Chapter 29: So, He’s Actually a Filial Son
As soon as Yu Zhengqing reached the bottom of the mountain, he was met with a scene that made his blood boil!
At that moment, Old Madam Chen was being pinned to the ground by two men dressed like beggars. Her prison clothes were torn, and her cotton-padded jacket had been stripped off and tossed aside. In the bitter cold of winter, she was left wearing only her middle and inner garments.
Even those thin layers were being torn apart by the two men, revealing the dark blue undergarment underneath!
Old Madam Chen, in her sixties, had been pampered in the Marquis’s residence for over thirty years. Despite her age, her skin was still fair—nothing like that of a typical peasant woman. It was the kind of fair skin that had never seen hard work or sunlight, even if it was now loose and speckled with age spots…
One of the beggars was sitting on her waist, while the other reached out directly for her undergarment!
The scene was unbearable to watch. Yu Zhengqing’s mind went blank. Rushing forward, he grabbed the two beggars by their collars and slammed them hard into the ground!
Without caring about the terrified Old Madam Chen, who was still on the ground wailing and crying, he started throwing punches at the two beggars in a frenzy, as if he wouldn’t stop until they were beaten to a pulp!
If he had a knife at that moment, he would have stabbed them hundreds of times, chopping them into mincemeat!
Meanwhile, the rest of the group descending the mountain stopped in their tracks, stunned by the disgusting scene below. Each of them stared, mouths agape in shock!
Old Master Yu Hui’s entire face turned red with rage, and his body trembled uncontrollably. His vision went black, and he fell straight down the mountainside!
The sudden fall startled Yu Yingying and Yu Yaomei, who were tied to him. Completely unprepared, they were dragged along, rolling down the slope!
Yu Luo couldn’t help but tug at Ye Jiamai’s sleeve, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
“Mother, would you call this karma for Old Madam Chen?”
Ye Jiamai was equally shocked beyond words. While she wasn’t quite at the point of schadenfreude, thinking about how the original Yu Luo and her family had been bullied by Old Madam Chen, she couldn’t muster any sympathy for that old woman.
Yu Haojie’s face, however, was as white as a sheet—not because he felt sorry for Old Madam Chen, but because he was thinking about the hardships of the exile journey. If they were handed over to different guards, would his wife and daughter have the same luck?
Wu Dahai had also never imagined that Old Madam Chen would encounter such a fate at the foot of the mountain.
Seeing Old Master Yu Hui pass out from rage, dragging his two granddaughters down the mountainside with him, Wu Dahai had no choice but to hasten the group’s descent.
“Grandfather! Yingying, are you all right?”
From the base of the mountain came Old Madam Chen’s shrill screams and, soon after, the panicked voices of the Yu family’s main branch.
Chang Huilan, accompanied by her two sons and Lady Lan, rushed past Old Madam Chen without a second thought, hurrying to help Old Master Yu Hui and the others.
Yu Yingying and Yu Yaomei were relatively unharmed, with only some scrapes on their cheeks that didn’t mar their beauty.
But Old Master Yu Hui was in a much worse state—unconscious and looking very serious!
Hearing the cries behind him, Yu Zhengqing finally regained his senses and stopped beating the two beggars. He quickly picked up the cotton-padded jacket from the ground and wrapped Old Madam Chen in it.
Even though she had seen Old Master Yu Hui roll down the mountain along with her two granddaughters, Old Madam Chen was too overwhelmed by her own trauma to care. Hugging her son tightly, she bawled without any intention of letting go.
“Thank goodness you arrived in time! Otherwise, they… those bastards would have ruined me! Sob, sob…”
Listening to her cries, Yu Zhengqing, visibly annoyed, adjusted her clothes without a word of comfort and then hurried to where Old Master Yu Hui had fallen.
“What happened?”
Seeing the two women and the young men kneeling and weeping by Old Master Yu Hui’s side, Yu Zhengqing’s headache grew worse.
“Father was so enraged by what happened to Mother that he passed out and rolled down the mountain, dragging Yingying and Yaomei with him. Given his age, we’re afraid he might not survive this…”
“Lan, go check on Mother.”
Looking at his unconscious father, Yu Zhengqing’s face was grim. For the first time, he felt that even his broad shoulders were buckling under the weight of these responsibilities.
“Father! Father!”
Yu Zhengqing pinched Old Master Yu Hui’s philtrum repeatedly, calling out to him, but there was no response.
“Father… Grandfather won’t… won’t…”
Sixteen-year-old Yu Xiaoxuan’s eyes were red with tears, staring at the unconscious Old Master Yu Hui. It was then that he truly realized that the Marquis’s household was finished!
Not even beggars spared his grandmother; their former pillar of support was down for the count, possibly even at death’s door…
“No! Your grandfather will be fine!”
Thinking of how his father had survived countless battlefields since his teens, Yu Zhengqing refused to believe this could be the end. There was no way his father could collapse after just a few days of exile!
Getting up, Yu Zhengqing marched straight to Ye Jiamai and Yu Haojie without a word, knowing full well that talking would be pointless.
In a move that shocked everyone, he dropped to his knees before Ye Jiamai!
“Sister-in-law, I beg you to take a look at Father! As an older brother, I’m pleading with you. No matter what, Haojie still has Father’s blood in his veins!”
With that, Yu Zhengqing kowtowed to Ye Jiamai with a loud thud!
The entire family was stunned by Yu Zhengqing’s ability to bend and stretch.
Ye Jiamai, too, was utterly taken aback. She never expected that the once-proud heir would kneel at her feet, pleading for his father’s life.
To be honest, none of them had imagined that Yu Zhengqing—a man like that—was actually a dutiful son?
“Get up. He’s had a stroke. I noticed his mouth twitching over the past few days—a clear sign of a stroke coming on. Without proper medication, there’s nothing I can do.”
As a doctor, Ye Jiamai had long noticed Old Master Yu Hui’s abnormal behavior. Given the series of shocks he had faced recently, it was entirely possible that he had suffered a brain hemorrhage.
In a situation like this, only a hospital surgery could save him. There was nothing Ye Jiamai could do.
Hearing her diagnosis, Yu Zhengqing felt as if the sky was crashing down on him.
On the path of exile, the imperial decree was clear—no medical treatment was allowed. If his father’s condition was as bad as Ye Jiamai said, where on earth could he find medicine?
“Old man, you can’t leave us! Wake up! Look at us!”
Just as Yu Zhengqing was about to lose it, Old Madam Chen’s shrill cries pierced the air once more.
