Transmigrated into the Scumbag Ex-Wife of the Prime Minister - Chapter 25

When Lu Sheng and the others arrived at Village Head Lu’s house, they happened to encounter Dr. Ding who had come for a follow-up visit.

“Dr. Ding, do, do you know w-when my mother might wake up?”

It had been nearly three shichen (about six hours) since the afternoon, and the Village Head Lu showed no signs of waking up.

“Let me take a look first.”

Dr. Ding first took the Village Head Lu’s pulse, then lifted her eyelids to examine them. After that, he took out acupuncture needles from his medicine basket, inserted a needle obliquely upwards into her renzhong (philtrum) point, and then applied a few needles to the top of her head. The Village Head Lu had no reaction.

Next, Dr. Ding used needles again to prick her ten fingertips to draw blood. During this, the Village Head Lu’s eyeballs moved slightly, but she remained unconscious.

Everyone’s slightly eased hearts tightened up again.

Dr. Ding withdrew the needles, his brows tightly furrowed, and shook his head at Lu Hualin, “I used acupuncture to stimulate her orifices and promote blood circulation, but the effect is minimal.”

“Th-Then what, what should be done?!” Lu Hualin asked in extreme anxiety.

Dr. Ding reassured him, “You mustn’t worry too much. Village Head Lu’s pulse is stabilizing, and her life should not be in danger.”

“I will come again tomorrow morning to apply another treatment. If it still has no effect, then we can only wait for her to wake up on her own.”

Dr. Ding had practiced medicine for fifty years, and his skills were exquisite. If he said to wait, then they could only wait.

Fortunately, her life was no longer in danger.

Back at home in the evening, a certain parrot who had been out “wasting time” all day had returned home. It was standing on the windowsill in Lu Sheng’s room, leisurely cracking melon seeds.

“Sister, you’re back!” Yu Ling flapped its wings and landed steadily on Lu Sheng’s shoulder.

This bird was extremely perceptive. Without Lu Sheng needing to say it explicitly, it knew she didn’t want others to know she could understand bird calls.

In private, it usually communicated with her in chirps and tweets for its own convenience, but in front of Qi Zhenshu, it would deliberately speak human language to communicate with Lu Sheng.

Moreover, in just two days, it had accurately determined the family hierarchy of everyone in the household.

Qi Zhenshu was the person in the house who absolutely couldn’t be provoked.

Tangtang was the person in the house who should be most buttered up; as long as it got along well with her, Lu Sheng would definitely not kick it out.

Following this, it wiggled its backside, which was sprouting white downy feathers, and stepped foot by foot down Lu Sheng’s arm to Tangtang’s shoulder, swaying its round head to rub against her neck, “Little Tangtang baby~”

Tangtang giggled twice, tickled by its feathers, and happily said, “Xiao Yu~ Xiao Yu tickle~”

Having completed its daily act of flattery, the sycophantic creature flew back onto Lu Sheng’s shoulder, its backside sticking out.

However, after catching a glimpse of Qi Zhenshu’s calm gaze, it shrank its neck and squatted there, feigning good behavior.

“Been gone all day, where did you go off to ‘waste time’?” Lu Sheng squinted at it.

“Or-orchard.”

Yu Ling excitedly flapped its wings, wanting to share the gossip it saw today with Lu Sheng, but constrained by Qi Zhenshu’s presence, it could only stammer out those two words.

It was getting late, and Lu Sheng was thinking she should go and coax Tangtang to sleep first, so she didn’t ask for details.

Later, when the moon was high in the sky, Lu Sheng returned to her room. Yu Ling flew over eagerly and chirped to her: ‘Sister, we saw several shows in the orchard today.’

“What all did you see?”

‘In the morning, Wang Sanlang and Lin Dalang from the village entrance were fighting bare-chested in the woods.’

‘They fought fiercely.’

‘In the end, even their pants fell off, and they still didn’t stop.’

‘Wang Sanlang was big and tall but still lost, and his final cries were miserable.’

‘Later, we also saw Lu Xiaomei and her sister-in-law arguing in the small grove.’

