Chapter 226: Fighting Poison with Poison
The capital grew cold early.
Old Madam Meng had been fully made up since early morning.
She was a first-rank noble lady.
Her ceremonial robes were large and thick, and the heap of gold and jewels on her headpiece was heavy enough to give anyone a severe cervical spondylosis.
Seeing his Mother dressed so formally, Meng Qingshe was startled.
“Mother, are you planning to enter the palace to see the Emperor? The Emperor hasn’t been seeing anyone lately; I haven’t seen him in a long time. I heard that the people he meets are all strange, superstitious types.”
Old Madam Meng flicked the beaded curtain on her headpiece backward.
“See the Emperor? Having to kneel and bow is exhausting. I’m going to avenge my daughter-in-law and granddaughter-in-law.”
“My old man is still out at the border, bitterly braving the northwest wind so you all can live comfortable lives, fighting life-or-death battles, clashing with bayonets, every strike drawing blood.”
“How can our family let some good-for-nothing female charlatan bully us?”
“Some ‘adopted daughter of the Liu family’? What is the Liu family, anyway? They’d have to kowtow before me.”
“‘Best friend of the Princess’? Even the Princess has to be polite when she sees me.”
“I don’t care if you’re some immortal or divine maiden.”
“You can’t talk about me.”
“Anyway, my reputation in the capital has never been good. I, this old woman, haven’t moved in years, so perhaps those people have forgotten why my reputation is bad. Could it be because my temper is too good?”
Early that morning, the first-rank noble lady traveled in a grand procession by carriage, leading a troop of men and escorting a massive object covered in red cloth, heading imposingly toward the Divine Maiden’s residence.
The people of the capital loved a spectacle.
The provocative words of the Divine Maiden, claiming that the Meng Family would have no descendants, had already spread everywhere.
Some people were too well-fed with nothing to do, and they loved seeing bad news about such high-status figures.
They had no grudge or enmity, and didn’t even understand what the Meng Family had sacrificed for this country and this family.
They just followed the crowd.
How many powerful and wealthy people could be good?
“No descendants?”
“That must mean they’ve done many evil deeds.”
“Too much baleful energy, they deserve it.”
“He must be a bad person, otherwise he wouldn’t be left without descendants.”
People began discussing the Divine Maiden’s deeds again.
The Divine Maiden once glanced at a man and said he had an official aura, a crimson official aura; sure enough, not long after, the man was promoted, and he was promoted two ranks at once.
There were also stories about her predicting women’s marriages and the like.
Everything was incredibly accurate.
The Divine Maiden certainly wouldn’t lie.
Seeing Old Madam Meng wearing her noble robes and sending a cart of goods, they heard it was to see the Divine Maiden. Was she bringing a heavy gift to the Divine Maiden to beg for a change in fate?
It couldn’t be changed; didn’t the Divine Maiden say there was too much baleful energy?
The crowd followed to watch the spectacle.
A grand procession indeed.
A residence on the west side of the city.
The facade did not look very conspicuous, but the interior was luxurious.
It had pavilions and towers.
Every inch of land in the capital was worth gold.
However, the residence Chu Xi had provided, apart from not being in the prime location of the East City, was impeccable.
The East City was expensive, the West City was wealthy.
After Jiang Wan arrived in the capital, her life became splendid and colorful.
She was like a fish in water.
It was as if all the suffering she had previously endured was for this current blossoming.
“When Heaven is about to place a great burden on a person, it first tests their resolve, exhausts their muscles and bones, starves their body, leaves them destitute, and thwarts their every action, all to stir their heart, harden their nature, and increase their capabilities.”
Jiang Wan felt this deeply.
She had practically walked this path step by step.
The days and nights of despair, hesitation, and fear in Ming County had been exchanged for her brilliance in the capital.
Even the matter with Young Master Liu had been easily resolved.
Besides Young Master Liu still being infatuated with her and privately insisting on marrying no one but her, the Liu family parents had shamefully accepted her as an adopted daughter.
It was done openly and decently.
And as expected, Chu Xi was still attracted to her.
Although he tried his best to restrain himself and never said it out loud, the conditions in this residence were getting better and better, and the gifts she received were more and more numerous—far more attentive than what she had seen in her dreams.
Everything was developing for the better.
Moreover, according to Princess He’an, her father, the Emperor, also wanted to see her. He would likely summon her, so she needed to prepare well.
She hadn’t attended any banquets in the past few days, waiting quietly in the residence.
Her daily life had returned to copying Buddhist scriptures, reading, burning incense, and playing the zither.
With her grandmother by her side and being well-cared for, she had recovered quite a bit.
Having abandoned her grandmother once, Jiang Wan never did such a thing a second time.
