"Ahem..." Old Master Jiang choked on the soup he was drinking.
Jiang Shiya was stunned by the slap, too, and even forgot to cry.
Jiang Sinian stamped his feet in fury. "Song Yutang, are you insane? How dare you hit Shiya?"
Song Yutang gave him a backhanded slap as well. "Jiang Shiya is mentally ill. Are you, too? No talking while eating or sleeping. Making a racket at the dinner table and even addressing your eldest sister-in-law by her full name-what kind of behavior is that?"
Wu Caixia slammed the table and sprang up in fury. "Song Yutang, you've gone too far! What gives you the right to hit my son?"
Song Yutang shot her a dagger-sharp look. "When the upper beam is crooked, the lower beams will be askew. Our Jiang family has rules. This isn't a marketplace. Look at the two children you've raised: one is mentally ill, and the other has no manners. Having a daughter-in-law like you marry into our Jiang family is truly a disgrace to the family."
Wu Caixia was so shocked she could barely speak coherently. "You... you hit people without even finding out right from wrong, and you still think you're in the right?"
Song Yutang sneered. "My parents and this younger sister-in-law did nothing, yet out of nowhere, they were branded as people who couldn't tolerate her. This is a textbook case of persecutory delusions. She's already lost her senses. If I hadn't acted in time to slap her awake, she might have caused an even greater disaster."
Everyone: "..."
Her reasoning was so sound that they had no answer.
Jiang Shiya covered her face and looked at Old Master Jiang with tear-filled eyes. "Grandpa, it doesn't matter if Miss Song looks down on me, but it's not her place in this family to..."
Smack-
Song Yutang cut her off with another slap and spoke first. "Grandpa, look, her illness is getting worse. Today, her persecutory delusions have her crying, making scenes, and threatening to hang herself. Tomorrow, she'll dare to do something even crazier. We younger people are young and can run fast, but you're old and aren't so nimble on your feet. If she goes mad, grabs two cleavers from the kitchen, and chops you into mince, that would be terrifying."
Old Master Jiang froze.
How had this become about him?
Song Yutang was brisk and decisive. "I suggest sending her to a psychiatric hospital right now. She can come back once she's cured."
Jiang Shiya's face instantly turned deathly pale. "No, I don't want to go to a psychiatric hospital... I'm not ill..."
Song Yutang raised an eyebrow. "Not ill? Then why were you acting crazy just now? If you're not ill, why would you think the whole world has wronged you? If you're not ill, why would you make such a life-or-death fuss over a bowl of chicken soup, slandering your elders and throwing the household into turmoil?"
With every question, she took another step closer.
Driven back step after step, Jiang Shiya finally fell into her chair.
"Miss Song..." Chen Ruyin tried to speak up in support.
"Old concubine, this is our Jiang family's business. It's not for a lowly concubine like you to interfere."
"I told you, I'm not a concubine..."
"Then why is an outsider like you butting in? I'm giving you the benefit of treating you as a kept mistress and respectfully calling you an old concubine, but you'd better know your damn place."
Chen Ruyin's face instantly turned the color of pig liver. "I... I'm not..."
Song Yutang had already returned to her seat and calmly delivered her final verdict. "I think Jiang Shiya would be better off getting treatment. Of course, the Jiang family will cover the medical expenses. That should also do right by her parents for saving a life."
Jiang Sinian was furious. "You country bumpkin, don't spout nonsense about things you don't understand. Shiya has depression, not a mental illness."
Song Yutang said indifferently, "People with depression mostly hurt themselves. Someone like her, who spends all day thinking others are out to get her and keeps the whole family from having any peace, is a lunatic."
Jiang Sinian was left speechless by her retort.
Song Yutang looked at Jiang Shiya and smiled faintly. "Little sister, choose for yourself. Will you behave and eat now, or should I call immediately to have you sent to a psychiatric hospital?"
Jiang Shiya bit her lip, tears brimming in her eyes, but no longer dared to make a sound.
"Looks like you've chosen to eat." Song Yutang nodded in satisfaction and swept her gaze over everyone. "Then sit down, all of you, and eat properly."
"You..." Chen Ruyin opened her mouth to speak.
"Old concubine, the eldest young madam is putting the family in order. Keep your mouth shut." Song Yutang's expression hardened, and she slapped her chopsticks onto the table with a crack.
"I..."