‘Then Lu Xiaomei and her sister-in-law argued mouth-to-mouth.’

‘Then they made up.’

‘You humans argue so strangely. You just need to argue mouth-to-mouth again, and then you can make up?’

As a bird, it couldn’t quite understand this. When they had arguments, they always had to preen each other to make up. They only used their beaks to peck each other when they were truly angry.

Lu Xiaomei’s original name was Lu Yu, and she was Lu Sheng’s cousin who was outside the fifth degree of kinship.

Lu Yu’s older brother had been sickly since childhood and was bedridden. Her mother bought him a wife for good luck (chongxi), but less than half a month after the marriage, Lu Yu’s brother passed away anyway.

Lu’s mother fell ill after her son’s death and passed away less than a month later. Since then, Lu Yu’s family was left only with the newly married sister-in-law and the eight-year-old Lu Yu.

The sister-in-law never remarried, relying on the family’s two mu (about 0.33 acres) of land to raise Lu Yu.

Now, Lu Yu was eighteen and worked as a waiter in an eatery in the county, and their life at home had improved.

A few days ago, Lu Sheng had heard Village Head Lu mention that he had introduced a potential husband for Lu Yu, but she had directly refused.

It turned out she already had someone in her heart.

What exactly did these birds see all day, standing on the branches in the orchard?!

Thinking of this, Lu Sheng secretly decided that it would be best not to go near the orchard in the future.

‘Oh right, Sister, we also saw Ding Laizi.’

“Ding Laizi?”

Since the day he left Tianyin Pavilion, Ding Laizi had only lingered outside the wine shop once and had not appeared nearby again.

‘He took a large bag of things and went into the mountains.’

The eastern side of the mountain behind Lu’er Village was a small hill, and the western side, going south, was a deep, uninhabited old forest.

Wild beasts often appeared in those mountains. Except for hunters, people generally did not venture deep into them.

“Did you see what he did there?” Lu Sheng asked.

‘Xiaobai saw it.’

‘He hid a package of things in a cave.’

What kind of thing would need to be specifically hidden in a cave?

Lu Sheng immediately thought of the two hundred liang of silver he extorted from Boss Liao, but that two hundred liang was silver notes, which could be easily hidden anywhere at home, so why go to all the trouble to hide it in a cave?

She didn’t know much about Ding Laizi, and she couldn’t guess much, so she put the matter aside for now, planning to mention it to Qi Zhenshu tomorrow to see if they should go to the mountain to investigate.

“By the way, did any of you go to the cemetery on the back mountain today?”

The most important thing now was to find that man on the back mountain.

‘That place is full of dead people.’

‘We rarely go there.’

‘That cemetery is gloomy.’

‘What if we run into a ghost?’

Yu Ling shivered its feathers, crossed its wings and hugged itself, and even gave a couple of scared ‘chirps,’ indicating its extreme fear.

“You, a bird, are afraid of ghosts?” Lu Sheng chuckled.

‘That’s what they sing about in plays! Many wronged ladies who died become ghosts to seek revenge on their unfaithful men!’

Yu Ling fearfully jumped onto Lu Sheng’s shoulder, clinging tightly to her and squeaking loudly in human language near her ear.

These two bird calls sounded exactly like ghost cries!

Lu Sheng shivered, got goosebumps, and pinched its neck, picking it up with distaste.

Its little claws desperately clung to Lu Sheng’s finger, and it wrapped its wings around her hand, the whole bird squawking and trying to burrow into her collar.

Lu Sheng pulled it out with a cold face. Yu Ling, in its panic, loudly cried out in human language.

“Sister, I’m scared~”

“I want to sleep with Sister tonight~”

“Sister, no~”

“Sister, no~”

“It hurts, Sister~”

“It hurts, Sister, be gentler~”

East wing study.

The hand writing swiftly paused. Qi Zhenshu looked up toward the main house, his dark brown pupils contracting, his expression complex and unreadable.

The shadows on the window were vague, showing a person and a bird interacting lively.

Ink bled onto the white paper, but the person holding the brush did not notice for a long time.

The next day.

