Song Yutang instinctively looked up and saw a woman in meticulous makeup charging into the shop in stiletto heels.
Before anyone could react, she had grabbed Jiang Zhixia by the hair and delivered two slaps. "You lowlife bitch! You eat our food and live off us, and you dare secretly use my child's father's card to support your family? I'll tear that face of yours to shreds today!"
Before she had finished, a boy who looked five or six rushed up behind her, kicking and hitting. "Bad woman, bad woman... You stole my daddy's money, and you want to steal my daddy too... I'll beat you to death... I'll beat you to death, you bitch..."
The customers and shop assistants around them froze, their gazes turning contemptuous.
*???* Song Yutang couldn't wrap her head around it for a moment.
Hadn't Jiang Zhixia married into a wealthy family fair and square?
How had she gotten involved with a married woman, and even used her card?
"Mommy..." Xiao Tuantuan burst into frightened tears. She rushed over, hugged the woman's leg, and pleaded, "Auntie, don't hit Mommy... We won't spend money carelessly ever again... Tuantuan won't ask for toys anymore... Please, don't hit Mommy..."
Only then did Li Xiulan snap out of it. Anxious and furious, she stepped forward to pull them apart. "Lin Lu, what nonsense are you spouting? Your husband's been dead for a year or two. His household registration and bank cards should have been canceled ages ago. How could Zhixia possibly use his card?"
Lin Lu grew even more brazen and swung her hand toward Li Xiulan's face. "Get lost, you old hag! Your whole family is low-class trash. Not one of you is any good."
Before her palm could land.
Smack, smack-
Two even sharper, louder slaps rang out.
Song Yutang had moved first, landing them squarely on Lin Lu's face.
Lin Lu staggered and fell onto her backside, clear finger marks instantly rising on one cheek.
She sat stunned for several seconds.
Once she got a clear look at Song Yutang's face, she lunged forward, clawing like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "Who the hell do you think you are? You dare hit me? You little bitch, you're with Jiang Zhixia, aren't you? I'll deal with you too today..."
Song Yutang firmly caught Lin Lu's swinging wrist and twisted it, then delivered another backhanded slap with her other hand. "Since you keep insisting Zhixia secretly used your late husband's supplementary card, produce the evidence. Right now. If you're slandering someone without a shred of proof and assaulting people in public, don't blame me for showing you no mercy."
Over this time, she had already thoroughly investigated the Jiang Family's backgrounds and marriage ties.
From what Tuantuan and Li Xiulan had said, Song Yutang could conclude that this Lin Lu was the widow of Jiang Zhixia's husband's elder brother.
She was also the woman who had switched the necklace earlier and acted so overbearing on the phone.
With her wrist restrained, Lin Lu was both shocked and furious. "What right do you have to question me? Do you know who I am?"
Song Yutang shoved her away. "The person you're bullying is my mother-in-law, and the person you're hitting is my sister-in-law. That gives me the right. Your public assault and slander have already caused serious harm. If you can't produce solid evidence, the Jiang Family won't mind meeting the Ji Family in court."
Lin Lu looked Song Yutang over carefully, then gave a contemptuous sneer. "Hah... And here I was wondering who you were. So you're the country bumpkin Jiang Muyan picked up from the countryside? Well? Does that dog chain even my Xiao Hei didn't want suit you?"
Song Yutang's gaze abruptly chilled. She raised her hand and delivered another crisp slap. "As expected of a concubine-born son's wife. Not a shred of manners or upbringing. As the Ji Family's lawfully wedded young madam, Zhixia has kept you and your son in fine clothes and fine food all these years. It's bad enough that you aren't grateful, but you actually dared steal her jewelry and slander her in public. You ungrateful wretch."
That slap left Lin Lu utterly dazed. She struggled to hit back. "Concubine-born son? Who are you calling a concubine-born son? What century do you think this is..."
Song Yutang looked down at her and coldly pushed her away. "Calling him a concubine-born son is me showing good breeding. Put another way, he was a child of adultery, a bastard. And you, his wife, are putting on the airs of the principal wife here? Besides, your husband's identity registration was canceled last year. How could someone who doesn't legally exist have a supplementary bank card?
"Even if we take ten thousand steps back and say there really is a card, Zhixia is the lawfully wedded wife of the Ji Family's second young master and its future matriarch. Taking back a card the Ji Family gave an illegitimate son would be perfectly justified."
Lin Lu clearly hadn't expected her to know their background so thoroughly.
Hearing the murmurs around her, she simply smashed the already broken pot, craning her neck as she continued making a scene. "Y-you're talking nonsense! Jiang Zhixia spent my child's father's money! She secretly used his card... Penniless scum like you are just lowborn..."
Seeing things turn against them, the little boy beside her rolled his eyes and hurried forward. He dropped to his knees before Jiang Zhixia with a thud, crying and knocking his forehead against the floor. "Boohoo... Auntie Jiang... Please... Boohoo... Stop spending my daddy's money... Boohoo... Please... Give us our money back... Mommy and I are so pitiful..."
Jiang Zhixia retreated repeatedly in fright, at a loss. "Guangguang, get up..."
Song Yutang grabbed Jiang Zhixia before she could go over to help him up, looking coldly at the child on the floor. "If he likes kneeling, let him kneel. All the better if he knocks himself unconscious. I'll call an ambulance. We'll pay the medical bills."
At that, Lin Lu immediately covered her face and began sobbing pitifully. "Jiang Zhixia, stealing my child's father wasn't enough for you... Now you're taking his card out and squandering his money. Are you trying to drive us to our deaths? Please... Have a heart... Leave my son and me a way to survive..."
The boy was quick-witted too. He turned and kowtowed to Xiao Tuantuan. "Little Sister Tuantuan, please give my daddy back... He's my daddy too... Please, don't spend my school money on pretty dresses and little cakes. Please... I still want to go to school..."
Those words were so ambiguous that the onlookers were bewildered:
"What does she mean, stealing her child's father? Was this woman having an affair with her husband's elder brother too?"
"No, I wasn't..." Jiang Zhixia's face was deathly pale. Her lips trembled as she tried to explain, but she couldn't get out a complete sentence.
Song Yutang stepped in front of her and looked down at Lin Lu. "Lin Lu, since you keep insisting Zhixia needs to use your husband's card, let's call the police right now. Let them investigate the bank transactions and account ownership, and get to the bottom of everything."
As she spoke, she actually took out her phone and began dialing. "If they find that you've been slandering her, the Jiang Family's legal team will pursue the case to the very end."
A flicker of panic crossed Lin Lu's eyes. Still sobbing, she turned and ran for the door. "Forget it, forget it... I won't fight anymore... You can have my child's father, and the card too... Please stop bullying a widow and her fatherless child..."
Song Yutang reacted swiftly and caught her by the arm. "Trying to leave now? Too late. No one's going anywhere before the police arrive."
Held fast, Lin Lu couldn't leave, and some people who had caught on were pointing and whispering.
She gritted her teeth, then simply took out her own phone and wailed into it. "Chengyu... Hurry over... Guangguang and I are being bullied to death... The Jiang Family is going to beat us to death..."