RWNEFE -Chapter 427 Giving Up on Shen Yuantang

Old Madam Shen said, “What else could you have felt? You could have asked the neighbors and found out. Did you really think the family had abandoned you?”

To be honest, at that moment Shen Yuantang really had thought exactly that.

“Grandmother…” Shen Yuantang hugged Old Madam Shen’s arm and acted coquettishly.

“Enough, enough. Have you gone to see your mother yet?” The old lady still had some things to pack here and didn’t want Shen Yuantang to see them.

Previously, Yuantang had taken quite a few valuable items from her, and never returned anything. Old Madam Shen no longer wanted to feed a thankless wolf with her possessions.

“I’ll go now!”

“Go on, go on!”

Believing she had gained the old lady’s favor, Shen Yuantang strutted arrogantly through the Protectorate Duke’s residence, as if holding a license to act freely.

“Stop!”

Liang Xinyi and her daughter, frightened, ran even faster.

“Stop! Who told you to run? Didn’t you hear me?”

“Stop them!” Shen Yuantang shouted loudly.

From the other side of a courtyard wall, Madam Liu could already hear Shen Yuantang’s voice.

“Good thing Lanxi had us seal the side gate. If it hadn’t been sealed, we’d have to listen to this racket every day—it would be unbearable,” Madam Liu complained to Hu Jinyu.

Hu Jinyu signaled to her to take the child back to the room.

Madam Miao muttered, “There she goes again… making trouble again…”

Madam Tian said coldly, “If one gets beaten to death, that’s one less problem…”

Liang Xinyi still covered her face with white gauze, but now it was no longer to conceal a resemblance in appearance—it was to hide ugliness.

Her face had been ruined.

“Old hag, run again and I’ll break your legs too—then you’ll be both ugly and crippled,” Shen Yuantang sneered.

Liang Xinyi’s daughter, originally named differently, had been renamed Shen Yuanjin after entering the household by Shen Congwen, the name implying caution.

“Elder Sister, please spare my mother and me!”

“Elder Sister…”

Shen Yuanjin knelt on the ground, crying and begging, looking extremely miserable.

Shen Yuantang slapped her, knocking her body sideways.

“You little wretch—who are you pretending to be so delicate for?”

“You’re just as low and shameless as your old hag of a mother.”

“When you see me, you don’t even bow, and you dare to run. I’ll show you what happens when you run…”

Shen Yuantang kept kicking and beating them.

“Stop!”

Shen Lanxi walked over, her face cold.

“Elder Sister, it’s them. They didn’t even salute me when they saw me—no sense of respect at all. I’m just teaching them proper manners!” Shen Yuantang shouted angrily.

Shen Lanxi looked at the battered mother and daughter lying on the ground. There was neither pity nor anger in her eyes.

She looked at them as if they were strangers.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay in your courtyard and not come out?” Shen Lanxi said coldly.

Liang Xinyi trembled as she hurriedly explained, “This concubine was worried about the master and wanted to visit him.”

“I remember telling you not to have unnecessary thoughts,” Shen Lanxi replied.

Liang Xinyi shuddered all over.

Shen Yuanjin said quickly, “My Lady, I’ll take my mother back to the courtyard at once. We won’t come out again.”

Shen Lanxi nodded. “Mm.”

“They can’t leave! They just said they were going to seduce Father!” Shen Yuantang shouted to stop them.

Shen Lanxi glanced at Liang Xinyi, who immediately hurried away with her daughter.

“Elder Sister—” Shen Yuantang screamed in anger.

“If you want to shout, shout in front of Father. If it weren’t for Father, they wouldn’t exist,” Shen Lanxi said calmly.

The words were like a basin of cold water poured over Shen Yuantang’s head.

Of course she didn’t dare to defy her elders. If Liang Xinyi hadn’t used that face to seduce Father, how could Father have behaved like that?

“I’m venting anger on behalf of Mother!” Shen Yuantang glared at Shen Lanxi viciously. Someone as cold and unfilial as her would never understand such feelings.

Shen Lanxi smiled mockingly. Shen Yuantang probably didn’t even know that Liang Xinyi had been arranged by that very “good mother” of hers.

“You’ve already vented your anger. Do you want outsiders to know that you are cruel and abuse concubines and their children?”

“If Elder Sister doesn’t say anything, no one will know,” Shen Yuantang retorted angrily.

Shen Lanxi’s gaze sharpened like a blade. “Are you saying that if this matter spreads, you’ll blame it on me?”

“I didn’t say that,” Shen Yuantang insisted stubbornly.

“That’s exactly what you mean,” Shen Lanxi replied.

Shen Yuantang puffed up with anger but said nothing.

“If you come to the Protectorate Duke’s residence again and cause trouble, I’ll have the guards stop you at the gate.”

Shen Yuantang looked up in disbelief. “I’m your own younger sister.”

“Of course I know you’re my younger sister,” Shen Lanxi answered at once. “But don’t think you can use that to threaten me.”

“I, Shen Lanxi, am never coerced— not even by my own sister.”

Shen Yuantang found it impossible to accept. In other families, elder sisters always tolerated and protected their younger sisters.

Why was Shen Lanxi different?

Was she really so heartless?

“Elder Sister, are you really going to treat me this way?”

“It seems the lesson I gave you last time wasn’t enough. The brain you just grew must have been eaten by a dog,” Shen Lanxi said coldly.

Tears spilled from Shen Yuantang’s eyes despite herself.

“Why do you humiliate me like this?”

“I’m clearly standing up for Mother.”

“It was that wretched woman who seduced Father and did such vile things. Why are you blaming me?”

“I’m the one who’s right.”

Looking at the hysterical person before her, Shen Lanxi couldn’t understand where the once innocent and lively girl had gone.

Just because of one man, she had twisted herself beyond recognition.

“Yuantang, calm down.”

“I can’t calm down!” Shen Yuantang shouted.

“Shen Lanxi, they’re the ones at fault. Why are you scolding me? It’s one thing if you won’t help me—but you even criticize me!” Shen Yuantang accused her without caring about her dignity.

Shen Lanxi took a deep breath and spoke in a patient, instructive tone.

“When a problem arises, you must find its root and solve it once and for all.”

“Not like this—randomly picking someone to curse and blame.”

“If it weren’t Liang Xinyi, it would be Fang Xinyi, Wang Xinyi, Gao Xinyi. Do you understand?”

“I don’t understand!” Shen Yuantang shouted. “I only know that if she hadn’t used that face to seduce Father, he wouldn’t even have looked at her.”

Shen Lanxi looked at her deeply. “Shen Yuantang, when did you become someone who only shouts, blames others, and refuses to think?”

“Don’t pretend to be a good person,” Shen Yuantang snapped. “I’ve become like this all because of you.”

Shen Lanxi slowly calmed herself.

Not everything would go as she planned. Even if she paved the road in advance, gave guidance, and supported someone step by step toward the right path, the moment that person developed other intentions, all her efforts would become useless.

“You may come to the Protectorate Duke’s residence in the future, and I won’t stop you. But if you try to cause trouble here, don’t blame me for showing you no courtesy.”

A kind word warms for three winters; a harsh word wounds even in summer.

A heart does not die in an instant—it withers little by little.

Shen Yuantang’s actions had already piled up into a mountain. No matter how many reasons she offered, they could no longer shake it.