Even after Dr. Ding’s treatment, Village Head Lu still did not wake up.

Several elders and relatives from the clan heard the news and also came to visit.

“As for the remaining blood ginseng from yesterday, brew one slice daily and feed it to her…”

Dr. Ding was in the middle of giving instructions on how to care for the Village Head Lu when a noisy clamor suddenly sounded in the courtyard.

“We’ve caught you! How can you still deny it?!”

“Adultery between a sister-in-law and a brother-in-law! You truly are brazen!”

“Today, we must have the Village Head order you to be drowned in the pond (chentang)!”

“Village Head!”

“Village Head!”

“Village Head! Come and preside over justice for us! Our family has produced two adulterous criminals who ruin the family name!”

As soon as Lu Sheng stepped out, she saw a woman in coarse cloth clothing, wailing dramatically as she rushed into the main hall. Behind her followed three strong men, an old man, and a middle-aged woman.

In the middle of the group were two young women whose hands were tied behind their backs to a thick piece of wood. Their clothes were disheveled, and they were only wearing their inner garments. Their mouths were stuffed with rags, and both had numerous cuts and bruises on their faces and bodies.

These two were none other than Lu Yu and her sister-in-law, Liu Yun, whom Yu Ling had mentioned to her yesterday.

The people surrounding them were Lu Yu’s second uncle, paternal aunt, and her cousins, and the person who rushed forward was her second aunt, Madam Huang.

The Lu Clan Elder(s) couldn’t help but frown at the sight. “What are you doing?!”

“Uncle… Grand-Uncle?!” Madam Huang was startled for a moment, then immediately continued her mournful cries, “Grand-Uncle, our family has produced two evil-doers who corrupt the family morals! We have shamed the Lu clan, and we are unworthy of the Lu clan’s century-old reputation!”

Lu Sheng couldn’t help but roll her eyes in disgust.

If they had the slightest regard for the Lu clan’s reputation, they wouldn’t have tied up the women and brought them over so openly.

It was obvious they wanted to announce the relationship between the two to the world, yet they were here putting on a false show of virtue.

Truly shameless and hypocritical!

Lu Yu’s eyes were filled with grief and indignation, while Liu Yun lowered her head, her face ashen. Lu Sheng couldn’t stand to watch, took a step forward, and wanted to help.

Her wrist was gently gripped, and soft fingertips carried a coolness. Lu Sheng looked back in confusion, meeting Qi Zhenshu’s clear, cold phoenix eyes.

Qi Zhenshu gently shook his head at her, then stepped forward, walking to her side. He leaned down and whispered into her ear, “Don’t be rash.”

“Oh.” Lu Sheng responded blankly.

She lowered her head and subtly moved to the side, but the gentle breath seemed to linger by her ear.

Seeing her lower her head, Qi Zhenshu thought he might have displeased her by stopping her, so he leaned in again, softly explaining, “Let’s wait and see. You mustn’t directly go up and untie them.”

So, Qi Zhenshu had discerned her intentions.

The warm breath struck again, this time carrying a wildfire-like heat that burned from her ear all the way to Lu Sheng’s heart.

“Mm.”

Lu Sheng quickly glanced at her, then turned her face away to look at the people in the courtyard.

Qi Zhenshu’s brow relaxed, and he also looked towards the crowd in the courtyard.

Lu Sheng stole a glance at her, and quickly rubbed her ear when she wasn’t looking.

“What did you say?!” The Clan Elder frowned, his voice stern.

“Lu Yu and Liu Yun, the sister and sister-in-law, are engaged in incestuous adultery!” Madam Huang pointed indignantly at the two behind her. “Clan Elder, you must severely punish these two wicked women!”

“You say the two of them committed adultery, do you have proof?!” The Clan Elder asked in a deep voice.

“Several of us saw it. We caught them in bed,” Madam Huang finished, then looked back at the people behind her, “Paternal Aunt, Sister-in-law, Dalang and Erlang—they all saw it!”

“Caught in bed?!” The Clan Elder frowned.

To break into someone’s home to ‘catch a couple in the act’ and be so self-righteous, Lu Sheng truly couldn’t hold back.

