Chapter 108

Chapter 108

Zheng Yufu did not want to leave in such a humiliating fashion.

Miss He would not let the matter end so easily either—if it concluded like this, how could Shen Qinglan be made to truly antagonize Zheng Yufu?

A sly idea came to her.

Miss He immediately chimed in to stir the pot: "Shen Qinglan, you've got such a poisonous heart! Lady Fu was just trying to uphold the law out of a sense of fairness. Even if there was a misunderstanding, you could've just explained yourself. It was merely a few words of quarrel—why drag court politics into it and try to ruin a whole family?"

"Moreover, Lady Fu holds the esteemed rank of a county mistress. Though you're a scholar's husband, you're just a commoner with no official rank. You should've paid your respects to the county mistress—did you?"

Reminded of this, Zheng Yufu's deflated ego puffed right back up.

She immediately nodded and said, all haughty again: "That's right, Shen Qinglan, you still haven't paid your respects to this county mistress!"

Shen Qinglan had no comeback for that.

For one of lower rank to pay respects to one of higher rank wasn't just etiquette—it was the law.

Though he knew Zheng Yufu would use this to make things hard for him, to avoid giving her any excuse to attack him, Shen Qinglan swallowed his anger and knelt to perform the proper bow.

"This humble husband pays his respects to Lady Fu."

An Yongyan and the other husbands and wives around him had no noble titles either, all ranking below Zheng Yufu. They had no choice but to swallow their pride and bow as well:

"Your humble servants pay respects to Lady Fu."

Seeing everyone cowed by her status, with herself as the top dog in the room, Zheng Yufu was thrilled.

She was the type to never let up once she had the upper hand. These people had dared to stick up for Shen Qinglan earlier—she hadn't forgotten a single one!

So she didn't tell them to get up, leaving everyone stuck in their kneeling position while she started mocking and ridiculing them.

"They say birds of a feather flock together. I never got that saying before, but now I do."

"Just a scholar's husband, and you're all licking his boots? Today, this county mistress will teach you what's high and what's low!"

"You say this county mistress has no right to punish people on my own, but since I hold this title, I have the duty to teach officials' wives some manners. Today, I'll teach you lot without titles what proper behavior looks like."

With that, Zheng Yufu clapped.

An old matron stepped out from behind her.

Zheng Yufu said smugly: "This is Matron Xu, personally gifted to me by Her Grace the Imperial Consort, specially tasked with teaching palace etiquette. Today, I'm doing you all a favor—learn properly from Matron Xu how this bow is done."

Matron Xu understood immediately and demonstrated a standard *wanfu* salute.

Then, holding the pose, she explained slowly on purpose, dragging out how long everyone had to stay bowed.

"This is called the 'wanfu salute.' The key is to lower your eyes in deference, bend your waist a soft three inches, but keep your spine straight as a pine. It should show the gentleness proper for young ladies and gents, without losing your backbone..."

"When you bow, you can't look up—only at the three inches of ground in front of your feet. If you dare to look up and meet a noble's eyes, that's a huge disrespect, and you'll be caned..."

"The county mistress is generous to give you this chance. You should all take it to heart..."

Zheng Yufu was clearly messing with everyone on purpose, and she didn't care if they all resented her.

Because among the husbands and wives here, except for An Yongyan, everyone else came from ordinary families. The ones with real status were all somewhere else.

She was just using this bowing thing to hassle them. Even if they went home and complained, they couldn't do anything about it.

For a moment, everyone was furious but didn't dare say a word.

But An Yongyan and Shen Qinglan weren't the type to just take it. Besides, Zheng Yufu never knew when to stop—she only ever pushed further.

Even if they kept quiet and took it, Zheng Yufu would definitely keep pushing.

So why should they keep acting like cowards?

An Yongyan immediately pulled Shen Qinglan up, glaring:

"Zheng Yufu, don't push it!"

Shen Qinglan had had enough too, and snapped: "Zheng Yufu, if you've got the guts, come at me alone! Leave everyone else out of it!"

Zheng Yufu was definitely making enemies, but the others had been dragged into this mess because of him—they'd probably blame him a little too.

She might not care about bringing trouble to her own family, but he did.

Seeing the two still dared to talk back instead of just taking her bullying, Zheng Yufu got even angrier.

"Fine, I'll come at you alone then—you asked for it!"

She suddenly lunged and shoved Shen Qinglan back.

"Ah—"

Shen Qinglan hadn't expected her to get physical herself. Caught off guard, he stumbled, tripped on his own hem, and fell. His palm scraped across the rough stones, leaving a bloody gash.

An Yongyan and the others cried out in shock: "Lan Geer!"

But before they could rush over to help him up—

Zheng Yufu had already climbed on top of Shen Qinglan, clawing at his face and hurling insults.

"Shen Qinglan, you're not some official's young master anymore! You're just a scholar's husband. With your status now, you still dare to talk back to me? Today I'll teach you your place!"

"Your husband might have caught some big shot's eye, but he hasn't even passed the provincial exam! And you dare to show off in front of me?"

"I heard your husband comes from a poor family—so poor they could only eat rough grain. Those fancy clothes and that city house you've got now are all paid for with your dowry! He's just a good-for-nothing, all show and no substance..."

"You made me look bad! Letting a mere scholar's husband dress better than this county mistress—are such fine silks even fit for someone like you now?"

