Chapter 5: Jia Zhen, You've Done a Great Job

“Grandmother, beat me, beat me, it has nothing to do with the servants.”

Seeing that his father was truly going to listen to his grandmother and punish Tang Fu and Tang Gui, who had grown up alongside him, Jia Rong cried out, “It was my fault.”

His mother was gone, and of the four young servants who had originally followed him, only Tang Fu and Tang Gui remained. Because of him, they had suffered so much trouble. He had been impulsive yesterday, but…

“Grandmother, it was all your grandson’s fault. Your grandson knows he was wrong now. I will be obedient and study hard from now on. Your health is poor, please go back first!”

Shen Ning: “……”

The little one still knew how to protect those around him and knew how to worry about his grandmother’s poor health. It seemed he was still worth saving.

The expression on her face softened slightly. “Fine, I won’t punish the servants around you, but Grandmother wants to know, why on earth was my grandson so cruel as to pin his own cousin into a ditch in such freezing weather? You wanted his life, didn’t you?”

By the end, her voice had turned stern once again.

“Grandmother~”

Jia Rong’s eyes were bloodshot, and tears streamed down his face. “Grandson isn’t cruel, they are the cruel ones. They are cruel, wuwu, they are the cruel ones.”

Shen Ning: “……”

She looked into the child’s eyes, which were filled with sorrow, anger, and panic. In an instant, she realized something, and her voice softened. “Alright, Grandmother believes my Rong-ge’er.”

The environment has a great influence on a person.

If the environment in the Jia family school could turn even good children bad, then it was even more so for Jia Rong, who already carried the bad genes of Jia Zhen.

At this moment, Shen Ning couldn’t help but suspect that Jia Rui had been goading Jia Rong into doing that sort of thing, which was why Jia Rong had tortured him so viciously.

This matter really couldn’t be asked in front of a crowd.

“You have injuries on you.”

Just as Shen Ning was about to call for a doctor, Shopkeeper Chen, who usually checked her pulse, hurried in with his medical kit. “Shopkeeper Chen, how is Rui-ge’er? You’ve come at the right time, please take a look at my Rong’er as well!”

“…Replying to Madam, Young Master Rui’s fever has subsided. As long as nothing happens tonight, he will be fine.”

Shopkeeper Chen had been summoned by Jia Zhen’s servant to prevent any mishaps with this Madam. Hearing this, he bowed and answered the question about Jia Rui that they were all concerned about, before turning his attention to Jia Rong.

This child seemed to have been beaten quite severely!

He lifted the heavy cloak, and after just one look, he said, “Find a room to apply medicine!”

The sooner the medicine was applied, the better.

Fortunately, upon hearing that the children had been fighting, he had brought all the necessary salves.

“This way.”

Several maidservants grabbed the bench with Tang Fu and Tang Gui, carrying Jia Rong directly into the gatehouse cabin.

Shen Ning signaled for them to close the doors and windows, then looked at Jia Yun, who had been pushed in from outside the courtyard.

Seeing the little one’s stature, he was half a head shorter than Jia Rong; he seemed to be a year or two younger.

“Let’s go, let’s all go into the classroom to talk.”

Shen Ning waved her hand, excusing his formalities, and clutching the hand You-shi offered to support her, she walked directly into the nearest classroom. “Yun-ge’er, you were at the scene yesterday, tell me, what happened?”

Him?

Jia Yun’s face turned pale.

He knew who this Madam was. After his father passed away two years ago, she had sent grain and clothes to his home during every festival; she was the most compassionate toward the poor and weak.

Jia Yun didn’t know how to say it. “I, I,” he glanced at Jia Dairu, then at Jia Zhen, and found that both of them were wearing cold faces, waiting for his answer. He was so scared that sweat broke out on his head. “I don’t know.”

“No, you do.”

Shen Ning’s voice was calm. “We have already figured out what we should know; now we just want to hear it from you one more time.”

What?

Jia Dairu and Jia Zhen’s expressions shifted, and Jia Yun’s mouth couldn’t help but open slightly.

They already knew?

Then…

The little one looked at these adults, lowered his head, and finally said, “It was Uncle Rui and the others saying behind your back that… that you, Madam, wouldn’t make it, and that the little uncle or little aunt in your belly was coming to seek revenge and claim a life.”

“H-how bold!”

Jia Dairu’s voice trembled. He looked at Shen Ning, who was being hurriedly supported by Jia Zhen and You-shi, his face turning purple with anxiety. “Rui-ge would absolutely never say such…”

“You old fool, even now, you still want to cover for him?”

Shen Ning’s body was trembling uncontrollably, and at the same time, her vision began to go black in waves.

She remembered now; it was this very sentence that had claimed the life of the original owner.

The original owner had waited for so many years for this second child. Although it had come at a truly inconvenient time, since it was here, she treasured it.

But her husband didn’t want it, and her son urged her to get rid of it. Ever since she knew she was pregnant, she had to endure physical discomfort while fighting against the two people she trusted and relied on most in this life.

She had carefully protected the child, but three days ago, she had inadvertently heard several old women gossiping behind her back, saying that the child in her belly was coming to seek revenge and claim a life.

They said it was because her father-in-law and grandfather-in-law had killed too many people, and the Shen family lacked virtue, which was why she had conceived at this age, and that Heaven was coming to take her life.

She had fainted for a while back then. When she woke up, the maidservants found her. She was panicked and terrified, yet unwilling to tell anyone. After suffering through half the night, Shen Ning, who had already become a ghost, didn’t know how they had walked together on the dark path, or how they had possessed her body.

Their names were the same, and their faces were slightly similar.

Now…

Shen Ning gasped for air. “Jia Zhen, people are cursing your mother and brother, and you are still rushing to beat your own son who was protecting your ancestors. You, you, you are truly something.”

Her body was failing, her vision blackening; it looked like she was going to faint again.

But fainting like this would be too easy on these two bastards. Shen Ning summoned her last bit of strength, and before collapsing, she grabbed the inkstone nearby and ‘smacked’ it onto Jia Zhen’s arm.

“Madam!”

“Mother…”

You-shi and Jia Zhen tried desperately to hold her up, but this time, Shen Ning had truly fainted.

“Quick, Shopkeeper Chen, come quickly!”

Jia Zhen was going mad. As he picked up his mother and rushed toward the gatehouse, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was so violent he wished he could destroy everything.

But wasn’t it just as his mother said? People were cursing his mother and brother, and he was still rushing to apologize to them and beat his own innocent son.

“Quick, quickly check on my mother.”

All sounds seemed to come from very far away.

Shen Ning seemed to float out of her body again. Vaguely, she saw Jia Zhen wailing to the heavens, Jia Rong enduring his pain to give up the bench, and Shopkeeper Chen hurriedly using gold needles to prick her philtrum, then letting blood from her ten fingers.

The maidservants were shouting something in a panic. Outside the door, Jia Dairu came running in, his mouth agape, looking as if the sky had fallen.

Behind him, Jia Yun was already kneeling on the ground, trembling like chaff.

At this point, how could he not know that he had been tricked into speaking?

Just because of that sentence, the Madam had fainted.

If this…

“Yes, just like that, keep squeezing, squeeze until the color of the blood is normal.”

Shopkeeper Chen praised You-shi and the maidservants for their help while dissolving a pill into water.

At that very moment, Shen Ning’s soul felt a sudden heaviness, and she returned to her body once more.