CMWKSD -Chapter 189 Let Her Dig Wild Vegetables

The current situation was simply beyond words.

Jiu Yue was forced to squeeze together with Ling Yue behind a fake rockery—they were practically stacked on top of each other.

Ling Yue craned her small head to peek out, took one look, then immediately pulled her head back in.

She peeked again, let out a small gasp, then trembled as she withdrew her head once more.

This cycle repeated several times, until Jiu Yue was completely numb.

Covering her mouth, Ling Yue still looked utterly incredulous. “Th-they… are they having a secret rendezvous?”

Jiu Yue glanced over. It was just two people standing face to face, exchanging a few words, holding hands.

Maybe pouring out their feelings to each other.

In Jiu Yue’s eyes, that didn’t even count as a secret meeting.

It certainly wasn’t worth hiding like this.

The two of them were crouching here like this—anyone who didn’t know better would think the people over there were having some kind of wild affair.

But ancient times were different from modern ones.

What those two were doing—if word got out—an entire family would be nailed to the pillar of shame.

Jiu Yue tugged at the corner of her mouth in a fake smile. “You really are clever.”

Something this obvious.

Ling Yue pressed her lips together tightly. “Th-then… did you hear what they were talking about?”

Jiu Yue looked at Ling Yue like she was an idiot. This girl must have been too shocked.

She genuinely no longer trusted her own eyes or ears.

“Yes, indeed. Your cousin just agreed to that man. She said she’d elope with him.”

Ling Yue clenched her hands tightly. “How can she do this? Just for her own—”

She couldn’t even bring herself to say words like happiness.

This was pushing her mother consort’s maternal family—the Liu family—and the Zhen family, every single woman among them, straight toward a dead end.

In ancient times, one prospers, all prosper; one falls, all fall was never just a saying.

One person truly could drag down an entire clan.

As soon as she finished speaking, Ling Yue stood up, wanting to rush out and stop them—only for her peripheral vision to catch Ning Ning crouching over by the Moon Platform.

She was looking around vigilantly, clearly standing guard for the pair.

Ling Yue grew even more furious.

If Ning Ning were truly Zhen Mingzhu’s good friend, she should have stopped this.

Instead, she not only didn’t—she was helping them keep watch.

Ling Yue’s brain simply stopped working.

Seeing she was about to dash out, Jiu Yue grabbed her arm. “If you go out now, your love-brained cousin will only think you’re a villain breaking up a pair of lovers.”

Ling Yue was so anxious she burst into tears. “Th-then… then what do we do…”

…

Jiu Yue was truly numb. She never would have imagined that things would develop this way.

From casually eating gossip, to eating it on the spot, to finally getting dragged into the gossip herself—

All in less than an hour.

She listened as Ling Yue sobbed while telling Princess Ling and her aunt everything she had just seen.

Princess Ling was utterly shocked.

A silk handkerchief in Aunt Liu’s hands was twisted so hard it was nearly torn apart.

Ling Yue wasn’t good at storytelling, but she made up for it with clarity.

She told everything plainly, without exaggeration or embellishment.

Aunt Liu felt waves of dizziness before her eyes, disbelief written all over her face. “Your cousin… she really…”

She knew better than anyone how proud and arrogant her daughter was.

For someone to charm her so thoroughly—

He was definitely no simple character.

And yet—elope?!

This was nailing every woman of the Zhen family and the Liu family to the pillar of shame.

Leaving them absolutely no way out.

Those already married would never be able to hold their heads up in their in-laws’ homes.

Those unmarried would never be able to marry.

Even old women in their seventies or eighties might be dragged out and gossiped about.

Ling Yue hurriedly pulled at Jiu Yue. “Mother Consort, Aunt, it wasn’t just me who saw it. Jiu Yue saw it too.”

Jiu Yue: …

Princess Ling: !!!

Aunt Liu: utter despair…

Why was there an outsider who knew too?!

Aunt Liu slammed her palm onto the table. “I’ll go back right now and lock that unfilial girl up!”

Ling Yue tugged at her hand. “Aunt, I think… my cousin has completely set her heart on that man. If you forcibly separate them, she might… resent you.”

Aunt Liu let out a shrill cry. “She’s forcing all of us onto a road to ruin! What use is a daughter like that to me anymore?!”

Princess Ling quickly patted her back. “Sister…”

Aunt Liu collapsed into Princess Ling’s arms, sobbing loudly, which made Ling Yue cry as well.

Jiu Yue looked at the scene with a head full of black lines.

Honestly, if it were her handling this, she’d just beat her half to death—or break her legs. If her legs were broken and she couldn’t run, wouldn’t that solve it?

But on the way here, Ling Yue had said that Zhen Mingzhu was the first child of the Marquis and her aunt.

She had been raised like a priceless treasure.

Even slapping her twice would probably feel unbearably painful to them.

Breaking her legs was completely out of the question.

In the end, it might even lead to a complete rift between mother and daughter.

Only now did Jiu Yue truly, vividly understand what a doting mother ruins her child meant.

Watching the three of them cling together crying like their father had just died,

Jiu Yue rolled her eyes, clicked her tongue, and said, “Figures. She just hasn’t dug enough wild vegetables.”

Ling Yue blinked, and a tear dropped. “Jiu Yue, what wild vegetables?”

Jiu Yue really wanted to tell them the story of Wang Baochuan.

Eighteen years guarding a cold kiln, then eighteen days as empress.

The pinnacle of love-brain behavior—Zhen Mingzhu was not inferior at all.

Ling Yue looked at Jiu Yue, and suddenly her eyes lit up. “Jiu Yue, do you have a good idea?”

In her eyes, Jiu Yue was truly omnipotent.

As soon as she said that, Princess Ling and Aunt Liu both looked at Jiu Yue with hopeful expressions.

But Jiu Yue really didn’t want to get involved in this mess.

She pressed her lips together, unwilling to speak.

Aunt Liu stood up, trembling and sobbing as she rushed toward Jiu Yue.

Jiu Yue: !!!

Don’t come any closer!!!

“I’ll say it—but you have to be willing to do it.”

Aunt Liu straightened up. As long as mother and daughter didn’t fall out, as long as no legs were broken, and as long as Zhen Mingzhu could be made to give up— “Let her dig wild vegetables for a month.”

“What?” All three of them wore identical looks of confusion.

“Didn’t she want to elope? Let her run off. Intercept them halfway and separate the two.”

“That man—since he doesn’t dare come to the Marquis’ residence to propose—his background must be poor.”

“Investigate him thoroughly.”

“Then find an old woman and say she’s that man’s mother. Make up some reason to take her back home.”

“A woman who elopes and then returns home—what kind of good life could she possibly have?”

“After that, send her to the countryside to do farm work for a month. It probably won’t even take a full month before your precious daughter wakes up.”

Aunt Liu still looked doubtful. “Just find a fake mother-in-law… and then one month of farm work is enough?”

Jiu Yue glanced at the pampered women before her.

She suddenly felt the same way she had when she first arrived at Ji Yiqing’s home and asked why Ji Yiqing didn’t eat white rice.

The hardest thing to deal with in this world wasn’t mother-in-law–daughter-in-law relationships?

And farm work—did they really think everyone could handle farm work?

What a joke.