Xu Lingzhi looked at the man she had loved for a lifetime before her eyes, and not once had she ever felt he was so completely a stranger.
Last month, his cousin had suddenly fallen unconscious. Xu Lingzhi's family practiced medicine for generations, and her grandfather harbored no notion that women could not study medicine; thus, ever since she learned to read, she had studied medicine alongside her older and younger brothers under her grandfather's guidance.
She went to take the cousin's pulse and discovered that her unconsciousness was due to a heart ailment.
For a heart ailment, there were currently no good treatments available, at most allowing the patient to rest and recuperate properly.
Yet her husband refused to believe she could not cure this illness, convinced only that she was withholding her full effort.
She wanted to reason with him and explain the heart ailment to her husband with emotional appeals, but the other party interrupted impatiently, looking at her with a face full of heartache and disappointment.
"Lingzhi, I used to think you were a kind person, but it turns out you are also someone who would disregard another's life for your own selfish gain!"
Xu Lingzhi did not understand; she was merely speaking the plain truth, so why was her husband's reaction so extreme?
Yet this was only the beginning. Next, when her son and daughter learned that she refused to treat their aunt, their attitudes toward her grew increasingly hostile every day.
The obedient, well-behaved daughter pointed at her face and cursed her as a vicious woman, while the gentle elder son declared he was disgraced because of her.
Overnight, the warm and harmonious home she once knew fell completely apart.
The servants in the estate were also adept at reading the room; discovering that the mistress had fallen out of favor, their attitude toward her underwent a complete one-eighty turn.
Her authority over household management was also reclaimed by her mother-in-law, who told her that whenever she came to her senses, their Zhu family would take her back in.
She had fled from the Zhu Residence late last night when her personal maid woke her up.
Lianxin shoved a bundle into her arms, telling her to run quickly and never return again.
She did not know what had happened and asked Lianxin, but Lianxin refused to say, only blindly urging her to run.
Lianxin was the dowry maid she had brought with her, as well as the maid who had grown up by her side since childhood, so she trusted Lianxin-Lianxin would never lie to her.
Urged on by Lianxin, she could only take the bundle Lianxin prepared for her and flee the estate under cover of night.
Yet her heart remained anxious for Lianxin, while she also pondered just what on earth had happened in the Zhu family to make Lianxin so frantic.
Distracted by her walking, she accidentally collided with a carriage, banged her head against the bluestone pavement, and passed out just like that.
After waking up this morning, she learned whose carriage she had run into last night.
After thanking the steward of the Prince of Beiping's Residence, she stubbornly insisted on leaving despite the steward's attempts to make her stay.
As a result, the moment she stepped out of the residence, she ran right into her husband.
Seeing her emerge from the Prince of Beiping's Residence, Zhu Jiangqu happened to catch sight of her.
He looked at Xu Lingzhi, then looked at the place she had come out of; his once-calm expression instantly twisted, his eyes turning bloodshot.
He strode over to grab her wrist, demanding an explanation from her.
Looking at the growing crowd around them, Zhu Jiangqu raised his voice even louder as he interrogated Xu Lingzhi.
It was as though she were not his wife married through proper matchmaker rites, but some concubine in his chambers to be disposed of at will.
"Speak! Why didn't you return to the estate all night? Do you have any idea how long I waited for you-I didn't sleep a wink all night!"
His eyes were red, and though his tone was accusatory, it was also laced with three parts heartache and three parts breakdown.
Most people in this world were always inclined to sympathize with men, while the actual truth of the matter mattered little to them.
Xu Lingzhi's eyes brimmed with tears, yet she stubbornly refused to let them fall.
To this day, she still had no idea what had happened to make Lianxin wake her up in the middle of the night.
Her mind was still in turmoil when she ran into her husband hurling indiscriminate accusations.
She felt as though her heart were breaking into pieces.
The onlookers pointed and whispered, most of them standing on Zhu Jiangqu's side and condemning Xu Lingzhi for failing to maintain her wifely virtue.
The clamor of voices washed over her like a tidal wave.
"What is going on out there?"
Yunjian lifted the window curtain of the carriage, looking at the commotion outside.
"Why are these people making a scene right outside your door? Could it be that something is wrong with the medicinal wine we're selling?"
"How is that possible? Wait a moment, I'll go ask the system."
The system was probably off playing with other systems, and Wenren Luoshui ran off to call it for a long time before its mechanical voice finally appeared.
[Salty Fish System: Does the host need something?]
[Help me check what's going on outside my door.]
[Salty Fish System: No problem.]
Within mere seconds, the system transmitted a txt file to Wenren Luoshui.
Clicking it open and taking in the contents inside, Wenren Luoshui was almost angered to death by Zhu Jiangqu and his family.
[What is it? What is it? It feels like your head is practically venting steam.]
Yunjian's pair of attractive peach-blossom eyes stared intently at Wenren Luoshui, terrified that she might bolt out of the carriage the next second and beat the scumbag outside to death.
[Ha! A scumbag trying to climb the social ladder flagrantly plays with an innocent woman-tell me, isn't a person like this utterly disgusting!]
The surrounding onlookers:!!!!
What?
Where did that voice come from?
What scumbag? Who is a scumbag?
[That fellow named Zhu Jiangqu is nothing short of trash. Yesterday, he wanted to send his wife to Prince Chen for his amusement, but his plan was overheard by Lianxin, the maid by his wife's side. Risking her life, Lianxin woke her young mistress up and sent her away before Zhu Jiangqu arrived.]
[Failing to find his wife and guessing that her maid Lianxin had ruined his plan, Zhu Jiangqu immediately had Lianxin arrested and summoned all the servants in the estate to watch the consequences of ruining his plans. Lianxin was beaten to death by him that very night, and her corpse was even tossed out to feed dogs!]
Hearing the inner voice, Xu Lingzhi's face turned pale as her chest heaved violently.
Her eyes were filled entirely with despair and fury.
No wonder Lianxin had acted like a madwoman last night, waking her up and dragging her toward the back door.
In name, Lianxin and she were mistress and servant, but in reality, she and Lianxin were as close as sisters.
She could not bear to imagine Lianxin's state of mind when she overheard her husband planning to send her to Prince Chen for amusement.
Nor could she dare to imagine how much pain Lianxin must have felt when she was beaten to death!
Though slender and weak, she had studied medicine since childhood and possessed a thorough understanding of human joints.
Raising her hand, she effortlessly dislocated the hand with which Zhu Jiangqu had grabbed her delicate wrist.
"Xu Lingzhi! What are you doing?"
Zhu Jiangqu's expression was initially one of disbelief, which then shifted into anger from embarrassment, before finally culminating in an indignant demand.
This foolish woman!
How dare she!
"Zhu Jiangqu! I ask you! Where is my personal maid Lianxin right now?"
Suppressing the grief in her heart, Xu Lingzhi parted her pearly teeth to interrogate the disgusting and hypocritical man before her in a clear, forceful voice.
"Her? Just a servant, why must you fuss over her so?"
"Slap!"
No sooner had Zhu Jiangqu's disdainful and contemptuous voice fallen than Xu Lingzhi raised her hand and struck him across the face.
"Ha! A servant! Have you really been married to me for ten years and still not known that Lianxin and I grew up together, that the two of us are as close as sisters?"
The surrounding voices that had previously been one-sidedly condemning Xu Lingzhi grew much more rational after that voice rang out.
Though there were many shameless men in this world, people who upheld justice were not entirely lacking.
To send one's own wife for others to toy with-very few people were willing to play such a cuckolded role by eagerly offering themselves up!