Li Xiulan's face darkened as she pushed the door open and stepped outside. Her voice trembled, but she tried to sound firm. "Yutang isn't feeling well. What's wrong with letting her sleep a little longer? This isn't the old society. Must you torment your daughter-in-law?"
Wu Caixia smiled without warmth. "Sister-in-law, a new bride is a lowly wretch. You can't spoil her. Just look at yours, daring to sleep in on the second day of her marriage. What will she be like later?"
Honest and shy, Li Xiulan was no good at arguing. Her face flushed red. "You're a woman yourself. How can you say something so heartless?"
Wu Caixia paid her no heed and continued her barbed mockery. "That daughter-in-law of yours certainly is something. This morning, you and your husband talked back to the old master for her, and now you're arguing with me. Her first day in this house, and she's already thrown the whole household into turmoil."
"You... Guoqiang and I have no objections. What business is it of yours?"
"Go on spoiling her, then. You'll regret it someday. She sleeps in and won't get up to eat, making her father-in-law cook breakfast himself and her mother-in-law bring it to her room. Lazy and greedy."
"You deliberately didn't leave her any breakfast. What's wrong with Guoqiang cooking a meal for his daughter-in-law? The ingredients all come out of the household accounts. It's not your money. We're happy to let our daughter-in-law eat well and sleep well. If that upsets you, then... then just eat some more yourself..."
Li Xiulan clearly wasn't good at arguing, stumbling over her words.
Song Yutang listened silently.
A trace of warmth crept into her icy heart despite herself.
So the old master was already displeased because she had overslept.
Wu Caixia had deliberately made things difficult by leaving her no breakfast, and she must have said plenty of nasty things.
Yet this unassuming pair of parents-in-law hadn't blamed her. Instead, they had cooked for her themselves and brought the food to her room.
Song Yutang had lost her mother as a child, and her father was vicious.
After she entered the palace, her mother-in-law, the empress, had tormented her, while the emperor never concerned himself with whether she lived or died.
This was the first time anyone had treated her so well.
Of course Song Yutang wasn't going to stand by and watch her mother-in-law be bullied. She pulled the door open and walked straight out.
Wu Caixia was still talking, spittle flying.
The moment she saw her emerge, she gave her a sidelong look and said snidely, "Miss Song, your parents-in-law are lowborn people who don't know the rules. Let me teach you..."
Before she could finish, Song Yutang had walked up to her and delivered two crisp slaps-
Smack! Smack!
Wu Caixia was stunned. "You... you hit me again???"
Song Yutang fixed her deep black eyes coldly on her. "Shouting at your own sister-in-law first thing in the morning-what sort of behavior is that? A concubine's son is a concubine's son. Even the wife he marries has no manners."
"You..." Wu Caixia trembled with rage and instinctively tried to hit back. "You slept until this hour, and you have the nerve to call me ill-mannered?"
Li Xiulan hurried forward to shield her.
But Song Yutang had already moved first, firmly catching Wu Caixia's swinging wrist and shoving it away. "My father-in-law is the eldest legitimate son, and my husband is the eldest legitimate grandson. In this household, our family are the true masters. As long as my parents-in-law have no objections, I can sleep as late as I please. I'll eat if I want to, and I won't if I don't. What are you, to think you deserve to compare yourself to me?"
Wu Caixia's face turned the color of pig liver. "I... I'm a daughter-in-law of the Jiang family too, and your elder."
Song Yutang looked her up and down and uttered the words, "A concubine's son's wife."
"Song Yutang..." Wu Caixia was so furious she could barely speak coherently. "You... what antiquated relic did you crawl out of? What era is this? Who still talks about concubines' sons and legitimate sons?"
Song Yutang smiled faintly. "I never imagined that in this day and age, someone would still be so eager to become a concubine. If she willingly debases herself, naturally the son she bears is a concubine's son."
"You... what nonsense are you spouting..."
"My father-in-law is this family's eldest legitimate son, its rightful master. As for you, the wife of a concubine's son, the daughter-in-law of a lowly concubine... dare defy your betters again, and I'll have you sold off."
"You... have you gone mad?? What era is this? How dare you say something like that?" Wu Caixia was both shocked and furious.
"No matter the era, you and your whole family are cuckoos occupying a magpie's nest."
Of course Song Yutang knew that people were no longer sold off in this era.
But when dealing with someone like Wu Caixia, she had to make her understand rightful succession and the distinction between high and low.
"Hmph..." Unable to win the argument, Wu Caixia could only storm off.
Li Xiulan stood rooted to the spot, dumbfounded, unable to recover for a long while.
Only after some time did she wipe her eyes. Suddenly remembering something, her eyes lit up, and she turned and ran. "Your dad was just saying that the lobster he bought today is especially fresh. I'll have him make you another couple of dishes..."
Watching her retreating figure, Song Yutang couldn't help shaking her head with a chuckle.
Whenever she was happy, all she knew to do was make food.
Her parents-in-law...
They were endearingly simple.
Inside the room.
Lying in bed, Jiang Muyan had heard everything outside the door perfectly clearly.
He was utterly stunned.
When Song Yutang went downstairs to serve tea yesterday, he hadn't been able to hear her thoughts and didn't know exactly what had happened.
Now, listening to her specious arguments about legitimate and concubine-born lines and distinctions of rank, he didn't know how to react.
It sounded absurd.
But in a wealthy family like the Jiangs, where remnants of feudalism still lingered...
How was this not fighting poison with poison?
Just then, Song Yutang's thoughts rang out again:
[Hmph. A mere wife of a concubine's son, coming to the doors of the eldest legitimate son's wife and the eldest legitimate grandson's wife first thing in the morning to make a scene and sow discord. Not a shred of decorum.]
Jiang Muyan: "???"
So she really thought that way?
She wasn't deliberately being snide?
He had already learned from his parents' conversations that, after his accident, his original fiancée, Song Ruowei, had refused to marry him. Only then had the Song family brought back their eldest daughter, who had spent years away, to take her place.
His parents didn't know the inside story, but he had long known that the eldest daughter, Song Yutang, was born to the Song family's first wife.
She had grown up in the countryside, hadn't even finished high school, and currently gutted fish at Runfa Supermarket.
Jiang Muyan had thought she might be somewhat rustic.
But he had never imagined Song Yutang would be this old-fashioned.
Wait, then what was all that lewd stuff she'd done last night?
This young woman wasn't very old, but her character...
Was rather complicated.
Jiang Muyan really wanted to see for himself just what sort of girl his new wife was...
Meanwhile, Song Yutang had eaten and drunk her fill and given Wu Caixia another lesson. She felt thoroughly refreshed.
At last, she could settle down and sort through the past.
Using a big-data search, she quickly found the life story of Lady Song, the Jing dynasty's crown princess:
The history books contained only a few sparse lines: beautiful and intelligent, she entered the Eastern Palace at a young age. Widowed in her youth, she accompanied her young son as he ascended the throne, and passed away that very night in the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility.
Brief, yet glorious.
Song Yutang had already learned what happened afterward from the original owner's memories.
The original owner had, after all, made it to her final year of high school and had been a top student. She knew the broad outline of history.
Still, Song Yutang sat holding her phone in a daze for a long time.
Everything that had happened over the past few days felt like a dream.
But things had come to this, and all she could do was live well in the present...