Against the Current - Chapter 133

Chapter 133 - Retribution (Part 1)

Xianglan wished she could tear her flesh and drink her blood, thinking to herself, "Cao Lihuan is utterly detestable and hateful; I will make her pay for her blood debt." Turning her head, she happened to catch sight of Han Yaozu smiling broadly and flattering his guests as he saw them out. She spoke up, "Magistrate Han, Cao Lihuan originally had kinship ties with the Lin family and lived in the estate for a period of time. Do you know why the Lin family drove her out?" Xianglan paused, then said word by word, "Because Cao Lihuan's heart is thoroughly rotten. She actually tried to harm General Lin's own blood sister by putting something unclean into the wine her ladyship drank. I discovered it and reported it to the mistress. The Lin family was furious, which is why they cast her out, and she consequently formed a bitter grudge against me. Magistrate Han has now helped her exact her revenge, so she must be dying of joy." With that, she turned and walked away.

Han Yaozu's expression underwent a drastic change, and he harbored a bitter hatred as he thought, "That bitch Cao Lihuan has truly ruined me!" Yet his face shifted into an entirely different expression. He hurried forward with a few quick steps to catch up with Xianglan, fawning with a smile, "Many thanks, miss. I had no idea that poisonous wretch harbored such malicious intentions and was using me. Ignorant as I am, I have not only wronged your entire family, but I also owe you a debt as vast as the heavens, which I shall certainly repay handsomely. As for that treacherous woman surnamed Cao, your humble subordinate will surely deal with her and give you a proper account!"

Xianglan ignored him completely, continuing forward with a tight expression. Han Yaozu escorted her all the way to the front gate. As he watched the carriage clatter off into the distance, his expression dropped instantly, transforming his warm and beaming countenance into a dark, icy scowl. He strode back inside with large steps, only to find the room empty. Rushing out in a frantic and exasperated flurry while lifting the hem of his official robes, he searched outside and caught sight of Cao Lihuan getting into a sedan chair at the back door, intending to slip away. Rage welled up from the depths of Han Yaozu's heart, and viciousness clouded his mind. In a few strides, he rushed forward, grabbed Cao Lihuan by the collar, and slapped her twice across the face while cursing, "Vile creature! You've ruined me!"

Cao Lihuan shrieked in terror, her arms shielding her head and face. As Han Yaozu beat and cursed her simultaneously, she cried out, "Heavens above, earth below, my lord is truly doing me a grave injustice! I was completely in the dark too. Who could have known that the slut Chen Xianglan would hook up with Lin Jinlou? She was merely a coarse- chores maid to begin with... My lord, I was truly acting entirely for your sake. If my lord remembers how it was between us before..."

Han Yaozu cursed her to high heaven, shouting, "If she were merely Lin Jinlou's concubine, it would still be manageable, but you actually went and provoked the Lin family's mistress and young miss! No wonder Lin Jinlou said I had the guts of a bear and the heart of a leopard—it was all because you, this treacherous woman, instigated, provoked, and set a trap for me. How can I possibly spare you after pulling such a stunt? If I lose my official post because of this, not killing you won't even be enough to vent the hatred in my heart!" The beating left blood streaming from Cao Lihuan's nose, and her eye sockets turned bruised and black.

Cao Lihuan was naturally a fierce and unruly shrew; when had she ever suffered such an indignity? Despite her fear of Han Yaozu's official authority, she couldn't help but fight back, scratching and clawing at Han Yaozu's face a couple of times.

Just as the chaos reached its peak, Han Guangye received word and rushed from the inner residential quarters out to the front. Seeing his father grappling and beating Cao Lihuan while yamen runners and servants were peeking out from a distance, he bellowed furiously, "What are you looking at? Get the hell out of here!" He ordered his personal pageboy to chase the onlookers away, then hurried to his father's side. Crossing his arms, he said, "Father, stop hitting her. In broad daylight, if people see this, what kind of rumors will spread? Will Father's reputation sound any better for it?"

Upon hearing this, Han Yaozu finally stopped. Gasping heavily for breath, he grabbed Han Guangye's hand and cried, "My son, this has ruined me!" With that, tears streamed down his face.

After Han Guangye offered a few words of consolation, he delivered a swift kick to Cao Lihuan and cursed, "Vile creature! I'll deal with you later!" Cao Lihuan collapsed onto the floor, weeping and wailing, while Han Guangye took it upon himself to help Han Yaozu back to his room to confer.

