"..."
After making arrangements for Daiyu, and once Grandmother Jia had suppressed her grief, a nameless fury suddenly surged within her.
And so!
She abruptly turned toward Jia Zheng, who stood solemnly to one side. Her cloudy old eyes filled with reproach and resentment, and her voice rose several notches:
"It's all your fault!"
"I told you all earlier that we shouldn't rush to tell Yu'er about this. We should keep it from her for now!"
"Since things have come to this, we should at least have waited another two months—at least until she'd finished this year's Martial Trial of the Immortal Assembly. Whether she passed or not, she would have had something to focus on!"
"Then we could have told her afterward. Even if she couldn't bear it, it wouldn't have affected anything!"
"But you wouldn't listen. You insisted on telling her right away!"
"And now look what's happened!"
"How can she possibly take the exam in this state? Are you satisfied now, as her uncle?!"
The more Grandmother Jia spoke, the angrier she became. Her finger trembled as she pointed at Jia Zheng, and she could barely resist marching over to slap him twice.
"Mother..."
Though Jia Zheng looked embarrassed and ashamed at being scolded in front of everyone, he didn't back down.
He hesitated for a moment. Only after Grandmother Jia had finished speaking did he bow deeply to her, then cautiously offer an explanation with a bitter smile:
"Please calm down, Mother!"
"I know that telling Daiyu would stir up trouble, but... this concerns filial duty, the proper bonds between family, and the principles of Heaven and Earth. How could I, as her uncle, dare conceal it from her?"
"My younger sister's husband died suddenly. Daiyu is his only daughter. How could we not tell her?"