She Killed Madam Liang

Madam Sun’s tears never stopped even as she continued her angry tirade.

She felt relieved, but also very sad.

“My poor daughter… your mother has let you down… I shouldn’t have married into this family! And since I did marry into the family, I should have been obedient! I should have broken my spine and never remember that I’m also a human!”

“I should have served that old witch well, I should have let her hit me, scold me, make me kneel before her, let her punish me. Offer my right cheek after she’s slapped my left cheek, offer my legs after she broke my arms. I should have tried to please her, let her have her way… at least you would still be alive today!”

Madam Sun was wailing and screaming hysterically, as though she had completely lost her mind. Everyone couldn’t help but sigh heavily.

The state of the Mi family, as well as the true nature of the late Madam Liang… everyone knew what the real situation was like.

It was Madam Liang’s death anniversary, so for most families, the entire family would visit the grave together. But not the Mis. Only the men were allowed to visit the grave and the women were not allowed to come along. On such important days, the men would leave the house together and the head of the family would conduct the necessary rites, while the women had to present offerings and burn incense in the ancestral hall within the family residence.

So, none of the men were around right now. Madam Wang was in charge as the wife to the head of the family, and they had all gathered inside the ancestral hall.

It was a good thing that the men weren’t around to watch Madam Sun lose it. If Mi Gaojie were around to hear what she said, he might have strangled her to death.

But it was also because the men weren’t around, so Madam Wang’s instructions did not carry as much weight. The servants did not put in as much effort and were thus unable to hold Madam Sun down.

Song Caitang and Wen Yuansi exchanged glances.

Everything was progressing well. They didn’t need to worry about anything and just quietly watch the show unfold…

The two even took several steps backward at the same time in order to make themselves less noticeable.

Madam Sun was still holding onto Auntie Huang’s hair. Her eyes were bloodshot and glinted with stubbornness. “I’ve got to kill this old woman today! Anyone who gets in my way shall die too!”

The other people in the hall could stay out of this, but not Madam Wang.

She took a step forward and shouted, “Do you not want your family anymore? You don’t care even if you turn this whole place upside down?”

“I don’t care! I don’t want anything anymore!”

“What about number two? You don’t want him either? Madam Sun, why have you remained in this family for so long! Do you remember why?”

Madam Wang’s voice was weak, but her fierce words pierced through Madam Sun’s heart.

The family was awful, and she had managed to tolerate it for so long only because of her husband.

Mi Xiaoli always listened to everything his eldest brother said and he had been previously married too, but he was genuinely sweet to her. When she was punished by Madam Liang and knelt until her knees became swollen, it was him who massaged her knees. When her hands hurt from copying Buddhist scriptures or Lessons for Women, he would imitate her handwriting and help her to finish it. As long as she didn’t want to do anything that went against the family’s rules, he always allowed her to go ahead. If she made a fuss or threw a tantrum, he would try his best to protect her…

Even after she only gave birth to a daughter and had no sons, he held up against the stress his mother put on him. He did not repudiate her like his mother wanted him to, but got her to adopt his concubine’s son instead.

It was a little awkward, but that was the best he could do.

The maid who gave birth to that son had already passed away from bleeding too much at birth…

Madam Sun had managed to tolerate everything at home for so long only because of what her husband had done for her. But that was not the issue right now. Her daughter, her pitiful daughter, had not gotten smallpox because she was ill fated. Someone had made this happen!

For the sake of her husband, for the sake of this family, she had tried her best to put up with everything, but nobody appreciated her efforts at all. Instead, a plan was executed to separate her from her daughter, to sell her daughter to that sort of place, and hide the truth from her for more than ten years.

That… that was simply cruel!

Every time this matter was mentioned, her husband would stop her from saying anything. He was so persistent, his tone so anxious… Was it because he knew about this and just hid it from her?

None of the members of this family were human! They were all executioners!

“That’s right! I don’t want him anymore! I don’t want my husband, and I don’t even want the boy I’ve helped to bring up!”

Madam Sun’s eyes were bloodshot and spewing with fire. “Everyone knows he’s not my real son, anyway, and he’s bound to find out one day too. Or maybe he already knows! You think I really have no idea what all of you are plotting in secret?”

She glared at Madam Wang, “In this household, women are like display items! They have to be obedient, they have to be compliant. If you even step just slightly out of line, countless painful punishments await you! You’ve gotten hold of my weakness, so that you can drive a wedge between myself and my son at any time, right?!”