Meanwhile, Lady Jiang, Han Yaozu's wife, also received word in the inner courtyard. Changing into a fresh outfit, she hurried to the front and found scratch marks left by a woman's nails across Han Yaozu's face. When she demanded to know why he had been scratched, Han Yaozu stammered and evaded the question, arousing her deep suspicion. She had Han Yaozu's pageboy severely beaten until the truth came out—that he had been dallying with the wife of a subordinate. Lady Jiang flew into a towering rage. She was naturally an extremely stern woman, tall and powerfully built, and even more ferocious than Cao Lihuan by tenfold. She immediately grabbed Han Yaozu by the beard and roared, "You shameless old wretch! No wonder you've been coming down with all sorts of ailments these past few days—complaining of backaches, running noses, and going deaf and blind every single day. So you were being cured by that little vixen! I toil away in hardship at home every day, bearing children for you, managing the household, and waiting upon your elderly parents, while you wrap your arms around a little bitch to live in dissolute pleasure. How bitterly wretched my life is!" After wailing with her hair flying loose, she threw herself onto the ground and began rolling around.

Exasperated, Han Yaozu snapped, "Are you ever going to finish? Hurry up and wipe that look off your face, and stop bringing me grief here!"

Tears and snot streaming down her face, Lady Jiang wailed, "Oh, wonderful! You talk to me like this now—could it be that you've taken a fancy to that little vixen and want to divorce me to marry her?"

Han Guangye hurriedly stepped forward to offer soothing words, arguing this way and that until he finally managed to calm Lady Jiang down.

Once back in her room, the more Lady Jiang thought about it, the angrier she grew. She changed into a comfortable set of cloth garments, removed all her hairpins and jewelry, and took a group of servants straight to Cao Lihuan's residence. Storming into the room, she found Cao Lihuan applying ointment before a mirror. Lady Jiang lunged forward, grabbed Cao Lihuan by the hair, and yanked her straight to the floor, gnashing her teeth as she cursed, "Dog-like whore! I'll teach you to go lusting around!"

Caught entirely off guard, Cao Lihuan hit the floor with a heavy thud, yelling curses back and forth with Lady Jiang as the two women descended into a vicious brawl. Lady Jiang's servants guarded the doorway, allowing no one to enter, leaving the household members frantic and helpless as they rushed off to send word to Ren Yu. Though Cao Lihuan possessed some strength, she was no match for Lady Jiang's sheer bulk and power. Lady Jiang flipped her over, straddled Cao Lihuan's body, and unleashed a torrent of blows and tearing, stripping away Cao Lihuan's clothes entirely and delivering a series of vicious kicks to her lower abdomen. Cao Lihuan screamed in agony, curling into a tight ball. Upon closer inspection, her lower body was already soaked with blood.

Though Lady Jiang wished she could crush Cao Lihuan to death, she was also afraid of causing a human life, so she eventually called off the assault and retreated with her people. Hui'er, Siqiao, and the others managed to lift Cao Lihuan onto the bed, and after summoning a doctor to diagnose her, they discovered that Cao Lihuan had been two months pregnant, and Lady Jiang's kicks and beatings had caused a miscarriage.

Ren Yu returned home just in time to receive this news. Stunned into complete silence, his eyes slowly turned red. Seeing this, Hui'er rolled her eyes, crept up quietly, and whispered, "Why are you grieving? Everyone knows about her dirty business with Magistrate Han—who knows whose child that really was in the first place!"

Ren Yu still sighed heavily, wanting to go inside to check on Cao Lihuan, but Hui'er pulled him back with a smile, saying, "She just took her medicine and is sleeping right now. If you go in, won't you just disturb her? Come to my room instead; I sent someone to buy some pastries from the Suxiang Bakery so you can have a couple of bites to line your stomach first. The new clothes the tailor made for you arrived yesterday too—you should try them on to see if they fit. If not, I'll have them altered for you." With that, she dragged Ren Yu straight into the inner chamber where she lived.

Just as Siqiao emerged from the kitchen carrying a bowl of medicine, she let out a faint, cold smirk at the sight, then lowered her head and walked back toward the bedroom. Cao Lihuan's complexion was deathly pale, her cheeks bore the hollow look of illness, and her face was still covered in bruises and cuts. Siqiao propped up Cao Lihuan's head and forced the medicine down her throat. Coughing a few times, Cao Lihuan asked weakly, "Has my lord returned?"

Siqiao replied, "Not yet. Rest easy now, mistress." She wiped the corners of Cao Lihuan's mouth with a handkerchief, picked up the empty bowl, and walked out.

