Volume One, Chapter 16: Tsk, now you know she’s the Heir’s Consort?

Daughter-in-law?

The Marquis of Cheng’en was dumbfounded. He had only taken a nap—how could his son have gotten married without him knowing?

Madam Li, seeing the Marquis awaken, clung to him like a lifeline and immediately burst into tears as she pleaded, “My lord, you must stand up for me! This Xie Shu is utterly lawless—she publicly assaulted both me and Ning Rongsheng and even laid hands on our clan relatives! Is there no justice, no law left in this world?”

Ning Rongsheng added fuel to the fire, “Father, she doesn’t even regard me, her husband, but insists that since the Emperor decreed this marriage, she cannot be dismissed. I think she’s just trying to use the imperial edict as a shield to bully our Ning family and trample us underfoot!”

Other members of the Ning family, pinned to the ground, chimed in one after another, their accusations and cries filling the ancestral hall.

“Marquis! You must control her! Ouch, my arm, my arm!”

Uncle Ning’s arms were twisted behind his back, his right cheek pressed against the cold floor, sending an unbearable chill through his head. He shouted and struggled, but no one paid him any heed. He cursed loudly, “Wretched woman, let me go! I am the Marquis’s own brother!”

Xie Shu glanced at him with contempt, and Green Willow spat into her palm. “Slap!” She struck him across the face.

“What do you think you are, daring to interfere with our heir’s wife!” Green Willow had grown up alongside Xie Shu, and together they had bested the nobles and gentry of the capital. Besides, he was but a commoner without official rank.

Hmph, with Miss Xie shielding her, she had no fear.

A tooth rolled onto the floor, blood spilling from Uncle Ning’s mouth. Dazed and dizzy from the blow, he dared not speak further.

The scene was utter chaos.

Madam Li, seeing the Marquis half-awake and completely unaware of the turmoil, grew even more desperate. Forgetting all decorum, she threw herself at his feet, clutching his trouser leg and gnashing her teeth as she shouted at Xie Shu, “My lord! You must go to the palace and have the Empress Dowager intervene on our behalf!”

“That shameless woman dares to strike even us! You must have the Empress Dowager issue an edict to dismiss her!” Madam Li’s voice was so loud that even Xie Shu, who was observing the spectacle nearby, raised a hand to cover her ear.

So noisy.

“So, in your mother-in-law’s heart, the Empress Dowager’s orders are more effective than the Emperor’s own decree?” Xie Shu exhaled into her palm, massaging her cold earlobe. Listening to their weeping and complaints, her face still bore that ambiguous, half-smiling expression. Then, she slowly turned to the Marquis and asked, “My lord, do you feel the same?”

That question shut down the Marquis’s thoughts of going to the palace to see the Empress Dowager.

---

“Of course not,” Ning Rucheng mulled over the situation, his mind racing. Looking at the captured clan members, he spoke with a tone of negotiation.

“Y-you, you should speak properly,” the Marquis of Cheng’en said, eyeing the woman before him. Though she smiled calmly, the murderous gleam in her eyes was too sharp. Being timid by nature, surrounded by the gleam of swords, he could not help but feel a deep fear.

He glanced over the gathered crowd and, after a moment’s thought, feigned ignorance as he asked, “Miss Xie, the Ning family is loyal and righteous, bestowed the marquisate by the late emperor himself. If you recklessly slander us, I will report you to His Majesty and see you punished!”

Oh? She wanted to see how long the Marquis could keep up the act.

“Green Willow, read it to them carefully so everyone can see who is truly guilty.” Xie Shu took out a paper from her sleeve and handed it to Green Willow.

Green Willow glanced down, realizing that Miss Xie was telling the truth after all!

He grinned with newfound confidence.

Unfolding the paper, Green Willow cleared his throat and read aloud in a clear, ringing voice, each word deliberate and loud:

“Ning Shuli, age forty-six, the Marquis’s clan uncle, former commander of the Yangzhou troops, privately oppressed the common people, forcefully took a young orphan girl named Liu’er as concubine; when she refused, had her beaten to death at midnight and thrown on the pauper’s graveyard.”

“Ning Ruxuan, age thirty-two, the Marquis’s clan cousin, uneducated and addicted to gambling, bribed examiners three years ago to alter exam papers and obtained the degree of jinshi dishonestly.”

“Ning Jiasheng, age seventy-eight, head of the Ning clan, former Yangzhou historian, colluded with salt merchants to traffic illegal salt, hoarding tens of thousands of taels of gold at home…”

And so on.

With every accusation read aloud, the faces of those in the ancestral hall grew paler and paler.

The elderly Ning clan head’s complexion turned ashen. Struggling with what strength he had left, he cried out to the Marquis, “Nonsense! Nonsense! Our Ning family has been loyal for generations; how could we commit such heinous crimes? Someone must be framing us deliberately. Marquis, please stand up for us!”

“I—I would rather bash my head against the pillar to prove my innocence!” With that, the old clan head raised his head and aimed for a pillar, only to be knocked unconscious by a guard’s punch.

Xie Shu clicked her tongue lightly and turned to Green Willow, “The old clan head attempted to commit suicide to avoid punishment. Make a note of that.”

Just moments ago, the Marquis had been full of bravado, ready to argue with Xie Shu—but now, no matter how hard he tried, he could no longer keep up the pretense.

---

The crimes read aloud were so damning that they could strip the Ning family of their last shred of dignity. Though none implicated the Marquis’s own household, so many clan members were involved that even the Empress Dowager’s intercession would unlikely spare them from the Emperor’s punishment.

What puzzled Ning Rucheng even more was how a young lady like Xie Shu could know so many dark secrets about the Ning family—surely someone had been feeding her information from behind the scenes.

Could it be… that person…?

After much thought, the Marquis rolled up his sleeve and wiped his face. In the next moment, the drunken daze vanished completely. A gleam of sharpness flashed in his eyes, though his expression remained amicable. With a grand gesture, he gave an order, and many guards suddenly poured out from the back of the ancestral hall.

“Miss Xie…”

The Marquis had barely spoken when Xie Shu raised the imperial edict in her hand, interrupting, “My lord was drunk earlier; perhaps some matters were… not clearly heard.”

She leisurely stepped before Ning Rucheng and spread the edict before him. “Today your daughter-in-law has received the Emperor’s decree for marriage. From now on, she is your daughter-in-law, the heir’s wife of the Marquis of Cheng’en’s household. You should consider this title carefully.”

By rank, the heir’s wife outranked many, belonging to the royal nobility. Everyone present must bow and pay respect. Moreover, she had kindly come to help the Marquis’s household purge its corruption.

“Well,” Ning Rucheng was cut off mid-sentence. He reached out to take the edict but slipped, swaying a few steps. Someone nearby quickly steadied him by the arm. Once stable, he cautiously held the imperial decree and examined it—it was indeed a marriage edict.

He couldn’t help but gasp coldly at the thought of General Zhenyuan, that towering figure.

What meaning did His Majesty have? Why, at such a time, hand over the rotten Xie family mess to the Marquis’s household?

At this moment, he dared not speak harshly. With a forced smile, he chuckled and advised, “Her Highness the heir’s wife, there’s no need for fighting. Let’s release everyone first. Then we can all sit down and talk—after all, we are family now.”

Tsk, now they finally acknowledged her as the heir’s wife?