Zheng Yufu wanted to ruin Shen Qinglan's face, and she also wanted to tear off his clothes and wreck his reputation.

But was Shen Qinglan just going to let himself be beaten and humiliated like this?

Some things you just can't take, and this was one of them!

Shen Qinglan threw caution to the wind, clawing back at Zheng Yufu's face, firing back with every word:

"Your husband's the good-for-nothing! My husband may come from a poor family, but he's got scholarly credentials. For you to insult my husband like that—are you looking down on all scholars in the world?"

"My husband doesn't touch my dowry! He's great at growing rare flowers—one plant can be worth a thousand gold pieces, more than enough to keep our house going!"

"Don't you dare talk about my husband! If you insult him again, I'll fight you to the death!"

Zheng Yufu cried out in pain, "Ah... my face! Shen Qinglan, I am a county lady, my aunt is a noble consort, and my cousin is a prince! If you dare harm me, I will surely beg the Emperor, my uncle by marriage, to wipe out your entire clan!"

The two of them wrestled and clawed at each other right there on the spot.

Everyone around was stunned.

Meanwhile, An Yongyan, Li Huilan, and Pan Taining and the others' husbands were frantic with worry.

Because whether Zheng Yufu could actually get the Emperor to wipe out someone's clan was unknown, but the Emperor would certainly punish Shen Qinglan severely to preserve the face of the Noble Consort and the prince.

Never mind that Zheng Yufu was the one who struck first—when imperial face was at stake, reason went out the window.

At that thought.

An Yongyan gritted his teeth and whispered to Li Huilan and the others:

"There's safety in numbers!"

With that, he charged into the fray.

Li Huilan and the others were somewhat afraid, but thinking of how Han Zhang had helped their husbands greatly, standing by and doing nothing would be too cold-hearted, and knowing how loyal their husbands were, they would surely be angered by such inaction.

"Fine, let's do it!"

The group exchanged glances, gritted their teeth, and rushed in as well.

Zheng Yufu, now fighting one against many, let out a miserable shriek and urgently shouted at her attendants behind her:

"Are you all just standing there? Get over here and help!"

What else could those attendant husbands and wives do?

They naturally couldn't watch their 'mistress' get beaten, so they had no choice but to steel themselves and rush over to help.

In no time, everyone was brawling in a tangled mess.

Hairpins scattered, sleeves fluttered—it was utter chaos—

Miss He never expected Zheng Yufu to be this bold!

Noble ladies of the capital might squabble, but they were limited to verbal quarrels, to be settled later through family connections. Who else would be so crude and reckless as to come to blows like Zheng Yufu?

Truly, nouveau riche only two generations off the farm—no class at all.

Still... this worked out fine.

After this mess, a deadly feud was guaranteed.

With the Favorite Consort and a prince behind the Zheng family, Shen Qinglan's natal family and husband's family would surely have no peace from now on.

Seeing things about to spiral out of control, Miss He quickly gathered her skirts and slipped away.

...

A bunch of husbands and wives brawling in public—and at the Imperial Academy, a place of learning, no less.

Sure enough, the Academy's instructors soon arrived to break it up.

And the news spread rapidly.

The Crown Prince and others, who had just taken their seats at the banquet, were shocked when their servants reported the news.

A spat between two household members was nothing unusual, but a full-on brawl among husbands and wives was unheard of!

Han Zhang's face went pale instantly. He grabbed his servant's wrist, his voice tight: "How is my lord right now? Is he hurt?"

"He's hurt—Lady Fu scratched his face, and his body is covered in wounds. Lady Fu still won't let it go, yelling that she'll get the Emperor to punish my lord... It was Lady Fu who came looking for a fight first. When she couldn't win the argument, she got physical, and even tried to tear off my master's clothes to humiliate him..."

The servant delivering the message was from Shen Qinglan's dowry household. With a grim face, he gave a detailed account of the whole affair.

Of course, he spun the story—briefly covering the facts while playing up how much Shen Qinglan had suffered.

He hoped Han Zhang would cherish his master and not, out of fear of the Zheng family, blame him or resort to divorcing him to avoid disaster.

Though today's mess wasn't his master's fault—Zheng Yufu had provoked and struck first—the fact remained that his master had offended someone powerful.

What ordinary man would put up with a husband who brought such disaster?

The servant kept stealing glances at Han Zhang's face as he spoke, his heart pounding with dread.

Sure enough, the first thought of most scholars who heard the news was:

Thank God it wasn't their own husband or wife fighting Lady Fu today—otherwise, with such a hot potato, wouldn't they have to divorce them to keep from dragging the whole family down?

Behind the Zheng family stood the Fifth Prince and Consort Zheng—who would dare provoke them?

But how could Han Zhang ever blame his husband?

He had staged that 'hero saves beauty' act to live off his husband's wealth, and it had captured Shen Qinglan's heart. But hadn't his own heart also been won over by Shen Qinglan's genuine willingness to die for him?

Today's mess—even if it wasn't all Lady Fu's fault for going too far, even if it really was his husband's fault, so what?

No one was going to lay a hand on his husband!

His mind raced through the situation, thoughts spinning.

Han Zhang decisively swept his robes aside and knelt, giving the Crown Prince a solemn bow:

"I beg Your Highness to step in and protect my husband. I have nothing of value, only my learning. I am willing to serve Your Highness in return for your protection."

Since he couldn't avoid the Crown Prince's recruitment, he might as well put the Crown Prince's power to use.