“I’m not afraid of that anymore! The men of this family are nothing but trash! I want to avenge my daughter! She’s already suffered enough while she was alive, and I’m not going to let her die unjustly!”

Madam Sun’s voice was hoarse, like the croaking of an old swallow. But she was still going strong. She didn’t want to stop and couldn’t anymore!

She gripped Auntie Huang’s hair and pushed the old woman’s head hard onto the ground. “Tell me! It’s not as if the Mi family has no daughters! Why was that old witch happy to take in the ones born by others, but not mine? Just because she didn’t like me? If she didn’t like me, why did she let me marry her son?! My daughter was a Mi and the blood of the Mis flowed in her veins! How could she be so cruel… What did I do wrong? What did I do to make her do such a thing? Tell me! TELL ME!”

Blood immediately appeared on Auntie Huang’s forehead. The bright red liquid mixed in with the gray dirt flowed down her face along her wrinkles, making her look really ugly and awful.

“AHHH! First Madam! First Madam, please, take care of this situation! You’re the wife to the head of the family, you can’t allow a difficult sister-in-law to embarrass you!”

Madam Wang turned to look at her and her gaze suddenly grew sharp and frosty.

But she did not say anything.

Auntie Huang’s lips trembled. Her cries for help had not worked and she couldn’t take Madam Sun’s rough handling anymore. Her eyelids drooped as she resigned herself to her fate and owned up.

“I didn’t want to either, but there was nothing I could do… I didn’t have a choice… I’m just an indentured servant. I have to do what my masters say…”

“So, it’s really her!” Madam Sun’s eyes burned with hatred as she continued to grip Auntie Huang’s hair. “Why! Why did she want to bring harm to my daughter!”

“That’s decided by my masters, I wouldn’t know anything…”

Auntie Huang continued to plead, “It really doesn’t have anything to do with me, please spare me, Second Madam, please spare me!”

Madam Sun narrowed her eyes. “She made you infect my daughter with chickenpox? She purposely sealed off information to my servants so that I couldn’t find a doctor, except for the one who would listen to your instructions?”

“Those… those were all instructions from the masters…,” pleaded Auntie Huang as she kept glancing at Madam Wang.

Madam Wang looked like she wasn’t paying attention. Her gaze was lowered and she placed her hands in front of her, as though she was thinking about something else.

“Why are you staring at my sister-in-law?”

Also, Auntie Huang kept talking about her “masters”…

Could it be…

Madam Sun grew wary. “You’re still trying to shift the blame at this point?!”

“Pui!” she spat hard. “Even the most ferocious of tigers would not eat their cubs! How could a mother purposely hurt her own daughter? It’s true that I don’t get along with her and I always argue with her, but I’m not stupid! Madam Wang would never do such a thing!”

“And what about the brothels? That old witch arranged for the girls to be sold to them? The men of the family decided to abandon the girls because she insisted?”

Auntie Huang had no choice but to nod. “That’s right, it was all Old Madam…”

Madam Sun’s hand trembled from how angry she was. “I sincerely tried so hard to live as a good daughter-in-law, yet someone was trying to bring harm to my daughter! Fine! Since you’ve owned up to it, then you can forget about getting away today! I’m going to kill you with my own hands to avenge my daughter!”

Madam Sun’s eyes darted about like she was looking for a weapon. She couldn’t find a knife or a sword, so she ended up pulling a long golden hairpin from her head instead.

The pin had a floral design on one side that was about half a palm in diameter, so it was perfect for gripping. The pin itself was thin and more than four inches in length, with a sharp tip at the end.

It seemed like she was determined to kill the older lady as she raised her hand without hesitation.

“First Madam! First Madam! If you continue keeping quiet, I’ll really end up dying here!”

Auntie Huang continued to fight and struggle.

But Madam Wang remained as silent as before. She didn’t utter a single word.

“Fine! Since you’re not going to show me mercy, don’t blame me for not being loyal!” Auntie Huang shoved Madam Sun aside with all her might. Her gaze was frosty as she yelled loudly, “Madam Liang was killed by First Madam! She knew that her daughter’s disappearance was wholly planned by Madam Liang, so she began to hate Madam Liang and wanted to kill her for a long time! So when that concubine started having difficulties during her pregnancy, she used the chance to stir up trouble so that everyone in the house would go over to take a look, and that’s how she established an alibi for herself as well…”

Those words shocked everyone present for a few seconds before they all slowly turned to look at Madam Wang.

