Li Xiulan instinctively shrank back, but still plucked up the courage to stand in front of her. "Aunt Chen, a new bride is easily embarrassed. As her elder, please don't hold it against the child."
Chen Ruyin smiled elegantly. "Xiulan, you've been back in the Jiang family for over a year now. How do you still not understand any of the rules?"
Li Xiulan's face instantly flushed red.
An appropriate smile remained on Chen Ruyin's face. "Since you know you were wrong, I won't make things difficult for you. You and your husband can take the new bride to kneel in the ancestral hall for a full day and night, and we'll consider the matter settled."
Jiang Guoqiang protested quietly, "How can we make a new bride kneel in the ancestral hall? Could my wife and I take our son to kneel there instead?"
Chen Ruyin's smile never changed. "Guoqiang, I know you had no one to teach you growing up. But you must understand that every family has its rules, especially a distinguished family like ours with a hundred years of history. As the Jiang family's eldest son, the most important thing is to have proper breeding..."
Smack-
A crisp slap interrupted her.
Song Yutang raised her chin slightly and rebuked her coldly. "So you do know my father is the Jiang family's eldest master? The old master was speaking to him. What business does a maid like you have interrupting?"
The middle-aged man sitting beside Chen Ruyin flew into a rage. "Song Yutang, who the hell do you think you are? How dare you hit my mother?"
Song Yutang gave him a backhanded slap too. "The son of a lowly maid has even less right to interrupt."
Old Master Jiang's brow twitched. "Don't talk nonsense. This is your Grandma Chen and your second uncle."
Of course Song Yutang knew.
On the way here, she had already roughly sorted out the Jiang family's situation through the original owner's memories.
Her father-in-law, Jiang Guoqiang, was the biological son of the old master and his first wife.
Back then, the old master's white moonlight, Chen Ruyin, had become pregnant out of wedlock. After giving birth to a child whose father was unknown, she had insisted on going abroad to pursue her dreams.
To put her mind at ease, the old master had actually switched the two children himself.
Only fifty years later, when he developed kidney failure, had he finally remembered to look for his biological son.
Meanwhile, Chen Ruyin had gone through four marriages abroad, all ending in divorce.
After his first wife passed away, she had immediately taken up permanent residence in the Jiang household under the guise of being his confidante.
Song Yutang had originally had no intention of provoking the person closest to the old master's heart. She had only wanted a share of the richest family's pie.
But Chen Ruyin had gone too far in bullying them.
Her parents-in-law looked like honest people, too.
If she swallowed this now, the bullying would only grow worse in the future.
Still, Song Yutang knew she couldn't make the scene too ugly. She put on a look of sudden realization. "It's all my father's fault for not getting things straight. I always thought that, apart from my father-in-law, there was only an uncle who had passed away and an aunt in this family. After Grandma died, Grandpa never remarried, either. I really didn't realize there was also an elderly concubine and a concubine-born second uncle in the family. How presumptuous of me."
The smile on Chen Ruyin's face froze, and two trails of clear tears slowly slid down her cheeks. "Miss Song, I, Chen Ruyin, am an internationally renowned dancer with a name of my own. How can you say such things to insult me?"
Seeing the old master's livid face, Song Yutang deliberately looked puzzled. "You're not our family's maid, you aren't related to us by blood, and you haven't registered a marriage with Grandpa. If I shouldn't call you his elderly concubine... then what should I call you?"
Chen Ruyin's sobs instantly caught in her throat.
Song Yutang took the opportunity to look at the old master, her brows drawing together slightly. "Grandpa, as a junior, I really shouldn't be criticizing you. But if I don't say something, it's still our Jiang family that loses face. You're a man of standing. How have you gotten so muddleheaded about this in your old age?"
The old master's eyes widened so much that he could barely speak coherently. "I... I'm muddleheaded?"
Song Yutang put on a stern face and lectured him. "If you really like this lady, there's nothing wrong with keeping her by your side as a concubine. But she isn't your concubine now. You're a widowed elder, yet you're getting all tangled up with her in front of your children and grandchildren. What kind of behavior is that?
"Luckily, I know a little about the old rules, so even though I hadn't understood the situation, I respectfully called her your elderly concubine. If it were some blunt, modern young person calling her an 'old mistress' or an 'old slut' to her face, you'd leave us juniors with no face at all."
With tears in her eyes, Chen Ruyin bit her lip weakly. "Brother Kun has toiled his whole life. Now, out of affection for old times, he's merely letting an old friend with no one to depend on stay in his home for a few days... With barbs in every word, aren't you stabbing Brother Kun right in the heart?"
Song Yutang looked blankly at the old master. "Grandpa, I've read all the Four Books and Five Classics and studied propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame, but I've never heard of a gentleman's female friend being allowed to come into his home, throw her weight around, and punish his son and daughter-in-law by making them kneel in the ancestral hall. These rules really are unusual. They just don't seem like anything from Huaguo. When did our Jiang family become citizens of Wakoku?"
"..." Old Master Jiang choked.
In all his decades of life, this was the first time a junior had talked him into being unable to hold his head up.
He wanted to lose his temper.
