel down and she immediately plopped on her knees.
Cold tiles under her knees were hard and with the force she fell even though the pain didn't feel immediately, Madam Yun was sure, it would leave bruise and a lot of pain for later.
Madam Yun cried inwardly for her poor knees. First her forehead and now her knees. Madam Yun didn't know how many more grievances was there for her to bear before she escape this ordeal.
She lowered her head to the ground as she kowtowed in front of old madam Gu and asked for forgiveness.
The scene was very unsightly and embarrassing but since her deeds had been exposed, she had no other choice than admitting it because there was no use of her denial, once her private vault was checked, her lie would be exposed again and she would be ridiculed again.
Why go to such great lengths only to fall again?
"Mother, I'm sorry. Please forgive this stupid, ignorant and impulsive daughter-in-law of yours. It was just a moment of impulsiveness, mother, please believe me. I've thought of stealing your favorite headpiece, I just wanted to take look and keep it for a while before returning it to where I took it from." Madam Yun cried miserably as she tried to explain herself.
"Then why didn't you returned it back?"