Now, this Cao Lihuan had originally been a woman of exceptionally robust health and a very strong constitution. However, ever since her miscarriage, she took to her bed and never recovered, falling seriously ill. Within a few days, Ren Yu lost his position and returned home, and Lady Jiang came over in person to demand the clothes and jewelry Han Yaozu had previously gifted to Cao Lihuan. Rummaging through everything in a chaotic mess, she hauled away Cao Lihuan's entire jewelry box and two chests of bright new garments. Struggling in vain to get up from bed, Cao Lihuan grew increasingly enraged and distressed, her body breaking down both inside and out until she developed a withered-blood syndrome. Several doctors were brought in, but none of them could cure her.

Gradually, Hui'er and Siqiao, the maids who usually served her, stopped obeying her instructions as well. Hui'er was nowhere to be seen day in and day out, and Siqiao rarely came into the bedroom either, feeding her and giving her medicine with perfunctory carelessness. When Cao Lihuan wanted broth or water, there was no one to serve her. Furious as she was, she was bogged down by a severe and lingering illness, unable to struggle up from her bed, and lacked even the strength to scold anyone. When she mentioned to Ren Yu that the maids refused to obey, Ren Yu went to question Siqiao, who loudly protested, "My lord, this maid works myself to the bone every single day! I cook, wash clothes, tidy up the house, and on top of that, I have to wait on the mistress, wash her soiled bedsheets and quilts, empty her chamber pots, feed her medicine, and ladle her soup—it all falls entirely on my shoulders alone. Sister Hui'er, on the other hand, lives a life of leisure, spending her days staring in the mirror applying rouge and powder. How could I ever dare burden her majesty! If Sister Hui'er is willing to wash clothes and cook meals, I guarantee I'll take meticulous care of the mistress."

When Ren Yu went to assign tasks to Hui'er, she was filled with intense displeasure, muttering complaints and making oblique insinuations. After doing the chores for two days, she stopped altogether, and Ren Yu no longer bothered to inquire. Cao Lihuan's condition grew steadily worse. Dazed and lethargic day in and day out, her complexion turned sallow and withered until she was reduced to a mere skeleton of skin and bones. While Ren Yu had initially visited her room to check on her, he gradually stopped coming around altogether. When asked about his whereabouts, Siqiao invariably replied, "Since my lord lost his yamen position, he naturally needs to find another. With all these people up and down the household depending on my lord for their meals..."

Weakly, Cao Lihuan protested, "Don't I still have an estate and two residential properties? There's bound to be some silver to get us through the days. Tell my lord to stay home, keep me company for a few more days, and stop running around looking for some damn job."

Rolling her eyes, Siqiao sneered, "Oh, mistress, how unappreciative you are! With two bouts of hail this summer, who knows how much harvest the estate will even yield! The two houses are rented out, but you need medicine every single day—ginseng, angelica, poria, bird's nest—and when you add it all up, the silver flows out like water. Not to mention the nourishing porridges and meals you eat daily, which are all top-tier ingredients; the mistress alone spends a full tael of silver every single day! If my lord doesn't go out to find work, are we supposed to just sit around and watch the mountains of provisions turn to nothing? Besides, the mistress now carries the reputation of a 'promiscuous whore,' and goodness knows how many people are pointing fingers behind your back. It's already tarnishing my lord's reputation, and no one is willing to hire him to do anything. In this state of the household, who knows when the mistress won't even have the silver to afford her medicine!"

These words filled Cao Lihuan with such blinding fury that spots danced before her eyes. Catching her breath halfway, she clenched her teeth and spat out, "If we run out of silver, you'll be the very first bitch I sell off!"

Siqiao sneered coldly, "Oh, if you sell me, who's going to wait on the mistress afterwards?" With that, she set the bowl of porridge down on the small table and walked away without looking back, leaving Cao Lihuan to go hungry for an entire meal. Only at night did she force that bowl of cold porridge down Cao Lihuan's throat, wearing a tight, unsmiling grin as she remarked, "Mistress, back then I was simply led astray by a moment of delusion when I was driven out of the Lin family. Serving you like this is already more than enough to clear my conscience before heaven and earth. Didn't you know? That loyal and devoted servant of yours, Hui'er, ever since you fell ill, hooked up with my lord and crawled into his bed. My lord has been sleeping in her room day and night. Just yesterday the news came in—the doctor diagnosed her with a month's pregnancy, and my lord was so overjoyed he gave the doctor a whole string of copper coins as a reward. Hui'er is resting to secure the pregnancy right now, and I have more than enough work just taking care of her all day long!"