The problem was that her words were so well-founded that he couldn't even find a pretext.
In the end, Old Master Jiang could only give a dry cough and forcefully salvage his dignity. "What's all this fuss on such a happy occasion? All of you, say less. It's the new bride's first day in the family, so we'll forget about kneeling in the ancestral hall. But she still has to serve tea."
Smiling respectfully, Song Yutang looked at the two people seated on either side of the old master. "Grandfather, Father, Mother, please take the seats of honor. Adopted Uncle and Ms. Chen, please move aside."
Chen Ruyin stood up, looking deeply aggrieved. "Brother Kun, since your family's new bride has no room for Qingyu and me, I'll just take his family and move out..."
Old Master Jiang felt sorry for her, and his expression immediately darkened.
Song Yutang frowned. "What does my paying respects to my elders as a new bride have to do with you? By your logic, you should buy a standing-room train ticket tonight and go stay in the Forbidden City for a few days. When the security guards tell you to go home, just say they have no room for you. First cry, then make a scene, then threaten to hang yourself until the state transfers the Forbidden City into your name."
Chen Ruyin's crying came to an abrupt halt.
Old Master Jiang also felt a breath lodge in his chest, his face turning from livid to pale.
Finally, he took a deep breath. "Ruyin, you and Qingyu move aside for now."
Chen Ruyin bit her lip, but in the end, she didn't dare say anything else.
The servants rearranged the seats.
Old Master Jiang and Jiang Muyan's parents sat upright in the seats of honor. Song Yutang took the teacup the butler handed her. "Grandfather, please have some tea."
The old master picked up the teacup, his gaze growing more appraising.
The information he had received said this girl was uneducated and ignorant, but the way she carried herself...
She seemed like someone who had seen the world.
Composed and dignified, she reminded him of his mother.
That woman who, when the Jiang family had been battered by wind and rain, had held up the entire family alone with a young son in tow.
Although she was a bit prickly, it was a good thing for the wife of the Jiang family's eldest grandson to possess such skill and bearing.
Old Master Jiang drank the tea and took a thick red envelope from inside his jacket. "Now that you've entered the Jiang family, you're one of us. Settle in without worry. You won't be mistreated."
Song Yutang accepted it with both hands, lowering her eyes with a smile. "Thank you, Grandfather."
The red envelope was heavy.
It seemed to represent his attitude as well.
Her behavior just now didn't seem to have put him off.
Next came serving tea to her parents-in-law.
Li Xiulan and Jiang Guoqiang were both rather at a loss.
Once the tea had been served, Song Yutang was officially married into the Jiang family.
Li Xiulan personally took her upstairs to rest.
She pushed open the door to a large south-facing bedroom on the third floor. "This is Muyan's room. I'm sorry you'll have to make do with staying here for now."
The room was well lit, with a faint smell of disinfectant in the air.
A man lay on the bed, various machines humming quietly.
He was none other than the richest man's eldest grandson-
Jiang Muyan.
Looking at that pale face, Li Xiulan couldn't help wiping away tears. "He's been lying here for over three months. The doctors say they don't know when he'll wake up. We... we shouldn't have brought a bride into this and ruined a young woman's life, but the old master said we needed a wedding to counter the bad luck..."
Song Yutang smiled and shook her head. "Mom, Dad, don't blame yourselves. I came willingly."
Jiang Guoqiang's eyes reddened slightly. "Willingly? Your family probably forced you. Since you're here, stay with us for a while. If you really can't get used to it... I'll talk to the old master and ask him to let you go..."
As if suddenly remembering something, Li Xiulan pulled out a bank card and pressed it into Song Yutang's hand. "We're truly sorry for making you suffer by coming to our family. Consider this payment for taking care of Muyan during this time. It isn't much. Please don't look down on it."
Song Yutang felt a little comforted.
Her parents-in-law seemed very down-to-earth, completely unlike the snobs with dogs' eyes that looked down on people she had imagined before.
Life from now on probably wouldn't be too difficult, then.
She put the card away and smiled faintly. "Mom, Dad, don't worry. Since I've married into the family, I'll stay with the Jiangs."
The couple exchanged a look. Honest and simple as they were, they didn't know what to say.
"Then... get some rest first. Let us know if you need anything." Finally, Jiang Guoqiang glanced at his son on the bed and led his wife away.
Only Song Yutang and the silent, motionless man on the bed remained in the room.
She walked over to the window and drew the curtains open.
Outside was the back garden, with an artificial lake farther away.
Beyond that were fruit and vegetable growing areas and a helipad.
Song Yutang took a deep breath, breathing in the scent of money, with only one thought in her mind-
[Sure enough, no matter the era, the most important things for a woman who wants a good life are money and power.]
[It would be best if I could find a way to wipe out Jiang Qingyu's entire family, then have a few children. The richest family's fortune would all be mine.]
Jiang Muyan, lying on the bed: "???"
What... had he just heard?
Hadn't they said his wife hadn't even graduated from high school, had spent three years gutting fish at Runfafa, and was just an ordinary, timid, introverted girl?
What was with this black-bellied state of mind and a head full of fighting and killing?