Madam Wang was very calm. She stood up straight and elegantly as though she was completely unaffected.

But Auntie Huang did not stop there. She seemed to be enjoying herself now, and was venting everything that she had pent up inside.

She continued shouting, “That concubine was First Master’s concubine, so as his wife, she had to take control of the situation and seemed to be very busy all night. But actually, there was a short period of time when she left for Old Madam’s room. Nobody noticed and some thought she had gone to hide in a corner to cry for a while. But that’s the time she used a pillow to suffocate Old Madam to death! I saw it all!”

“First Madam promised to take care of my retirement, so I didn’t say anything and I tried to find a way to cover up for her. Old Madam was already dead by the time I went to change the oil in the lamp! I remained alert and awake to convince the half asleep Lanping that Old Madam was still fine so that we could push back her actual time of death… Magistrate Wen!”

Auntie Huang stumbled as she ran toward Wen Yuansi and Song Caitang. “Magistrate Wen, please save me! I’m a key witness for this case!”

But Madam Sun did not let her get far. She grabbed hold of Auntie Huang’s hair and yelled, “We’re not done with OUR feud yet! Where do you think you’re going?”

Wen Yuansi and Song Caitang exchanged glances.

This was probably truly what happened that night.

Madam Liang was already severely ill at that point, so Madam Wang’s plan to kill her silently would not raise any suspicions. Based on her predictions, the coroner would probably just do a few routine checks as required by the courts and wouldn’t classify the old lady’s death as an unnatural one. And even if the coroner did, she had plenty of alibis.

Few people would notice her disappearance for a short while when things were so chaotic. Some might even think that they had not remembered it correctly.

Madam Wang finally reacted. She was not angry or frustrated. She just lowered her gaze and bowed slightly toward Wen Yuansi. She remained as polite and well mannered as she always was.

“Today is my mother-in-law’s death anniversary, and I’m sorry you had to witness my family’s situation. I hope you can be understanding and allow me to settle these household matters properly first. I will definitely explain things to you after that.”

These words sounded like a request, but also a promise.

Wen Yuansi paused to ponder what she really meant by these words and did not give a response immediately.

“We women are people who are willing to face the consequences of what we’ve done, and we’re a man of our word too,” Madam Wang sounded a little sarcastic, “If you don’t dare to take me at my word, then arrest me now.”

“We’ll see if you’ll get the conclusion you were hoping for!”

Her last sentence was not only spoken aggressively, but her intentions were clear and she was even threatening him!

Wen Yuansi quickly cast Song Caitang a glance.

Song Caitang nodded with a faint glimmer in her eye.

He thought the same way as her, so he nodded and said, “All I want is for this case to be resolved with logical explanations for what happened as well as concrete evidence.”

And since he was agreeable, he did not delay any further. “Madam Wang, please go ahead and do what you need to.”

Madam Wang turned toward Madam Sun and said calmly, “She was not born to someone who was already working for the family, but was bought from elsewhere by our mother-in-law. Our mother-in-law has passed away and her indenture is with me. She is not a servant of the Mi family, she is my servant. If you kill her, that would be a violation of another person’s property and you will get much more than a simple fine. Are you sure you want to do this?”

Madam Sun had snapped and her brain did not work as well as it usually did. She thought that Auntie Huang was trying to turn the two sisters-in-law on each other, and had not understood the meaning behind the conversation between Madam Wang and Wen Yuansi, so she continued to grip Auntie Huang by the hair and refused to let go.

“Sure! Go ahead and throw me into jail! Execute me! I’m not afraid of anything! I don’t intend to stay here anymore! Everyone here is filthy! Filthy all over!”

“They despise women? How could they! Who do they think gave birth to them? Did they think they were birthed from a rock? Or that they’re a higher class just because they have dicks? Are their dicks made from gold? Having one means they can look down on others, not have to bother about anything, not have to do anything, and can even remain a bum forever? As long as they can get married and have sons, that’s their greatest contribution?”

“Humph! I, Sun Rulin, do not care for such useless trash!”

“I come from a small family that doesn’t have money or status, so they might not be able to afford someone who wants a lifestyle of luxury like me. But even if I have to starve to death, there’s no way I’m staying here for even one more day!”

The golden hairpin in her hand had already cut a little into Auntie Huang’s neck and she was beginning to bleed. “Even if nothing happens to me today, I’m making sure she dies! And if I have to die, I’m taking her with me!”

Madam Wang narrowed her eyes. Her expression finally shifted.