Chapter 12: Just Talking Back

And so, Su Yuexi led Sikong Jing into the courtyard...

When they reached the main hall, Mei Xiaofang had already emerged from her room, her face still dark with gloom.

This time, she naturally noticed Sikong Jing’s presence and pointed directly at him, asking, "Are you that criminal?"

Sikong Jing’s expression sank further. He detested the word "criminal," as the charges had been forced upon him by Yan Tianmo and Yan Ruyu. However, remembering Su Yuexi’s instructions, he held his tongue and said, "Mother-in-law, I..."

"Stop. Do not call me mother-in-law; it disgusts me to hear it," Mei Xiaofang snapped, cutting him off.

Su Yuexi’s expression shifted slightly. She reached out with her slender, jade-like hand and gripped Sikong Jing’s tightly, as if timidly trying to comfort him.

At this moment, Mei Xiaofang looked at Su Yuexi and commanded, "Kneel."

Su Yuexi’s entire body trembled, and her eyes turned red, but she prepared to kneel nonetheless... yet, she found that the thick, large hand she was holding was gripping her firmly, refusing to let her go down.

"I said, kneel!"

Mei Xiaofang had not noticed Sikong Jing’s subtle intervention and assumed Su Yuexi was refusing to kneel out of defiance.

Biting her lip, Su Yuexi pulled her hand away with force and dropped to her knees with a thud.

"Someone, bring me a ruler."

Following Mei Xiaofang’s voice, a servant brought over a ruler.

Clutching it in her hand, she shouted at Su Yuexi with intense agitation, "I’ll beat you to death, you jinx! I’ll beat you to death, you monster! I’ll beat you to death, you wretched thing who is going to be the death of your father!"

The ruler swung down fiercely toward Su Yuexi, who instinctively closed her eyes.

However, she waited for a long time without feeling the pain.

A sudden panic rose in her heart. When she opened her eyes, it was just as she had expected: her mother’s hand had been caught by Sikong Jing.

It’s over!

Now, her mother would surely be even more furious.

"Si, Sikong Jing, let go of Mother’s hand quickly," Su Yuexi urged instinctively.

Sikong Jing remained as steady as a mountain. His eyes had turned icy at some point, and a fire was burning in his heart.

"Criminal, you dare to stop me from disciplining my daughter?"

Mei Xiaofang exploded, her eyes filled with raging fury as she gritted her teeth.

Sikong Jing closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm his mind, but his gaze remained resolute. "I’m sorry, Yuexi, but I can’t stand this."

As his voice fell, Sikong Jing glared at Mei Xiaofang with tiger-like eyes and said, word by word, "Yuexi is my wife first, and your daughter second. Did you ask me before deciding to discipline her?"

It is often said that a married daughter is like spilled water.

In the Great Shang Dynasty, once a daughter was married off, she belonged to another family.

Therefore, Su Yuexi was now his woman.

Mei Xiaofang certainly understood this principle, but her eyes showed no sign of backing down. "She is going to be the death of her father, so I must discipline her."

"Yuexi did not ask Father-in-law to bring her back from the pig farm."

Sikong Jing retorted decisively, "Yuexi was brought back from the Su family’s Law Enforcement Hall by Father-in-law."

As his voice fell, Mei Xiaofang’s fierce expression suddenly froze. "The Law Enforcement Hall?"

Releasing Mei Xiaofang’s hand, Sikong Jing turned to face Su Yuexi. He reached out and pulled off her veil, revealing the half of her face that had been trampled by Aunt Dou; the blood on it had not yet fully congealed.

Su Yuexi gasped and covered her face, which was terrifying enough to scare anyone.

But Sikong Jing forcibly pulled her hands away. He did not fear her ugliness; he only cherished the person within.

Besides, he would soon reach the ninth level of the Ming Realm. When that time came, Su Yuexi would bloom with the most beautiful radiance.

At this moment, he took out the white handkerchief Su Yuexi had used to wipe the blood from him in the pig farm hut and gently wiped her face, saying, "This was caused by a shrew named Aunt Dou, who trampled her into the ground."

Mei Xiaofang’s expression shifted, her gaze flickering as she asked, "What happened at the Law Enforcement Hall?"

"I killed that shrew."

Sikong Jing spoke in a deep tone, recounting the beginning and end of the matter, before suddenly standing up to look Mei Xiaofang directly in the eye.

"May I ask, Mother-in-law, where were you when that shrew was trampling on Yuexi?"

"Where were you when Su Yun was insulting Yuexi? And where were you when Su Zhengtao was about to sentence Yuexi to a hundred strokes of the cane?"

"If Father-in-law hadn't happened to go to the pig farm to find Yuexi, you wouldn't need to be throwing a tantrum here—you could have just gone to collect her corpse!"

Sikong Jing’s voice was resonant and powerful, each word striking Mei Xiaofang.

Mei Xiaofang’s mouth hung open, unable to utter a single word, her face turning shades of green, red, and white.

Suddenly, unable to bear Sikong Jing’s questioning, Mei Xiaofang shouted again, "Isn't that all caused by you, a criminal? If you hadn't killed Aunt Dou, would Yuexi have been taken to the Law Enforcement Hall?"

Sikong Jing roared in anger, "If you are determined to condemn someone, you will always find a pretext! Do you really think a servant would dare to fabricate the story about the stolen pig?"

Mei Xiaofang’s expression stiffened further. Of course, she knew this was Su Zhengtao’s framing, intended to anger Yuexi’s father to death.

"A mother does not despise her daughter for being ugly."

"But look at you—calling her a jinx in one breath and a monster in the next. Is Yuexi even your own flesh and blood?"

Sikong Jing, holding the moral high ground, pressed her step by step.