Because she discovered that having an elder by her side meant everyone would praise her for being filial, which naturally provided a boost.
If she were truly alone, it wouldn’t look right.
Sometimes, a bad thing isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
It was winter, and her grandmother’s chest hurt every day. Whenever it hurt, she would have a huge temper, acting up every day, which was very headache-inducing.
Jiang Wan had gotten some pain-relieving powder for her grandmother; it was worth its weight in gold and was inhaled.
Only in the last two days had her grandmother been quieter.
Otherwise, she would constantly curse Jiang Changtian, and sometimes her eldest son, and curse the unfaithful Madam Wu. If it weren’t for her, how would her eldest son have become a monk? How would Ronger have drowned? How could that slut Madam Wu still have the face to live? She deserved to die.
As for the daughter Madam Wu took away, Old Madam Jiang didn’t say a word.
She heard that the girl had been renamed Han Shushu, and Heir Han doted on this daughter brought by his concubine as if she were a real princess.
He took her to the palace to stroll around since she was small.
Even the head eunuch before the Emperor had been ridden by her.
She was naughty, caused trouble, and was lawless.
The current Emperor was probably senile; he didn’t really like his own proper princesses.
Doting on Heir Han was one thing, but he actually doted on this daughter who had suddenly appeared for Heir Han to an incredible degree.
It was said that Han Shushu had even climbed onto the Dragon Throne and tugged on the Emperor’s beard.
These were things ministers had seen with their own eyes.
Old Madam Jiang might curse Madam Wu, but she was clear-headed; she had never mentioned a word about bringing Shushu back.
Today was cold.
Jiang Wan went to pay her respects to her grandmother and lit the pain-relieving powder for her.
“Grandmother, it’s cold, and you’re coughing again. I got some good pears yesterday. I’ll stew them for you myself; they can stop the cough.”
Old Madam Jiang closed her eyes and nodded slightly.
Old Madam Jiang had had an extremely strong desire for control her whole life.
She never expected that Wan’er would abandon her and run away, claiming there was some accident or other.
But Wan’er had been clever since she was small; if she didn’t want to, how could such an accident have happened?
Old Madam Jiang still harbored resentment, but at this moment, as an old woman with no other support, she could only play the fool.
The high-quality snow pears were large.
With her delicate white fingers, she used a small silver spoon to scoop out the core. Once the core was removed, she added fritillaria and rock sugar. Stewing it would stop the cough.
She was actually making it specifically for Cousin Chu Xi.
It was said that Cousin Chu Xi was naughty when he was young and was punished by his stepmother to kneel.
In winter, he caught a chill and developed a chronic illness, so whenever winter came and it was cold, he would easily cough.
In her dreams, she had searched everywhere for prescriptions to help Chu Xi stop coughing.
Eventually, she discovered that stewed pears were best—not because they had the best medicinal effect, but because her cousin was willing to eat this.
He was unwilling to take medicine, probably because he had an aversion to medicine deep down.
Anyway, that was just how Jiang Wan was.
When she wanted to be good to someone, she truly took care of them in every aspect with meticulous attention.
There was a reason she was able to become Empress in her previous life.
This time, although the start had been a bit skewed, everything was back on track, and even better.
When she finished the third pear, a servant came to ask for instructions.
They said that the first-rank noble lady, Old Madam Meng, had come to the door to deliver gifts.
Jiang Wan unhurriedly prepared the fourth pear.
In her previous life, although she was also a noble lady, she was looked down upon everywhere in the capital.
Everyone in the capital was a noble lady, and everyone’s family background was better than hers.
She had been cautious, afraid of making a single mistake.
This time, everyone was cautious around her, afraid of saying the wrong thing in front of her.
Jiang Wan spoke of the Meng Family with confidence and justification, because that was the ending that should have happened.
She had been imprisoned and tortured in the Jiang Mansion.
She had told them everything, yet in the end, Jiang Changtian still wanted to kill her.
She had clearly seen Chu Xi, hope was right before her eyes, yet he still wouldn’t let her go.
But she hadn’t expected that in the end, Heaven would help her.
An Earthquake actually occurred.
Even more miraculously, the Earthquake happened right in front of her but didn’t hurt her in the slightest.
From that moment on, Jiang Wan felt that she was a person protected by Heaven.
She would set things right and become the final winner.
As for Jiang Changtian saying he had fed her the secret medicine of Shangqiu Temple, that was indeed a thorn in Jiang Wan’s heart, because she discovered that she was indeed much more beautiful now than at this time in her previous life.
Everyone who saw her would be stunned.
But as long as she entered the Imperial Palace and became the final winner, there were some secret medicines within the royal family.
Didn’t Great Marshal Zi rebel to get secret medicine to cure his son?