"No wonder little sister Shiya has no manners. So she learned it all from you? When the upper beam is crooked, the lower beams really will be askew. Butler Wang, remove the old concubine's place setting. Have her eat in the storage room."
At a loss, Butler Wang looked toward Old Master Jiang.
When had Chen Ruyin ever suffered such public humiliation?
Sobbing, she covered half her face with a handkerchief, turned, and ran. "Kun... it's my fault. I made the child angry for no reason. Since the Jiang family now has no place for me... I'll just leave."
Old Master Jiang's face went from livid to red, and he slammed the table. "Song Yutang, I'm not dead yet! Since when was it your turn to run this family?"
Song Yutang refused to back down, her voice rising sharply. "It's just as well you're not dead. Otherwise, how would you have the face to meet the Jiang family ancestors? A perfectly good family, yet there's no distinction between the legitimate and the concubine-born, no order between elders and juniors, and nothing but squabbling all day. What kind of spectacle is this? You can't even tell right from wrong. You've turned the natural order upside down."
Old Master Jiang pointed at himself in disbelief. "I've turned the natural order upside down?"
Song Yutang did not yield an inch, her gaze blazing. "As the old saying goes, it's not scarcity people fear, but inequality. The most important thing in running a household is to hold the bowl of water level. But you? You pretend not to see and even play favorites... Look at this family. What a mess it's become! Outside enemies can't bring down a century-old family enterprise in a short time, but infighting can tear through it like rotten wood. A kept mistress stirs up trouble, bloodlines are muddled, descendants are at odds, and the crooked upper beam leaves the lower beams askew. If it's rotten inside from the roots, how can the family enterprise last?"
Was that something one could just say?
Song Yutang really was bold.
Everyone stared at Song Yutang, dumbstruck, then cautiously glanced at Old Master Jiang.
His chest heaved violently with rage, his face livid.
Jiang Shiya immediately regained her confidence. Covering her reddened cheek, she shed tears that rolled down like pearls from a broken string. "Grandpa, I know I'm an outsider... I don't deserve to stay in the Jiang family... I... I'll just go die and have done with it, so... so I won't be an eyesore to Eldest Uncle and Miss Song..."
"Enough!" Old Master Jiang roared, slamming the table and rising to his feet. "If you're not eating, get out! My Jiang family isn't a theatrical troupe, nor is it a place for you to throw tantrums and roll around."
Jiang Shiya was completely stunned. She even forgot to cry.
She wasn't the only one. Everyone was astonished.
The old master...
Had actually not sided with Jiang Shiya?
Unwilling to accept it, Jiang Shiya looked toward her adoptive father, but Jiang Qingyu merely lowered his head silently and picked up some food.
Everyone else was as silent as cicadas in winter.
The old master sat back down in silence and waved a weary hand. "Eat."
Did this mean...
He wasn't going to hold Song Yutang accountable?
Jiang Guoqiang and Li Xiulan exchanged a glance.
As they secretly breathed a sigh of relief, they also felt inexplicably excited.
Their daughter-in-law was truly formidable. She even dared to lecture the old master.
Their family had been inexplicably ostracized for a year. Today, they could finally hold their heads high.
Tomorrow, they would buy groceries and make something delicious to reward her.
The blond-haired Jiang Boyan was dumbfounded as well. Finally, he secretly gave her a thumbs-up beneath the table. "Fucking awesome..."
Song Yutang smiled composedly.
She had spent ten years as crown princess and had held even the emperor's thoughts firmly in her grasp.
Let alone those of an ordinary old man.
Judging by the old master's behavior during the day, he wasn't so muddleheaded that he would blindly favor his kept mistress and adopted son.
He simply wanted to keep both the palm and the back of his hand.
And Chen Ruyin knew how to cry and make scenes, while Jiang Qingyu's family knew how to throw tantrums.
Jiang Guoqiang and his wife were mild-mannered and honest. Even when wronged, they would only endure it silently.
Sacrificing their family was the simplest way to maintain harmony.
But as the eldest branch's daughter-in-law, if Song Yutang didn't break the stalemate, she would have no choice but to suffer alongside them from then on.
Yet while upsetting the balance, she had also brought the situation under control. Even if the old master was angry inside, he had no choice but to acknowledge her...
In any case, under Song Yutang's forceful housecleaning, the dinner table finally quieted down.
After dinner, the old master suddenly stood up. "Come with me for a moment."