“One of them has been a widow for many years, and the other is an unmarried maiden. If they are in a relationship, that is a mutual attraction. How can it be considered adultery?” Lu Sheng spoke up. “Madam Huang, at your age, how can you not even understand such a basic principle? Moreover, compared to them, you are the one in big trouble.”

“What trouble do I have?!” Madam Huang was stunned by her words.

“Invading a private residence with weapons in broad daylight—Madam Huang, this is illegal. According to the Law of the State of Liang, even if the owner beat you to death on the spot, you wouldn’t be able to appeal your grievance!” Lu Sheng clicked her tongue twice. “And you have the nerve to tie people up and demand punishment?!”

Last time, Qi Zhenshu had said that Ding Laizi was a murderer. The incident back then was that Ding Laizi had harassed a woman on the street. The woman’s brother went to Ding Laizi’s home with a staff, but was instead beaten to death by him.

Because the man went to Ding Laizi’s house with a staff, Ding Laizi was innocent even though he killed a person.

“You, nonsense! What are you talking about?!” Madam Huang’s expression faltered.

“What I just said was the light stuff.” Lu Sheng raised her eyebrows. “Trespassing on private property, kidnapping the owner, and using private punishment—Madam Huang, your actions are no different from those of bandits.”

“I’ve recently heard that the court is strictly cracking down on bandits. There are notices posted on the city walls every day: any bandits discovered will be executed without mercy, and there’s a silver reward for anyone who reports them.”

“Nonsense! How, how am I a bandit?!” Madam Huang shouted in flustered desperation. “I am speaking to the Clan Elder. What place is there for a young girl like you to speak?”

“I couldn’t stand it, so I spoke a couple of words. Madam Huang, you can commit illegal acts, but I can’t even say a couple of words? I’m sparing your life by not reporting you to the authorities.”

“This is my paternal grand-aunt’s house. I’ll say what I want to say. Is that any of your business?”

“You keep going on and on about the Lu clan’s reputation. It is having a person like you that truly damages the Lu clan’s reputation!” Lu Sheng finished, then turned to her husband behind her. “Second Uncle, for the sake of your family’s name, you should divorce a law-breaking woman like this as soon as possible. Don’t let her damage the Lu clan’s reputation!”

Madam Huang was left speechless by her words, and Second Uncle Lu’s face turned red and pale, a sight to behold.

“Lu Sheng!” The Clan Elder sternly rebuked her.

Thank you all, my darlings, for your support! Please consider collecting the author’s column and the upcoming novel, thank you! ^_^

Upcoming Novel: The Deceitful Princess

The Prince of Chu, the Emperor of Liang’s own sister, possesses breathtaking beauty and unparalleled grace, making her the most sought-after noble lady in the entire capital.

However, this coveted beauty, desired by countless people, forcefully married a street performer and, against the Empress’s will, insisted on establishing this woman as her official Princess Consort.

Di Qi is outwardly a street acrobat but is actually the chief disciple of the Wuying Sect (Shadowless Gate – a school of theft).

To steal a treasure from the Prince of Chu’s manor, she disguised herself in various identities to infiltrate and investigate the layout. However, after one instance of dressing as an acrobat, she was forcefully seized and brought into the manor by the Prince of Chu, Si Younning.

Di Qi decided to play along, outwardly flattering the Prince of Chu while secretly investigating the whereabouts of the treasure. Yet, after months of diligent searching, she made no progress.

“My beloved Consort, what do you think of this Eastern Pearl of Songlin River?”

“My beloved Consort, do you like this azure gold gemstone from North Wan in the Western Regions?”

“My beloved Consort, this is the jade pendant my mother left me. I am giving it to you now.”

“My beloved Consort, the baby will be…”

“My beloved Consort…”

There was no clue about the treasure, but amidst Si Younning’s constant calls of “My beloved Consort,” Di Qi accidentally turned pretense into reality, becoming a proper Princess Consort.

One person approached with false intentions, and the other had long been plotting.

Who exactly set up whom?

[Feigned Affection Princess Consort VS Master of Schemes Prince of Chu]

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