In this life, his son hadn’t died yet, but he himself had died.
A boy who couldn’t speak couldn’t make any big waves, so it didn’t matter.
As for Old Madam Meng, Jiang Wan felt some disgust.
In her previous life, when marriage talks were being held, she was technically a proper, unmarried granddaughter-in-law.
Later, after Meng Shaoxia died in battle, she became a concubine of the Crown Prince.
When she went out to attend events, Old Madam Meng had actually slapped her in front of everyone.
That had also caused her to be mocked for a long time.
In this life, she would take revenge for all of it.
After slowly carving all six pears, she instructed the servants to steam them in a double boiler, and then she changed her clothes to go out to greet the guest.
She was a noble lady, after all, so she had to give her some face.
As for saying anything unpleasant, she shouldn’t be blamed; after all, fate was fixed.
When Jiang Wan was dressed and went out to greet the guest, the entrance was already crowded with commoners watching the spectacle.
“The Divine Maiden’s tablet is really big.”
“She even made a first-rank noble lady wait so long.”
“That cart of gifts is so high, what’s covered by the red cloth? Could it be coral? I heard coral is more expensive than gold. It’s so high, it must be worth a fortune.”
“Those rich people, isn’t it all sinful money they’ve earned?”
“Maybe it’s a jade tree. My second aunt’s cousin’s aunt is a servant in a prince’s house and said she’d seen one. A tree made of jade, the leaves are green and lush, piece by piece, like it’s real. The fruits are gemstones, the trunk is gold… tsk tsk.”
The cold wind blew, but it couldn’t stop the fiery hearts of those watching the spectacle.
First-rank noble lady Old Madam Meng sat on the carriage at the entrance, letting others point and whisper, her dark, aged face completely unbothered.
This only served to highlight the high status of the Divine Maiden.
The commoners chatted excitedly.
“Even a first-rank noble lady has to wait obediently.”
Finally, under the gaze of everyone, when the people watching were starting to have runny noses from the wind, the door opened.
The crowd saw the legendary Divine Maiden.
“Wow!”
“Ah!”
Exclamations rang out, and everyone felt this trip was worth it.
The Divine Maiden was indeed a Divine Maiden; even from afar, she had an ethereal aura. She was too beautiful.
That kind of beauty wasn’t ordinary beauty; it was hard to describe, just feeling profound.
Everyone’s gaze couldn’t help but be fixed on her, as if there was no one else before their eyes but the Divine Maiden.
Jiang Wan greeted Old Madam Meng politely.
Old Madam Meng did not get off the carriage, but simply spoke: “I heard you said that my Meng Family would have no descendants. I think you are young and speaking nonsense to attract attention, speaking without thinking. Now that I am here in person, are you willing to retract your words and speak properly? I have prepared a heavy gift for you.”
Jiang Wan smiled: “I apologize, Old Madam Meng. Fate cannot be changed. You can accept fate, but you cannot change it. You had better do more good deeds and accumulate virtue.”
The crowd laughed.
This Divine Maiden telling this old lady to do more good deeds and accumulate virtue—wasn’t that saying she usually did too many bad things?
Old Madam Meng was not annoyed and said: “In that case, this old woman will take her leave. However, since the gift has been delivered, there is no reason to take it back. You can predict marriages for young girls and futures for young masters, but you cannot rashly make jokes about the nation’s destiny. My Meng Family has guarded the border for the country for generations. If we have no descendants, there is only one possibility: we died for the country in battle. If all the men of my Meng Family were dead, would you still have the chance to stand here?”
Old Madam Meng’s carriage turned around and left.
Her words shocked the crowd, making their faces pale, and they felt somewhat uncomfortable.
Jiang Wan was also a bit embarrassed. This old woman was making a mountain out of a molehill. She was talking about the Meng Family, yet she had actually raised her family so high—she wasn’t even afraid of falling to her death.
The soldiers delivering the gift behind her lifted the red cloth and removed the lid.
The crowd curiously craned their necks to look, only to smell an incredibly foul odor.
This tall, large barrel was actually filled with liquid excrement.
They saw the soldiers forcefully push the barrel over in front of Jiang Wan. Jiang Wan dodged quickly, but the surface of her shoes was still stained with a patch of reddish-yellow.
The human-sized barrel of liquid excrement spilled more than half into the residence, submerging the road and drowning the flowers and plants.
The soldiers even took large ladles and, scoop by scoop, evenly splashed the remainder of the bucket onto the main gate.
Old Madam Meng had said it was to remove bad luck, to fight poison with poison. Since some people couldn’t speak anything nice, they could only be smeared with some shit.
The carriage rolled on, and the fully made-up Old Madam Meng sat with her back straight, moving forward without looking back.
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