Zou Xiaoling listened to his words, and tears silently streamed down her face; she had just thought her tears had long since dried up.
The door creaked outside, and Ho Laidi’s voice came through.
"Baohe, that Zou hussy said she wanted to come over. Has she arrived?" As she spoke, the sound of footsteps drew nearer.
At that moment, Zou Xiaoling felt a surge of panic, shame, and despair, closing her eyes and screaming.
"Don’t come over! Get out! Get out! Get out!"
Ho Laidi froze for a moment and then quickly ran over. Seeing the scene before her, she, too, was startled, taking a step back and falling to the ground.
She turned her head, meeting Chiang Baohe’s sinister smile.
"Mother, look, this is the task you’ve been trying to accomplish for a year without success, and I’ve done it now. Start preparing for the wedding."
Zou Xiaoling got up, shaking all over. She clutched the fabric of her clothes tightly, curling into a ball, crying, and shouting, "In your dreams, I will never marry you!"
Ho Laidi snapped out of her shock and, upon hearing Zou’s words, her eyes shifted, and she quickly went over, coaxing her and saying, "Xiaoling, mom knows you’ve been wronged. Baohe is just a brutish oaf! Let’s not stoop to his level!"
"I’m going to report him! I’m going to make him eat bullets!" Zou Xiaoling screamed heart-wrenchingly.
Ho Laidi’s face darkened immediately.
"You want to report him? Then I’ll report you! You shameless, brazen hussy! Knowing that our family has arranged for you to marry an idiot, and not willing to accept it, you seduced my son, shameless! You just want to latch onto our family’s good conditions, thinking about becoming a city dweller, so you set your sights on my son, even throwing off your clothes and throwing yourself at him!"
"You’re talking nonsense!" Zou Xiaoling nearly collapsed. "It was him, it was him..."
"Pah! My son’s feet are disabled; he can’t even leave the house. If you say it was him, who would believe that? Could he have gone outside and dragged you here? You harlot, it’s clear that others knew you’re marrying an idiot and no other man would want you. You saw my son with no other choice because of his disabled feet, and you threw yourself at him!"
"You’re talking nonsense..."
"Who’s talking nonsense? Otherwise why don’t we go outside and argue it out? A young maiden visiting my son, if not to seduce him, then what?" Ho Laidi glanced at her body with contempt and said, "I don’t even know if you have slept with that idiot before! Now that you’ve slept with my son, it’s he who’s at a loss! If you dare to speak nonsense outside, I will say that you were no longer pure when you slept with my son, that you had already slept with the idiot! And with other men!"
In this era, if a woman was tarnished with such rumors, it could almost drive one to death.
In terms of shrewishness, shamelessness, and persistent harassment, how could Zou Xiaoling ever match Ho Laidi?
She was rendered speechless by Ho Laidi’s accusations, only able to cry in despair.
"Cry for what! Your belly might already be carrying Baohe’s seed, and if you go report him now, once he’s caught and your belly starts to show, you’ll be reviled and despised by thousands, with no place to bear the child! Besides, I’ve heard that bearing a child can easily kill a woman, with one mishap causing all her blood to drain away, leaving you dead too! Even if you survive, who would want a base woman who has aborted a child? If you dare to give birth, our Chiang Family will fight you for the child to the very end!"
The mere thought of what Ho Laidi described sent chills down Zou Xiaoling’s spine.
She covered her face and wept in despair.